Dear Friends,
It is with great sadness that I am writing to let you know that our beloved Mary has left her body to continue on her journey.
She died peacefully in her sleep on September 4th at home with her two daughters, Louise and Elizabeth in Westchester, New York.
The family is planning a memorial service for Saturday, September 27th at 2pm, to be held at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York.
In addition, we are planning a celebration of Mary Dunn's life for early 2009. We will keep you informed as those plans progress.
At Mary's request, in lieu of flowers donations to support IYAGNY and its continuing mission of teaching Iyengar yoga may be sent to:
IYAGNY
150 West 22nd Street 11 Floor
New York, New York 10011
55 comments:
Dear Mary,
I was so sad to hear the news. I already miss you dear teacher.
Claudia
Written on Sept. 3
Dear Mary,
I hope you're still able to read this, or maybe someone can read it to you. I had to write to you, since I saw so little of you in the past few years. It wasn't until this summer that I learned about your blog and things happened so fast. I now log into it regularly week after week as one does the daily paper. Thanks to you and James for putting this up for all of us. Your writing moves me more and more in its spirituality and insight into life. You've continued to teach us through it. In your blog, I learn the importance of savoring each moment, as we move from one posture to the next. I'm happy I bumped into you this past winter in the oddest of places: the cafeteria at IKEA in Elizabeth, N.J.. You were there with James and you looked happy, like in the beautiful photo on your blog. It's the way I will always remember you.
We always see life in brackets of meaningful events. During the 90's, learning about Iyengar Yoga through your teachings, was perhaps the most powerful part of my life. I never took yoga as seriously as I did during those years under your guidance. My memories of you and your teachings will remain. Your words resonating within the close quarters of the old studio, during those crowded Thursday morning classes. I learned so much from you and became so confident in myself. It was a rough start, I wasn't prepared for the intensity of Iyengar yoga. In that period, yoga was such a mystery to me and I needed close attention, but you taught me to just trust my body. You were always so popular with your students. Marcela once said you resembled a shepherd, taming a herd. There was so much I wanted to ask you, but there were many of us and never enough time after class. Then came the yoga retreat with you and Dean in Mexico, in 2000. I will never forget that time. It's when your teachings really helped my practice to flourish. I felt the most alive during that period.
I'm 42 now, I have a wonderful family, and there's a lot I want to do with my life. I look forward, but your blog reminds me to look at the present and be grateful for what I have. The way you lived your life through your work will always be an inspiration to follow. I will forever cherish the depth of your teachings; they will serve as an inspiration in my own profession.
You touched many of us Mary. Thank you again and again. I wish you the best as you enter this transition.
Lots of love forever,
Guido Caroti
dear james,
thank you for letting us know about mary's transition. we will organize sending a donation on mary's behalf to iynagy from colorado.
with deep love, affection and heartfelt respect to all who supported mary through this journey, and special regard and warmth to mary's family.
lisa jo
Cherished friend. Inspiring teacher. Kind heart. Pure soul. Amen to a life well lived.
Donna Pointer
dear james
much appreciation for facilitating mary's communication.
my thoughts are with mary's family as her journey begins anew. godspeed.
sending love and light.
dre
Dear Mary,
School has started. I've walked and driven by your family home countless times this week, expectant with the news of your death, wishing and wishing it were not so. I have carried your lilting, then quiet, voice in my heart, from the message left so recently at Lake Michigan. Your voice first took up residence in my heart when you sang happy birthday to your mother on her 80th birthday. Today, I will do what you cannot do--walk the paths of Orchard Hills and seek the solace of nature. (Perhaps I'll even get my knees to yawn.) Your life inspired--and now so shall your death, your words, your parting gifts. I hope those gifts will help your family bear what must be its unnameable sadness. (I am so glad you got to see your grandchild on the monkeybars.)
Those of us left in Ann Arbor will do our best to love your mom, and honor your spirit as we frolic in and guard these woods you and your mom loved so well.
Your life blessed us so.
Namaste, Lizann, Gerry, Evan, Shane and Alec
Death is nothing at all...
