Samyama Yoga Center (SYC), beginning buidling this month in Palo Alto, promises space and inspiration to cultivate every nuance of its eponymous path and offers an original take on the “yoga studio” model. Like a studio, classes, workshops and schedules will be held and published. Beyond the usual studio design, however, founder and Dharma Director John Berg has novel and ambitious purposes. From a community discussion space to packages inclusive of support services such as private lessons, workshops and body work, Mr. Berg envisions a place of beauty, art and spontaneous revelation made possible through the alchemy of space and the concentration of expertise and passion known simply as community.
Samyama means “holding together” or “binding” and in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali refers to the final three “limbs” of the eightfold path; these three limbs comprise meditation and are dharana (concentration), dhyana (focus) and samadhi (absorption, unity, enlightenment). The binding of Samyama rests upon actions and values described in the first two limbs which support the practice of posture, breath and internal listening. In a similar fashion, SYC rests upon caring ties within the Palo Alto and Silicon Valley communities solidified by the experience, action and focus of the founder.
An uncommon and vibrant community already collects around the seed of Samyama: 236 fans check in on facebook for news of Samyama’s development. John Berg’s teaching relationships run deep in both the local and international yoga world, and his wide ranging contacts and practice have drawn an illustrious and devoted crowd of yogis to his circle. Sitting down to talk last fall under the fecund canopy of Philz Coffee House, just a brisk and comfortable walk from the building in the process of becoming SYC, Mr. Berg’s passion for the yogic path and expertise in developing it were contagious and apparent.
Berg’s path to dreaming and realizing this enterprising endeavor has been as rich as the path of yoga itself. While negotiating neighborhood relationships and practical necessities with planning and zoning committees, his vision hasn’t wavered or flickered: this is an intent long in the making. “It’s been harder than any asana I’ve ever attained,” shared Mr. Berg during our two conversations spanning several months of this ongoing process. His path of yoga began 12 or 13 years ago in one of Ben Thomas’ classes: “That was the day my life changed, like Yahtzee,” he related, shaking his open palm before throwing it open in the dice-tossing mudra of surrender and destiny. His expressive face dances remembering “...that first experience of pratyahara - withdrawal without effort... first time I had any conception of consciousness of breath.” Sometimes, Berg says, their lessons would be “to sit and talk,” as Thomas taught all limbs of yoga simultaneously. Berg’s vision is to embody the inspiration as well as the rigor of this fertile path.
“Yoga is about feeling... and listening internally, listening inwardly,” says Berg. “If you’re safe and it feels good , that’s yoga.” The eclectic, back to the roots style of Berg’s take on yoga is a fusion of freedom, strong mechanics and alignment, history and meditation. Speaking of his friend, Erich Schiffman, he describes free-form yoga sessions during which asana grew organically into breath aligned movement from the heart. His description of Max Strom, friend and mentor, is “pure power.” This elegant synthesis of apparent opposition is quintessentially yogic and architecturally expressed in both planned interior and visible exterior of SYC’s location.
The two story wood, metal and glass structure has at its heart a palatial studio space among the treetops, conferring a paradoxically urban and pastoral state of mind: refined and wild at once. Artful concealment through sound dampening dividers and frosted glass creates interplay of space and image appropriate to meditation on the inner mysteries governing the veils of experience.
Berg expresses pride in the exceptional details already planned and in motion for SYC’s interior. The life-size Hanuman statue arrived from India while permit details were still being worked through last November. The light fixtures, “like bamboo jellyfish” gracefully uplift the “organic circular” movement created by the sectioned pods offering support in a central room suited for workshops or sharing the path. The men’s and women’s bathrooms which promise showers and lockers are visualized to have spa-luxurious entryways. At the end of our first interview, Berg and I toured the future home of SYC and talked about the green building aspects of the design which includes LEED Silver design elements and a super efficient Mitsubishi heat and cooling system able to move air independently among zones for the most effective environmental distribution.
As the likely Springtime opening draws near, Berg’s vision of community in practice manifests in the details. From the growing friendship of Pastor Jon at First Christian, across the street, who shared in a recent Facebook post his enthusiasm to have SYC in the neighborhood to crafting agreements with Winter Lodge Skating Center that are “good for everyone,” SYC promises to be an innovative hub for the practice of yoga and meditation. “Palo Alto has never had anything like this.”
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