Yogascotland50

Yoga

Issue 50 • May 2016

SCOTLAND

MAGAZINE

Theme: Beginnings PUBLISHED BY

YOGA SCOTLAND

www.yogascotland.org.uk Scottish Charity Number SCO20590

sportscotland

Governing Body for Yoga in Scotland

Coming C oming SSoon oon at b balance alance

www.balance.co.uk www.balance.co.uk

Yoga Y oga R Retreats etreats Santillan Yoga Yoga Retreat, Spain 25 June - 02 July 2016

V illa Azul Yoga Yoga Retreat, Villa Fuerteventura November 12 - 19 No vember 2016

Yoga Y oga W Workshops orkshops

Yuval Ayalon Y uval A yalon Handstands May 07 - 08 M ay 2016

Julie Gudmestad Anatomy: Upper Back, Neck & Shoulders 03 - 04 September September 2016 Laruga Glaser Ashtanga Ashtanga Workshops Workshops & Mysore classes 15 - 18 SSeptember eptember 2016

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Book online www.balance.co.uk www.balance.co.uk or call ca r eception 118/122 Napiershall Street Glasgow G20 6HT ÂŽ 8800 Telephone 0141 332 32

Promoting physical and mindful wellbeing

Yoga SCOTLAND

Editorial Welcome to Issue 50 of the Yoga Scotland Magazine. Hardly, you might think, the most obvious issue to be themed around ‘Beginnings’, which we might associate more with the very first magazine, or January, the beginning of the year, or perhaps September, the traditional start for courses. Yet ‘beginnings’ can come at different times for different people – Spring is thought of as the ‘beginning’ of new life, the Chinese New Year (Year of the Monkey) began in February, the Iranian New Year was in March, for the rest of the Islamic world it will fall this year in June and for Jews it will come in September.

And of course if you were reading this magazine in Hebrew, Yiddish or Arabic, you would now be at the end of it and not the beginning!

This variety of viewpoints is reflected by our contributors, who once again look at the theme from a range of perspectives, from Beginner’s Mind (Yvonne Austen), to starting a class (Brigid Collins, Sara Marijuan), beginning a new course or phase of a yoga life (Ann Hunter, Nikola Plunkett) and even initiating a Yoga Festival (Lorraine Close). Meanwhile Jason Birch and Jacqui Hargreaves return to the ageless yamas and niyamas, where yoga ethics ‘begin’, Teres Jones gives us a beginner’s guide to Non-Violent Communication (NVC) and we include two simple ‘beginners’ practices’, one first published in the SYA’s Newsletter in 1987 that is still as pertinent nearly thirty years on. Beginnings and endings feature in different ways in this issue’s interviews, with relative newcomer Maria Rawlings, our Administrator, as she comes towards the end of her first busy year at YS, as well as with longstanding YS course tutor Marjory Watt. Our usual updates, columns, reviews, adverts and reports complete the mix.

Of course new projects of all sorts can come at any time of year and at any point in life, so whatever you may be beginning in the coming months – a course, a journey, a new job, home or relationship – may it go well and harmoniously for you. As usual, any thoughts you may have about the magazine or general YS affairs or updates on projects you are involved in will be very welcome, by post or email, so do get in touch. Our September issue will focus on ‘Yoga and Ayurveda’ and in January 2017 we hope to look at ‘Yoga and Medical Research’, so contributions for them will be gratefully received.

Joy Charnley Editor We are pleased to let you know that Yoga Scotland has just been accepted as an Associate Member of the European Union of Yoga. This will help to raise YS's profile and facilitate networking with our European colleagues and friends. Further details will be communicated in due course.

Guidelines for Contributors Articles and reviews are welcome from everyone, whether a teacher, student teacher or ordinary member, and members and non-members alike are encouraged to contribute. Yoga Scotland is keen that all schools and traditions within yoga should be well represented in the magazine. Good quality photos of events are also very welcome. Please check word length with the editor, as both shorter (300-500 words or so) and longer pieces are published. Specific issues may be focused on a theme, but articles on any yoga-related topic will be considered.

Please send articles, letters, emails, photos, information, news or ideas to the editor.

Cover photo Jason in Child’s Pose. Photo by Jacqui Hargreaves.

Please send us any photos you have which depict any aspect of yoga.

Upcoming Themes Future issues will focus on the following themes. Your contributions (and suggestions of other themes you would like to see covered) are very welcome.

Sept 2016 (deadline 15 July): ‘Yoga and Ayurveda’ January 2017 (deadline 15 Nov): ‘Yoga and Medical Research’

Yoga Scotland Magazine Contacts Scotland Deadlines for advertising and editorial copy: 15 March (publication 1 May) 15 July (publication 1 September) 15 November (publication 1 January)

Editorial Address: Advertising address: Joy Charnley 34 Cromarty Avenue Glasgow G43 2HG

Maria Rawlings 6 Southwick Road Dalbeattie DG5 4BS

editor@yogascotland.org.uk

Tel: 07954 283966 maria@yogascotland.org.uk

Yoga Scotland magazine advertising rates also cover automatic inclusion on the Yoga Scotland website.

Position Back Cover Inside front cover Inside back cover Full page Half page Quarter page Eighth page

Non-member £120 £100 £100 £75 £55 £45 £30

Insert rates

£120

YS Member £90 £75 £75 £60 £40 £25 1st advert free £5 per advert thereafter £95

Payable at time of booking. 10% discount for full year’s booking (3 issues). © 2016 Yoga Scotland. All original articles in Yoga Scotland Magazine may be reproduced and circulated without prior permission being sought, provided acknowledgement is given to the author and Yoga Scotland. Printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper.

Disclaimer The views expressed in Yoga Scotland magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Yoga Scotland. We reserve the right to encourage the expression of a variety of views on subjects of interest to our members. No item should be taken as Yoga Scotland policy unless so stated.

Design/artwork by Sue Grant 01848 200331

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Yoga SCOTLAND

View from the Chair Economists have apparently calculated that volunteers in the UK every year carry out work ‘worth’ £50-100 billion to the UK economy, which is certainly an astronomical sum! Yoga Scotland’s trustees (Executive Committee) have continued to play their small part in that, and by the time you read this, we will have published our Annual Report and conducted the AGM, which is always a good opportunity not only to elect or re-elect committee members, but also to talk to and hear from members. It is a good time to take stock and look back over the year, see where we are in terms of finances, personnel, communication and courses and how many of last year’s plans have been accomplished. It is also of course a good time to look forwards to what we plan to work on and hope to achieve in the coming twelve months, so thank you to everyone who attended and contributed ideas, suggestions or criticisms.

For me the past two years seem to have passed very quickly and to have been extremely full, and so on a personal level the Annual Report and AGM provided the ideal way of reviewing the ground covered and the lessons learned. As well, of course, as the work still awaiting us and yet-to-bediscovered challenges. The old cliché about glaciers taking time to move certainly seems apt, and as with any organisation, time, determination and patience are all needed in large quantities.

As well as the feedback provided at the AGM, we also consulted the membership via an online survey, so thank you to those who responded. The results are published here and some key themes, which we will bear in mind in the coming months, emerged. Some respondents felt that useful work of communication and engagement with members and other organisations had been done and should be continued, whilst others indicated that in their opinion YS was still not ‘confident’ enough about itself. Similarly, views were divided on whether there had already been too much change or not enough.

In April we said goodbye and thank you to June Alexander, who has taught Anatomy + Physiology for a number of years on our Foundation Courses and previously taught on Teacher Training, and in June Kath McDonald will step down as Teacher Training Hatha tutor. Our very best wishes and thanks to them both. As I write, students on our various courses are also thinking about the end of one phase and the possible beginning of another: student teachers in Glasgow are preparing for their first external teaching assessment and in Edinburgh they are completing their studies, and on Foundation Courses and Living Yoga, students are contemplating how they can best take their practice of yoga forwards. Our best wishes and warmest thoughts go with them all.

I hope we will see many of you at Galashiels in June for the annual YS holiday weekend, themed around ‘Roots’. This is open to everyone, whether a teacher, student or ordinary member and also to non-members, and day delegates are welcome, so please do spread the word and come along if you can. A week later, we will be in Aberdeen for a joint day with

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Grampian Yoga Association to celebrate International Yoga Day, so once again do come along and bring your friends.

Wishing you all a great summer and lots of wonderful Yoga in all its forms.

Joy Charnley

Yoga Scotland Executive Committee Chairperson: Joy Charnley Email: joy@yogascotland.org.uk Treasurer: Teres Jones Email: treasurer@yogascotland.org.uk Secretary: Val Belk Email: secretary@yogascotland.org.uk Minutes Secretary: Kate Reilly Tel: 01899 220624 Email: kate@yogascotland.org.uk On-going Training Coordinator: Cathy Swan Email: ogt@yogascotland.org.uk Events & Communications Coordinator: Gill Gibbens Email: events@yogascotland.org.uk Magazine Editor: Joy Charnley Email: editor@yogascotland.org.uk

Yoga Scotland General Enquiries

Telephone number 07954 283966 For more detailed information on Yoga Scotland membership, regional events, classes, training courses and more, visit our website: www.yogascotland.org.uk

Contents 13 4 15 11 12 13 14 15 17 19 22 24 26 28 29 30 31 32 36 40 42

Editorial View from the Chair News and Views My life so far From the Archives Introduction to Ayurveda Meet the Chair Judgements are wrong Beginner’s mind Yoga behind bars Simple stretch sequence Teach what is inside you Yoga Scotland Living Course Therapy study trip Pay it Forward Yoga Festival More beginnings on YS Foundation Course Desert Island Yoga Erkin Bek Interview The Yamas and Niyamas Reviews Yogic Cook

Yoga SCOTLAND

News and Views You may however choose to meet the CPD requirement by attending non-YS days, in which case one point per hour is allocated and the form must be completed. It is especially important that information about non-YS CPD is returned to Maria so that she knows teachers are up-to-date and qualify for insurance.

We are looking at ways to streamline the system so that teachers can update their records throughout the year and not just at membership renewal time.

Please note that in 2016/17 OGT days will cost £40.

Yoga Scotland Questionnaire Sixty people responded to our questionnaire (although not everyone answered every question) so thank you for taking the time to do so. Below is the feedback received, along with some comments/clarifications/explanations from the Executive Committee. Should you have any further comments to make, please email them to Maria or Joy. Thank you.

Executive Committee of Yoga Scotland

Sara Marijuan Sara started practising yoga in 1999 after developing a lower back injury, and discovered that yoga helped not just physically, but had many other benefits too. She qualified as a teacher with The British Wheel of Yoga in 2009 and has been teaching workshops, classes and seminars since then.

Although primarily a Hatha yoga teacher, Sara has been lucky to study with many different teachers and her style of teaching reflects this. She encourages students to develop self-awareness and take responsibility in their personal practice, ensuring that each student gets the most from their yoga.

Sara also teaches 1:1 students who have a range of different conditions, again making their practice unique for them. She has trained with the Prison Phoenix Trust and taught in Greenock Prison, encouraging prisoners and staff in their lives through meditation and yoga, working with silence and the breath.

Sara was appointed in December 2015 as an Anatomy and Physiology Tutor for the Foundation Courses and will work closely with Foundation Course Tutors and Tina Gilbert, A + P Tutor for the Teacher Training Courses.

Thinking back over Yoga Scotland activity in 2015, what seems to you to have been the most important thing?

Seminars and OGT days to meet new students and likeminded teachers.

Professional development of the organisation.

Good variety of CPDs in 2014.

Getting in touch with more Yoga groups and hopefully working with them. The courses are getting better and better.

Diversity of CPD study days and other study days. I felt the Zoe Knott day was terrific, as was the day in Dunblane by Jane.

Continuing in providing high-quality OGT opportunities at a very low cost to teachers.

Providing insurance and backing from a recognised organisation.

Better communication with members, becoming more progressive and connecting with other Yoga organisations.

Editor’s inbox Thank you for your feedback and do send us any suggestions you may have for the magazine.

‘The magazine is super.’

CPD Reminder

‘Such a great read.’

‘I'm enjoying the latest read!’

Within each membership year, teaching members of YS who wish to be insured with us are required to complete CPD days equivalent to 15 points. YS OGT days each count 7.5 points, so the requirement can be met by attending two such days. BWY In-Service Training days count in a similar way (7.5 points per day).

If you only attend YS OGT days and have no other CPD to report, you will no longer need to return your CPD form.

‘Super!’

‘Congratulations. Such a lot to read. I look forward to the magazine and enjoy all the themes.’

‘A wonderful edition of the magazine.’

‘Beautifully produced, very well-written and engaging.’

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Yoga SCOTLAND Continuing to make the teacher training course more professional. The teacher training course is always our most important function and one for which we charge the most money. Students deserve a coherent programme professionally delivered. The experiences of the Glasgow and Edinburgh students should be broadly similar. The continuing work of the whole Yoga Scotland community to ensure such delivery is the most important thing.

I’m on the Living Yoga Course currently and am really enjoying it and finding it so valuable.

Making Elaine the TT Coordinator and Administrator and having an interim committee between TT and Exec which Elaine attends.

It would be nice to see YS events away from the main cities or somehow make those in the countryside feel more included.

There are not enough CDP opportunities in rural areas which makes things tricky to attend and expensive.

The summer weekend in Arran.

If Yoga Scotland were to stop doing one thing that is is not already doing, what should it be? And if YS were to do one thing, what should it be?

Some comments here were also made in 2015 (‘being afraid’, ‘making it sound as if it is only for teachers’) and although we have been working on these, it clearly appears to some that we have not yet done enough. The comment about SQA Accreditation was also made last year; the membership was consulted regarding this route in 2014 and we announced then that we would no longer be pursuing it.

Post-qualification modules/courses are currently being looked at by YS, but clearly have resource implications.

Not sure. I’m satisfied the way YS is run.

Being afraid – YS to realise it has trained some of Scotland’s best teachers and be open to yoga experts from every style.

Making it sound as if it is still for teachers only still.

Stop pursuing SQA accreditation.

YS should reinstate OETP assessors so we again have about 70; course tutors should be assessors and should run any training day for assessors as they are in the best position to assess – just as junior doctors are assessed by more senior doctors; junior nurses by the more senior nurses etc.

Stop the course tutors dictating to the Exec about what should be happening on the course as happens now and get input for the magazine, etc. from a more varied group of people. For instance, if someone is advertising a weekend in the magazine ask them to write a short article about what to expect or a review of it afterwards.

Possibly advertise to make outsiders aware of its existence if funds could stretch to that.

Stop: Supporting the sale of Satyananda Yoga material, i.e. supporting an institution that fails to deal with abuse and paedophilia. Deeply disappointing Start: Revise its ethics.

I would like to see Yoga Scotland offer advanced teacher training – a step forward from the Teacher Training Course.

Pregnancy Teacher Training, Yoga Therapy, Yin Yoga etc.

What is your opinion of the magazine?

Mixed reviews here. Some enjoy having more to read, others feel there is too much. The current editor is only continuing with the job because there is for the moment no successor – if you could take the job over and maybe do better, or know someone who could, then please get in touch.

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Much more reading material than in the past. Enjoy seeing where other classes and seminars are.

It’s fine but the visual presentation could be more lively.

I think it a good mix of interesting articles and information, advertisements.

Fails to showcase the humour and vibrancy of many of its forward-thinking members. It’s old fashioned and too textheavy.

It is good. I would like to see more articles about practising Yoga in Scotland, and less about India.

I thoroughly enjoy reading the magazine - some excellent articles.

The magazine is now very well produced and interesting, reflective of the organisation and of the wider yoga world.

Interesting articles and opportunity to advertise yoga events.

Like the introduction of colour. Not so sure about having a ‘theme’ for each issue as it can lead to some overlap and repetition regarding articles. Personally, I prefer a variety of articles – that way there will mostly likely include something to suit everyone.

I would favour a smaller size. The content has been interesting and of a high standard.

It would be good if the new editor became the editor.

Would prefer not to have a theme – it makes very repetitive reading, particularly the last issue.

Interesting, diverse. A find it a bit repetitive / robotic at times.

Dull, it’s such a pity that so much of the variety and interesting articles have gone, I used to look forward to reading the magazine, now it lacks interest with all the articles on a similar theme I certainly find I read less and don’t have the same enthusiasm for it when it arrives. It may look colourful, but in my opinion that in no way makes up for the greyness of different articles saying more or less the same thing. Disappointed.

How would you sum up Yoga Scotland in three words?

Very professionally organised.

Scotland’s yoga centre.

Getting left behind.

Yoga For Life.

Training, protection, community.

Essential, underresourced, dedicated.

Membership is important.

Community, Attending OGTs etc is a bit like ‘coming home’ – lovely, unconfident.

At A Crossroads.

Dedicated, Old Fashioned, A bit Stagnant.

Questions 5-9 are for teachers and student teachers only. If you have attended YS Ongoing Training days in the last two years, what is your general view of them?

We have been thinking about OGT and wondering if it still met teachers’ needs as numbers on some of the days early in the 2015/16 programme were low, which meant that days ran at a loss. Lowering numbers to 20 would also have financial implications, since we still need to cover costs (tutor fee and travel, possibly accommodation, venue). Overall teachers seem happy with OGT. I always enjoy different approach to teaching. We are always learning.

Keep evolving and raise the profile amongst the wider

Yoga SCOTLAND community to generate more opportunities for members, teachers and trainees.

Could be more open, loving and friendly to new members attending for the first time at events.

Some hit and miss OGT days however, nothing in this world is perfect. Some days have been excellent.

Generally excellent but too many participants. Not many facilitators are good at managing big numbers. 20 should be maximum.

I haven’t attended OGT days as I am insured with another group. I have looked at the list out of interest but haven’t picked any dates as they either clashed with something else I had planned or were too far away from deepest SW Scotland.

Not only does it renew your interest in certain areas of yoga but it’s the only time you get to meet up with a lot of people.

Good value.

Most of them are devoted to physical yoga.

I think they vary but the last few I have attended have been excellent but too full – I would rather pay a little more and there be fewer people.

If you have not attended any YS OGT days recently, why not? What is the key factor when choosing a day? (date, venue, tutor, topic, something else?)

We do try to get out of the Central Belt, but sadly days in less central locations are often hard to fill, however good the tutor and however interesting the topic.

