Dear Yogis…

Hooray we are (reliably) back.  I love writing the newsletters, and thankfully some of you like recieving them.  As I said…as we did with the old files, we will be going over the lists of subscribers and checking as far as we can who is responding, and at least reading… as much as we can tell.  The computer program helps.  When we culled the Teacher Training files after months of notifications that we would,  we got the most response months AFTERWARDS when people realised they weren’t any longer part of the team.  Don’t leave it that long this time.  Sometimes we have to start at the beginning…again.

BALANCE:  In yoga, meditation and life there must be balance.  In meditation, between relaxation and attention, between focus and analysis.  In the very old Tibetan Temples there was no electricity of course.  They were lit with butter lamps.  It was in this way hard to see that the walls were covered with paintings.  If you wanted to see the paintings you had to get close to the wall and then deal with the draughts which repeatedly blew out the flame.

It describes perfectly the state of meditation, the goal of which is to see past disturbances into the nature of reality.

Balance and stillness are not the same.  Finding balance means accepting and learning to live with change.  That’s the basis of adaptation.  Covid is teaching us this skill.

WHY WE MEDITATE. There are a number of reasons to meditate, just as there are a number of reasons to keep bees, or anything which is dependent on us.  We always need to ask good questions.  Perhaps reflecting on these questions – In doing this, am I making things better or worse? Are my efforts making things better or worse? Most importantly, am I serving others or just serving myself?   It is not always easy to get the correct answers to these questions, but asking them should be a priority.

“The lessons taught by a teacher with a positive motivation penetrate deepest into their students minds.  I know this from my own personal experience.  As a boy I was very lazy.  But when I was aware of the affection and concern of my tutors, their lessons would sink in more successfully than if one was hard or unfeeling on that day.

So far as the specifics of education are concerned, that is for the experts.  I will therefore confine myself to a few suggestions.  The first is to awaken young people’s consciousness to the importance of basic human values, it is better not to present society’s problems purely as an ethical or religious matter. 

It is important to emphasise that what is at stake is our continued survival”.  HH The fourteenth Dalai Lama 2006.

In my garden I am still dealing with the ravages of winter – not as bitter as it used to be, but very wet.  My Tibetan gongs like damp air, but I am looking forward to sunshine.  I have ordered my new bee colony which will arrive in September which is not long away now.  By that time I will have cleared away what remains of winter and everything will be ready for the bees in the spring.

Don’t forget to click our “classes”  on the home page of this site to see our zoom classes.  Teacher Training on the 2nd August will be zoomed.  So all you folk who have said how much they want to join us CAN.  We wait to see if you are ready for “spring”.

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Good morning Yogis,

I hope that we are back on air,  there was a hiccup, not with my writing, but with Mailchimps sending practices.  So, over the next couple of weeks, I am going to comb through the contacts we send the newsletters to, and if you never respond, if you haven’t clicked on it and read it (yes computers record this), I will take you off the list.  If I am left with just a few dedicated readers, well, it is what it is.  Buckle up guys.  It is a time of decision and weeding in this particular garden.

BEES:  Studying bees is like studying ourselves.  My palate never gets sick of the taste of honey, and because I love honey I have always admired the insects who magically make it.  I also am in awe of their community has often been the model for human society.  You can find references in Virgil, in Homer, in Plate Shakespeare, Marx and Tolstoy and of course our special friend Pliny the Elder.  His book, completed in AD77 …

Bees have a government. They pursue individual schemes but have collective leaders.  What is especially astonishing, they have manners more advanced than those of other animals, whether wild or tame.  Nature is great in  that from a tiny, ghost like creature she has made something incomparable.  What sinews or muscles can we compare with the enormously efficiency shown by bees?  What men in heavens name, can we set alongside these insects which are superior to men when it comes to reasoning? FOR THEY RECOGNISE ONLY WHAT IS IN THE COMMON INTEREST.

