Dear Yogis,

I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  I hope to see you at Teacher Training, 6.30 tonight (our free session), and Tomorrow at the RUMI STUDY GROUP. 

MY PIPE ART

As you know I have been exploring smoking as part of my research for the book I am writing ‘SMOKIN’ – THE YOGA OF SMOKE”  I now only have references and stockists to list and I am done.

I have spoken to artists and sculptors around the world trying to learn more about different clays and firing for the pipes, and using herbs that have been smoked by ancient tribes for centuries.  I understand that not all of you smoke, or are prepared to, however, you may like to put my little “sleep pillows” into your pillows and get the benefit in that way – or burn the herbs in a bowl like incense.

I have made little herb bags to put in your pillows.  and I think I have decided on a tiny pipe design…I want to paint and decoupage them.  Every pipe will be different.  They are all inert.  No chemicals, no glues in the clay or in the making.  So if you smoke you will be inhaling ONLY the herbal benefits, and no chemicals from the manufacture of the pipe.

The picture on the right is the basic, undecorated pipe shape.  It is small, can fit gently into a hand, and will be very arty when finished.  Not for settling back and smoking through a feature film, but for a gentle short, relaxing use of smoke as in Ayurveda.

When the book is finished, I will put it, the herb bags, the herbs for burning, and the pipes on my site.  If you want to get the first editions, then let me know and I will keep you personally informed of my progress.

 

AT THE MOVIES

Thank you for the feedback about my movie reviews.  When a student asked me if I was going to subscribe to Netflix last year I replied that I certainly was not planning to sign up.   I had more than enough to do without more movies.  I am glad that I relented.  Same as zoom – same response, same ending. When do I watch?   I eat a plate of vegetables or fruit for lunch and Asian series which usually last about 20 minutes per episode fit beautifully with my schedule.

“NAVARILLA  (Netflix)” – This is a Korean series about an older man (Mr.Sim) who wants to learn ballet.  His father would not allow him to join the ballet when he was 9.  Now he is in his seventies, and has not lost the desire to dance.  He wants “…….TO SOAR FOR ONCE IN HIS LIFE”.  It is an inspiration to watch this older, shorter, dumpier man among the dancers – they are tall, they are beautiful, and they can certainly dance.  Even if you only want to watch the ballet this film is worth the time.

Mr. Sim is a laughing stock in the beginning, but as in all Asian countries he is respected because of his age, and this is his only asset at the start.  The ballet master gives the job of teaching him the opening steps to a young ballet star,  hoping that taking responsibility for Mr.Sim will teach him commitment and patience. In spite of the fact that even the simplest of moves were almost impossible in the beginning, Mr.Sim is totally committed but not impatient.  He has a beautiful heart and his interactions with the dancers (and his initially disapproving family) changes everyone.  He does everything he can, takes on any role necessary, to help the dancers so they will help him.

A question he asks people, and is repeated throughout the movie is “ARE YOU DOING WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY”?  Mr.Sim is trying to please no-one but himself for the first time in his life.  He is going against family, friends and even the ballet master, and is prepared for any discomfort because he LOVES ballet.  After the tall and very beautiful young star becomes impatient with his new student, the ballet master asks the star to consider the fact that just because Mr.Sim is old, it does not mean that he loves the ballet less, or has less ambition to succeed.  To keep in mind that Mr.Sim is doing what makes him happy – joyful in fact.  He LOVES ballet.  He is not seeking perfection.  The young star IS!

We love yoga, and it is better for us if we are not seeking perfection, if we fall in love with yoga.  Once we do that, like Mr.Sim, we will be unstoppable.

We can all learn a lot from this movie.

  1. Are we doing what makes us happy, or are we pleasing others?
  2. Are we doing what we “SHOULD” do, not what our heart tells us?
  3. How much discomfort would we put up with to live the life of our dreams.
  4. Would we confront the ingrained attitudes of family and friends in order to accomplish our dreams?
  5. Do we believe that we deserve to live the life of our dreams?
  6. How can we help others along the way?

Once you answer these questions and learn what it is you WANT, everything will change for you.  It is OK to be selfish. When you achieve what you want and are happy, it gives everyone else the desire and opportunity to be happy too.

Remember the words from the Qur’an, ” If you seek comfort you will not find the truth. If you seek the truth you may find comfort”.

I WILL SEE YOU ON THE MAT. (Maybe not this time around – but I WILL see you on the mat)

NAMASTE. JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

ZOOM: The Gita Study at 10am. Sunday.

I love, love love good movies.  Not violence, not stupid time-wasters, but something that is binge worthy (as they say). A movie that informs.   I have two addictions at the moment.

MIDNITE DINER (Netflix)
A Japanese series about one of those tiny back street diners in Tokyo which we only know as ‘DINER” (I would love to visit), and its fabulous owner “Master” .  We never get to know his name but in series 2 and 3 three there  is the suggestion that there is perhaps a “mistress”.  Certainly a lady who knows how to be treated.  Like the shark in Jaws she is implied by what happens around her, however, you actually get to see her in series 3, but there is still a question mark.

The fascinating part ( and the whole point of the series) is the interaction between the clients… a changing group with regulars – a transvestite or two, Ryo the Yakuza boss, and my favourites –  Marilyn the stripper, her Chiropractor boyfriend Kim, and Mr.Erect the porno star.   There is a Wikipedia expert, a strange poet, three female friends,  and so on.

