Living Yoga is a feature about the life and teachings of Swami Satchidananda. A couple of trailers are on YouTube or on the website. Swami Satchidananda was a major influence on the US scene when he arrived the 1966 and began re-introducing yoga and Tantric knowledge to a new audience seeking to break out of consumerism. Here in the Washington, DC, Yogaville is a monument to his legacy.
The feature will be shown at St. Mark's Yoga on Capital Hill on May 15 and the Smith Farm Healing and Arts Center on May 30. Check out the Living Yoga blog for exact times, dates and locations. I just chanced across the information about DC-area showings.
Labels: dc_yoga, philosophy, videos
BandhaYoga has brought out a second volume of its eye-popping Scientific Keys series on yoga anatomy, this one entitled The Key Poses of Yoga: Your Guide to Functional Anatomy in Yoga. As with the first book (The Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga), the unique perspective on the details of muscles and bones is an imaginative tool for developing a better understanding of what goes on when practicing yoga. The full color illustrations are very useful for teachers and students alike. You can also purchase both books and save $7.00 over the list price ($97). These are not inexpensive books, but given the printing and paper costs, the price is worth it.
As you will see on this site, I am a member of www.BandhaYoga.com's affiliate program, in which I get a small percentage from book or poster sales resulting from visitors to this site clicking on the ads and then purchasing a book. Let me tell you, it's more an endorsement on my part than a revenue source.
Labels: reading, yoga_resource
I bought a wrist mala from YogaBasics Japa Mala Beads. Twenty-seven beads on an elastic cord. I see the mala beads as a constant reminder that I can take my practice with me through out the day. The slight pressure on my wrist or the beads between my fingers and thumb can be evocative of the healing and strength that I develop on the mat, just as I often feel the same reaction to certain songs or kirtans that often serve as the background music to my practice.
My daughter gave me a full mala for Christmas, two years ago, which I keep hanging near my monitor at home. It's a bit bulky to carry around and I can't put it around my neck while at work. The wrist mala is more inconspicuous and more meaningful to me than wearing one of those colored plastic wristbands that symbolize various causes, like yellow for Lance Armstrong's campaign for cancer research.
YogaBasics Japa Mala Beads has a wide selection of full and wrist malas, as well as bags and boxes to store them. Diverse materials range from gemstones to hand-carved bone to wood.
Labels: hardware, life style, meditation
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will be back in Washington, DC to lead a yoga, meditation and pranayama workshop on May 9-11 (Friday and Saturday, 6-8 pm; Sunday, 8-10 am). It will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, VA and cost $200 (students and seniors: $100). No prior knowledge of the Art of Living courses is needed. This is a rare opportunity to receive insight directly from a major spiritual leader.
For those who are already introduced to the Art of Living program, you can take an advanced course with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, May 8-12, 6:30 am - 9:30 pm. This will include the celebration of Sri Sri's birthday. This 4-day course will also take place at the Hyatt Regency and there may be some overlap between the advanced course and the workshop open to the public. This course costs between $510 and $660 (see the conditions on the registration site).
Labels: art_of_living, dc_yoga
My friend and infrequent yoga teacher, Rachel Permuth-Levine, is one of the organizers behind 2008 NIH Yoga Week: Exploring the Science and Practice of Yoga. NIH is the National Institutes of Health, for those not up on Washington acronyms. From May 19 to May 23, there will be guest speakers, reports on NIH's own research on yoga and meditation and yoga practice on the NIH campus lawn (weather permitting). Most events are to take place from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm so I will probably not be able to attend.
Among the speakers are Timothy McCall, M.D., Medical Editor of Yoga Journal Magazine and author of Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing
Thrive Yoga will be holding an event outside the NIH daytime schedule. Sat Bir S. Khalsa, will speak on " Yoga and Meditation in the Management of Stress" on Thursday, May 22, 6:00 - 8:00 pm. There is limited space so you will have to register Sign up online..
Labels: brain_science, dc_yoga, meditation, therapy
The Dhamma Brothers: East Meets West in the Deep South is a documentary about a vipassana retreat in the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama and the before and after effects of the experience on the prison population, their keepers and the surrounding community, deep in the Bible-Belt South. There was a write-up about in in the New York Times last September.
I've just seen the promo site and a few of the trailers so I cannot vouch for the finished product, but it is intriguing. The film is making its way through the indie film festivals and art film theaters and may eventually make it to a TV screen near you.
This is not the only experience of meditation and yoga reaching into prison walls to relieve human suffering and restore human dignity. Windmill Buddhist Meditation has a section on it, as does S. N. Goenka's website. Here is a link to an academic article . For more links, just follow this Google search.