Always attend. Would prefer more days in Ayrshire. Largs day was fab venue, as was tutor.

Days are hard to get to and give insufficient downtime after lunch. Residential weeks/weekends are easier and I can go to the things I feel are useful for my own progress.

Venue, Tutor and if the subject appeals to me.

Always oversubscribed. Also many of the events take place on Saturday when I have a class. More Sunday opportunities would be welcome. Edinburgh is the easiest for me to get to but also seems to be the most popular so I’m very limited on what I’m able to attend. The topics are always interesting though, it’s just irritating I can’t go!

Distance and other things I am committed to also have some impact. It’s about 3 hours travel to either Glasgow or Edinburgh so means an overnight stay and this can bring the cost of the day up a lot.

Topic and venue are usually what sways my choice.

Venue/accessibility not having a car, therefore restricted to a few.

I find the events quite repetitive and ‘old school.’ I am more interested in getting to the core of self-inquiry than going by the book. When I am looking for a day I may be interested I look for something that tickles my curiosity and interest – things that deal with real life, how we relate, nonprescriptive, explorative – I find this lacking through YS. There is usually a mix of YS and non-YS teachers delivering OGT days. What is your opinion of this mix? (for example - too many YS tutors/not enough, enough/not enough variety) Mix is fine.

The OGT days all sound the same as if there is a formula in the blurb which everyone conforms to. It becomes less and less useful to explore a lot of different approaches. Ultimately following one path up the mountain gets you there faster

than starting out on a different one every day.

I feel the balance is right.

I think it is good to have variety and to allow yoga to evolve.

YS is thinking of looking again at the format for OGT maybe having fewer days with teachers who would each offer two days, maybe opening sessions up to more than 30 teachers. What would your views on a revamp be?

Teachers are not keen on days with bigger numbers. As mentioned above, reducing numbers does mean reduced income to cover costs.

If it works as it is. Leave it.

Prefer less than 30 teachers. Residential weekend allowing practice time before breakfast and free time after lunch may be good.

Most people have very busy lives, I think a full weekend would be too much for some teachers.

Don’t like the idea of bigger numbers and worry this would reduce choice.

Any revamp needs to consider the convenience of the participants, so personally I would like to see more YS OGT events venturing away from Edinburgh and Glasgow. It’s just not practical or economically viable for members in rural areas to get to them, and yet they will be penalised if they don’t accrue points. Some form of online OGT seminars or similar opportunities would be amazingly helpful.

I like the amount of choice there already is and wouldn’t like to have too many people at the sessions.

I would keep numbers small and intimate. If there were more than 30 then have lots of assistants supporting the event. 2-day events could be good.

Revamp ok but choose tutors who keep their practice up-todate and who are good at delivering their subject – not all are.

Over 30 probably too much. If you get stuck at the back sometimes you can’t see or hear.

Personally, I would only go to one of two days unless the tutor was someone I particularly wanted to work with.

Presumably there would be the option to attend 1 or 2 days?

What if anything, most needs to change about OGT? Must be difficult to find suitable halls. I always find days well attended. Though I try to choose Spring rather than travel too far in winter.

Allow yoga to evolve. Bring in more yoga in its wider meaning. Remember its essence that is not constricted by form. Keep it fresh and up-to-date, it’s great to learn from experienced teachers who go out into the world and keep learning themselves.

Overall they are well organised. Maybe more interesting topics? This is a minefield as each yoga teacher will be looking something different, everyone has different interests. When the list is distributed, I look to see what might interest me. So far I haven’t booked any. I gain my OGT points by attending workshops and seminars.

Thank you for completing this survey and taking the time to give your opinions and feedback. If you have anything further you wish to tell Yoga Scotland, please do so below.

Some respondents encouraged us to continue the work we have been doing – increased contact, use of email, engaging members, working with other organisations – and we will certainly do so. As last year,

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Yoga SCOTLAND some requested more friendliness (we will keep working on it) and more informal events (which would be great if resources – time and energy – permit) but there is also awareness that the Exec can only do so much. CPD and membership renewal are already coordinated, but we are looking at ways of improving the logging of CPD, as we realise it is currently very cumbersome (both for teachers and for Maria). We have had summer weekends in 2014 (Biggar) and 2015 (Arran); this year we will be in Galashiels and in 2017 Stirling.

Resume the summer weekend, but not in St. Andrews, somewhere more central for accessibility.

Thank you for allowing us over the border to attend your Foundation Course!

Get its courses better known outside Scotland.

Putting the magazine out to more people for a charge.

Advertising YS more widely.

Encouraging more class members to join and to support the YS training of teachers. They all benefit from YS’s excellent teacher training course.

Website class listing, I prefer the older way as I can’t find a teacher if I don’t know the location of her class as it is when I search.

More frequent seminars for non-member pupils. Taught

by YS tutors/teachers.

Insist that all members of the YS community who are on

the Committee, or teach on the courses, or are assessors of students, attend the AGM and support the work of the Exec Committee.

Keep doing what you have been doing the past year – continue engaging more with YS Members and making them feel involved in the organisation.

I think it’s important to focus on the current improvement agenda before looking for new tasks – the committee need to have a manageable workload to keep momentum and motivation.

Particular focus on building relations with other yoga organisations would be good – and to look at ways of involving members in this process, providing opportunity for learning.

Be more friendly at AGMs. Arrange more informal events.

I think the individuals do a great job. I’m not sure everyone always understands how a committee works and so things can get bogged down in detail.

Love the change to email contact – and a more regular contact. Thank you. Must embrace other yoga traditions / qualifications. Wish list – Reunions of teachers would be lovely! Coordinate membership renewal with CPD annual input please.

YOGA MATS | YOGA PROPS | YOGA CLOTHING | TOESOX www.Yoga-Mad.com 8

Yoga SCOTLAND

Introductory Course in the tradition of Krishnamacharya and his son TKV Desikachar To be held monthly in Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday 10.00 – 17.00 starting in September 2016 with Ann Hunter A 72 contact hour course held over 6 weekends for students or teachers who wish to learn more about the tradition of the great yogi, Professor T Krishnamacharya and his son, TKV Desikachar.

This unique approach integrates practical teachings about asana, pranayama, use of sound and meditative techniques, with the teachings of Patanjali's Yoga sutras and other texts. Above all, it emphasises the importance of adapting yoga to the individual. A large part of the course will be about the art of developing a home practice tailored to your specific needs and how to adapt this as circumstances change. Also, an ideal way to deepen your knowledge of yoga prior to undertaking teacher training.

Comments from previous students on the course

“A starting point for a wonderfully fulfilling journey of self discovery and realisation. A great starting point to develop knowledge of yoga philosophy and learn how to use Yoga off the mat to bring more peace, love and joy into your life” Claire

“Taking part in Ann Hunter's Introductory course has been a great experience. Ann’s knowledge, dedication to preparation and delivery of the course together with her encouragement, support and guidance have led me to develop a regular yoga practise that expands into every aspect of my life. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this and to have learned more than I could have ever imagined.” Moira Contact Ann for further details and to book your place on the information morning. This is your opportunity to ask questions and experience Ann's teaching prior to committing to the course.

Preliminary morning £25 Saturday 2 July 2016 10.00 – 13.00 In the Moment, 72 Berkley Street, Charing Cross, Glasgow, G3 7DS

Email ann@athunter.plus.com or telephone 0141 647 1817

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Yoga Scotland

Everyone welcome

Autumn Seminar 2016 Philip Xerri

Pranayama in Perspective: (The Five Phases of Progressive Practice)

Saturday 29th October

10am – 4pm Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA Cost : £40 YS members & £45 Non-members

Please bring your own lunch & yoga mat (also blocks & a blanket if needed. Teas and coffee will be provided.)

For more details & booking form on the website www.yogascotland.org.uk For BACS or cheque payment, please email Maria on maria@yogascotland.org.uk

About Philip Xerri

Philip was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1948 and was an accomplished athlete and rugby player in his youth. At age 28 he walked into a yoga class run by Philip Jones in Cardiff and since that time has continually practised and taught yoga and pranayama throughout the UK and Europe. He studied yoga and pranayama with Dr. Swami Gitananda in India (1980/1981), graduated with an Honours degree in Comparative Religion (1984) and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in Religious Studies (1985). Philip has experienced many different schools of yoga, qualified in Remedial Massage, Reflexology and Touch for Health and run Yoga Quests for the last 25 years. The main focus of his practice has always been pranayama, culminating in 2000 in the formulation of the one-year Pranayama Foundation Course which encapsulates his two-fold approach to the practice of pranayama - structured, progressive, developmental and logical but also holding firmly onto the power and spiritual poignancy of the practice.

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Yoga SCOTLAND

My Life so Far…Maria Rawlings YS: Could you tell YS members a bit about your early life – where you grew up and studied for example?

Maria: I grew up a small in riverside town called Pershore, Worcestershire.

After graduating from University C o l l e g e Worcester with a BSci (Hons) Psychology and English degree, I travelled in Australia before settling down and becoming a mother. It was at this point I wanted to balance homelife and work and decided to relocate to Scotland nine years ago.

YS: What jobs did you have before you came to YS? Maria: While studying I worked part-time for Lloyds Pharmacy and Boots, which I really enjoyed. After finishing Uni I was fortunate enough to be employed as a supervisor for Brantano, which later led into an ‘Acting’ Store Manager role, but I always knew I was going to travel, and this was a stopgap. I wanted to be a Prison Psychologist and applied for Long Lartin Prison, but although I was qualified, I didn’t have the experience they required. I don’t know if I would have had the mental strength to separate prison work life and my ‘outside’ world life! Especially now I have my two boys Callum and Zak. Before the boys came along I worked for Melville Exhibition Services as an Organiser Sales Exec based at the NEC. I worked alongside many organisers on shows such as Crufts, The Clothes Show, and Autumn and Spring Fair to name a few. After moving to Scotland, I worked part-time for a local plumbers as an administrator.

They opened up a lot of opportunities for me and helped me to settle into the community.

YS: For the benefit of members who may not realise exactly what you do, can you give us a brief overview of your work?

Maria: Since starting 12 months ago I have learned many different aspects of the job and feel I still have more to learn and understand. My role has now been split into two areas – general admin which covers OGT, and the second part is covering the administration side for the courses. Every day is different and I am now getting a better understanding of what to expect during different times of the YS calendar. I haven’t come across a quiet time of year just yet!

I process the membership forms, check CPD points, send relevant information to Kirsty to update the website,

complete the insurance documents and answer general queries. I allocate and monitor bookings for the Spring/Autumn seminars and Weekend Holiday, process the adverts for Sue ready for the next issue of the magazine and check that Val has all the labels ready to post the magazines to all our members. Using Mailchimp I create newsletters from Joy and adverts from members or from YS. The OGT side keeps me busy too, sending out the programmes Cathy has put together, allocating and monitoring the bookings, sending out the agenda for each day and travel information so you all know what is happening and where to go.

In between all these processes we have managed to introduce online banking and Sage. The online banking has made a big difference and will be made easier once the RBS account is closed. This has a more direct impact on my everyday working, which allows me to concentrate on other aspects of YS. I think this covers the tip of the iceberg!

YS: What has been the biggest change for you at YS compared to your previous jobs?

Maria: Working from home is the biggest difference, and has had a big impact on my family in a positive way. I can also plan my workload better and adapt my working week to accommodate my tasks, and the members’ needs. My working hours can very quickly run away with me, so I do have to be disciplined to switch off or else I would never move from my laptop.

The commitment of everybody working together, the work the committee undertakes for the members is astounding. The enthusiasm for YS to continue to grow and flourish is great. In my previous roles it was all about KPI’s and targets, apart from Johnstone’s Plumbers, which is a small family-run business who were happy to be supplying a service to the local area.

YS: Which part of the job do you most enjoy?

Maria: I enjoy the variety, not one day is the same. I have had a lot to learn over the last 12 months and everyone has been very supportive and patient. A few changes have been introduced to YS which I hope will give us the stepping stones to move forward, but still allowing us to stay connected with our members.

YS: Can you tell us about your yoga experience?

Maria: I started yoga while I was studying my ‘A’ levels with a lovely lady called Margaret, who too was from Scotland.

She taught Pranayama Yoga, and she really did inspire me.

Margaret had the most relaxing voice, I could listen to her voice for hours. She also taught me how ‘clear’ my mind, and even today I use techniques she taught me, like placing myself inside my ‘bubble’ so no negativity can reach me, it just bounces off my bubble! She showed me that yoga wasn’t just about the ‘physical’ body. I would have loved to have done yoga while pregnant, but by that time I was working full-time and the classes on offer didn’t suit. I did enjoy the baby yoga with the boys for the short time we did it before I returned to work. After moving to Dalbeattie I took up yoga with Kimberley Phillips, who introduced me to

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Yoga SCOTLAND the Yoga community in Scotland.

YS: What sorts of things do you enjoy doing when not working?

Maria: I usually set myself a new challenge each year, last year I completed two open water swims after starting for the first time last April. I’ve not quite decided what my challenge is this year, but I will return to open water swimming once it gets a little warmer. I love the outdoors, from hillwalking and biking to canoeing. I also enjoy some pampering time with friends and spending time with the family. Although spare time for me is quite rare after running about for the boys!

YS: How would you like to see YS developing in the next five years or so?

Maria: Yoga Scotland has a strong foundation to expand and build upon. We have already started to set up new ideas and introduce new systems, and are hopefully finding the balance for the transitions to be effective. It’s important to the members for YS not to feel like a business, but we do need to be adaptive to the current times. I’ve learned a lot

during my time in this post and it will be a continuous learning curve, which I am looking forward to. When people ask me who I work for not many of them have heard of Yoga Scotland, so the Yoga Show should be a good starting point to getting ourselves known and ‘out there’. I would like to see YS try new things like family yoga taster days, offer teacher training courses in specific areas like ‘pregnancy’. I appreciate there is a lot of work involved and some might argue why make changes, but we all adapt yoga to suit our current lifestyles and maybe YS should evolve to be reflective of this, to keep ‘fresh’, exciting and unique. I’m excited to be part of this journey with YS. YS: Anything else you’d like to say?

Maria: I am very grateful for Yoga Scotland in giving me this opportunity to be part of this diverse and dedicated community. I have been made to feel very welcome and I would like to say a big thank-you to all the members for their patience and understanding while I have been ‘learning the ropes’!

YS: Thank you and keep up the good work.

From the Archives Strictly for Beginners (By a Beginner) The asanas described below are intended for newcomers to Yoga who wish to practise at home between thir regular weekly instruction, and who find it difficult to get started. One of the hardest obstacles to overcome for a beginner is that of discipline – disciplining oneself to actually engage in practice every day. For this reason the asanas selected are simple and have been kept to a minimum. Many books on Yoga give suggested sequences of asanas week by week, advancing towards more difficult ones, but these are often too elaborate for many when they first start.

In the simplest terms of Yoga practice, asanas involve stretching upward, sideway, forward, backward and twisting. In the positions described below, it is recommended that each is held for several deep, slow breaths, followed by relaxation.

Start in simple cross-legged position, sitting quietly and breathing slowly and deeply.

Upward stretch – stand straight, feet together, raise both arms, stretch each arm alternately to its full extent, ‘lifting’ the whole body and stretching fingers, arms, spine and legs.

Sideway stretch – stand straight, feet slightly apart, arms above the head and parallel to each other, palms facing inwards. Holding the relative position of arms and head, bend to the right from the hips, stretching the left-hand side of the ribcage. Hold and with each out-breath try to bend a little more, resisting the temptation to bend forward or twist. Repeat to the left.

Forward stretch – stand straight, feet slightly apart, arms raised. Bend forward from the hips, back straight, arms, neck and head relaxed. Hold the posture, breathing easily.

Backward stretch – lie face down, placing hands on the floor under the shoulders, elbows tucked in. Lift the head, push on the hands and lift the trunk. Legs and pelvis remain on the floor. Hold the position.

Twist – sit on the floor, legs extended. Step the right foot over the left knee and hold the right foot with the right hand. Lift and straighten the spine. Place the left hand on the floor behind the spine, turning the head and shoulders to the left and look behind. With each out-breath, twist a little further. Repeat on the other side.

Relaxation – lie flat on the back, eyes closed, legs straight and slightly apart, feet turned out, arms relaxed at the sides and slightly away from the body, palms up. Release all muscles. Breathe naturally and slowly through the nose.

It will not be long before these simple postures will fail to satisfy, and further asanas can be added on the advice of a teacher. But these will serve at the beginning to encourage the discipline of daily practice.

J.B. Burnett First published in ‘Karma’ (vol 16, 1987), Newsletter of the Scottish Yoga Association. Teachers would probably now give more ‘health warnings’ in relation to practices, even a simple one such as this one, so if you are a beginner, do remember that modifications may be necessary for you (e.g. arms down, not turning the head, shorter hold)

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Introduction to Ayurveda: the Yogic System of Medicine for the Body and Mind

by Kate Reilly-Andrews

From March until December 2015 I was a student on this course taught by Elizabeth Roberts and Bijam, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The course was expertly taught by two experienced and accomplished yoga practitioners and teachers, whose huge knowledge, skill, patience, enthusiasm and kindness made this branch of yogic science accessible, relevant, enjoyable and literally life-changing.

The course was delivered via a mixture of lectures, practical activities, some cooking (which was great fun), discussion, morning asana, pranayama and meditation practices.

Elizabeth’s knowledge of the Ayurvedic approach to physical and mental well-being was complemented by Bijam’s knowledge of western medicine’s approaches, especially to mental health. This dual knowledge base generated some fascinating discussion and insight.

After the first weekend I had feared that the philosophy underpinning Ayurveda’s world view might be a bit challenging, if not overwhelming, for some students, including me. However, while a lot of information was covered early in the course, many of the essential ideas and concepts were revisited and built on over subsequent weeks and by the end of the course we were able to discuss the doshas and gunas in relation to our individual constitutions. We had a good grounding in, and growing experience of, basic Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle principles and were happily suggesting and discussing recipes and yoga practices for different constitutions.

