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Dear Yogis,

ZOOM
WEDNESDAY: RESTORATIVE YOGA 12.30, RESTORATIVE YOGA 5.30, MINDFULNESS MEDITATION 6.45
To do any zoom classes look on the home page of www.yogabeautiful.com.au decide on the class you want and pay on the TO PAY button at the bottom of the page.
Don’t forget to put your name and class on the message section of the PayPal docket.  Email me for your ZOOM ID.

THE BOOK OF CHANGES

I live in a world where I teach yoga with an emphasis on the the “why” not so much on the “how”, on the philosophy rather than the asana. My son reads physics for fun, read the table of elements to his unborn children, and physics to his grown children.  My friends read physics for “fun” no matter what their jobs are, and “enlighten” me with their current enthusiasms and discoveries.  I love thinking – it is a whole lot better than sudoku to keep the brain engaged.  Physics and Yoga/Buddhism are one understanding of the universe, expressed differently.  The Dalai Lama has for many years worked to bring these two disciplines closer.

To Paraphrase an old Chinese saying: “Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches, Scientists understand its branches but not its roots”.  Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science, but man needs both.  Mystical experience is needed to understand the deepest nature of things, and science is needed in modern life.  What we are looking for is not one to be absorbed into the other but a dynamic flow between them, between intuition and analysis.

As yogis we are beginning to understand the “oneness” of the universe which includes not only the world around us, the environment, what we think of as matter, but also our fellow human beings.  Our job as yogis is to show the way that life can be lived in harmony with nature. A balance between yin and yang.

In the words of Sri Aurobindo “nothing to the supra-mental sense is really finite: it is founded on a feeling of all in each and each in all”

In Buddhist Philosophy, the idea of all in each and each in all is believed to be based on a text called AVATAMSAKA SUTRA which is believed to have been delivered by the Buddha whilst he was in deep meditation after his awakening.  This sutra which has thus far not been fully translated into english describes how the world is viewed by an enlightened state of consciousness, when we finally understand that everything is one.  When all the outlines dissolve and we understand all that is.

In the last part called the “GANDAVYUHA”  it tells the story of Sudhana a young pilgrim who gives a clear and vivid account of the universe as he saw it during his mystical experience.  I shall give a paraphrase of this sutra by D.T.Suzuki, who uses a magnificent tower to describe Sudhana’s experience.

The Tower is as wide and spacious as the sky itself.  The ground is paved with precious stones of all kinds and there are within the tower (innumerable) palaces, porches, windows, staircases, railings, and passages, all of which are made of precious gems…
And within the tower, spacious and exquisitely ornamented, there are also hundreds of thousands… of towers, each one of which is as exquisitely ornamented as the main Tower itself, and as spacious as the sky.  And all these towers, beyond calculation in number, stand not at all in one-another’s way: each preserves its individual existence in perfect harmony with the rest; there is nothing here that bars one tower being fused which all the others individually or collectively; there is a state of perfect intermingling yet of perfect orderliness.  Sudhana the young pilgrim, sees himself in all the towers, as well as in each single tower, where all is contained in one and each contains all.

The passage of course is a metaphor for the universe itself and the perfect fusion of its parts known in Mahayana Buddhism as “interpenetration”.  This understanding is why we meditate.  Not just to lock ourselves away in silence, but to understand where we are in the matrix.   To transform. To experience the wholeness of nature and to live in it in harmony.

 

JOIN US ON THIS EXCITING JOURNEY

NAMASTE:  Jahne

 

Dear Yogis,

ZOOM:
TUESDAY: 7.30pm Yoga Lecture. 
WEDNESDAY:  12.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA  5.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA.  6.45 MINDFULNESS/YOGA NIDRA
FRIDAY:  11am ZOOM CAFE   5.30pm RESTORATIVE YOGA
SATURDAY:  12.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA    2pm MAKE YOUR OWN TAROT/”ZEN DOODLES – The Tao of Watercolour”.

“ZEN Doodling” classes $50 for three classes.  To enquire or register interest email me at yogafirst2@bigpond.com.  

DOODLES – You could do this.  All it needs is a little playfulness, and a willingness to try.  It is easy. Materials are easy to come by from you your local newsagent (for starters).  Just some watercolours, a brush, some watercolour paper, rags, water jars, a fine tipped sharpie, drafting tape, and kitchen paper.  If you had some Chinese brush painting equipment that would be good, but at this point not mandatory.

Then we just play, chase the paint around.  When you consider that getting cards are so expensive today, making your own would be a great saving – I really don’t like email cards. Do you?  You can see from the photo that I made four cards in one go, and you could too.  They can be given as Christmas gifts, and once you have got a few skills you can show your children how to make them with you in no time at all.

DOWSING
Every day, a number of times a day I use my pendulum. I ask questions like  “how many vitamin B, C, Magnesium and when?” Very practical questions.  What to plant in the garden, where is the leak in a pipe?  It is about working with the universe, so we can’t be sure of the outcome, but it is very interesting.

