Miyoga 2012

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Yama & Niyama

Cathryn Booth-Jones

How often have we heard it suggested that we work with some posture at home and inwardly thought ‘where will I find the time’? In a busy lifestyle it can be difficult to make time for these things with so many other things clamouring for our attention.

We can however, incorporate yoga into our everyday life in another way - by working with the first two limbs of the eight-fold path of yoga, Yama & Niyama.

The eight limbs as written in Pantanjali’s yoga sutras are as follows :

1. Yama – abstinence

2. Niyama – observance

3. Asana – postures

4. Pranayama – breath control

5. Pratyahara – sense withdrawal

6. Dharana – concentration

7. Dhyana – meditation

8. Samadhi – contemplation.

These first two limbs are the prerequisite to hatha yoga. In a Miyoga class, we practice all three simultaneously. They form the ethical path of yoga and can be practised anywhere, anytime, without interfering in our daily activities but rather enhancing them.

Yamas are described as abstinences or healthy behaviours. They deal with our interaction with our environment, our relationships with others and society as a whole.

There are 5 Yama (abstentions) and they are:

Ahimsa – Non- violence/Kindness

Satya – Truth/Honesty

Asteya – Non-stealing/Responsibility

Brahmacarya – Moderation of Sexuality/Unity

Aparigraha – Non-greed/Simplicity

Niyamas are healthy practices, personal observances, that create an environment that is healthy and supports our growth. They allow us to experience deeper states of meditation because of their effect on our nervous system and our influence on our environment becomes more positive.

There are also 5 Niyama (observances) and they are:

Shaoca – Purity /Clarity

Santosa – Contentment/Acceptance

Tapah – Austerity/Sacrifice

Svadhyaya – Self Study/Understanding

Ishvara Pranidhara – Surrender/Spirituality

The Yamas & Niyamas are you could say a recipe for living well. All of us are born with these inherent qualities and over time and through experience we are pulled away from them. This means that we do not need to acquire or manufacture them, just simply rediscover them in ourselves. We do this through observing our whole life; thoughts, feelings, speech, action in light of each of the Yamas and Niyamas. By becoming more aware of them, we become aware of all that keeps us from experiencing wholeness. Awareness brings healing with it, as we discover our ability to make choices.

‘Yamas & Niyamas deal with the fundamental things which tend to cloud the mirror of personality which reflects the Self.’ - K & V Kingsland (Complete Hatha Yoga)

I encourage you to join me on this journey of discovery as in future issues we explore each Yama and Niyama in turn. You will be able to ponder the relevance of each to you personally and to our society and I will include things you can do to bring them into your day to day life and so be practising yoga wherever you go!

Maiti Nepal

I had the chance this week to attend the screening of CNN's launch of the Freedom Project which features Demi Moore in Nepal addressing the epidemic issue of human trafficing.

The panel discussed this issue closer to home in Australia. The arguments went around in circle - how do you modify this trend? Whose responsiblity is it? What are the avenues of communication? The core issue was gleamed - but not emphasised. The catalyst for human slavery is poverty. You can not stop slavery without removing the desperation of those forced or trapped into it. The Fair Trade brand was represented and it was this spokesperson who called a spade a spade. To stop global poverty we have to buy Australian Made. That means having less - and paying more. Needless to say if this became a reality he would be out of a job!

There is a silent collusion on the part of every consumer to turn a blind eye to that which we support through our purchasing. It is a cultural addiction. If we could kick it - we wouldn't recognise the world we live in. The CNN Freedom Project Maiti Nepal

Situational Yoga

After returning from traveling around Australia for 4 months. I found that my traditional yoga practice was constantly interrupted either by the weather - being too hot, (even at 6 in the morning!) or we were on the move or some other very reasonable excuse! Rather than give up, I found that I could do ‘yoga’ wherever I was if I just remembered that that yoga is more than just the asanas(postures). Not that I’m suggesting that a regular practice isn’t important but that when it’s not possible, not to give up. Yoga can easily be a part of your every day life. Most often I did car yoga. Because of the part of Australia we were exploring, some of our days were spent solely in the car. And of course the body appreciated stretching and moving - I discovered you can do so much while sitting in such a confined space; neck stretches, facial exercises, shoulder rolls, stretches, rotations (while being mindful of not disturbing the driver!), spine flexing and twisting, ankle rotations, toe stretching and even some careful hip flexing; working through the whole body and feeling refreshed and less irritable. And of course, meditations were easy - so long as not driving! This then inspired me (and continues to) to practice some form of yoga whenever I think about it during the day. Waiting in the doctors surgery, surreptitiously rotating my ankles or simply being with my breath. In line at the checkout - any situation really. It’s become a challenge to see ‘what can I do here, now?!!

