eNewsletters for Trainees Teachers – Page 73

Dear Yogis,

Don’t forget that our yoga luncheon happens this coming Saturday at 12 noon.

THANK YOU FOR THOSE WHO GAVE ME FEEDBACK FOR THE LAST NEWSLETTER, I have followed here in the same vein.

DELVING INTO THE SANSKRIT GITA.. During covid we wandered through the Bhagavadgita TWICE by popular demand, but I have not heard a whisper about it since. Well, I have not forgotten and i keep reading, remembering. Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, the largest body of teachings devoted to the attainment of self-knowledge and is more easily available by studying Sanskrit, even the baby steps as you start learning. I studied Sanskrit years ago, and i suppose if i started again it would still be in my mental library somewhere. If you want to learn find good teacher, or learn via Oxford University on line – I am sure they have a course. I studied the Gita with them and loved it although it was difficult..

The opening words of the Gita in English are “On the sacred fields of Kurukshetra….” In Sanskrit the opening words are two compounds Dharma-kshetre, kurukshtre making Dharma the first word of the Gita. Dharma – right living – is the key to the whole of the Gita. What is the last word of the Gita? Mama Dharma, my decree, my law, my religion, my morality, my order that sustains and holds up everything. In the 700 verses between these two words we find the essence of Vedanta. Kshtre means “in the field” and the third word “kuru” carries the sense of “the doer”, making the Gita’s opening words “in the field of dharma, in the field of doing…” Working with these words kshtre, kshtre dharma kuru means “.. in field after field act righteously..”

The Gita encourages us to ask “how did my battle to live righteously go today?” The word yoga then has the meaning “to prepare the mind”. Until your teacher appears, follow the Gita path and live well: “kshetre kshetre dharma kuru…”.

GITA ZOOM STUDY: Mondays on zoom at 6.30, starting this coming Monday – please let me know your interest so i can send you the zoom ID.

YOGA CLASSES AND STUDIO TIMES…..

Windarring Yoga – Tues. x 2 +Thurs. x 1. (some Fridays)

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) Mon. 2.15, Wednesday Restorative 1pm

NEW: CALM AND CLEANSE YOGA (Monday. one vacancy in the 2.15 class) Thurs. 10am and Sat 2.30 starting the first week in November (next week!)

ZOOM STUDY – Monday 30th October, 6.30. I have been asked to play again in the Gita, so we will.

STUDIO SEWING BEE – Sundays at 2.30

TAROT READINGS AT THE STUDIO – Look forward to hearing from you. You can even come on the weekends, and I can do “doubles” – you and mum, maybe you and a friend. BRAILLE Tarot deck and usb – a course on tarot reading for the blind is on the way…

THE YOGA LUNCHEON: As always the last Saturday in the month. The next at 12noon the 28th October – PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY NOW..you are all welcome. I have booked for us to go to The Full Moon in Woodend. Warm, “homey” and great food. I love the Nachos – with chicken – with prawns – vegan, or Mexican. Any of them are great.

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO (and at the yoga lunch at the end of the month)

Dear Yogis,

A lovely sewing bee as usual. It is interesting that no matter what the class is – yoga, sewing, meditation, tarot anything – people come if they feel that can GET something. They rarely come in order to give – give time, companionship, skill, healing….. we missed your company.

NEW YOGA CLASSES STARTING IN THE WEEK. SEE BELOW. All welcome.

Maybe you thought that because I had many interests, my yoga is being drowned… not so. I sit and I draw and sew and paint – all the while I think! With all that is happening in the world, I thought I would bring your mind once again to THE YUGAS, in particular the age that we are living through at the moment, THE KALI YUGA.

THE AGE OF DARKNESS: In the Hindu traditions it is said that existence moves through cycles of increase and decrease, expansion and contraction. These cycles are divided into four eras or yugas. The first, THE SATYA YUGA is the longest – a time of beauty and harmony, purity and perfection when desires and fulfilment arise simultaneously – This era is said to last 1,728,000 years. The next is the TRETA YUGA of 1,296,000 years. In this era, perfection wanes slightly, longing, paths and goals begin to unravel. In the DVATPARA YUGA which lasts 864,000 years, desires, classes, action and intentions get more and more varied. Then we come to our era THE KALI YUGA. Kali Yuga (Sanskrit: कलियुग, romanized: kaliyuga or kali-yuga) means “the age of Kali (demon)”, “the age of darkness”, “the age of vice and misery”, or “the age of quarrel and hypocrisy”. A complete description of Kali Yuga is found in the Mahabharata, Manusmriti, Vishnu Smriti, and various Puranas.

In the Kali Yuga, desires and the objects of desire have been separated. We struggle to bring them together but our attempts at best are temporary. It is a time marked by anguish, longing and rage. In this time spiritual, moral and ethical life degenerate, material life becoming the only motivator and goal. Pollution, corruption, disease degeneration and violence fill our mind and poison the world. The only useful virtue that can be practised is COMPASSION. We are moving inexorably towards the end of time as we know it. We feel the end approaching. The tempo of mass destruction has increased, dread and a sense of unreality now pervade the midstream of the modern age.

