Om

Those of you that come on here regularly will notice that my blogging moves around a bit but stays on the same subject, more or less.

The subject is Yoga.

Yoga is something that I came across in 1996. I tried it and wasn't sure. I liked the breathing, it got me high. I came and went.
Then I got sick with a relapse of 'acute myeloid lukaemia'.
I had to go into hospital.
I didn't want to go back to hospital as I had already had treatment and didn't like it.
So I went to India at the start of 97. I went to Ama's. She whispered in my ear whilst hugging me - 'pranayama pranyama pranayama ....' she said it five times.
I was none the wiser.

I left India and eventually went into hospital where I stayed for four months, undergoing chemotherapy.

It was Hell!

In Jan 98 I had a stem cell transplant, and I am still here now, today (most of the time).

I began to do Yoga in earnest in March 98. I went to three or four classes a week. The teacher, one Faustomaria Dorelli, was a good teacher for me. He was older than me, and he'd had a life previous to yoga as a photographer.
I stayed with him for five years. Then I took a Yoga training with the Sivananda organisation.

Then I taught Yoga. I keep trying to practice and I am getting somewhere I think.

I really believe in Yoga as a practice.
I came and saw that it worked.
I got involved.

With some people I feel like I'm trying to convince them that it's good.
I feel like an insurance salesman sometimes, trying to convince people to do Yoga, to do more Yoga.

I've kind of had enough of that now.

If you don't get it, what can I do?

I'm really becoming interested in teaching people that 'need' Yoga.
I'm not interested in teaching Yoga as a lifestyle choice.

It's a serious business this life!

OM

complaining . . . . .

There seems to be an awful lot of complaining going on about how so much is wrong with the world. There is some stuff that is wrong, but I feel there is a lot that is right too!

In some ways we know that the world is 'how we view it' through our own personal lens of perceptual reality.
So how bad is it?
You've gotta be honest at some point and ask how much of you're so called suffering isn't really your own making.
Procrastination is an insidious thing - get the f--- on with it!
Change can happen NOW!

Ommmings

neccesity is the mother of invention . . .

Really, really, really, IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE, you may need to change!

Now that statement isn't as silly as it sounds.

For example when and if you make a serious commitment to change - by doing a serious ongoing Yoga practice things will happen.

Change is strange!

People are bored, fed up, unhappy with the way they live. I suggest that they do a bit more Yoga, make a bit more effort to come to more classes or to do self practice. You would think I was asking them to grow another head!

It's difficult sometimes and challenging sometimes, but come on, how much hardship does it cost you to make it to two or three yoga classes a week, or to do 1 hour of self practice every day?

Get a life!

Om :))

Make the coice . . .

There really is always a choice. Even when you think there isn't.

The real thing.

Workshops - retreats - courses, etc, can be rewarding and fun, but I've gotta say it seems to me that people seem to spend a whole lot of time at these things.
Why? What are they looking for?

There is nothing like self practice to get you into it. And I mean an ongoing, full on practice.

I know it's nice to feel good and get high, but some times you gotta go down and get the stuff up.
I do feel inclined to say that unless you go down and get it, it will come up and get you!
Now maybe that sounds pessimistic, but the 'real work' of Yoga, in my experience is not very, what you might call, pleasant. And I think a lot of problems are caused for people by them getting attached to wanting to feel good all the time.
It's a nice idea, but surely unattainable, especially while we are still having human experiences!

Hari OM!

from the down to the up....

If you never make a willing commitment to some kind of ongoing practice then things will probably never change.
But maybe 'you' don't need to change, lucky you.

The secret of yoga is to do it!

If you haven't got it yet, then maybe now it's time.

The only journey that has any real worth is the journey within. The outer journey whilst enjoyable and sometimes exciting is inevitably a waste of time!

Because - 'Wherever I go so does ego.'

OM

The 'real' from the 'unreal'.

Pranayama is the science of breathing.
The science of breathing opens up doorways to levels of consciousness that ordinary events will not access.
Pranayama and Yoga in general are very unusual things to do.

Yoga has become very popular. One can go to the gym and be taught a yoga class. A typical yoga class will last one, to one and half hours. A so-called 'normal' person may go to one, two, or three classes per week. They will do a class and feel better, more relaxed, less tense, and think they are doing yoga.

Sometimes the yoga teacher teaching them may not know much more than the yoga student and may be very focused on the physical level.

As time goes by, the yoga student may become bored with this teacher and go to another teacher, then another, etc. This process may continue, until one day the yoga student decides not to go to classes anymore. At this point he/she may give up or may go deeper into self practice.

When 'we' are confronted with ourselves what do we find?
We find that we think about things a lot!
If we look a little deeper into the issue of thinking we may find that 'thinking'  shapes feelings.
Once we discover this we have hit the jackpot!
We have uncovered a very valuable lesson.
That thinking shapes our 'feeling' reality.
If we continue we may also realise that all of our thinking is merely a habit.
WE may find then that it is very hard to stop thinking.

We may then try meditation and sit for hours feeling uncomfortable, watching out thoughts.

Pranayama, in my opinion, is the key to opening up the mind.
It is a revelatory process, revealing the deeper layers of our mind stuff.
This practice is not for the feint hearted.
We stir up the pot in order to see what lies at the bottom of the pot.
What lies at the bottom of the pot is usually not very nice.
But it is what we have to do unfortunately if we are seriously going to get anywhere.

You don't have to believe anything I have written here - but is is all true! :))

Om