We were given many useful handouts and copies of asana, pranayama and meditation practices. Of course Ayurveda is a vast subject and there is much to learn and understand, but I have no doubt that for all the students who participated in the course further suggested study will be made easier by the grounding and understanding of the basics we now have. All of us will have already made simple changes to our daily routines and diet. We now know ourselves better and will be able to recognise signs of imbalance and address these via lifestyle choices, diet and yoga practices.

During the course some students undertook a two-week Ayurvedic ‘cleanse’ to coincide with the change of season in October. Several students noted that this was transformational and for some it made the whole course fall into place, make sense and become a reality.

For me the realisation that the yogic practices we all do – asana, pranayama, chanting, meditation, kriya – are part of and not separate from Ayurveda is one of the key things I will take from the course. The following quotation cited in the introductory course material pretty much sums this up.

Thank you to Elizabeth and to Bijam for an excellent lifechanging and life-enhancing yogic experience.

‘Ayurveda is the Vedic science of healing for both body and mind.

Yoga is the Vedic science self-realisation that depends on a wellfunctioning body and mind....The foundation of Yoga should be Ayurveda and the fruits of Ayurveda, Yoga.’ (David Frawley)

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Meet the Chair… of Grampian Yoga Association…

Allison Summers YS: Can you tell us a little about your family background and formative years?

Ally Summers: I was born on 16th November 1946, the only child of a working-class family, my father was a railway worker and my mother braided fishing nets. The first eighteen years of my life I lived in a tworoomed top floor tenement flat with no bathroom and a shared toilet. I left school at fifteen to become an office junior, which gave me a weekly wage of £2.14s 6d, and met my husband Jim when I was fifteen and he was seventeen. I got engaged at seventeen, married at nineteen and went on to have two children – a son and, seventeen months later, a daughter.

arrange seminars for its members. I became a committee member in 2003 when I took early retirement from Scottish Water. I was elected Chair at our last AGM. YS: What does your work as Chair involve?

Ally: My work as Chair involves some input but most of the work is done by our very capable Secretary Sheena and our Treasurer and Membership Secretary Gordon.

YS: What do you see as the main challenges currently facing GYA? Ally: We received charitable status early on and our funds from membership fees have grown throughout our long history. The main challenge as I see it is to use those funds wisely and to carry out the aims of this great association as per its constitution.

YS: What are your main interests and hobbies outside Yoga?

Ally: Aside from my three lovely grandsons, my main interest is anything to do with nature. I love hillwalking in Scotland and abroad, also swimming and cycling.

YS: Do you have a favourite Yoga book?

YS: How did you first ‘discover’ Yoga?

Ally: I discovered yoga when I put my two toddlers down for an afternoon nap then watched Richard Hittleman and Lynn Marshall on my black and white telly tutoring from Miami Beach. We as a family moved to Stonehaven in 1976 and I spotted an article in the local paper which mentioned ‘an introduction to yoga by Ian Scorgie’. Ian was introducing one of his students Alec Nicol who was about to start a yoga class in Stonehaven. I attended Alec’s class for several years as a student then enrolled in Ian Scorgie’s teacher training course in 1978. I was then working full-time in the finance department of the water authority as an admin assistant. In the early 1980s I was employed by the education department as a yoga tutor for an evening class in Portlethen and two years later another evening class in Stonehaven whilst continuing to work full-time and look after the family.

I continued to attend Ian’s teachers’ class which was held in Aberdeen until his death in 2004.

YS: What about GYA – when and why was it founded, what work does it do and how long have you been involved?

Ally: Grampian Yoga Association (GYA) was founded in 1984 as a branch of the then Scottish Yoga Association, now Yoga Scotland (YS), the Hon. President being the late Ian Scorgie who founded the Aberdeen Yoga Centre in 1960. Committee members past and present were mainly from Ian’s teachers’ class and the aim of the GYA was to provide yoga classes during the school summer break (in 1984 nearly all yoga classes were offered by the further education department of Grampian Regional Council and held in schools). GYA’s aim was and continues to be, to also bring to the Grampian area eminent yogis twice a year in Spring and Autumn and

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Ally: My favourite yoga book has to be BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga and a close second would be The Yoga Tradition by Georg Feuerstein.

YS: A Yoga practice or posture you find particularly beneficial?

Ally: Surya Namaskar.

YS: A Yoga teacher you find or have found inspiring?

Ally: It has to be the late Ian Scorgie.

YS: What would you most like to see happen within the UK Yoga community and how might it be achieved?

Ally: I’d like to see terms like yogacise and piloga not used. I don’t agree with this linking between disciplines such as yoga/exercise classes, yoga/Pilates classes. Not sure how it can be achieved though. I also think classes should be advertised showing the type of yoga taught, e.g Hatha, Ashtanga, kundalini etc. and keeping more to the traditional teaching. I think it must be very confusing nowadays to a beginner wishing to give yoga a try, then finding so many types now on offer.

YS: Three words that sum up Yoga for you?

Ally: Prana, asana, meditation.

YS: Cat or dog?

Ally: Both.

YS: Many thanks.

Yoga SCOTLAND

Judgements are WRONG! A Window into Non-Violent Communication (NVC) – a Language of Needs Teres Jones Overview of NVC I stumbled across the NVC language a few years ago and, without exaggeration, it has changed my life. The reaction I get from people when I tell them my greatest passion is called ‘Non-Violent Communication’ tells me that the name doesn’t do it justice. NVC is simple, but requires all of your self-control to implement when you get triggered in a situation. Please try not to be put off by the fact that it can be simplified into four steps, as this is only to make it easy to remember when you need it most.

avoided in the future. It is a helpful first interpretation, but we can scratch beneath the surface to get to the heart of the issue – the unmet need.

Prolonged blame and judgement thought patterns disempower us to find true resolution and when we engage in blame we have given the majority of our energy over to the other person. Rather than investing our resources in finding the best possible solution (in a seemingly undesirable situation), we spend our energy finding people to validate our opinion.

1. Observation – interpretation without evaluation (harder than you might think!)

2. Emotion/feeling – angry, scared, upset for example.

These emotions do not imply blame on another person, i.e. such feelings do not mean that the other person is inferior, worthless or unappreciated.

3. Need – these are based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

4. Request – simple and specific, not trying to solve the whole problem.

To simplify, humans have these needs and when one of them goes unmet we experience a negative emotion because of an observation (stimulus) in our outer environment. We can then make a request to try and change the situation to get relief from our unmet need.

When we clearly hear another’s need it connects us with them because we all share the same needs.

Blame/Judgement Blame and judgement have become rampant epidemics in our language. Blame has become an integral part of our communication and most conversations centre on someone being ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’. That person is usually someone else, but can also be ourself.

My understanding is that the brain evolved this binary (black/white) way of interpreting our interactions in the world to minimise effort when making decisions. This includes learning if an experience is desirable to repeat or best

Sometimes all we want is a good moan and that is perfectly fine – give yourself the freedom to moan guilt-free!

If we truly want to find resolution, we must first listen to the blame and judgement dialogue. The judgement/blame dialogue is helpful (rather than wrong), as the language reveals unmet needs within ourself and the other person.

Sitting with the identified needs and emotions always feels like a bit of a pinch, because there is some degree of pain in going this level deeper, to the core of the issue.

Blame/judgement is a dance around discomfort, perpetuating rather than resolving issues We know that all things change through awareness. Simply noticing blame/judgement during future interactions will start to reveal how this language infiltrates our perception. My hope is to spark your curiosity to learn more about NVC, the language designed to facilitate connection (yoga) between people through identifying our shared needs.

Warning: Watch out for your mind starting to judge your own judgements!

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Carl Jung

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Yoga Scotland Annual YOGA Weekend 2016 Roots

Swami Saradananda Jason Birch & Jacqui Hargreaves & YS teachers

4pm Friday 10th June - 4pm Sunday 12th June

Jean Muir Student Village, Heriot Watt University, Tweed Road, Galashiels TD1 3JZ Price includes: accommodation, all meals, all yoga classes £250 (YS members only) £260 (non-members) £60 Saturday Day Delegates 10am – 6pm £55 Sunday Day Delegates 10am - 4pm

For more details, paypal & booking form see the website: www.yogascotland.org.uk For BACS or cheque payment please email: maria@yogascotland.org.uk Accommodation at the Jean Muir Student Village visit their website www.hu.ac.uk/borders

www.yogascotland.org.uk

sportscotland

Scottish Charity Number SCO20590

Governing Body for Yoga in Scotland

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Beginnings: Beginner’s Mind

by Yvonne Austen

‘When I was seven I could draw like the great masters, it has taken me a lifetime to be able to draw like a child’. Many of you will know that Picasso said this when he was in his 70s.

It is not unlike the Buddhist quotation by Shunryu Suzuki who wrote Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: ‘In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.’

As we grow on our path (whichever one we may choose) we come, at some point, to a realisation that we know less than we thought we did. And the older we get, the less certain we are of what we know we know! This ‘not knowing’ is knowledge itself.

There is no doubt that a beginner’s mind is desirable, not just on our spiritual journey but indeed in anything we undertake: a new relationship or friendship, a new activity or job, or a new phase of life like retirement. How we get to that state of mind, however, seems to be a less mapped path than we might believe it ought to be. Especially as we only know we need a beginner’s mind when we are no longer at the beginning!

As Picasso said, it took him a lifetime. Is it possible then, for us to achieve beginner’s mind without this lengthy journey of practice, failures and great effort? Shri Krishnamurti tells us that it is indeed possible right here and right now, but he also warns not to take his word for it and believe, but to investigate for oneself.

On walking the dog this morning, I realised that I had never before been on this walk, not on ‘this’ walk. I had followed this path up and down and through the forest but ‘this’ actual walk was new. I challenged myself to turn up and tune in with all my senses at a deeper level. To hear but not listen to, to see but not look at, to smell but not smell; to touch but not feel. If I became caught up in one note more than another I stopped, stood still and tuned in again to the whole, or more accurately tuned out of the specific.

Choosing the ‘white noise’ rather than the station as it were.

It is this we require for beginner’s mind, to leave the ‘I’, ‘me’ out of the activity. Only then are we able to tune into the entirety and the space that is created thereby and have a mind that is eager, interested, open and lacking preconception. In this space is potential. For when it is full of ‘me’ and all that ‘I’ know or have experienced there is simply no room for any learning, discovery or beauty and love.

Beginner’s mind is the mind pre-knowledge, preexperience. If there is knowledge there is a knower. If there is experience there is an experiencer, therefore duality.

Duality is comparison and conflict. So can we drop what we ‘know’, what we have ‘experienced’, right now? Try it as you read. Are you really reading with beginner’s mind or are you constantly comparing the knowledge and experience you brought to this reading? Therefore full of self and unable to hear what is being said?

To attempt to write about ‘beginner’s mind’ must be a contradiction. To write about any subject suggests

knowledge and knowledge is made up of thought. Thought is continuity, a continuation of the idea of a thinker who possesses knowledge about their subject. A mind that can articulate about a subject cannot be a beginner’s mind ie. one of potential, possibility, but suggests one who may profess to be an ‘expert’. The writer here certainly does not profess that.

Self-investigation and inquiry are the means that may lead one to ‘empty mind’, a term I prefer to ‘beginner’s mind’ as it may remain in this state continually whilst going about daily tasks. If we ask ‘of what is it empty?’ the answer of course is ‘self’ – continuation of thought of ‘I’, memories and experiences that pertain to a ‘me’.

Whatever our practice, and whether we have one or not, it is worthwhile investigating all our activities from this space of potential and possibility throughout our day and returning to the ‘what is’ of each moment rather than the ‘what should be’. If we do this we allow all the layers of knowledge, experience and expectation to drop away, we discover beginner’s mind and become free.

Yvonne teaches classes and workshops at her studio in Newburgh (www.yogabode.co.uk – site under construction) and can also be contacted at yvonne.austen@zen.co.uk

Thought for the Day Thoughts and Reading ‘Listen to your body whisper, before you hear it scream.’ Bernie Clark, Vancouver (passed on by Jill Paget – thank you) Read the work of Sister Nivedita at http://advaitaashrama.org/Book/Detail/63

Satyananda Yoga CDs for home practice

Yoga Nidra: 3 practices for first and second idra yoga n year students.

Yoga Nidra: 2 practices for more experienced students.

Meditation: Kaya Stairyam (body stillness), yog a nid ra Ajapa Japa (mantra) and Antar Mouna (inner stillness).

d students experience for more ridge Practices carol god

£7 + £1.50 p&p each.

From: Carol Godridge, Ben Doran, Ayr Street, Moniaive, Dumfriesshire DG3 4HW Tel: 01848 200681 Email: yoga@cgodridge.plus.com

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13/08/2012 14:12 Page e1

meditation

Meditation practices from the Satyananda tradition

carol godridge

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Yoga SCOTLAND

AERI AL ST E P S Come along to our Aerial Yoga Teacher Training weekend course on 20-22 May 2016 in Glasgow.

Highlights of Aerial Steps teacher training include: đŏ '%((ŏ 1%( %*#ŏĒŏ0! $*%-1! đŏ ,+00%*#ŏ0! $*%-1!/ đŏ ! $%*#ŏ3%0$ŏ,.+#.!//%+*/ đŏ ! $*%-1!/ŏ"+.ŏ .! 0%*#ŏ5+1.ŏ+3* đŏ .! 0%2!ŏ/!-1!* !/ŏ%*ŏ0$!ŏ$ ))+ ' đŏ "!ŏ * ŏ .! 0%2!ŏ3 .)ġ1,ŏ/!-1!* !/ đŏ * +./!)!*0ŏ".+)ŏ '%((/ŏ 0%2!ŏ

For full course details please visit: aerialyogaedinburgh.co.uk or call Gillian on 07971 605 433

yogabode Newburgh, North Fife is a space dedicated to deepening the study and inquiry into all yoga practices. Yvonne is a yoga teacher and therapist with a depth of knowledge gained over many years of personal practice and study.

Yoga therapy training days: Bodymapping 16th April 2016 Hypermobility 18th June 2016 Fibromyalgia 20th August 2016 £75 per day including lunch. Accommodation can be provided.

Yoga weekends: May 6th- 8th

and Sept 30th - October 2nd

An immersive weekend of yoga including accommodation and food: £210 For information on the above please email : yvonne.austen@zen.co.uk ( www.yogabode.co.uk - website currently under construction) Tel. 07739 644520

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Beginnings: Yoga behind Bars: Teaching, Learning, Growing Photos: Diana Finn

by Sara Marijuan

I wondered for ages whether I would be able to teach in a prison. I had always read with interest the articles about the valuable work of the Prison Phoenix Trust (PPT) who encourage prisoners in the development of their spiritual welfare through the practices of meditation and yoga, working with silence and the breath (something we as yoga teachers and practitioners recognise very well). Somehow for me the timing was never quite right, the PPT workshops where you could explore any questions or issues that may arise always seemed to clash with other workshops, family birthdays, life in general. And then of course there were the all too natural anxieties. Also I was a newly-qualified teacher and didn’t have the required number of years of experience, and without doubt my own self-confidence was still in a fledgling state. The seed of interest always remained, hibernating like a creature through the winter and waiting like the bulbs and plants to grow and germinate when the time is right.

And things did begin to grow and change, a few years later. A PPT workshop was advertised in Perth, it was a weekend I was free so I went along, still a little unsure but keen to learn and listen. People always say things happen for a reason, known in yoga as Samtosha, which the Darshana Upanishad describes as delight with whatever fate may bring.1 Certainly everything seemed to work together for a new

beginning. The workshop was wonderful, attended by people currently teaching in prisons and also newbies like me with an interest and certainly a lot of questions. Even more miraculous was that a fellow teacher who I already knew, living not far from me and already teaching in Greenock prison, was also there. This is really where things began to change and grow for me. With the support of the PPT and my fellow teacher, I shadowed her for four weeks at HMP Greenock, and we learned from each other in our teaching, but also in the basic things like security and protocol.

In over a third of UK and Irish prisons, yoga and meditation classes are part of the prison regime. The classes help inmates to reduce aggression and drug-use, and develop self-discipline, a stronger will, better mental health, improved self-confidence and a greater sense of responsibility. Some prisons have classes for staff too. I had never been inside a prison before, and was naturally quite nervous. Greenock houses adult male and female offenders with short- and longterm sentences and those on remand awaiting trial. Learning about simple things like what you can and cannot take into a prison, (no phones, no glass or sharp objects), can be quite challenging and I even wondered whether I would be allowed to take in my cork bricks and belts (I was).

Everything has to be scanned; security is just like in an airport, so for all of these reasons you have to get there early to make sure there is time for all the checks to be done. Other things too like, ‘will there be toilet facilities?’ Things you don’t normally think about in a day-to-day class need to be considered! It was really wonderful to be supported in the early days by a fellow teacher, especially in surroundings that can be quite stark. Alarms and alerts can go off at any time and maintaining your composure and your practice can be quite a discipline.

Over time the class became mine and it is quite miraculous that all the early anxieties fade and change into joy and delight as you see professional relationships grow and the

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For those interested in learning more about the Prison Phoenix Trust and workshops, see www.theppt.org.uk Training and retreats on the Home page. effect that a consistent yoga practice has for the prisoners.

Class becomes class, the fact it is in a prison also fades.

Security is always paramount, but the yoga shines so brightly that it draws together students, teachers and staff alike. My teaching has also changed and grown as a result of working in HMP Greenock and these changes benefit my classes on the outside too. The PPT encourage meditation and so we have all learned to sit in silence for a lot longer, using pranayama as a focus for our practices. There are many mental health issues in prisons, drug and alcohol addictions, depression; all of this can be helped by quietness and steadying the mind. The added advantage is that prisoners can practise in their own time, in their cell where there is not much space and they have told me that apart from physically feeling better, they are sleeping better and feeling less anxious.

I am so grateful for the new beginning that brought me to prison teaching. Spring is a time when we all look to new things. We perhaps have a little more optimism as we see the weather improving, the days lengthening, the garden and wildlife beginning to emerge. It is useful to remember that new beginnings can happen at any time. We just have to be open and receptive to them. One of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali that I often recall is I.14, ‘our yoga practice works best and becomes firmly established if one engages in it seriously and respectfully over a long and uninterrupted time’.2 For this to happen we have to start somewhere and therefore must begin by embracing new opportunities which help us grow.

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Sara trained with BWY and is also a member of YS. In November 2015 she was appointed to teach A+P on YS’s Foundation Courses.

