Dear Yogis,

ZOOM AND CLASSES:
Monday: Studio Yoga Class – 1pm (class full)
Tuesday: 7.45pm Rumi Study Group – This is a highlight of our week.
Wednesday: 5.30 Studio Yoga Class – (class full)
Friday: 6.45pm Free pendulum/tarot class.  Last week we discussed the vibrations of food, and our body,  and using the pendulum to determine the freshness of food and the usefulness to our health status.
Saturday: 2pm Art class.  You can bring projects you started, or do something new and different.  This coming week could be a studio class if we get class consensus.
Sunday: 10am Gita Study Class – Our second time around (doesn’t mean there is no need to be committed).  We are up to Chapter 3.

Everything has changed….. however, we have settled down to a “Post Lock-down” routine – until the next time.  Believe me there will be a next time, and it may not be Covid next time.  It might be a different kind of flu altogether, but still difficult.  So start preparing your immune systems NOW.  Don’t wait until it sneaks up on us.

With regard to vaccines.. According to “Scientific American” magazine , if you do decide to vaccinate it will be a whole lot more effective if you have a good night’s sleep the night before, plus about 45 minutes of exercise immediately prior to receiving the vaccine.

 

FOUR SIMPLE TIPS FOR LIVING A BUDDHIST LIFE

1.SET OUT GOOD ROLE MODELS AND MENTORS.
Although it has been 2,500 since the Buddha passed into parinirvana, his teachings are upheld and transmitted by TRAINED and qualified dharma teachers.  In my case I have had  teachers of great note.  Margaret Segesman, Phra Kantiphalo, Aya Khema,  and more down through the years,  both here and overseas.

Now, although I find leading a teacher training school, studying and teaching both asana and philosophy is a challenge I feel that my practise has been enriched my this complexity.  It would have been easier in a temple, but would not have been helpful to me.  Having mentors who managed the same and more complications helped me to see it was not only possible, it was suitable to me.  I needed and still need mentors for when things fell apart – they did, and still do.

2.GATHER MERIT
This particularly means to practice compassion.  Any time when i think I am making headway (especially in the area of patience) , God sends me a student who stretches my “elastic” further than it has gone before.  A person who has a characteristics I find difficult.  I know what is happening when it happens and can learn adapt, and lean back into my teachers. Even though they have passed over to the other side they are still with me.  Remembering to make offerings UPWARD and and practice compassion and generosity DOWNWARD.

3. APPROACH ALL ENDEAVOURS WITH MINDFULNESS
No matter what you are asked to do, in the sangha or in the home,  approach them with intelligence.   The question you should ask is “What qualities are needed to fulfil this role?”  It can be difficult to learn from others in order to move forward, but we need to do it.  As teachers we need to receive genuine dharma teachings, from genuine dharma teachers, reflect on them genuinely, and practice them genuinely.

4. NURTURE DIGNITY AND CONFIDENCE
In these difficult times of change more than ever we encounter problems and challenges.  At these times we should not let circumstances rob us of our confidence.  Here in the middle of the worldly confusion and anxiety (samsara) I can help my family, I can support my sangha and my teacher, and benefit sentient beings, and in this manner I can live a joyous, meaningful life.

“God’s joy”, wrote Rumi
“moves from unmarked box to unmarked box”.

 

MEET ME ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

BKS Iyengar said “The yogi’s life is measured not by the number of his days, but the number of his breaths”.  BKS was a frail and debilitated child who by his own admission used yoga TO BREATHE HIMSELF BACK TO HEALTH. (He didn’t say he “exercised or asana’d his way back to health” or “personal trained his way back to health.”  He said that he “Breathed himself back to health”.  He died in 2014 at age 95 still engaged in conscious breathing and yoga.

 

CONSCIOUS BREATHING

Covid as you know is primarily a virus which attacks the respiratory system, and then depending on your immune system, can move from there into other organs of the body – it is an opportunist.  