I have only slipped into the next room...
I am I, and you are you...
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
speak to me in the easy way you always used.
Put no difference in your tone;
wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
there is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near just around the corner...
All is well.
Henry Scott Holland
Oxford Professor of divinity
I was only a student of Mary's very briefly, but her teachings and life energy touched and inspired me. My thoughts go out to all of her family and friends. Her teachings will live on in those that she touched.
Dear James and the near ones around Mary,
I am very proud of Mary. She has set an example of the courage and a true understanding of change over of the lives. She was such a good person and a true yogi. We, all the fellow students from RIMYI join to pray for her soul to rest in peace.
Uma
We miss you so...but you will NEVER leave us..
Lots Of Love,
Maureen
Dearest Mary; I know in my heart that you havre become a blue periwinkle in Madagascar which is
fringe flowered, especially a long blooming Madagascar periwinkle whose pistil does not have pollination ability is provided and a method for producing fringe flowered long blooming Madagascar periwinkle is provided as a purpose. A fringe flowered Madagascar periwinkle was bred by pollinating a pollen of a fringe flowered Madagascar periwinkle comprising a sterile pistil to a commercial variety. Moreover, by a self pollination of the fringe flowered Madagascar periwinkle a fringe flowered and pistil sterile Madagascar periwinkle is obtained.
These flowers are now being used in finding cures for all types of cancer. Be well into the good day and night you now reside and know how many pearls of wisdom have been planted into each of our hearts, minds, and souls. Love you in all ways, Gloria
Dear Mary: I forgot to tell you that today's class was given by Tori who filled in for Laura. I almost didn't take it because I felt so terribly sad, but I did and I saw your picture on a building out the window...it will always be there for me. Tori's class was so special and nourishing...you would have been inspired. Again, I miss you and will continue writing to your earth link to Mary's spirit. Love Gloria
Dear James,
Thank you for being there for her and for us. I send you and Mary's Family a hug, a prayer, and an OM. Her light will shine on through those of us whom she touched deeply. Namaste.
Rosa from Florida
Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.
~Rabindranath Tagore
My first teacher when I started practicing at Iyengar in NYC a few years ago. Your hip workshop helped me release so much, no words can describe.
I dedicate my chanting this evening and my yoga practice to you and the light you illuminated on us. Your energy shone thru all of us. You inspired me to apply for Iyengar Teacher Training. I wasn't able start in 2007, but am going to do it next session.
Aum
Bhuh Bhuvah Svah
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhiyo Yo nah Prachodayat
"O thou existence Absolute, Creator of the three dimensions, we contemplate upon thy divine light. May He stimulate our intellect and bestow upon us true knowledge."
You will be missed.
Om & Prem, In His Service,
Aimee
May your soul rest in peace Mary..... we never met but we will remain connnected in spirit...
James,
The best short story ever written is The Death of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy. I read it annually as a force of nature. Here is some from the end (translated):
And suddenly it grew clear to him that what had been oppressing him . . . was dropping away at once from two sides, from ten sides, and from all sides. . . he must act. . . and free himself from these sufferings. "How good and how simple!" he thought. "And the pain?" he asked himself. "What has become of it? Where are you, pain?"
He turned his attention to it.
"Yes, here it is. Well, what of it? Let the pain be."
"And death. . . where is it?"
He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death.
In place of death, there was light.
"So that's what it is!" he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "What joy!"
To him all this happened in a single instant, and the meaning of that instant did not change. For those present his agaony continued for another two hours. . .
"It is finished!" said someone near him.
He heard those words and repeated them in his soul.
"Death is finished," he said to himself. "It is no more!"
He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sigh, and died.
It's a very powerful vision. T You know. Of the end of the exhalation.
Yours, Debbie
Mary Dunn, a noble spirit.
Thank you, James.
I Love you, Elizabeth & Louise
Your friend, Dallas Ann
Godspeed dear Mary, and to your family, and James, our heartfelt thoughts and sympathy.
