Blog Student News Trainees/Teacher News

Dear Yogis,

ZOOM: Email me to join a class yogafirst2@bigpond.com
Today, MONDAY 1pm:  RESTORATIVE YOGA
TUESDAY: 7.30pm YOGA LECTURES.  The Chakras..

THE STORE:  I have put all of my PENDULUM BOARDS on www.firstmountaindowsers.com.  They are all there, and all inclusive of postage.  I will be putting up some unusual bone pendants soon.

I hope you make room for our next classes on ZOOM.  Not just pop-in times, but regular, committed classes.  Just because you are not in the studio does not mean it is not important.  It is, and it can be just as “committed”, but not if you don’t take it seriously.

Our Saturday TAROT MAKING classes are inspirational.  Each of the students is doing their own thing within the scope of the class.  ZEN DOODLING to make Pendulum Boards, Tarot cards, Affirmation cards, paintings, miniatures and even a journal.

The classes can help you to produce anything that you want.  If you have got art materials in your cupboards you don’t know how to use properly – I can teach you.  Make your doodles into greeting cards, pendulum boards, and books.

 

SILENCE
I love painting because it requires solitude, and I know enough about myself to realise I function best when I alternate between periods of intense activity and periods of comparison solitude. When I understand this about myself I can order my life accordingly.  After too much time on the computer I begin to burn out.   I notice that I burn out inwardly before I burn out outwardly.  Painting helps me ground myself.  Creativity stops me from becoming a frantic bundle of hollow energy, busy, busy, busy but devoid of life.

It is a meditation.  We can have a holy silence and when we nature it, miracles occur. It is wonderful, this resting in “the God of Creation”, this stilling of activity, “seeking first His Kingdom”.  That is why doing art on the computer holds no attraction for me… it is an interface between me and God when actual painting is not.  Painting gets me closer to God, closer to the Holy Silence.

At all times, but especially in the beginning we need to find a specific time and place to nurture silence.  Painting, creativity gives me this.

Some people find the silences in the early morning, others quiet themselves best in the deep quiet of the night.  Whatever time we choose, we must have time to still the churning, to quiet the restlessness, to meditate on God.  Painting doesn’t replace meditation, it is another form of meditation, and I need both.  

We all worry about living beyond our means financially; why do it emotionally.  We must learn our emotional limits and respect them. We are too busy only because we want to be too busy.  We could cut out a great deal of our activity and not seriously effect our productivity.  Perhaps not just absorbing the information that flies towards us every minute, but thinking about its significance. Thinking is the hardest work we can do, and among the most important.

One of the most profound effect of inward simplicity is the rise of an amazing spirit of contentment.  

 

NAMASTE – JAHNE

 

 

Dear Yogis,

Tomorrow morning is going to be a busy one.The TEACHER TRAINING AT 10am so I am getting a head of time and doing the newsletter now – The topic for the class is THE BHAGAVADGITA AND THE BIBLE.  I guess you don’t think there are similarities, but believe me there are.  You only have to read “LIGHT OF ASIA”the poem by Sir Edwin Arnold to know the similarities.

The Bible is a little more obscure… but we will get there I assure you, with a few side trips as always. Parmahansa Yoganansa was a Christian Yogi as is Thitch Nat Hahn and many more.. I am not sure about Deepak Chopra.  There is no conflict.  Buddhism is a philosophy not a religion.

IT’S Saturday as I write this:   and I have just finished a fabulous TAROT (MAKE YOUR OWN CARDS AND PENDULUM BOARD) CLASS.  I know that is a mouthful but everyone is doing something different, so we have them altogether sharing techniques, and how-to’s.  It is fabulous,  and the things that are coming out of the class are fantastic.  You should join. In the one class some are doing Sumi brush painting, some are making boards and cards, some learning to Zen doodle and use watercolours….  what will you do?

