Welcome to the Living Practice – June
2001
Excerpt
from The Prophet
Letter from the editor
Turning Off Auto-Pilot by Jillian Pransky
Website
Review by Dr. KEV
New
News
Two Yoginis and A Yogin by Arun Deva
Heart
of Kirtan
Health Benefits of the Natural Squatting Posture by
Jonathan Isbit
Yoga eCOMMERCE and eVENTS
Excerpt from “The
Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran
“Then said a teacher, ‘Speak
to us of teaching’.
And he said: ‘No man can
reveal to you aught but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of
your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the
shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather
of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does
not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold
of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to
you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you
the rhythm, which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests
the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the
science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot
conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man
lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you
stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his
knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.”
Dear
Lovely Viewers,
I have been blessed to study
with many excellent teachers on my yoga journey. Here, I can pass on some
important tips to remember while you study with your yoga teacher.
In my humble opinion, an
excellent yoga teacher is a kind, gentle being who respects your boundaries and
acts compassionately. Clear boundaries are essential for the pure teachings of
yoga to be passed on in a teacher/student relationship.
An excellent yoga teacher
facilitates a safe and sacred space for you regardless of where the teaching
takes place (a gym, a private home full of houseguests, a yoga studio or even a
park). The key is to be in the present, the here and now. That is what creates
sacred space enabling the teacher and you to journey inward and explore the
many levels of being.
An excellent yoga teacher
models the teachings of yoga to everyone, with a variety of shapes and sizes.
The excellent teacher allows you to be who you are regardless of your strengths
and your limitations. Thus the practice of yoga continues. Always identify your
intention, communicate truthfully to yourself as well as to your teacher and
trust your common sense during your yoga practice.
Don Juan, in his teachings
to Carlos Castaneda sums it up quite eloquently.
“Look at every path closely
and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask
yourself and yourself alone one question. This question is one that only a very
old man says. My benefactor told me about it when I was young and my blood was
too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it. I will tell you
what it is. ‘Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good. If it
doesn’t it is of no use.” Excerpt from “A Path With Heart” written by
Jack Kornfield
Of course, if none of the
suggestions above work, you can always ask trusted friends about their yoga
teacher. I always find “word of mouth” works well. Another way to locate a yoga
teacher is to search on-line Yoga Teacher Directories. Some listings even have
eMail addresses directly to the yoga teacher. Let them know of your yoga needs
to assist selecting the correct match for you.
Lastly, try not to take any yoga
class too seriously! We are all fools when we do yoga, silly postures where you
sometimes even fall down, pass gas, or snore in savasana. Have fun, laugh and
enjoy! In this way, regardless of where
you practice or with whom you study with, you will always return back to an
open heart … and after all, isn’t that why we practice yoga in the first place?
Namaste,
Megan
Ps. Thank you for your
continuing support of the Living Practice and Yogaeverywhere.com. Without your
generous submissions of articles and yoga related website information this
ePublication we would not be receiving so many “keep up the good work” eMails.
Please continue to submit your articles, events and comments and we promise to
get the work out every month. Yoga is everywhere! Much love and joy to you,
your families and friends, Megan, Gary and Rose.
Turning Off Auto-Pilot by Jillian Pransky
Lately, I have been
experimenting with a new way of breathing in a vinyasa flow. It goes like this;
instead of synchronizing the breath exactly with the movement, wait one or two
seconds for the breath to start and THEN initiate the movement. The 'waiting'
becomes a mindful pause, and sharpens my alertness
throughout the vinyasa flow making it effortless to stay present. This is
especially helpful when you do
things so repetitively it becomes hard to make them feel new.
Try it yourself: Use a
simple flow like Cat. Get down on all fours in cat pose, pause for a moment and
feel
the ground under your hands and knees. Inhale, allow a second or two of breath
to inflate you, then arch
and look up. Exhale; let a second(s) of breath flow out, then round your back
to the sky. Stay rounding
as you allow for the inhale to start, waiting for a second(s) before you flow
back into the arch.
Continue like this for 10-20 breaths. Feel what you are doing. Experiment with
this technique in the sun
solutes or a jump series.
Jillian Pransky is a Senior
Yoga Zone teacher in New York City, Director of the North Hudson YMCA, Yoga
Program in Hoboken, New Jersey and on the faculty at the New School University.
In addition to instructing Yoga, Jillian write articles on yoga, which have
been printed in Simplicity Magazine, Vivianlives.com, and various newsletters.
She runs Yoga Tropical Vacations and retreats, which includes an annual trip to
Mexico in March. Please visit her at www.YOGAJILLIAN.COM
and check out her free eNewsletter on yoga!
Website
Review by Dr. KEV
www.yogaclass.com
For those of you who think
the web is a medium for education rather than
mere self-promotion, I'm happy to share with you my latest online
multimedia yoga instruction website discovery:
yogabasics.com
New News and Reviews
Check out Yogaeverywhere’s
friend Paul JJ Alix, a Sanskrit scholar and founder of YOGA for ALL, who translated
and chanted an On-line Yoga Sutra course offered by the Yogasite. Please join
this forum as often and whenever you like. Discussions may be offered by you
and will be posted on site without your name.
