Thank you, 2012!

Another year is about to end. I am grateful at the closing. This year is not ending as it began. It is ending with a beginning.

What a beautiful blessing it is to begin again, to be reminded that we spiral on and there is no need to be afraid.

I wish everyone a new year of countless joyful moments.

(Photo of Alex and me from yesterday's practice. No photo today. Here's to many years of happy practice.)

Epilogue: As it turns out, my mom quietly took photos using her phone...last practice for the year. 2 hours before 2013...

Last Full Moon of 2012

She has always been my watchful eye and this year, we watched each other more closely, I feel, than we ever have.

I hope she feels as fascinated with my waxing and waning. I hope she knows I too remain unchanged inside, no matter how the light changes. No matter who is watching from wherever they are, underneath we remain full, light, shadows and all.

We are gifted with another moon, the last one for this year.

Keep your heart open

The new year is coming. My beloved Yoga Manila family welcomes it with a newly designed website: www.yogamanila.com

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in Ustrasana, working - still, forever working - on opening my heart.

From a few nights ago

Penumbra eclipse on a full moon. There's a bright star and the water tank looking like a space shuttle...

Small things, Great Love

Tomorrow starts the second week of work. I am excited. This is a strange sentiment on a Sunday night.

Yes, I am back to working in an office and already, of course, there is so much to do. Thankfully, in this "new" job, there are familiar faces. This job is truly a gift.  It was given at a perfect time and in a perfect way, with people I believe are wonderful. I prayed to be able to serve in the best way I know how, to give back and make a difference in my little ways, to fulfill my duties as a householder with bills to pay and a family to care for. But I wanted to be part of education, youth, arts, culture, communities...I wanted my yoga to come alive outside of the shala while doing the other things I love to do - plan, create, move. My answered prayer is this job. That is why I am sweetly excited (in the midst of the efforts in equanimity). :)

In the morning, I practice before heading to work. At work, I practice my karma yoga - yoga off the mat - to serve in my small ways. On weekends, I teach once or twice. Next year, I will add one weeknight class after work. The rest of the weeknights are with friends and family. Sunday is family day. Every day is for the Lord.

"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." ~ Mother Teresa

May Goodness Happen For All

I just finished reading Vipassana Meditation: Healing the Healer and The Experience of Impermanence by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman. The booklet published by the Vipassana Research Institute is a good Sunday morning read after sitting. 

In the first essay, the writer connects the practice with healing and the healer, often wounded but bears noble suffering. In the second article, he shares a more poetic discourse on anicca.  The style in which it was written brings a glow to the Vipassana experience. 

Click here for an excerpted article on Healing the Healer.

Click here for an excerpted article on The Experience of Impermanence.

Sharing this clip...Sabka mangal hoye re chanted by SN Goenka on Metta

It's a lovely, sunny Sunday. Have a beautiful one.

What's for breakfast?

Spinach (or kale), banana, mango...

Here's what I tell the kids when they look at the color of my drink du jour.

Vipassana Experience (Part 2)

The experience within meditation is not the goal.

Still, I relish the awareness and richness of those moments. During the 10-day Vipassana course, each session and each day presented a different experience, distinct from my moments in mantra meditation. All are very beautiful. The journey was not easy but truly necessary to me.

In the beginning, we were introduced to apana meditation, the mind sharpening with the awareness of the incoming breath and outgoing breath, focusing with each touch of the breath. I felt the awareness of my boundaries dissolve into what I felt like the skin of a water bubble, colored like a puddle marred by oil. As we refined the technique in the next few days and amidst the craziness of my own thoughts, the experience became a clean white space of stillness.

On the fourth day and upon learning Vipassana, the experiences became more powerful - from the tingling sensations of honey flowing slowly from the top of my head to golden stardust in shimmer sweeps from head to foot and foot to head -- and then to a hundred samurais piercing top to bottom and side to side. The entire body was bright with currents of sensation.  This was a first for me as these are usually concentrated on my hands and arms. These are not visualizations, though. My metaphors are just my own interpretation of the sensory experience. In this technique, there is no use of imagery, words or imagination.

