Anusara Teacher Katie Lane

I’m delighted to introduce our first Christchurch yogi, and our first Anusara teacher.

Anusara means “flowing with Grace,” “flowing with Nature,” and “following your heart”, and it was founded by John Friend in 1997.

It’s a style of hatha yoga with an uplifting philosophy, epitomized by a “celebration of the heart,” that looks for the good in all people and all things. That goodness and that delight shines forth clearly in Katie’s answer to the questions below.

She may be based on Christchurch, but Katie travels to deliver workshops, and will be in Wellington in May, and Dunedin later on.

1. What style of yoga do you practice and where do you teach?

I practice and teach Anusara Yoga in Christchurch.

Anusara is a style of hatha yoga founded by John Friend that weaves together universal principles of alignment with an empowering Tantric philosophy. We begin with the premise that life is good and see our yoga practice as a means to playfully remember and celebrate this goodness in everything that we do.

Postures are expressed from the “inside out” using our asana to craft an artistic expression of the heart!

2. How did you come to yoga?

Just in time! At a place in my life of extreme self-denial and dis-empowerment.

Facing challenging circumstances, I had built a wall between my body and spirit and this dis-integration played out in so many ways. I felt profoundly separate from family and friends, unable to articulate my emotions or clearly express my thoughts and feelings, and unconsciously refused to nourish myself on every level – physically, mentally, emotionally.

In short, I was rather a mess and I wasn’t even aware of it..! Yoga gave me the space to see myself clearly. Then I faced the choice to either ignore my new awareness or make real changes. Thankfully, I chose the latter. Once you know, you can un-know…

3. When did the yoga bug really get you?

My very first class.

I found the postures bizarre and the instructions insane (you want to me to put my inner thighs where?). My arms were shaking like leaves and I could barely find my breath. Lying on the floor in relaxation, it seemed that my mind would do everything but surrender to the moment… Yet at the end of my class, I walked out the door, looked up, and saw the night sky as if for the very first time. I could feel every part of my body and soul vibrantly alive. My cells were singing!

I began going to two classes a week, then three…

4. How has yoga transformed your life?

Yoga first healed my body.

I came to the practice with chronic back and neck pain (old figure skating and whiplash injuries) and when I learned Anusara’s alignment principles, my pain completely disappeared. Quickly! I began to taste an amazing freedom in my body and the healing of my body facilitated a healing of my heart. I discovered that pain, fragility, and fear were no longer the ground of my being. My life choices shifted and I moved forward from a stronger and more spacious place inside.

I see a lot more beauty these days and I look for and find it in my everyday, ordinary experiences. Yoga helps me stay open to all of the good things in my life, even when challenges arise. The more I experience the goodness of my life, the more gratitude I feel in each moment.

5. What is your home practice like?

Playful, nurturing, forgiving, appropriate yet adventurous!

When I first began yoga practice, I believed I wasn’t doing it well unless I was always working hard and pushing my limits. As a self-admitted perfectionist, ambition and achievement found a way to creep onto my mat. While my physical body was challenged, this way of practicing didn’t make me happy.

My teacher always encourages us to test the efficacy of our practice by looking at our life: Am I happy? Are my relationships thriving? Do I feel connected to my heart? If the answer to these questions is NO, then something needs to change. Not only did I soften my practice but I softened my attitude to my life.

I start each day with 20 minutes of meditation and I usually do a 1- 2 hour asana practice late morning or early afternoon, 5 or 6 days a week. I practice what I need, what I love, and what challenges me. I aim to keep these three things balanced!

My partner once reminded me – I don’t live my life to practice yoga. I practice yoga to more skillfully and happily LIVE my life. I try and remember this everyday.

6. When people ask you, “What is Yoga?”, what do you say?

Yoga is a practice of actively creating union, connection, community, radical wholeness. Through the practice we become aware of our many “parts” and then learn to draw our parts together into one radiant whole. When we are able to recognize that this wholeness is who we are at our essence then we are better able to engage our lives fully, fearlessly, and joyfully.

7. What can people expect from one of your classes?

In my classes, you will fully and creatively engage your body – in participation with your breath – in the service of a powerful heart centered intention. You will stretch, maybe sweat, most definitely laugh, perhaps find challenges…But every time you will leave feeling supported and encouraged by an amazing community.

To me, the cultivation of kula ~ community of the heart ~ is an essential part of the practice.

8. What do you love most about teaching yoga?

The fantastic people I meet everyday and the building of relationships that last years, perhaps lifetimes!

Everyday I get to share what I believe and love about this life through the language of yoga. There is no greater freedom, joy, responsibility, or gift. I am allowed to be exactly who I am and when I’m not afraid to share myself authentically and fully, I am best able to help others recognize their own worthiness and see their highest potential. It’s a blessing!
9. What do you wish everybody knew about yoga?<

Yoga is for everybody. Being flexible or strong is not a prerequisite. Just a happy consequence of the practice!

Yoga is not just a practice that you DO but it is an expression of who you ARE. Delight in the practice itself rather than what you think the practice is meant to give or do to you. Every posture and every breath is an opportunity to create something beautiful from your immediate experience.

10. What role do you see yoga playing in our world?

Yoga transforms the world one person at a time. It compels positive change and it starts with small things…

I don’t have to tell people that come to class that they should stop smoking, get out of a bad relationship, or drop habitual negativity. If they stay with the practice, the things that don’t affirm life simply start to drop away.

Most of the yoga we do these days is a physical practice done on a mat. This is where most of us start. As our practice deepens, what truly transforms is a cultivated perspective or state of heart. It’s the willingness to keep seeing and embracing all aspects of yourself- good, bad, beautiful, ugly, easy, challenging – with sensitivity, awareness, and love.

When you begin to look at and know yourself in this way, you start to see this same beauty, divinity, and perfection in others. Our capacity for loving unconditionally expands. When we recognize that we are all held together in relationship with each other and with this Earth, our beliefs, our choices, and our actions reflect this.

11. Anything else you’d like to say?

Anusara Yoga is relatively new to New Zealand. I’m thrilled to have introduced it here and excited to keep sharing what I know and love about this practice. If you have any questions or want more info, feel free to write or ring anytime!

On May 14th-16th, I’ll be co-teaching a weekend workshop in Wellington with a fabulous Anusara teacher from Australia. Contact Yoga Unlimited for more details.

12. And finally, how do people find you?

You can find my classes and workshop schedule posted on my website, Yoga Kula NZ.

I’m based in Christchurch but offer workshops and intensives around NZ.

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Insight Dialogue teacher Gregory Kramer

New Zealand is blessed next month with the arrival of Gregory Kramer, an American practitioner and teacher of Insight Meditation.

Gregory is also the co-founder and director of the Metta Foundation, Portland, Oregon, a center of Buddhist practice in the Insight Meditation tradition. He has developed a practice that takes meditation off the mat and into interpersonal relationships, as outlined in his book Insight Dialogue.

One review of this work from Joseph Goldstein, author of Insight Meditation and One Dharma states:

In this pioneering work, Gregory Kramer breaks new ground in applying the Buddha’s teachings to our lives, relationships, and meditative understandings. This book will be of tremendous benefit to all those seeking freedom in their daily lives.

Gregory teaches Insight Dialogue at retreats and workshops extensively throughout North America, Australia, and Europe. The Yoga Lunchbox recently caught up with Gregory to find out more about Insight Dialogue.

You teach a practice called Insight Dialogue, what is this?

Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice. It is based upon traditional Buddhist insight meditation, and involves cultivating the same qualities of mindfulness and calm concentration.

These qualities are cultivated while in relationship, while speaking and listening with one or more people, and as such, the keen and settled mind can gain insight into the nature of suffering and ease, identification and freedom.