Practice of yoga involves many things, movements yes, meditation, pranayama, mantra but also the philosophies, the yamas and niyamas. So that even if you are just being content in the Dr’s waiting room, you can be practicing yoga! What yoga you do will depend on your situation. Yoga is union - between body and mind. Even just dropping down into the breath brings the awareness into the body. Quietening the mind. THAT you can do anywhere.....

-Cathryn

Yoga's ability to improve mood and lessen anxiety is linked to increased levels of a critical brain chemical, research finds

Yoga's ability to improve mood and lessen anxiety is linked to increased levels of a critical brain chemical, research finds

The Yoga of Weeding - Stretches for Gardening

The Manganiyar seduction: a quesiton of devotion

The Manganiyar Seduction features this year at the Melbourne Festival and when I heard Roysten Abel interviewed on RRR this week I decided this was something I couldn't miss.

Roysten described how the musicians had seduced him, following him and serenading him while he was putting on a production in Segovia Spain. After several days of this treatment he began to notice the effects that the music was having on him. To the point when, once in Bonn, he rang the singers to again sing to him. That was when he realised he was seduced. Remember that these musicians originate from the same province of India as the Snake Charmers!

The show was nothing short of phenomenal. The You Tube clip does it little justice. I was very interested in how the audience was slowly charmed, like a collective snake, out of our individual experience, until we were all one - in absolute rapture.

During the performance and as I drove home - devotion was on my mind.

These songs are ancient Sufi Love Poems and devotional spirit was the power used by the musicians to bind them as one and consequently bind the audience in a shared state of rapture and ecstasy.

However, so quickly the lights come up and we scatter into our individual selves.

I could see why Rosten would feel compelled to ring the musicians. As the performance was coming to an end I was thinking - don't let it end just yet. So I pose myself this question. How can we live our lives with single focused devotion and to what do you devote your awareness to? Does it bring you happiness and a sense of belonging, or does it bring you loneliness and a sense of separation?

At the end of the performance Roysten Abel the director came on stage and read out a letter he had been given by Geoffery Rush who had seen the performance the previous night. In the letter Rush described his experience of universal one-ness, as though vibrating at the centre of an atom, on the outer edges of the cosmos. Immediately his portrayal of David Helfgott in Shine came to mind. Where the mind has no distraction - just absolute rapture in the music, in the vibration of life, giving us a sense that perhaps union is a state which we can know.

My challenge to myself is ... don't rely on the music, don't rely on the outer stimulation, how do you generate that for your Self and share it in union with others?

Distance Healing

For many years distance healing has been an important practice at the Miyoga Club. You will be familiar with the Distance Healing Book if you have been to the Miyoga Club, where you can write the names of people who you feel need some positive energy, support or prayer sent in their direction. We have decided to extent this pratice by placing the names into a bowl which will be placed on an altar at the front of the class room. After each class, during the metta practice we will collectively send positive prayer to these names. Each new moon the names from the previous month will be ritually burned and the names of the following month will be written and placed in the bowl. We will remind you when the cycle will change and this will also assist in connecting with the moon cycle. We have had such a great deal of success with distance healing and this is a very exciting new chapter for the practice.

If you would like to have a name written in the book and placed in the bowl please email mail@miyoga.com.au

Namaste

Prayer

Prayer formalises devotion and awareness of life beyond the perceived nature of reality.

The opening prayer 

Om Namo Bagavate 

Vasudeveya 

is practiced at the Miyoga Club as a means to connect with your high Self and to allow that aspect of Self to guide you through the class. 

With practice and as this connection is strengthened you will find that throughout your day this aspect of Self is available to guide your thoughts, words and actions.

Vibration and language is a science in the Sanskrit tradition, which aims to connect the individual with the divine through sound. 

The ultimate aim of yogic practice is to be able to focus the mind on one point, fixing your awareness, heart and soul on that which is beneficial for you on all levels and for those around you. 

Mantra and Prayer assist in training the mind toward this focus.

There are no boundaries to the practice of prayer, it can be done in the car, at the dinner table, in the morning as you wake up, at night before you enter into sleep, before you cut a flower, as you pour water, or prepare meals, before a trip or an important event in your life or the life or another.

Over the years Mimi has introduced many prayers to the Miyoga Club and community. 

These prayers are ripe to be shared and will become available each month on the Miyoga Website. 

The first prayer featured at the website is the Prayer to Lady Quan Yin, the deity of Compassion.  

We hope you enjoy this new aspect of the website and look forward to bringing many more prayers into your practice and your life.

