“It is called Ayurveda because it is the knowledge that teaches us which substances, qualities and actions are beneficial or harmful to life.”

What is Ayurveda?
Translated as the “Science of Life”, Ayurveda teaches us a way of living with insight and balance that is in harmony with our individual nature and Mother nature. It is the medical system from India which includes aspects of philosophy, mythology, nutrition, massage, herbal therapy, yoga as well as spiritual teachings and practices. As well as treating illness, Ayurveda focuses on preventing disease and maximising vitality. Without health, we cannot pursue or enjoy our life purpose!

When I first discovered the wonders and wisdom of Ayurveda, I found the vastness of its knowledge slightly intimidating. I realised that I needed to understand the basic principles in order to apply its practical teachings. The key to this understanding is the five elements, the pancmahabhurta. By studying nature and learning about the qualities of the elements, we can then develop a deeper understanding of our unique body/mind constitution or dosha.

So I invite you to sit down with a mug of warming ginger tea as, over the next four issues of Complete Yoga , we explore the elements, the building blocks of nature and of the three doshas namely Vata, Pitta and Kapha.

According to Ayurveda, everything in the Universe is composed of the 5 elements – ether, air, fire, water and earth. The human body is also composed of these 5 elements, so the body is a reflection of the greater Universe – it is a microcosm of the macrocosm.

What is a Dosha?
There are three primary life forces or subtle energies that come from the five elements. They are known as doshas.  ata, Pitta and Kapha are responsible for all the physical and mental functions in the body. When our doshas are cared for and in balance they maintain our health and wellbeing. When there is a build up of the dosha, imbalance arises and we become
unwell. Each of us is unique, born with our own distinct individual constitution or balance of the three doshas. This balance determines our physical body, our emotional and mental traits and our tendency to certain health problems.

We generally have a predominance of one or two of the doshas. This is largely determined when we are conceived and depends on our parents’ constitution, their physical and emotional state at the time of conception and of course Karma. The characteristics of our dominant dosha will be most noticeable in our make-up and remember we all have all three doshas
and all five elements in our being, just in varying degrees.

THE PANCMAHABHUTA: The Five Great Elements
The natural world is comprised of building blocks that move from the subtle to the gross, from ether to earth. These “bricks” are known as the “five great elements” (pancmahabhuta) or ‘that-ness’ (tattwa) and are Ether/space; Air/motion, Fire/heat, Water/fluid and Earth/solid.

These elements combine in different proportions to make up the material universe and form the basis of the doshas. They also form the basis that determines tastes and properties of herbs and foods. These five elements are closely associated with states of matter.

AKASA: Ether (Space)
Quality – expansive, light, without temperature, infinite and all-encompassing. It is the potential – space creates the place for life to take place. It is subtle – ether can’t be seen or felt, but you can become aware of space! It is the spaces in our communication – the pauses. It is the spaces in the body – every cell, spaces between nerve fibres, cranial spaces, nostrils and
sinuses, lungs as well as the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities. Ether relates to the sense of sound and the ear.  Sound is carried on the ether.

VAYU: Air (Motion)
Quality – like the wind, light, mobile, rough, dry, cold, erratic, stimulating and dispersing. It is the principle of movement and change stirring all of creation into life. It is responsible
for all the other elements. In the body it moves everything, creating life and relates to prana, the vital life force. It is responsible for creative energy in the mind – the imagination. Too much air is depleting as it moves the prana out. An imbalance manifests in the body as palpitations, flatulence and constipation. Too much movement in the nervous system creates anxiety and restlessness. Air relates to the sense of touch, the nerves and the skin. Sensation travels through the skin and nerves just as you can feel the wind on your skin.

TEJAS: Fire (Heat)
Quality – hot, sharp, penetrating, luminous, ascending and dispersing. Fire governs all transformation in the body. It is high energy and manifests as passion, anger, aggression and action. It is responsible for mental, emotional and physical digestion. It is the light of the mind – intelligence; and the brightness of the body – colour. Too much heat in the body increases light and colour which results in inflammation. Fire relates to the sense of sight and the eyes. Light and perception travel through the eyes due to the metabolic activity of light
sensitive photons in the eyes.

JALA: Water (Fluid)
Quality – liquid, fluid, heavy, wet, lubricating, cool, cohesive and dense. The water of life that holds everything together. 75% of the body consists of water. It eases movement in the body, lubricates and protects. It is the mucus, synovial fluid, saliva, tears, cerebral spinal fluid and sweat. It provides nourishment and hydration to the body. Imbalance manifests as emotionally watery, lacking in substance and easily manipulated. Water relates to the sense of taste and the tongue. Flavours and tastes are only perceivable when the tongue is wet.

PRITHVI: Earth (Solid)
Quality – thick, dense, solid, heavy, stable/static and grounded.It gives the body form and substance. It is responsible for growth and nourishment. It relates to the physical structures of the body – bones, tissues and muscles. Earth element provides emotional stability, calmness and dependablility. Too much earth manifests as dullness, stubbornness and complacency.  Earth relates to the sense of smell and the nose. Earthy and dense objects give off smells.

The Pancmahabhuta are the building blocks of the Universe and of us!

Next month, we will explore the Vata Dosha which is a combination of the ether and air elements. During the month, I invite you to become aware of the elements, their qualities and how you experience them in yourself. In this way you start to discover your unique body/mind constitution!

By Wendy Young
Wendy Young is a Holistic Life Coach, Yoga, Ayurveda and Meditation Teacher. For more information, call Wendy on 072 800 4982 or email wendy@wise-living.co.za

Complete Yoga had the wonderful opportunity to get up close and personal with Ana Forrest, the legend behind the phenomenon that is Forrest Yoga, while on her workshop and book signing tour in South Africa late last year.  More remarkable than the fierce, physical and breakthrough healing yoga practices that Ana trains and teaches, is the indomitable strength and spirit of her personal story and her passion for doing the work that she undoubtedly was born to do.

Here’s what Ana had to say…

CY: Welcome to South Africa… you have arrived at last! Why Africa Ana, why are you here and why now? What have your first impressions been so far?
A: My first impressions have been very mixed. I am feeling the land and, yes, it feels very responsive. I came here because Africa has been calling me and it’s only been this year that I was able to make it… but I am delighted to be here. I have always felt that there is work I can do here and so I have come to plant seeds in this place. When I am working where I know I can help, there is this magnetic pulling and I feel it here. There is something really important for me to learn here – I just don’t know what it is yet! All I know is I’m thrilled to be with the “wild ones”.

CY: You travel the world a lot. Is there Forrest Yoga in many countries in the world as a result?
A: Yes, I try to make it to as many countries and places as I am able to. My vision and spirit pledge is to “mend the hoop of the people around the world”. How I do this is by training teachers and giving them very specific techniques, so they too know how to pass the energy. They learn how to do hands-on healing, learn how to use the yoga poses to treat people’s injuries, how to help people with their sadness or their unbalanced emotions. Forrest yoga is not a mystery – if you do it, it works. These gifts that I teach I have honed from my soul. I want to keep giving the good medicine to people long after I am gone.

CY: You mentioned “mending the hoop of the people” in your book, Fierce Medicine too – what does it mean?
A: My spirit pledge is a very important part of my work. Not too long ago there was a Native American medicine man that was watching the people of his tribe destroying themselves. He said, “the hoop of the people has been broken”. We have come into insane times and “mending the hoop of the people” is about finding a new way of building hoops, where people can learn to live together in a good way without torturing, killing and harming each other.

