Le Yoga Journal Paris AW14

Journal I n s p i r at i o n

c o n v e r s at i o n s

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Yoga

PURE Yoga & Religion Greg Nardi on the role of religion in the yoga tradition Digital Detox Is concentration possible when constantly distracted?

LE YOGA SHOP JOURNAL #4 A / W 2014 3,50 € / 4,5 USD / 3,0 GBP / 30 SEK / 270 INR 100% GOES TO CHARITY! LE YOGA SHOP PARIS SUPPORTS OPERATION SHANTI MYSORE, INDIA

The Art of Ayurveda Balancing nature’s five great elements

”Yoga comes from Nature.

Nature is recognized as Teacher and Guide in all Shamanic practices.”

Back to Nature A conversation with Danny Paradise

2 Editor´s letter

Le Yoga Shop Journal #4

Purity, the theme of this issue of Le Journal, is often associated with self-discipline, chastity, innocence – all of which necessarily suggest the existence of their corresponding opposing qualities – of impurity, shame and guilt. We need to purify, detox and clean up our act! However, in Yogic philosophy, purity equates to being free from scattered thought patterns – creating clarity and steadiness of mind.

The Bhagvad Gita teaches us that concentrating on one thing is practicing yoga for self-purification. It goes on to say that when our mind is clear and one-pointed, there is only one decision. All doubts fall away and we discern the nature of dispassion (calm objectivity) – of not being driven by our likes and dislikes...

We discuss this in great length around our dinner table at home. How living in this digital era with everyone´s and anyone´s latest happenings and doings at our fingertips at all hours, challenges our ability to maintain steadiness of mind. To make important decisions, to access inspiration from within, or to simply follow a thought through – these all become increasingly difficult. As we work with our collections for Le Yoga Shop this conversation is reflected in the simplicity and balance in colors and cuts – in quality, sustainability and attention to detail.

Tina Magnergård Bjers is advocating the need for a digital detox in her family (page 26). Danny Paradise talks about yoga as a way back to nature, to simplicity and purity (page 4).

Either way, taking a good and honest look at our mental and digital habits is undoubtedly necessary to become aware of how to remove dullness and keep our mind alert enough to practise yoga. There is no right or wrong way here, but there is always the possibility of acting with or without awareness.

Autum/Winter 2014

p. 12

p. 8

Back to Nature p. 4

– A conversation with Danny Paradise Words & Photography Kia Naddermier

The Art of Ayurveda p. 8

Photography & Styling Belén Vazquez Amaro & Albin Holmqvist Words Acharya Ratheesh Mani

Pure p. 12

Le Yoga Shop Paris Autumn/Winter 2014 collection Photography Kia Naddermier Styling Annemarie Sheridan

Yoga & Religion p. 22

– A Heritage of Ideas & Practices Words Greg Nardi Photography Jan Welters

An Insiders Guide to Bangkok p. 25 Words & Photography Camilla Davidsson

Digital Detox p 26

Words Tina Magnegård Bjers Photography Rui Faria Makeup Linda Öhström Kia & Magnus Paris October 2014

Editors-in-Chief & creative directiors Kia & Magnus Naddermier

Kids Yoga at Operation Shanti p. 30 Words Chris Ebbe

Words Camilla Davidsson, Tina Magnegård Bjers, Acharya Ratheesh Mani, Kia Naddermier, Greg Nardi

beauty Lena Dymak, Keiichiro Hirano, Tanya Koch, Steph Mediola, Linda Öhrström

associated Editor Anne Palmer

photography Belén Vazquez Amaro & Albin Holmqvist, Camilla Davidsson, Rui Faria, Kia Naddermier, Agathe Philbé, Jan Welters

Casting Lise Guetta de la Brosse

Design Studio Naddermier

Styling Annemarie Sheridan, Jo Shippen

Managing Partner Agathe Philbé

models April Alexander at M & P Models, Margaux Brooke at Models 1, Maude M’Boua at Major

Special thanks to Lovisa Burfitt – always!

Olivia Varraso – Kajsa Leandersson at Agent & Artists – Alex Kummerman Alexandre and Marie Thumerelle at OFR Chris Ebbe – the Operation Shanti team Lindsey Syred – Romain Detriche The students and teachers at Mysore Yoga Paris – Josefin Wikström The Welters-Pinter family Uma & Devi Naddermier – our biggest inspiration!

Contact contact@leyogashop.com www.leyogashop.com Follow Le Yoga Shop Paris on Facebook and Instagram Printed by Newspaper Club, Glasgow, 2014 Published by Le Yoga Shop Paris, © 2014

Photo Agathe Philbé, Kia Naddermier, Belén Vazquez Amaro & Albin Holmqvist

Only One Decision!

content

3 contributors Some of the amazing, creative and talented people that inspired us and made this issue of Le Yoga Shop Journal possible to realize – Merci!

1. Greg Nardi Yoga Teacher Vancouver, Canada Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: I am proud of my family and all they have taught me. I am proud to be teaching and sharing yoga with my husband Juan Carlos Galan. I am grateful to my teachers Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and R. Sharath Jois, and i am proud that I have always attempted to live in a way that pays homage to them. I am especially proud of all of the students that I have had the privilege of knowing through the years.

About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: This was a very personal piece that I have been wanting to write for some time. Yoga has always been an intensely personal journey that has played out on a public stage as yoga culture has spread around the world and I have had opportunities to teach internationally. It occurred to me that with yoga’s rise in popularity, and the growth of yogic studies there has been a shift in attitudes around the practice that have forced me to reflect on my own journey and evolve along with our community. It is my hope that the reflections of this article will help each practitioner of yoga to reflect on how we can grow gracefully, artfully, and compassionately as a community.

What does purity mean to you? Purity... Like any concept in the world of duality, this is a relative term. If we believe in purity, then we must also believe in impurity. In this case, then who gets to decide what is pure and what is impure?

Purity is useful as a concept insofar as it helps us to realize our potential. When it is used to condemn or shame then it 1.

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becomes an obstacle and must be discarded. Purity is a state of clarity.

2. Belén Vazquez Amaro Blogger, Stylist & Yogini Stockholm, Sweden Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: Inthemakingbybelen.com and my ”Yoga & Breakfast” events.

About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: We chose to visualise the different aspects of ayurvedic food through a series of figurative and abstract still life photographs.

We wanted to convey the pure beauty of natural and organic food and the positive impact it has on the body and mind.

What does purity mean to you? Balance, to be just right in the present moment, aware, to live a nourishing life in all aspects, to bring your senses inward... so the light inside of you can shine out through your body.

3. Albin Holmqvist Art Director & Graphic Designer Stockholm, Sweden Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: albinholmqvist.com About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: See Beléns answer above.

What does purity mean to you? Purity for me is about being true to yourself and at

the same time having an open heart to others.

4. Tina Magnergård Bjers Writer and Editor at the Swedish News Agency TT:s Foreign Desk, Stockholm Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: Mainly proud of my family and our three daughters. Glad that my day job takes me to such a variety of places – like a women’s clinic in Peshawar in Pakistan, a demonstration for illegal immigrant children in Florida and Hillary Clintons home town Chappaqua.

About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: It´s my favorite magazine with the best editors! To write about digital detox was intriguing and quite difficult because it´s a subject we discuss over and over again at home.

What does purity mean to you? To tell the truth, follow the heart and dare to choose and care. And to drink warm lemon water every morning.

5. Rui Faria, Photographer & Publisher London, UK Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: The Collaboration between myself and my ex-wife. Together we produced an amazing son, whom I’m extremely proud of.

