Tree Pose: From Joy The Holy Branches Start

Dear Yogis,

I’ve taken to giving Tree Pose as an option in class and I’m always struck by the beautiful feeling of the pose. Whenever I taught this pose in a gym, to 20-30 yogis, it always brought a calm and meditation to the room. It felt as though we were touching real yoga! With branches up to the sky and roots deep in the earth, trees symbolise unity of heaven, earth and the underworld. Yoga likes unity! Trees also have an annual (seeming) death and rebirth, they give shelter to mendicants, wanderers and meditators, they give fruit and abundance and they bring us back to the essence of nature. No surprise trees inspire religious mythology.

The Buddha found enlightenment under the shelter of a fig tree, the Bodhi Tree, in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. A branch was taken to Sri Lankan in 245BC and is revered for being the closest authentic link to the living Buddha. There is a banyan tree in Kurukshetra, where it is said Krishna gave the sermon of Gita and is therefore believed to be the birthplace of the Bhagavad Gita. You might find yoga referred to as a tree and its branches are these: Hatha, Raja, Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, and Tantra yoga. And do you know this poems by W B Yeats: Gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there; From joy the holy branches start, And all the trembling flowers they bear.

Enjoy the pose. There’s so much in it.

Training

I’m taking part in Stewart Gilchrist’s class broadcast by Triyoga this weekend. The workshop is called: ‘digital dharma - radical authentic yoga in an online world’. It’s tomorrow at 2:30 for two hours for £20. Join me! I’ve attended Stewarts workshops at Indaba in the past and like the way he quotes from the ancient yoga texts all the way through class. I feel as though I’ve had a counselling session when I do his classes.

Zoom Classes

It’s a bank holiday weekend but I’ll be teaching on Monday as usual. Classes are settling down into more realistic numbers. This week there have been 17, 15, 6, and 20 yogis in class.  Corporate classes have mostly been settling up; such great numbers of colleagues getting together. If you would like to set up corporate yoga to bring you and workmates together during lock-down, get in touch.

Book an evening class here: goodtimesyoga.co.uk/book-online. The Class Pass and Pay-What-You-Like are on goodtimesyoga.co.uk/livestream-yoga-price-options . Let me know if you would prefer my bank details. No problem.         

Yoga in the news

The Hackney Gazette has: GP surgery will host virtual yoga sessions to boost health. Exactly what GP surgeries should have been doing all along! ‘Dr Mehta said: “We’ll be getting on the yoga mat ourselves and encouraging everyone – patients, local residents, everyone anywhere to join in online - it’s open to all!”’

Scotland on Sunday has: Obituary: Jane Smith, Ballet Rambert star and pioneer of yoga in Scotland. ‘She once chided local sceptics that yoga was harder and more demanding than any training session involving Hawick’s famously uncompromising Rugby Club.’ ‘she trained Scotland’s future yoga teachers with classes and retreats throughout the 1980s and 1990s.’

The Guardian has: UK's 7000 gyms prepare for post-lockdown health warning. ‘With Britons more alive than ever to the risks associated with carrying extra pounds around their middle, when gyms reopen, members may be eager to return… “We will go into an era where everybody is going to be taking better care of themselves. Your best preparation for a virus is being in good physical health.”’

Enjoy the Bank Holiday! Did you know that Kanenas, the coffee shop in this road (The Grove), opened this week? Have a celebratory coffee!