The topics of the dialogues are intended to invite the meditators into direct experiences of impermanence and selflessness, love and compassion, the suffering that comes with clinging and the release that comes with letting go.
The wisdom of selflessness and the compassion of the shared human experience become immediately present. The integration with our lives is revealing, challenging, and liberating.

How did you develop this process?

The practice began with a colleague, Terri O’Fallon, when we were exploring online dialogue practices together in the early 1990s. I subsequently developed it as a weekly group practice and then a retreat practice. Over the last fifteen years, this retreat practice has been maturing and gaining depth. It continues to surprise me with insights and enigmas, and has shed light on the Buddha’s teachings. I now see how profoundly relational they were, which has been nearly completely overlooked in modern Buddhism of all schools.

How did you personally make the leap from meditation on the mat to applying meditative process to relationships?

Like everyone, I sought greater integration of deep meditative experiences into my life as a householder. I am a father with three sons (now grown) and know how easy it is to get lost in the constructing mind and frantic heart. The leap came about from my early work with Terri. It has been the long hard work of methodical development and rigorous integrity to the Dhamma that has been the real challenge.

Also, I have to say, it is sometimes a bit challenging to be out on the frontier of Buddhist developments. People who have not experienced Insight Dialogue cannot quite understand how this can be such a rigorous and profound practice, nor how deeply rooted it is in the early Buddhist teachings. So the leap is one thing; the consistency and dedication to development is another. The latter has been more difficult.

Do you think that spiritual practices tend to ignore ‘real life’ – life off the mat or the cushion, or beyond the retreat?

To some extent, yes. I also believe, however, that most teachers recognize and try to address this problem. The gap is not in the desire, but in the method. Relationships have been nearly completely separated from deep meditative practice. As a result, insight has been confined to intra-personal practice. So there is always a gap between deep practice and relationship. So the problem comes up of non-integrated practice because we spend nearly all of our lives in relationship, and we are essentially relational beings, social animals. That is a huge gap, isn’t it?

You use a six part process that sounds deceptively simple:(1) pause, (2) relax, (3) open, (4) trust emergence, (5) listen deeply, and (6) speak the truth. Isn’t this just the way we’re meant to relate anyway?

Sure. But aren’t we also “meant” to be loving, aware, generous, and compassionate?

What you say is useful: we are tapping into something native, something basic to the human experience. But like so many qualities natural to our intelligence, we have lost contact with the mindfulness of the Pause, the ease of Relax, the mutuality of Open, the flexibility and mystery of Trust Emergence, the receptivity and compassion of Listen Deeply, and the courage and deep presence of Speak the Truth.

Put another way, we NEED practice.

Insight Dialogue retreats provide a clear and deep practice opportunity, together with the support of a teacher, meals, time away from everyday demands. So under extraordinary circumstances, we can do extraordinary work. This is precisely what we bring home to continue with our loved ones and work mates. This can gradually become natural…. again.

Why do you think it’s so tough for people to relate like this?

Well, consider the pain and confusion in your own life. Do you long to be seen and appreciated? Do you have some fear about being exposed or hurt? Are there tangles in your heart? Welcome to the human race!

Just as the Buddha’s teaches about our craving for sensual pleasure, we also crave relational pleasures. We crave existence, including relational existence, which is being seen socially. But life is complex. We poke our heads out; we get hurt. We reach out to others and sometimes we are grasped and sometimes we do the grasping. It all hurts. This wanting, this fearing, it’s not petty psychological issues. Everyday, the heart feels this as life and death. Our brains are wired that way.

So we construct personality traits that help keep us safe, that help us get “fed” by others, and this craving, this hunger, drives us through life.

This is not just people who are seriously dislocated; this is all of us, except perhaps the enlightened ones among us (and some would argue even this point). Hunger, craving, is part of being born into a body, part of being born into a social frame.

We can’t get what we want? We hurt.

We lose what we have? We hurt.

Wherever there is clinging, there is pain.

But we don’t know this. Doesn’t all this wanting seem natural to you? Maybe even good, fun, the stuff of real life? Well, that is a root delusion the Buddha teaches us about.

Do we need to remain stuck in this “normal suffering”? So that’s where it comes from.

Maybe we need to ask, “Where is it going? Can it change?”

I’d say, “Yes.”

You talk about interpersonal suffering – what is this?

Everything I said above is a pointer to the causes of interpersonal suffering, which is hunger, craving. The suffering itself has a thousand names.

Loneliness, fear, envy, jealousy, anger, hatred, social anxiety… the list goes on. Read any novel, any history: this is what it is about.

Look at the one-on-one interpersonal level next time you’re with someone. Do you want to be heard? Are you? When you visit a family member, are there old hurts still chiming up in the heart? Can you spell “d-i-v-o-r-c-e”? Interpersonal suffering is all around us.

And it gets more subtle than this, when we look at how the self, the “I” is built moment by moment. Here is the root cause of suffering: creating the self, believing in “me” and trying to fill the hole of all my wants. Moment by moment we sustain this world built up of a lifetime (or more than one) of patterns of ignorance. Can we see through this to something more beautiful? Is there a possibility of something we might call freedom?

When, in a moment, the mind is still, and that mind, that heart, is present with another,and both minds are resting in spaciousness,open, luminousan echo of the freedom that has never left us might be heard.

See what I mean?

Finally, something on a larger scale – what do you see when you look at the world?

I’ve been speaking about the interpersonal, one-on-one, or oneself with small groups. The aggregate of this craving can be seen throughout our culture.

What drives the incredible explosion of communication technologies, bandwidth consumption from text messages, to chat, to facebook or myspace, twitter, blogs, mobile and land line phones, and so on?

It is the immense web of both hunger–the social urge, and compassion–giving to each other the temporary food to fill the hole.  It is directly related to immersion in television, alcohol consumption, overwork. it is directly related to corporations and governments out of control. It is human beings that drive these institutions. It is our hungers as individuals that drive the pressure of our commercial and national appetites. So this is where the work has to begin: in our own hearts.

But it does not stop there. This is not about self-satisfaction. The Buddha spoke of effacement, not attaining selfish bliss.

The diminishing of social dysfunction must occur at the level of personal and interpersonal effacement.

The brilliance of lovingkindness must replace the oppression of our profound hungers and the patterns they have built in our hearts. There is great joy in this. It is a turning towards our brilliance. It is an awakening of the heart of compassion that is latent in each of us.

But it won’t happen without intelligence, without profound Right View. it won’t happen without work. Fortunately, when we meditate together, this work unfolds with our own highest aspirations AND the irreplaceable power of each other’s opening heart.

Gregory will lead two retreats and deliver two free talks on Insight Dialogue during his time in New Zealand. He will be assisted on the retreats by Mary Burns, a psychotherapist and meditation teacher who has been studying with Gregory since 2004.

Auckland, free talk and experience of Insight Dialogue
31 March 2010, 7 – 9 pm
Mt Albert War Memorial Hall, corner New North Rd and
Wairere ave. (Bring sitting cushion/mat. Chairs provided)

Bella Rakha, Oratia, 5 day retreat
1 – 5 April (Easter plus day before)
$320, plus teacher Dana
Contact Viv: lesserart@gmail.com

Wellington, free talk and experience of Insight Dialogue
8 April 2010, 7 – 9pm
The Home of Compassion, Rhine St, Island Bay

Riverslea, Otaki, 3 day retreat
9 –11 April
$ 195 plus teacher Dana
Contact Caz: caz@buzz.net.nz ph 04 389 4831

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Melissa Billington teaching yoga

It’s one of the most popular questions that I get through this website, via the facebook page, and in Google searches. People want to know how to become a yoga teacher and they want to know about teaching yoga as a career.