About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: Originally published in Volt Magazine What does purity mean to you? To me, purity means a clean mind and happiness within.

6. LINDA ÖHRSTRÖM Makeup artist & Beauty Editor London, UK Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: The organic beauty project at Voltcafé.com i started one year ago 4.

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to help create awareness and inspiration around our everyday cosmetic choices. www.voltcafe.com/tag/ organic-beauty www.lindaohrstrom.com About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: Acknowledging that our attempts to do everything mean we miss most of it. The human being becomes a human doing whilst trying to create a quality of life by achieving material wealth.

Leading to physical, mental and spiritual loss instead.

What does purity mean to you? Honesty. In action, life and cosmetic ingredients.

7. Maude M’Boua Model, Athlete & Literature Student, Paris, France Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: So far I am still on my way to fulfill my dreams. The collaborations that I will be proud of one day are still to be realized. Among

other things, to start my own business – related to fashion – and finish the poetry book I am working on.

What does purity mean to you? For me purity is being yourself, your human self. It is remaining true to yourself without being discouraged by how crazy and mean the world can be. It is having a kind heart, no will to harm other human beings.

8. Camilla Davidsson Photographer Bangkok, Thailand Other projects / Collaborations that you are proud of: Operation Smile in Mae Sot in Eastern Thailand on the ThaiMyanmar border. I spent some time following a medical team during their work to help families with children suffering from cleft lip. This is a rather easy procedure and in developed countries this almost doesn’t exist anymore. For those living in poverty, this kind of medical assistance is unfortunately out of reach. In Mae Sot not only children are treated but even young adults and older people.

See more here: www.camilla davidsson.com/portrait/743mae-sot-mission-possible About your contribution for Le Yoga Shop Journal: When you asked me last summer if I was interested in writing an “Insiders Guide to Bangkok” I was more than happy, I had been thinking about this for some time already. I had pictures in my head from the beginning; it was just the text that troubled me. I ‘m not a writer; words don’t come easily in writing. I feel grateful for being part of this creative family.

What does purity mean to you? That’s perhaps the day when I’m “really” a vegetarian and I practice yoga six times a week…

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Back to Nature

A conversation with Danny Paradise about purity, independence and personal responsibility.

Words & Photography Kia Naddermier

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first met Danny Paradise in East Village, New York in 1999 while making a book about yoga (Om Yoga, Bokförlaget DN, 2000). The book was very much a personal research project, which led to many fascinating encounters and conversations with some of the most senior yoga teachers around. The conversation Danny and I began in New York has never really ended. Most summers we are able to spend some time together in a spectacular, pristine, remote river valley in Greece, where one of Danny’s oldest friends Cliff Barber lives as a renunciate on a simple mat, by the river.

(We’ll come back to Cliff later). With Danny

time and place or space are never an issue. We always pick up right where we left off, whether by e-mail or chatting by the river while he teaches my older daughter Uma some new chords on the guitar… Danny is as comfortable and easy-going with Magnus and me as he is with his 80-year old friend Cliff, my little girls or even the cats that hang around the river... His strong independence and fearlessness in expressing his beliefs and mission, whilst remaining openminded and humble, continue to inspire me in my own yoga path but perhaps even more as a human being. I’d like to share some of our conversations here in Le Journal.

Take me back to the start - when and how did you first encounter Ashtanga Yoga?

– This form of Yoga chose me! David Williams and Nancy Gilgoff were pioneers in bringing Ashtanga Yoga to the West – in Encinitas, California, where they had a group of around 60 students – hippies, University students, kids… mostly young surfers. They were the first to bring Sri K P Jois and his son Manju over from India. Manju wished to stay in America when his father returned to India, and David and Nancy gave Manju their classes. So, in May 1976 they were free to come to the Hawaiian island of Maui – where I was already living – and begin teaching.

– When David and Nancy arrived on Maui, they heard there was an old Yogi there (Cliff Barber was around 45 at the time and we were in our 20’s so anyone over 35 seemed very old!) He was practicing the Asanas from Integral Hatha Yoga by Swami Satchidananda.

Cliff was very studied in the scriptures of Yoga, Buddhism, Christianity and the Kabbalah and was very powerfully and clearly walking the Renunciate Path. They found him and showed him what they had been learning from Sri K. P. Jois in Mysore. Cliff spread the word to his students and friends, including myself, that David and Nancy would be giving a demonstration of all the sequences of Ashtanga Yoga, being the first Western teachers who knew and practiced them.

– It was amazing! They showed the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of the practices, and I, along with everyone else who had watched them, showed up the next day in the historic Seaman’s Prison ground in Lahaina to try the class they were offering. This was where Cliff did his daily meditation, pranayama and Yoga practice and also where David and Nancy had met him.

– So there we were those first days in Maui – a group of 35 people practicing Yoga in the mornings in the serene historic park and a month later in a beautiful park by the ocean.

Doing Yoga in amazing pristine environments quickly imprinted the practices in everyone. David and Nancy were very gentle, bright, humorous and compassionate. They taught everyone very slowly and carefully with no aggression.

The first day we all did about 15 minutes and then each day if we had the strength and inclination they would add on a few minutes to the practice. Because of their careful teaching it was easy to memorize the routine gradually.

– After about a month of doing classes 6 days a week everyone had gone through the primary series. After 3 months it was totally imprinted and we were hooked. They left a few months later to visit and study in India and we all continued the practice. When they returned 6 months later most people were ready to learn the 2nd series. This pattern – of studying for 5 or 6 months and continuing on our own when they left really instilled the independence and personal responsibility of the practices… we became re-

6 ally self-disciplined. In the 3rd year when David and Nancy returned again to Hawaii from India many people, including myself, began to learn the 3rd or Advanced A Series. A short while I shared a house with them and began learning Advanced B or the 4th Series. These two Advanced sequences were later shortened and subdivided into Series 3, 4, 5 and 6.

– The Advanced positions are quite difficult but the order is a science that unlocks, heals and strengthens the body, mind and spirit. The results are so profound that it becomes clear that by doing the practices regularly, things which at first seem impossible become accessible. Ashtanga Yoga is really just Hatha Yoga in a concentrated form. It brings about profound healing and the key is to do the practice according to what is appropriate for the day. This means that some days I only feel like doing a short practice because of healing processes, energetic levels, structural changes or concentration.

– So anyone from any age group can learn these practices if they are taught slowly and carefully according to a person’s own ability. They can be modified to fit any individual’s situation.

How did the teaching begin?

– I never really intended to teach, but in 1979 David Williams asked me to assist him in a new class he was starting. In that same year, Ganga White invited me to introduce Ashtanga Yoga at his Center for Yoga in Los Angeles. Then a friend who had studied in the original classes in Hawaii invited me to Goa, India and in February 1983 I went to help him teach a group of young people from all over the world. That

Danny Paradise in East Village, New York

of the practice and also makes it continuously challenging and constantly expanding.

– I also practice and teach positions from Kung Fu that I learned from a Master in Taipei, Taiwan. I feel they are derivative ideas and extensions of various yoga asanas. Since visiting Egypt in 1987 and seeing the ancient Temples of Karnak and Luxor, I wonder whether Indian classical Yoga may have originated there.