In Vipassana, sometimes my hands would move into mudras. I did not know what these more complex gestures mean but have begun my research. The first time, my hands turned up to open palms and in the following experiences, moved into interlaced fingers, index fingers touching, thumbs touching. At another session, one hand rested on my knee while the other in jnana mudra, resting at the center.

At one point during the 4th day, the sensations of discomfort became so immensely intense on my knees but I stayed focused on the technique. The next sensation was one that lifted me from the pain. My spine lengthened. The sensation remained present but the aversion was gone. I was above it in that elevated state. And stayed seated in half lotus long after the session was over. At the end, I was transformed. In yoga, this must be the tapas burning away samskara (sangkara, as explained in the discourse). Amazingly enough, the knee pain left and sitting became relatively comfortable after.

During the 4th and 5th day of Vipassana sessions, I would also feel various sensations of choking at the throat, pressure at the heart and at the solar plexus area. This left me after a day. I felt also that lengthening of the spine - on the periphery thinking how tall I could sit as if my entire torso to the top had extended itself. I did not open my eyes. There was also a sensation of buoyancy, of being lifted as if by balloons, and then that pulsating pressure in the space above in between my eyebrows. That remained until the last day. On that last day, I felt pressure in the middle of my palms and a clockwise spinning on both. I do not know what these mean just yet.

Even as these experiences happen, I succumb to the mind drifting into various thoughts and memories. A hundred hours of sitting can cover plenty of recurrent mind trash, and as intensely as I thought and remembered, these were purged - sangkaras floating to the surface, rising up like bubbles and bursting into infinitesimal nothing.

My breakthrough would be the breakdown of the last of the painful ones, the thoughts of unforgiven hurts, the ones I kept and fed in secret. I thought they would survive the ten days. I was in tears. Just in time though, after the years, they are finally forgiven.

 These are my Vipassana experiences - surreal, unexpected, welcome, and at times, overwhelming. And yet, I remain detached from them. Thankful for what they are and nothing more.

At the end of my ten days, I ran into the arms of my waiting husband. Grateful to be, in a deeper sense, free.

Vipassana

I am finally home after my 10-day Vipassana Meditation Course as taught by S.N. Goenka.

This was a long time coming since I first learned about it, drawn to it through a documentary we watched almost exactly 3 years ago. I wanted to take the course then but the seed needed more fertile ground. As with the gifts that have been presenting themselves these days in impeccable timing, this came right before I begin on a new road, and specifically at this particular point in my yoga practice and teaching.

The ten days were a profound experience, learning this deeply effective meditation technique.  The work was intense from within. We sat in stillness, hour upon hour, with all these sensations arising and passing - gross and subtle as we swept or scanned part by part. We worked diligently, persistently. We tried to remain vigilant. Day after each long laborious day. The words are still so clear in my head.

In those days of complete surrender to purely meditation, I did not practice Ashtanga (asana). Tomorrow, I will begin again. I feel my practice will change from this.

From the Vipassana, I was able to draw parallels to strengthen the foundations of my Ashtanga yoga practice.

For now, I will only write phrases of insights from memory.

Wisdom in Breath as the link.

Experience of using the body as the framework.

Awareness of sensation. 

No Raga (Attachment) and Dvesha (Aversion). No me, no mine, no I.

Equanimity. Yogas citta Vritti nirodha.

Sthira. Ease. Enlightenment. Awareness. Sensation. Equanimity.

Do your practice. Work Continuously.

Grateful for the lineage.

Metta and Yoga off the mat.

Bhavatu Sabba Manggalam. Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu.


Incidentally, I am home on the day of Diwali in India. May the light shine within and upon us all.


----

I am re-reading Michael Stone's Freeing the Body Freeing the Mind. Writings on the Connections between Yoga and Buddhism.

 "Yoga and Buddhadharma offer a profound blueprint for reorienting ourselves toward that which really matters. At the heart of what matters is the reality that everyone aspires to achieve happiness and avoid suffering. Happiness derives not from wealth or progress but from inner peace, one that each of us must create by cultivating the most profound human qualities, such as empathy, humility, and compassion, and by eliminating destructive thoughts and emotions such as anger and hatred..." 