I took a stab at answering this in my first post How do I go about becoming a yoga teacher?, but the questions kept coming, so I thought it would be wise to open it up to the wider yoga community.

Here’s the first in a series of responses on what it takes to be a yoga teacher from a variety of yoga teachers.

Taisuke

From Taisuke Tanimura:

personally, i feel that having a daily practice should be the first thing.

a practice doesn’t necessarily have to involve asana – it could be ten minutes of meditation upon waking, pranayama on the bus to work or working with a mantra before you fall asleep.

just a conscious effort to practice daily. this sadhana is your own, walk down your spiritual path. although everyone walks their own path, i like to think that all of our paths are headed in the same general direction.

for me, a yoga teacher is someone who can aid you on the journey – they may have taken the same dead-end, the same detour, or know how to get to the highway. having a daily practice keeps you searching along the path which deepens your ability to understand what others might be going through.

Wellington Yoga Teacher Roger Livingstone

From Roger Livingstone:

Regarding teaching, I see three levels:

Instructor

Instructor (or tutor) is someone who is trained to deliver a certain teaching in a specific way. The instructor adheres to a doctrine of correct/incorrect.

The instruction is full of do’s and don’ts (Do straighten the leg/ don’t hold the breath).

These admonitions are purely physical directives. At this level, yoga is exclusively of the body, and there is no distinction between yoga and exercise.

Instructors are basically exercise leaders who perhaps sense the possibility of spirituality (or maybe it’s just endorphins).

Explicit speech about Spirit is taboo at this level – it might turn people off.

The relationship between instructor and student begins when the class begins and terminates at the end of each class.

The instructor accepts responsibility for the quality of their instruction, but has no sense of responsibility for what the student does with that instruction. So if someone gets injured, but the instruction was ‘correct’, the instructor may just shrug. Instruction thrives in large groups.

I worked for a few years in gyms. Appropriately, the payslip identified me as an ‘instructor’.

Instruction is common, and it meets an important need in society for high-quality exercise. And that’s how most of us get started, and get paid.

Teacher

The teacher is broader in scope, and has more flexibility in the role. The class planning may be theme-based, and they are aspiring to real yoga/spirituality. They have at least begun to separate yoga from exercise, and see as an impediment a student’s narrow focus on asana performance.

They realise there is no ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ way to proceed. They realise that a class can’t be taught yoga – but an individual can learn.

Therefore the individual relationship becomes more important than relating to the group. They realise that 90% of it is up to the student.

They prefer students who are real and passionate about yoga. Teaching yoga thrives in small groups or as private teaching.

A teacher responds spontaneously to the student, trusting their experience and intuition- while an instructor imposes learned forms.

The relationship begins when the student accepts the teacher as their own, and continues until the student (or, more rarely, the teacher) decides to terminate. The teacher accepts more responsibility, in a variety of obvious and subtle ways.  The teacher is a bona-fide yogi, and will remain so permanently.

Teaching is rare, it’s sweet and subtle.

Guru

And then is the Guru….which is beyond this subject, and this writer.

Wellington Yoga Teacher Bruce Foley

From Bruce Foley:

The “how” is not the first question to ask.  First we need to know the “why”.

If the answer is because you love doing Yoga and therefore you would like to make it your job, then that’s great but you need to realise the vision may not match the reality.

Turning your passion into a career could have a negative impact on your practice of Yoga.  The “practice” of Yoga and the “business” of Yoga are two different things.  There is a very real danger that becoming a teacher; earning a living out of it, could well separate you from the very thing that made you want to be a teacher in the first place.

So the question is what is motivating you to become a teacher?  If it feels like a true calling, then the “How” doesn’t matter very much because you will find a way to get there no matter what.

But to answer the “how”, doing teacher training (of some description) is an important prerequisite but it is not even close to the most important thing.

There are “instructors” and there are “teachers”.  An instructor may have attendened teacher training, but they externalised the experience and their approach is dogmatic.  eg:

My teacher training told me this was the right way to teach a class and if I do exactly as I was shown then I am doing it right.

A teacher, on the other hand learns the rule-book and then throws it away.  This does not mean they forget and dishonour everything they learnt.  All it means is that they are now guided internally.  They have learnt to trust their own inate wisdom, because they are connected to it.

So this comes to the last question which actually needs to be asked first:

Are you ready?

Yoga is about knowing yourself.  You can learn everything about what makes a good teacher but until you know yourself, you will only ever be an instructor; you will never be able to make the leap to teacher.

Knowing yourself is in my view the core of Yoga.  Other teachers and books may help to guide you in this, but only you can make the discovery.  It has to be unfettered by external morality and judgements.

If you already have an expectation of what you will find before you have found it, you will never get to the truth.

I believe this:  The more you know yourself; the more at peace you will be.  The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand others.  This in turn will make you a better teacher, but more importantly, it will make you a better person.

Seka Ojdrovic

From Seka Ojdrovic-Phillips, Wellington a yoga teacher and writer. Find her writing here:

My personality dictates that I don’t do anything halfway – it’s all or nothing. When I got the yoga bug, I made it my mission to perfect (yes perfect – I’ve since come further in my journey) the poses.

Anyone who has practiced yoga for long enough knows that the poses are only a small part of the overall journey. I wasn’t interested in becoming a yoga teacher at first, but I was interested in the teaching of yoga. I attended workshops and teacher training to enhance my own practice, without thought to becoming a teacher.

I eventually became a yoga teacher because I wanted to make a tangible difference in the world. I had become disillusioned and needed to see that I was helping people. Contrary to what brought me to yoga in the first place, it had nothing to do with asana (the physical practice). I had a steady practice as my foundation going into it, so I wasn’t worried about the asana aspect. Now my role as a yoga teacher is to live an honest life; to follow Ghandi’s words and be the change I want to see in the world.

My advice to someone considering teaching yoga is to look beyond the asana. Safe alignment and learning to adjust/enhance students’ poses can be taught in a teacher training. A genuine commitment to a healthy and whole life can only happen within.

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Bay of Plenty Yoga Teacher Radhe

It’s my pleasure to introduce another Satyananda yogi from around the country. Like many of the Satyananda yogis, Radhe has a long history of yoga, first coming into contact with it in the 1970s.

She’s going to be at the up-coming free yoga day in Hamilton sharing her many years of yoga experience. Radhe is also an admin on The Yoga Lunchbox Facebook page, letting us know what’s going on in yoga for the Bay of Plenty area.

Congratulations to Shannon Patinkin, winner of the February subscriber competition. A copy of Tyag’s Yoga Nidra CD is winging it’s way to you!

1. What style of yoga do you practice and where do you teach?

Satyananda-style in the Bay of Plenty, NZ – Rotorua,  Murupara and Ruatahuna. I also travel to do workshops occasionally, e.g. to the Waikato to Hamilton to teach prenatal yoga with Shraddha Yogic Lifestyle Trust.

2. How did you come to yoga?

My mother-in-law (to be) did yoga with Eileen Whitehead (an original IYTA member) at Epsom Teachers’ College in Auckland in the 1970′, so I attended a class or two with her, and I think I also had an LP record with a class of Eileen’s on each side of it!

3. When did the yoga bug really get you?

When I went to a course in the early 1980s at Aio-Wira in the Waitakeres run by Swami Shantimurti Saraswati, who was then running the Sataynanda Ashram in New Zealand as a branch of the Australian Satyananda Ashram.

4. How has yoga transformed your life?

It has brought enthusiasm, balance and harmony and been my path in life, e.g. I was teaching around 12 classes a week plus weekend workshops in Auckland in the 1990s.

5. What is your home practice like?

I do a very simple practice these days of a combination of asana, pranayama, yoga nidra and meditation.