I have the little pendulum chart just by my computer with my crystal so that I can refer to it when choices come up that I need another friend to talk to, and believe me my crystal is my friend.  For your pendulum chart ( small or large)  go to www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

I made this chart and pendulum and can help you make your own.  Please register your interest by emailing me personally at yogafirst2@bigpond.com.

MEDITATION
Traditionally MEDITATION means “to fix the mind” (not to “empty the mind).  We have to ask ourself the question “Fix the mind on what?”  To be above the everyday anxieties which affect the mind, we must raise ourselves above the material platform.. the next question is “How can I rise to the SPIRITUAL?”  God (The Creator, whatever word you use) is on the spiritual level, and if we are in constant alignment with God, then we can also be situated on the spiritual platform – even whilst we function on the material plane.  The easiest way to be fixed in constant contact with God is through chanting His Names.  Not always out loud… As yogis, we think of these names as MANTRAS.

MALA BEADS
The best way to chant a mantra is to carry a set of beads (108 beads on the string), a big bead added to mark the starting and ending points.  Chant your mantra on all 108 beads and when you start and end at the big bead we call this one round.  Each round should take 7-10 minutes – or perhaps a little longer to start with.

It is said that if you practise this meditation you will achieve success and happiness in life.  I have one on my wrist I use a number of times every day just to ground me, and a very large string of crystal  MALA BEADS I use when I am sitting for a dedicated mantra meditation.

Malas can be a significant part of your meditation practice, and we will learn to make them in our Saturday/Sunday classes.  Here are some unique ways to use a mala:

Gift a MalaPurchase (or make) a mala and give it to a loved one to commemorate a special occasion like:

  • Completing a degree
  • Finishing yoga teacher training
  • Birthday
  • Anniversary
  • “Just Because” special treat

Honor Yourself.   Set your mala at the top of your yoga mat (or like me, wear it on your wrist) as a reminder to your intentions as you practice yoga asana. You can also wear your mala necklace to honor whatever it means for you, like an:

  • Accomplishment
  • Desire
  • Intention

We can change our destiny through Devotional Service and Chanting is a Devotional Service not subject to material laws but to the spiritual principles Krsna shares in the Bhagavadgita.     (We are studying the Bhagavadgita in Teacher Training on Sunday Mornings at 10am – join us).

 

SEE YOU ON THE MAT.
NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Yogic,

ZOOM
MONDAY: 1PM RESTORATIVE with bands and weights (“ZEN DOODLES” CLASS 6.45 pm – start date pending your interest)
TUESDAY: 1.30pm The Tao of Watercolour, “ZEN DOODLES” No art experience required. Start date pending your interest.  7.30PM DISCOVERING THE CHAKRAS.
WEDNESDAY: 12.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA,  5.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA,  6.45pm MINDFULNESS MEDITATION/YOGA NIDRA

 

Although it is cold here, the sun is streaming in the windows… shortly I am going for a walk, and I am really looking forward to exploring the world in the sunshine.  The photo to the left is my garden with the stupa.

This morning I have been thinking about my ZEN DOODLE CLASSES, The Tao of Watercolour.  I think ZEN DOODLE says it all.  It is a wonderful way to express what we do.  Of course I always take things one step further, but the doodle and the colour is everything that you will do.  It is amazing what can be achieved when you turn the mind off for a little while, and let the colour lead the dance.  Chase it across the page…..

Please join us “ZEN DOODLING” on a Saturday as part of the MAKE YOUR OWN TAROT CARDS at 2pm, and as a stand alone class on a Tuesday afternoon at 1.30. and Mondays at 6.45pm.   Email me to register your interest: yogafirst2@bigpond.com


CARING

Caring for one another even in these times of COVID is almost impossible, simply because we don’t know each other well enough to know how to help. The answer is for people with the spiritual gift of “caring”, maybe this is you, you don’t need a diploma – just a spoonful of wisdom.  Enough wisdom to give counsel or even just listen to the children of God.

In order to do this consistently with your community, or your yoga community you must get to know your group if you have any hope of giving them consistent wise counsel.

What does this have to do with SIMPLICITY (which seems to have been our focus)? The answer is a simple one – we cannot enter a life of simplicity without the help of one another.  Covid is helping because it is causing us to re-evaluate everything that we do and have.  For example, some people need to take a rest from study, even yoga study, but they will never do it unless someone tenderly urges them to take this step of simplification.  Others need to be encouraged to get out of their attitude of laziness, procrastination and excuses and get back into their study.

Please do not read this in a structured way.  I am not talking about rules, or “shoulds”.  Just suggesting that we might try to find ways to receive and give help and counsel from people who have been gifted with the spiritual gifts of discernment and wisdom.  “The CARE OF SOULS” is an ancient ministry.  “Doing what you can, where you are, with what you have” (The Buddha).


I AM HERE FOR YOU – BE WHERE YOU ARE FOR OTHERS.

NAMASTE – JAHNE