Many asanas are represented in the Hieroglyphs carved into the temple walls. Spinal twists, downward dog, shoulder stand, wheel and many other positions are clearly depicted. The

own purification. Who else? No one purifies another…”

– Of course it is a rare individual that can be perfectly pure but at least the practices of Yoga continuously help us to purify our minds and bodies and help us recognize that we are responsible for our own health, healing and well-being. Personal responsibility and personal authority are clear teachings in all Shamanism and in the Shamanic practices and teachings of Yoga. One of the beautiful teachings of all Shamanic practices is: ”If you have a disciplined life... If what you eat and think are pure... watching what you eat, what you drink, ”Yoga comes from Nature. Nature is recognized as Teacher and Guide in all Shamanic practices. So returning what you say... how to Nature to do the practices enables you to come deeper into contact with this original force.” you think... If you manage to become disciplined, you can friend, by the way, was my old friend and teachreceive visions, knowledge, enter into conprecise ages of the Temples are unknown but er from Maui, Cliff Barber. That is how I began tact with Spirits and go to an endless depth they are probably much older than any one realmy Yoga-teaching journey... on your Spiritual path…” (Pablo Amaringo, izes and certainly older than the culture of India.

– As the first Western traveling teacher India was where yoga was refined but Egypt Peruvian Shaman). who knew all the classical sequences of Ashtanmay have been the source.

– In other words as we purify and bega Yoga, I started receiving invitations from all

– I use to practice the advanced sequences come more responsible – we receive more over the world. And I continue following those of Ashtanga regularly, but now I pick and choose responsibility. Another way to express this: The invitations even now. aspects of the advanced series when I wish to more disciplined we are, the purer we eat, the

work on them. Some of the more extreme posisimpler we live, think and act – all contribute You have been practicing Ashtanga tions I leave out or modify now that I’m older. towards clarity and our ability to communicate Yoga and the asana practices associated Fortunately I’m still able to do a lot of the pracwith our own soul... We are nature and we all with Ashtanga Yoga through many stages tices as well as teach them. have a Nature Soul. Yoga is a journey back of your life. Has your practice changed

– I continue to do the Pranayama practo nature. Our Nature Soul is in conflict with much over the years? tices of Ashtanga Yoga and a regular daily asana our rational mind, with the Modern world, all – Over the years I’ve practiced Yoga with many practice always looking for what is appropriate the noise and distractions of the cities, negafriends who have introduced me to asanas that for that day. tive news, overloaded media and the chemical aren’t specifically in the Ashtanga Yoga routines poisons... This conflict is the source of much

but are derivatives of asanas or extensions of disease and imbalance in our world today. The Purity is the theme of this issue of Le Jourvarious positions from sequences in Ashtanga. nal. What are your thoughts around this in practices of Shamanism and Yoga help develop Each position has endless variations or derivaterms of how we practice and live our lives? our nutrition, perception, insight and ways of tive positions, and as I learned these variations – Yoga and Shamanism are explorations of puseeing. They are practices which heal, help us I began incorporating them in my practice and rity and purification. As the Buddha said ”You learn to have regular communication with the teaching them. This for me keeps the integrity are responsible for your own purity and your Great Spirit, put us back in communication

with our soul and carry us on a path of evolutionary consciousness. They create personal authority and personal responsibility leading us to Universal Responsibility.

– By the way The Sramanas were the original Shaman Yogis of Asia thousands of years ago and they carried the ascetic heat building practices, disciplines and meditations of Yoga as well as the knowledge of the Medicine plants. I wrote this for the book Sacred Sanskrit Words by Reema Datta and Leeza Lowitz: ”The shaman can be defined as one who lives within nature and perceives nature as the spiritual teacher/healer. The ŗişis who ’saw’ the practice of yoga under deep meditation were a type of shaman, since they resided in nature, receiving all nutrition and protection directly from natural sources. To this day, shamans in South America, Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world continue to receive great spiritual insight from the way their lives are immersed in nature.”

Your retreats and workshops are often held in very ”pure” places in, or close to nature, how does this effect us and our practice?

– Yoga comes from Nature. Nature is recognized as Teacher and Guide in all Shamanic practices. So returning to Nature to do the practices enables you to come deeper into contact with this original force. Something profound happens when you practice by a river, in the forest, by the ocean... in the wind. These days I hear that there is some kind of ridiculous rule that Ashtanga Yoga must be practiced in a small room with the windows closed... Krishnamacharya studied for seven years with his teacher in a cave in Tibet. The practices were created through meditative communication with nature.

– If you live in a city then it may be necessary to learn yoga in a studio downtown, but whenever possible do the practices in a garden, forest or park and find out what happens... You absorb different information if you practice in a pristine environment or even just your backyard garden. The problem these days is that we are disconnected from our Nature Soul. The Rational mind dominates and this is the source of many diseases, depression and conflict in our lives. The Native Americans say if you need energy, go outside and take a deep breath. This is where energy comes from. The original Yogis recognized that Prana came from the air and explored that to its deepest levels.

– My retreats are always in the most beautiful, powerful natural environments that I’ve found: Thailand, Brazil, Crete, Tanzania, The Yukon Territories in Canada, Turkey, India... The locations themselves are Tirthas – crossing-over places – where the ordinary world meets the extraordinary. Some of my retreats are in National Wildlife Sanctuaries where, when you practice Yoga, the animals come closer because they recognize you are entering their wavelength. It takes this shift in perception, the

slowing down of the brain wave pulse... this happens through deep breath and in the presence of nature. It moves perception from Beta to Alpha and Theta states. Then we see further and deeper and also enter into the deep healing fields. Somehow the animals and birds recognize this shift in humans and come closer to see what is happening. You can even see this at home when you practice. A cat will come closer as they recognize you’ve entered into their field of perception. It’s a beautiful, magical result.

You are a big traveler, do you have ideas for how to make traveling less exhausting for our planet?

– Treat travel as a privilege, a sacred gift and responsibility. If all travel is pilgrimage then something different happens in the mind and spirit. The soul is affected and engaged.

– I travel for work and for exploration of cultures worldwide. It is a sacred privilege for me to come to cultures around the world and exchange ideas with friends who are interested in the healing practices, in Shamanism, in Evolutionary Consciousness, in music. I am encouraging people to be independent, to be their own Master... to not follow so called ‘external masters’ but to recognize that these ancient evolutionary teachings lead the practitioner to Mastery in their own life. Mastery of their dream, Mastery Danny and Kia in Greece

of aging and hopefully Mastery in the great journey of Transition.

– I also encourage people to support organic agriculture and sustainable energy systems in their local communities, to use their voice to create positive change, to fight against the lack of regulation of the chemical corporations, the nuclear and GMO industry whose only motivation is profit without a care for the future and the coming generations. Yoga centers are becoming centers of activism. The influence of individuals who are awake and conscious cannot be underestimated. There is a war going on between those who are destroying nature and those who wish to preserve, protect and restore the environment.

– Hopefully the work I’m doing somehow balances out the negative impact of traveling. I hope that technology shifts in the near future so that there is somehow less pollution, less degradation of the environment. The science is already there, now commercial enterprises have to implement the technology.

How do you balance your practice to sustain your intense traveling and teaching schedule?

– I always give myself time to recover from long trips before I teach. I need to be in the time zone for a while before I feel balanced and ready. I also do not teach all the time. I take long breaks in pristine environments to catch up with myself, to continue to learn and explore new ideas and of course I maintain a regular Yoga practice. I also play music, write songs, record and perform.

This is a deep meditative practice for me that helps to create balance in my life.

Extract from one of Kia’s & Danny’s many conversations, September 2014. Images by Kia Naddermier from the book Om Yoga.

For Danny Paradise workshops & retreats please visit: www.dannyparadise.com

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Ayur vedic drink

Ayurvedic drinks are commonly used by Yogis after practice to stretch ligaments and heal injuries.