6. When people ask you, ‘What is Yoga?’, what do you say?
It is often described as union (body and mind; body and spirit) but I see it as both a science for developing good health of the whole person, and expanding consciousness by increasing the level of awareness and detachment through progressive internalisation, selflessness and one-pointedness.

This occurs wehether or not one only practices asana (postures) with awareness or includes other yoga practices as well.

7. What can people expect from one of your classes?

To be stretched, toned and relaxed, including learning simple flexibility exercises (pawanamuktasana) as well as through use of a variety of asana based on more classical postures; there is always some breathing technique/s and relaxation or meditation to finish.

8.  What do you love most about teaching yoga?

Seeing people grow and realising that everyone can benefit from yoga.

9. What do you wish everybody knew about yoga?

That it is scientific and not a religion, and that anyone can start to practice at any stage of life and in any state of health (e.g. yoga nidra can be practice by the ill and/or  bedridden).

10.  What role do you see yoga playing in our world?

Making it a better place to live in, with more spiritually connected souls accepting that they can make a difference and both outwardly and inwardly working together to ensure this.

11.  Anything else you’d like to say?

I can be reached through e-mail on radhe@clear.net.nz and mobile 021 139 4369 or 027 392 8220

When my webpage is working (!) the address is www.yoga-anandaradha.co.nz

My Facebook name is Anandaradha Radhe (this is because I couldn’t register with ‘Radhe’ in as both the first and last name, and Ananadaradha is my initiate name, given to me by Swami Satyananda when I became a karma sannyasin in 1984).

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Swami Muktimurti

There is a rich Satyananda Yoga tradition in New Zealand, which means we are fortunate to often play host to traveling Satyananda Swamis from around the world.

Next month (March 2010), Anahata Retreat just outside of Nelson is hosting Swami Muktimurti from Mangrove Mountain near Mountain. An expert in Mantra and ancient Sanskrit, she is hosting a nine day/ten night retreat focused on Nada Yoga, or the yoga of sound.

Swami Muktimurti  is well known for her singing.

She has pursued a deep interest in music for the past 30 years, incorporating her background in devotional singing (kirtan, bhajan and stotram), mantra, classical North Indian music and her love of music and chanting in general into an experiential perspective on the practices of Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound.

You’ve been living in Satyananda Yoga ashrams in both Australia and India since the 1970s, how do you end up there?

I had the good fortune to start learning yoga at school. When I was in high school, we were permitted to choose from a variety of different “sports” for our weekly sports day, and one of the options was yoga. So I gave it a try, and liked it very much. Eventually our yoga teacher went to live in India, so I started visiting the ashram at Mangrove Mountain, which was not that far from my home in Australia.

When I finished school, I went to live there permanently, which was in 1978. In the mid-’90s, I had the opportunity to visit our ‘parent’ ashram in India, and in 1996 was transferred there full-time for a period of 10 years. In 2006 I was transferred back to Australia again.

Many people won’t know there is such a thing as the yoga of sound, can you tell us something about Nada Yoga and it’s appeal to you?

Nada yogis consider the entire universe to be made up of vibration – particles vibrating at different frequencies, from the most gross, i.e. physical matter, to the most subtle, i.e. thought and feeling etc.

Only a fairly narrow field of that vibration falls in the auditory range of the human ear – perceptible sound – but that is a starting point for us to use the medium of sound to focus and gradually refine our awareness, with the aim of eventually being able to discern the more subtle levels of vibration.

The field of Nada Yoga can get quite esoteric, and I am only a beginner who cannot say much about the less obvious aspects, but on its simplest level, the Nada Yoga practices are basic meditation techniques. I have always loved to sing and to chant, and to use my voice as a tool for meditation, hence the attraction to me of Nada Yoga practices.

The retreat you’re leading at Anahata is a 9 day Mantra and Transformation retreat – can mantra really transform us?

In our tradition we are taught that the sole purpose of Mantra practice is to transform the consciousness; that is why we do it.

It has been expressed that Mantra “irons out the wrinkles in the personality”. I think it takes some considerable time for most of us to become “wrinkle-free”, but when one practices mantra regularly, it certainly does become noticeable that there is a greater level of mental and emotional equanimity when dealing with the ups and downs of daily life.

Generally one does need a period of repetition to become aware of the effects. Just as physical stretching increases one’s bodily flexibility, and using the voice similarly increases one’s vocal flexibility and accuracy, in a similar way, mantra practice increases one’s mental flexibility and stability.

How has the practice of Nada Yoga transformed you?

It is always difficult to talk about changes to one’s own self, but I can say that doing any of these Nada Yoga practices definitely makes me feel better in myself. If I am experiencing stress or a lowness of spirits, and I do some chanting or singing, the stress goes down and the spirits go up!

The retreat is being held during Navarati, what is this and what significance does it have?

In the modern era, Navaratri is observed twice in each year; once during the month of Chaitra (March/April in our calendar), and again in the month of Ashwin (September/October).

In India, these months are at a time of changing seasons, and it is a time set aside in the Indian calendar for practicing sadhana, which means a set period of intensified yoga practices, and traditionally the main part of that sadhana involves chanting the different names and qualities ascribed to Devi, the Divine Mother, and also Rama.

For Hindus, this is also a religious festival, but from the yogic perspective, any deities involved in the chanting material merely represent positive qualities that are inherent within ourselves that we wish to stimulate or awaken.

So Devi symbolizes those qualities of nature, nurture, protection, and unconditional love, while Rama symbolizes integrity and nobility of spirit. In the mythology, Rama won a great battle against terrible demons with the help of Devi, and yogically, this represents our own private battles with our own inner demons.

Traditionally there is often a degree of mild austerity involved with the sadhana – some people fast, etc, and even the act of sticking to a timetable of intense practices for 9 days can be something of an austerity, which helps to focus our awareness and self-observation on the effects of the practices over that time.

It is not designed as an entertainment, although it can also be very enjoyable – there is an extra potency involved in making a conscious commitment to doing something a little more challenging than usual for that finite period of time.

Some people are still cautious – or even suspicious – of chanting. Even an OM before an asana yoga class can be a big deal for some people. Why is this do you think?

I think that many people in our modern Western society have some strong feelings about what they think to be religious ideology. Sometimes it is a reaction against a person’s own religious upbringing, that they may have rejected; sometimes it can be a fear of having another culture’s religious ideology imposed upon them.

Yoga and Hinduism have come from the same culture, so it is not always easy to separate them in the perception of those who are from outside that culture, but for yogis there is really no conflict between chanting and any other ideology. For example, if I were a Christian yogi, and I chanted mantras specific to Krishna, it would not at all mean that I was betraying my own faith to worship some other God. It would simply mean that I was invoking those qualities symbolized by Krishna (or Siva, or Rama, or Devi, etc), within myself, or perhaps recognizing them as something to aspire towards within my own faith, whether it be a theistic or atheistic one.

In yoga, regardless of anybody’s personal ideology, it is recognized that everybody has something that they feel reverence for, whether in the form of a divine entity, or in the form of nature, or music, or art, or even the realization of human potential. The mantras, describing that which we hold in reverence, give us a vehicle for expressing that feeling.

Do you think more people are beginning to embrace yoga beyond the physical?

Yes, definitely. The physical practices of yoga definitely hold importance, and have been widely accepted by now in many cultures, but they are only a fraction of what can be found in yoga. I find that after some time, many people who practice yoga postures want to delve deeper into other forms of yoga, and our society is much more open to some of these other experiences these days.

Each night of the retreat includes a fire ceremony called Havan, can you tell us something about this?

From the yogic perspective, the time when mankind began to deliberately use fire marked an evolutionary leap forward for our species, and the next evolutionary leap occurred when mankind began to cultivate grain. The fire ceremony, (or havan), which involves the offering of substances including grain, connects us with that aspiration towards continuing evolution, both on an individual level, and also a collective, global level.