The entire Book II will be
covered section by section. There is an online tutorial offering the entire
chapter chanted without break and each Sutra is chanted broken down for
learning purposes in 3 speeds. There is no cost for joining this forum www.yogasite.com/Sutras/sutrasII-Intro.htm
Interesting site on the Bhagavad
Gita, FAQ style. If you have a time and a twinkle of curiosity please visit.
Older students, it’s a must!
www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5294/faq.html
- Q8
Two Yoginis and A Yogin by Arun Deva
About two years ago, I
started teaching a small class out of the recreation room in my building to a
few friends and work colleagues. It was a great place for me to practice and
refine my teaching skills and pass on something I love to people who may never
have experienced the joy of yoga otherwise. Friends came and went. For some it
was back to the gym. To others it was a great launching pad to their own
practice. One left because she was pregnant but went and took prenatal yoga!
The class was simple. It was
an introduction to Yoga. We did a lot of focusing on the breath and learning
how to move cautiously into the sun salutations. A gentle approach to the
postures was how I wanted to proceed. Some days I had 8 students and once just
one. We experimented a lot and the class began to change and grow.
Andrea and Robin began to
show up about a year and a half ago. After the first class they told me they
loved it and my style of teaching and were going to continue to come. This placed
a tremendous burden on me. So far this class had been casual with no investment
on my part other than imparting my love of yoga to others. Now I had two
students who wanted to learn yoga from me in depth and they wanted to do it in this class. It was time to see where
this was going because obviously the class was becoming something else. About
the same time, Brett, who lived in my building and looked like a body builder,
asked if he could join in. He had specific goals. He found that his flexibility
was inhibited and he wanted to change that. He was a marathon biker and felt
yoga would help him with that too. I told him he was right and that meant I had
just accepted another challenge to change the nature of my ”safe and fun”
class.
It has been a year and a
half since they began coming to me. We have been through many changes together.
From being a serious practitioner, I first learned to become a yoga therapist.
Then, on the advice of my teachers, I became a serious Yoga teacher. What that means is that I have taken on the
responsibility of teaching strangers in strange settings. I keep talking about
the responsibility of it because that is how I feel every yoga teacher should
approach his or her job. It is an ancient art that has many layers and many
hidden and not so hidden goals. It is as hard to describe, as is any individual
human being. Its layers are of every fiber and some of these fibers we do not
understand. If we teach from an honest and trusting place, a place of “shraddha”, we pass on a legacy that has
served some of the greatest human beings we know of, from the Buddha to Mahatma
Gandhi.
Andrea, Robin and Brett have
changed the nature of my teaching, and in the process they have changed
themselves into two yoginis and a yogin. The class has now become theirs and
they are moving deeper into the poses. Robin’s backbends are deeper than many
teachers and much deeper than mine and Andrea’s Virabhadrasana 2 is close to
perfection. Brett’s body is still that of a body builder, except now he looks
like a bodybuilder who can move in his body! His biking is more joyous as his
breath has expanded his lungs. His hamstrings no longer scream at him. But most
important of all, his bent back has begun to unfurl!
Every Sunday morning when I
see their still and composed faces in class, I am in awe of the power of yoga.
I thank them for letting me grow as a teacher but most of all for reminding me
that the teacher is never more than the wealth of his teachings.
Arun is a yoga therapist and teacher specializing in Ayur*yoga. Originally from India, he makes his home in Los Angeles. He can be reached at arundeva@juno.com
Heart
of Kirtan
Sign up for this weekly newsletter to get listings of Kirtan's and Satsangs in
the Tri-State area.
Send an E-mail to heartofkirtan@yahoo.com
Health Benefits of
the Natural Squatting Posture by Jonathan Isbit
Most of the world would
laugh if you told them that squatting was a part of Yoga. For two-thirds of
humanity, squatting is just a normal part of life - like walking or breathing.
Infants of every culture instinctively adopt this posture to answer the call of
nature. When they are trained to use the sitting position it's a confusing and stressful
experience. They know intuitively that they are being forced to do something
unnatural.
Students of Yoga who return
to squatting often describe it as "blissful." Besides the purely
physical benefits, it allows us to transcend the boundaries of social
conventions and embrace our most primordial instincts. Doing something so
obviously right, in spite of society's training to the contrary teaches us that
the Self is the only reliable source of knowledge. It gives us a tiny glimpse
of Self-realization. Not bad for such a humble aspect of life.
The chair-like toilet first
became popular in Western Europe less than two centuries ago, at the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution, when man's dominance over nature was the order of
the day. The sitting posture seemed more dignified -- more suited to
aristocrats than the method used by the natives in the colonies.
Today, many health
practitioners blame this deviation from squatting, the body's natural mode of
functioning, for the high incidence of several common disorders. Compared to
parts of the world where squatting is used, people from westernized nations
have higher rates of constipation, hernias, hemorrhoids, and twisted colons.
The authentic squatting
position, used throughout the world, puts the body's full weight on the feet.
There is only one device on the market, which allows one to squat safely and
comfortably on an ordinary toilet. Called "Nature's Platform" it can
be used even by people who never thought they were capable of squatting.
Jonathan Isbit has been
doing TM and Yoga for the past 31 years. He lives in Boone, North Carolina, and
is the inventor of Nature's Platform, which can be seen in its full glory at naturesplatform.com/