The Art of Ayur veda

Photography & Styling Belén Vazquez Amaro & Albin Holmqvist Words Acharya Ratheesh Mani

yurveda is said to be a holistic system of medicine that deals with our body, mind and also our spirit. The word ayurveda means ‘science of life’ or ‘wisdom for longevity’. For many thousands of years, Ayurveda has been a successful primary health care modality for millions of people in India. The world is increasingly recognizing the merits of Ayurveda, which offers effective cure for several diseases. It helps rejuvenate the body, fight stress and offer relief for a wide variety of ailments.

Ayurvedic treatments works at the causative levels while most of the modern medical treatments operate at the symptomatic level. It employs only natural treatment methods, since it recognizes the human being as being an integral part of nature.

Ayurveda explains nature with its ‘Five Great Elements’ theory. It says each and every existence is composed of five elements: 1. Ether (akasa) – The principle of space 2. Air (vayu) – The principle of movement 3. Fire (agni) – The principle of conversion, heat, and light 4. Water (jala/aap) – The principle of liquidity and cohesion 5. Earth (prithvi) – The principle of form and structure.

Every human body has five elements in it, in varied proportions, making every individual unique. Maintenance of the equilibrium of these elements in the body is the key to health, according to ayurvedic principles.

The five elements combine in pairs, to form three basic functional principles/ energies called doshas in our body.

Each of the three energies are believed to circulate in the body and govern physiological activity. These biological types are: Vata – Air and ether Pitta – Fire and water Kapha – Earth and water In Ayurveda, the food is considered the best and the most important medicine.

The scholars say that when diet is wrong, the medicine is of no use and when the diet is correct, medicine is of no need. Each food item contains the same doshas and five elements as the human body but in different proportions. A personalised and customized diet for each individual is therefore the best path to holistic health.

Warm food served in a banana leaf absorbs its nutrients and taste – it makes the meal complete.

Ayur vedic meal

The seeds of the earth are small in size, but bears the concept of growth and balance.

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A balanced mix of herbs and spices brings both joy and color into a persons life.

Everything that enters your being leaves its mark.

Ayur vedic spice

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Coconut rejuvenates the body instantly.

Ayur vedic oils

Fresh, pure and raw oils are the remedy for healthy joints.

Ayur vedic roots

In sanskrit, turmeric is referred to as ’Kanchani’ – the golden goddess.

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Pure – Left – Collage Print v-neck t-shirt in light grey by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris worn with Cropped Yoga Leggings in thunder black by Filippa K Soft Sport.

Necklace by Sarita.

– Right page – Liberté v-neck t-shirt in light grey by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris.

Photography Kia Naddermier Stylist Annemarie Sheridan

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36 �...When I gave birth last week for the first time, I felt I had never seen anything as pure as a newborn child.�

Sara Hamdi Sarita

Yoga Legging in grey melange with fold-over waist by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris worn with Crossback Yoga Top in thunder black by Filippa K Soft Sport and rudrax-bead necklace

by Sarita. Cotton yoga rug

by Mysore Yoga Paris draped over shoulders. Sandals customized by Romain Detriche.

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Stay Jeans in black denim

by Hope worn over Yoga Legging in grey melange with fold-over waist by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris.

Ekam yoga bra top in dark grey by Satya Yogawear and Meditation Scarf in elephant grey with black print by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris.

Sandals customized by Romain Detriche.

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�Purity spontaniously makes me think of a person who is open to novelties and changes, and close to laughter and tears.�

Lovisa Burfitt Designer/Illustrator

Strike A Pose round-neck t-shirt in white by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris worn with Shiny Sweat Pants in black

by Filippa K Soft Sport.

36 – Left – Shiny Sweat Top and Cropped yoga legging in jet black by Filippa K Soft Sport worn with Collage Print v-neck t-shirt in light grey by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris.

– Below – Warm-up pullover in graphite grey melange by Filippa K Soft Sport worn with Yoga Shorts with foldover waist in black by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris. Lang Cardy in grey melange by Hope around waist.

– Right page – Yoga Dance Body in grey melange by Satya for Le Yoga Shop Paris worn over Strike A Pose round-neck t-shirt in white by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris. Sandals customized by Romain Detriche.

”Purity for me means clean and authentic. Free of any disturbing stuff…”

Karin Segerblom Designer – Filippa K

37 �...To be mindful of how we take care of ourselves, what we spend our time on and the food that we put into our bodies.�

Donna Rossiter Satya Yogawear

20 – Right – Yoga Legging with fold-over waist in black worn with Sweat Cardigan by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris and Dve top in khaki by Satya Yogawear. Sandals customized by Romain Detriche.

– Below – Lang Cardy in grey melange

by Hope worn over Yoga Shorts in black with fold over waist by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris.

”Purity is when I honour my experience and my true spirit of nature.”

Ann Ringstrand Designer & Founder – Hope

LibertĂŠ v-neck t-shirt in light grey by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris. Stay Jeans in black denim by Hope worn over Yoga Legging with fold-over waist in black by Burfitt for Mysore Yoga Paris.

Photographer Kia Naddermier www.naddermier.com Stylist Annemarie Sheridan Stylist Assistant Romain Detriche Hair Tanya Koch Makeup Lena Dymak Model Maude at Major Paris Casting Lise Guetta de la Brosse Location Lindsey Syred Yoga lindsey-s-yoga.com All clothes Le Yoga Shop Paris www.leyogashop.com

22 Yoga & Religion

A Heritage of Ideas & Practices Anything beyond a casual engagement with yoga requires us to take the time to sift through the philosophy, practices, and history of yoga to understand the traditions and values that have been associated with it. Greg Nardi reflects on the role of religion in the yoga tradition.

Words Greg Nardi Photograpy Jan Welters

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any mornings, one of my first acts upon rising is to say a mantra inviting the elephant headed Hindu deity Ganesh into my home and asking for his blessings. This is a habit that I have picked up through my participation in the global yoga community. The ritual personally signifies many powerful experiences that I have had on my travels to India, studying under my Hindu guru, praying in Hindu temples, and maintaining a daily yoga practice that has its roots in ancient India, even though I don’t consider myself a Hindu. The ritual starts my day on a reflective note and ties my practice of yoga to a deeper sense of meaning, and the intent to live my life according to what I have come to believe are yogic ideals.

I began the practice of yoga in the mid-90’s at a time when modern yoga was just beginning to hit the mainstream. It still had a counter cultural and revolutionary feel though it was gaining more and more widespread acceptance. At the time, modern yoga culture was still heavily relying on ties to Indian gurus and the yoga tradition as presented by them. Recent yoga studies have proposed that the early 20th century zeitgeist in India produced traditionally minded Indian yoga masters who revived and propagated Hindu traditions that were irrevocably changed after years of colonial rule. Since

deeply held beliefs dictate behavior, it is easy to assume that the beliefs of the Hindu yoga masters have been codified in the practice of modern yoga. One might then wonder, what part religion plays in the practice of modern yoga?

One doesn’t have to dig too deep into the practice of modern yoga to find elements that seem religious in nature, whether it be mantra chanting, images of Buddhist and Hindu deities, yogis wearing mala beads, or the ubiquitous greeting Namaste. These various accouterments of modern yoga are often times heavily interpreted and universalized to fit the ”spiritual, not religious” motto of the contemporary practitioner, and generalized to a cross cultural meta narrative of a perennial philosophy.