You’ve led many retreats over the years, what it’s like for you to be guiding people through a potentially life-changing experience?

I am not what I consider to be an expert, but I have lived long enough in ashrams to have had the opportunity to imbibe some things that I can now share with others. So it is a delight for me to be able to participate in such a process in any way.

How does someone know if they’re ready to come on a retreat like this. Do you have to be ‘ready’?

I think it is a simple matter of feeling drawn to trying out the experience – that is all it takes to be ready.

And if you feel ready to experience this retreat, you can book directly through Anahata Retreat:

• It’s only $650 for 10 nights, including shared accommodation, all meals & programmes.
• There is a $100 non-refundable deposit to secure your place
• Please email yoga@anahata-retreat.org.nz or call 03 5259887

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Dancing can create positive samskaras

I love to dance. Really love to dance. It’s been my passion ever since I was eight years old and first saw Flashdance. There was something about that movie, and the main character that sang to my soul.

Here was a woman who defied the mainstream in all respects – Alex was a welder by day, stripper by night, dancer in her dreams.

She faced down her fears by auditioning for a prestigious dance school, despite being different from all the other dancers. She did it her way, and she soared, quite literally, right through the audition.

I can’t remember if the end of of the movie shows Alex getting in to the school or not – it’s been a long time since I saw this movie and my memory is fuzzy, but I do remember the joy as she dashed out of the room and ran down the street, ecstatic at doing what she’d always dreamed of.

Ever since dancing has always held the magic of the dream within it. Dancing is letting go and opening up and releasing the joy that lies inside all of us at all times.

At least, it is for me. It’s impossible for me to stay sad, or depressed, or fearful when I surrender to the music and to the dance.

There’s a simple reason for this.

Dancing brings me into the present.

I can feel my body, and the body only exists here and now. Not in the past, not in the future.

My passion for dance has it’s very own soundtrack too I adore Madonna.

She’s another strong, fearless woman who defied the mainstream in every which way. A dancer before she became a singer, Madonna has always made great dance music.

Over the years of listening to her dance tracks I have created positive grooves of joy within that serve me well in times of need. I only need throw on Confessions on a Dancefloor and the music shifts my mood effortlessly. No matter how I may feel, no matter what is going on in my life, the dance brings me home.

More and more in my life I’m using this technique to create the place I want to be in. I’m remembering the things that unleash my joy and I’m bringing more of them into my life at every opportunity. I’m noticing when I’ve become trapped in my mind, spinning old patterns of thought and behaviour, and I use this technique to bring me into the present.

This is the positive side of samskara, something we so often only think of as something negative to be released, transcended, or let go of.

Samskaras are part of being human, they start before we are even born, and colour our lives physically, mentally and emotional. They are impressions made on consciousness by past thoughts or actions. These are the patterns of behaviour that make us who we are. Part of the process of yoga is becoming aware of samskaras of our lives – both negative and positive.

Stephen Cope in his book Yoga and the Quest for the True Self has this to say about samskara:

In the yogic view, the energy of trauma, of contraction, of resistance to life, of holding on, is understood to penetrate deeper than the neuromuscular systems… it penetrates into the subtle energy body, the pranamayakosha, where it is finally held… These unconsciously held energy knots are called samskara.

So the impressions of our past thoughts and actions are contained not just in habitual patterns of behaviour, not just in the physical body, but also in the energetic body. This is samskara, and this is what is released and surrendered when we begin to practice yoga, when we bring the penetrating light of awareness and clear sight to our habitual thoughts and behaviour.

For so long I was hell bent on this path -  on healing, on releasing, surrendering and letting ago the negative samskaras I had built up. I was always mindful of what I didn’t want to be anymore, of what I was moving away from. This was all good and well, but it meant I was completely missing the joy of living – the things I did love about me and my life, the things I wanted to experience more, the things that brought me joy.

In my haste to work through samskara I’d forgotten that samskara could be positive too. That certain thoughts and actions could create a posiive response in the neuromuscular system – like flexibility and strength, and in the energetic body.

I’d forgotten the joy in things like blasting Madonna… like dancing… like going to other people’s yoga classes…

All the inner work I’d been doing was illuminating and I was becoming more and more aware of my samskaras – such as my habitual response to emotional pain of running away either mentally, or physically. Intellectually, I was getting it. But samskaras don’t just exist in the mind and they’re not changed via the intellect. We are creatures of the material, manifest world and literally embody our Selves – mentally and emotionally. All the insight in the world wasn’t helping me access joy because I wasn’t moving my body.

And as Stephen says, just moving the body isn’t enough either. We need to access the energetic body. And aside form yoga, what better way than dancing?

So last November, when I began to dance again – in my living room, in my study, in the kitchen, at the beach… something awoke within. My joy for life came back. A joy that I’d first recognised in Alex from Flashdance. I loved that movie and I loved her character because even at eight years old, I saw a part of me that I wanted to claim, that I wanted to bring out. I saw me, in all her glory.

Now, when the negative samskaras arise, no matter how clear my insight into what’s actually going on, I’ve discovered the best way not to go down that tired old road again isn’t to resist it, or push it away, or deny it, or try not to be it. No, the best way is to change direction and go towards the other road – the road of joy and light, to embrace my positive samskaras. So I throw on Madonna, I stand up wherever it is that I am and I let the music take me.

I dance.

And as I dance, I’m reminded of all the other times I’ve danced with joy – in my living room at age eight, in my bedroom as a teenager, in clubs and at dance parties in my twenties, on podiums and stages as a go go dancer, on my yoga mat at prana flow and now… back in my living room again.

As I dance, I shift from a place of contraction, resistance, holding on and I allow life to explode out of me, working deep into my physical body and energetic body.

It is bliss.

It is joy.

It is yoga.

Below… me, six months pregnant, tentatively beginning to feel my way back into the dance.

……………..  ……………

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Free Yoga Day in Hamilton

If you live anywhere near Hamilton, it’s worth planning a trip to the Celebrating Age Centre at 30 Victoria Street on March 13th.

That’s where a wide variety of yoga teachers and organisations are coming together to showcase everything yoga’s got to offer at the Open Yoga Forum.

And best of all, the entire day and all the yoga classes free.

Open Days take some organising, but at the preliminary meeting held last November, there was plenty of enthusiasm and interest from several yoga teachers and organisations in creating a day for the Waikato area.

It’s that spirit of co-operation that best exemplifies what yoga is all about. It doesn’t matter who’s teaching what, there’s an understanding that there is a teacher for every student, and a student for every teacher. Bringing together a variety of teachers and styles in one place helps people find the teacher and style which is right for them.

Styles of yoga represented on the day include: Astanga Yoga, Classical Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, SATYANANDA YOGA^® and Superbrain Yoga^®.

Each style and teacher will give a variety of taster classes throughout the day, one starting on the hour and another at half past every hour while in the hall there will be demonstrations and quick sample classes.

No matter who you are, or what your level of fitness is, there will be something there for you.

The free classes on offer include yoga for children, prenatal yoga, Cocoon yoga (55+), Chair yoga, Salute to the Sun, general yoga classes, beginners classes, teens classes, advanced classes, chanting, meditation and relaxation sessions.

It’s the perfect opportunity to try yoga for the first time, or try a different style or practice of yoga to what you normally do.

There will also be vegetarian food on offer over lunch time.

More than just yoga, the open day will also include practitioners of Ayurveda, Superbrain Yoga (Pranic Healing) and Do-In (Self Shiatsu).

For updates and timetables, please check Hamilton Yoga’s website.

Here’s a rundown on some of the teachers who’ll be at the Free Yoga Open Day:

Astanga Yoga

Katie Pervan teaches Astanga and Hatha yoga in Hamilton East.

