Dominic Corigliano: On The Road
For a particular generation of Ashtanga Yoga student, Dominic Corigliano represents that paternal “cool dad” who knows everything that’s going on in your family and is more than happy to tell you too much about it.
He’s like that cool uncle who’s not condescending and knows about the dope hiding in your room. Dom may smoke it with you, but he’s also going to be real honest about the side effects.
He’s the first guy you call when you need bail money… But he’s also going to reinforce, “You really need to tell your mom, you know?”
Sitting with Dominic, feels very much like you’re part of his family. As a father of five, family has turned out to be a focal point of his life. We touched upon our Ashtanga family foibles, but no one is going anywhere in this large Italian like circle… And look, we’re going to sit together at Christmas anyway, so we might as well forgive and forget and get on with loving each other again.
To that end we spoke about Dom’s childhood that was unfortunately littered with abuse and trauma. His interest in beat poetry and the beat life, and how, like Kerouac, he took to the road. Somehow, in the midst of all this chaos, he ended up as a computer engineer in Encinitas, married with three children before stumbling upon yoga with Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois.
Dom is quite frank about his guru, our teacher— what can be loved about him and what needs to be acknowledged about his failings as a man. This was something Dom knew a lot about as he had to do the same with his own father. He had to learn to forgive in order to continue to be able to love.
“You can’t really understand someone else’s pain, don’t act like you can.” - Dominic Corigliano
Enjoy your time listening to this episode about Dom’s life, which is really another rich story embedded within the living history of the greater Ashtanga Yoga context.
Finding Harmony is about reclaiming balance in a life that has been fractured in some way. For so many of us, Ashtanga Yoga was a vehicle to find balance. Within that structure there were, of course, inevitable frustrations and contradictions along path. To this end, Krishna suggests:
sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah
Give up all technique and come to me
I shall deliver you from negative reactions
Do not worry
(Bhagavad Gita chapter 18 verse 66)
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT DOMINIC
Listen Now…
Part 1: One the Road
PART TWO: The Trance State
A "Trance State" is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli. It is also a state of mind that we can enter into through Yoga Practice. We're talking about Trance States with Dominic Corigliano in this Part 2 continuation of our Part 1 (Episode 65 - Listen on iTunes) conversation.
Whether you call it an auto-hypnotic state or a trance state, yoga can be used as a technique that we use to change the mind's ability to filter information, which can result in a more efficient use of the mind's resources. This form of self-hypnosis, or "Trance-like" experiences, is probably a state you're familiar with if you've ever been so absorbed in an activity, like yoga, that it actually takes a moment or two to reorient yourself back into the existing time-space continuum.
This is a beautifully deep and honest conversation had between old friends, who love and admire one another, and here we are inviting you into this intimate setting to sit with us.
Spending time with Dominic will transform your understanding of the practice of Ashtanga yoga. His perspective is absolutely unique and spans many generations.
We feel this conversation is also relevant to shifting sands in culture right now in the context of empowering women to continue speaking out, using their voice, claiming their power, and not standing down in the face of oppression or abuse.
Dominic Corigliano is a teacher of rare breadth and depth of experience since having started Ashtanga Yoga with Pattabhi Jois in the early 1980s. This long continuous period of study under Guruji has provided him with unique insights into the Ashtanga method. Dom’s varied interests and eventful life have also helped develop a unique and balanced philosophy and wisdom, which he generously shares with his students. After many years working as a software engineer for General Dynamics, getting married and raising 3 children, Dominic began teaching yoga full-time in 1989. Then, in 2000, at age 47, he returned to Mysore to study intensively with Pattabhi Jois for much of the next seven years, during which time he received his Certification. Dominic has traveled and taught throughout Japan, the San Francisco Bay Area and has been a visiting teacher at the Jois Yoga Center in Greenwich, Connecticut. In his spare time, he enjoys riding his motorcycle and foraging for mushrooms and berries on the rugged coast of northern California, with his wife, Stephanie, and their 2 young sons.
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
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Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
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