      ~ Michael Stone

Innovate. Integrate.

Innovate. This is the word that has been following me around these days. My life is finding real union and integration.  For all those cycles of disintegration, I welcome this balance. How I found myself here is through what I like to think of as divine innovation.

I had just finished Scott Anthony's Little Black Book of Innovation and I found it to be a great life reading, beyond business. Scott Anthony is one of the wonderful management consultants I've had the pleasure of meeting. In his book, he describes innovation to mean "doing things differently with impact." He shares plenty of insights and a practical 28-day DIY program to grow the innovator within.

Why is this so important to me? It's because life calls for us to change, innovate and integrate. It calls for us to participate, perpetually experiment and then learn from experience.

That's where I find clarity as I transition into the next chapter, maybe even level, in doing fulfilling work and finding that true balance.

I have chosen to work with a wonderful foundation for a conglomerate I truly respect and admire.  This is where I will continue to do work that I love - communicating, building relationships, conceptualizing ways to grow, develop and sustain. Meanwhile, I will continue to teach in Yoga Manila, keeping my advocacy to share yoga as a way to transform from within.

So yes, the innovation keeps happening. That's the yoga of it all. That's how we make the best of changes. These changes bring us to balance over and over.

Transformation comes from within. We are our own innovators -- from the way we observe and see things, then the way we act upon these. We start from ourselves and radiate these outside. These shifts bring us closer to fulfilling our purpose - to learn how we can serve in our best, brightest, and most joyful way possible. The impact? Ourselves and a world made better.

October Ends...

Sharing this as Breast Cancer Awareness month comes to an end. The fight continues. My 10th year anniversary is fast approaching.  Keep strong. Flow on.

On work and practice

Book finds are my sign posts, like clues from God. My latest purchase from my good old second hand bookshop is Transitions by Julia Cameron.

Here's a re-edit of one of its comforting pages. It's a beautiful passage by W.H. Auden.

At the Brink

Here I am (Yes, here we are)

At the edge of a cliff
of my Becoming.
So this is the place where I embrace
All that I am
All things true have been sifted
Would I wish it were not so?
I thought myself only half, for a while
and now my heart is whole
Almost.

NMC

Oct 16, 2012. Deciding between two beautiful gifts

Yoga Manila for When in Manila

Sharing a blog article on Yoga Manila featured in When in Manila. Read on.

Yoga Manila : “Yoga is for everyone, and for every stage in our lives. Our passion and service is to keep sharing this practice…”

Written By
Joanne Fugoso

When In Manila, I am so happy to meet different kinds of people especially when I hear their stories. This day, I enjoyed my afternoon with a group of graceful, beautiful women, while they shared to me their beliefs about what they love. Most of them have been practicing Yoga for  over 10 years now, saying that “Yoga is a way of life – of living.”

“It will depend on you.. when you are Ready…”

 

Connie Ponce talks about Yoga Manila 

Connie shares, a very calm woman, she teaches Ashtanga Vinsaya Yoga and is one of the founders of Yoga Manila.

I asked, “Who is Yoga Manila?”

Nature shares “We are a family of teachers who have been practicing Yoga for some time now. Sharing this practice is our collective passion and our blessing. We are a mix of entrepreneurs, executives and former executives, full-time moms, professors, writers…”

Teachers of Yoga Manila

At Yoga Manila, you learn with a teacher, with the people in class. We also build more of a personal relationship with our students.”

“Traditional Yoga? Hm, what specifically does Yoga Manila practice?”

Cherry shares “Yes, we practice Traditional Yoga, the Ashtanga and Sivananda Style Yoga.

Ashtanga is physically challenging to build strength, flexibility, and stamina. It is also a very purifying practice for the mind. And Sivananda Yoga is relaxed and gentle, it encourages a healthy lifestyle and train you for proper breathing, relaxation, exercise, diet, and positive thinking along with meditation.

Aside from Ashtanga and Sivananda, we also offer free flow Vinyasa classes.”