When I first encountered yoga at the age of 22, what was so deeply satisfying about the physical practice was that its presentation signified something deeper and more meaningful than the various techniques. I have often times said that it was the spirituality, or sometimes I use the word philosophy, that inspired me to dedicate myself to yoga practice. I was struggling to find meaning in life, often depressed by a secular view of my duties and responsibilities that didn’t reflect how I felt. However, I was resistant to thinking of yoga as religion because of connotations with fundamentalism, exclusion, and narrow mindedness. Yoga was an escape from a social paradigm that wasn’t serving

me, and it filled a void in my life. In hindsight, a blend of exuberance, ignorance, and willful blindness allowed me to project religious ideals onto yoga practice under the guise of spirituality, distancing it from the over burdened label “religion”. Due to its foreignness and blending with appealing new age values, I could ignore its religious ties even though Hindu values, practice, and iconography stood front and center in my experience. As my practice became central to my identity, it led me to India where I hoped to find an authentic yoga master and where I further assimilated Hindu ideals into my practice of yoga.

At some point, I had to reconcile the acquisition of Hindu religious practice with my non-Hindu cultural background.

Ninian Smart, a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies, created a framework for studying religions without evaluating the truth claims of a particular religion. He proposed seven dimensions of religion that we can use as a guide to reflect on the role of religion in the yoga tradition: Ritual Forms and orders of ceremonies (private and/or public) (often regarded as revealed) Narrative and Mythic Stories (often regarded as revealed) that work on several levels. Sometimes narratives fit together into a fairly complete and systematic interpretation of the universe and human’s place in it.

Experiential and emotional Dread, guilt, awe, mystery, devotion, liberation, ecstasy, inner peace, bliss (private) Social and Institutional Belief system is shared and attitudes practiced by a group.

Often rules for identifying community membership and participation (public).

Ethical and legal Rules about human behavior (often regarded as revealed from supernatural realm) Doctrinal and philosophical Systematic formulation of religious teachings in an intellectually coherent form Material Ordinary objects or places that symbolize or manifest the sacred or supernatural The World’s Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations (1989) If one decides to move beyond casual yoga practice and commit to a regular routine, it is easy to find aspects of modern yoga that would satisfy each of the above seven categories. Typically the motivation to commit to a consistent practice comes through a private experience that motivates the student. It is often that the practice becomes ritualized in the sense of a consistent scheduling of teacher, time, and place of practice. But even more so, each class tends to follow a ritualized format that includes some sort of opening to the ritual through breathing, chant-

23 ing, or meditation, followed by the practical techniques, and then ending with a closing and final relaxation. As we become more closely identified with our practice it requires engagement with the institutionalized aspects of practice including the learning of the shared philosophies, stories, and codes of conduct. And of course there is no end to the products that are available to help us further our identity as a member of the yoga community, and which become a focal point for our journey into yoga.

However, one aspect of this list could decide the religiosity or lack thereof, in modern yoga. Yoga has traditionally relied on revelation as a valid form of knowledge. It is common in yogic texts to trace a lineage of teachings back to a sage or master who received teachings in an altered state of divine insight, or through myth, to draw a direct line back to a divine form. The divinization of yoga teachings then requires faith in states of being that are beyond comprehension and by extension currently separate from us.

They are often believed to be available at some future point if we work hard enough and in the right manner. If this is an accepted doctrine of modern yoga it is important then to safeguard against invalidation of experience in the present moment in favor of a future goal. The abandonment of reason can and often does lead to denial, repression and self-violence. This question of an eternal truth valid for all times and in all circumstances but just out of reach seems contrary to many of the proposed aims of yoga such as health and wellbeing. In order to remedy this, we should do well to focus our efforts in yoga on the mental as well as the physical.

tism often said to be eternal. It has neither a specific moment of origin nor a specific founder. Yoga grew up organically over a long period time. It has been shaped by individuals, spread over large geographic areas that have embodied a range of beliefs throughout history. Its entrance into human consciousness is therefore a fair amount of educated guesswork patched together from clues in the archaeological record and from those texts crafted from within educated elite circles of ancient Indian society that haven’t been lost. However, while yoga and Hinduism are both Indian heritage an argument can be made that they come from the same cradle and their beliefs are intertwined but yoga is a tradition in its own right. While this living tradition has survived shifting cultural needs, it can sometimes be quite confusing, containing internal paradoxes stemming from this weaving together of discreet

Hinduism though they are related. We can see Buddhist and Jaina yoga traditions that were birthed in India and which have long ago broken from Hinduism. If the two were the same, then

In India, yoga tradition has relied on a pedagogic method of transmission of knowledge from teacher to ”But if yoga is secularized, then what is left? And do we have the right to call it yoga?” student in direct relationship (parampara).

The teacher would modern Indian yoga masters could never have give techniques to the degree that the student Indian cultural movements throughout history. made the claim that yoga is universal, nor could was prepared, both mentally and physically, to The categorization of ideas and practices under they have taught it to foreigners without convertreceive them. Such a subjective process benefits the names ”Yoga” and ”Hinduism” arose relaing them to Hindus, and certainly most people from a reliance on tradition to guard against tively late. The very word Hinduism is a matter who practice modern yoga are not Hindu. doing what is merely pleasant rather than what of much debate. It was a colonial word coined However, the current yoga renaissance may be is effective, though its nice when the two coinby foreigners to describe people indigenous to the first attempt to secularize yoga. cide. The systematization of yoga into specific India. It didn’t exist before foreign intervention methods has created a contrast of the organizaand just sort of grouped up a lot of people who The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) tional aspects of tradition, which change relawere quite different in belief and custom. The has started a campaign called Take Yoga Back tive to historical and cultural context, with the most common thing that early Hindus shared which aims to have a wider acknowledgement personal, often thought of as eternal because of was geography. It’s been a modern project to of yoga’s philosophical roots in Hinduism while the commonality of subjective awareness across try to shape a national identity around Hindustressing the fact that yoga is a universal practime and culture. It is useful to discover which ism. Therefore, in talking about Hinduism it tice that can benefit everyone. If we look into aspects belong to these two poles of tradition. can be helpful to consider what is religion and the textual sources of yoga philosophy, we will But I think we often mistake the relative for the what is nationalism. The two are often conflated find that yoga praxis has often been coupled eternal. The narrative that posits an eternal and and it leads to all sorts of ideological tensions in with universal questions about God, creation, unified tradition of yogic belief and practice is modern India. The truth is that yoga pre-dates ethics, life after death, good and evil, purity, overly simplistic.

Hinduism. Yoga is an ancient tradition that got and liberation amongst others. However, if we

Yoga, like Hinduism, is a complex grouped in with Hindu practice, but you don’t map out these ideas historically, we can also see tradition of interrelated doctrines and practices have to practice yoga to be a Hindu. Therefore, how the tradition has responded to cultural and with a rich history of innovation and syncrean argument can also be made that yoga is not

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geographic pressures within India. Yoga may be an attempt to satisfy universal human questions, but the form of the inquiry is specifically Indian.

For non-Hindus, it can be tempting to sanitize yoga practice of any religious context and divorce it from its Indian roots to prevent identity conflict. Under this paradigm, learning becomes a process of cultural appropriation that stands on shaky moral ground. It is also a missed opportunity whereby we diminish

practicing. Primarily they practice for fitness, secondarily for health, and a distant third for spiritual reasons. In a Pew research poll released in the fall of 2012 on religiously unaffiliated Americans, only 28% of participants consider yoga a spiritual practice, contrasted with 23% for the American public at large.