To resist this virus or deal with it,  is extra toilet paper required? No! IS CONSCIOUS BREATHING REQUIRED? Well, of course “YES”.   Do you know how you breathe? Do hold your breath at night? Do you breathe with your mouth at nite? Do you consciously nose breathe (at least time-to-time) during the day? Do you hold your breath when you are in front of the computer – “email apnea”?  Do you snore? Do you suffer from sleep apnea, snoring, lack of energy, dwindling fitness level, anxiety, weight problems, high blood pressure and so on.  The list goes on.

It’s not just about breathing it is also about food.  Industrialised food has been shrinking our mouths and destroying our breathing as long as we have been eating “modern” soft food.  The people who are drinking gallons of celery juice could be well advised to actually chew on real celery.

Contrary to what most doctors believe, we can grow bone at any age.  All we need are stem cells, and the way we produce and build more maxilla bone in the face is by chewing – clamping down on the back molars over and over. Chewing.  The more stem cells we release, the more bone density and growth we will trigger, THE YOUNGER WE WILL LOOK, the easier we will breathe,  and the better we will live.  

If you want to know more so you can teach your family, your community and your students to eat, breathe, move and live...and in this way resist disease, old age, and cell deterioration –  then you need to come to the workshop… You may think you know.  I would challenge this.  So few of us do.

MEET ME ON ZOOM.  SATURDAY MORNING 20th February,  10AM
PLEASE DON’T MISS THIS.

Details on www.yogabeautiful.com.au  When I get your receipt I will send you the ID.

NEW DATES FOR WEEKLY BREATH CLASSES and TUESDAY REPEAT BOTANICAL ART CLASS. Go to the Home Page on the Web site.
www.yogabeautiful.com.au

 

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

FRIDAY 6.45PM – FREE PENDULUM/TAROT WORKSHOP
SATURDAY 10AM – BREATH WORKSHOP (this is VERY IMPORTANT) PLEASE BE THERE
SATURDAY 2PM – THE FIRST BOTANICAL ART CLASS
SUNDAY 10AM – GITA STUDY
For details go to the HOME PAGE WWW.YOGABEAUTIFUL.COM.AU

I wasn’t going to write today – the lock down is over (sort of), but I was reading the bible and I felt compared to share.  In particular I was reading Luke… I feel that in past lives I knew Luke, so his writings are very familiar to me.  He was a good friend to the women around Jesus and as a physician was a respected member of society, educated when most in that era were not, so his letters are as factual as he can report them.

What is one of the the shortest verses in the bible? Luke Chapter 17 Verse 32 – with only three words “REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE”

If you have read the bible and know about the characters in the bible you will know that there about 170 women portrayed within its pages.  Long stories, short stories, but there is only ONE whom we are told to REMEMBER – and in Chapter 17 verse 32, he reports that Jesus said “REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE”.  Jesus doesn’t ask us to remember his mother, his brothers, his disciples, or anyone else in the bible. He doesn’t ask us to remember anyone except Lot’s Wife.  Why.  Because Lot’s wife LOOKED BACK and was turned into a pillar of salt.  

Now whether that is actually literally true or not is immaterial, (I believe it happened but was a meteor strike… and there is evidence to prove this) however, from a story point of view, the fact for us today is,  that if we personally look back to our past – no matter how recent –  we will get STUCK.  We will not be able to take advantage of all the lovely things that are in our future.

No matter that the past was good, the future has the potential to be even better.  DON’T LOOK BACK!  It is so tempting to look back pre-covid and take our minds back there.  Maybe it was more comfortable, maybe you liked it better then, maybe the family was more together then, maybe you were earning more money then.  All that is possible but,  REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE.   Don’t look back.  Don’t get stuck in the past.  Look forward with optimism, with anticipation, with joy in your future.  Don’t get stuck in an imagined past that can never be repeated. EVER.  

 

MEET ME ON THE MAT

NAMASTE. JAHNE