CY: You have been practising yoga now for over 40 years. Do you feel the consciousness of the world has changed since then with respect to its approach to yoga?
A: Yes, I have been in this field close to 40 years and I’ve seen huge changes. There are some people who get so annoyed and say “oh yoga’s gone so commercial”, but I think it’s good – more people are hearing about yoga, people aren’t so scared of it. There is no conflict with religion anymore, which was the prevalent thing back in the day. It’s no conflict to commune with your body and find out what is true. We don’t need another religious organisation – we need the tools that will help us connect to our own spirit and to our own spirituality. Whether it’s from doing a sitting practice or a Native American practice or an African practice or going to a church, I don’t think it matters but if you’re doing these things and not making a connection, then there is something wrong. There is a sickness, a kind of spiritual bereftness and emptiness that so many of us have that leads us onto really terrible places. It’s like people are trying to fill a gaping hole where their spirit should be living. The first time a lot of people start thinking about their spirit is when they are dying and that’s a little late! We need to learn how to live with our spirit intact.

CY: Do you find a lot of people who come to yoga are searching for happiness?
A: I certainly came to yoga searching for something bigger than myself. Happiness wasn’t what I initially was going after. It just didn’t occur to me until, much later, someone asked me “what about joy?” and that began a whole different investigation for me into what I call pleasure, joy, contentment and delight. We need to “feed ourselves” that as part of our daily diet. That’s part of what I write about in Fierce Medicine - making yoga a part of the daily diet for the evolving soul.

CY: Why and how did you create Forrest Yoga?
A:  Part of the reason why I created Forrest yoga is that I found traditional yoga practices were not helping me, they did something and there was value, but it didn’t touch the deep level anguish and misery that I was living in. Part of the beauty of turning my life around was that I created a yoga system – a system for anyone who wants to go on a quest, who wants to evolve and gain their vision for life. We need to choose to learn from what we are given, especially the difficult stuff.

CY: How is Forrest Yoga distinguishable from other types of yoga?
A: I have brought in the different tools that have made a difference in my life: therapy and ceremony tools that demand direct enquiry. I teach people how to think differently and how to feel intelligently. People think that we get all our knowledge from information, but that’s just one small part of it. Just feeling with our hands and feet is sometimes all that is required. I teach people to learn how to feel as part of their wisdom. I then teach them to bring the thinking and the feeling together and to take the conflict out of it.

CY: How does Forrest Yoga address meditation?
A: In every class I teach pranayama and setting an intention for practice. When you sit quietly in pranayama, you are building life force. When I teach people to sit, I am teaching them to do something in the sitting. I don’t bore the mind into shutting up, it doesn’t feel right for me. Learning how to fascinate the mind while doing the pose or doing the breathing, that is compelling.

CY: How would you describe the taste of yoga to people?
A: Every day is a different taste! It depends on what happened that day, I guess. The magic is that each day I do yoga I turn it into a learning experience and I will inevitably feel better after my practice. It’s amazing that we can shift and play with our energies and from there, move into a space of self-mastery. Some days I can wake up in pain and have a real shitty feeling, like so many do, but I know that when I get on the mat I can change it and that’s an amazing thing. I can reset a more true, honest place for myself instead of just being grounded “in my shit”. I can clear the smog. And sometimes I have to have a little tantrum anyways – then I say to myself, “I’ve got a few minutes to wallow in this space” and then I move on and change it.

CY: What is your personal yoga routine like?
A: It depends on my travel. My routine when I am teaching workshops is that every class is two and a half hours and my teaching team and I gather and we do the first class together ourselves. We set our intention so that our energy is full and so that we have a lot to give. Teaching by myself would be a burnout and it’s really easy to sacrifice my own practice for my mission and it’s one of the greatest challenges I’ve had to overcome. As I’ve become more in love with what I am doing, the lesson has been not to become “a sacrificial whore” for it. A lot of our teaching in our culture tells us that to sacrifice is a good thing but I think that is insane… literally. There is powerful way to give without being sacrificial. Feed yourself first and feed yourself during. When I teach people, I also teach them how to grow their energy in the process of teaching and not to spill it all out. You need to practice in a way that feeds you.

CY: Many people are familiar with the difficulties of your past. Have you healed from and transcended it and does it still define you?
A: I don’t use the word “transcending” as it implies that you’ve buried pain and built a platform on top of it. Yes, I have healed a tremendous amount but whenever I am faced with new challenges, my old stuff inevitably crops up. The part of ourselves that holds fearfulness is the part that we need to embrace.

CY: Do you teach people a lot about facing their fears?
A: I do, but more than that, I like to say, “don’t just face your fear… hunt it, go after it!” There are times when I still have nightmares from my past. But I’m not haunted by it as it’s not a daily part of my life anymore. Instead of beating myself up over it with the mentality that I’m supposed to be healed from it, “that I’m a teacher of teachers, blah, blah, blah”, which is a lie, if it comes up, I do something about it. Sometimes I still feel the scaring in my guts from my years of bulimia. A backbend will help me heal the scaring. I know that I have to continue to do my practice very consistently if I want to stay healed. When I discovered that I had a thyroid problem, I also discovered that I wasn’t really speaking – not about what was so important to me, the things that delighted my spirit or about love. I was a drug addict, an alcoholic and my mother sold me into prostitution when I was 12 – I could somehow say that stuff, but yet I wasn’t speaking about my love. I assumed that my actions would say it. I didn’t speak to my students about how much I loved them and so that was part of my healing – speaking that which was most precious to me.

CY: Yoga is obviously your passion and life’s work. What do you still hope to accomplish?
A: Yoga is one of the main places where I learn truth. I created Forrest yoga for very specific reasons – to address the spiritual bereftness, the stress levels, the back problems, neck injuries, brain problems, spinal, hamstring, knee injuries and immune system challenges. I am not afraid to feel other peoples’ pain, or the earth’s pain. I can’t solve all the world’s problems but there is something here I can contribute to. It’s better to ask, “What part of the world problems can I contribute to?” It makes it more workable and less disheartening. I lived through torture and while I need to monitor the amount of pain I take in, if I can help just one person connect to their spirit, then I feel I’ve made a difference. Teaching yoga is what I am here to do and that means training people to evolve. We have the capacity to destroy both ourselves and others (we have been doing a good job so far) and yet we also have this ability to “quantum leap”. I have this inherent belief that we can transform and evolve. There is true beauty, mystery and magic in this world!

By Angela Myers

Ana Forrest’s book Fierce Medicine is available for purchase from Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Medicine-Breakthrough-Practices-Ignite/dp/0061864242/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334059415&sr=1-1

Our yoga helps us create and foster that powerful mind-body-spirit connection, which in turn creates alignment and balance in every aspect of our lives. But have you ever experienced a “disconnect” between the bliss you feel during and just after your yoga practice, and the “crashing down” of everyday life? 

It can sometimes be a challenge to align our being with our doing, to make that wanted shift in our lives, or to follow that dream. The Life Coaching industry is beginning to recognise the value of integrating the power of yoga practice into Life Coaching in order to enhance our progress toward reaching our full potential. Some coaches are now striving to help clients harness the clarity, kindness and awareness generated in their yoga practice, and help them translate this into every aspect of their daily interactions.

At first glance, it might seem unlikely that these two quite disparate methodologies could find common ground and a common starting point. However, I found two Yoga Life Coaching practitioners who have combined yoga and life coaching with remarkable results, and who are making great strides in harnessing the powerful tools of yogic transfomation to bring profound positive change into clients’ everyday lives. Laurie Gerber of the Handel Group, based in New York City, offers a structured four-week webinar on Life Coaching for Yoga Practitioners, while Wendy Young of Wise Living in Johannesburg takes a more long-term, organic and intuitive approach with her Life Coaching clients.

Gerber asserts that the practice of yoga is an added benefit for those in search of reaching their potential: “We are at a critical time in human evolution, a time when we can generate true shifts in consciousness. These shifts can and should begin with the yoga community. Life Coaching specifically designed for yoga practitioners encourages us to do the work of actually designing our lives, thereby experiencing the bliss and balance of our yoga practice all day long, no matter what the context.” She says that wherever we are out of alignment: body, love life, finances, or career, “we are in conflict”. Gerber therefore sees Life coaching as giving you the tools to create the needed balance in our lives. According to Gerber, “Coaching is designed to help us to truly be the example of caring, creative consistency in this world.”