Alternate Nostril Breath

Why does the alternate nostril breath work?

Scientists have proven what yogis have always known... throughout the day we breath alternately from one nostril. That is one nostril will tend to be more open and that this will switch every 2-3hours.

Why does the body regulate the breath in this way? It is how we keep the left and right hemispheres of the brain in balance, by subtly stimulating one side and then the other. Rather than letting one dominate over the other. 

While breathing in the left nostril you are stimulating the right side of the brain, which governs creativity, lateral thinking and your intuition. This side is associated with the female energies in yoga, or the lunar cycle.

As you breath through the right nostril you are stimulating the left hemisphere of the brain which governs linear thinking, decision making, language and is associated with the male, solar energies. 

These two opposites are experienced in yoga and ida and pingala, the two opposing energies which run up the central cortex of the energetic body - at there meeting point is the shushumna. The aim of alternate nostril breath is to equalize the ida and pingala in order to activate and experience the energies of shushumna. 

1)Close your right nostril, and breath in through your left

2)Close your left nostril and breath out through your right

3)Still closing left, breath in through your right 

4)Close your right nostril and breath out through your left. Repeat

As your breath in take your awareness to the third eye. Begin to slow and lengthen the breath. Stay relaxed and continue for 5 minutes before silent meditation.

Namaste

Ancient Yoga?

In Yoga Journal Mark Singleton shared his experience of discovering the lineage of prominent yoga asanas. 

He found how the modern movement, while seemingly referencing an ancient art form, actually advocates asanas which are far more modern and in fact inspired by Western physical health practices from the early 1900s. In fact, the movements of yoga were not easily found in the ancient texts.

He writes; Scoutring these primary texts, it was obvious to me that asana was rarely, if ever, the primary feature of the significant yoga traditions in India. Postures ... were not the dominant component. They were subordinate to other practices like pranayama (expansion of vital energy by means of breath), dharana (focus, or placement of the mental faculty), and nada (sound), and did not have health and fitness as their chief aim. (Yoga Journal May/June 2011 p 56).

This is a timely article, given the boom in asana practice without consideration or commitment to the more subtle and indeed more challenging components of yoga. Those which encourage your to encounter the Self and to create a relationship with the Soul through knowing your body and understanding the nature of your mind.

Miyoga Club has remained a small operation because it has never moved away from these core aims, aims which challenge and create deep change and in ways (that is disciplines) that society is craving.

The beauty of yoga is a private and inward journey. While sometimes sitting with the breath, making unusual sounds and holding focus on the mind may seem impossible - the rewards are immense.

It is nice to know that you have a choice!

Herbert Benson on the Relaxation Response

Happy New Year! May 2011 bring more understanding and a deepening of Peace both within and out. Namaste Sarah

Cambewell Market

Camberwell market
We have had a hugely successfuly 3 weeks of trading at the Camberwell market - raising funds for the Miyoga Club! Great fun had by all and we have made some new friends in the regular customers! Chenya was our mascot and Kali our visual merchandiser - Lisa the manager and the team - Kaye, Sarah, Joe and Shayne sales assistance! A great start to Spring!

Web Resources

A fantastic resource found by Cathryn

YOGATIC

Cancer and 'alternative' medicine

The gap between main stream and 'alternative' medicine is narrowing everyday. This morning on Radio National a Cancer sufferer discussed his success with QiGong as a support for his medical treatment. A rewarding listen to remember the health benefits of calming the mind and harnessing energy through our practice.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/

see Cancer care 10/5/10

Trash and Treasure

Follow the link below for an intersting discussion on our attitude towards "trash" and the urban environment.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/artworks/

Jeanne van Heeswijk has recently been involved in the development of a urban living environment in Amsterdam and spoke about the importance of allowing space for people to change their minds and develope a community in an open and organic way - rather than fitting into the planned environment. The city vs country was also discussed with the contrast between a city worker who bought bottled european water and a facilities worker in the country who collected the left over water from the bottles thrown away in the offices he serviced in order to top up his water tank and water his garden! A really refreshing look into our actions and attitudes.



Trash Talk
listen download (7.2MB)
What happens when you take a community debate, like 'how we deal with our trash', and move the discussion to the art gallery? Visiting Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk has spent the past few years working with local communities in Sydney and Goulburn, to get their attitudes to waste and wastage, and to distill all this into an exhibition called Talking Trash at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.

The Lawn Mower's Soul

If all matter is divine then - it must house a soul.

This conversation came up recently at the Miyoga Club over the vacuum cleaner - which I had never perceived to have a soul. It was a tool - a very useful "thing". I was grateful to this thing - it saved me a lot of work and kept the yoga centre sneeze free. But did it have a soul? Not that I could perceive - when I turned it off it was 'inanimate' - or no longer animated - not living.

