Yoga with Grace

Fascinating and true…. Our minds are so full.

If you go to Tibet, you will see, as my Lama said, "The one thing we had in Tibet was space." You can go for hours and hours and see nothing except a few yak. The outer landscape was empty. And so when it came to decorations, it’s so jam-packed. All their thangkas, there’s no space at all, it’s all covered in things, right? Because outside it’s so empty.

So likewise, because their minds were so empty, they could be filled like an empty canvas with very complex, philosophical thinking and very complex visualisations. And they loved it, because it got their mind very open and expansive and decorated with all this beauty of all the deities and all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the lights coming in and the lights going out and so on and so forth.

But in the modern world, our lives and our minds are already so full, mostly junk, but filled to the top. There’s hardly any space. And everybody’s stressed out like anything. So to put on top of that all these complicated visualisations, I’m not sure it’s always very helpful in the beginning. And many Lamas are also thinking like this now, that maybe some years of doing basic Shamatha and Vipassana is much better. Clear out, quieten down. Put some space there first.

- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Photo: Jetsunma standing in front a huge thangka of Taras, and the artist sitting on the floor, working on the finishing touches. 2010 (today, this thangka hangs in the temple in DGL Nunnery).

Today has been Guru Purnima, the full moon when in the Yoga tradition we celebrate and honour our teachers. For many years I celebrated with my fellow yogis and yoginis at the Satyananda Yoga Centre in London under the aegis of Swami Pragyamurti. Now she and the centre have passed to another existence so I had my own celebration at home with a Havan.

I have many teachers and honour them all. some know who you are, some may not.

I salute you all.

When we reconnect,
We heal.

Any meaningful connection with ourselves, with other people, with the wonders of nature… with anything positive or uplifting in fact, has the power to help us heal. That’s what 13 beautiful souls experienced during a Yoga for Trauma retreat in the stunning natural setting of Lockerbrook Farm, outside Sheffield - UK last month.

Asylum seekers, refugees, refugee advocates and yoga teachers came together to practice, share and support one another. Participants came to understand the neuroscience behind trauma and learned about the wisdom of the body and heart in helping to resolve it. Everyone left with a host of yogic tools that support recovery and enable people who have experienced trauma to gradually step back into the flow of everyday life.

Serious yogis cannot do better than to take advantage of this opportunity. Yoga Wise Studio is in Essex.

Living Yoga With Swami Vedantananda Saraswati - in person at Yoga Wise Studio this September!

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Dear All
Just to clarify, my gentle Yoga Class will now re-start on Thursday 11th January. Happy New Year everyone!

Oh I love my students……. Terrible forecast of wind and rain and I have the best attendance for some weeks!
We listened as the heavens opened and rain drummed on the roof and my theme of course was Apas, the water element. The synchronicity was enjoyed by all especially as it stopped raining by the end of the class.

Swami Pragyamurti (Leah Jane Caroline Garady) - 31.3.1941 - 11.8.2023

My beloved teacher and friend Swami Pragyamurti has died and left this life. I was so privileged to be one of her students. All my students and those of my friends with whom I have shared her teachings have been touched by her grace and wisdom. She wrote this poem many years ago . May we all come to tread this path.

The Land of Absolute Silence

I have fled
from a world of chaos
after tasting its tricks so thoroughly.

There was hunger in its food
and thirst in its water.
Suffering was hidden in its pleasure
like thorns among roses.

The emptiness of its offerings
inspired my redirection
towards the valley of the Absolute.

Inner silence is my new world
Where I begin to see my oneness with God
as my real identity

In my inner world
I am alone with You
Your grace sings calm into my soul
as we walk the path together.