David and Nina
Mary,
I think of you now as a wonderful warm firecracker of a teacher. Though I'm sad, my lips curl into a smile at the thought of you.
Marta
Jean Unsworth, wife of recently deceased Tim Unsworth, author and writer of National Catholic Reporter fame, has sent a poem that offers meaning as we face death, that unknown experience that only the dead understand....
Jean writes: "In retrospect it all seems very straightforward, you had six months and then two and then three weeks and you had four days to live and then you were gone. We can remember all that, but we cannot know what it was like for you to have such a wealth, however fraudulent, of time, and then see it abruptly and without warning disappear".
"And now you have no time and you have no limitations. I still recognize your face, your unmistakable heart, yet you are now presence so pure and total all the forms fall away. You have become sheer presence, sheer love. You are a beacon of peace. It is something like the perfect smile, the perfect kiss, like the perfection of light." (end)
What is the Meaning of Death in an Age of Technology?
Tom McMahon
Yes, dearest Mary, -- "you have become sheer presence, sheer love."
In the heart of that Love that holds us all,
Elaine
God bless you, Mary. You are already missed. You will always be here, in out hearts, in our pratice. What you gave makes you eternal. Thank you.
Dear Mary in Spirit,
I just heard the news that you physically left us last night, and though you will not be reading this I still felt compelled to write and say how much love and respect I have for you. Thank you for all you have taught me.
I will miss you, knowing that I will never see you again at another class or convention, but thoughts of you will always be a light along my path. I hope the next world will bring you peace and joy. You certainly have given so much to so many of us. Your inspiration will never die.
My prayers are now with your family, that they find comfort in their wonderful memories of life with you.
Aileen
Dear Mary,
Thank you for this immeasurable gift. I feel forever changed... and have no choice now but to carry your example of courage and grace and gratitude, brilliant teaching, and Yoga practice with me for all of my days. Heart felt wishes to all of your family, friends and loved ones, The Iyengars,and everyone at the institute.
With love, (from a member of your extended Iyengar Yoga family, who had the great priviledge of taking one class with you on a trip to NYC a year and a half ago or so, where because of a mistake on my plane ticket I got to go back to the city for one more day, the day you taught lucky me!!!) NAMASTE
Karin Dayton, Victoria BC
We have such fond memories of Mary and were priviliged to have her teach us in Johannesburg and Cape Town when she was in South Africa a few years ago.
How fortunate we - and BKS Iyengar students worldwide - were to receive her teachings.
With kind and loving thoughts to Mary's family, James and students.
BKS Iyengar students in Southern Africa.
It is so sad that Mary is really gone now. At the Institute people were heavy hearted but full of love and life. There is not much to say about it only to remember the moments. That is what I saw mostly yesterday. Advanced teachers who were young students when they came to her remembered their first impressions on her. I admired Mary's ability to inspire with wit, sense of humor and kindness. We all hold her very dear to our hearts.
Classes will go on as Mary would expect it to. People will practice, practice, practice... That is a principle of Iyengar Yoga.
Susan Turis
james, l never meet you, but l do thankyou for your generosity,also in this difficult moment.
claudia
To all of you at the Institute in New York,
Thank you, James for being there on behalf of so many of us, keeping us informed.
Our condolences to Mary's family, friends and students. We will alwasy remember Mary's inspirational teaching, dynamic personality and wonderful sense of humour.
With deepest affection and respect David Jaccobs and Jurgen Meusel, South Africa
Dear Mary,
Thank you for your powerful voice in my heart. I had few classes with you, but your teachings will resonate in me forever. One thing you imparted, which I will never forget- is that you said
(in a standing pose..) to let the energy flow up our legs in a sparkly, energetic way, like the bubbles in soda pop...How wonderful.
!!!
Thank you.
Thank you!
xag
Dear Beloved Teacher,
While I was still holding out the hope that your body would miraculously recover, I could not say this. But this past year has been an emotional kaleidoscope for me of disbelief, denial, anger, grief, and--within the last month--acceptance. This has been mixed all along with gratitude that it was my fortune to wander into your class so many years ago.