Astanga Yoga is a precise sequence of moves performed with a unique breath, strength and focus. Each movement, executed in a body/breath coordination known as Vinyasa, takes the practitioner further and further into a reviving state as the body sweats out toxins. The practice once learned and remembered (as it is performed in a disciplined manner in the same pattern each and every time) is both refreshing and calming. It’s a wonderful opportunity to ‘meditate on the movement’ to surrender oneself to the rhythm and breath of the body. Contact Katie on 021 1207 131 or 07 856 5247

Classical Yoga

At North City Yoga, Kay teaches classical yoga poses. She will instruct you on how to move into the postures with proper alignment & help you to discover your point of balance.  As you practise the poses you will develop poise and grace, painful muscles will relax and feel more comfortable. You will learn to breath correctly and how to relax body and mind. Classes are held Tuesdays & Saturdays.

Contact Kay on 07 849 1627 or Joan on 07 846 6419.

Hatha Yoga

Wendy teaches you how to rejuvenate the body, mind and spirit, through a series of graduated postures, simple breathing exercises and guided relaxation. Classes are non-competitive, relaxed and suitable for beginners as well as the more experienced, and will leave you with a feeling of well-being. Classes are held Tuesday evening and Thursday morning. Phone Wendy on 07 843 5105 for details.

Iyengar Yoga

Corry Regnier’s Iyengar Yoga Centre of Waikato, established since 1996, has studios in Hamilton East and Raglan.

Iyengar Yoga is continually evolving as Mr B K S Iyengar, its founder, still ardently practices and guides his students around the world. Corry has benefited from his expertise with regular visits to the Iyengar Institute in India since 1995.

This dynamic style emphasises precise alignment in Yoga postures, a varied and inspiring range of sequences, and careful introduction of yogic breathing which opens the path to all other facets/limbs of Yoga. Its pioneering use of props, eg blocks, chairs, belts, wall ropes, allows less able students to feel the full benefits of postures. The results: supple toned body, clarity and serenity of mind, increased energy and zest for life! Contact Corry on 856 4932 to find a class to suit your level.

Iyengar Yoga is named after its founder B.K.S. Iyengar. Mr Iyengar continues to teach in Puna, India and is now in his ninetieth year.

This methodology emphasises alignment in the postures, use of props, e.g. blocks, chairs, straps, to support and to facilitate understanding of the Asanas (postures). Poses are often held so that correct understanding and benefits may be achieved. The practice opens and strengthens the body, clarifies the mind and increases vitality whilst calming the nervous system. As the student progresses Pranayama (Yoga breathing techniques) is introduced, bringing poise to the mind and stabilising the emotions.

Iyengar Yoga Centre of Hamilton is a fully equipped dedicated facility, with 21 classes available per week. A broad range of classes are offered from Beginners courses through to Intensive Advanced classes, including Teacher Training. Therapy classes are also offered to provide a supportive environment for those that have illnesses/injuries and specialist needs.

Iyengar Yoga Centre of Hamilton, Cnr Norton and Seddon Road, phone 07 8467600 has four certified teachers Matthew Smart, Jackie Kesby, Beccie Vane and Michelle Brown.

SATYANANDA YOGA^®

This style offers a range of practices starting with postures, breathing practices, relaxation and meditation techniques to chanting sessions, study groups, selfless service and fire ceremonies.

“SATYANANDA YOGA^® is about awareness. Yoga can become an essential part of the daily routine to increase meaning in life and leave the practitioner feeling more fulfilled”, says Samadhimurti from Shraddha – Yogic Lifestyle Education Trust.

“In our teachings and practices we cover the four main categories of yoga: karma, gyana, bhakti and raja yoga, so that every type of personality can benefit and have support on their path of evolution. Mantra and kirtan (chanting) are for the emotional personality, selfless service for those with a restless mind, study groups and literature are suited for people who crave knowledge and raja yoga is for those who wish to learn to concentrate the mind and achieve self-realisation.”

Sannyasins Samadhimurti and Anandaradha (Radhe) will offer classes on the day and will be available for private consultations.

Radhe teaches primarily in the Bay of Plenty as Yoga-anandaradha and is willing to travel to do workshops. She has been teaching yoga for more than 25 years and is associated with Shraddha – Yogic Lifestyle Education Trust.

Samadhimurti teaches a range of yoga classes in Hamilton to stretch body and mind.

Ayurveda

This five thousand year old holistic system of medicine that originated in India. It is now practised in several Western and South Asian countries. Ayurveda fundamentally believes in harmony and balance. Those of us who can achieve this harmony inside us and with our surroundings can realise their beautiful selves.

At the Ayurvedic Beauty Spa Dr. Rachna Kumar offers a wide range of skin care treatments based on Ayurvedic principles that use superior quality oils and skin products from lead Ayurvedic manufacturers in India.

Dr. Rachna Kumar completed her five year degree in Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery from India and then did her internship. She has practised Ayurveda in New Zealand and the UK while raising a young family. She imports all her herbal preparations from India and is available for general Ayurvedic consultation, life style modification, dietary modification, meditation lessons and marma massage (only for women) by appointment. Her contact details are as follows: email r.kumar@clear.net.nz; phone 07 856 3946 and mobile 027 280 2472.

Shiatsu

This is a hands-on body therapy using acupressure to restore balance to mind, body and spirit. It uses the same meridian system as acupuncture but is a fully clothed therapy which takes place on a traditional style futon on the floor.

Shiatsu involves elements of oriental diagnosis, abdominal massage, pressure application to various parts of the body using fingers, thumbs, knees and elbows, gentle stretches and joint articulation – all well within your ‘comfort zone’. Do-In is a self shiatsu routine which anyone can learn and returns your body to a state of well-being, promoting wellness within our selves, by ourselves. Di will be available throughout the day to give short demonstrations of both Shiatsu and Do-In.

Superbrain Yoga^®

This simple and effective technique energises and recharges the brain. It is based on the principles of subtle energy and ear acupuncture. The lower energies are transformed into subtle energy, and used by the brain to enhance its proper functioning. This is why some people experience stress reduction by practising Superbrain Yoga. Children studied showed significant increase in academic & behavioural performance, greater class participation and improved social skills.

Superbrain Yoga is effective for all ages & takes only two minutes to perform. Arhatic yogi Rakesh Gupta will introduce this exercise of pranic healing as well as give short pranic healing sessions throughout the day.

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Melissa Billington teaching yoga

Born and bred in the United States, Melissa now calls New Zealand her home.

You may have caught her on TV One’s Good Morning Show, distilling her wealth of yoga knowledge and understanding down into a five minute snippet digestible and accessible to the daytime TV audience.

It’s something that takes considerable skill, but Melissa was brought up immersed in yoga and spiritual practice.

She’s used to translating traditional practices for a contemporary world – without losing the authenticity and power of the original source.

1. What style of yoga do you practice and where do you teach?
MYOGA is a fusion, a collection.  Over the years of studying various styles and working with students, I have pulled out some key tools that I feel make the deeper, more traditional postures and kriyas more accessible to the modern body.

I teach in my studio, Powa Centre, at 1 Marion St, Wellington and also at various gyms around Wellington plus on TVNZ’s Good Morning Show.

2. How did you come to yoga?
When I was 7 my mom did her Massage Therapy training at Kripalu, which was still an ashram in Pennsylvania.

I did yoga, meditation and Danskinetics.  We were also practicing Nichiren Buddhists, so I was accustomed to chanting and devotion on a daily basis.  At 16 an aunt introduced me to Kundalini yoga.

I’ve always been a big mover and have tried nearly every sport and dance there is.  I was a competitive runner and when my sacro-iliac joint suffered from running, I eventually shifted to yoga.  Now with the integrated strength and awareness of yoga, I have started running again after 20 years of believing I would never run again!