As yoga has become a global phenomenon we are deep in the process of debate, invention, and synthesis that has been a hallmark of the authentic yoga tradition. I hope the traditional practice of working with a clear mind in the practical realm of experience takes center stage in this developmental period of modern yoga. It is questionable whether the uncoupling of yoga from its roots will change it in all but name. It is often ignorance or simple intellectual laziness that leads to unskilled propagation of yoga and leaves yoga subsumed under other paradigms such as commercialism, body politics, fitness, and celebrity culture which may be offensive to those who consider yoga part of their religion. Anything beyond a casual

ern yoga that is the product of Indian, American, and European input. Some find this assessment refreshing, while others find it threatening. We shouldn’t be alarmed, nor should we overly glorify these efforts. They are part of a larger process that keeps traditions alive. All histories will only ever tell a part of the truth, and yoga is bigger than its definitions and history. It is alive right now in the present, and it is shaped by our collective efforts. It is the tradition that is relative truth.

What it points to would be eternal. It cannot be learned, only discovered in the moment.

No single practitioner or teacher can possibly define yoga for all, and I think that any attempt to do so devalues the entire yoga venture. If we engage with yoga and its heritage of ideas and practices with an open mind, not to corroborate or challenge our personal beliefs, then we are freed to determine not only what is authentic in yoga practice, but also what is effective. We can maintain a clear mind space that helps us entertain multiple truths as equally valid. Yoga is both old and new. It is a part of the Hindu religion, and a non-Hindu path to wellness. A habit of containing paradoxical truths side by side as equally valid produces a creative tension of checks and balances that at its best can enrich and enliven traditions. Because it requires a certain nimbleness of the mind, it can safeguard against the calcification of thought into rigid dogma. It can be a great tool to inspire the modern yoga community. Even the physical practice of asana will shift from something that we do mechanically, and become an inquiry into the optimal functioning of the human form. The technology of mind and body that has us reconsider human potential can be preserved.

While the discussion defining yogic practices and ideals will inevitably continue, I only hope that as a community we will be kind and inclusive in our inquiry.

Institutions require stories, rituals, codes of conduct, etc… that safeguard tradition, encapsulate wisdom, and help us gather as a community.

But while narratives generate beliefs and practices, they also have a tendency to create dualities such as right and wrong, good and bad, insider or outsider, those who know and those who don’t. They will represent some and leave out others. The individual ends up serving the institution rather than the other way around.

One aspect of yoga culture that I most cherish is that it is simultaneously communal and deeply personal. It can have an effect on how we show up and interact in other arenas of our life. Yoga can be revolutionary in the sense that it empowers individuals who then go on to shape other public spaces. If we create more inclusive spaces then the communities affected will also expand and we can find empowered and engaged individuals taking part in our global community. Greg Nardi

”One doesn’t have to dig too deep into the practice of modern yoga to find elements that seem religious in nature, whether it be mantra chanting, images of Buddhist and Hindu deities, yogis wearing mala beads, or the ubiquitous greeting Namaste.”

the yoga tradition that sought to speak to the universal human experience. Whereas yoga rose to popularity in the west through its appendage to countercultural movements, we can see how it has gradually lost its revolutionary potential.

We don’t need to blindly accept or reject any aspect of the Indian tradition, but rather place it in the context from which it developed. We can take a page from the book of the Hindu yoga masters who revitalized yoga in the contemporary world and appeal to ancient and contemporary tradition in our quest for an effective and authentic modern yoga. We should respect what it may signify to Indians and also see what does or does not apply outside of the context of Hinduism.

But if yoga is secularized, then what is left?

And do we have the right to call it yoga? In his 2008 book, Yoga Beyond Fitness, Tom Pilarzyk mentions a study that shows modern yoga practitioners in the U.S. self reported aims in

engagement with yoga requires us to take the time to sift through the philosophy, practices, and history of yoga to understand the traditions and values that have been associated with it.

In David Gordon White’s recent book The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali – A Biography, he says: ”Over the past forty years or so, a theory has been forged in university departments of history and cultural studies that much of what is thought to be ancient in India was actually invented- or at best reinvented or recovered from oblivion-during the time of the British Raj. This of course runs counter to the view most Indians, Indophiles, and renaissance hipsters share that India’s ancient traditions are ageless verities unchanged since their emergence from the ancient mists of time”.

Much in the recent field of yoga studies is deconstructing the stories that allowed for yoga to rise in the modern world. They point to a mod-

Ink & Lion Café

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Words & Photography Camilla Davidsson

An Insiders Guide to Bangkok Bangkok, The City of Angels, was going through a time of great political upheaval and unrest when my partner and I arrived here in 2006. Dramatic and unforgettable times…

We had decided to move to Asia because we wanted to learn something about a part of the world previously unknown to us, and the only place I could imagine living was Bangkok. Through subsequent years I have come to love Bangkok with all its flaws, unbearable traffic, noise level and excruciating April heat, around the time of the Thai New Year, “Songkran”. Bangkok is now home, just like Paris or Stockholm once was…

I will start with My Coffee: Ceresia Coffee Roasters When you step into this café and you see friendly faces like Marian, Lucia and Bret it absolutely refreshes your morning.

They serve fantastic coffee, which they import mainly from South America, some from Africa and recently also locallyproduced coffee from northern Thailand. I usually have my coffee here after yoga practice, except Mondays when they are closed. They are in the neighbourhood of Sukhumvit soi 33/1.

Casa Lapin This beautiful former warehouse, turned one of Bangkok’s hottest spots, is run by architects Tonk & Lux. Tonk introduced me to the local coffee scene, telling me all the places I had to try. In Bangkok the café owners support each other by visiting each other’s cafes! Casa Lapin have three branches, the latest one is a café, restaurant, community workspace, hostel and a flower shop.

Roots Coffee Roaster Roots is only open at the weekends – they deliver coffee mainly

Photographer Camilla Davidsson share some of her favorite hang-outs in Bangkok.

Espejel. Laruga Glaser will visit in December.

to their restaurant, Roast Coffee & Eatery, but other places buy from them as well. They also have a good bakery. I like to come here late afternoons, reading a book, chat a little with the friendly crowd or talk coffee with top baristas Varatt and Korn.

There are so many truly great cafés in Bangkok and I could go on and on… but I must at least mention: Ink & Lion Café and the wonderful couple, Kiak and Pui, who run the place, One Ounce for Onion and the Brave Roasters, Bar Storia del Caffé, Pacamara and more… …before coffee there’s My Yoga: AYBKK, Ashtanga Yoga Center of Bangkok This Shala, dedicated to Ashtanga yoga and Mysore style, opened in 2013. The Shala is run

by Boonchu Tanti, regularly assisted by his lovely Ashtangiteam Aoy, Naw and Amnat.

Boonchu has inspired many and the community has grown.

Workshops with fantastic international teachers – Tim Feldmann was here last spring and in October they had Arne

Yoga Elements Studio Before I started to practise Ashtanga yoga I came here for workshops with interesting teachers including Paddy McGrath and Danny Paradise.

The studio is run by Adrian Cox & Shiang Ying Chan. Tonia leads a primary series class every Friday.

Sasha (Suchavadee) was my first Ashtanga teacher. In 2006, she was authorized to teach Ashtanga Yoga – the first time a Thai had been so blessed – and ran a studio until 2009. She gave this up to focus on travelling, but I love to catch up with her whenever she’s around.

My Food: May Veggie A popular brunch hot spot for Ashtangis on Sundays. The place looks like nothing but the food is great.

Saigon Recipe A fabulous restaurant, with an extensive vegetarian menu which I do sample at least twice a week!

Rocket Bar Three Swedish guys run these bars. Famous for cocktails they

Casa Lapin

massage I go straight home to bed and sleep like a baby.