While I was in Pune this August, I heard more of the story of the sudden loss of Ramamani Iyengar at a young age. When I would pass her sculpture every day on the way through the gate, I would reflect on how, if that family could bear such a terrible loss, I might come to accept whatever would happen to you.
Yesterday morning, when I lit your candle before beginning my practice, for the first time in all these months it occurred to me to pray that your passing might be as blessed as your life. Then I opened this blog later in the day and read the news that you were gone. This morning, when I bent my heart forward in uttanasana, there was a sudden rush of joy, knowing that you are still with me, in my practice, in my memory.
Love,
Jack
I am at a loss for words. I do feel strongly that you, Mary are there, somewhere. I feel your presence as I know so many of your students do. I didn't have a chance to study for you for very long but that semester I was blessed to have with you in Greenwich, was transformational. I think of you every day in my yoga practice, of your words, your guidance and again, most of all, your glowing presence.
I realize as I write this, that the way I benefitted probably the most from your influence was through the two wonderful teachers who I studied with and in turn who had studied with you: Andrew Thorpe and Bonnie Moller. I could always feel your influence coming through them and I know you will continue to live on through all your students and through the teachers you have trained.
I am so grateful to have know you. You will continue to live on in my heart. I am taking a yoga teacher training class for the first time this weekend and in my mind, it will be a tribute to you.
love, Erika
See you again soon. May our paths cross again in sadhana and sat-sanga. Much love, peace, joy and many, many blessings for your journey. Thank you for the moments, Erin Dollar Kott
I was blessed to have Mary as one of my first yoga teachers, and 30 years later, she continues to inspire me. No longer confined to a physical form, her radiant spirit illuminates all who have been in her presence. What a remarkable soul she was/is, how infectious her joy, enthusiasm and humor, how deep her knowledge, how dedicated and disciplined she was... I can think of no better example of a yogini.
She will be sorely misssed.
My sympathy to her family, friends and students,
Carolyn Heines
To Mary's family, to the Institute and to her friends:
May your memories bring you comfort and peace.
Mary, your teachings and your spirit will remain and will live on.
Death is part of Nature, but
Love survives forever....
Mary's loving family, James, my thoughts and prayers are with you. Mary and I met briefly, but of course, she touched me so very, very profoundly! What a light, what a blessing, what a gift!
WIth love and deep respect,
Caren Patterson
dear James,
Thank you for letting us know news about Mary till the end.
Now our thoughts will reach her even more easily.
Greeting from Italy,
Carlo.
My dear James:
I think on you
I'm with you....
Love .maiki
Dearest Mary,
From the non-being to true being,
from the darkness to the Light,
from death to Immortality.
May you be blessed on your journey...
In Loving Kindness,
Linda Skarrup
Dear Mary,
I've tried not to anticipate. Instead, I've mostly aimed to hug to the present. Sadness is, yes, running through me, through us all. You'd be beamingly pleased I figure, your eyes reflecting back an immeasurable love, to see us embracing you and ourselves with tears, quiet, broad smiles, setting flowers gently next to flames that blush and dance gentle sentiments reaching for the sky, so many memories that will live on.
You taught by embracing curiosity and mystery, giving the lessons a life they'd otherwise convey less well. You searched deeply, I sensed, delivering volumes of wisdom contained outside books' cover boundaries.
Like so many others, I've marveled at the good fortune to begin my studies with you Mary. First memories when starting new things often stay with us so very long and clearly (like Guruji modeling you so well on stage). For me, they'll revolve in outline around your looking that unusual (for me) first day at some mishapen/held portions of my body (and I much later reflected, seeking direction then from me on how much I was prepared to hear/be willing to learn), and tell me (contradicting years of doctor messages on) things I in fact *could* do then, or would soon be able to do (you were of course right!). I experienced the outline's filling in when I'd later think to myself "*that's* why she repeated a story" or better even, "wow, *that* helped me understand (less so intellectually)!" My Iyengar journey began with those "that" events.