The Handel Group program starts off by teaching its clients how to dream, to clarify what their dream is and design a plan around shifting areas where they are stuck. The coach will encourage the client to use her yoga practice as a tool with which to bring her heart, mind and body into deeper alignment. Once the dreams are identified and clarified, the client is then trained to remove limiting beliefs, hush negative voices, and undo undermining behaviours. Clients are required to make relevant promises and act according to their dreams through constant guidance such as following through on promises and being accountable for actions. Yoga practitioners are then further encouraged to become “inspired leaders” full of passion for their work and their dreams. The client is asked to tap into their heart and discover the areas of life where he/she is compelled to provide leadership. Finally, the client is reminded of the basic rules of manifesting, and is then able to cause a positive and permanent change in the way  they think. The result is an emboldening of faith and connection, which ultimately serves to banish personal roadblocks and allow the client to freely and joyfully manifest her dreams and life purpose. Sounds easy, right?

Locally-based yoga teacher and holistic health teacher, Wendy Young offers Life Coaching, along with other healing modalities, including teaching yoga and meditation, from a yoga studio in Johannesburg. Wendy takes a more long-term and organic approach to coaching. She agrees that the practice of yoga is a valuable complement to Life Coaching, and recognises that some people prefer a structured approach to life coaching. However, her approach is to “hold the space” for her clients, allowing them to be who and where they are at any given moment. There is no set time frame for her coaching, and no agenda. “It’s more about providing support rather than to rush through the process of self-realisation,” she says. She continues, “we all get stuck and when we do, we don’t have any space to escape fear, anger, judgment, criticism or self doubt.” In her experience, getting unstuck requires flexibility and a customised approach to each individual client. “For me, it’s not about me telling you about your (issues), but more about supporting you in your process of self realisation through clear, skillful questioning, guiding you through your own lack of mental clarity to get to what is manifesting . . . as physical, mental, emotional or spiritual dis-ease.” She also asserts that only the ego wants to be told what to do, not the true, divine being within. A prescriptive approach may seem comforting, but, she says, ultimately, this will not bring true and sustainable inner change. Wendy says that it is our own inner teacher and wisdom, which must help us shift and grow. Wendy helps her clients access that inner knowing by connecting to “a spacious place within themselves (which is) guided by my own inner teacher, and the higher intelligence that flows through all of us.” She then uses the power of her own innate divine intelligence to help her clients access theirs.

Wendy describes how the practice of yoga can complement the life coaching process. She says, “it’s important to allow the yoga practices to work their magic which is beyond our conceptual, intellectual mind.” She says that yoga practice actually engages with that which is buried in our subconscious mind, and can create change within us simply through shifts in energy, and the opening of the chakras. Wendy recognises that all holistic health practices, such as yoga, life coaching, massage, acupuncture, and nutritional therapy, have their place on the spectrum of methods that can/will bring us closer to our own divine wisdom, and thus to our own self-healing. As such, she draws on the healing practice she intuitively feels will best assist her client to heal physically, emotionally, spiritually and  mentally. One of Wendy’s clients emphatically insisted that what she really does is “Spiritual Coaching.” Given the above approach, perhaps this is a more appropriate angle for “Yoga Life Coaching.”

Whether a quick, prescriptive process or a slower, more careful and long-term approach to life coaching, yoga practitioners do have the opportunity to complement the transformational power of their practice through engaging a Life Coaching professional. Through helping people to clear out inner blockages, create clarity, and eliminate habitual negative thinking or self doubt, Life Coaches who understand yoga practice certainly can help to create that “critical mass” of enlightened people who have the power to make permanent shifts in the spiritual evolution of humanity.

By Debbie Banda

For more information on the Life Coaching described in this article, contact Wendy Young at wendy@wise-living.co.za, or go to HandelGroup.com.

Life is lived with purpose – we each have inner goals, usually personal rather than external, and we have that deep knowing that we are here to transform ourselves for the better. Life provides us with obstacles, with so-called dragons to slay, for otherwise it would all be too easy, and stagnation is likely to result.

With reference to The Rules for Being Human by Cherie Carter-Scott, we understand:

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s the only thing you are sure to keep for the rest of your life.
2. You will learn lessons. Every person or incident is the Universal Teacher.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation. Failures are as much a part of the process as success is.
4. A lesson is repeated until learned. It is presented to you in various forms until you learn it – then you can go onto the next lesson.
5. If you don’t learn easy lessons, they get harder. External problems are a precise reflection of your internal state. When you clear inner obstructions, your outside world changes. Pain is how the Universe gets your attention.

We all have an inner structure, presumably drawn up in advance, which is designed to hep us achieve our goals. Our obstacles and challenges are “stumbling blocks” – our dragons - and we need to learn to tame them, or they take control. They create the lessons – and the pain – referred to in “The Rules”. Dragons are therefore a necessary, if not painful, part of our lives. It is however important to realise that they exist to assist in the transformation process. So, we need to identify our dragons, and in mastering them, we move into more positive spaces.

The Pretension Dragon
This manifests in two different ways. People afflicted with this dragon are either self-conscious and shy or arrogant and egotistical. In both cases, it comes from a fear of not being good enough. So we put on a mask, in order to stop others from finding this out. Accept and be your true self.

The Self-Devaluation Dragon
People afflicted with this feel despised, they apologise constantly. They are self-reproaching, self-conscious and feel undeserving. Expectations of inadequacy are reinforced by the experience of depression and feelings of defeat. Low self esteem must go! Accept your value. The truth is that you are not winning by presenting an apologetic self and you need to identify the glorious truth of who you really are.

The Greed Dragon
People with these dragons appear to be selfish, materialistic or unsatisfied and empty. “Just one more drink/cookie/lover will bring me that feeling of satisfaction”, they say. For these folk, the grass is always greener on the far side of the hill. They do not enjoy life because they are too worried about losing things, too focused on getting more things. Leran to enjoy what you have, to be in the here and now. Happiness comes from within.

The Impatience Dragon
People with this dragon are often bad tempered and intolerant, even rude, nervous and anxious. “If I go faster, I can get to my goal quicker and accomplish more – it is better to hurry,” they say. The truth is that moving slowly is usually more efficient and productive. Time cannot run out. Impatience contributes to increased stress.

The Matyrdom Dragon
People afflicted with this have a complaining “woe is me” attitude – they feel taken advatage of, persecuted or victimised. “Someone else is always at fault and to blame for what happens to me. I am not responsible,” they say. We create our own reality through our belief systems. Accept and value your power. Take responsibility for what happens in your life. Life is for living, for enjoying!

The Self-Destruction Dragon
These people seem reckless and wild, hopeless, despairing, defeated. They feel out of control and try to take control by driving too fast, taking drugs, or drinking. But external control is no substitute for a deep sense of meaning and confidence. The dragon arises out of feelings of abandonment, emotional or physical abuse as a child, a lack of self-worth. Accept your worth!

The Stubborness Dragon
A hard one to recognise in yourself! People with this dragon are headstrong, uncooperatiove, set in their ways and obstinate. “If I refuse to change, I am more powerful,” they say. It is a hollow victory. By refusing to budge, you allienate people. Learn to listen and change your mind!

In understanding which dragons are more dominant in our lives, we are better able to tackle them head-on. In conclusion and reference to the final Rules for Being Human:
- There is no right and wrong, but there are consequences. Moralising doesn’t help, judgements only hold the patterns in place. Just do your best.
- Your answers lie inside of you. Children need guidance from others but as we mature, we must learn to trust our hearts. You know more than you have heard or read or been told. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.

By Elaine Lee

The idea of “conscious education” is emerging on the educational horizon – and it’s doing so in a rapid and inspiring fashion. Various full-time schools, informal education sectors and community upliftment projects are integrating a holistic approach to teaching in order to meet the needs of a new generation of children – and the world

Most notable in conscious education are the core features that seem to be shared. Learning is student-centred, with the unique inner potential of each child being activated by experiential learning. Inclusive approaches to culture, religion and temperament eliminate the distraction of separation and foster universal priorities of humanity and environment. The child’s overall wellbeing is the nucleus of education with a focus on their vitality, inner awareness and harmonious placement within community and nature.

