He studied yoga and meditation in Houston during the early 1970s and then moved to Tulsa during that decade. His day job was math instructor at Tulsa Community College but his life was teaching yoga. He introduced this practice to Tulsans using space kindly made available at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
A gift teacher of yoga, he taught not only poses (called asanas) but stressed the spiritual aspect of Yoga consistently, eloquently and always in ‘user friendly’ ways. Richard was often a master teacher in our yoga teacher training program. In 2006 he published his book – Just Notice . . . Just This: The Body and Mind Of The Yogas. Sadly, Richard died in 2013 at the age of 66.
Here are some words of wisdom from Richard Stathem found in his fine book:
About suffering . . .
There is always going to be suffering in the world even while simultaneously we begin the work of relieving suffering wherever we find it knowing full well that suffering is not going to go away. We work to relieve hunger, for instance, knowing there will always be hunger. We work to end ignorance, knowing there will always be ignorance.
About the breath . . .
It is possible to discover profound truths, not just by reading the great holy texts or being in the presence of great teachers, but also by simple sitting with the breath, observing the breath, and being forever open to what the breath reveals beyond simply oxygenating the body.
About religious beliefs . . .
Hold lightly to beliefs. Attachments to belief systems can imprison us. Focus, rather, on what you discover.
About practice . . .
There are many who come to a practice thinking if they can just get more of this and get rid of that, then everything will be okay. They think they’re going to learn how to elimination something and how to acquire more of something, all of which will finally lead to happiness. Our practice is not about getting something or getting rid of something. It is about discovery. it is about revealing. It is about finding what was always here.
About yoga . . .
The primary purpose of yoga practice is to learn to relax. Tension is not our enemy, however, in yoga we learn to release unnecessary tension so that we may experience life fully and joyfully.