The inscriptions on many old beehives reads “NON NOBIS” meaning We work but not for ourselves”.  When in old drawings we see the old fashioned SKEP hive, it stands for some view of the goodness of work.  Sometimes this skep encourages us to reflect on the golden age of the past when work was simpler and slower.  However, in the bees world, there are no sickies, no holidays.  You are born, you work you die, no time off even to go to school..  No sooner had man admired the life of the bee and their tirelessness than he felt that he (or his wife) should emulate them in some way.

In Victorian times (as noted by Mrs. Beeton) the beehive was a symbol of industry.  It shows in one illustration that the world could be ordered.  A world in which different people did different tasks and no one envied the position of their neighbour.  A place for everyone and everyone in their place.  Like good supermarkets, industries, and families, a  good hive needs a balance of foragers and receivers.

At this time of covid there is much we can learn and receive from bees.  Honey has long been known as a medicine and strengthener of the bronchi. Muhhamed Ali the boxer took a mixture of vitamins and honey before his fights… and said that he “…danced like a butterfly, stung like a bee”.

Is there a beehive in your garden? Is honey part of your diet? Try my honey cough drops you will find the recipe on www.wildnweedy.blogspot.com.

Let me know you are there.  Don’t forget we will be zooming Teacher Training, The Tarot Training and Anatomy/Physiology lectures.  

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

 

 

Dear Yogis,

Yesterday I did the first “very good” (not excellent, just very good) zoom class.  Baby steps, baby steps as I am always saying to you all. It was fantastic for me, and I hope that those who joined in felt we made headway in this new era of technology.

This has given me confidence to open the doors to more.  Thank you to those students who helped me in understanding zoom and how it works.. took time to coach me in being a “zoom host”, who took time from their day to help me explore the site.  I couldn’t have taken these steps as easily without you.

TEACHER TRAINING:  We will definitely have teacher training via ZOOM on Sunday the 2nd August at 2pm.  If you want to join in please pay your $20 teacher training fee (this is the charge in the studio for 2 hours of teacher training… same in zoom as in the studio).  When I have your acceptance, I will send you the DD numbers.  When I have the receipt for your direct debit payment I will forward your registration details (please put them somewhere safe).   

TUESDAY STUDIES:  I am going to have YOGA trainings in specific subjects one evening per week starting the 28th July.  Tuesdays 7.30 to 9pm for three weeks, there will be a new topic for each of the three week units.  These will be suitable for beginners – no big words, hardly any Sanskrit.

This also will be Zoom and it will be in three lesson blocks $35 for the three lessons.When I have your acceptance, I will send you the DD numbers.  When I have the receipt for your direct debit payment I will forward your registration details (please put them somewhere safe).    The subject for the first three Tuesday studies will be HYPERMOBILITY.  I go over and over this in correcting modules.  So many of you pay no attention, or think it doesn’t apply to you, it does.

To get the most out of this study, please download the chart THE CFS CONNECTION via www.myyogabooks.etsy.com.  It is in the section called “HYPERMOBILITY”.  Print it on lovely paper to show your students, but first make a photo copy that you can write on in our study time.  It is only $2.75.

I was pleased to see that everyone in our tarot zoom class brought paper and pen and made notes.  I would hope in any of our zoom times you will do the same.  This is the school room, and we all need to take notes, even me. (Especially me).

HEMP INFORMATION TIME. Saturday 10am starting 25th July.   We will cover How It Works, all aspects of this wonderful and useful plant given to us by Shiva for the good of the world…  we won’t get it all done in one session that is for sure.  There is no cost for this time, and it may a take a few Saturdays to cover the topic.  I hope that this will become a really good discussion time.  There is a lot to know.  Please email me if you are interested in joining and I will give you the registration details.  The information we will be using for these sessions can be found on the web site www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

This has not been our usual newsletter time – but it is the easiest way to get to you all, and invite you all to our new way of teaching.  Zoom times..

Have a wonderful day,

NAMASTE.  JAHNE