Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi 800-hour Teacher Training, August 2012
Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 500-hour Teacher Training, May 2008
Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 200-hour Teacher Training, February 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Saturday Snaps
Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi 800-hour Teacher Training, August 2012
Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 500-hour Teacher Training, May 2008
Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 200-hour Teacher Training, February 2007
Friday, August 24, 2012
Fuzzy Friday
While folks were flocking in droves to the disco and the Sex Pistols were making their first tour of America and Egypt was making peace with Israel at Camp David and Pope John Paul II was being installed and Steve Dahl was debuting in Chicago and Son of Sam was being sentenced in New York....
....they were practicing yoga in Central Park....
What were *you* doing in '78?
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Thursday Quote
..."You have to ask yourself the question, Who am I? This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem, and you will solve all other problems thereby."
-Sri Ramana Maharshi
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
MID-WEEK VIDEO
Sri Dharma saluting the guru. This video was made last year - shortly after Sri Dharma's own guru, Swami Kailashananda (Yogi Gupta), passed into mahasamadhi.
The subtext is that for most, spiritual progress cannot be made without the help and guidance of a guru - the remover of darkness.
Learn more about the importance of guru here.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Airport Yoga
Nothing passes the time like Dharma Yoga Level IV with pranayama and svadhyaya.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:LaGuardia
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Partner Yoga Day
....also pranayama, meditation Satsang, Dharma 4 with Yoshio, Om Japa, graduation requirements, and more Satsang with Srii Dharma.
An easy day.
Plus i accidentally ran into the Indian Independence Day parade during the break.
Jai Hind!
Because without India, where would we be?
. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Thursday Quote
"Prana is not matter, but it is in matter; Prana is not mind, but it makes the mind to think; Prana is not air, but it makes the air to blow; Prana is not breath, but it makes the breath go in and out."
~ Swami Kailashananda
BONUS QUOTE
"Prana is the inseparable power of God."
~ Chandra Om
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Mid-Week Video
Janmadina Mubāraka, Hindustan!
Happy 65th Birthday, India!
Where would we be without you?
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
BOLLYWOOD PRESS
Actually, he is one of the greatest actors of our time, period.
And he has a huge heart to boot.
Read about the filmy shooting here.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Thursday, August 09, 2012
Thursday Quote
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Monday, August 06, 2012
Friday, August 03, 2012
Friday Photo
Seven-year-olds in Pascimottanasana at a gymnastics event. *So* cute - and incredibly focused. Yet even at that young age, the bodies are already becoming stiff...
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
MID-WEEK VIDEO II
Sri Dharma Mittra practicing yoga asana at age 73. He is/was the teacher of David Life, Sharon Gannon, Chandra Om, Andrei Ram, and Kali Om, among others.
Om Namah Shivay!
Mid-Week Video
Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya at age 50, in 1938. He was the teacher of Indra Devi, Sri K. Pattaabhi Jois, BKS Iyengar, TKV Desikachar and Srivatsa Ramaswami, among others.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Thursday Quote(s)
[Dharma Mittra] told us about a man who came to him for advice. He had meditated for 30 years but could find no spiritual peace. “It turned out he was eating too much meat,” said Dharma. “He was a butcher. I told him to change his profession immediately.”
“Without the first step--ahimsa (nonviolence)--you gain nothing with meditation,” he reiterated. You get stuck in your chakras “when deep in your heart you know that as a real yogi you should be able to put yourself into someone else’s place. You should be able to put yourself in the place of a cow. Would you like for people to bring you to the slaughterhouse and take meat from you?”
He said that eating meat turns the stomach into a graveyard. “If there’s a nice house with a carcass in it, it turns into a morgue. If Rama and Jesus came and saw this house, they would not go in. They would wait outside.”
“So if you’re not a vegetarian yet, reduce the amount of meat intake,” Dharma encouraged.
As for dealing with unsavory people, he said, “You should love even the bad man. But keep your distance. If you start despising them it bounces back. If you send the negative thoughts out, it flows back to you.”
....Dharma said he suspected many of us half-believed in some things such as reincarnation and karma. “How many of you believe you came here with just a one-way ticket?” he asked. “What if you don’t accomplish what you want in this life, and you’re just a one-way incarnation?”
He said that bad karma does indeed follow one into the next life, and that the aforementioned butcher would face violence in his next incarnation. His guru said that when people help you, they are from your past. “If you died with money in the bank, it’ll be there in your next life--with interest. Everything has reasons from the past.”
After one morning session, some students were talking about Dharma’s hard-line take on vegetarianism. “I understand what he's saying, but I can't give up fish,“ said one. “I mean, I've been a vegetarian for ten years because of yoga, but I just love fish.” That afternoon, after chanting the Govinda mantra, Dharma began his talk by explaining that animals are like children, without hate. Then he discussed how many fish suffer so those humans can eat them. “It takes how many minutes for them to die without water? Animals are made to be loved, not to be eaten.
“If you have to eat meat, wait for one of the great saints to die and feast on his flesh. Then the vibrations will be positive.”
Click here or here to read the rest of this article about Sri Dharma's 2005 weekend workshop in Chicago.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Mid-Week Video
Astanga with a Broken Femur
"Anyone can practice, young man can practice, old man can practice, very old man can practice, man who is sick, he can practice, man who doesn't have strength, he can practice....
...except lazy people, lazy people can't practice."
