Fall 2012 WSE Newsletter - California Institute of Integral Studies

Community NewsFrom Nancy Ivey: I presented my original thesisresearch for my MA in Women’s Spirituality as aworkshop titled “YoGaia: An Ecofeminist Appreciation ofHatha Yoga’s Matristic Roots,” to Women’s Spiritualitystudents during the summer intensive at CIIS. Theresearch examines how hatha yoga contributes todeveloping an ecofeminist ethic in practitioners and alsohow an ecofeminist lens unveils the matristic roots ofhatha yoga. Inaugurating the newly finished largeclassroom in the old library at the main campus, studentsexperienced a strong therapeutic yoga practice on thefirst day of the weekend workshop balanced by livelydebate the next as they perused copies of the thesis whereselected chapters described the principles framing theconversation. Student observations included theshamanic perspective on yoga’s metamorphic posturesand the rediscovery of the mother centered origins in themetaphysical roots of hatha yoga.California State University Bakersfield, where Iteach yoga classes for the Physical Education andKinesiology department added an advanced class to myusual load of two beginning yoga classes. They alsoshortened my classes. Beginning students bask in the joyof restorative yoga while the advanced class trains undera firmer hand to get ship shape for tough poses likeheadstand and wheel.Tibetan Lama Anam Thubten, founder of theDharmata foundation in Point Richmond, held ameditation retreat in Bakersfield last February. Iattended with my mom and a few students. I havestudied Tibetan meditation with other American bornteachers like B. Alan Wallace and Pema Chodron. ButRinpoche Thubten grew up in Eastern Tibet and studiedin a monastery for 12 years before escaping to Nepal. Hisunderstanding is different from my other teachers. I tookbhodisattva vows with his organization and attended hissummer retreat last month in Boulder Creek. The weeklong retreat was silent and we enjoyed (sometimesendured) sitting meditation for 6-8 hours daily. At theend of the week, I felt a bhodisattva’s bliss.Blessings,Nancyshaktideva@mchsi.comMargaret Lynn Mitchell was appointed InterimAcademic Dean at the Won Institute of Graduate Studiesin Glenside, Pennsylvania in May 2012. She nowoversees and provides the academic leadership forthree Master's Degree programs: Won BuddhistStudies, Applied Meditation Studies, and AcupunctureStudies, for which she was the former DepartmentChair. Her advancement to Ph.D. Candidacy in theWomen's Spirituality Doctoral Program in September2011 was a major factor in her promotion.Karen Nelson Villanueva - a Doctoral Candidatecompleting her dissertation entitled, "Invoking theBlessings of the Tibetan Buddhist Goddess Tarathrough Chanting Her Mantra, a participatory researchstudy," currently works as an academic tutoring fellowwith the Center for Writing and Scholarship at CIIS.This spring, she presented papers at the regionalAmerican Academy of Religion (AAR) conference atSanta Clara University and the Association for theStudy of Women and Mythology conference in SanFrancisco, and published a book review in the Journalfor the Motherhood Initiative for Research &Community Involvement. This summer, she traveled toLebanon, participated in the Mother Goddess Tour ofTurkey with Lydia Ruyle, and took a ten-day retreat onthe Goddess Tara in the Santa Cruz mountains. Thisfall, she will present on two panels at the National AARconference in Chicago and moderate two panels at theNational Women's Studies Association conference inOakland.Cristy-Rose Smith, PhD student, continues to workin sustainable, local, and organic living with hercommunity of sisters in Southern California. Inbetween, she takes opportunities to travel, mostrecently, in Alaska this past summer. Focusing on hermestiza heritage, she hopes to be in Central Americathis fall and in the Philippines this coming winter. InOctober, Cristy-Rose will be attending "Dalamhati,Paraang Banal Tungong Paghilom: Grief, A SacredPath," a weekend retreat faciliated by Filipina scholars7