Participant Cites Positive Benefits Along With Connection to Buddhism
FYI: To view the 2024 BCA Yoga Retreat, go to: bit.ly/3YWT9MV
Editor’s note: The second annual yoga retreat, held during Memorial Day weekend at the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley, California, was sponsored by the Center for Buddhist Education (CBE), with special thanks to: Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada, CBE Director Rev. Jerry Hirano, CBE Program Coordinator Judy Kono and CBE Youth Coordinator Koichi Mizushima. Next year’s yoga retreat will take place on Memorial Day weekend.
By Dianne Fukami
Five years ago, if you asked me about attending a yoga retreat, I would have laughed.
My yoga journey unexpectedly began when I signed up for an online yoga class during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had zero expectations. I had thought yoga and all of its convoluted positions was something for flexible, younger people and that that time had already passed me by.
But four years later, I’m still practicing yoga and am surprised at how it’s reawakened my interest in Buddhism. There is now an opportunity for members of BCA to experience this, as detailed farther down in this article.
In the interest of full disclosure, some confessions need to be made here. I was not raised as a Buddhist, but was active in Jr. YBA during my teen years and college, attending services and Sunday School along with Jr. YBA conferences and retreats.
My husband’s family is much more religious — he has several perfect attendance Sunday School awards. So when we had children, there was no question that they would be raised as Jodo Shinshu Buddhists, which they were as members of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple.
But after they left the house, my husband and I stopped attending temple regularly and our interest in religion sort of dwindled. Until yoga, which was inspired by Bob Matsueda, who is also related to me by marriage.
Bob Matsueda, a member of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple, is a yoga and wellness instructor and yoga therapist. He is probably one of the few, if not the only U.S. citizen who is certified by the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, as both a yoga and wellness teacher and as a yoga therapist.
He is also registered at the highest level by the Yoga Alliance, E-RYT-500, and teaches online yoga classes at any age and physical condition. Most significantly to BCA members, his teaching style promotes Buddhist teachings and spirituality.
Matsueda teaches free classes online three times a week at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple, the Buddhist Church of Sacramento, and jointly with the Salt Lake City and Ogden Buddhist temples. The Sangha members who participate in his classes are from Orange County Buddhist Church (OCBC), Senshin, San Jose, Berkeley, Tri-State Denver, Fresno, Fowler, Mountain View and San Mateo, as well as the Japanese Church of Christ Salt Lake City.
What I’ve learned these past four years is that yoga is not a religion, but a spiritual practice that is an umbrella for religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and other religions, including Buddhism.
There is the mind/body/spiritual connection that is foundational to yoga, which is also aligned with Buddhism. When we practice with Matsueda, we focus on breathing and meditation, incorporating them into our asanas or poses.
The participants in the online zoom classes range from people in their 20s to one Obachan who is 102 years old. She is able to do the yoga exercises because Matsueda shows us adaptations when doing an asana, sometimes sitting or holding on to a chair for support and better balance and demonstrating that it is possible to get the same benefit as people who are able to sit or stand on the floor.
And I better understand the concepts of interconnectedness and impermanence because of my yoga practice, and how those philosophies are rooted in yoga and practiced by Buddhists.
This past Memorial Day weekend was the second time I’d attended Matsueda’s yoga retreat at the Jodo Shinshu Center. I was expecting a series of yoga sessions in which we would practice the asana we already knew, and perhaps learn a few new ones.
Instead, we mostly listened and experienced. We heard Minister’s Assistant Judy Nakatomi from the Vista Buddhist Temple talk about breathing in and breathing out and taking time to slow down, reflect and self-care. She’s also an ordained Zen priest under the late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, so it was fascinating to hear her share that perspective as well.
Retired minister Rev. Ken Yamada, from Berkeley Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, is a fifth-degree black belt in karate and helped to weave in his experiences as a minister and in martial arts as a way to convey Buddhist and spirituality with yoga in a talk he titled “Our Spiritual Path.”
Retired minister Rev. Bob Oshita from the Buddhist Church of Sacramento talked about “Buddhism and Yoga: A Deep Connection,” not only as a Buddhist minister, but as a practitioner of yoga with Matsueda for the past four years.
Other special experiences included: Denise Lapidus, an advanced yoga teacher, led the group with yoga nidra-relaxation yoga; a performance of Kathak Indian dance by Labonee Mohanta; body massage therapy for all yoga participants; and two days of vegetarian meals created by chef Alan Hirahara, which much to this omnivore’s delight, were delicious and exciting.
For participant Suzanne Hidekawa, it was a cumulative and transformational experience.
"Bob's Yoga classes encompass so much — meditation, poses and asanas, and spirituality,” Hidekawa said. “At his yoga retreat this year, I loved learning about the connection between yoga and Buddhism from the Buddhist ministers who presented. I wasn’t raised Buddhist, but I really resonated with their teachings and that inspired me to become a member at Berkeley Buddhist Temple."
Matsueda conveyed what he learned in India was that Shakyamuni Buddha was raised in a Hindu household, practiced yoga for many years (Samkhya philosophy), and used these practices that resulted in his revolutionary way of looking at life. He would not have come to his insights if it were not for his practice of yoga, much in the same way that Shinran Shonin practiced meditation for 20 years, which ultimately resulted in his way of looking at Buddhism.
Matsueda was recently awarded a Dharma Forward grant to teach yoga workshops in-person to regional BCA federations, which can then evolve to ongoing online weekly classes.
Interested groups can combine these workshops with district events and other workshops. His presentations include workshops and lectures on yoga for mental and physical health and well-being (meditation, breathing, movement techniques along with diet and relaxation techniques, etc.), as well as talks on history and philosophy on the connections between yoga and Buddhism.
Matsueda has held similar workshops for Medtronics Corp. in Denver, Colorado; San Francisco General Hospital; a San Francisco law firm; and nonprofits. The Dharma Forward grant will cover Matsueda’s travel expenses.
Matsueda takes no fee for leading the workshops or for the classes he teaches. As a former yoga non-believer, here’s what I can say after practicing with Matsueda after four years: my balance, posture, and flexibility have all improved; I sleep better; I am more mindful of my eating habits (although I have to admit, this is still a work in progress), I can use yoga techniques to lower my blood pressure and I have an improved awareness of how we are all connected to each other.
I’ve even signed up for Matsueda’s India tour this year to explore the spiritual foundations of yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism and other philosophies and religions.
As Matsueda has taught us: The purpose of yoga, in addition to a healthy mind and body, is to eliminate all dualities by merging our self with the universal consciousness, i.e., Universal Oneness.
If your BCA temple or district is interested in an in-person workshop through the Dharma Forward grant, please contact Matsueda at: shanti@bobmatsueda.com or see his website at www.bobmatsueda.com.
Individuals are welcome to contact him as well and follow him on Instagram at @bobmatsuedaYoga. He also leads tours to India so visitors can learn more about Buddhism and other spiritual practices.
Matsueda also works as a yoga therapist doing one-on-one sessions with people with cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), injuries, high blood pressure, diabetes, brain injuries and ailments after they have consulted with their physicians and are referred to him.
Before the pandemic, he worked at San Francisco General Hospital Yoga and Wellness Center with staff, patients and community members in yoga for stress and injuries.
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