Notes: 1. George Feuerstein, The Shambhala Encyclopedia Of Yoga (Shambhala Publications Inc, 1997).

2. Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence Of Yoga (Sri Satguru Publications, 1997).

Yoga Workshops with Ann Hunter Saturday 10.00 – 13.00

11 June, 17 September 2016

United Reformed Church, 69 Johnstone Drive, Rutherglen, G73 2QA

An opportunity for teachers and advanced students to deepen their knowledge and explore aspects of yoga not normally covered in weekly classes

£15 Small group so booking essential

Email ann@athunter.plus.com or 0141 6471817

Yoga SCOTLAND

Simple stretch sequence With thanks to Gill Gibbens and Sue McLennan

out

in

out

in

in

out

out

in

in

out

out

... and repeat twelve times

1. From a kneeling position, with knees and feet hip-width apart, sit on your heels.

2. Inhale and stretch up onto knees, lean back.

Zoe Knott Strength and Flexibility in Asana

3. Exhale, place head on floor about 18 inches in front of knees, place hands on floor in front of head and buttocks on heels again 4. Inhale, straighten arms so that arms and thighs are parallel, hollow back and look up. (cat posture) 5. Exhale, lift hips, and come into down-dog posture.

6. Inhale, drop body into up-dog posture, if possible only hands and feet in contact with floor.

7. Exhale back into down-dog posture 8. Inhale into cat posture as in 4.

9. Exhale, head and hands on floor, sit back on heels as in 3.

10. Inhale and stretch up as in 2.

11. Exhale and sit on heels as in 1.

th Saturday 18th18February 10am-4pm February2017 10am-4pm Saturday The Centre,Edinburgh Edinburgh TheEric EricLiddell Liddell Centre,

This workshop enjoys delving more deeply into the postures we experience in a general yoga class. Throughout the day we will consider: 1 Why we work in particular poses 2 Stages to allow all abilities to progress safely 3 How to move in and out of postures in the safest way.

We will prepare for asana with specific techniques to stretch or strengthen relevant muscles and postures will be broken down and considered stage by stage. You will all find a stage you can work with and be given a path on which you can progress forward.

The day is appropriate for teachers, student teachers and keen yoga class attendees. If anyone has a question they would like to ask before booking, do send me an email zoeknott@tiscali.co.uk.

Cost, ÂŁ50. To book, contact Linda Shand on 07803 523781 or email linda.shand@btinternet.com

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Yoga SCOTLAND

YOGA YOGA Well known benefits of yoga include:

Well known benefits of yoga include: Improved physical fitness including suppleness, strength, stamina and balance.

Emotionalfitness balance, relaxationsuppleness, and a general sense of well-being.

• Improved physical including strength, stamina and balance. balance, Enhanced relaxation concentration, awareness andsense self-understanding.

• Emotional and a general of well-being.

• Enhanced concentration, awareness and self-understanding.

GRAMPIAN YOGA ASSOCIATION’S (GYA) FORTHCOMING ͻ U UN International DaySEMINARS: of Yoga with local teacher Donna Falconer: th 'Z DW/ E zzK' ^^K / d/KE͛^ ;;'z Ϳ FFORTHCOMING SEMINARS: Sunday, 19 June 2016, Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre

UN International Day of Yoga with local teacher Donna Falconer: (food and drink not permitted at the centre but can be purchased at the café)

A A WeeFraserburgh kend of Yoga wCommunity ith Ali Freemand an: Sports Centre Sunday, 19th Juneͻ2016, st Saturday 1 October 2016, Cults Kirk Centre, 404 North Deeside Road, Aberdeen (food and drink not permitted at the centre but can be purchased at the café) (hot drinks provided, please bring a light packed lunch), and

October 2016, and Sports Centre Sunday,A2nd Weekend of Fraserburgh Yoga withCommunity Ali Freeman:

Saturday 1st October 2016, Cults Kirk Centre, 404 North Deeside Road, Aberdeen (food and drink not permitted at the centre but can be purchased at the café)

(hot drinks provided, ͻ A A Weplease ekend ofbring Yoga awilight th Bopacked b Insley: lunch), and nd Saturday, 22 October April 2017, Cults Kirk Centre, Community 404 North Deeside Road, Aberdeen Sunday, 2nd 2016, Fraserburgh and Sports Centre

(food and drink not permitted at the centre but can be purchased at the café) (hot drinks provided, please bring a light packed lunch), and

(food andA drink not permitted the centre butBob can beInsley: purchased at the café) Weekend of atYoga with

Sunday, 23rd April 2017, Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre

Saturday, 22nd April 2017, Cults Kirk Centre, 404 North Deeside Road, Aberdeen drinks provided, please bring a light packed lunch), and For(hot more information including booking/fees/times, please visit our website Sunday, 23rd April 2017,www.grampianyoga.og.uk Fraserburgh Community and Sports Centre

(food and drink not permitted at the centre but can be purchased at the café)

For more information including booking/fees/times, please visit our website

www.grampianyoga.og.uk

23

Yoga SCOTLAND

Beginnings: Teach what is inside you…

Reflections on Becoming a Yoga Teacher

by Brigid Collins As I pick up the key to the Yoga Now studio, in St. Margaret’s House, in Edinburgh, I exchange a few words with whoever is at the desk in the office on that day, often about the weather, or how they are feeling and I enjoy the sense that I get that I am in a building where creative things are happening, all around me, following a period of searching for a venue for my classes that felt ‘right’.

Stepping out of my boots and leaving them outside, I unlock the door, noticing that the room smells beautiful and that there is a sense of warmth remaining from the previous class, although it took place much earlier in the day. As I pad into the little yoga studio that has become home to my yoga classes for so many months now, I realise that this ‘arrival’ routine of mine has begun to feel familiar. First, I light a candle and drop some essential oils – a mix of rose, geranium and lavender – into the burner on the windowsill.

I then turn on the extra heaters and place a row of blue eyebags along each of them. I begin to place mats, blocks, blankets and bolsters in a little row, in front of my own mat.

I cherish this time of quiet preparation, of the space into which my students will soon begin to arrive and will practise in, but also, of myself. I have tried to be early enough to do these things with care and not to rush and to keep even a short time free, before their arrival, in which to allow myself to sit quietly and to feel ready to greet my students with an open heart. Through these actions, I am not only creating a ‘safe’ space but I am trying to learn to ‘drink as I pour’ – to take good care of myself and my needs – so that I may in turn be able to attend to and nurture those of my students.

As they begin to arrive, in ones and now sometimes twos, I ask how each of my students is doing and begin to hear about their day, their life, their various aches and pains and, increasingly for some of them, also about experiences that they have been having and things that they have been noticing in their home practice. I invite each of them to lie in constructive rest and allow themselves a short interval in which to ‘arrive’ in the space, as I have already done.

Becoming settled and, after each setting a private intention for our practice and connecting with our breath in our bodies, we sit and together we chant OM, three times.

My students know, as I have explained, that this and the chant of OM Shanti that we join together in at the beginning and at the end of the class, are a way of sealing at either end what is a precious practice that we feel grateful for having made time for in our busy lives and that, through the subtle ripples caused by the vibration of the sound that we make, however small, we can share the benefits that we have felt from our practice with the wider world.

As we gently warm up our joints and begin to more deeply align our bodies with our breath, through movement, I remind them to be curious about how they are feeling and to notice the effects of what they are experiencing through the practice of asana on their body, mind and heart. I suggest that they try to not be expectant that these effects will be the same as they were the last time that they practised or, even, as they were on either side of their body. Ever mindful of the teaching of Krisnamacharya that ‘Yoga must be made to suit the individual, not the individual to suit the yoga’, I am inspired to always offer

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modifications for anyone who may have mentioned an ‘issue’ or who has a condition about which we are aware while, at the same time, suggesting that they be curious as to how things may be different today, from how they were, yesterday and, also, as a way of encouraging students to explore ways of balancing stability and comfort (sthira and sukha) in their practice. I introduce samtosa, as contentment, or ease, firstly in the sense of maintaining a calmness of breath throughout the practice, to rest when this is lost and to balance this with the amount of effort (tapas) that they make during the practice. I remember that this niyama can also be practised by considering what they have achieved on that particular day, which I later encourage us to reflect on, as we pause, after chanting OM Shanti, at the end of class.

Following a period of moving practice, we begin to wind down and I now invite each student to begin to fully rest in the place that has been opened up inside, through their practice. We go on to spend time resting in supported versions of asana that are familiar, so that any excitement or stress that could arise from ‘newness’ may be kept at bay. As I notice that many have gained an understanding of specific ways in which to support themselves so that they may fully rest, I feel enormous gratitude for the intelligence of their bodies and for how their practice of yoga is helping my students to develop increasingly subtle awareness of their own needs.

After guiding them through a period of rest, in a version of savasana, I allow space to unfold in which I say nothing and hope that they each can just ‘be’, surrendering to the silence without discomfort. This also allows me a pause for reflection. As I observe the collective surrender, I often feel moved by the power of yoga to transform us, on so many levels and sometimes suggest, as we sit again together, our hands at our heart centre, that we each observe how the feeling tone in our hearts may have become altered – whether this be in subtle or more obvious ways – during the course of our practice together. By each bowing our heads towards our heart centre, we can internally express our gratitude for the practice of yoga and for the personal sense of intention that brought us to our practice on this particular day.

On going back out into the night, on my walk home, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my own teachers and for the lineage of teachers that has gone before us. What I have also often felt warmed by, on a cold winter’s night, is how grateful I feel for my students and what they are teaching me, and I recall a saying of Desikachar, son of Krishnamacharya, ‘A teacher can only be a good teacher as long as she is a good student. Teach what is inside you, not as it applies to yourself, but as it applies to the other.’

Brigid graduated from the YSTT course (Glasgow 2013-15) in June 2015.

Yoga SCOTLAND

!

!

INTRODUCTION : INTRODUCTION :

We have all all made made resolutions resolutionstotobring bringpositive positivechanges changes into lives, and We have into ourour lives, and tasted successon onsome someoccasions, occasions, only find progress elusive many a time. tasted success only to to find progress elusive many a time.

We want to to reduce reduce unwanted, unwanted,negative negativeemotions, emotions,and andturn turnthe thenature natureofofour our We want mind fulfilment and and calm. calm. mind towards towards fulfilment A steady with us,us, nono A steady mind mindgives givesususthat thatfulfilment, fulfilment,contentment contentmentthat thatstays stays with matter what. what. In In a a pleasant matter pleasant and andbalanced balancedmind mindlie lieall allthe thepositive positivevalues valuesand and fulfilling life-experiences we wish to nurture. fulfilling life-experiences we wish to nurture.

Yogic mindfulness is the means to embrace such a mind.

Yogic mindfulness is the means to embrace such a mind.

The methodology was developed centuries ago but it is neither arcane nor The methodology developed centuries ago but Embracing it is neithera arcane nor mystical.

Rather, itwas is logical, rational and practical. new mind mystical.

Rather, itthe is logical, rational and relating practical. a new mind involves modifying behaviour patterns to Embracing our minds, senses, involves modifying theand behaviour bodily actions, breath food. patterns relating to our minds, senses, bodily actions, breath and food.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

ABOUT THE The program willPROGRAM: provide practical and experiential training in: • MINDING YOUR BODY The program will provide practical and experiential training in: • MINDING YOUR BREATH • MINDING YOUR • MINDING YOURBODY MIND AND SENSES • MINDING YOUR BREATH • MINDING YOUR SPEECH • MINDING YOUR MIND AND SENSES • MINDING YOURSPEECH FOOD • MINDING YOUR •This MINDING YOUR FOOD six day Yogic Mindfulness program will take place as an urban retreat where participants will learn how to apply the principles in daily life.

This six day Yogic Mindfulness program will take place as an urban retreat where participants will learn how to apply the principles in daily life.

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Dates: Tuesday 7th - 12th June 2016

Dates: Tuesday 7th - 12th June 2016 Price:£580 £580including includinga avegetarian vegetarianlunch lunch each day Price: each day Venue: Venue:Bridge Bridge55Mill, Mill,22A 22ABeswick BeswickSt. St.Manchester ManchesterM4 M4 7HR 7HR Book online: http://www.entrycentral.com/MohanManchester Book online: http://www.entrycentral.com/MohanManchester louise10ner@yahoo.co.uk , markallanrussell@gmail.com , Contacts: yogaspace@hotmail.com Contacts: louise10ner@yahoo.co.uk , markallanrussell@gmail.com ,

yogaspace@hotmail.com 25

Yoga SCOTLAND

Yoga Scotland Living Yoga Course: Marjory Watt Scotland Foundation Course, and students from other Foundation Courses are also considered. The Course is aimed at those who wish to develop, deepen and advance their study of yoga and their own personal practice; those who wish to become yoga teachers but have chosen to deepen their own personal experience first; qualified teachers who wish to enhance their personal practice and self-awareness; those who are uncertain about whether they wish to become yoga teachers or about the direction their yoga journey may take.

YS: What does the course consist of?

YS: Could you tell our readers something about your background and training?

Marjory: I have been a keen practitioner of yoga for over fifty years and have been teaching for thirty-five. I qualified as a yoga teacher in 1985 with The Scottish Yoga Teachers’ Association which later became Yoga Scotland.

My lifelong passion for Yoga has been paralleled by a love of Art and the study of human nature and psychology. I gained my first degree as a Graphic Designer in 1975 and my postgraduate Diploma in Art Psychotherapy in 1997 and became a Reiki Master in 2001. I believe that these combined areas contribute hugely to my approach and style of teaching. Most of my Yoga teaching involves weekly classes, individual work, running my own workshops and running CPD master classes for a variety of organisations.

YS: What other interests do you have outside yoga?

Marjory: I enjoy creating my own art and taking part in creative events. I also love visiting art galleries and as I also have a musical background, I enjoy playing the piano and listening to live music. I love being outdoors and particularly love hillwalking and cycling. Spending time with family and friends and having a laugh is incredibly important to me.

YS: How long have you been teaching the Living Yoga Course and which other YS courses have you taught on?

Marjory: I became a tutor on Yoga Scotland’s Glasgow Foundation Course in 2007 before becoming the Living Yoga Course Tutor in 2012. Teaching on these courses has been a privilege and a wonderful experience for me. It has given me the opportunity and fulfilment of meeting and working with amazing students and witnessing their progress.

YS: Who is the Living Yoga Course aimed at?

Marjory: Essentially the Living Yoga Course is an advanced course that is designed for anyone who wishes to deepen and refine their own practice and experience of Yoga whilst extending their self-knowledge and study. The requirement for this course is that students have completed the Yoga

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Marjory: This is a 60-hour course which is spread over ten days; it gives the student the opportunity to learn through experiential practice, workshops, personal enquiry and discussion. The course has specific content and learning outcomes, but whilst being structured, it accommodates the particular needs of the group. It looks at asana practice from a much deeper level of awareness and considers all aspects of the individual asana. This leading to the very essence of the asana. Attention is paid to any difficulties that may present. In the same way deepened awareness will be brought to the breath and to each student’s breathing patterns. Once the breathing patterns have been identified and strengthened or resolved, more advanced pranayama practices are introduced. The anatomy of the pranic/subtle energetic body is studied and experienced through a variety practices.

In addition, various philosophical texts are studied and discussed, and a range of meditation practices experienced.

The students are also encouraged to establish a personal selfled practice which is developed to suit the individual student’s needs and lifestyle.

The material taught on the course is accompanied by handouts that encourage students to continue with their own enquiry between the course teaching days. The developing awareness and mindfulness inform and stabilise the advanced practice that the course entails. During the course all aspects of yoga practice are refined; as in asana

Yoga SCOTLAND

there is increased understanding of the anatomical structure, there is also an increased awareness of pranic anatomy as the pranayama practices strengthen. Students learn to sense pranic flow and use this for their ultimate wellbeing and integration.

YS: What, for you, are the main strengths of the course?

Marjory: The course helps to clarify the students’ yoga journey as they become more deeply connected with themselves. Furthermore it can help to clarify other aspects of the students’ life. This is a fairly strong feature of the course. Students are supported and encouraged throughout, this support is continuous and goes beyond the teaching days. This is outlined from the start of the course along with the reassurance that each student’s individual needs will be recognised and considered. The course allows space for whatever may unfold, including awakening spirituality.

YS: Is there anything else you would like to say about the course?

Marjory: : Students are able to explore and share ideas and if they wish, their experiences and progress; furthermore their aspirations, their joy of yoga and their specific interests. The Living Yoga course offers the potential for the students to connect more deeply with their inner strength and capacity for personal insight and perhaps most importantly, to truly live their yoga.

YS: Thank you very much.

One of the students from last year's LY course 2014 2015 said: I enjoyed M’s style of teaching. She has a very friendly, open and approachable manner. This, with her knowledge and love of yoga, created a caring, creative learning environment. From the start she made everybody feel at ease and as a result the group worked well together. The relaxed atmosphere encouraged free and open discussion in which everyone could participate. There was time to pursue individual ideas, share experiences and investigate different

approaches within the main framework. It was obvious that a lot of thought, time and effort had gone into the preparation of the classes as we received well-executed notes, diagrams and explanations in handouts. Each section of the course was well-illustrated and/or demonstrated. M. was very helpful with any additional learning requests and assured us that she was available if we needed any help. She was very encouraging and displayed a caring, nurturing attitude to the whole class. (Alwyne MacMillan) The following are comments from two of the students on this year's current course 2015 - 2016: The Living Yoga course with Marjory has been the perfect next step after the Foundation Course; I was certain that it was right for me after enjoying the taster session. Each month Marjory has led us safely on our individual journeys through breathwork, relaxation, meditation, bandhas, mudras, texts, ayurveda and anatomy (and much more), all creatively woven into asanas. We have all felt able to share our thoughts, views, experiences, questions and stories at any point in the accepting and non-judgemental space which has been formed. I’m confident that everyone on the course gets as much pleasure as I do, because we all keep saying how much we are enjoying it - in fact I wouldn’t mind repeating it, there’s so much to learn and explore.

