On Friday, June 19th, 6:00-7:30pm Buddhi Mat Power Yoga will celebrate the Summer Solstice with the traditional 108 Sun Salutations. This donation-based class will benefit the ROAR Donofrio Animal Shelter.
It is a yoga tradition to practice 108 Sun Salutations at the beginning of each new season. This practice welcomes the change of the seasons and honors the sun on the longest day of the year, Summer Solstice, officially June 21, 2015.
The number’s significance is open to interpretation. But 108 has long been considered a sacred number in Hinduism and yoga. Traditionally, malas, or garlands of prayer beads, come as a string of 108 beads (plus one for the “guru bead,” around which the other 108 beads turn like the planets around the sun). A mala is used for counting as you repeat a mantra—much like the Catholic rosary. Rather than the symbolism of the numbers themselves, it is the act of practicing anything 108 times with focus and intention that makes this ritual a powerful moving meditation.