Yoga at Golden Drum

Yoga is one of the oldest paths human beings have found for coming back to themselves. Long before it was a fitness practice, it was a complete way of living: a method for joining the body, the breath, and the mind into one steady whole — and through that joining, touching something larger.
At Golden Drum, a center for sacred traditions in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, yoga is not a class we offer on the side. It is part of our lineage. Our living form of this practice is 3Y Yoga, drawn from the foundational teaching of Yug Yoga Yoghismo by Dr. Serge Raynaud de La Ferrier and practiced here in Greenpoint.

What the word means

Yoga comes from the Sanskrit yug: to join, to unite, to yoke together. Yoga is union. The body with the breath. The breath with the mind. The person with something larger than themselves. Every accomplishment in the path of perfection is a yoga — cooking with full attention can be yoga, walking can be yoga. The mat is one place it happens. It was never meant to be the only one.

Many paths, one mountain

There is not one yoga. The four foundational branches according to the Dattātreyayogaśāstra are Hatha, union through the body; Mantra, union through sound; Raja, real union and the principle of synthesis; and Laya, union through dissolution. It is a pity that yoga has been divided so strictly into categories. The names are signposts, not walls. Real practice moves between them. And the deeper aim — Yoghism, the gathering of all paths into one synthesis — is not a fifth branch. It is the whole mountain seen at once.

A path with steps

Yoga is not a shortcut to stillness. The classical path is built in stages — eight of them, moving from the most external to the most internal. How we live comes first. The body and the breath follow. The gathered, quiet mind comes last, because it rests on everything beneath it. Reach for meditation without the groundwork and it is like entering university without attending elementary school. There is a program for everything, and the program is the good news.

What is 3Y Yoga?

3Y Yoga is Golden Drum's living form of this practice, drawing on the teaching of Yug Yoga Yoghismo. Come practice with us in Greenpoint to learn more.

Is yoga a religion?

No. Yoga is a practice, not a faith. It asks for your attention, not your belief.

Related: What is yoga? · The branches of yoga · The eight limbs of yoga