(Hilary Morton) The next stage on my Yoga journey led me to the Living Yoga course with Marjory Watt and the experience has exceeded my expectations. Sometimes the thought of an early start on a Saturday morning is a bit of an effort, however by the end of the day I leave the class inspired, at peace and clearer in my understanding of Yoga. During the class Marjory shares her vast knowledge and experience of Yoga with clarity and honesty. Her handouts are evident of meticulous preparation and I find them supportive, relevant and colourful! Her unique, sensitive approach to her students is both inspiring and humbling. This is a wonderful course, one that I would highly recommend. (Margaret Davies)

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Beginnings: Yoga Therapy Study Trip to Chennai

by Ann Hunter On 2 January I flew from Glasgow to Dubai and then onwards to Chennai, India. This was the start of the next part of my yoga journey. I had signed up to study Yoga Therapy with Dr N. Chandrasekaran. Dr NC, as he is affectionately known, first qualified and practised as an allopathic doctor before studying with TKV Desikachar, and was head of the Therapy Department at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM) for many years before branching out on his own.

At the inaugural meeting of the course on 3 January, a prestigious student of Dr NC described him as ‘a magician’ and Dr NC indeed has an incredible ability to observe a student and pinpoint the cause of their problems. I had worked with him in the past at KYM in Chennai and at seminars in the UK, and when I heard that he was running a course in Chennai, I was determined to attend.

My three weeks this January with Dr NC was the first instalment of a three-year course. Whilst Dr NC has delivered the material many times for KYM and then by invitation in various locations around the world, this was the first time he had run an international course at his own centre in Chennai. Lots of beginnings – a new year, new experiences, new course.

My fellow students on Dr NC’s course came from various countries and traditions. Not all were yoga teachers, but all were serious students interested in healing. For some, it was their first trip to India. There was much sharing of knowledge and experience within the group, both in terms of yoga but also on how to cope with life in Chennai. Many used their skills to help their fellow students during the breaks, everything from dietary advice to places of interest to visit and acupuncture treatments.

The three weeks with Dr NC were very intense. We started at 7.00 am with an hour of āsana practice. After breakfast, we had lectures from 9.00 until 12.30. The afternoon session started at 2.30 and was more practical. We were set to work in pairs or small groups to examine each other and identify any problem areas and potential areas of weakness. The day finished with chanting of healing prayers from 5.30 to 6.30.

We were taught the principle of yoga therapy and how to examine a student from head to toe. The importance of fully understanding a student before designing a practice was emphasised. We can very easily be distracted by one problem and assume that this is the main issue we need to address.

The understanding of the student must be comprehensive – physically, mentally, emotionally. Whilst we take the student’s reasons for coming to therapy into account, we must decide on appropriate long- and short-term goals for the student, based on our knowledge and experience, and we do this by identifying the root cause of their problems.

An understanding of yogic anatomy, physiology and psychology is essential and various yogic models are used to help us determine the cause of a student’s problem. The bird model (paňca maya) from the Taittirīya Upaniṣad is very important. This model shows that we have five aspects to our

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being – body, breath/energy, mind, personality and bliss/emotions. We need to identify from which of these aspects the problem arises. A sore neck may for example be due to a physical problem, but it might also be due to an emotional one. As a therapist we must be able to identify the source of the problem to allow us to design an appropriate practice.

To examine the student, we break the body down into sections, mostly around the major joints, but we must design the practice to treat the whole person. This is where yoga therapy differs from many other therapies that treat a symptom rather than an individual. We must be clear about the effect we are trying to achieve and where we want this effect to occur.

The priorities for therapy are to first relieve any pain by designing practices to allow the student to rest the painful area and to encourage relaxation. Once the pain has been reduced, we can move on to deal with the cause of the problem by removing any blocks preventing the flow of prāṇa through the body and increasing flexibility. Once flexibility has been improved, we can work to strengthen the area.

During our examination of the student we may have identified issues that have the potential to cause problems in the future. Any practice we give must not aggravate these areas. This was a key message from Krishnamacharya and why he chose ‘Heyaṁ duḥkham anāgatam’ (Yoga Sūtras of Pataňjali 2.16) as the motto of KYM. Desikachar translates this as ‘Painful effects that are likely to occur should be anticipated and avoided’.

As we age, most of us will develop some unevenness within the body. It was identified for example that I have a mild kyphosis, scoliosis and twisting of the spine. None of these causes me problems. The practices I have been given by Dr NC to address these issues focus on backbends and twists with asymmetric arm and leg movements. There are no forward bends, since these may encourage my tendency to kyphosis.

The most important tool of yoga therapy is the breath.

From the moment we are born, we breathe. So it seems ironic that we have to study the breath. Over time we develop problems and breathe incorrectly. The best place to study the natural breath is in babies. When a child breathes, the abdomen goes out and when they exhale the abdomen goes down. During normal, unconscious breathing (tidal breathing) the volume is ~500ml and the full capacity of the lungs is ~5L. Thus in normal breathing we use only 10% of the lung capacity. Abdominal breathing is very effective in terms of the volume of breath (~75%).

This abdominal form of breathing is sufficient for almost everybody (over 95%), even for practising yoga. The highest state of āsana is as if the body is not there, which also means that the breathing is as if it is not there. The highest state of prāṇāyāma is as if the breath is not there. Even in āsana practice, breathing is 80% of our work. We should focus

more on the breath than on the āsana. In prāṇayāma you focus explicitly on the breath, but in āsana the breathing should be natural.

We were told that many of the benefits of yoga therapy result from helping the students to use their diaphragm correctly by expanding the upper abdomen on inhalation.

This helps to open the heart cakra (anāhata). Dr NC said, ‘My main job is to open anāhata. Then everything is done.’

Contraction of the lower abdomen on exhalation stimulates the apāna region and facilitates a good exhalation. This in turn improves the next inhalation. The stimulation of apāna improves the elimination of toxins, both physical and emotional. Dr NC said, ‘if we can control our breath in this way for 30 minutes per day, then all other systems in the body come into balance’. This is why a daily practice is so important.

Yoga SCOTLAND I intend to hone my observation skills over the next year in preparation for my next tranche of training in January 2017. The remainder of the course will look at specific conditions and ailments. This will involve examining the pathology of the condition and learning yoga therapy’s approach to it.

Dr N. Chandrasekaran consults and runs courses in Chennai (www.yogavaidyasala.com) KYM runs courses open to international students www.kym.org TSYP promotes the teaching of Krishnamacharya and Desikachar in the UK (www.tsyp.org) Ann teaches group classes and works with individual students.

She also runs regular workshops and helps organise TSYP events in Scotland. Her second Introductory Course to the Krishnamacharya Tradition starts in September 2016 (ann@athunter.plus.com)

Beginnings: Pay it Forward Yoga Festival

by Lorraine Close

At Edinburgh Community Yoga Outreach we believe in the power of yoga to bring communities together: our outreach work almost always partners with local organisations who support the client groups we work with.

Our relationship with COMAS, an inspiring charitable organisation that works with a range of people with social issues, began two years ago when we started working with members of their recovery café, a cafe community that exists to support those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. What began as a weekly drop-in class has developed into a regular 8-week yoga and mindfulness for addiction programme, a weekly drop-in for those interested in developing a stronger yoga class and a women’s yoga project with the COMAS group Womenzone, supporting women in recovery and affected by trauma.

We have seen the benefit that yoga can have for people in recovery. Our participants report an increased ability to selfregulate, to use their breath as a resource in times of stress or anxiety, an ability to notice physical and emotional sensations and reconnect with their physical body and an improved sense of wellbeing as well as developing a sense of support through the yoga community.

As our relationship with COMAS grew it became clear that finding funding to continue this work was our single biggest challenge: both organisations are small, not-for-profit social enterprises who depend on fundraising, donations and grant funding in order to exist, and it was from this place that Edinburgh’s first Pay it Forward Yoga Festival was born.

The thinking behind the festival was to raise money for both organisations, bring the expanding yoga community in Edinburgh together and offer people the opportunity to try out yoga. Our idea was to offer a whole weekend of back-toback yoga events at the Serenity Cafe over the weekend of 19-21 February (coinciding with world social justice day) and to offer local yoga studios the chance to run a class in support of the event. The name ‘Pay it Forward’ referenced the idea that participating in a yoga class as part of the festival would support someone else in accessing yoga/social

support through either COMAS or ECY Outreach. We tentatively set out contacting yoga teachers and studios with no idea of how people would respond; we didn’t need to worry though, as the amazing yoga community in Edinburgh were extremely keen to get involved and be part of the yoga festival.

Teachers from all over the city (and beyond) came forward to offer classes, studio space and equipment and in the end we had three venues, eighteen partner studios and stores hosting events and thirty-two yoga teachers on board.

At the café we had Forrest yoga, live cello vinyasa flow, men’s yoga, babies, kids and families, recovery classes, trauma-sensitive classes and many many more. We also had an exciting programme of talks and seminars on various yoga-related topics and a raffle with great prizes donated by local studios. It was a whirlwind weekend, after a successful opening night with a vinyasa flow class to live cello music from Helen Gillespie and Islay Robertson and a launch party with opening speeches from the organisers and Joy Charnley from Yoga Scotland. The atmosphere in the café was brilliant as many yogis and non-yogis alike turned up to take part over the weekend and having yoga teachers from all over the city in one place brought the yoga community together in exactly the way we had hoped.

The weekend was an enormous success; we sold over 200 tickets and as we wanted this to be an inclusive event, ticket prices were kept low, with a discounted option offered to members of the Serenity Café community, unwaged people and students. The total amount raised by our partner studios and the café classes was a whopping £3400 with some money still to come in! This amount was way beyond our expectations of what we would achieve from the event and we are completely overwhelmed by the response from the yoga community in Edinburgh and delighted with the results and the money raised. The funds raised will go towards developing our yoga outreach projects across the city and to supporting COMAS in their important work with disadvantaged communities in Edinburgh.

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Yoga SCOTLAND We are so incredibly grateful for the support of the entire yoga community in Edinburgh for the Pay it Forward yoga festival and it is down to the hard work and enthusiasm of the wonderful teachers and studios who were willing to get involved and support the event that it was such a success beyond what we ever expected.

To find out more about the festival go to www.payitforwardyogafestival.com and for more information on both organisations see http://edinburghcommunityyoga.co.uk/ not-for-profit/ecyo/ and http://www.comas.org.uk/ We are hoping to run this event again next year, so if you are interested in being involved in any way or have any ideas please contact Lorraine@edinburghcommunityyoga.co.uk or ruth@ comas.org.uk

Beginnings: More Beginnings on the Yoga Scotland Foundation Course

by Nikola Plunkett In Moving Inward: the Journey to Meditation Rolf Sovik likens mindfulness to watching a stream: ‘As the water wends along, one point in the stream is replaced by the next without arousing or engaging attention.’ This metaphor of a stream can be applied similarly to the whole life journey.

Each point, along with multiple tiny beginning points, form a stream. The stages themselves are invisible and while caught in the current, we often see only the continuous stream of life.

YOGA and DANCE Be Moved...

Join June Mercer (yoga teacher) and Sarena Wolfaard (5Rhythms teacher and Open Floor Apprentice) in 3 hours of embodied movement.

On 4th June 2016 in Abbotsgrange Church Hall, Grangemouth, 9.30 -12.30 To book email: june@junesyoga.com For more information on 5Rhythms and Open Floor www.movetobestill.com For more information on June’s Yoga wwwjunesyoga.com Facebook junesyoga

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Is it ever possible to identify a ‘real’ beginning point or, just as the current flows, are all beginnings just a continuation of the previous point in the stream? For me the Foundation Course has proved to be both these things.

Attending the Yoga Scotland Foundation Course after years of classes is another beginning point in the stream, with much of the course constituting new points in the stream. The course goes well beyond the content of most taught classes by examining issues that include philosophy, kriya, individual behaviour and classical texts. Asanas form a major component of the course, but are taught in considered detail, encouraging students to look again at their practice and poses. This is not a course about achieving a perfect-looking sirsasana but about deepening individual practice and reflection – which will take a different form for everyone.

The Yoga Scotland Foundation Course has reinvigorated my practice of yoga, both on and off the mat. While it has inspired a new dimension to a daily hatha practice, it has especially ingrained my understanding of yoga as a whole life practice. The examination of the underlying principles of the practice of yamas and niyamas has made these fundamental considerations more than an arcane list, but a set of practical principles to truly practise.

At the same time, the course is a continuation of the yoga practice most students began some time ago and the wider journey that they are undertaking. In this way it has felt like a seamless continuation of the points before it. At one session it was suggested that insights often resonate with us most when it appears as if we’ve heard them before – as if we are being reminded of what we already know. The course reminds us to listen to our inner guru and follow our own path. In this way the Foundation Course is a new point in the stream but one which will flow invisibly into our next beginning.

Rolf Sovik also reminds us that ‘We do not see the world as it is, but as we are.’ The stream will continue to flow. We will continue to see our experiences as both profound new points in our yoga practice and the gentle rhythm of the continuous journey.

Nikola is currently completing the 2015-16 Foundation Course in Whitburn.

Yoga SCOTLAND

Desert Island Yoga

by Bijam

My first Desert Island Yoga disc is Chant, Music for Paradise by the Cistercian monks of Stift Heligenkreuz.

Although I only discovered Yoga in my late twenties, with the wisdom of hindsight my yoga journey began at the high school I attended, run by the Sisters of Notre Dame. I always loved singing the Latin mass, and to this day can happily listen to Gregorian chanting. There was a three-day silent ‘retreat’ once a year. What I loved was the silence. I took it very seriously and was in no way tempted to giggle, chatter or even pass notes around. Possibly I was seen as a bit of a prig, but although I was as keen as any other teenager on being popular and with the in-crowd, somehow for those three days what my peers thought of me didn’t matter. I suspect that the Church would be horrified, but I can see a direct link between all this and my love now of chanting mantras and kirtans. So my first choice in music may not at first seem connected with Yoga, but I think it is.

I first visited Samye Ling, the Tibetan Monastery near Eskdalemuir, in 1970 when all that was there was the original former manse and the gardens. I was completely mystified by the silent meditation and it was agonising to sit for an hour with my mind running riot! But I loved the deep-voiced chanting, a happy reminder of that would be Tibetan Master Chants recorded by Lama Tashi.

Yoga itself first appeared in my life in the early 1970s, when I came home from work as a junior doctor to see the astonishing sight of feet waving in the air as I looked out into our garden. After our two house guests, friends we’d made at Samye Ling, came down from what they explained was headstand, they told me they were practising Yoga. I’d never heard of it, but I was hooked. For the next twelve years or so I went to a weekly class at the Iyengar Centre in Edinburgh.

So Light on Yoga became my source of knowledge during the 1970s and early 80s. But it’s not on my list for the desert island as many of the asanas are now way beyond my capacity.

I’ll take along Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha from the Bihar School of Yoga. It came into my life long before I knew about that tradition. After a 12-year gap without yoga classes, in 1995 I went with a dear friend to a Dru Yoga weekend in North Wales. My body remembered for me that I had loved yoga, and I was off on my yoga journey again. After a couple of years of Dru Yoga classes, and developing a daily practice using Light on Yoga (yes, somewhat contradictory!), sadly the teacher moved away. I found another teacher and asked her advice about a book. She recommended APMB and I rushed off to order it from a local bookshop. Exotically it was going to take six weeks as it had to come from India by sea, which deeply impressed me. How times have changed!

The choice becomes more difficult now. In 1999 I embarked on what was then the SYTA teacher training course. I accumulated all manner of yoga books, some remaining as enduring friends and others being recycled. As well as APMB I’ve always enjoyed reading and practising from Donna Farhi’s Yoga: Mind, Body, Spirit – a Return to Wholeness and have been lucky enough to attend some weekend seminars with her. So that would come with me too.

In the past I used all sorts of soothing, tinkly music to accompany my own practice and then my teaching of savasana at the end of a class. That’s now changed so I’ve recently recycled all those CDs to a charity shop. But I love kirtan and frequently play one produced at the Mandala Yoga Ashram in Wales by Swami Gyan Dharma and the ashram band. It’s called Kirtan - Love Knows the Way. My 4-yearold grandson and I chant along to it and he says he wants to help Swami Gyan Dharma make his next one. So that’s coming along, not only because I love it but also because it’ll remind me of my grandson. And maybe on my desert island I’ll learn the words of the final track, the Hanuman Chalisa, as a bonus.

I undertook Philip Xerri’s pranayama module in 2001-2 and it was revelatory, transforming my experience with the daily 45-minute practice programme. I use his course manual all the time in my teaching, but also gain understanding and practices from Pranayama and Prana Vidya by Swami Niranjanananda. So as not to cheat and try to smuggle two books in, I’ll take a CD set by Swami Pragyamurti, Introduction to Prana Vidya. This will combine a very enjoyable set of practices and hearing Swami Pragyamurti’s lovely calming voice.

Insight into Reality, a translation and commentary on the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra by Swami Nishchalananda, would certainly be on my list. I went to a course introducing some of the practices, described as 112 Dharanas, and the spaciousness of a desert island would be an ideal setting to take the practices further!

More music – this time a symphony by Gustav Mahler that would move, sometimes excite and finally console me on the island. It’s his Symphony no. 2, also known as The Resurrection. I’ve loved it (and occasionally imposed/shared it with bemused friends) for over forty years. I have a great memory from the 1980s of playing it very loudly as I was driving somewhere in the Highlands, rounding a bend in the road and a great seascape view appearing exactly as the music reached one of its climaxes. I nearly drove off the road, tears welling up.

In recent years I’ve been losing my fear (based on school memories) of poetry, and increasingly find heart-felt wonder, awe and insights into life and yoga there. The Sufi poet Hafiz, Lemn Sissay saying on the programme on his Desert Island Discs (for real!) ‘Poets are the translators of the spirit’; Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’ making the hairs stand up on the back of the neck: And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.

But the book I’ve selected to take to my desert island is Eknath Easwaran’s superb, eclectic choice of spiritual poetry, God makes the Rivers to Flow. Great for just reading and contemplating, or as a source for meditation.

Last but in no way least, a luxury – Yoga Sutras or Bhagavad Gita? Someone else please choose for me!

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Interview with Erkin Bek Yoga Scotland: Could you start by telling our readers something about your background?

YS: How did you first discover yoga and what do you remember of those early experiences?