3. When did the yoga bug really get you?
It’s been a gradual, growing relationship with yoga from an early age.  The fact that it has become a vocation for me is still startling.  And yet, it’s so completely aligned with my values that it makes perfect sense as well.

4. How has yoga transformed your life?
On a physical level I have metamorphisized from a gangly thing into more of a graceful gangly thing!

I have changed my feet from low arches and super-narrow, to broad toed and strong arches.

I have regained the childlike flexibility yet coupled that with greater strength then I’ve ever had.  And that physical empowerment radiates and interlocks with the mental, emotional, spiritual and social.  The byline or tag line of MYOGA is Freedom to Unfold.  That is what I have experienced and that is my intention in teaching—empowering you to empower yourself to unfold into your individual greatness through awareness.

5. What is your home practice like?
Initially it took a while to become regular.

I’ve always been a self-starter and quite independent but the consistency of my personal practice/sadhana grew slowly.

About 14 years ago, I was doing it maybe once a month and then it evolved to once a week and then I committed to a daily practice about 10 years ago.  However, at that time, I didn’t have to work so I had this incredible opportunity to spend hours exploring.

Now, I’d say that, having gained that foundation, that centre, my practice is much more malleable to what’s needed at the time.  And what’s important to me is that I am yogic, not that I do yoga.  So if I treat someone with disregard but practice religiously every day, what’s that worth?  I’m much more interested in taking the practice off the mat—about being the yoga practice in this crazy world!

6. When people ask you, “What is Yoga?”, what do you say?
Actually, most people don’t ask that question.  They often ask what style I teach, but I soon realized that most people don’t have broad experience in yoga so I was literally speaking another language when I began to rattle on about what I do.

What people do seem to have is extreme ideas of what yoga is—either they believe it’s about tying yourself in knots (perceived as impossible, so why do it?) or it’s about sitting still for hours on end (perceived as a waste of time, so why do it?).  What’s true for most people is far less extreme and my intention in teaching is to bring the yoga to the people—to make it accessible and enjoyable.  After all that’s what yoga is—union.

So I’m constantly intrigued and challenged by the riddle of how to wake people up to how the body, breath, brain and spirit are always in dialogue.  It’s just that we’re either not listening or half-asleep most of the time.

7. What can people expect from one of your classes?
My classes are relatively small to ensure that each person is held in the space.  I teach in a circle to engender community and diminish hierarchy.

Regardless of the experiential level (Basics, Multi-Level or Challenge) of the class or the focus that we have (7 Seasonal Series or points of focus over the course of the year), there is a general arc from tuning/checking in through to warming up, intensifying & then integrating.

I encourage people to make requests at the start of the practice to underline that MYOGA is your yoga and to create a climate of growing awareness of what changes in you from day to day.

8. What do you love most about teaching yoga?
Empowerment/evolvement and communion/community are what I’m about.  MYOGA stands for Manifest Your Own Greatness through Awareness.  Yoga is one of the most effective ways of supporting that journey of awakening.

Teaching is an honour.  I used to lull my cats to sleep when I was little and teaching yoga reminds me of that practice of leading clawed creatures gently into a trusting space where they can relax—of holding space for people, who normally have their hackles up to the world, to soften and strengthen within their own skins.

9. What do you wish everybody knew about yoga?
That you’re stronger than you think.  Or more flexible.  Or more capable.  Yoga is so widely known as a physical practiceand that is certainly the best way of seeing its effects because they’re so visible.  But this practice in the body is essentially one of “yogah citta vrtti nirodha” as Patanjali writes—of calming the fluctuations of the mind.  And it’s the mind that so often limits us, even though the spirit is limitless.

10. What role do you see yoga playing in our world?
Having been involved with yoga, in an ever-increasing capacity, for the past 30 years, I’ve seen a tremendous shift in people’s perceptions of yoga.  I was such a freak growing up in America, eating lentils and tofu & chanting and staying in tee-pees.  Now yoga is mainstream, which has its advantages and disadvantages.  (People need to be discerning when choosing a practice to suit them—I always tell people to shop around if they’re new to yoga.)

This practice is about unification.  If we are to survive, to not destroy ourselves/our planet, it will come about through unification.

In recent centuries, we as modern humans have been fearful of being overtly spiritual.  Spirit, in its origin as a word, relates to our ability, our willingness, to take the life-force into our bodies – our ability/willingness to InSpire.  In these times, we can no longer afford to tiptoe around Spirit, fearing its cousin religion.

It is time to reconnect to spirit through the elements, through our ability to moveand breathe and support one another as a community, local and global.

MYOGA is dedicated to this endeavour.  How can we evolve and empower humans to repair the hoop of life and to walk in beauty in this world?

We can start in small ways, by recognizing our own manifest, yet often untapped, power to grow outside of self-imposed limits.  By empowering individuals in a community context, we grow together as a culture that values not only the individual, but the web of the world that supports and interlocks with the individual.

In the words of Lao Tzu:

If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself.
If you want to eliminate all of the suffering in the world,
then eliminate all that is dark & negative in yourself.
Truly, the greatest gift you have to give, is that of your own transformation.

11. Anything else you’d like to say?
If you’d like to see me in action, check out the TVNZ spots from 2009 on my blog.

MYOGA responds to the seasons by shifting focus in the chakra system & asana practice every 6-8 weeks.

There are 7 Sadhana Series through the course of the year that can be experienced in a 40 Day Sadhana practice or in any of the Multi-Level or Challenge classes during those 6-8 weeks.

The Basics Series classes give someone new to yoga the tools necessary to feel more fluid & comfortable taking part in Multi-Level or Challenge classes.  Additionally there are often specialized series that we offer on the Chakras or Kundalini Yoga or the Yamas/Niyamas.

Pregnancy classes are ongoing & Family Yoga classes are run in 4-6 week series.

12. And finally, how do people find you?
My website may answer a good few questions, but if you’d like to connect, please call or write in.  Or better yet stop in and check out a class – the best understanding of yoga comes from experiencing it for yourself!

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This is not a perfect Downward Dog... or is it?

Part 1 of this series in the Beginner’s Guide to Yoga gave you a heads-up on things to be aware of before rocking along to your first yoga class.

You might have been to a few classes now and so have got your head around the right clothes to wear, how to fuel your body before and after class, how to position yourself on your mat and how to forget about what other people are thinking.

Now it’s time to start investigating the process of posture (asana) a little more deeply. It’s so easy to think that doing a pose right means looking a certain way in the pose. But that’s not true at all.

Doing a pose “right” can happen even when you’re not super bendy.

Take a look at that photo of me in adho mukha svanasana (downward dog). Not really Yoga Journal-pretty is it? Those bent knees, crooked feet, lifted heels and funny-angled arms… It’s soooo not right, right?

But you know what? I am in the right alignment – for me.

• Because my hamstrings are tight, I can’t straighten my legs without compromising the alignment of my spine or pelvis.
• A naturally long torso is also long, made even longer by the bent legs, creates the long, low angle of my arms.
• Plus I’m still working on even pressure through all four corners of my feet, it’s not coming naturally yet – which creates those slightly crooked feet you see.
• Tight calf muscles mean my heels have plenty of fresh air underneath them too.

The asana is not all bad though – being aware of my limitations and working with them means my spine is straight, my pelvis is aligned, plus my breath is flowing freely. And that’s where adho mukha svanasana really starts. In fact, that’s where most asana start actually.

With the breath, and by extension, with prana… more on that in a minute.

A straight spine and aligned pelvis means that my breath has a clear line to move along and this is really important because it creates a free flow of energy up the spine, which is a big thing in yoga. It doesn’t matter if you’re in garudasana (eagle), navasana (boat), ardha chandrasana (half moon) or gomukhasana (cow), finding your breath in your spine is what helps to open into the posture.