My Art: The art scene in Bangkok has changed over the last 5-7 years with many art galleries paving the way to an internationally interesting scene.

have recently started to focus more on food – now they do great breakfasts and lunches too. Their Gravlax on Rye Bread is a great hit!

Rasayana This is where to go when you want Raw Food!

My Beauty: Siam Botanicals Though not an organic brand, it is an absolutely 100% natural brand! For me they have among the best products that you can find in Thailand.

My Spa: Chiva Som Academy A school for future Spa therapists. They often promote “commercial days” which means that you for a very “modest” sum of money will test and evaluate the students.

Everything from facials and massage to lovely scrubs, wraps and body pampering. One of the best treatments in town!

Asia Herb Association I go there for their lovely signature treatment: Oil massage + Herbal ball.

The Never Ending Summer

Designer Nasha Mekraksavanish

Yunomori Onsen & Spa A traditional Japanese bathhouse which relaxes me like nothing else. For the best effect I go there in the evening, after dinner. After a bathe and a foot

Toot Yung, run by Myrtille Tibayrenc and WTF, run by Thai-British couple Somrak Sila and Christopher Wise, are my favorite galleries, but I would also like to mention BACC, H Gallery, Adler Subhashok Gallery, Kathmandu Gallery, Serindia Gallery, Speedy Grandma, Soy Sauce Factory…

Steven Pettifor, an independent curator, brilliantly covers the art scene once a month with BAM – Bangkok Art Map. Everything that goes on in art, you’ll find it here!

My Design: Nasha Mekraksavanish The best bag designer in Thailand and a name to look out for in future.

My Bookstore: Would be Candide bookstore and café, if it weren’t for that they only have books in the Thai! This place is an integrated part of the Jam Factory, the creation of architect Duangrit Bunnag, wich also includes a lovely restaurant called The Never Ending Summer. This is a beautiful and peaceful haven just on the border of the Chao Phraya River.

More images and addresses from Camilla’s Bangkok in Le Journal online www.leyoga shop.com/blogs/lejournal

Digital

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Photography Rui Faria Makeup Linda Öhström

Detox

Words Tina Magnergård Bjers

Likes. Text-messages with sweet emojis. A mustread comment on Instagram. New followers on Twitter. Life in the digital age is both a blessing and a fright. How should we as yogis relate to the constant never-pausing flow of information? And how are we to reach life balance and develop when we constantly hear the ping of a new message?

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he family argument turned out to be one of the nastier. Walking into the living room I – again – spotted my ten-year-old leaned over the iphone, deeply involved.

Her room was a mess, her little sister wanted to play and I didn´t know when last I saw her draw or make a puzzle. I flipped.

Using not so nice language I forcefully took the device and placed it high on a shelf, telling her I want her to BE with us and do something REAL.

The rest of the family flipped. Seldom have all four been against me in such a strong way: How could I just take something out of her hands? Did I really know what she was doing?

Did I realize she was building a house using Minecraft, which is quiet similar to pedagogical Lego-blocks? Being a mother of three, I should know that anger and force seldom works, one has to talk it through and maybe present a more appealing alternative. I persisted, saying that I didn´t want us to be a family that´s more involved with phones, tablets and computers than with each other. But the argument was and is difficult. I´m also an avid user of iphones (I have two), I love being able to e-mail, share pictures, listen to music, check maps. I use Instagram and Twitter – and I enjoy it. I go to news-apps in my work as a journalist and sometimes I sneak away to various style-apps. I want my kids to send colorful text-messages so I know they have arrived safely at school.

I don´t see myself as anti-tech or backwardsleaning. A lot of apps and tools coming with the new screens are amazing. But. I seriously reflect over our behavior; how we prioritize, how much time we spend with the devices and how easily accessible they are. Always in the pocket, usually in the school bag, even by the bed (”the alarm clock is so good”) or – as in the case of my soon 80-year-old father – in a string around the neck.

When I go home from work on the subway nine out of ten is deeply involved in his or her screen, looking very important.

I also wonder about shy people, if they nowadays more often resort to their smart phone so they don´t have to talk to others they meet and vaguely know – giving the term ”yuppie teddybear”, that was used about the first mobile phones in the 1980-ies, a new meaning.

Nowadays at yoga class, I see students let their smart phones lie next to the mat. Selfies of hand-stands have become common gods. However I get an awkward feeling when I see them.

Do they really fit into the core message of yoga, namely the stilling of the mind and reflection on the Self?

”Yoga is supposed to be a deep internal process that aims to create unification between the observer (the Self) and what is being observed (in this case the practice). When

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our yoga practice becomes something we want others to observe and admire, the purpose of the practice gets lost” dear Kia Naddermier, practitioner and teacher of Ashtanga yoga and pranayama, points out in an e-mail-conversation we´re having on the subject.

Further I´m thinking about what it does to us to be constantly accessible, exposed to the temptation of the screen and it´s cheerful signals telling us we have a new message. Does it take away attention, energy and presence from something else? Are we frying our brains or is it simply a new, evolutionary step? I see people running at the station and seemingly texting at the same time, and I wonder: Are we very much more efficient now, and will thereby big problems such as world starvation and peace in the Middle East will be solved soon? Or are we simply craving entertainment at a very high rate?

Or is it a combination?

In an article on the subject in Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter author Bengt Ohlsson opens up by arguing that the multitasking of today is actually regression, a method used by wild animals who are constantly under threat. To evolve, to create philosophy and build society, we need a deeper concentration and sometimes even boredom – and maybe also the self discipline to resist to reply to every signal (he refers to

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the book Tired Society by Byung-Chul Hans).

Could it be so that the constant ”show-off” going on in social media today cheers achievers and performers – but also creates depression? During the past year I´ve heard several stories of young women going into depression, for various reasons. All of them have said that they´re now going off Instagram.

To those of us practicing yoga, reflecting over these issues could be even more important.

Back to the mail-conversation with Kia Naddermier who points out that Patanjali´s (author of Yoga Sutras) definition of yoga is the stilling or channeling of the movements of the mind.

“Patanjali also refers to Ekagrata, which can be translated into one-pointedness, as a process to reach concentration, which is the sixth limb of yoga”, she writes.

Kia Naddermier refers to philosopher Georg Feursteins book The Yoga Tradition in which one-pointedness is described as a highly intensified form of concentration, but also a whole-body experience free from muscular tension. The term for the concentration Patanjali refers to, dharana, stems from the verb dhri which means ”to hold” – meaning to hold ones attention. But how are we to focus long enough to reach this concentration when we are living in a world of constant distraction from e-mail, Face-

book and other digital pokes? And do we notice if we develop an addiction to the confirmationkick one gets from receiving many ”likes”? Or is all this just joyful, bringing us closer together with friends around the world?

Back to our family argument. It created a somewhat frozen atmosphere for a few days.

But then we actually started to talk and reflect upon how we use our screens and what we use them for. We have not ended up creating rules or screen-free days (a phenomenon making it into the news in several countries) – at least not yet.

Like everything else in life, the digital life needs to be balanced. The devices are great inventions – what we need to think through is our relationship to them and what we chose to do with them. Of course it’s negative if something takes over our lives and shields us from true emotions and concentration.

A few weeks after the argument I interviewed Microsoft-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates for TT News Agency. The Microsoft-founder is also a father of three so I asked him if screen addiction was a problem in his family. He admitted to having limited the kids screen-time to one hour after homework for a period of time several years ago, when they were too much in to one game. But in general the internet is a place where you learn things, he argued – adding that his parents were also worried when he grew up: They thought he spent too much time reading instead of being outdoors.