Erkin Bek: I was born and grew up in Kyrgyzstan, a small country in Central Asia. After emigrating to the west nearly two decades ago, I have journeyed to become the current global citizen. I have lived between Central Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East with extensive travels around the world. I have built my career as a successful entrepreneur.

From a successful entrepreneur, I have matured to be a successful human being. I have moved throughout my life from external experiences to the summit of inner experience. Today at the centre of my life is the life of a meditator. I have taken interest and developed various other curiosities in arts and fitness, continuing with businesses and philanthropy, and yet in the centre of everything is my inner home of meditation.

Erkin: I have discovered yoga twice. Once in the west and the other in India. First was around external experiences and the second pouring into the inner. A number of years in the west was a very useful introduction into yoga. I was transitioning from Chinese practices into the Indian practice of yoga, it was a transition into a slower practice, into a more static practice. Even though yoga in the West was mainly a rigid exercise, it gave me a glimpse, a flavour of what yoga may be, but it did not discover the ultimate ideas of yoga deeply, until I met my Raja yoga teacher, which has opened the doors for me to the world of inner experiences.

YS: How would you describe your life before you began to practise yoga and meditation?

Erkin: I would rather emphasise that since I have ventured into yoga and meditation, I have stepped on the intensified quest for self-fulfilment and realisation. Since the beginning of my journey into meditation, the question ‘who am I’ has become the most important question of my life, which previously did not stand in the same level of intensity.

YS: What influence has yoga had on your life and work?

Erkin: It gives me a central place of balance, a platform of stability, a foundation, that no matter what may be going on in your life, in your work, you develop solid foundations to which you can always return in the various turbulences of life. It has given me an experience of freedom from all concerns. It has led me deeply into becoming a whole person through inner experiences. I have fulfilled my inner world. I have completed a journey from external fulfilment to internal fulfilment. This has made me total. This is everything.

Photos © Cylia Von Tiedemann

YS: Can you tell us about your encounter with Rajesh Singh?

Erkin: After years of visiting yoga schools in North America, while on vacation I went to a morning yoga class led by an Indian man called Rajesh Singh. As the class started, I was most surprised by how his style was completely easy-going and the most unstructured yoga practice I have ever encountered. I even asked myself at the beginning of the practice: what is this? Because he didn’t seem to be bothered about being perfectly aligned, following proper lines, he would take breaks very often during the class. It was so easygoing that you could never actually feel that you were doing physical exercise, because it was not important to keep your legs perfectly straight, to keep your feet perfectly aligned, none of that good-looking posturing was important. The practice was more about an easy-going pace, just to have a relaxing time, with a bit of stretching, even if imperfect. I said to myself: ‘This is ridiculous, this is not yoga, I have to quit this class, this is nothing like what I have known’. But I decided to give it a bit more time. I was on vacation, I had the time, so I said why not. And the more we practised during the class the more natural it felt. The more the style went deeper into my being in a very natural way that by the end of the class I felt myself true, in my natural state, without trying. By the end of the class I was very impressed with the teacher, it felt that it was a true practice.

Rajesh Singh introduced me to Raja yoga. There are several mainstream flows of yoga, of which Raja yoga is the one primarily focusing on the way of meditation as a way to experiencing one’s own fulfillment. Raja yoga is based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

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The reason it appealed to me, is because Raja yoga is the main subject of interest, it is about uncovering one’s own potential, it is a practice to discover oneself. In that, it was essentially connected with my absolute belief in oneself, that the mystery of existence, that the meaning of existence, that ultimate answers, they’re all to be found within oneself. Raja yoga is about self. If I ever had any belief it was only belief in self, in that Raja yoga and myself have met perfectly.

I found Rajesh to be an extraordinarily rare yoga teacher, as in the many years since I met him, I’ve encountered various other yoga teachers from India. None of them carried the profoundness of understanding, the ability to apply the principles and practices in real life. He also guarded me from potential dangers that this yoga could inflict, because Raja yoga and its main focus of meditation is an internal practice, and the philosophical part of it is deeply entwined with the psychology of a human being.

It is a very sophisticated and intelligent method and if it is misunderstood, if it is improperly practised, one can get carried away. So there are many pitfalls and risks that are standing there on the way of a yogi who has ventured into this ultimate stage of yoga, which is the non-physical, internal experiences.

The yoga sutras that deal with intellectual interpretation and understanding can be quite sophisticated and it is important to have a teacher that is always able to return from the most sophisticated heights to something very simple. It is incredibly significant to stay connected with the

basic foundations of the human being and not get carried away in the complex realms of human psychology.

The other yoga teachers that I have met from India, they have imagined various complex metaphysical ideas and journeys and have themselves become quite complicated, and Rajesh, unlike any other teachers from India, has always been able to come back away from complications, in the direction of letting go of these complications, no matter how profound they might be, no matter how attractive, no matter how powerful they may seem. He always let go of any special powers, of any ideas of special powers, to shrug off these complexities and to stay very uncomplicated; ‘let go of this also, let go of that also’, no matter how profound an experience of meditation may be, this is also not important, let go of that also and come to what is really your own, that it is not about the energy of this, the idea of that.

Shrugging off all the complexities and going back to the basic foundations is very important and is the extraordinary guidance of a real teacher even if it may sound simplistic; this simplicity is the most unappreciated asset.

Rajesh also recognised as a teacher that it’s possible that the student someday may excel even the teacher’s capabilities and that the teacher should not envy the student, that the teacher should let the student reach the stars, in that he was very humble and dedicated to the success of the student. Yoga, the way of yoga to him, was more significant than any ambition of his own.

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YS: What led you to write your book of poetry, All Here?

Erkin: I started by writing occasional poems, reflecting my view of the world, responding to life events or simply a spontaneous inner call to express myself. I have expressed these poems particularly after reaching my enlightenment. I knew they would be useful for the seekers of absolute contentment. This has motivated me to group these poems, these writings to make them widely accessible. Presenting a clear perspective on what is meditation, on what is enlightenment, on what is freedom – these are the virtues of happiness. It is being simply human. I am perfectly confident it contains useful tips, essential knowledge. In contrast with other books on life and meditation that are lengthy in explanations, All Here is a new way of presenting ideas in a very concise way through short poems that are more readerfriendly than lengthy elaborative text books. I invite you to explore it for yourself.

YS: How do you now see your life unfolding?

Erkin: I see it as happiness forever, all the time.

YS: This is probably a difficult question, but what is the most important thing that your practice has taught you that you’d like to pass on?

Erkin: To be yourself all the time and if you forget what it is to be yourself, ask the question ‘Who are you?’. I promise you, you are bliss itself.

yogabode newburgh north fife training days with yvonne austen April, June and August 2016

Body/mind mapping - 16th April Observation and listening skills for yoga teachers and therapists. Both in classes and specifically 1:1 we see a variety of body/mind complexes. Yoga is an individual practice and we can learn to read the maps of the bodies and minds presented in class or 1:1.

This workshop will look at the subject from several perspectives and familiarise us with how to look at and listen to and read the spaces between the words and to follow the pathways along and away from the obvious sites to the subtle, the roots of the problem.

9.30am - 4.30pm £75 including lunch

Hypermobility syndrome and yoga - 18th June Many students come to yoga class on the spectrum of hypermobility. Many others come for yoga therapy with other syndromes and conditions that are related to hypermobility.

We will look in depth at hypermobility syndromes and their associated conditions, along with understanding how to manage the condition in our classes and some of the ways we can treat these clients attending yoga therapy.

9.30am - 4.30pm £75 including lunch

Fibromyalgia syndrome and yoga - 20th August Understanding this condition and its associated symptoms is often difficult and as a result it may go undiagnosed for a long time. In this workshop we will look at the latest research and treatment of fibromyalgia and also the ways in which yoga can play a crucial role in its management. We will also look at massage techniques that may help to relieve symptoms by working away from the sites of pain, along the lines of fascia.

9.30am - 4.30pm £75 including lunch

To book for any of the above days or for further information please email: yvonne.austen@zen.co.uk

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Yoga with June Mercer

Yoga with June is a gentle practice to bring powerful changes to strengthen the body while stilling the mind. June’s yoga has been guided over the last 20 years by ‘’Scaravelli inspired’ teachers

Be Moved – a workshop of joyful free expression.....Saturday 4th June 2016 9.30am-12.30pm in Abbotsgrange Church hall in Grangemouth Join June and Sarena Wolfaard (5Rhythms teacher and Open Floor Apprentice) in 3 hours of embodied movement. We will explore how we are moved from the yoga mat up to our feet - moving inwards and outwards in the space. We will be danced, with music and without, and come to rest on our mats, with breath and awareness of how we are in the moment. Suitable for all.

Cost: £20. Contact June to book.

Yoga in Orkney • 23rd -29th July 2016 June is looking forward to teaching in Stenness again this year. Join us for a week of yoga, or a weekend or some long morning sessions. Suitable for all.... for details and to book contact June.

Yoga holiday to Kissamos in North West Crete • 14th -21st September 2016 Back to the lovely Hotel Peli for the 6th year! The venue has a swimming pool and is just across from the beach. Two guided walks included.

Details from www.westcreteholidays.com. To book tel Lynne on 01332833417 or email bookingwch@hotmail.co.uk Some photos of previous holidays on Facebook junesyoga June runs regular weekly yoga classes in Central Scotland. Details on the website www.junesyoga.com Contact June on 07835835919 or email june@junesyoga.com

Yurt YogaYurt Scotland Yoga Scotland

Yurt Yo

and Yoga and CreativitYoga y Summer CampCreativity for Kids Summer Camp for Kids Yoga and Creativit Programme of summer workshops for adults Programme of summer workshops for adulofts Earn - Perthshire Programme of sum Bridge Yurt Yoga Scotland offers a wonderful new yoga venue in the heart of rural Perthshire.

Bridge of Earn - Perthshi re Bridge of

on the edge YurtOur Yogayurt Scotlaisnd located offers a wonderful new yoga venueofin thetheheartBridge of rural of Earn, and provides an amazing, warm, Yurt Yoga Scotland offers a won exciting space where adults and children can practise yoga and relaxation.

Perthshire. Our yurt is located on the edge of the Bridge of Earn, and Perthshire. Our yurt is located We have a range of activities and workshops planned for the July and August:: provides an amazing, warm, exciting space where adults and children can provides an amazing, warm, exci Y yoga and activity camps for children practise yoga and relaxation. practise yo Y Yoga for Relieving Tension, Adam Shepherd We have a range of activities and workshops planned for the July and August:: We have a range of activities and w Y Introduction to Hatha Yoga, Cathy Swan * yoga and activity camps for children * yoga and act Y In-depth Astanga Yoga WOrkshop, Fiona Campbell

*Yoga for Relieving Tension, Adam Shepherd *Yoga for Relievin Y European Dance Workshop, Francisco Brazao *Introduction to Hatha Yoga, Cathy Swan *Introduction to Y Voice Quest - Find your voice and all it can do! - Francisco Brazao *In-depth Astanga Yoga WOrkshop, Fiona Campbell *In-depth Astanga Y For more information about any of the above courses and to book a place, please contact : *European Dance Workshop, Francisco Brazao *European Dance W Carol Dibnah, Kilgraston Farmhouse, Bridge of Earn, Perth PH2 9HE *Voice Quest - Find your voice and all it can do! - Francisco Brazao Phone: 0750 395 7706 Email: caroldibnah@gmail.com http://yurtyogascotland.weebly.com *Voice Quest - Find your voice

For more information about any of the above courses and to book a place, please contact : Carol Dibnah, Kilgraston Farmhouse, Bridge of Earn, Perth PH2 9HE

Phone: 0750 395 7706 Email: caroldibnah@gmail.com http://yurtyogascotland.weebly.com

For more information about any of the above courses and to book a plac

Phone: 0750 395 7706 Email: caroldibn 35

Yoga SCOTLAND

The Yamas and Niyamas: Medieval and Modern Views1 by Jason Birch and Jacqueline Hargreaves In the first half of this article (published in the previous issue), we presented Patañjali’s view of the Yamas and Niyamas in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (4th – 5th centuries CE). We noted the pervasiveness of asceticism in this text, which was composed for male Brahmin renunciants (sannyāsin), whose relinquishment of familial and social obligations enabled them to pursue exacting ideals, such as non-violence, celibacy and non-possession, in the strictest possible sense.

In the second half of this article, we will examine how the Yamas and Niyamas have been interpreted in texts of various medieval and modern traditions. In some cases, these behavioural guidelines were adapted for different audiences and in other cases, they were reinterpreted according to the doctrinal views of a tradition. We shall also consider why some systems of yoga, such as Śaivism’s Ṣaḍaṅgayoga and early types of Haṭhayoga, omitted the Yamas and Niyamas. Finally, we will discuss the ongoing influence of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra in medieval India and specific examples of how Ahiṃsā, Brahmacarya and Tapas have been reinterpreted.

The Changing Enumeration of Yamas and Niyamas In India’s medieval period (6th – 18th centuries CE), most systems of Aṣṭāṅgayoga contain more than the ten Yamas and Niyamas of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. Many have twenty and a few, even thirty. One standard example is the twelfth-century Śāradātilaka, an Orissan Tantra, which has a fairly eclectic chapter on yoga: The ten Yamas are non-violence, truthfulness, not stealing, celibacy, kindness (kṛpā), sincerity (ārjava), patience (kṣamā), serenity (dhṛti), moderate eating (mitāhāra) and cleanliness (śauca). The ten Niyamas, [which are] taught by those who are conversant with scripture on yoga, are asceticism, contentment, belief [in the existence of a higher world]2 (āstikya), giving [religious donations] (dāna), worship of God (devasya pūjana), listening to doctrinal teachings (siddhāntaśravaṇa), compunction (hrī), contemplation (mati), repetition of a mantra (japa) and making offerings [into a fire] (huta).3 Many, if not all, of Patañjali’s Yamas and Niyamas were retained by later traditions. However, in some cases, the notion of Yama and Niyama as multipartite auxiliaries was dropped. A good example of this is in the pre-fourteenth century Advaitavedānta text called the Aparokṣānubhūti, which teaches a system of yoga called Rājayoga with fifteen auxiliaries (aṅga). It redefines Yama and Niyama as follows: Because of the realization, ‘All is Brahma’, there is restraint of all the senses. This is called Yama and it should be practised constantly. [Following] a course of action that is the same [as Brahma] and reviling [action] which is not is Niyama. Supreme bliss is induced by the wise through Niyama.4 Other texts implicitly acknowledge the existence of other Yamas and Niyamas, but selectively teach only the one considered to be the best.

This is seen in the Netratantra’s Aṣṭāṅgayoga (750-850 CE), which is taught as one of three methods for cheating death (kālavañcana): The best Yama is constant abstention (virati) from worldly life

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(saṃsāra), and constant meditation (bhāvanā) on the highest level of reality (tattva) is [the best] Niyama.5

The Netratantra is among a minority of Śaiva Tantras that adopted the eight-fold format of Aṣṭāṅgayoga for its system of yoga. A six-fold format (ṣaḍaṅga) that omitted Yamas and Niyamas appears to have been more prevalent in tantric Śaivism. Though it is very difficult to talk generally about Tantra because of the diversity of its traditions and teachings, it would be a mistake to conclude that the omission of Yamas and Niyamas in Ṣaḍaṅgayoga points to the abandonment of moral conduct. On the contrary, many Tantras contain passages on how their initiates should conduct themselves, and when these accounts are read in conjunction with Ṣaḍaṅgayoga, there seems little need for the Yamas and Niyamas.

The Omission of Yamas and Niyamas Most early traditions of Haṭha and Rājayoga6 omitted the Yamas and Niyamas from their teachings. A striking example is the fifteenthcentury Haṭhapradīpikā, the manuscript transmission of which does not contain verses on these behavioural guidelines. Their omission begs the question of what moral code the practitioners of early Haṭha and Rājayoga were expected to follow. One possible answer is that these practitioners followed the moral code of their own religious tradition. Some of the texts indicate that Haṭha and Rājayoga were practised by a wide variety of people. For example, in its section on Haṭhayoga, the Dattātreyayogaśāstra states: Whether a Brahmin, ascetic, Buddhist, Jain, skull-bearer (kāpālika) or materialist; one who is wise, has confidence [in the teachings of Haṭha and Rajayoga] and is devoted to the practice of yoga, will always obtain success in all things.7 In such a situation, it seems plausible that Brahmins would have followed a Brahmanical code of conduct, Buddhists the Buddhist code, Jains the Jain code and so on. One might think that the skull-bearing Kāpālikas, who at night in the cremation ground worshipped a terrifying form of Śiva called Rudra, might have little to do with behavioural guidelines. They had a reputation for transgressive rites that might even include the consumption of human flesh. Few of their scriptures survive, but a commentary on the Pāśupātasūtra by Kauṇḍinya contains a rather extensive discussion on the Yamas and Niyamas of these ascetics. Kauṇḍinya lists them as follows: Non-violence, celibacy, truthfulness, not [engaging in] business and not stealing. These are known as the five Yama. Not being angry, listening to the guru, cleanliness, eating lightly and vigilance. These are known as the five Niyama.8

Generally speaking, these fearsome Śaiva ascetics followed strict interpretations of their Yamas and Niyamas. For example, the commentary says that one should only eat food prepared by others (and thus, not by oneself) so that one will not incur the sin of Ahiṃsā inherent in food preparation, such as lighting a fire that might kill minute creatures.

Seeing that Rāja and Haṭhayoga texts do not mention the need for practitioners to undergo an initiation rite (dīkṣā), it is likely that these

Yoga SCOTLAND types of yoga were practised by a variety of people who continued to follow the behavioural rules of the tradition to which they belonged.

In this sense, these types of yoga can be considered to be morally neutral because they relied upon the moral codes of other traditions.

Nearly all printed editions of the Haṭhapradīpikā have inserted verses on Yamas and Niyamas, in most cases borrowing them from Brahmānanda’s commentary, called the Jyotsnā, which was written in the nineteenth century. The original structure of the Haṭhapradīpikā’s yoga is fourfold (i.e., āsana, prāṇāyāma, mudrā and samādhi). The inclusion of the Yamas and Niyamas in its printed editions might have been an attempt by the editors to make this yoga text more complete in their view. These editors appear to have had the Aṣṭāṅgayoga format in mind, presumably because of the popularity of Patañjali’s Yogasūtras following the international success of Swami Vivekananda’s book Raja Yoga (published in 1896).