As holistic awareness permeates these new projects and institutions, the very definition of intelligence is also shifting quickly. Recognizing multiple intelligences means children are encouraged to express, integrate and develop a myriad of intelligence tributaries.

Assessments, if any, are more qualitative than quantitative, and competition is a natural and enjoyable by-product of learning activities and no longer a driving motivation for achieving. Intra and interpersonal collaboration is proving to be a more effective fuel for sustainable motivation and community progress, while eliminating the “stress factor”.

Above all, new initiatives are inclined towards a joyful living experience of learning and inspiring the child’s heart. The learning process is seen increasingly as the substance of life itself, and not a preparation for some future life goals. Here we look at some of the older and newer educational structures presently in place at schools.

MONTESSORI AND WALDORF EDUCATION
The first sustainable signs of conscious education emerged about 100 years ago. Dr Maria Montessori and Dr Rudolf Steiner birthed Montessori and Waldorf schools respectively, and the fact that both streams are thriving and expanding internationally, a century later, is testament to their value.

THE MONTESSORI METHOD
Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) was a paediatrician, professor of anthropology and culture and a pioneer of humanitarian work in the field of child education. She initiated her first school for some 50 hopelessly deprived ghetto children in Italy in 1907. “The Children’s House” emphasized the child-centred approach and captured enormous attention worldwide. Today, Montessori schooling educates from infant until matriculation, although in practice, most commonly runs until Grade 8.

Age mixing is a unique feature of the Montessori classroom approach. In a developmental group, spanning a few years each, there is a multi-age mix of students. A relatively large group of children share one classroom. Montessori posits that this benefits the holistic health of the child, since the setting becomes a more natural social environment and allows greater flexibility for students – older children stimulate younger ones, becoming role models to them; younger children have older peers to emulate.

Equally unique in the Montessori approach is the mode of learning and skills acquisition. The classroom is designed to meet developmental needs, with specific Montessori materials and equipment available. The teacher is “keeper of the environment,” preparing and maintaining the context for the child’s self-conducted learning and qualitatively assessing the unique learning map which emerges from the child through independent exploration.

The Montessori curriculum includes all basic subjects, while also allowing children to follow unusual or unique areas of interest. Emphasis is placed on both problem-solving and imaginative work, with the arts and practical life skills integrated throughout the curriculum.

WALDORF EDUCATION
Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925), founder of the Waldorf school movement, was a scientist, philosopher, educator, community initiator and theosophist. He developed a movement known as Anthroposophy, translated from Greek to mean “human wisdom”, which views the human being as a reflection of all that the macrocosm contains. Self knowledge and an understanding of the broader universe thus go hand in hand.

Waldorf runs from kindergarten to high school and extends into adult education. Teachers have a strong and creative self-development component within their training.“Soulful, living education” is the buzz word in Waldorf circles and this constitutes a few vital components. The curriculum meets the inner child, so that the content presented is not abstract or external but rather rich with the imagery and processes to which the child can relate.

Waldorf education is seen as an art itself, an act of creativity. Explorations include concept, colour, movement, music and other avenues, so that the end experience is digested into the being of the child, and not trapped in intellectual abstraction.

SynEDgy™ SCHOOLING
A new full-time schooling option available to Cape Town pre- and primary school children with the vision of a high school option by 2012, the SynEDgy™ Schooling Approach was launched by Robin Booth, a teacher and life coach whose aim is to bring increased consciousness to the transformation process in education. His educational model prides itself on remaining open to appropriate innovation and change. It safeguards this ideal by placing communication, relationship skills and personal development at the heart of its approach, working to co-construct an educational environment that meets constantly developing 21st century community needs.

SynEDgy has a unique social and personal management approach and the focus falls on empowering teacher, parent and student, both independently and as a team. Life coaching is part of teacher training, engaging staff members in a continuously reflexive path of self transformation and evaluation. The teachers then use these skills gained to unlock the innate potential of the student, empowering young learners with the clarity needed for self-directed growth.

“The Effective Parenting Programme” also encourages parental involvement, awareness and child support skills. SynEDgy employs pioneering concepts to empower and involve students. As a communication tool between the classroom and the home, daily journals are compiled with student reviews at the end of the day. In this way parents are also involved in the content and experience of their child’s education and thereby create continuity in the home, no longer settling for the dead-end dialogues of lift schemes such as, “How was school?”. Answer, “fine!”

EARTH CHILD PROJECT
Earth Child Project reaches into the hearts of underprivileged existing schools through a permanent facilitator in the schools, whose sole responsibility it is to introduce and maintain holistic education within an otherwise mainstream schooling framework. The idea was inspired by Earth Child Project director Janna Kretzmer, who focuses on primary school youth as a point of community transformation. Janna and her dynamic team aim to teach children “what they wish they had learnt at school”.

Earth Child Project focuses on personal health and wellness, environmental education and life skills training. These aspects complement the normal academic curriculum with soulful, holistic skills for life. With the help of Mamelani, a humanitarian health and wellness NGO, healthy living, eating, sleeping and hygiene habits have suddenly sprung into the children’s timetable. The school tuck-shops have undergone a healthy transformation, with fruit and healthy snacks on sale.

Environmental education has also taken a front seat with hands-on organic gardening and worm farming for the students. Life skills training is a very important process as many of their students often face a degraded social and community climate with many life stresses. “Breath Water Sound” is a four-day Art of Living course taught to all learners from Grades 3 to 7 and shares tools for inner wellbeing. There are weekly follow up yoga and breathing lessons to ensure the children experience sustainable benefits.

CONSCIOUSNESS BASED EDUCATION (CBE)
Pioneering exciting conscious education ground is the work of the Maharishi Institute of Consciousness Based Education (CBE). This educational approach and its integral Transcendental Meditation (TM) techniques have been available in South Africa since the 60s and new developments are now meeting very current local needs for young adults in urban and rural settings.

CBE springs from the wisdom of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who identified a “unified field of consciousness” and a “creative intelligence” as the source of all disciplines of study. He describes “total intelligence” as the innate, infinite potential of every student to be unfolded by CBE. In CBE institutions, 15 minutes of TM meditation begins the day, connecting the students with the “home of all knowledge”. Much scientific research shows that tapping into consciousness unlocks the refined thinking abilities needed to tackle curriculum subjects thereafter.

Taddy Blecher launched the new Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg in 2007 as a free tertiary educational offering to school leavers. The institute offers acquisition of essential business, computer, language and leadership skills, supported by CBE and TM techniques.

Now, developments are unfolding in a rural setting with mining magnates, conservationists and philanthropists Nicky and Strilli Oppenheimer donating the 4 500-hectare Ezemvelo Nature Reserve, near Bronkhortspruit, to the Maharishi Institute. The reserve brims with rich biological diversity and an on-site rural eco-campus focusing on conscious education and conservation is currently being developed there. Eco-tourism will continue to be promoted, applying the knowledge and skills of the on-site students, while sustainability, fair trade and community upliftment are central features.

DAKTARI
Targeting underprivileged rural children in the Limpopo region, Daktari educates and inspires children to care for the environment through the medium of a wildlife orphanage. They simultaneously supplement the children’s academic education and train them with necessary life skills for a greater overall quality of life.

Every Monday, a small group of Grade 8 children from Ramatau and Lepono schools visit Daktari’s project base, 700 hectares of pristine natural habitat. Here, several wild animals that cannot be released into nature are housed in suitable holding facilities and, together with staff and international volunteers, await the arrival of the excited children. At Daktari, each child has a staff member or volunteer devoted to them, and together they get busy with learning about the environment, conservation and natural sciences through the medium of hands-on orphaned animal care and wildlife exploration. They also learn the basics of several school subjects such as English, Maths and the Natural Sciences.