Can we learn Yoga alone, or with other students?

 Yoga Manila practices at  Makati studio

“We offer private sessions for those who prefer to learn individually. However, our regular classes such as Basic Led Ashtanga, Slow Flow classes are done in a group with a teacher leading the class.

We also have Ashtanga Yoga Mysore classes, where we teach in the traditional way – the students are given poses one at a time and while they practice together, they do this in their pace under the guidance of a teacher. For those who already have an established grounding of the Ashtanga practice, we offer our space for self practice sessions.”

But when is the best time of the day to join your class?

Ideally, Yoga is practiced early in the morning but of course everyone has a personal choice. That is why we offer our students different class schedules where they are most comfortable with.”Cherry discloses.

That is really helpful! And who are allowed to join Yoga Manila?

 Yoga Manila Ortigas studio 

Nature says “Yoga is for everyone. We have different advocacies and we reach out to a wide age group.

  

We have Pre-natal and Post-natal Yoga. This prepares moms physically and mentally – to be strong, supported and confident through breath, asana (postures) and relaxation – before, during, and after giving birth. Then we have Yoga for babies, this is usually done with the parent or guardian and we incorporate yoga and touch therapy for the baby. This also provides great bonding time! 

We offer Kids and Tweens Yoga for the young ones and those entering adolescence. The movements are mixed with activities that are fun for them so they can be encouraged to keep a yoga practice even at a young age.

 Yoga Manila at Quezon City

Because we believe it’s never too early or too late to learn yoga, we also have Special sessionsfor those in the more Senior years. Some of the teachers have special sessions with yoga practitioners above the age of 70.

At Yoga Manila, our advocacies as teachers are supported. We offer Yoga for Special Children. This is Cherry’s advocacy to share the transformative and calming benefits of yoga to children with special needs.

And I have Special sessions for Breast Cancer survivors, my advocacy as a survivor as well.”

So everyone is really welcome here. But, hmm, I’m  just curious, how is being a teacher different from practicing Yoga as a student?

 Yoga Manila teachers Roberta Feliciano and Cherry Du join the discussion

“You have to be a student for you to be able to teach.” Connie smilingly says.

Roberta relates “As a teacher, you become even more of a student! Even if you are already practicing it for a long time and know what to do, you have to be able to break it down. You have to understand more about what you’re doing than just coming to class.”

How do you learn more when you already teach?

Roberta continues  ”You teach from your own experience. Even though we are teaching the same thing, it will all come across differently because everybody has a different take on what Yoga is.

What’s good about Yoga Manila is all the teachers don’t just go to class and teach, we really have our own personal practices. And in that personal practice, we discover new things and bring it to class.”

My sister, Lour, who practiced Yoga at Maryland once shared to me about a “light” that you will see when you practice Yoga. What does she mean?

“Ashtanga Yoga has Eight Limbs, a path to follow. Yoga trains you to have a healthy mind, a healthy attitude, to avoid hurting people, to be strong…

It teaches you proper breathing, it is called Pranayama; to calm your mind. Then Yoga tells you to focus, that is when you see a “light,” if you are asked to focus and clear your mind, you can stay in a deep meditation or stillness and nothing can bother you.

But Joanne, that takes many, many years of practice!” Connie smiles.

Of course! (smiles) Well, you got tips on what to keep in mind when practicing Yoga?

Connie shares her checklist while I take down notes. :)

1. Food is very important, as much as your physical exercise. Your body you can be strong but if your diet is not right, it will manifest, you get sick, you get tired, and stress comes in. Always consider the logic of proper diet, and it has to be voluntary.

2.   Take enough rest every day.

3. Don’t overstress yourself. Think positive, you are there to learn, not to compete

4. When you step outside of the class, visually, the place is not so relaxing anymore, but you must be in control of your mind , and your surroundings won’t matter to you.

5.  Time in class on your yoga mat is your personal time.

6.  As a student, you must be dedicated, all has to be freewill, voluntary, and you need to love what you are doing.

7.  Beginners are encouraged to read the book of Gregor Maehle, it covers philosophy, anatomy, history of Yoga, diet, and a lot more.