So I left it at that - I didn't sit down with the vacuum and ask it to reveal itself to me - however all of a sudden I started to notice and question the nature of soul. My dog has a soul - without a doubt, my plants have a soul, most certainly - I can see them living and breathing. Once my CD player told me it was about to die and the next time I turned it on - blank. I had forgotten about that until the vacuum conversation.

Then yesterday while mowing a lawn with a hand mower - suddenly I was mid conversation with the mower - "Try mowing me from this angle, how about sweeping that grass away so I don't get blocked up - Oh thats better yes you are getting the hang of it now" - HOLD ON a minute - I am in charge of YOU - not the other way round. "You are going to go through this patch of grass now". JAM (breath and unblock the catch again). And after a conversation that extended into me questioning - where was your soul before it was in the mower?? The mower was most excited and we got an incredibly difficult over-grown nature-strip looking loved again.

This is not something I would share with the owner of the lawn - "Oh by the way I have just had such a wonderfully indepth conversation with my mower, it was rather insightful". However, this is something to discuss in the context of Yoga and how we relate not only to each other - but to the world around us.

In a spiritual forum on this subject one person expresses, "All material objects are made up of energy" (http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22647). In terms of Yoga practice it is how we receive, transform and share this energy that matters most. But this said, what does the word 'soul' itself mean and how does this relate to energy and our relationship with it?

If you look up the meaning of soul in the dictionary it is exclusive to the human condition:

The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.

The spiritual nature of humans, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state.

The disembodied spirit of a dead human (http://www.answers.com/topic/soul).

Of course it all depends on whose difiniton you read and which tradition they are speaking from.

The Columbian Encyclopedia takes a broader scope in defining the 'soul'; "soul, the vital, immaterial, life principle, generally conceived as existing within humans and sometimes within all living things, inanimate objects, and the universe as a whole. Religion and philosophy have long been concerned with the nature of the soul in their attempts to understand existence and the meaning of life".

So how about the Yogic tradition? The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root 'yuj' which means 'to join'. Yoga is the science that teaches us the method of uniting the individual soul with the Supreme Soul (http://www.sivanandaonline.org/graphics/sadhana/yoga/meaning.html). The little soul "Me" is entrained with the big Soul. At the Miyoga Club we call this big Soul Divine Love or Uncontional Love and we see it personified in the deity Quan Yin who is the emobidment of Compassion also known as Kannon, Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara, or in the West - Mary.

In the context of the lawn mower... material objects from the eastern perspective are an illusion. When did the form that I call "Lawn Mower" come into being? It had once been in the earth as metal, it had been in the earth as oil which became plastic, it has been liquid and is now solid and one day - especially if I leave it out in the rain - it will turn to rust and crumble away - back down into the earth. By this understanding I can accept that the object "lawn mower" as a solid, permanant thing is an illusion made real at this present time. Perhaps then, when I connect to the 'soul' of an object I am honouring its lineage through time and space as more that what the little I can comprehend. I am extending my perspective and reaching into a realm, unseen, but able to be felt.

Namaste - I salute the divinity in you - as I do in me - and all!

Sarah

The Caves of Shangrila

This is a beautiful documentary which explores the discovery of Tibetan sacred Bon texts found in ancient cave systems. A Wonderul visual journey - I am not sure how long it will be available on iview- so take a look while it is still there...

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/545940

Namaste
Sarah

Healing Book

Students will have noticed that there is now a new healing book. To aid distance healing we will be publishing the names from the healing book on the website. We understand that for privacy reasons you may not want the name you place in the healing book to be published. If you would not like the name to be on the miyoga website (www.miyoga.com.au) please place a star * next to the name.


Mimi recently said "Its all Here"...


I found this lovely tale and would like to share it from The Quantum and the Lotus (Matthieu Richards and Trihn Xuan Thuan)


... (a) man asked the Buddha some questions about cosmology. In reply, he picked up a handful of leaves and asked "Are there more leaves in my hand or in the forest?" "There are more in the forest, of course," replied the man. The Buddha went on, "Well, the leaves in my hand represent the knowledge that leads to the end of suffering."

Namaste
Sarah

Welcome to the Miyoga Blog

Autumn equinox has come and gone - the clocks will be turned back before we know it - and we have well and truly started the Miyoga Year with the completion of Term One. We would like to Welcome our new students to the Miyoga Club and thank our long-time students for their continued dedication to the Club and their yoga practice.

Happy Easter to all - have a safe holiday and we look forward to seeing you again for Term 2!!!

Namaste Sarah