Daktari aims to benefit the children, the local school and community, the environment and the orphaned animals, while giving the international volunteer a chance to encounter the wonderful culture and nature of South Africa.

NATURE NETWORK
Through her work with underprivileged NGOs, Rhian Bherning, the initiator of the Nature Network programme, realised that many privileged schools needed eco-education too. This was an important gap to fill, since these families generally create a bigger ecological footprint in terms of resource usage. With the belief that every child is part of the web of nature, Rhian pioneered Nature Network as an extra-mural, starting with just one school.

Nature Network facilitators meet weekly with their young “nature navigators” with their facilitators who guide them through hands-on contact with the natural elements and features of the school ground, learning through games, role playing, storytelling and observation. They also experience the ability to transform their surroundings through the growing of seeds and new plants. Nature Network encourages children to develop a loving fascination for nature and the eco-system, without altering or destroying it.

Did you know?

In Sanskrit, there is no direct word for “teach”. The verb is to “help raise the consciousness of the student”. Socrates said that he was not a teacher, but a midwife. In these words he conjures the wonderful image of education as a birthing process, which brings the little being, already with a heartbeat of its own, out into the light. Conscious education picks up these strands of philosophy and puts them into practice.

By Brownwyn Sherman

Understanding Archetypes and the Roles of Personality

The Yoga Vasistha is a book that presents the possibility for instant awakening. Yes, instant. But that is the easy part; the “awakening” part is a bit more tricky. And why is that? Because, before we wake up we need to want to wake up. And who wants to awaken? Do you? And from what?

No yoga practice has any meaning whatsoever, and therefore any value, unless you realise one simple thing – we are prisoners bound by invisible chains. And what is it that binds us? Our minds, and the mesmerising power of our personalities.

To realise, that “I am a prisoner of ‘my’ mind”, can be a strange sensation. How can it be my mind, if the mind does what it wants, when it wants, and all I do is follow its instructions? Or haven’t you noticed?

When you realise “I am a prisoner of mind” then maybe yoga can have real value for you. In fact, that is when yoga practice will reveal its power and its beauty. That is what it was designed for – freedom from mental activity, not just health, as some yoga teachers state. Ironically, freedom from mental activity is health. Until you realise that, you are just chasing your own tail. If you happen to be driven by mental compulsions (as we are) you remain bound even to “your” yoga practice.

In terms of brain neurology, the thing that can free the attention from the “mental prison” of our minds like nothing else can is vichara (dynamic, fluid and focused noticing). Vichara is at the core of yoga practice, together with a deep realisation of how mental activity creates the illusion of “you”, by means of ever-changing self images. Mental activity traps the attention in the lower chakras, defining our individuality.

To discover this secret, close your eyes and observe what is actually going on right now. What do you notice? Can you discern that as you are sitting there, right now, some “person” has arisen within your field of awareness? Perhaps it is a younger or older “you”, or maybe a person the same age as your body.

But then, have you noticed that at other times, perhaps when a cop pulls you over at a roadblock, or when you are having some problem with your bank, or when someone let you down, a different “person” appears within the field of awareness? Equally, when you feel close to someone or feel inspired, yet another “person”, with altogether different qualities and abilities arises. Now if these different versions of “you” keep on arising and disappearing, can they be real? They certainly are not permanent.

All these imaginary “persons” arise all the time, one after the other. Sometimes when you least want them to. The question is, have you noticed?

If you observe, you will notice that these imaginary self images rule our lives. Very often they result in insecurity and concern about the future or awakened regrets and longings from the past. Great actors have made a career out of it, and we truly enjoy the performance.

What Vasistha urges Rama to do, and by extension all of us, is to notice that these imaginary parts or sub-personality aspects of our self image – some call them archetypes – arise within a pristine space of awareness. In fact, the more desirable or frightening they are, the more they imprison the awareness – it’s the emotions that grip the attention.

The main effect of their arising is that the pure awareness in which they arise becomes forgetful of its own nature. As this happens, the misplaced sense of what is real becomes entrenched. In this way we miss the point that it is the consciousness, which is unchanging and timeless, and that the changing self images arise within it. Right now as you read this, the truth is covered up, the inner spaciousness is filled with images, the inner silence is replaced with noise, the attention gets dragged away and forced into the play of a life story.

When the truth of being is lost, the symptoms are distress, fear, a closed heart, uncomfortable breathing, cynicism, a tough exterior – each one of us has our favourites. This is the absence of yoga.

Vasistha says notice that, and reclaim your true identity. Your personality arises in you!

From thinking and believing that you are “this man” or “that woman” notice what you really are. You are the pure consciousness in which all the sub-personalities arise and that is not individualised at all.

In death, deep sleep and true meditation, all the versions of who you think you are collapse, and what remains is all that there was in the first place – this is liberation. If they all arise again, demanding fulfilment, that is what we call rebirth. Simple.

To frequently surrender or give up the urge of their arising, while in the waking state, is spiritual practice. This is the true value of bowing and surrendering to the ever-present awareness. This frequent noticing and surrendering, releasing and offering to the divine consciousness, the variations of “me”, leads to the realisation of the existence of the ever-free consciousness, which is the permanent true being of all.

To notice the appearing and disappearing – the impermanence – of all the mental images of self is their undoing. This noticing is called vichara. The prize is enlightenment, and the price is our personality’s importance. As the first increases the second decreases, in a flash of realisation. Just like that, like a bolt from the blue, when it’s clear it’s clear. No amount of physical effort can bring this about, just insight.

Salutations to that reality (Sat), in which all the elements and all the animate and inanimate beings shine as if they have an independent existence, and in which they exist for a time and into which they merge.
Salutations to that consciousness (Chit), which is the source of the apparently distinct threefold divisions of knower, knowledge, and known; seer, sight, and seen; doer, doing and deed.
Salutations to that bliss absolute (the ocean of bliss) (Ananda), which is the life of all beings whose happiness and unfolding are derived from the shower of spray from that ocean of bliss.

By Panos Lazanas

Nature is a book of wisdom from which to learn, says Swami Nityamuktananada. Water, as one of the five elements of nature, has many powerful qualities that offer us gifts of transcendence, contemplation, enlightenment, transformation and indeed, the secret to discovering the purpose of our lives

Have you ever stood at sunset or sunrise by the sea, or a lake, and observed how the water reflects the sun’s light? Water, still water, reflects the light of wisdom. Many Buddhists paths follow this – water’s quality of reflecting the light of wisdom.

Integrity of Identity
In front of me on the desk is a glass of water. The water is clear – I can see through it, crystal clear and possessing no colour of its own. Water fills the glass and takes on its shape without effort. If I spill it, it adapts to the shape of the floor. In fact, water adapts to any shape, be it a glass, syringe, bathtub, sewage pipe, river or ocean. It takes on the form of that which limits it. It is so adaptable that it appears as though it constantly gives up its integrity, although it never does.

When the raindrop gives up its existence to become the pool, it remains water. When the dewdrop gives up its existence and becomes the sap of a tree, it still remains water. Or, less romantically, when water in a steam engine evaporates, it remains water still.

Water always seeks to merge with the bigger version of what it is. However long the journey of water is, in the end, one drop merges with another, one river merges with another and ultimately the river becomes the ocean. Water gives up its separate identity. This drive to merge with something greater seems to be the secret and reason why the confluences of rivers are held sacred in Indian and other cultures. This quality of water has inspired many great thinkers and philosophers to use water as a symbol for an “ultimate reality”. The Chinese idea of the Tao as “the watercourse way”, is merely one such example.

In accordance with many wisdom teachings, we can contemplate our individual lives as waves dancing on the ocean or as whirlpools in the river of consciousness. Concentrated “life energy” dances for a while as “me” in the dimension of reality we call earth and then continues with the flow of the river of life, finally pouring itself into the ocean. While “water is playing”, essentially nothing has changed; the snowflake or wave or whirlpool surrenders its individual temporary form – and yet remains water.

