Mukunda Studio

Last weekend’s flower arranging workshop Mukunda Studio was a hit! Dr. Nas of osra_medical connected Flybunker Design | San Francisco • Los Angeles • New York with Marc, owner of Mukunda Studio to offer a free event to build community.

The occasion? An engaging afternoon to support Fly Bunker owners, Armen and Jaime who are leading the race for America’s Favorite Couple!!

After a very entertaining demo by Armen and Jaime, guests were provided the flowers and 1-1 guidance to make their very own beautiful arrangement with the most colorful dahlias, roses, and more!

Please cast a vote for these two! It’s free and will help bring more support to Osra Medical. Their love of flowers and art brought smiles and joyful connections to the day.

Mukunda Studio - what can you imagine here in this SOMA West yoga and well-being space?

We’ve made the move to a much larger studio! We continue to elevate the wellness conversation by signaling the inherent message of well-being that connects personal and collective healing.

Marc Morozumi - founder and owner just moved Mukunda Studio to 1228 Folsom and is seeking community support for activation in this beautiful, newly expanded space.

Adam Hong helps operate SOMA West Neighborhood Association and we’ve been envisioning ways to inspire our SOMA West neighbors and SF Bay Area. Are you a teacher, wellness leader, activist organizer, or simply looking to hold an event that aligns with this space? Do you wish to bring more connection and conversation within your community?

Mukunda Studio is a cooperative studio that encourages our LGBTQ+ and BIPOC/Global majority family to feel more welcomed in wellness spaces. With group classes, private 1:1 sessions, community events, co-working space and studio rentals, we want to share this tranquil oasis with you! Comment below on what kinds of events and classes you’d like to see.

Connecting the dots this week on the power of compassion with transformative action. August 1st was the recognition of Quanyin’s Enlightenment - the universal bodhisattva of compassion. For many years, Buddhists and other people seeking spiritual guidance have sought after the compassion and support during crises, severe illness, during times of grief and for protection against harm.

Quanyin’s presence has been on the grief altar at Mukunda Studio since 2024 and at every SF Well-being Fair since then. After the events of 10/7/23, it felt necessary to create space for the grief of oppression and the ongoing genocides and other crimes against humanity happening on this planet. This is included to raise greater awareness of those who are oppressed, silenced, and marginalized.

Rather than being harms and atrocities we look away from, this altar asks us to understand the collective suffering of both those who are oppressed and those who oppress - no one is free or at peace when this relationship exists or is threatened. Why does dehumanization and oppression exist? What real gain happens when it’s at the harm and erasure of another being? This grief means we know there is another way to exist together on this planet.

Yoga leads us to find the union of body, mind, breath, spirit within our own system so that we can become skillful beings who are of service to bring light to the imbalances in this world. Much of our pain and suffering rises from becoming entranced by this material world. Yoga guides us to have a clear mind that can focus on the true self and understand the ignorance of separateness. It only feels right to have this grief altar as a reminder of why we practice.

Honoring Quanyin on this day in the lunar calendar as their Enlightenment Day! Quanyin (spelled Guanyin, Kuan Yin, Guannshiyin, Kwannon, and more), known widely in many Eastern religions and practices such as Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese folk religions and more, is said to have achieved full enlightenment on this day. Known as the masculine form, Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit, Quanyin evolved into a gender-neutral presence (often referred to as she) around 1,800 years ago.

According to the Lotus Sutra, Quanyin has no fixed gender, nationality, or form and can shape-shift (between all genders and animals) to be a necessary bridge between a divide.

Widely thought of as a Cosmic presence of universal compassion by countless devotees, their message remains deeply useful, existing as a presence for millennia of sorrows and joys.

With genocides, mass violence, systemic harm and other corrupt, power-driven fractures in this world, calling on Quanyin can remind us of the power in bearing witness without numbness. Quanyin represents the potential for anchoring in courageous actions that are born from compassion not by more suffering. The teachings are for mental purification so that intense grief can be the catalyst for discernment and right action.

Quanyin sits at the Grief Altar at Mukunda Studio which hold primary symbols to grieve the loss of lives, land, and attempted historical erasure during the livestreamed genocide in Gaza and violence in the West Bank. The twisted stories will only find peace when a different way, away from misperception and misunderstanding that people can be targeted as “others” to justify destruction.

Only with the strength of great compassion will we have the endurance to sit with such discomfort to face of our history for the sake of shared safety. We are interdependent - everything exists only in relation to everything else.

Happy Guru Purnima - A full moon celebration! Honoring Sage Vyasa (Mahabharata and Puranas) and Lord Shiva (the first teacher/guru of yoga)

We had a magical evening at Mukunda Studio on Monday night, honoring our teachers, mentors, and guides through reverence of Lord Shiva and the symbol of Light. Special thank you to Gautam Mulchandani for leading the ritual offering! Gautam Mulchandani

This was an event set aside specifically for our teacher/practitioner community - the 3rd and final event in our Grand Re-opening series to celebrate the move to our new location at 1228 Folsom Street.

In the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jain traditions, Guru Purnima is a celebration to honor our teachers, spiritual masters, and academic teachers. As a space that honors yoga and traditions that come through the practice, this holiday encourages a ritual of awareness and respect that feels important to highlight in our journey on this planet. When we feel inspired to live a life of personal integrity filled with a vision of equity and justice for all, where liberation is for all people not just for some, a world of real peace is possible. We awaken the teacher/guru within which many teachers encourage. To all the teachers who teach shared safety, compassion for all beings, and kindness as a powerful expression of humanity - today is your day!

May we find our teachers in everyday life experience, even and maybe especially the difficult ones! Growth may be painful at times, but our ability to rise and transform will always exist when we see life as our Universe-ity!