Even in asana where the spine is bending, it’s still important to find your breath so that the spine remains open, even while bending.

Imagine your spine is a garden hose. Bend that hose into a C-shape that keeps the air flowing through the hose. That’s an open spine. Now bend the garden hose so it cuts off the flow of air through it. That’s a closed spine.

In your first few classes, it really helps if you’re aware that doing the pose “right” isn’t about looking like the teacher, or like Yoga Journal. It’s about finding the openness of breath within the current limitations of your body. A good teacher will be able to guide you into asana variations that allow you to support your body wherever it is. Things like bent legs, or sitting on a block in seated asana, or sometimes even using a wall to support yourself in asana like garudasana or ardha chandrasana.

Now back to prana. See, this awareness of the flow of breath isn’t just about oxygen though. It’s about the flow of prana around the body… something your teacher may or may not mention, but it’s happening none-the-less, and being aware of prana is something yoga is all about.

In fact, Shakti is the essence of Hatha Yoga – Shakti being an expression of prana within our bodies, like a river is an expression of water moving through the land. And Hatha Yoga being the yoga of physical postures, as opposed to say Karma yoga which is the yoga of our actions within the world. Yep – yoga is a big, wide world, and there’s much to learn. But let’s keep it simple right now and come back to prana.

So what is this Prana thing?

Prana is the Sanskrit word for life force, and it permeates everything in the entire universe. Shiva Rea says:

Prana derives from the Sankrit word “pra” meaning “to fill”, added to the root word “an” which means “to breathe” or “to live”. It refers to the underlying source of prana as the substance of life most tangibly experienced through the one breath moving us all.

I like that – the one breath moving us all.

In the human body, prana is kinda like an electrical force and it travels around on channels called nadis. There’s like 72,000 of them, some big and thick like a state highway, some small and skinny like a country road.

Prana and breath are often seen as one and the same thing because enters the body via the breath – but they’re not exactly the same. It does mean though  that all that focus yoga has on breathing means you’re getting more prana into your body. Plus the practice of asana purifies and strengthens the body so you’re able to handle a stronger flow of prana. Just like 20,000 volts through a light bulb would blow the bulb, so too do our bodies have to be conditioned to receive higher and higher flows of prana.

When the body is all tight and weak, it’s like those nadis have landslides blocking them, or they’re all cracked and weak. Prana can’t travel freely, so you’re not getting energy to all your body’s cells.

As you get stronger and more open, the nadis open up and more and more prana can flow freely along them. Your entire body becomes energised – which is one reason why yoga makes you feel so good.

So when you practice asana, it is about finding the alignment of the muscles, bones and organs which creates shapes that look a certain way.

Yet another way to think about it is rearranging your physical body around energetic lines so prana can flow freely.

It’s the inside-out method of asana, as opposed to the outside-in method. Both of which end up in the same place.

Doing yoga from the inside out is what made my downward dog look like that. I was arranging my body around freely flowing prana. It doesn’t look the way we think downward dog “should” look, but prana is able to flow along through my spine, and with time, my legs will gradually open up, and one day even my feet will be flat on the ground.

So doing asana “right” isn’t so much about being perfect in the pose, but being perfect with where you are at in the pose – bent legs and all, so that prana can flow freely – starting with the spine usually and then moving out into the limbs.

At first when you practice, you may not be able to tune into the subtle sensation of prana in the body – but you can tune into the feeling of breath in your body. Make you focus finding your breath first in the nostril’s, then in the lungs, and finally out into the spine, limbs and extremities and eventually you’ll begin to discern prana flowing around your body.

Or maybe it’s your body that begins to flow around prana.

Enjoy!

Progress, the legs are straight! Now for flattening the feet...

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Meditation Teacher Tarun Kumar

Meditation. Why is everyone getting so excited about it?

Could be because it works – on many different levels.

In March & April of this year New Zealanders will have a chance to find out why meditation is so powerful from India-based meditation expert Tarun Kumar.

Back by popular demand, Tarun is touring the country for the third time.

“I have hosted Tarun a number of times at the Albany Yoga Room,” says teacher Sue Grbic. “Tarun has a lovely gentle energy and a humble sincerity that shines through his teachings. In a world filled with self-important so-called spiritual teachers it’s very refreshing to come into the sweetness and light of the real thing.”

Tarun is being brought to New Zealand by Waiheke-based charitable organisation Baleno.

Founded in 2007 by Toby Ruckert and Margit Brusda, Baleno’s mission is to offer support, create awareness, provide education and fund research into the way we experience emotional, mental and physical issues, diseases or crises.

This four-pronged approach is intended to help people experience better health and well-being. It works on the idea that physical disease is no accident, and that the causes for many problems are mostly a combination of not only physical but also mental and/or spiritual imbalances.

It means that one of the practice Baleno wants to promote is meditation – hence sponsoring Tarun’s trip to New Zealand.

The Yoga Lunchbox had a chat to Tarun about his own meditation practice and his upcoming visit to New Zealand.

What was it that got you first interested in this subject and when was that?

I started meditation when I was 16 years old. I don’t know the exact reason why I started this, but since my childhood I like yoga.

What’s the link between yoga and meditation?

Meditation is a part of yoga. By doing meditation one can attain a calm state of mind, which is a basic qualification for practicing yoga properly anyway.

What have you observed for yourself in your own meditation practice?

Initially I was very short tempered and this has become much better. But I am not saying that it is completely vanished as of yet

Why would you recommend meditation to others and what are its benefits?

For me, if one can meditate, it relaxes the mind and decreases stress which we can meet everywhere in our daily life.

Meditation also increases our immunity power. Most of the diseases originate from mind level. If a person stays calmly without stress and strains, he is less vulnerable to diseases – at least to some extent. Thus one can often perceive the real essence of problems before they manifest physically and that they are not there to make you sad, but to ignite your passion in facing and overcoming them in victory. They are like exams to a student, merely to test your skills.

There are already many meditations available and the beginner may have difficulties in choosing. What is there to look out for, and maybe even be careful about when starting meditation?

Anyone can do meditation, but proper guidance is advisable. Don’t do anything forcefully or something you are not comfortable with. Often even some seemingly simple things like chanting mantras, rapid breathing or breathing with focus on certain body areas – and even doing meditation in certain asanas can lead to unpleasant experiences if proper guidance and knowledge is lacking.

Common sense suggests never to stop questioning the use of a specific posture (asana), sound (mantra), breathing or visualisation. A good teacher should be able to give good reasons why to do things in a certain way. The students benefit may just be that through asking such questions, his meditation practice may become more effective also.

You have been teaching in different countries but been to New Zealand three times already. What is it about New Zealand that you enjoy coming back so often?

I love New Zealand’s external beauty and the inner beauty of my friends there. I also enjoy the students questions and feedback very much as they don’t learn meditation just like a weekend project, but they really enjoy learning to practice, which is like a great gift for me.

There are different subjects which you have taught such as Heart-Soul-Meditation, Cord Healing, Angel Healing and others, do you have favourite ones from a teacher’s perspective and if so, which are they?

Hmm, that’s difficult. I guess it depends a bit on what the individual group combination currently interests the most. But ultimately each subject has its own knowledge and key to “enlighten” us in physical, mental and spiritual levels. So from that perspective I treat all subjects equally.

What is it that you like particularly well in the Heart Soul Meditation and why?

This meditation is not only meant for the personal development of the practitioner. It also helps other people and beings on earth. It gives a feeling of Conscious evolution from “I” to universe via “our” feeling.

To find out more about Baleno, and the many free events and classes that they offer, including confirmed dates and venues for Tarun Kumar’s New Zealand Tour, please check out Baleno’s website.

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