8.  But everything is not learned from a book or from other teachers but it is from years of practicing on your own and discovering new things.

9.  You need discipline. After months or weeks or years of practice, you will be able to memorize the sequence of poses. Yoga is like any sport, even without your trainer, you go on and practice on your own.

10.  Yoga, like life, cannot be forced; it has to have its own calling. You need to be ready.

Just wondering now, how was it like when you started Yoga Manila?

Yoga Manila invites you to join them!

Connie reveals “When we started, we teach even if we have only one or two students in the class, sometimes we don’t even have a student, but that didn’t bring us down. Though we are small and we provide simple spaces for practice, our shalas (studios) are our homes and we all love and love to share our practice…

When In Manila and you visit Yoga Manila, once you step into our home, you are welcome to join us, you are welcome to learn.”  Connie smilingly says.

Yoga Manila

SMS Only: +63917.522.YOGA (9642)

Yoga Manila – Alabang

405 Bougainvilla corner Sanggumay, Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa City

Yoga Manila – Makati

Greenbelt Mansion, Unit 506, Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City

Yoga Manila – Ortigas

Chi Spa, EDSA Shangri-La, Manila 01 Gardenway, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City

Yoga Manila – Quezon City

NY Theraspine Building 2F, 73G Dr Lazcano Street, Quezon City 

New Moon Decisions

Time's up! New moon is here. 

In my last entry, I mentioned I decided to go back to Corporate Manila. I shared my lessons and some self-discoveries but did not yet expound on the details of how I came to the conclusion that I would go back. It was not a hasty decision - I did not wake up one fine morning with a definite answer, nor did I fill up my macro-enabled Excel sheet to come to a conclusion (yes, I do that sometimes).

This one was a more complex heart matter and for those matters, the decision making is a process. The process came with a few activities and, if you are thinking about your sabbatical, I hope these are helpful tips.

Activity 1: Checkpoints
Objective: Get a quick and honest review of how things are, take note of them, then carry on.

As soon as I left my corporate life in August last year, I already plotted 2 checkpoints - one in December and then another in July. This first one was supposed to be in June but I extended for another month.

June was rather busy as I prepared for Gregor Maehle's workshop and in any case, I was not in a hurry. These checkpoints are quick reassessments of my initial assumptions. These are not meant to stress me out, rather allow some time to check in on how things truly are without burdening my happy days with worry.

My reassessment consisted of 5 practical questions which I wrote at the beginning of my "sabbatical."
These are personal questions that I want to ask myself gently about some personal assumptions. The checkpoints allow me some quiet time to answer candidly, going back to why I was doing this and taking an objective look at potential expectations I may have had in the beginning.

source: page from my planner

Tip: The checkpoint questions could be open ones (example, How is your heart? How are your finances?) or yes and no ones (example: Are you getting the freedom you wanted? Are you enjoying? Did the _____ deal push through?)

Bonus: Feel free to write down a few remarks. Take a moment to be silent and thankful. Pray for guidance or assistance. Take another look at your checkpoints - whether on paper or in your head then let it go. As the memes say "Keep calm and carry on."

Source: keepcalmlondon.com

Oh and I could not help but post some of the alternatives from google images. I especially like Keep Calm and Call Batman.

So keep calm. For now, these are observations and we need to allow for some things to come to fruition or change. There will be checkpoint #2 (or #3 or #4 or #5...)


Activity 2: A Little Help From Friends (and Family)
Objective: Check in on the views from trusted friends and mentors

I was able to spend more time just listening to family and friends around the checkpoint period or sometime (anytime, really) in between. It's good to see friends who supported me fully and those who were a bit skeptical of my decision. They naturally play Angel's and Devil's advocates. I saw hybrids of both, and it was always refreshing. Take the views as they are.

Tip: Instead of asking for feedback on how they think you're doing, just listen to how they are. And enjoy the company. It's great to be surrounded by friends and family who care enough to spend time with you! It's not a performance appraisal, afterall, just a nice catch up chat over lunch, dinner or both.