Detached Receptivity
Let us go back again to the glass of water– what happens if I drink it? It becomes part of me. It fills my veins and cells and I become the container. Because my skin is porous I sweat, my lungs absorb and give out moisture. There is humidity, moisture and water both inside and outside of me. We cannot survive in an atmosphere devoid of water and, in fact, with a bit of humour, we can see that we live in a “sea” of water, not much different to fish.

However high the humidity is outside me though, there’s more water inside me in various disguises: as tissue fluid, blood, lymph and spinal fluid. We need to drink water in order to maintain these fluid levels, in order to stay healthy and alive.

But, unlike the water in the glass in front of me, the water inside of me is not pure – water not only adapts in shape, but also to the needs of the host. Water accommodates, carries and absorbs loads of foreign matter, such as the chemical substances of iron, nutrients and minerals. Once water is engaged in the job of carrying these, we call it blood, lymph or bile. Water fulfils this job as a carrier of other substances in many circumstances. It carries medicines with as much equanimity as poison, viruses, pollution, acid, even atomic waste, without regrets, without affecting its true nature.

Water is extremely receptive and this detached receptivity gives it incredible power. In the form of seawater, it contains all other elements and thus it has the power of all of them, which is another indication of why many spiritual traditions use it as a potent symbol. Water contains the warmth of fire (without it, it would be ice). It also contains oxygen (air), salts of the earth and it occupies space.

Flexibility and Adaptability
Water’s flexibility and adaptability make it possible for water to regenerate. For example, after water has been through my body, nurturing me by carrying nutrients, it leaves me, carrying away unwanted chemicals. Therefore, water’s flexibility allows it to change purpose or adapt. After the water finally exits the body, it enters the ground and, within the earth, it lets go of its collected poisonous or negative substances and deposits them onto the ground, and thus water is cleansed.

This process of filtering things out and regeneration is a mutual service between earth and water. Water contributes its ability to dissolve anything – all of the good and bad elements. Then, the earth accepts the additives that water has transported, and reconstitutes them. Once water has seeped deep into the bowels of the earth, through earth’s many layers, it rests at the deepest point and from there it re-emerges as a spring. Thus having cleansed itself, it is available again to serve. In the physical dimension, earth and water co-operate in this action of cleansing, of regeneration. If we harm the earth, we harm the water and vice versa.

Higher Awareness
Water pulled by earth’s gravity sinks deep. But gravity also acts on water in a different context. The pull of gravity from the moon is responsible for the tidal movement of oceans and this pull of gravity on water can also be felt in man. This is frequently experienced as physical “tidal waves” that can be felt physically in the sacro-spinal fluid of the human body and by those “tidal waves” we call emotions.

Man’s psyche or emotional expressions are likened to water. Just as water is pulled into the depths of the earth where cleansing and rejuvenation take place, the human being too can sink into the depths of doubt and existential fear. This state might be experienced as depression or as a “dark mood”. Again, the cleansing and purification potentials of water can help raise us to higher awareness.

Resting in the depth, in the deepest, stillest part of the ocean where nothing moves, there is clarity, potent stillness and silence. It is such silence that we experience in meditation, where the mind has calmed from the turbulence of the surface waves and rests in its own being. From the depth of the stillness, from the process of self-cleansing, of purification, water resurfaces as pure spring water again.

Nurturing
Water fulfils its dharma (virtuous purpose) of nurturing life – the brook nurtures the moss and flowers and soon, water changes shape again, evaporating through the leaves of the plant as it joins the mist of an early summer day and, after dancing in the morning air, it falls back into the stream. The stream gets visited by animals and they drink, thus water becomes a bird, an elephant, a mouse. The stream receives water back from the animals and flows on – becoming a river again.

However many cycles there are to its life, eventually the river pours itself into the ocean – but even then, water’s journey is not finished, it merely starts another cycle. Evaporating, it forms clouds that drop as rain, being absorbed into the earth, sinking deep into its bowls until emerging again.

We can see the parallel in the life of the Boddhisattva or enlightened being who spends his/her life in tireless service nurturing and purifying others. Then, even when the cycle of life seems finished, they returns to continue in another cycle of egoless service.

Inherent to water is its ability to nourish others. Therefore we recognize the dharma of water is to nurture. It is used by others and then returns to reconstitute itself – only to serve again. It’s therefore no surprise that water is called “life sustaining”, “life giving” or even “water of life”. Due to this quality, water is seen as the symbol of female energy, especially in the context of healing.

Determination and Willpower
You could argue however that water is not only all peaceful, soft, gentle, receptive and nurturing. Water also has great strength and, at times, turns its strength into violence.

What about excessive monsoon rains, killer floods and tsunamis? Water can carry even the greatest boulders downstream. Sea levels rise and drown whole islands and continents, rivers cut enormous canyons to follow their course with unbending will and drive to get to the ocean. Rain wears down the highest mountain.

Because of these aspects, water is associated with willpower and the strength of discipline. Here is the root of the metaphorical saying that “drops of the softest water will in time wear down even the hardest stone”. Water does not give up and is unerring in its drive to fulfil its dharma. It must reach the sea regardless. And, if something gets in the way, water will persist until it breaks through. One could say that water has great determination.

Water has the ability not only to rejuvenate itself, but also to reinvent itself. Mankind can learn from this the ability to transcend and shift our awareness. We can suspend our own personalities, our wants and wishes. And this takes courage, training and determination.

Freedom
In continuing our own life purposes, like water, we should not cling to our limiting forms, our conditioned selves and personalities. Like the stream, we can learn to put aside our previous limiting patterns, forms and shapes so that, via the experience of merging, adapting and self-purifying, we can continue service unclouded by our own personality. This clarity is freedom. Freedom is stillness and emptiness brimming with potential.

Nature is a book of wisdom from which to learn, if only we can open our hearts and minds to do so. Then we can learn from water flexibility, learn to adapt and be receptive. We can learn how to filter out the unwanted, harmful stuff and purify ourselves. We can learn to feel and flow with others, nurture them and serve the world without ego. We can learn from water how to grow in wisdom and how to use willpower and determination to fulfil our dharma. But most of all, we can learn how to surrender without fear of loosing our identity – we can learn to be free!

By Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati

Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati lives in Cornwall, England. She has worked with great spiritual masters, among them Zen Masters, great Siddhas, the Tibetan Lama and Tulku T.Y.S. Gangchen, the great Yogi Swami Maheshananda, H.H. Swami Anubhavananda and Swami Veda Bharati. In 1997 she received her Doctorate in eco philosophy and was awarded a World Peace Prize. Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati is a speaker at international congresses on World Peace (UN) and complementary medicine as well as new ethics. For more information visit www.athayoga.info

Increasing performance and working to counter the rigorous manoeuvres and specific strains of surfing, Miles Masterson speaks to the “big wavers” about how yoga is transforming the sport

Natural Yoga
Though surfers sometimes call surfing “natural yoga”, this is of course not an accurate appraisal of the sport. While it is true that surfing does involve immersion in the outdoors and is a vigorous pursuit that benefits overall fitness, the physical dynamics of surfing are also incredibly taxing on the human body. Even the act of paddling a surfboard (which surfers do far more than riding waves) is an unnatural face-down prone position that wreaks havoc on the shoulders and neck.

Thanks to the rigours of standing sideways on the board and twisting and contorting one’s torso and limbs into and out of the different manoeuvres – not to mention body-wrenching wipe outs – prolonged periods of surfing often result in painful injuries and can have a detrimental effect on posture and alignment. Without a basic stretching regimen to counter the sport’s specific strains, many long-term surfers suffer from a plethora of ailments, particularly those of the spine, rotator cuff, elbows, hips, knees and ankles.

Fortunately, yoga has long been recognised as a great way to thwart these negative side effects and increase surfing performance. Of late, yoga has become so popular in surf culture that scores of surf resorts worldwide now offer “yoga retreats” to cater for the sheer number of surfers bringing the practice into the core of their lives.

