Thoughts on asana

TYA teacher Hermione writes with a few thoughts...

Just a few thoughts. I have just attended a yoga workshop in the village. Kate a Hatha Yoga teacher was excellent, but challenged me with her method of doing asana. For example Trikonasana was taught with the hips facing not to the front but to the forward leg and the pelvis rotated fully towards the forward leg. With abdominal control both of the pelvis the lower back and the ribs, the triangle was formed by rotating the thoracic spine. It was a very effective posture especially for those people with stiff mid thoraces. Little or no emphasis was given to the neck position, but much was made of rooting through the legs and feet. I have taught this posture with hips facing the front and the stretch occuring up the side of the body opening the lower back and the ribs and have made a point of the neck posture. There were several other standing postures in which my understanding was challenged. I trained a long time ago, so have had an opportunity to reflect on this difference in teaching. Whilst it is quite possible that teaching has changed with modern knowledge and thinking ( I trained a very long time ago and do not have the benefit of swamiji's teaching here in Wales) I also enjoyed the idea that postures can be modified and taught in ways that challenge the body mind in a different way, with equal but different benefits.

What do others think? With best wishes to all Hermione

Let's have a get together

TYA teacher Margaret Manning writes...

Hi everyone,

It was great to see those of you who were at the 1st.Aid course yesterday, enabling us to catch up for a few, all too brief, moments with our news. I did enjoy catching up, also sharing our teaching problems.

We really ought to aim for a get-together during the summer, maybe we could have a picnic or B.B.Q at my home. I would be very happy, so if anyone is interested we could aim for a date. No need to leave children behind - my garden is good for kids! The more the merrier.

What a pity we have had to cancel the retreat, but it wasn't to be.

Keep up the good work we have learned from our beloved Sw.Ambikanada!

Fondest love to you all.

Margaret.

(If you want to respond to Margaret click on 'Comments' below)

Spring birth!

Swami Ambikananda writes with the following news...

"Grace Elouise was born to Yogini Tracey on Wednesday the 16th March. We congratulate both Mum and Dad, Simon, and welcome Grace into her new life."

Retreat cancelled

Please be aware that the TYA Retreat has been cancelled because there was not enough support to allow it to go ahead. The financial restraints felt by everyone at this time affected the take-up quite dramatically. In different economic times an event like this will be more realistic but now seems not to be the time. Everybody who booked and paid will be refunded in full. Thank you for your interest in this event and thank you to all those who put so much work into trying to make this happen.

INDIA FAST TRACK

As most of you know, for the past ten years Trudie Styler has been the patron and support of the MUKTI Project. She has always responded generously when we’ve sent out a plea for funding or support and has done so without seeing the two orphanages that MUKTI sponsors ~ Karm Marg (home for street-children) and Naz (home for HIV Positive and AIDS children), taking the word of the yogins who run MUKTI that the orphanages are working well. But this November Trudie was going to be in India attending the wedding of a Maharaja and decided to make a trip across to Delhi to visit the homes.

The project committee quickly decided it would be great if one of us could make the annual visit to the homes to coincide with Trudie’s visit, and I was the one that got to go. Lucky me! (Actually I think I was chosen because I’m the one with the best camera!) I am always inspired by seeing the children ~ they never fail to remind me how we can all turn our lives around if we are just given the opportunity and means to do so.

So I flew out on Friday the 19th November and by Monday the 22nd a group of us, including Veena Lal (who is director of Karm Marg), Anjali Gopalan (Director of the Naz home), Brinda Singh (who sits on the board of both homes) and some of Trudie’s friends (Snowdon, Emma and Theresa) were all in two cars making slow progress through the traffic of Delhi (which always includes trucks, cars, people, bicycles, scooters, bullocks and even the odd camel), towards Karm Marg situated on the outskirts of Delhi in Faridhabad. In the back of the car we had huge bags of fruit and goodies that Trudie had stopped at a Delhi market to buy and other bags of goodies sent by Hema from England.

The children of Karm Marg are warm and welcoming, ready for hugs and kisses from visitors and I did wonder how Trudie, probably more used to keeping paparazzi at a distance, was going to cope with this. I had seen other visitors from the West becoming a bit overwhelmed and retreating into their own space. But Trudie let down all barriers and instantly engaged with them all ~ meeting each child from the youngest to the oldest where they were, hugging and kissing right back. She was interested in what they were doing, what their dreams and ambitions are for their lives, and spent the entire day listening and talking to all of them. She engaged with Puja and Ashu who have both decided to try film-making as their careers now that they have successfully completed their higher education, and played with young Abdul as if she had known him for years.