An irony in this context is that in Silicon Valley in California – the innovation hub that brought us the iphone, the ipad and many other devices – digital detox camps have become increasingly popular. People travel upstate, turn in their phones and tablets at check-in and spend time doing yoga and meditation, they even play together. And Greek-American media goddess Ariana Huffington (founder of Huffington Post) talks about digital detox in interview after interview, advocating a more balanced life in her latest book Thrive – The third metric to redefining success and creating a life of wellbeing, wisdom and wonder.

So which is the right way to walk? There are as many answers as there are individuals.

But there are also a few very fundamental truths, helping in the personal struggle towards balance. Hugging kids and caring for loved ones always comes first in life. And the first two limbs of yoga, Yama and Niyama, are helpful to study.

They focus on our ethics and behavior, how we relate to ourselves and others, but also on the importance of self-discipline and finding a regularity in spiritual practice. Tina Magnergård Bjers Photography Rui Faria / Makeup Linda Öhström using The Organic Pharmacy Skincare & Organic Glam Makeup / Makeup Assistant Molly Aitken / Styling Jo Shippen / Hair Keiichiro Hirano at David’s Artists / Models Margaux Brooke at Models 1 & April Alexander at M & P Models / Manicurist Steph Mediola at Caren / Digital operator Marco Mendia / Shot at Street Studios London / Lighting ThreeFourSnap / Retouching Kostas at Posmode.co.uk. Images produced for Volt Magazine.

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W

hen we started teaching yoga to the children at Karunya Mane, we weren’t exactly sure how it would play out. The kids come from a variety of home situations and have been through different experiences. The trauma of living on the street, losing a parent, or being in an abusive situation have made the stories of these children unimaginably difficult, and so this yoga chapter was a little bit of an experiment. And one we want to chronicle for you.

Before giving you the kids perspective on yoga, we’d love to share with you some of our observations.

Three mornings a week, we started teaching the kids

Ashtanga yoga, made famous by a guru right here in Mysore.

This guru developed a style now called Mysore style, which involves students performing a series of asanas at their own pace. It requires a level of body consciousness, awareness, and independence. Of course, before we could get to that stage with our students, we had to develop a basic memorization of the poses, which came with its own set of challenges. If you’ve ever worked with kids, you know they are curious, talkative, easily distracted creatures who crave novelty... it’s partly why we love them...

But, in a yoga room, that combination can easily spell chaos! And for a few months, it did in fact translate into a kind of charming disorder as we experimented with different poses and let the kids try them each on for size.

For a time, it was common-

Kids yoga at Operation Shanti

29 body and the passionate mind unite with the goodness of the soul to bring the body and mind together... Yoga increases one’s physical and mental strength and, with continuous practice, one can control his or her breathing.

Vinod: – We get feelings from Yoga classes. Our mind and body feel light and our concentration in studies and games also improves. It helped me to score good marks in exams.

My favorite asanas are Surya Namaskaar A, Surya Namaskaar B and Virabhadrasana.

And finally, Sumitra notes the benefits of yoga: – From Yoga practice our mind rejuvenates and we feel mental peace. Our body remains active throughout day. Chris Ebbe

Chris Ebbe reports from the Ashtanga yoga classes for the kids at Operation Shanti in Mysore. place to be adjusting one student during the opening poses, while 3 others were falling out of handstands! It took a few months to channel that energy into a usable force... and now, not only do the kids know the half Primary series, but they add their own flourishes.

Take Nanjunda, for instance, in Virabhadrasana B (warrior), he begins with his arms parallel to the ground and then starts flapping them like a bird. It’s a sight to behold!

Some days we do ’silent’ traditional Mysore style, and other days, the kids have each learned

to teach a pose or two and they take turns leading the room.

Furthermore, the kids chant the opening prayer and close their practice with a mix of rest, meditation, and chanted prayers.

Le Yoga Shop Paris supports Operation Shanti, children’s home in Mysore, India.

Here are a few snippets from the children translated from Kannada about their yogic experience: Suma: – Our body has an element of lethargic behavior within it. The mind is full of passion and the soul has got elements of goodness. Yogasana is the medium where the lethargic

Mysore Style & Introduction for beginners Open every morning Monday to Friday Visit our website for full schedule and information www.mysoreyogaparis.com

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Asthanga yoga shala O

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Dedicated to the authentic practice of Ashtanga Yoga – Mysore Style

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Mysore Yoga Paris Asthanga Yoga Shala – c/o Le Centre Shambhala de Paris – 17, Rue Eugène Varlin, 75010 Paris Metro: Gare de l’Est/Château Landon www.mysoreyogaparis.com

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Ashtanga Yoga Miami Gretchen Suarez & David Keil (Miami) ashtangayogamiami.com

Om Yoga Studio Eleftheria Lagoudaki (Athens) omstudio.gr

Atmajyoti (Stockholm) atmajyoti.se

Danny Paradise (Int.) dannyparadise.com

Karin Björkegren-Jones (Sweden) yogavita.se

Purple Valley Yoga (Goa) www.yogagoa.com

Rosina Bonsu (Glasgow) rosinabonsu.co.uk

John Scott (Uk & Int.) johnscottyoga.com

Book / Shop (Oakland) book---shop.com

Stillpoint Yoga (London) stillpointyogalondon.com

Maria Boox (Sweden & Int.) mariaboox.com

Lindsey Syred (Paris) lindsey-s-yoga.com

Kjersti Borgen (Oslo) www.solhilsen.no

Maura Tarus (Paris) mauratarus.blogspot.fr

Brahmani Yoga (Goa) brahmaniyoga.com Laurence Gay (Paris) laurencegay.com Keep a Breast Europe – Kabane (Bordeaux) keep-a-breast.fr Sassa Lee (Stockholm) sassaleeyoga.se Lotta Agaton Shop (Stockholm) www.lottaagaton.se Mias Yoga Studio (Sundbyberg) miasyogastudio.com Mysore Yoga Paris (Paris) mysoreyogaparis.com Greg Nardi (Vancouver) ashtangayogaworldwide.com Ofr (Paris) ofrsystem.com

Belén Vazques Amaro inthemakingbybelen.com Yoga Askersund & Bollywood Movement Josefin Wikström (Askersund) www.askersundyoga.com Yoga Escape Laurent Peyret (Lyon) yoga-escape.com Yoga Kungsholmen Annesophie Sjöblom (Stockholm) yogakungsholmen.se Yoga Plus Radha & Pierre (Crete) yogaplus.co.uk Yogashala Stockholm (Stockholm) yogashalastockholm.se Yogayama (Stockholm) yogayama.se

Rejuvenate and practice at Purple Valley Yoga in Goa, India – a unique place for Ashtanga yoga retreats in Asia

YOGA RETREATS, WEEKENDS & HOLIDAYS ALL OVER THE WORLD www.yoga-escape.com

+ 33 (0)6 50 93 69 26 / info@yoga-escape.com Ashtanga yoga studio in Lyon Anjali Yoga 26, Quai Bondy 69005 Lyon France

Set in lush tropical gardens, with a crystal clear pool, chill out areas, ayurvedic spa and a juice bar. Serving a mix between vegetarian & raw food cooked by international and Indian chefs. Offering daily yoga with world class teachers as John Scott, Kino and Tim, Petri Raisanen, Mark Darby, David Keil and many more.

for more information visit

yogagoa.com

Yoga Exploration & Style – on and off the mat

Kia Naddermier Photographed by Jan Welters / www.janwelters.com

www.leyogashop.com

Supporting Operation Shanti childrens home, Mysore, India