Soon we are going to make pendulums and mala beads, but we have to finish making the boards before we can start those.   If you want to buy a board made by me and ready to use, please go to www.firstmountaindowsers.com my new website to dowsing and the arts… You can always go to Etsy for a look at everything I sell – only the dowsing things are on the new site, and not all of them yet.  www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

DOWSING..

I use my pendulum to determine vitamin dosages, gardening questions, repairs, what to pay and when… things you wouldn’t think about,  things you might ask your accountant or partner.  Once you have identified your personal coding system you can then test yourself for food sensitivities, balance your diet and much, much more.  You could look for vitamin and mineral supplements which through dowsing,  your system will tell you are required. Much like kinesiology.

These are the words of Louis Pasteur on his death bed (spoken in French probably) “I got it wrong. The microbe is nothing, its environment is everything”.  He realised that in times of plague, not everyone got the illness.  He had realised that the people mattered, and the various different environments that they presented to the microbes was important.  Dowsing can help you by keeping you tuned in to HOW THINGS ARE and  is a bridge between the logical and the intuitive mind.  

If you keep yourself firmly grounded then dowsing is safe and if you don’t swan off in flights of fantasy,  dowsing can be an invaluable skill in helping us to live our lives more fully. Dowsing can tell us how things are.

Dowsing can revolutionise your life and help you to heal in a way you never expected, bringing you more and more in tune with the universe.  It is entirely possible to change the only being over whom we have total control over –  ourselves.

SEE YOU IN CLASS

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

ZOOM:
SATURDAY: 12.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA  2pm TAROT MAKING CLASS
SUNDAY: 10am TEACHER TRAINING – THE BHAGAVADGITA.  (all welcome for this class, teacher, trainee or curious)
I think you are all jaded by the continuous lock downs, or just can’t be bothered, because our yoga classes are down a bit from the enthusiasm at the beginning.  The same students who were faithful in class, are faithful on zoom.  Who would have guessed?
When we get back to bums on seats, real class, you may be surprised to find that your studio class is no longer offered and has been swallowed up by zoom students who come every time.  Yoga, like art, has to pay the rent.

FRIDAY EVENING PENDULUM CLASS:  This was fantastic, and we start next week working on our Pendulum Boards which is what the class decided was what was needed and wanted.  If you want a pendulum board ready made, I sell them.. go to   www.firstmountaindowsers.com and click on the Store.     If you want to join this one hour free class, or the Saturday afternoon 2 hour series you will need materials, (and the 2 hour class costs $50 for a series of three classes – if you came to both you would get to work on your project for 3 hours for about $17 per 3 hours a week…affordable – sure..  Let me know you want to join and I will speak to you about this. yogafirst2@bigpond.com

At the risk of being a “schoolmarm”, or a “tough old tart” – Do you think that paying attention to your yoga practice isn’t important? You will somehow catch up? Or that Karma won’t catch up with you?

The yogi looks within and explores his or consciousness at its various levels which include the body as the physical manifestation of the mind.  The experience of one’s body is often seen as the key to the mystical expression of the world. When we are healthy we do not feel any separate parts in our body, but we are aware of it as an integrated whole, and this feeling generates a feeling of well-being and happiness.  The mystic is aware of the wholeness of the entire cosmos which is experienced as an extension of his body.

An old Chinese saying:  “Mystics understand the roots of the Tao and not its branches, and scientists understand the branches of the Tao but not its roots.  Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science, but man needs them both”.

We will be living in a Covid world for some time.  To live in harmony at this present time there are a number of steps we can take…

1.  We need to eat from the earth.  Our food needs to be gathered as close to the source as possible
2.  Being “at One”.  This is about appreciating nature and our fellow beings (and the virus which is also a “Fellow Being”).
3. Respecting the life-force. Treat the planet with humbleness, patience and understanding.
4. Restore pure water and save the oceans –  without which life on planet earth will not be pleasant…
5. Like the Dakota Indians “Live your life thinking of your children’s children.”

 

SEE YOU ON THE MAT
NAMASTE.  JAHNE