-R. Sharath
Monday, July 23, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Thursday Quote
-Bhagavad Gita XVI.21
Monday, July 16, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Thursday Quote
"The purification of the heart is the duty of all aspirants, especially of world-renouncing sannyasins, for this is the means of cultivating knowledge which leads to the freedom of the soul. As a mirror stained with impurities cannot reflect an image, so the impure heart cannot reflect Self-Knowledge. The yogi realizes Immortality after having purified the heart by the following means: worship of the spiritual preceptor, inquiry into the Vedas and other scriptures based upon them, performance of righteous actions, the keeping of holy company, the hearing of holy talk, avoidance of the touch and sight of a woman, the seeing of the Self in all beings, non-acceptance of others' property, the wearing of the coarse ochre cloth, withdrawal of the senses from the enjoyment of objects, relinquishment of sleepiness and idleness, investigation into the nature of the physical body, the regarding of selfish action as sinful, control of rajas and tamas and cultivation of sattva, desirelessness, and control of the sense-organs. Study of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and other religious treatises, performance of sacrifices, practice of brahmacharya and austerities, control of the senses, faith in the worlds of the teacher and the scriptures, fasting, and non-dependence upon others are also among the means for the attainment of Self-Knowledge."
-Rishi Yajnavalkya
Monday, July 09, 2012
Friday, July 06, 2012
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Thursday Quote
[Sri Ramakrishna] used to tell us that the difference between man and God was this: If for 99 days you have served a man well, but on the hundredth you do some wrong to him, he will remember the one bad turn and forget the 99 good turns. But if you abuse God for 99 days and for one day you say something in praise of Him, He will forget the 99 bad days and He will say: 'Ah! today this man has spoke something good of me.' Man forgets the 99 good works and remembers the one bad one. God forgets the 99 bad works and remembers the one good one."
-Swami Ramakrishnananda
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Monday, July 02, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Friday Photo
This little gem is located at the Sears store on Lawrence Avenue. You can really drive up and have a key made. Not only that, but the gentleman inside knows keys inside and out (and easily copied the bent and torn mail key that the lady at the hardware store refused to touch).
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thursday Quote
If you want to enter Samadhi quickly, cut off all connections with friends, relatives, etc. Do not write letters to anybody. Observe Akhanda Mouna or the vow of continued silence for one month. Live alone. Walk alone. Take very little but nutritious food; live on milk alone if you can afford. Plunge in deep meditation. Dive deep. Have constant practice. You will be immersed in Samadhi. Be cautious. Use your common sense. Do not make violent struggle with the mind. Relax. Allow the divine thoughts to flow gently in the mind.
-Swami Sivananda
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Mid-Week Video
(BTW we did Marichyasana E and F in my Sunday 10am class; although these poses reside in the Advanced B series, they're much easier [and less precious] than they appear in this video. On a roll, we also did Akarna Dhanurasana A).
Monday, June 18, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Fifteen Years Later....
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After 15 years of five-to-six days-a-week practice, the ashtanga system continues to yield great awards - and to amaze.
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NYC-based teacher Greg Tebb was in town last week assisting Manju Jois at his workshop and teacher training. Greg also did the morning Mysores this week.
,
I did not get to practice with Manju due to time conflicts and an elbow flareup.
,
But I did get to do two asthanga self-practices with Greg. He has compassionate, nurturing-but-not-weak teaching style that is grounded in steady practice, teaching and study over a long period of time.
,
He kindly pointed out some bad habits that have evolved over many months of self-practice, and I immediately began to work on them. He also had some helpful suggestions regarding the tennis elbow and neck issue.
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It was fun (if that is the correct word) to have the help to drop into Karandavasana (above) and do dropbacks for the first time in...in... who knows how long it's been.
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During Prasarita Padottanasana C (photo at top) he had me tuck my head in (as Lino does) and it seemed to take very little for him to get my fingers to the floor. (I'd been under the impression that the hands were a foot from the floor due to tight shoulders / thoracic spine, and that the pose would never happen without help).
,
So I tried it today on my own; it is, after all 90 degrees and humid.
,
So I went into Prasarita C. and put the arms forward as far as they would go. Then I tucked in the head and extended the little fingers downward.
,
Voila! Fingers touched something hard: the floor.
,
Without help.
,
For the first. time. ever.
,
In fifteen years.
,
The seemingly impossible, suddenly within reach.*
,
Who knew?
,
It's just like the Yoga Sutras say:
,
1.14. sah tu dirgha kala nairantaira satkara asevitah dridha bhumih
This practice becomes well-grounded when continued with reverent devotion and without interruption over a long period of time.
,
The good news is that the sutras are actually referring to control of the mind.
,
The postures are just a tool....
,
And a good one at that, to show us what is possible.
,
But the mind control is where it's really at - where the real challenge lies.
,
,
,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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*My experience with ashtanga vinyasa yoga is that a breakthrough is usually followed by a backslide. The breakthrough eventually comes back - just not on our timetable. This helps destroy the ego - for a little while anyway.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Sri Dharma Mittra at 73
photo of Sri Dharma signing his Asanas book taken this week during his Asian tour
Friday, June 08, 2012
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Thursday Quote
"Do your sacrifice now. Later, you can enjoy [the outside]. Like when becoming a doctor, you have to study and sacrifice like hell. Then you don't have to go to school anymore, once you have your diploma. If you sacrifice a little bit more from outside, you get more from [the spiritual heart]."
-Sri Dharma Mittra
Monday, June 04, 2012
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