The Northeast Georgian, Friday, November 25, 2011, Page 11A
Panther Brook Spiritual Center offers free yoga classes, retreats
By KIMBERLY BROWN
Buried deep in the woods in Turnerville, surrounded by the Chattahoochee National Forest, is a hidden secret: Panther Brook Spiritual Center. The center, run by retired Piedmont College psychology department chair Emerson Brooking, Ph.D., is on about 40 acres of mostly wooded land off of Highway 441. At the center, Brooking teaches Integral Yoga, offering two free classes per week. He also offers regular Saturday retreats and other classes at no charge.
Brooking’s yoga classes are different from some others in the area, because he teaches the spiritual side of yoga as well as the physical poses. “In America, we despiritualize everything, so we take the heart of yoga and just make it into an exercise class,” he says. “If we focus on the Asanas [yoga postures] and the deep relaxation only, that’s food for the body. If we focus on the breathing exercises and meditation and prayer time, that’s food for the soul.”
He says, while he is a follower of Christ, the practice of yoga is for all religions and that methods of meditation can be used to draw anyone closer to God. “All religions are respected here. If people have a religious base, I want them to use that. It’s like you’re digging a well to the river of God’s grace. You don’t want to start a new well if you’ve already got one going. You want to dig that deeper so that you’re successful.”
Brooking’s students love the spiritual side of his yoga classes, and many say both aspects are what keep them coming back.
Sue Buak of Clarkesville loves backpacking and hiking, and has hiked much of the Appalachian Trail, but injuries were preventing her from physical activity. Yoga, she says, “changed my life.” “I started with a very bad back injury and I got so I could hardly walk and I couldn’t sit,” she says. “I had terrible sciatic pain. By coming here and doing these exercises, I got flexible enough that I’m back to backpacking.”
Buak says yoga and meditation has also calmed her spirit. “The best thing that happened is I ran into a hiker friend who knows me. I’m very hyper and chatty, and she said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but you seem so much calmer.’ She noticed the change.”
“This is the fruit of the spirit,” Brooking says. “These fruits bring more joy into your life. You’re nicer to be with; you’re more generous and more loving.”
Pauline Dorman of Clarkesville uses yoga to help with her chronic congestion. “I had West Nile [virus], and it affected me by getting into my head,” she says. “So I have a lot of congestion and drainage. With the deep moving, it helps my breathing and I get all that stuff up. I go into a shoulder stand, and that really gets the chest.”
Brooking says Dorman had a deep regular spiritual practice before she
started coming to Panther Brook, and the meditation techniques she learned helped deepen that practice.
“Some people think yoga opens up your mind to Satan,” Dorman says. “But if you’re focused on the Lord, and you’re not focused on anything else, that’s the important thing. There’s no way this can lead you away from God, because that’s what you’re focusing on. You’re breathing in the Holy Spirit.”
“So many Christians don’t realize we have this long tradition of contemplation,” Brooking says. “You don’t have to go through a minister or priest to experience God. Christ told us very clearly, ‘The kingdom of God is within us,’ and that’s what we can experience.”
Dorman says the discipline required by learning and practicing the yoga postures has helped in all aspects of her life, including making her more organized at home. “The discipline of holding your postures and focusing yourself, you take everywhere with you when you leave here,” she says. “Life is so hectic and fast-paced. You’ve got so many things coming at you. To be able to take in that breath of the Holy Spirit, and let out all the anxiety, that really makes a difference.”
While many of Brooking’s students are women, there are males who enjoy the benefits of yoga at Panther Brook. Zane Purcell of Toccoa has been coming for almost three years. At 27, he’s possibly the youngest member. He says it’s hard to express how Integral Yoga has changed his life. “Physically it’s all around been good for my body,” he says. “As far as general balance, I notice every day I feel better. It carries over.”
Purcell says Integral Yoga is a good skill set that can help in any religious or spiritual practice. “Mentally, spiritually and emotionally, regardless of what your beliefs are, it’s a good universal concept that can be applied to all belief systems,” he says. “It’s all inclusive. There’s nothing that makes anybody feel uncomfortable. It’s not a religion; it doesn’t replace a religion, but it can help you from a more mainstream perspective.”
Patty Hallowell of Turnerville started doing yoga before, but had to quit in 1987 because of inner-ear problems. “I totally lost my balance,” she says. “The primary thing I’m doing, other than the spiritual side, is trying to get a better balance. It’s helped me considerably.”
Sandy Miller of Cornelia has only been coming to Panther Brook for a few weeks. She says just the act of coming by herself was a big step for her. “I’m not one to do things on my own, just to walk into a strange place and start by myself,” she says. “I wanted to step out of my norm. I walked in, and immediately [Brooking] made me feel like I’d always been here. I did not feel out of place. I didn’t feel too old, I didn’t feel too fat. It just felt good to come here. I wanted to do it again.” Miller also practices at home.
“The meditation is great, because it takes everything away,” she says. “The only thing that’s left is your own spirit and your own feeling and whatever you’re focusing on is with you and you hope to carry that with you when you leave.”
During meditation, Brooking tells students to choose a word to repeat to themselves. The goal, he says, is “to be quiet in God to the point that we experience that radiant purity of our essence of being.” “Choose a word that’s important to you and coordinate that with your breathing,” he says.
“Meditation is a relaxed, focused, uninterrupted awareness. The mind is like a drunken monkey, stung by a scorpion, in a cage. What we’re trying to do is quiet it, to get more centered.”
The reason Brooking doesn’t charge fees, and says he doesn’t plan to, is twofold. The first is because he knows everyone can’t afford to pay. “I’m a follower of Christ,” he says. “Christ’s work was with the poor. We have a lot of underemployed and unemployed people, people struggling right now. I have a lot of people who come, who really don’t have the money and wouldn’t come otherwise if it wasn’t free.”
The other reason, he says, is he wouldn’t know what price to set. “I’m literally teaching methods to enter into the Kingdom of God. How are you going to place a price on the Kingdom of God? I don’t know how to set a price on liberation of consciousness.”
Panther Brook Spiritual Center has 11 sites near a creek, several miles of wooded trails and a waterfall. That land is often used for retreats for Brooking’s students and others.
In addition to yoga on Tuesdays from 6-8 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m.-noon, classes offered at the Panther Brook Spiritual Center include chanting and prayer Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30 p.m.; yoga day the first Saturday of every month; relaxation and stress management the second Saturday of every month; and a “taste of stillness” silent retreat the third Saturday of every month.
Brooking says the stress management class is based on the best parts of the popular stress management class he taught at Piedmont, and the silent retreat “really deepens one’s spiritual life.”
For more information about Panther Brook Spiritual Center, call Brooking at 706-754-7488 or see pantherbrook.com.