I can’t stop watching and do so every lunch time – as the episodes are only 20 minutes long, it works well. No matter what the occupation of the diners, their interactions are respectful and caring.  They feel for each other (in a reserved Japanese way) even over dinner.   At the end of each episode is the recipe that has featured in the previous 20 minutes in the diner, with lots of cooking tips.  They are easy, and will transform your meal times as they have mine.

SAND STORM
This is a movie on Netflix about the females in a Muslim family living on the edge of a desert.

They are already at subsistence level as the movie starts, although it is obvious that the man could afford to lift their standard of living but doesn’t…controlled poverty controls the family.  This is no different to the 21st century model.  No matter how devout, no matter how orthodox, the person who controls the money, controls the family. (A lesson to us all).

At the start of the movie the male, the husband,  takes a second younger wife, and it is the repercussions of that move which inform the story.  The eldest daughter is learning to drive, has a lover,  goes to University,  however gets low marks which she knows means her father will refuse to continue paying.  In the end she relives her mother’s life and is “sold” to the highest bidder in the marriage market, and is powerless to change.  As she slips into the life she (and the 2nd wife) would choose to avoid, clearly sees her younger sisters will have not any alternative either. Already she is bitter and angry.

This community reminds me of the Romany communities (Gypsies) in Europe and England..  The big, white arranged marriage, submissive clever wives, controlled interactions, dominant, “less intellectual” males.  The women feel powerless to effect change, and don’t run away on the basis that what they have, no matter how terrible from our point of view, is better than being alone. 

In this movie and I think around the world, the males interpret the Qur’an to suit themselves.  With regards to polygamy the book clearly states that a man can take a second wife only if he treats both wives exactly the same.  

I am sure this “misunderstanding” regarding responsibility is lived out in many households in that part of the world. The first WIVES are banished having to leave their children behind and beg from the husband (even for food) if they disagree, which happened in this movie. Not unlike Victorian England; watch “The Duchess” with Kiera Knightly to see the English equivalent.  Stately home, servants, money, but no more kind to women than the Muslim version.  The women in each case are chattels, possessions, whose job it is to provide what the husband needs without question.

Perhaps ISIS and other terrorist groups also interpret the Qur’an to their liking  to enable violence.  I am pretty sure this happens also in Christian Countries, and even in Rome, the Pope having the ability to deliver words directly from God.  Infallible!?  Both sides in every war believe that God is on their side, whomever and however they view God.

It is a movie worth watching although it is disturbing for the parallels in the west and in many women’s lives.Thank goodness I am a yogi, and at the moment Brahmacharya.

 

Let me know what you think about these movies.

Namaste.  JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis..

ZOOM SUNDAY MORNING 10AM:  The Gita Study.(All welcome – see the home page of the web site for details)

Friday again in this new world we live in.  Although there is possibilities of travel, because of flash lock downs and restrictions, what may LOOK  possible isn’t really – unless you have a spare few thousand to pay for quarantine.  Thank goodness there is so much to do, to get ready for the next wave… or just to live a life closer to the earth.  I miss zooming with you (never thought I would say that), but every day brings something new.

 

SATURDAY STUDIO CLASS (22nd May)

This will be in two parts.
Part 1. SALE OF WORK: 1pm to 2pm –  Sleep Herb sachets, bags of beads, Framed paintings on tea bags.
Part 2.  ART/CRAFT CLASS ($25): 2pm to 4pm.  Knitting/crochet/darning….  bring wool, needles, things you want to work on.  If you don’t have needles or wool you have plenty of time to haunt the op shops – they have plenty at this time of the year.  We could start knitting-nancys, plaited rugs, crochet rugs.  We can play.

 

ARE YOU THINKING OF DEATH

I am not getting morbid.  Over the last few months there have been a few deaths.  Some unexpected, some “a welcome relief”, and I wonder if you have thought about it for yourself.  When we finish the Gita we are going to spend time with The King James Bible and the Bardo Thodol considering death – or how to live.  Surely you don’t want to get to the end of your life and discover that you have never lived?

I recently watched the funeral of Prince Philip.  Here was a man who had been planning his death for some time. He had started tinkering with his JEEP HEARSE since 2016, and commissioned Psalm 104 to be put to music for four voices.  People knew what he wanted, and he got it.  Do they know what you want? Have you discussed it enough with your family so that when the time comes they will neither be sad, nor afraid, but excited to put your plans into action.  Joyful to mark your passing – it is just turning a page.  You really will not be “gone”.  

One of my clients died yesterday and she has organised friends and family to decorate her casket with photos, words, poems, anything they would like to add as a ‘goodbye message’.  What have you got planned?  A home made cardboard coffin, painted, decorated… Is this too “out there” for you? I recently was at a funeral where the casket was bamboo.  A step in the right direction, but uninspiring.  I have always offered to add ashes to an oil painting.. subject of your choice – but could just as easily decorate your coffin.  I have been employed to do both of these for pets, and for my own gorgeous pet who passed,  keeping the skull and decorating this (beautiful not creepy at all).

“The successive existences in a series of rebirths are not like the pearls in a pearl necklace, held together by string, the “soul”, which passes through all the pearls; rather they are like dice piled one on top of the other.  Each die is separate, but it supports the one above it, which is functionally connected.  Between the dice there is no identity, but conditionality.”  (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying).

It is like a flame  in a lamp.  Is the flame different in the beginning of the night and the end?  No,  because it is the one lamp that burns the whole night. Rebirth is the much the same.  One phenomenon arises and another stop simultaneously.  So the first act of consciousness is neither the same as the last act of consciousness, nor is it different.

 

I WILL SEE YOU ON THE MAT (I really will).

NAMASTE.  JAHNE