Activity 3: Read on
Objective: Keep Learning

Some books and articles will find their way in our lives in perfect timing. The last book I read was How to Find Fulfilling Work by Roman Krznaric and I enjoyed the quick read on career possibilities, shifts and exploring meaningful work. He mentions some great things, conveniently mind mapped by Ben Royston from his site.

source:http://www.romankrznaric.com/how-to-find-fulfilling-work

Another great one I enjoyed was Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design by Laurence G. Boldt. The paperback is very thick but full of tools and helpful quotes - a lot from Eastern philosophies. If you don't mind missing the book smell and want the portable version, it's also available on Kindle.

Tip: Get the books! Pass them around! From Mr. Krznaric, I did some of the approaches unknowingly - radical sabbatical, branching projects. There are very sensible approaches, real stories, questions for your checkpoint.

From Mr. Boldt's book, I was able to make a heartfelt decision on which of the two fantastic offers I should take. Both are easy to read with practical tips to remind us of things we may already know but are worth remembering. I wish I had these books sooner but then again, the timing of their arrival is perfect.

New Moon is the best time for planting and making decisions. May this New Moon bring bountiful blessings!

- - -


The ultimate epilogue: Whichever way we choose to grow, know that God's timing is perfect. His plans are always bigger than we can ever hope to imagine. 

Harvest Moon Thoughts and the Sabbatical's End

During the last Harvest Moon, I reflected on the year that was and the coming days. It has been an amazing year out of the corporate, and taking this sabbatical is one of the best decisions I have ever made. But I am coming back, bigger, brighter and more balanced - Well, that's the prayer!

I want to share a few lessons I reaped from this 15-month journey:

1. Take that time off.

Take that day, that month, that year off to do work that fills you with love. It may begin to change your path, it may bring you back with a bigger heart. It may change or validate what you know to be true. It will make you a better person.  Two things about this:

• Listen. No one can walk your path for you despite the best of counsel and wonderful perspectives. Listen intently and lovingly to mentors, friends, and those around you, then listen to the quiet voice inside you.
• Do it. Nothing beats learning from experience, so do what has to be done and learn from it. Sometimes, your conclusion is different from the initial hypothesis so be open to the gifts of your actions - you can be right or you can be schooled, or both.

Whether it's off or on, relish every moment of your time.

2. Grow the best parts your heart.

We have been given more than a couple of gifts, a few exceptional skills, and while we know what we love innately, we learn to love a few things along the way. The heart symbol has two lobes, so grow both:

• Grow the seeds of what you know you are passionate about - that cause, that movement, that deepseated desire to unleash a talent. Finally, give time for these often (and wrongly) labeled impracticalities.
• Accept the love that grew on you (yep, those acquired along the way). It's quite interesting to admit what these are. I missed big chunks of the work I did. They mattered and made a difference to me but I did not know just how much. I rediscovered that this year.

Grow your heart's best parts in equal measure.

Along with the lessons are some self-discoveries that I now embrace with loving acceptance, most of the time anyway. Everyone will have a great set to share (and not share). Here are those I will share.

1) It is my calling to take care of my family. I am meant to give, and giving starts at home then extends out. I am a provider and I get a bunch of things from that - joy, the most. As a daughter to my cray cray folks (and I say that with love), my belligerent siblings (again with love), wife to my best friend and mom to my big babies, I have this overwhelming need to give gifts, big hugs, tough love, the works. That may very well be my primary function or my Dharma.

2) Sharing Yoga is my advocacy and my spiritual practice. I accept nothing more from it than to sustain and fuel and spiral my love to share it. Because of that, I will continue to practice and so long as I am called, I will continue to teach. I will continue to learn more so I can share more. 

3) I am meant to get things (big and small) done. There are special qualities that we've had even as children. It's great that some things we enjoyed then have a special place to this day. I have a thing for people, for complexity, for creativity, for concepts, for process, for structure, for measures, for relationships, and then for fluidity. Somewhere there is that optimal point of balance. But balance is forever active, and changing despite that sense of steadiness (or efficiency). Each time we get the great things done, I believe we are in that state and that state produces the best outcomes. That, in corporate life, excites me.