The Ongoing Influence of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra Generally speaking, throughout India’s medieval period, it seems that the Pātañjalayogaśāstra remained an important work on yoga for erudite Brahmins and philosophers. This is largely demonstrated by the medieval authors who composed commentaries on this work, most notably Śaṅkara, Vācaspatimiśra and Vijñānabhikṣu, but also the lesser-known Bhāvagaṇeśa, Bhavadevamiśra, Nārāyaṇatīrtha and so on.

All of them were learned philosophers whose often scanty biographical information reveals their affiliation with other philosophical traditions of the time, such as Advaitavedānta. In other words, these commentaries were not produced by an ongoing tradition of philosophers who identified themselves as Sāṅkhyans or yogins.

In fact, Patañjali’s influence in the medieval period is most easily discerned in Brahmanical literature. It is as though many erudite Brahmins kept the Pātañjalayogaśāstra in their manuscript collections and pulled it off the shelf, so to speak, when in need of a reference on yoga. For example, when the Kashmiri commentator Rājānaka Alaka, who probably lived sometime after the twelfth century, had to comment on the term amanaskayoga (literally, ‘the no-mind yoga’) in a chapter of a hymn to Śiva called the Haravijaya, one might have expected him to refer to another Śaiva text on this topic, such as the Amanaska. Instead, he explained it in terms of Patañjali’s highest level of Samādhi called Asaṃprajñātasamādhi: [This] state of yoga (yogadaśā) is without mind (amanaskā), [that is to say, it is a] form of Asaṃprajñātasamādhi, [which is] without the activity of mind, the nature [of which] is discursive thought.9 Rājānaka Alaka appears to have been more familiar with Patañjali’s yoga than the twelfth-century Amanaska, which taught a system of yoga called Rājayoga for the attainment of the no-mind state (amanaska). It was not until after the sixteenth century that erudite scholars began to take a serious interest in Haṭha and Rājayoga texts.

Another example of a learned Brahmin whose view of yoga was largely shaped by the Pātañjalayogaśāstra is Godāvaramiśra. He was the preceptor (rājaguru) to the sixteenth-century Orissan King named Pratāparudradeva. His compendium on yoga, called the Yogacintāmaṇi, is based primarily on selected passages from the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, the commentaries of Vācaspatimiśra and Bhojadeva and passages on yoga from other texts acceptable to orthodox Brahmins, such as the Purāṇas and Dharmaśāstras.

Ahiṃsā Yoga compendiums, such as Godāvaramiśra’s, provide striking

examples of how Ahiṃsā, Brahmacarya and Tapas were reinterpreted in the medieval period. Godāvaramiśra begins his discussion of Ahiṃsā by quoting Patañjali’s sūtra on the Yamas. Then, he cites Bhojadeva’s definition of Ahiṃsā verbatim. However, for an orthodox Brahmin who knew of vedic rituals involving animal sacrifice, this definition could not be accepted without some qualification. So, Godāvaramiśra added a phrase (in italics).

In this regard, violence is doing [something] with the intention of removing life, except in cases taught as injunctions [in the Vedas].

It is the cause of all evil. The absence of [violence] is nonviolence.10 To bolster his modified definition of Ahiṃsā, Godāvaramiśra quoted the Liṅgapurāṇa’s discussion of the Yamas. This Śaiva Purāṇa, which incorporated vedic mantras, contains an exposition of Aṣṭāṅgayoga that was strongly influenced by the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. However, in regard to Ahiṃsā, it says: Whatsoever is violence according to [Vedic] injunction, that is considered [by our tradition] to be non-violence.11 In the twentieth century, gurus have made similar qualified remarks about Ahiṃsā. For example, in a letter written by Sri Aurobindo (18721950) in which he discusses Integral Yoga, he suggests that violence may be justified depending on the circumstances: There is a truth in Ahimsa, there is a truth in destruction also. I do not teach that you should go on killing every day as a spiritual dharma. I say that destruction can be done when it is part of the divine work commanded by the Divine.12 Contemporary yoga teachers have found ways of discussing Ahiṃsā in positive terms. For example, T. K. V. Desikachar (1938) defines it as ‘kindness’ and ‘thoughtful consideration of people and things’.

Nonetheless, he qualifies it by saying: It does not necessarily mean that we must not eat meat, catch fish, go to war, etc. […] If we are vegetarians, should we allow ourselves to starve to death or should we eat what is available?

On no account should we cause injury to ourselves […] Finally, ahiṃsā is conditioned by duty. We have to do our duty. This could even mean that if our lives were threatened, it would be our duty to fight.13

Brahmacarya The passage of the Liṅgapurāṇa, which Godāvaramiśra quotes, also presents two definitions of Brahmacarya. The first is for ascetics and the second for householders: In this system, abstaining from sex mentally, verbally and physically is taught as Brahmacarya especially to celibate ascetics and forest hermits who do not have wives. Likewise, I shall teach you [Brahmacarya] for householders with wives. Having had sex with one’s wife according to the prescriptions [of the Dharmaśāstras],14 one should abstain at all other times mentally, verbally and physically.

[This] is considered [by our tradition] as Brahmacarya. A pure wife should bathe after having sex. A householder who is disciplined in this way is undoubtedly a Brahmacari.15 The Liṅgapuraṇa allows a Brahmin to live as both a householder and a yogin. On the one hand, he could practise this Purāṇa’s eightfold system of Aṣṭāṅgayoga, which was for the most part the same as

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Yoga SCOTLAND Patañjali’s Aṣṭāṅgayoga. In so doing, he abides by the Yama of Brahmacarya by abstaining from sex at those particular times of the month prescribed by the Dharmaśāstras. On the other hand, he may also fulfil his Brahmanical responsibility to reproduce by having sex with his wife at other prescribed times of the month.

Seeing that most of the gurus who transmitted yoga to the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were Brahmins, it is no surprise that the householder view of Brahmacarya has been so widely disseminated.

In his book entitled Practice of Brahmacharya (first published in 1934), Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh (1887 – 1963) defined Brahmacarya for the householder (i.e., one whose stage of life is ‘grihasthashrama’) as follows:

Brahmacharya in Grihasthashrama is absolute moderation in sexual intercourse. Householders are allowed to visit their wives once in a month at the proper time without the idea of sexual enjoyment just to get progeny to keep up the line. This is also Brahmacharya Vrata. They are also Brahmacharins.

Pattabhi Jois (1915 – 2009), who transmitted the Aṣṭāṅgavinyāsa method to the West, was familiar with medieval Brahmanical views of Brahmacarya as seen in the Liṅgapurāṇa. After defining Brahmacarya as ‘becoming one with the supreme Brahman’, he refers to past ‘scriptural experts’ in a discussion on Brahmacarya in his book Yoga Mala: 16 […] in view of the fact that scriptural experts inform us that a householder who follows the injunctions and rules can be regarded as a brahmacharin, then even a family man becomes highly eligible for the practice of yoga, due to his ability to preserve his brahmacharya. Thus, brahmacharya does not mean the holding of vitality, though there is still no room for its squandering.17

Tapas The rise of Haṭhayoga and its physical techniques at the beginning of the second millennium coincided with the reinterpretation of Patañjali’s view of asceticism (tapas) along more moderate lines. The early texts of Haṭhayoga (12th – 15th centuries CE), which were not composed by erudite Brahmins who had Patañjali’s yoga in mind, taught physical techniques likely derived from much older ascetic traditions. Therefore, it is quite ironic that the majority of early Haṭha texts rarely mention Tapas at all. This is partly because they do not adopt the format of Aṣṭāṅgayoga and the Yamas and Niyamas are altogether absent (as noted above).

Most notable among the few early Haṭha texts which do, in fact, adopt the eight-fold format are the Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā and the Yogayājñavalkya. In defining Tapas, these texts emphasise fasting and do not mention the more severe practices of asceticism, such as those included by Patañjali (e.g., enduring extremes, complete silence, etc.).

For example, the Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā says: [Yogins] say that the ultimate Tapas of all is purification of the body by means of [practices] such as [fasts called] Kṛcchra, Cāndrāyaṇa and so on, in a manner taught by [vedic] injunction.18 Such moderate views or the absence of Tapas altogether suggests that these yoga texts were written with householders in mind.

Householders might have been willing to practise Haṭhayoga’s physically demanding type of Prāṇāyāma with its internal muscular locks (bandha) and the Mudrās of inserting the tongue in the

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nasopharyngeal cavity or inverting the body. However, few householders could have maintained their domestic duties while undertaking more extreme ascetic acts such as sitting amid five fires, standing upright for twelve years, holding an arm above the head until it withers away and so on.

Moreover, Haṭhayoga emphasised the practice of specific yoga techniques that heat and purify the body and mind. Yet, none of these techniques are called Tapas in Haṭha texts. In fact, it seems that Haṭhayoga’s physical yoga techniques made the practices of Tapas, as defined in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, largely redundant. Thus, while the absence of Tapas may have appealed to householders, it would not have excluded ascetics, who could easily combine Haṭhayoga with extreme ascetic acts. Suffice to say, Haṭhayoga’s emphasis on physical yoga techniques may explain why most of its early texts are silent on the subject of Tapas or mention it only in passing.

Nonetheless, the exchange of concepts and practices between these traditions is complex and fluid. Most yoga texts composed after the fifteenth century contain definitions of Tapas. Many of these texts are more scholarly works than the early Haṭha and Rājayoga texts, and their authors favoured the Aṣṭāṅgayoga format. Many quote or implicitly acknowledge the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. In fact, generally speaking, the eight-fold system of Aṣṭāṅgayoga became the predominant paradigm for the majority of yoga texts composed after the fifteenth century and thus, definitions of Tapas reappear in discussions of the Niyamas.

Such an example is seen in the Yuktabhavadeva, which was composed by a Maithila Brahmin named Bhavadevamiśra in the early seventeenth century. After quoting Patañjali’s Sūtras on the Yamas and Niyamas, he goes on to say:

Tapas is such [practices] as [fasts called] Kṛcchra, etc. Purification of the body and senses arises because of the removal of impurities through Tapas.19 In his compilation of over one thousand seven hundred and forty-two verses, this is all Bhavadeva has to say about Tapas, with the exception of a passing comment in a later chapter; that there is no better Tapas than Prāṇāyāma.20 Other yoga texts of this period further dilute Tapas. For example, the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati defines it as simply ‘doing one’s own religious duty.’ 21 Some contemporary Brahmin gurus have interpreted Tapas in similar ways for their students. For example, BKS Iyengar domesticated the notion of Tapas for the modern practitioner:

Tapas is derived from the root ‘tap’ meaning to blaze, burn, shine, suffer pain or consume by heat. It therefore means a burning effort under all circumstances to achieve a definite goal in life […] The whole science of character building may be regarded as a practice of tapas.22 Iyengar’s view implies that building a house with a ‘burning effort’ could be regarded as an act of Tapas. Iyengar has understood that acts of traditional asceticism require enormous determination to accomplish them, and he is suggesting that one’s frame of mind is the essential ingredient here, regardless of whether one pursues the traditional forms of asceticism such as fasting.

From the ascetic guidelines of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra and the gnostic interpretations in the Aparokṣānubhūti and Netratantra to the more morally neutral position of the Haṭhapradīpikā, the historical development of yoga provides a very broad and eclectic survey of the Yamas and Niyamas. This diversity indicates that though the salient feature of yoga may be the practice (abhyāsa) of special techniques, there has been extensive discourse on how one should live one’s life

Yoga SCOTLAND in order to succeed at yoga. Reinterpretations of the Yamas and Niyamas have enabled people of diverse beliefs and lifestyles to practise them as part of AášŁáš­Ä áš…gayoga. In the twenty-first century, there is a plethora of interpretations of these rules as well as further advice on one’s lifestyle that may aid the practice of yoga.

Nonetheless, one might consider that the moral neutrality of the physical techniques of Haáš­hayoga has enabled them to cross borders with greater ease. Such a strategy may have contributed significantly to the success of early traditions of RÄ ja and Haáš­hayoga.

1 We would like to thank James Mallinson, Elizabeth de Michelis, Mark Singleton and Dagmar Wujastyk for their comments on a draft of this essay. We are grateful to the ERC projects; The Hatha Yoga Project at SOAS London University and the Ayuryog Project at Vienna University, for support during the writing of this article.

2 RÄ ghavabhaáš­áš­a’s commentary on the ĹšÄ radÄ tilaka states, ‘One who is Ä stika has the belief, “there is another world (paraloka).â€? [The term] Ä stikya [means] the existence of that belief’ (asti paraloka iti matir yasya sa Ä stikaḼ | tasya bhÄ va Ä stikyam). In other texts, Ä stikya is defined as belief in Brahmanical texts or belief in vedic religion (dharma) as opposed to non-vedic religions (adharma).

3 ĹšÄ radÄ tilika 25. 7 – 9ab (ahiᚃsÄ satyam asteyaᚃ brahmacaryaᚃ káš›pÄ rjavam | kᚣamÄ dháš›timÄŤtÄ hÄ raḼ Ĺ›aucaᚃ ceti yamÄ daĹ›a || tapaḼ santoᚣa Ä stikyaᚃ dÄ naᚃ devasya pĹŤjanam | siddhÄ ntaĹ›ravaᚇaᚃ caiva hrÄŤr matiĹ› ca japo hutam || daĹ›aite niyamÄ á¸Ľ proktÄ á¸Ľ yogaĹ›Ä straviĹ›Ä radaiḼ).

4 AparokášŁÄ nubhĹŤti 104 – 5 (sarvaᚃ brahmeti vijĂąÄ nÄ d indriyagrÄ masaᚃyamaḼ | yamo ‘yam iti saᚃprokto ‘bhyasanÄŤyo muhur muhuḼ || sajÄ tÄŤyapravÄ haĹ› ca vijÄ tÄŤyatiraskáš›tiḼ | niyamo hi parÄ nando niyamÄ t kriyate budhaiḼ).

usually prescribe that a married couple may have sex when the wife is in season (which lasts about 16 nights of the month). According to the YÄ jĂąavalkyasmáš›ti (1.79), her season begins after the fourth day of menstruation and precludes certain days such as the new and full moon days, etc. They may also have sex outside this season if the wife desires it (1.81). This harks back to a mythological story in which Indra said that any man who obstructs a woman’s desire is a sinner.

15 Liáš…gapurÄ áš‡a 1.8.16 – 19 (maithunasyÄ praváš›ttir hi manovÄ kkÄ yakarmaáš‡Ä | brahmacaryam iti proktaᚃ yatÄŤnÄ ášƒ brahmacÄ riáš‡Ä m || iha vaikhÄ nasÄ nÄ ášƒ ca vidÄ rÄ áš‡Ä ášƒ viĹ›eᚣataḼ | sadÄ rÄ áš‡Ä ášƒ gáš›hasthÄ naᚃ tathaiva ca vadÄ mi vaḼ || svadÄ re vidhivat káš›tvÄ niváš›ttiĹ› cÄ nyataḼ sadÄ | manasÄ karmaáš‡Ä vÄ cÄ brahmacaryam iti smáš›tam | medhyÄ svanÄ rÄ saᚃbhogaᚃ káš›tvÄ snÄ naᚃ samÄ caret | evaᚃ gáš›hastho yuktÄ tmÄ brahmacÄ rÄŤ na saášƒĹ›ayaḼ).

16 Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Yoga Mala with a new Foreword by R. Sharath (New York: North Point Press, 2010), p. 7.

17 Ibid p. 11.

18 VasiᚣᚭhasaᚃhitÄ 1.54 (vidhinoktena mÄ rgeᚇa káš›cchracÄ ndrÄ yaáš‡Ä dinÄ | Ĺ›arÄŤraĹ›odhanaᚃ prÄ hus tapasÄ ášƒ tapa uttamam).

19 Yuktabhavadeva 5.3 (tapaḼ káš›cchÄ di | kÄ yendriyaĹ›uddhir aĹ›uddhikᚣayÄ t tapasaḼ).

20 Yuktabhavadeva 7.6 (taduktaᚃ tapo na paraᚃ prÄ áš‡Ä yÄ mÄ t).

21 Haáš­hÄ bhyÄ sapaddhati f. 2r (svadharmÄ caraᚇaᚃ tapaḼ).

22 B.K.S Iyengar, Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika (London: Thorsons 2001), p. 18.

5 Netratantra 8.10 (saᚃsÄ rÄ d viratir nityaᚃ yamaḼ para udÄ háš›taḼ | bhÄ vanÄ ca pare tattve nityaᚃ niyama ucyate).

6 In this essay, RÄ jayoga refers to the practice of SamÄ dhi as described in the Amanaska, the Haáš­hapradÄŤpikÄ , etc. It was the goal of Haáš­ha and Layayoga. It does not refer to PataĂąjali’s yoga. On the meaning of RÄ jayoga, see Jason Birch, ‘RÄ jayoga: The Reincarnations of the King of All Yogas’, The International Journal of Hindu Studies, 17, 3: 401–444.

7 DattÄ treyayogaĹ›Ä stra 41 – 42ab (brÄ hmaᚇaḼ Ĺ›ramaᚇo vÄ pi bauddho vÄ py Ä rhato ‘thavÄ | kÄ pÄ liko vÄ cÄ rvÄ kaḼ Ĺ›raddhayÄ sahitaḼ sudhčḼ || yogÄ bhyÄ sarato nityaᚃ sarvasiddhim avÄ pnuyÄ t).

8 PaĂącÄ rthabhÄ ášŁya 1.9.38 – 39 (ahiᚃsÄ brahmacaryaᚃ ca satyÄ saᚃvyavahÄ rakau | asteyam iti paĂącaite yamÄ vai saᚃprakÄŤrtitÄ á¸Ľ || akrodho guruĹ›uĹ›rĹŤášŁÄ Ĺ›aucam Ä hÄ ralÄ ghavam | apramÄ daĹ› ca paĂącaite niyamÄ á¸Ľ saᚃprakÄŤrtitÄ á¸Ľ).

RÄ jÄ naka Alaka’s commentary on Haravijaya 6.43 (amanaskÄ vikalpÄ tmakamanovyÄ pÄ rarahitÄ asaᚃprajĂąÄ tarĹŤpÄ yogadaĹ›aiva).