It wasn't so much your delivery method, although I was admittedly right away charmed. It was what/how you observed both from seeing me, and from listening to me recount a narrative showing that I was willing to consider going beyond the "might as well give up" conclusions of some.
It's in many ways through our bodies that we convey what we embrace as most important. The most enduring aspect, nonetheless, you were instrumental in showing me, is that our bodies carry us physically from place to place so cleverly, yet it is our spirits that read aloud and silently convey the most interesting aspects, the parts that repeat again, and again. That's what you did for me, I sense, for all of us, in many different ways.
I'll most richly thank you for those gifts by aiming to learn always more, seek the wisdom you did, in my way, allow/open my arms and heart to cleansing storms, delight in the growth that is to appear in the cycles that follow. All of that I'll continue to consider/absorb with the special assistance of my teachers, all of whom learned, like me (just a little), from you, keeping the winds felt, further enriching the soil thus that more grows through it.
Like so many others in our NY Iyengar community, I thank James for all he's done to enliven our conversation with you this past year and a half, all his and especially your family's embracing care and support of you as you too became ready to hold your well-lived arms out to nature which gently, sagely did the same, and equally, to the vibrant community you helped breathe life and into which you welcomed me.
I wish you well on your spirit Journey!
Namaste, Marc Z
Dear James,
Thank you for being with Mary in her transition and for keeping us “in the loop”. I send condolences and wishes for release from sorrow to you and to Louise and Elizabeth and the rest of Mary’s family, and to all my fellow students, and teachers.
James, I remember you sharing with us several years ago on return from a retreat how you were confronting the reality that eventually we will be separated from everything we hold dear. I don’t at all think you were imagining this, then. But perhaps you have done some hard work to prepare that will help you now. I hope so.
As for Mary, wherever you may be - safe passage! I’m wishing you fair winds and a clear sky as you journey on. None of us will truly understand until the time comes for us to embark ourselves. We miss you.
To all my fellow commenters on Mary’s blog, I’ve learned and laughed and cried from your messages. Perhaps we can transmute this blog into a kind of memorial to Mary and her many wise teachings.
Mary said some (really many) hilarious and wise things over the years. One day in particular comes back (November 1992?) – she said (apropos of who knows what) “We’re on a geologic time frame for change – no sound bites here!” We all laughed.
What did she mean? To have patience and learn perspective? That the slow processes of sedimentation, compression, and subduction of tectonic plates take more time than we can know? A caution to be thoughtful and not push too hard against our cells? To remember that we return to constituent chemicals that will be subsumed and fused to the planet? Perhaps some of you were there when she said this and have other ideas.
She also said, also about the same time, teaching savasana, that in death the bones fall into proper alignment, and “Why wait ‘til you’re dead?” Again, what did she mean? And what did we hear?
To me, she was saying it was time to relax more deeply than our ideas about our bodies seem to permit. It seems there’s a lot of work in letting go, in permitting ourselves to be supported, in submitting to gravity, in waiting and waiting and waiting without moving voluntarily, in accommodating the slow release of ligaments and held patterns and muscular tension and all the other samskaras of our lives in the world. She was saying, I think, don’t be ready to move out of this pose, be ready instead to stay as if forever in this position.
And you know, it’s really difficult! To stay still in savasana for more and more minutes, to stop counting the minutes, to go deeply into the practice and to truly take the time that we need. Some days it’s hard to find the time to practice at all, let alone give an extended number of minutes to savasana.
And so, today, six minute savasana, and tomorrow maybe more minutes – or fewer. Practice. There’s a lot to learn.
It’s a tender and difficult time at the New York Institute – a lot of hugs and tears. Thanks to Richard and Carrie and all the other IYAGNY teachers and assistants for being there for all of us now and in the future. We go on.
Mary Beth
Dear Mary
I was blessed this winter because in the two months I was in nyc you taught weekly and I was able to benefit. I was blessed because at your school a wonderful harmony reigns and I was able to benefit. I was blessed because for the first time with you with James I was able to be in yoga as an HIV positive human being and feel just that: a human being. Growing learning. I was blessed because each time before class you would come and say quietly: hello Elizabeth like my second daughter. I was blessed because when we parted your intense pure gaze smiled and said: keep the intensity, keep the joy. Keep in touch.
