Ashtanga Yoga Shala NYC

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	Ashtanga Yoga Shala is dedicated to the teachings of yoga master Sri K Pattabhi Jois 1915-2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Mind Medicine

Moondays - no classes

Sunday May 6

Sunday May 20

Workshops

Tel Aviv, Israel - June 23-27
at Ashtanga Yoga israel
Primary Series Adjustment Workshop

Sitges, Spain - July 8-13
at Ashtanga Yoga Sitges
Primary Series Adjustment Workshop

Crete, Greece - July 22-28
Mind Medicine

NYC Adjustment Workshops
Primary Series Adjustments - August 26 - 30
Primary Series Refining Adjustment Technique - Sept 1
Intermediate Series Adjustments - Sept 2
Details

Albuquerque, NM - Oct 19-21
at Albuquerque Ashtanga Yoga Shala

Austin, TX - Nov 30 - Dec 2
at Castle Hill Yoga

GURUJI: A Portrait of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of His Students
Guy Donahaye and Eddie Stern

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009) was a rare and remarkable soul who became legendary during the course of his life by virtue of great service to others. Known affectionately as Guruji, Jois founded and ran a yoga school in Mysore, India for more than sixty years...

Guruji paints a unique portrait of a unique man, revealed through the accounts of his students. Among the thirty men and women interviewed here are Indian students from Jois’s early teaching days; intrepid Americans and Europeans who traveled to Mysore to learn yoga in the 1970s; and important family members who studied as well as lived with Jois and continue to practice and teach abroad or run the Ashtanga Yoga Institute today.

Anyone interested in the living tradition of yoga will find Guruji richly rewarding in its authenticity, in its indelible portrait of a great teacher, and in the depth of the wisdom it conveys."

Yoga/Spirituality - 16 Pages of Black-and-White Illustrations - July 2010 - 6 x 9 - 496 pages - ISBN: 978-0-86547-749-0
- $40.00 - North Point Press

Contributors: Norman Allen - N. V. Anantha Ramaiah - S. L. Bhyrappa - Mark and Joanne Darby - Brigitte Deroses - Joseph Dunham - Heather Proud - Nick Evans - Richard Freeman - Nancy Gilgoff - Peter Greve - Ricky Heiman - Manju Jois - Dena Kingsberg - Krishnamurthi - Sharmila Mahesh - Lino Miele - Chuck Miller - Tim Miller - Rolf Naujokat - Graeme Northfield - Annie Pace - Brad Ramsey - Peter Sanson - Saraswathi Rangaswamy - John Scott - R. Sharath - David Swenson - David Williams - Tomas Zorzo

Copies available in major bookstores and through amazon.com
For wholesale copies contact Twanna McLennon at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5438

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Guruji talks about shadanga yoga (six fold yoga) in Lakshmi Puram, Mysore.
View video

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Aparokshanbhuti of Sri Shankaracharya - extracts

"Now, for the attainment of the aforesaid (knowledge), I shall expound the fifteen steps by the help of which one should practice profound meditation at all times....

The restraint of all the senses by means of such knowledge as “All this is Brahman” is rightly called Yama, which should be practiced again and again...

The continuous flow of only one kind of thought to the exclusion of all other thoughts, is called Niyama, which is verily the supreme bliss and is regularly practiced by the wise...

The restraint of all modifications of the mind by regarding all mental states like the Chitta as Brahman alone, is called Pranayama....

The absorption of the mind in the Supreme Consciousness by realizing Atman in all objects is known as Pratyahara (withdrawal of the mind) which should be practiced by the seekers after liberation...

The complete forgetfulness of all thought by first making it changeless and then identifying it with Brahman is called Samadhi known also as knowledge..." read more

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Interview with Saraswathi Rangaswami - daughter of Sri K Pattabhi Jois link to interview

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Sadly, the wonderful Namarupa Magazine will no longer be available in print. But the good news is that it is now available in digital PDF format:

NEW DIGITAL FORMAT
Subscribe or Renew

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Interview with Sharath Rangaswami - assistant director Sri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (formerly known as Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute) - link to interview

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View demonstration of Advanced Ashtanga Yoga asanas given by Sharath Rangasawami in New York City in 2001.

The following talk was given by Sri K Pattabhi Jois at the same event.

"Ashtanga Yoga method is universal, it is not mine or yours. That method is perfect, it is complete. Ashtanga Yoga is yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi - these are the eight steps which make up Ashtanga Yoga method. But first you take asana: "āsanaṃ prāṇasaṃrodhaś pratyāhāraś ca dhāraṇām, dhyānaṃ samādhir etāni ṣaḍaṅgāni prakirtita" (śandilya) upanisads are telling: first you start asana, asanas are your foundation.

But when you practice asanas you also have to follow breathing system (vinyasa) and drishti. "Tristhānam avalokayet" - using these three it is possible to control your mind. If you exclude any one of these three, if you do asanas only for exercise, it is not possible to control your mind.

"yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ" - that means yoga is mind control. But if you want to get mind control you have to apply these three methods: breathing system, looking place and posture. If you follow these, your body, sense organs and nervous system will all be working well. afterwards your health will continue to improve and no diseases will come.

There are many asanas - 72,000 asanas. These asanas are curing many different diseases. But first you start with Suryanamaskar. Suryanamaskar is a prayer to the sun. The sun is giving good health and Suryanamaskar is curing many diseases including heart disease. Afterwards many asanas are there - these cure many other diseases including what are usually thought of as incurable - such as diabetes and so on.

sri k pattabhi jois

This yoga is not for exercise. Yoga is showing where to look for the soul - that is all. Man is taking a human body - this is a very rare opportunity. Don't waste it. We are given 100 years to live, one day you have the possibility to see god. If you think in this way it is giving you good body, good nature and health."

- Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Puck Building, NYC 2001.

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"All our perception pertains to the non-Self.
But the immutable Seer is indeed the Self.
All the countless scriptures proclaim only discrimination between Self and non-Self." - Sri Shankaracharya - Drk Drishya Viveka

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Ayurveda and Food by Dr. Robert Svoboda

A fleeting glimpse of Ayurveda: The Science of Life and Health
Although meat is mandated in Ayurveda for debilitated patients, for warriors (Kshatriyas) and for those who overexert themselves, it is very heavy for digestion, putrefies faster than other foods and produces Ama (internal toxins) quickly.

Unless you exercise strenuously, regular meat eating will increase fat rather than flesh. It promotes speed rather than endurance, which is not good for Vata-affected individuals. Meat overheats the mind and warms the body, but even in cold climates, it should not be used to excess. Today's meat is also of poor quality, full of antibiotics and other drugs, taken from feedlot animals who never exercise so that all their Ama remains in their tissues. read more

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Interview with Tim Miller
Tim was the first Westerner to be certified by Sri K Pattabhi Jois to teach Ashtanga Yoga.

I conducted two interviews with Tim, the first in Mysore in 1999 and the second in Encinitas CA in 2000. Here are some excerpts:

read more

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Manju Jois Interview New York 2001 read more

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Extract from an interview with TKV Deskichar: My Father's Yoga:

"As for Yamas and Niyamas, he (Krishnamacharya) thinks that, except for two of them, today they are no longer of any value. The first one is called satya niyama (knowing what to say, what not to say, to whom, how to write and how not to write). This is satya niyama, the correct use of words. The other Niyama that one must respect is the ahara niyama - what to eat, in what quantity, depending on age, profession etc.

... Then he has his opinions about dhyana. since the dhyana is one characteristic state of the mind, and since the mind is limited in its form and cannot grasp what is beyond form, the desha, or object of meditation, must be saguna and not nirguna. Ordinary human beings need certain forms, certain visualizations for the dhyana and therefore, any dhyana that is nirguna is only vikalpa."

full interview PDF

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Ramana Maharshi - his introduction to Sankaracharya's Drk Drishya Viveka

"Brahman is only one and non-dual" declare the Srutis. Since Brahman is the sole reality, according to advaita, how is it that Brahman is not apparent to us, whereas prapancha (world, i.e. non-Brahman) is so vivid? Thus questions the advanced sadhaka.

In one's own Self, which is not other than Brahman, there is a mysterious power known as avidya (ignorance) which is beginningless and not separate from the Self. Its characteristics are veiling, and presentation of diversity. Just as the pictures in the cinema, though not visible either in sunlight or in darkness, become visible in a spot of light in the midst of darkness, so in the darkness of ignorance there appears the reflected light of the Self, illusory and scattered taking the form of thought. This is the primal thought known as the ego, jiva or krta (doer), having the mind as the medium of its perceptions.

The mind has a store of latent tendencies which it projects as the object of a shadow-show in the waking and dream states. This show however is mistaken for real by the jiva. The veiling aspect of the mind first hides the real nature of the Self and then presents the objective world to view. Just as the waters of the ocean do not seem different from the waves, so also for the duration of objective phenomena, the Self, though itself the sole being, is made to appear not different from them.

Turn away from the delusion caused by the latent tendencies and false notions of interior and exterior. By such constant practice of sahaja samadhi, the veiling power vanishes and the non-dual Self is left over to shine forth as Brahman itself. This is the whole secret of the advaita doctrine as taught by the master to the advanced sadhaka. Here the same teaching is contained, which Sri Sankaracharya has expounded concisely without any elaboration, in the following text.

read more

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Mind Control - Sri KP Jois Conference - Mysore 1998
sri k pattabhi jois

Question: Guruji what is mind control?

Guruji: What is mind control? Yes mind control is possible, mind control you take, that is yoga.

read more

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