4) I really need to learn how to rest. Seriously, this is a tough one. Ovid says, "Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."  In this "sabbatical," I worked 8 to 10 hours a day. I worked on weekends. I work for the sake of working. It's funny how the general perception is that teaching yoga (or writing music, or creating art, or being a full-time mother and wife) is more relaxed. We are all busy. We work hardest when in the zone. We all need to rest. 

5) It's best to work with the best parts of my heart. By now, I know what does not suit me (or what I am not good at) and it's okay. If there's enough interest or maybe if it's a matter of life and death, I will find a way to stretch the scarcity of these God-given talents but I have the best of me to work with. Being the topnotch homeroom mom may not be up my alley or proficiency in high math may not be my best asset but they are someone else's best, and I have my own.

In this year's field of lessons and self-discoveries, and seeds, and weeds, and acquired plants, I have grown. I am grateful to remember these during the Harvest Moon. This is the time when we work in our fields a bit longer, trusting the light that shines down on us.

May our harvest be abundant!

Beautiful Shala Blessings

My soul sistah and beloved teacher Tesa Celdran opened the doors of her much awaited shalita this month. We welcomed her beautiful space last Monday, teachers, students, friends.

Spread the Yoga love. We are one.

* * *
The Practice Room opens in October 2012
Schedule Mysore Practice:
Mon-Fri, 6.30AM & 8.30AM

Slot reservations at
http://ashtangamanila.com
SMS to +63 917 727 4791
Six slots available per class.

The Way A Cow Grazes

"No longer diverted by other emotions, I work the way a cow grazes." ~ Kathe Kollwitz

Jesus in the Lotus

“Every member of our species is invited to be a mystic, a seeker of truth, a lover of the ecstatic. We are all called to the Spirit.” ~Russill Paul

This book touched me on many levels. As a Christian (and often a jaded Catholic), and a Yoga practitioner, the book reaches deep into what I believe to be true. It is a call for healing among traditions, taking the best of both without diluting the value they each have, but rather honoring the uniqueness and commonalties, in a learned and respectful way.   

The author, Russill Paul, is an Indian – born and raised in India, whose ancestry is both Hindu and Christian. He was trained by, Bede Griffiths, an abbot of a Christian monastery in India. Here, he recounts the traditions upheld and practiced side by side. It is an interesting story, which can resonate with those of us who tout japa malas, practice Sanskrit chanting before pranayama and asana, and say grateful and humble Christian prayers before meals and bedtime with sincerity (among many other things…). This can be a very real case to allow both traditions to permeate one’s spirituality, not only in a faraway abbott or ashram, but in our daily lives.

As the author immerses more into his own interspiritual journey, on its own a very engaging and well written tale, he shares what is beautiful and effective in both practices, and what is lacking in one tradition that brings one to leave the other. Pointing observations on both practices to which he adheres, he makes a compelling case on how “relating one tradition to the other can be powerful for the world, since each balances and complements the other…”  

At the latter part of the book, there is a practical and helpful section on how melding traditions can be done through the author’s own experience, exercises and resources.

Some words of caution – It is easy to take phrases from the book out of context, to the detriment of the author’s real message. It is easy to let skepticism come in to try to take a side or find a way for one to outweigh another, to want to challenge and find fault in fence-sitting. It may be humbling to know how easy it us to create a fence where there is none. This is the very root of how we came to take sides on matters of religion.

I believe the author presents his own experience (with so much care for Christianity and Hinduism and Yoga) and allows us readers to make an assessment of where we are in our own path of finding balance and harmony. At best, the book’s message is to be taken wholly - with enough depth of understanding and knowledge of Christianity and Yoga. Taken as a whole, it is a beautiful story and a promising practice. As one who loves Jesus as much as Krishna, the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita, this book could not have come at a better place and time.

“We can see therefore that Yoga and Christianity, most certainly the mystical dimension of Christianity, are about the same process: the pursuit of oneness with the Divine.”

Highly recommended.