The Rise of Yoga and Surf
Tuned into Eastern philosophy, the athletic minded hippie surfing movement of the late 60s and early 70s originally turned to yoga as a means to prepare for the challenges of surfing and, along with living in communes, eating organic and having an appreciation of nature, yoga became as de rigueur for these surfers as long blond hair. Famous surfers, such as 1966 world champion Australian Nat Young and 70s Hawaiian Zen master Gerry Lopez were early adopters. Later, American multiple world champions Tom Curren and Kelly Slater, among others, all brought yoga into their lives. To this day, these surfers all remain among the most fit, supple and youthful adherents of the sport in their age groups.

In the early 1990s “Yoga for Surfers” gained real momentum with the advent of a specialised course and the release of a DVD of the same name by Californian surfing yogi Peggy Hall. Career surfers such as perennial performer American Taylor Knox (who, at 38, is currently the oldest but still one of the fittest full time professionals) and lady’s superstar, the Hawaii-based Rochelle Ballard, publicly endorsed Hall’s aesthetic. Subsequently, yoga became one of the most popular forms of cross-training among surfing professionals and average surfers alike. “You are stimulating your entire system… increasing flexibility, range of motion, and strength,” says Ballard, who recently released her own DVD, Surf
Into Yoga, of the benefits of yoga for surfers. “You can also increase your breath and hold for bigger surf,” she adds.

Big Waves, Big Lungs
Enter big wave surfer Greg Long, who was voted one of the top 50 fittest Americans by a men’s magazine in 2008. “Yoga is a huge part of my physical regimen from a flexibility standpoint,” says Long. Suppleness notwithstanding, Long also lauds the mental benefits of yoga, something big wave surfers tend to focus on to help them deal with hold downs and violent thrashings underwater. He also credits the ability to tune into nature to enhance his immersion in the moment to yoga and, as he puts it, “to be able to go into that total state of peace and relaxation.”

As one of the most respected young big wave surfers in the world, and someone who has influenced others in big wave riding circles to take up yoga, Long, 27, practises it wherever he is. On the road for up to 10 months a year, he will go solo or attend Hatha or Ashtanga classes. However when he is home in California, Greg does Bikram yoga to prepare him for extreme surfing conditions, be they 70 foot plus waves or marathon, 10-hour surfs. “When the temperatures get up high it can be very intense, so flexibility-wise it is incredible,” says Long of Bikram. “It’s almost like simulating a wipe-out. You know you are putting that kind of physical strain on your body, but at the same time you have to keep a really focused head.”

Like Long, recreational surfer and eight times free dive record holder, Hanli Prinsloo, trains hard to remain judicious in extreme conditions. South African Hanli, 30, tells how for free divers, yoga is an absolute necessity in their training regime, particularly the mental and breathing aspects. For Hanli, who has swum straight down on one breath to a depth of 60 metres, they are one and the same. A keen surfer, she recently began advising many of Cape Town’s top big wave surfers on her Apnea (suspension of external breathing) dive training techniques which, among other things, incorporate yoga poses and philosophies. She explains how, as a defence mechanism, the body tends to resist being deprived of oxygen, especially when immersed in water, and how the diaphragm will naturally spasm as a result. This often triggers the first feeling of panic in the brain that can prove detrimental to both free divers and surfers alike.

By understanding that this is merely the beginning of what is called the Mammalian Dive Response (MDR ) and working through it, divers can learn to control their minds and remain calm underwater for up to five minutes. To this end, Hanli advocates repeated Sun Salutations, yoga lung stretches and Kundalini and Hatha breathing exercises to boost lung capacity. “I blend styles of yoga to find optimum positions and breathing techniques,” she says. “This gives surfers the self confidence to take on whatever the ocean throws at them and remain calm under pressure.”

Yoga for Everyday Surfers
For more average surfers though, what type of yoga is best for them is largely based on personal requirements. “It really depends on the individual and what they are looking for,” says Rochelle Ballard. “I like to mix it up a bit with Chi Gong and hip restorative Vinyasa Flows.” Like Hanli, Rochelle advises doing Sun Salutations to cover most of these areas for focus and flexibility too. “I find if I am going into a surf session it’s best to warm up and do sequences that stimulate my body,” she says. Ballard recommends the Downward Dog for overall flexibility, Camel Pose to open the shoulders and hips as well Bridge and Warrior Poses.

Overall, it seems Hatha yoga is the most popular with surfers. “Maybe because of my age, I prefer the Hatha yoga, as it’s a little slower,” agrees 61-year-old Sandy Campbell, yogi at the Yoga Mat in Durban. A lifelong surfer, Sandy discovered yoga fifteen years ago and has never looked back. “In Hatha yoga,” he continues, “awareness is placed on alignment and adjustment in the asanas. This provides a good grounding for surfers.” Of course, all styles of yoga bring focus to the breath. Kundalini yoga, for example says Sandy, is better for younger surfers. “I find Kundalini yoga, with time, makes the body more flexible for other styles of yoga and definitely your surfing,” he says.

Whichever they adopt or combine, Sandy emphasises that all surfers need to focus on upper body strength. “Because of the paddling position, shoulders and neck muscles take strain,” he explains. “The cervical spine is arched and so the trapezius muscles need strengthening, as do the shoulders, rotator cuff and arms. All of the above need a strong core centre, i.e. abdominals and lower back/ lumbar spine. Moreover, as surfers stand sideways on their boards, the hips can also take a beating, one usually more so than the other, resulting in an imbalance and pressure on the knee and ankle joints.

“Because surfers are already connected to the ocean and all that is in it, yoga enhances this awareness. It starts when you first identify the swell in the set that you are going to ride… in every moment that you are riding the wave… and when you kick out at the end, the feeling of gratitude at being able to surf and interact with this ever-changing force of nature,” closes Sandy.

By Miles Masterson

SWAMIS
Every swami belongs to the ancient monastic order. By vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the spiritual teacher, many Catholic Christian monastic orders resemble the Order of Swamis. The title “swami” represents the attainment of supreme bliss through some divine quality or state – love, wisdom, devotion, service, yoga – and through harmony with nature. The ideal of selfless service to all mankind, and of renunciation of personal ties and ambitions, leads the majority of swamis to engage actively in humanitarian and educational work. Ignoring all prejudices of caste, creed, class, color, sex, or race, a swami follows the precepts of human brotherhood. His goal is absolute unity with Spirit. The swami roams contentedly in the world but not of it. Thus only may he justify his title of swami – one who seeks to achieve union with the Swa or Self.

But, a swami, formally a monk by virtue of his connection with the ancient order, is not always a yogi.

YOGIS
Anyone who practices a scientific technique of God-contact is a yogi; he may be either married or unmarried, either a worldly man or one of formal religious ties. A yogi engages himself in a definite, step-by-step procedure by which the body and mind are disciplined, and the soul liberated. Taking nothing for granted on emotional grounds, or by faith, a yogi practices a thoroughly tested series of exercise which were first mapped out by the early rishis, seers or sages. Yoga has produced men who became truly free.

YOGA
Like any other science, yoga is applicable to people of every clime and time. Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevent all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Yoga cannot know the barrier of East and West any more than does the healing and equitable light of the sun. The ancient rishi Patanjali defines “yoga” as “control of the fluctuations of the mind-stuff”.  His very short and masterly expositions, the Yoga Sutras, form one of the six systems… the six systems formulate six definite disciplines aimed at the permanent removal of suffering and the attainment of timeless bliss.The common thread linking all six systems is the declaration that no true freedom for man is possible without the knowledge of the ultimate reality. Yoga Sutras contain the most efficacious methods for achieving direct perception of truth. Through the practical techniques of yoga , man leaves behind forever the barren realms of speculation and cognizes in experience the veritable essence.