I pray for us now who remain here without you. We will keep in touch. Your soul I know will journey on generously serenely wisely as always. Thank you. Elizabeth
james,
our teacher Zubin gave us the news. and today in class we observed a minute of silence and offered our prayers.
joya and mohan
My love, hope and tears go out to Mary's family, friends, the yoga community. I didn't know Mary personally, actually never met her, and yet I know I was touch by her, through her gentle, kind and strong words on her blog, but also through other teachers and yogis who did have contact with her. Her strength and compassion live with all of us.
I know she is dearly missed.
Peace ~Michelle
Thank you Mary, I will remember you. The way you lived and died is an inspiration.
Jill
Dear Mary -
Although you and I have been parted by many miles these past few years, your encouraging exuberant voice has been there. Today is no different. Although I don't completely understand how it all works – this “passing through the veil” that separates this world from the next - "I let the mystery be" and believe. I know you can hear me... you can here us all... you can feel our love and we can feel your love in return. I will miss and grieve your physical presence, and ever remain grateful that my life was (and still is) blessed by the knowing of Mary Dunn.
My love to you now and forever,
Cynthia
James, dear man - I pray we all have friends like you when it is our time.
In gratitude,
Cynthia
James,
I was stunned to find Mary’s obituary in the New York Times and then Googled to this site. I was in Mary’s Intro class 15 or so years ago in (you subbed occasionally), and the only staff I remember from the current list are you and Brooke (as I said, years ago). I have kept a regular home practice since then, so the foundation you and Mary gave me has held firm.
All of this to say, thank you for helping Mary to continue to share her extraordinary and vibrant gifts as a teacher with us until the end. And thank you and her family for allowing us all to share in the profound mystery and grace of her death.
KK (Seattle)
I am very saddened by the news of Mary's passing. I had the good fortune of attending one of Mary's classes at the Iyengar Conference in 2004 in Minneapolis. Out of over 100 students, she pointed my shoulders out to the class and showed what I was doing wrong...I never forgot that lesson!
We were blessed by her existance...
You live on in the countless people whose lives you touched with grace and humour, intelligence and compassion. Thank you for touching my life.
Love and light,
Meenakshi
Greetings from Ann Arbor,
Reading the short note in the New York Times a few days ago and the longer obituary today, I'm saddened to learn of this loss. Mary's light will live on in the many friends and students touched by her talent, warmth and conviction. Her passing, as was true of her fight against illness, reminds us how interconnected we all are, when we open ourselves to the world and each other. My thoughts are with Mary's family, with her mother "Mary Senior", and with all of you who knew her best.
J.
Dear Mary,
Thank you for your mindful way, your simple touch, may you have a safe journey and may those who held your hand at the end be comforted as they comforted you. With respect.
Unforgettable person. She will keep living within ourselves. Thanks to the Iyangar world, once more.
Tite Togni, Brescia, Italy
Unforgettable person. She will keep living within ourselves. Thanks to the Iyangar world, once more.
Tite Togni, Brescia, Italy
It is very sad to hear that Mary Dunn passed away. Together we go back a long time, over 30 years when we both started our yogic path.
Throughout the years we met regularly in Pune studying with Guruji and tremendously enjoying
the fabulous and by now legendary intensives he use to give.
We always had lunch and a good talk and laugh.
Whenever Mary came to Holland we met in Amsterdam.
When traveling mutual friends sent her regards from and to different parts in the world.
My dear Mary, rest in peace, I'll remember you.
Cle Souren
BKS Iyengar Yoga Institute Amsterdam Holland
Mary was my second yoga teacher, in the late 70s, in Berkeley. After all these years, she remains my favorite teacher. Ironically, I went to a new studio today (in the Bay Area), and clicking through their links just now I learned of her passing 2 years ago today. She was phenomenal. Just one more voice stating the obvious. Love to you Mary.
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