Yugas and Human Consciousness. The solar system with the Sun and the planets around it is moving in the galaxy. It takes 25,920 years for our solar system to complete one cycle around a larger star. From the effects upon the planet, we believe this big star or big system that our system is going around is not located in the center of the orbit but somewhere to the side. Whenever our solar system comes closer to this big system, all the creatures living in our system rise to greater possibilities. Whenever our system moves away from it, the creatures living in our system come to the lowest level of possibility – we say this is Kali Yuga.

When our solar system is closer to the “Super Sun,” a Satya Yuga will begin. The human mind will be at its highest capability. People’s ability to know life, people’s ability to communicate, people’s ability to live joyfully will be at its highest. Or in other words, we will have sensible people. All it takes to live well on this planet is a bunch of sensible people.

Krishna also said that after over 5000 years, there will come a many thousand year period of time that will be fabulous. At the same time, no matter which time, which yuga, which planetary position we are in right now, individual human beings can rise above all this. Individual human beings can live in a golden time within themselves. Even in the worst of times, the possibility to be well above it is always there for an individual human being.

We can set the foundations and have the joy of creating an atmosphere for a stretch of thousands of years of golden time upon the planet. This is not all predictions and conjecture – this is based on a deep-rooted understanding about what happens with the human mind in relation to the planet on which we live. We do not only live on this planet – we are the planet. If you do not understand this today, you will understand this when you are buried. The planet understands that you are a part of it – only you think something else of yourself.

BACK TO BASICS – IGA VS COLES: We all have to eat and we have these two stores in our town. I love Croissants, and IGA have recently introduced a pack of 6 for $3. They are individually wrapped, they are made in France, and they are quite the best croissants in a supermarket around this price…. Coles have frozen French croissants for $6 for 6, but they are not as nice. Try IGA’s.

YOGA CLASSES AND STUDIO TIMES…..

Windarring Yoga – Tues. x 2 +Thurs. x 1. (some Fridays)

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) Mon. 2.15, Wednesday Restorative 1pm

NEW: CALM AND CLEANSE YOGA Thurs. 10am and Sat 2.30 starting the first week in November (next week!)

STUDIO SEWING BEE – Sundays at 2.30

THE YOGA LUNCHEON: As always the last Saturday in the month. The next at 12noon the 28th October – PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY NOW.. I have booked for us to go to The Full Moon in Woodend. Warm, “homey” and great food. I love the Nachos – with chicken – with prawns – vegan, or Mexican. Any of them are great.

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO (and at the yoga lunch at the end of the month)

Dear Yogis,

Gorgeous gardening weather, and not a time for dark thoughts – but I had them this morning. Read on only if perhaps you wish to be challenged. Maybe you have had these thoughts, may be not, they are not easy to deal with. I hope that my thoughts have helped you – it was totally new way of looking at my relationships. I did play a role in them and am still processing. At the time I did have the opportunity to love myself enough to move away, but did not – I am still processing after all this time. This is what it is all about – as Tina said “What has love got to do with it?”.

This morning, for the very first time in my life I experienced an actual dark cloud descend on me! Recently I was talking about love with a student, we spoke of our partners, how they had “done us wrong” and how, no matter the depth of our hurt, we admitted still to feelings of love – not an unusual girl conversation. A female thing?

The cloud visited this morning when I moved on from this conversation, to recall an episode of Kavanagh QC with JohnThaw. He played a QC working with the International Tribunal of War Crimes. They were trying to bring to justice a German who worked as a Doctor in the camps. The doctor said he was a prisoner, had escaped to England and “become” English. More English than the English, he even had the camp tattoo. No one could or would say otherwise until an old lady was brough to the stand. She called him her “Angel”. Under a number of episodes of clever and gentle questioning by Kavanagh, it turns out that the man was a Doctor in the camps, he was her abuser and he was her rescuer, and she loved him for that. This response in the old days was called the Stockholm Syndrome. Yes, he was brought to justice.

I wondered if that is the same as an abusive (emotional or physical) relationship where we love our abuser because any other response is not open to us at the time. I can only say what it felt like to me. As a human and especially as a female, I have to process this, move through to forgiveness and find a new place. I have thought about it before but only as a vague thought – this morning brought it right to the mat. Thank goodness for yoga, meditation and the Tibetan Book of the Dead (an interesting thought I will explore) – how would we move forward without the safety of our mat? Our special country.

Stockholm syndrome is a complex—and often misunderstood—phenomenon, and is not defined as a mental health condition by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 TR). Instead, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) considers it a mental and emotional response. Stockholm syndrome is typically considered a psychological defence or coping mechanism experienced by some during extreme trauma, like kidnapping, domestic abuse or human sex trafficking. At this point I would like to know more about Stockholm syndrome and what it might look like in different scenarios, like abusive relationships and even unhealthy workplace dynamics.

Note: I have spoken of my experience as Stockholm syndrome, but some mental health clinicians recommend the term trauma bonding instead, as it may be less stigmatizing.

“………….I’ve been taking on a new direction, but I have to say I’ve been thinking about my own protection – It scares me to feel this way……..” (Tina Turner)

YOGA CLASSES AND STUDIO TIMES…..

Windarring Yoga – Tues. x 2 +Thurs. x 1. (some Fridays)

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) 2.15 Wed. Restorative 1pm. STUDIO SEWING BEE – Sundays at 2.30

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO (and at the yoga lunch at the end of the month)