The Yoga system as outlined by Patanjali is known as the Eightfold Path:

(1)   Yama – avoidance of injury to others, of untruthfulness, of stealing, of incontinence, of gift-receiving (which brings obligations)

(2)   Niyama – purity of body and mind, contentment, self-discipline, study and devotion to God

(3)   Asana (right posture) – the spinal column must be held straight, and the body firm in a comfortable position for meditation

(4)   Pranayama (control of prana [energy], subtle life currents) – [through breath]

(5)   Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses from external objects)

(6)   Dharana (concentration) – holding the mind to one thought

(7)   Dhyana (meditation), and

(8)   Samadhi (superconscious perception)

This is the Eightfold Path of Yoga which leads one to the final goal of Kaivalya (Absoluteness), a term which might be more comprehensibly put as “realisation of the Truth beyond an intellectual apprehension.”

“Which is greater,” one may ask, “a swami or a yogi?” If and when final oneness with God is achieved, the distinctions of the various paths disappear.  The methods of yoga are all-embracing. Its teachings are not meant only for certain types and temperaments, such as those few who incline toward the monastic life; yoga requires no formal allegiance. Because the yogic science satisfies a universal need, it has a natural universal applicability.

A true yogi may remain dutifully in the world. To fulfil one’s earthly responsibilities is indeed the higher path, provided the yogi, maintaining a mental uninvolvement with egotistical desires, plays his part as a willing instrument of God.

Text Extracted from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananada

Earth’s Kingdom

The prismatic world of crystals and gemstones is a window into the constellations of life – the ebb and flow of eons passed is capturedand frozen in these miniature-mountains and kingdoms of earth that express a symphony of beauty, colour and form. Bronwyn Sherman explains how crystals work to balance us and bring with them resonant tools for living in purpose…

Everything in existence has a constitution – a manner in whichelements and atoms on a micro-cosmic level are arranged. Add the movements of life into the mix, and you have vibration – vibrations which emanate like signature songs of being. Each crystal and gemstone is truly an imprint of universal creativity.

While every crystal is distinctive, mineral families share a basic blueprint. Exposure to similar patterns of earthly, atmospheric and elemental changes creates a kinship in constitution and vibration. Thus each family of minerals presents a gateway into a unique and specific dimension.

Tuning into the energy of crystals and stones helps us align to their many medicinal archetypes and properties. The guidelines of crystal properties are steeped in a depth of intuitive and experiential research, as well as the principles of the nature forces which fashion and form them. Whatever you may read in books however, it is valuable to remain open to your inner experience of the stones and what they teach you. Remain aware and avoid the mind becoming stuck on labels and fixed symbolism. Rather open your being and listen to the organics of the natural world. They will surely speak to you personally, as you are one with the family.

Crystals and life purpose
Life purpose – what a grand theme of human enquiry, of philosophy, of experience. We live a life of ever-changing moments, actions and incidents and most of us stand, at one time or another, before the question of purpose. What is the purpose of existence – collectively and individually? Why are we here?

Sometimes stepping into our own rightful existence, our own unique being and flow, simply requires that we “get out of our own way”. This can often be a matter of coming into balance. For this, crystals that align the spiritual and earthly realms are ideal to work with, as they allow subtler spheres to enter our everyday lives.

Sugilite
Existential questions find a place in most people’s lives, and if these kinds of questions often swirl up and stir you, then Sugilite is the mineral to keep close. A healthy dose of existentialism keeps the wonder and mystery of life alive, and can be inspirational. It can also become quite paralyzing when no response from life seems to quench the thirsty questions.

Sugilite is one of our local minerals found almost exclusively in South Africa and Japan, and it glows a beautiful violet-purple hue. Sugilite teaches how to live from your truth, reminding the soul of its true colours and its reasons for incarnating. It helps align us with our answers to the big life questions we carry. It brings a flow of love and wisdom into the chakras so that we can accept our own life-force as present and purposeful.

Sugilite is useful in spiritual quests, aiding understanding and simultaneously relieving spiritual tension. It is also medicinal for anyone who does not feel at home on earth or welcome to belong in general.

Apophyllite
Apophyllite is a magnificent transparent crystal used when one wishes to connect with the spirit. Sourced from India, Australia, Brazil and some areas of Europe, this  tone appears similar to the clear quartz crystal, except that its base is square rather than six-sided. Four triangular faces rise up from the base to create a pyramid true. The pyramid is an ancient symbol of spiritual fire, and with Apophyllite, the fire of spirit is accessed through the solidity and balance of the square base.

Apophyllite is a spiritual stone that enhances clear sight, intuition and recognition of the true self. It helps with attuning to a higher purpose but keeps a strong  connectivity to the physical realm. This allows one’s truth to be shared and revealed to the world. It imbues decision-making processes with universal love so that the mind tunes as an instrument for higher thought. It overcomes the matter-burdened states of fear, anxiety and suppression so that the uncertainty of the subtler realms can be tolerated and embraced. It also reduces ego-based desires so that purpose can emerge, unshackled by attachments.

Tiger’s Eye
Perhaps you already have a strong connection with the spiritual world and would benefit from grounding so that your purpose may come to fruition, here and now. In  such a case, Tiger’s Eye could be the stone to journey with. Tiger’s Eye with its luminous golden streaks of reflective light is an important mineral for work with the solar plexus. It helps align the cosmic sun forces with one’s personal power source.

The yellowy-brown of Tiger’s Eye is caused by the presence of ironbearing quartz. Iron has fortifying effects on the will, promoting actions of integrity which serve one’s inner resources. Its strengthening effect develops commitment and counters “spaced-out” tendencies. Tiger’s Eye is a key stone for manifestation and realisation of inner changes so that they can penetrate right through to the physical form.

Labradorite
Labradorite has a mysterious beauty. Its electric sheen of either green, blue, pink, orange or yellow pierces out from an otherwise darkened state. This stone mainly originates from the Northern belt of Greenland, Russia, Canada and the Scandinavian territories and it probably does much the same service for the earth as it does for those who work with it – it protects the aura.

Labradorite works to deflect unwanted energies and prevents the leakage of positive energies within. If it’s the opinions or energy hooks from other people or places which disrupt your sense of purpose; if it’s distraction and inner conflict which hinders you from feeling focused and whole; or if it’s a lack of faith and trust in the universe and yourself which renders you scattered and ineffective, Labradorite will assist you. It helps to distinguish your own sphere from the projections of others; to synthesize and streamline your own faculties; to banish counter-productive insecurities and to strengthen us for enduring transformation.

Topaz
As a general all-round support for living life in your purpose, Topaz has excellent qualities. It recharges and re-motivates creating energetic living. It restores the trust  that is needed to “be” rather than “do” and the courage to live comfortably with uncertainty. Once purposeful “being” is in place, we can fill our “doings” with a Zen-like presence, and then all mundane processes become purposeful too.

Topaz occurs in an array of shades and is found in South Africa, the Americas, Australia and the East. It serves to shed light on our path, our goals and our inner resources. It cuts through the doubts and uncertainties that trap us. It has a vibrant and abundant energy and is extremely supportive for affirmation and manifestation work. Topaz encourages you to tap into your inner riches, believe in them, and your desires to share them and spread sunshine to the world.

Towards our true purpose
Inner and outer purpose; higher purpose and every-day purpose; individual and group purpose – it can all be quite overwhelming. The moment that purpose becomes a “concept” rather than a state of being, we immediately feel separated from it. When our being feels divided from its purpose, schisms develop internally creating confusion, conflict, exhaustion, pressure, despondency and depression.

Once we have found balance within the earth-spirit relationship, we need to remember wholeness rather than fragmentation, knowing that we ourselves, are the very pulse of this purpose. We should not seek it, but rather live it, and use healthy boundaries to protect its integrity. Awareness is an effective shield which can prevent distractions or empty temptations from re-dividing us. A comprehensive purpose requires a comprehensive presence. With this idea in mind, we transform purpose from what could be an arduous personal quest into that which is already living and begin sharing our signature of light with life.