I have always said I absolutely understand why Trudie sometimes gets bad press: she married the most gorgeous man on the planet and, heaven knows, even I’m annoyed with her about that (and I’m a celibate monastic!). But if those reporters who are often prepared to present her to the world in unflattering ways could just have been present to witness her open and authentic encounter with our children, I’m sure they would have something different to say (unless, of course, they’re made of stone, which is another possibility!).

One of the ways the children of Karm Marg engage with other children still on the street and being exploited in so many ways, is through street theatre. So in the afternoon they put on one of their concerts for Trudie. She sat and enjoyed it all.

I knew by then she was under pressure from Delhi’s gliteratti to attend functions with the elite of Delhi society that evening, but she brushed them all aside and said she wanted to go to Naz. As it was getting dark I took on the task of extracting her from the children ~ that she was by now dancing with ~ and getting us all into a car so that we could be off the worst roads by dark. (Not easy, but as you all know, I slip into downright bossy quite easily, “No, not just five more minutes. No, not another dance.”)

We then went onto Naz. By this time, I have to confess, I was tired and I’m sure Trudie was too. But you would never have known it from her response ~ again that instant and intimate engagement, laughter and sharing. The children danced for her, did Yoga for her and of course, it all ended with them all dancing together led by the magnificent Snowdon.

Finally, long after dark and after the children’s usual bedtimes, we left Naz and parted, as Trudie would be leaving for the airport at about 3 a.m.

On a personal note I have to say that while I love both Karm Marg and Naz and am so proud of the work the Yoginis and Yogins of the TYA do to raise funds for these wonderful, spirited children, I don’t always enjoy the task of fundraising ~ especially when having to ask again the very generous people we’ve already asked because we need that bit extra. But this was a day that made all the other days worthwhile: a day filled with nothing but laughter and delight.

Then last week, just as I was getting sorted out after my return, Trudie emailed to say that she had had lunch with “the kindest man on the planet” and told him all about Karm Marg and Naz. A few days later Tony transferred £45,000 into our MUKTI account (Now that’s the kind of “kind” I love! But don’t relax Yogins, while that helps us take care of 2011 there’s still 2012, 2013, 2014…..so no slacking off on the fundraising just yet and please keep selling those bedcover lottery tickets!

Every year Trudie has made special funds available during the Christmas/New Year season so that the children could party and get presents like all other children. And every year they have sent her a ‘thank you’ card addressed to ‘Auntie Trudie’. Watching them finally meet Auntie Trudie was a joy and an inspiration ~ and a reminder to keep my own heart open and let gratitude flow.

Thank you my dear, beloved friends, Yoginis and Yogins of England and Spain, who just keep this miracle happening, and thanks too to our patron, Trudie.

May you all have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful, creative 2011.

With joy and peace, Swami Ambikananda

Summer school message from Swami

Dear Yoginis and Yogins,

Our first Summer School has been great. All the teachers, Uddhava, Ben,Hema and Kim have really given wonderful classes that everyone has enjoyed.

We've so far made £700 towards our advertising and Mukti has raised nearly £300 thanks to Hema for the drinks and Kadambari for the bags.

Slight change of plan for this coming Monday - our last Summer School evening for this year: I will be taking the class instead of Arjuna.

Arjuna is deep up to his elbows in getting pumps working and water flowing on the new retreat centre in Wales that he and Lynnie will be running.

We need that water if we're all going to be going down there to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Pantglas valley, so I encouraged him to stay and finish the job!

New yogi recruits needed

Dear Yoginis and Yogins,

Please let us know if you have anyone interested in the next TYA Foundation Course in Reading.

The course will start on 17th October and all the dates are now available. The Yoga Foundation Course will now be offered partly in attendance (5full days) and as distance learning. We have done this as a way of reducing the time that people have to commit to being away from home(particularly women, who form 99% of the course participants) and therefore we are able to reduce the price and accomodate this changed financial climate, make it more accessible to a greater number of people.

The total cost of the course is now just £450. The very high quality of the course has not been diminished in any way and this new way of participating gives students an opportunity to engage with the material in a very personal way.

Remember, this is a course for those wishing to deepen their own practice and expand their knowledge of Yoga. It is also the first level of the TYA’s Teacher Training Course.

We will be sending you some new leaflets for the course at the beginning of September.

In peace, Uddhava