Embrace Life!

Hi there beautiful slow yogis (anyone who practices yoga is called a yogi)! 

I hope you are enjoying my website and trying out some of my suggestions as well as developing a slow yoga home practice. I teach in Bend, Oregon and the Philippines so if you are interested in taking a class with me you can contact me at my contact information just below my photograph and bio. 

Play with the postures, experiment, and make sure you are having fun with them. Yoga literally means to join, to embrace. Yoga, particularly slow yoga, was created to help people embrace life more fully. 

The story is told of a teacher who ran a school in Ancient India wherein students copied the old classics. A new student who later went on to be one of the great yogis pointed out to the teacher that the students were using copies to copy the text from. Shouldn't they be using the originals? The teacher gave some thought to this and decided that the young man was right. The teacher then proceeded into the basement of the temple where the originals were stored. An hour went by, two hours, three hours and so on. The students started getting restless. Had something happened to the teacher? He was a very old man after all. 

The young student was sent to look for the teacher. In the basement the student saw the teacher sitting on the floor weeping. The student was surprised by this. He had never before seen his teacher weep. He proceeded cautiously towards the teacher. The teacher, who could instinctively feel the young man's presence said, “There is a word we've been copying for decades which I now realize is wrong, an error. We've been writing CELIBATE when it says right here in the original CELEBRATE.” 

Peace and Love,

Slowly,

Abhay

No on Prop 8

William came out in my class today. He was sharing his journal with the class. His eyes were in blood red tears as he shared his entry from the day of the elections. I am gay, he said. I admit it. I am gay, and I am still devastated. Those of you who are minorities should have voted no. Not so long ago you were in the same position that I am in. Denied your rights. You should have voted no.

I gave him a big hug, enveloping him in my arms. There is work to be done. As radical yogis we can not follow the ancient books, the ancient ways. Those contain so many injustices, so many misguided attempts at controlling people. The ancient yogic texts are full of stupid proclamations about women for instance. The sex-manuals ban homosexual intercourse. We must leave the books and the traditions behind. Leave to gurus behind. And embark on the path to self-discovery. That is the only way. That is my promise to William.

Love

What exactly is love? Is it a feeling or state of being? Some mystical thinkers have described the development of the human being in terms of the development of love. When you can love everything, right and wrong, good and evil, you have reached nirvana, the state of oneness with all-that-is.

Yoga teaches us a different kind of love. A love of every aspect of our bodies. Consider the wonder that is your body that allows you to experience the beauty of each passing breath, the gentle breeze, the magic of a moonlit night. Why not take the time to appreciate each part of your body, to call each part beautiful: toes, ankles, calves, shins, knees, thighs, buttocks, anus, vagina, penis, belly, internal organs, chest, breasts, back, shoulders, upper arms, fore arms, elbows, wrists, palms, fingers, neck, face, scalp.

Our yoga practice is a love-fest of sorts. The point, according to the ancients, is not to exercise each part, but rather to pay homage to each and every part of your body.

Peace and Love,

Abhay