Guru ABBA

Dear Yogis

I don’t know if you have heard but there’s a scandal in the Ashtanga world. It rides on the back of the #MeToo movement and it turns out that Pattabhi Jois, ‘Guruji,’ ‘father of Ashtanga’, touched women inappropriately. He died in 2009 but there is a call for the grandson, Sharath, inheritor of Pattabhi Jois’ institute, to make a statement of apology. He hasn’t said anything about that but he has deleted many senior teachers, some taught by his grandfather, from the list of authorised teachers. Being on the list is a big deal - I read recently that training and the institute is to an Ashtangi what MIT is to an aspiring engineer! Ashtangi feelings are aflame.

Shouldn’t we, anyone who is hurt, look to text for guidance? Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras tell us to ‘still the fluctuations of the mind’. Minds are very unstilled, so that didn’t help! The lesson of the Bhagavad Gita is a call to action and devotion... it doesn’t help! There’s too much activity on social media and devotion has been severely tested.

This fairly ancient text might help! I had to laugh when I heard this on radio by Guru ABBA!:

‘Like a roller in the ocean, life is motion, move on.
Like the wind that’s always blowing, life is flowing, move on.
Like the sunrise in the morning, life is dawning, move on...’

When the student is ready, the guru appears!

Greek Yoga Retreat

If you are signed up for the first retreat, please look into securing your flights soon. The second retreatees found that BA cancelled the early morning flight on Sunday 16th September and the next morning flight doesn’t give the Minimum Connection Time at Athens Airport. Everybody is stopping in Athens for a night or two. Get in touch if you have any questions.

Home Studio

More new yogis at my lucky Home Studio. I wonder if the opening of Triyoga swept in new yoga excitement in Ealing. Who knew Ealing, Queen of the Suburbs, would have royal standing in the World of yoga! Every week more new yogis are seeking out a class: people are new to yoga, returning after years or just looking for a new place to practice. It’s lovely!  There are plenty of places next week. See what’s available here. Book here.

Training

Tomorrow, Saturday 24th, I am signed up for The koshas: 5 Spiralling Layers of Being with Zephyr Wildman in Triyoga Ealing. It’s at 14:00 - 16:30 so there’s no clash with Mark Colleano’s Ashtanga class at 18.30. Come with me!

Yoga in the News

The New York Times, no less, has an article called ‘So, You Say You Want to Do the Splits?‘. Never give up on the dream says the yoga teacher-author of ‘Even the Stiffest People Can Do the Splits: A Four-Week Stretching Plan to Achieve Amazing Health’. It’s a very readable review. The bulk of the book is “a short story; ‘How Are You Going to Achieve Anything If You Can’t Even Do the Splits?’ about two shame-ridden employees of a corporation in Japan who discover the joys and benisons of shake yoga”.

Cold is coming! Stay warm!