9

10 YogacintÄ maᚇi f. 31r (hiᚃsÄ vidhyuktavyatiriktasthale prÄ áš‡aviyogaprayojanavyÄ pÄ ro sÄ ca sarvÄ narthahetuḼ tadabhÄ vo ‘hiᚃsÄ || sthale ] emend. sthaile Codex.). Cf. RÄ jamÄ rtaᚇá¸?a 2.30 (tatra prÄ áš‡aviyogaprayojanavyÄ pÄ ro hiᚃsÄ | sÄ ca sarvÄ narthahetuḼ | tadabhÄ vo ‘hiᚃsÄ ).

11 Liáš…gapurÄ áš‡a 1.8.20cd (vidhinÄ yÄ d᚛śč hiᚃsÄ sÄ tv ahiᚃsÄ iti smáš›tÄ ).

12 The Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobondo’s Teaching and Method of Practice (Selected Letters compiled by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram), (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1993), p. 298.

13 T.K.V. Desikachar, Religiousness in Yoga: Lectures on Theory and Practice. Ed. Mary Louise Skelton and John Ross Carter (Lanham: University Press of America), p. 108. We wish to thank Paul Harvey for this reference.

14 The DharmaĹ›Ä stras are the law books followed by orthodox Hindus. They

The theme for 2016 is INNER 92,&(¡ The theme for 2016 is œ/,67(1,1* TO THE

LISTENING TO THE INNER VOICE Our seminar year continues with two more exciting events:

Our seminar year continues with two more exciting

Saturday 17 Septemberevents: 2016 with Sue McLennan, Room G25, St.

Saturday 17 September 2016

0DUJDUHW¡V House, London Road (NEW VENUE) £20 (ELYA members), £23 non-members. BYO lunch and mug ² tea and coffee will be provided

with Sue McLennan

th November Room 19 G25, St Margaret’s (NEW Saturday 2016House with Judie and AliVENUE) Freeman (Judali Yoga),members), Room G25, St. 0DUJDUHW¡V House. £20 (ELYA £23 (non-members). £20 BYO (ELYA lunch members), non-members.

BYO lunch andprovided mug ² tea and and £23 mug – tea and coffee will be

coffee will be provided

Saturday 19 November 2016 Further details on the website: www.elya.org.uk with Jude and Al Freeman (Judai Yoga) for enquiries to reserve aHouse, place: Room G25, Stand Margaret’s

£20 (ELYA members), £23 (non-members). elyabooking@gmail.com BYO lunch and mug – tea and coffee will be provided

call ELYA Booking Secretary, Kerry on 0131 445 1355 or e-mail

Our seminars are suitable for ALL levels of experience Further details on website www.elya.org.uk Enquiries and to reserve a place call ELYA Booking Venues: WHEC is WesterKerry Hailes on Education 5 Murrayburn Drive, Secretary 0131 Centre, 445 1355 or email Edinburgh, EH14 2SU elyabooking@gmail.com 5RRP * 6W 0DUJDUHW¡V +RXVH /RQGRQ 5RDG (GLQEXUJK (+ $(

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Venues: WHEC is Wester Hailes Education Centre, 5 Murrayburn Drive, Edinburgh EH1 2SU Room G25, St Margaret’s House, 151 London Road, Edinburgh EH7 6AE (near Meadowbank Stadium)

39

Yoga SCOTLAND

Reviews Mark Singleton, Yoga for You and Your Child -The Step-by-Step Guide to Enjoying Yoga with Children of all Ages (London: Watkins 2016; first published 2004).

This is a well laid-out book and a great resource for parents and Yoga teachers alike. In fact it’s an ideal source of information for anybody interested in sharing Yoga practice or establishing a Yoga practice with a child.

The introduction tells you clearly how to use the book.

Chapter 1 gives you an overview of Yoga: • The benefits and tradition of Yoga.

• It provides some information about Patajali’s ‘Eight limbs’ and how to incorporate them into children’s practice to establish a practice for life.

• It contains information about the benefits of a Yoga practice when working with behavioural disorders.

• It explains how to build confidence and improve focus.

• This chapter also contains sensible advice on how to build a regular practice with your child and how important it is for you to have your own practice or your own teacher.

Chapters 2 to 5 are about the asanas: • They cover information from warm-up to games and journeys.

• They are full of fantastic pictures and names that children and adults can relate to. This is great visual imagery that you can share with your child.

Chapter 6 is all about Yoga breath: • It explains how the breath works.

• It provides information about meditation ideas and relaxation.

• This is a chapter full of ideas that you can develop yourself.

Chapter 7 contains information about sequences: • It provides wonderful ideas about how to put a Yoga story together with asanas to keep children engaged.

Chapter 8 provides ideas for practising Yoga in school: • It contains good common-sense advice on how to introduce yoga practice into schools.

• It provides information about the benefits Yoga can have on concentration, studying and exams.

‘A fully rounded Yoga practice that includes postures (chapters 2 to 5 and 7) breathing and meditation (chapters 6 and 8) that can create balanced and creative children.’

This book is a great place to start if you are interested in practising Yoga with your child or children.

Sandra Cook I am glad I was asked to review Mark Singleton’s Yoga for You and Your Child, as otherwise I probably wouldn’t have read it, and would have missed out as a result. So why wouldn’t I have bought it, if I’d picked it up to flick through in a bookshop?

Most superficially, it’s an example of current layout fashions in non-fiction which I’m not keen on – lots of empty space, decorative wide margins, full-page glossy photos, and text in teeny tiny font. As the title makes clear, it’s a book for people who want to do yoga with their own children and Singleton says it’s intended for those with children aged 3-14.

After reading but not having ‘trialled’ it, I reckon it would work best with 5 to 11-year-olds. Either way, it’s not an

40

obvious choice for those of us who don’t have young children, or are already yoga teachers and looking for advice on planning and delivering children’s classes.

Finally, my initial skim through the book revealed several strong statements with no evidence provided to back them up. Of course, that’s not unusual in yoga books, but I was surprised to find it from this author, given that his book Yoga Body: the Origins of Modern Posture Practice is all about the evidence. When I first opened my review copy and read that yoga works ‘on every aspect of our life: social, behavioural, ethical, moral, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual – areas of life that are often ignored by conventional education’ (p. 18), I felt quite put off. In my twenty years’ experience of dozens of schools, I’ve never found those areas of life ignored. On the contrary, they are at the heart of daily life in primary schools I’ve worked in. Maybe we are lucky in Scotland!

Singleton also makes health claims throughout: for example he writes that alternate nostril breathing is ‘extremely beneficial in the treatment of children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)’ (pp. 105-6). Given his credentials, I don’t doubt he has evidence for this, but I would have liked to see it included. Obviously, it’s not an academic text, so shouldn’t be stuffed with citations and footnotes – but it would be appropriate and worthwhile to include the research evidence in the ‘further reading’ section at the back of the book.

So, why am I nevertheless glad I do have this book?

While I felt full-page photos weren’t needed, the photographs in general show asanas clearly and are both joyful and encouragingly ‘real’ – I don’t think they’d seem unattainable to those new to yoga (for example noone is lying face-down on their shins in paschimottanasana!).

The book is clearly written, doesn’t assume any prior knowledge, and encourages both parents and children to attend classes as well as doing yoga at home. It contains lots of good advice on how to make yoga a fun, safe and positive experience for younger children. In her introduction, Tara Fraser describes Mark Singleton’s teaching style as goodhumoured, playful and gentle, and I think this comes across throughout. There are super interpretations and variations of asana, including games, imagery and verbal cues which I’m sure children will love. Some of these were new to me, and reading the book has made me keen to try them out.

I will certainly draw on this book and I would also recommend it to parents looking for a resource to help them do yoga with their child – but with the caveat that if any of the health claims are relevant to their circumstances, they should check what evidence exists currently to substantiate these.

Catherine McCabe

Swami Saradananda, Mudras for Modern Life: Boost your Health, Re-Energize your Life, Enhance Your Yoga and Deepen Your Meditation (Watkins Publishing, 2014) This is a lovely book. It is clearly written, informative and beautifully illustrated.

The initial chapter gives an overall view of prana, and the important role of mudras in subtle energy flow. This is followed by a chapter detailing massage techniques and

Yoga SCOTLAND

Reviews exercises to increase flexibility and awareness in the hands, arms, shoulders and wrists. The main body of the book describes and classifies the mudras as they connect into the individual fingers and link to the five elements. This is followed by a section on mudras for the mind.

This is not just another book on the mudras. It has the largest range of mudras I have ever come across. There is a huge range and depth of information presented in an easily accessible and practical way. Each mudra is described in detail with guidance on how it can be incorporated into a yoga practice, or daily life and I would highly recommend this book for all levels of yoga practitioners.

Cathy Swan

John Stirk, The Original Body. Primal Movement for Yoga Teachers (Handspring Publishing) In this book John Stirk gives us a deep understanding of the factors that help us to move in the body. He provides throughout an exceptionally clear and detailed explanation of how habitual patterns of tension manifest in the body, which then become normal sensation to us. He suggests that these unrecognised holding patterns drain the body of energy and that working with a well-aligned body frees up the energy for release. Stirk takes us on a journey looking at movement from different perspectives; how the spine, the spinal tissues and soft tissues throughout the body are sensory and have the ability to feed back to us if we listen. Stirk guides us to tune into this deeper connection within ourselves and to pay attention to places we might not normally consider worthy of our attention.

In chapter 11, Stirk studies our relationship with our skeleton and he explains how bones can be felt within the body, for example, how tucking under the tailbone creates tensional patterns around the pelvis and how the sphenoid bone in the skull plays such an important part in the ease of head movement, to mention just a few. He looks at the importance of the feet arches and how they relate to the spinal curves and diaphragms, a relationship you might not have considered before, therefore demonstrating how everything is so interconnected.

In chapter 15, Stirk focuses in detail on the spine, beginning with awareness of where the weak spots are within its structure, the importance of not only releasing the larger muscle groups around the spine but also the smaller groups, so as to be able to feel and sense much more deeply.

He explains how our mind and nervous system must quieten to be able to connect to this sensory awareness at such a deep level.

This is not your usual yoga book, it doesn't take you through any of the postures we as teachers are so familiar with. Instead, it takes us on a journey through the subtleties of sensation, connection and interconnectedness of movement we make in life and in yoga, and it is accessible to any movement teacher. This book reminds us to go back to having a beginner’s mind so we can let go of what we think movement should be and start all over again with the smallest and slowest of movements, including deep inquiry skills. Stirk's knowledge and guidance make you really realise how disconnected we are in everyday existence to the subtleties of movement, but he shows us how we can begin to re-tune back into ourselves with time, deep work and patience. This book invites you to explore your own muscles, tissues and bones, developing insight through deep personal inquiry.

Tina Gilbert

Christine Toomey, The Saffron Road.

A Journey with B u d d h a ’s Daughters ( L o n d o n : Portobello Books, 2015) After a period of personal loss, and following more than twenty years as a f o r e i g n correspondent, including time in war zones, Christine Toomey embarked on an odyssey to visit and hear the stories of Buddhist nuns around the world. This book recounts their moving tales and the challenges they still face.

From the Kung Fu nuns of Nepal, Tibetan refugees in India, Zen and Theravada nuns in Burma and the USA, to women closer to home, in Plum Village (Thich Nhat Hanh’s community in France), and Samye Ling, we encounter remarkable characters. These include Dhamchoe, a Dharamsala waitress who feels unable to don her nun’s robes as she struggles to forgive her former torturers, and Tenzin Palmo, an East London woman who, following a 12-year retreat in a cave in the Himalayas, founded a nunnery in India.

A review on the back of the book describes it as ‘malaprayer beads as stories’, and indeed, to cover such a vast topic in one volume, the stories have to be compact. But each gives a glimpse into the richness of the inner world of these devoted and courageous women, and each has its place in the personal journey of the author. An inspiring book.

Lucy West

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Yoga SCOTLAND

The Yogic Cook

Bring to boil again and simmer for a few minutes until peas are tender.

Green Soup

Cool a little then blend soup.

If you want to add cream, add ¼ pt of double cream.

4 oz potato, peeled and roughly chopped 3oz onion, peeled and roughly chopped 2 pints of stock ¾ inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled ½ tsp ground coriander 2 tsps ground cumin ½ fresh green chilli or some dried chilli flakes Add all above to a pan, bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

Take ginger out. Either discard, or if you want to add some more juice from the ginger, use a garlic press to squeeze it out, then discard.

Then add: 5 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander 10 oz fresh or frozen peas a little salt ½ - 1 tablespoon lemon juice ½ tsp ground roasted cumin seeds (best if ground just before being added)

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Thank you to Sue McLennan for passing on this recipe.

Yoga SCOTLAND

Yoga as Therapy

Two separate but linked days for students, teachers and serious practitioners of yoga with Fiona Ashdown Polmont

Saturday 29 October 2016 Sacroiliac Problems with a focus on yoga for women

Sunday 30 October 2016 Arthritis – Osteo and Rheumatoid 10.00 – 17.00

Each day will be a mix of theory and practice Fiona Ashdown is a yoga therapist and has studied extensively with TKV Desikachar, including a four-year Yoga Therapy course. This involved month long internships at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai observing 1-1 lessons. The lectures and practices this weekend will be based on her studies there.

Venue: Greenpark Community Centre, Polmont FK2 0PZ

Cost: £40 one day, £70 both days (£5 reduction for TSYP members) Information & booking form Ann Hunter 54 Underwood Road, Burnside, Glasgow G73 3TF Tel 0141 647 1817 email ann@athunter.plus.com

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Roots2yoga Workshop Feldenkrais/Yoga Link with Daniel Gelblum

Roots2yoga aims to bring you closer to Patanjali’s original description of Yoga: “postures should be steady and comfortable, easeful and joyful, but also relaxed without dullness and alert without tension at the same time”. The aim of this workshop is to give you an increased sense of bodily optimism in your yoga practice and in your everyday life.

The Feldenkrais method, named after its originator Dr Moshe Feldenkrais, is a scientific method of learning movement. Dr Moshe developed over a thousand lessons with at least twelve movements in each sequence, mapping out all areas of voluntary movement.

Daniel Gelblum has created a unique style of exercise that enhances wellbeing, general health, fitness, self-awareness and deep relaxation. As a highly skilled Feldenkrais practitioner, Daniel uses his method in combination with his experience of Yoga, Massage, Pilates and Martial Arts to deliver unique workshops. He focuses on fine movements aiming to aid progress in flexibility and strength and is very much looking forward to sharing some incredible sequences that have a huge impact on how we practice yoga.

Saturday and Sunday 5th and 6th November: 10am-4pm Gillis Centre, 100 Strathearn Road, Edinburgh EH9 1BB www.gilliscentre.org.uk Cost: £60 one day, £110 both days To book or for more information, contact Linda Shand on 0780 352 3781 or email linda.shand@btinternet.com.

IYN registered 18 month diploma course in yoga therapy Sep 2016 ʹ March 2018 Galashiels, Scottish Borders Open Morning Saturday 28th May 10.30am-1pm Jean Muir Student Village Heriot Watt Campus, Galashiels TD1 3JZ For more info: www.scottishschoolofyogatherapy.co.uk info.ssyt@gmail.com suemclennan@gmail.com

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Yoga Scotland Continuous Personal Development Record Form 2015-16 Complete and Return by 31st July 2016 Use this form to record the events you attend that can count as Continuous Personal Development (CPD).

You may be asked by Yoga Scotland at any time to produce this form as evidence that you have completed 15 points of CPD in any membership year. Failure to record or accrue the required CPD may lead to your teaching status being withdrawn. Guidelines on what can count as CPD and categories for exemption are available on the website or on request. If you have attended the YS OGT days these points will be added to your profile.

Name:

Total CPD points accrued for 2015-2016: YS OGT points: Non-OGT day seminar or training (1 point per hour): Date

Tutor

Venue

Topic

YS Membership Number:

Points Tutor’s signature

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Yoga SCOTLAND

Yoga Scotland Continuous Personal Development Directed Private Study Record Sheet Name: YS Membership Number: Year:

Use this form to record 7.5 hours of Directed Private Study, which will earn you 5 CPD points. This is the maximum number of CPD points you can accrue from self study in a calendar year. This form should be attached to the CPD Record Sheet as evidence of compliance with Yoga Scotland’s On-Going Training requirements. Complete the first TWO sections before you begin your self study.

What is it that you propose to study?

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What resources, such as books, will you be using?

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Reflective Practice. Use the space below to reflect on how helpful the self study exercise was and the ways in which it has or hasn’t helped your teaching.

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………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………..Continue on another sheet if required.

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Empowering the Individual in Group Practice KRIDAKA YOGA INVITES YOU TO STUDY WITH LESLIE KAMINOFF

Sept. 10-11 SATURDAY

a weekend of inquiry, asana, lecture and demonstration

£200.00 until May 27 £230.00 after

RE-IMAGINING ASANA CUEING: Postures Don't Have Alignment, People Have Alignment In this highly interactive lab environment, we will explore creative approaches to individualizing asana and vinyasa practice in group settings, and dive deeply into some of the most fundamental questions underpinning yoga practice: • What is alignment?

• What is healthy movement?

• How can standard cueing unique individuals?

• How can a single teacher insure the safety of many students?

Starting with clear, simple principles that govern musculoskeletal function, Leslie will facilitate an inquiry that can put your yoga on a solid foundation – literally from the ground up (and from your head down).

SUNDAY HANDS-ON ASSISTING LAB: Preventing and Healing Injuries Through Yoga Education Injuries occur when we provoke too much movement from too few places.

This day-long intensive is essentially a crash-course in the fundamentals of therapeutic yoga education. Leslie will lead partnered teaching and hands-on exchanges, group practice sessions and engaged discussions. Topics to be covered include: • Essential anatomy of the diaphragm and related core body structures • Integrating spinal mechanics with breath mechanics • Client-centered breathing exercises and use of guided imagery • Individual strategies for specific issues Ample time will be devoted to working directly with the individual concerns of participants so bring your favorite (or least favorite!) asana and your questions.

www.entrycentral.com/kaminoff2016 Pearce Institute, 840-860 Govan Rd, Glasgow, G51 3UU