Humbled

Dear readers,

I am back from the Jivamukti Teaching Training at the Omega Institute.

Overjoyed, humbled, blessed… immensely blessed.

I humbly bow to the lotus feet of my beloved teachers Sharon Gannon and David life. Their blessings and great love literally did miracles in my life, and still make everything possible. Thank you Sharon-Ma for embodying musicality, for creating an uplifting and magical atmosphere with your mere presence, for  being the Maa, the hugger and the most joyful and beautiful vegan woman I know. The clarity of your radical message in “yoga and vegetarianism” cracked my heart open and only God knows how much I owe you for being in my life. Thank you David-Ji for embodying Santosha with so much poise and limitless sense of humor. Thank your for your healing hands on me.

Thanks God for the gift of you both, for the gift of the Jivamukti Yoga method,  for your contagious fearlessness and cosmic vision of life. You are a light in so many lives and living inspiration for thousands of spirituals warriors all over the world. Thank you for our everyday and ever growing satsang. This is truly priceless! Last but not least, thank you introducing me to so many holy beings… Chanting with Shyamdas was pure bhava and I still can’t believe Radhanath Swami blessed me.

Deep pranams to my teachers’s holy teachers: Sri Brahmananda Saraswati, the gentle swami Nirmalanda and guruji, the great Sri K. Patthabi Jois.

Infinite gratitude and pranams to Lady Ruth (Ruth Lauer-Manenti) for being my first jivamukti teacher, mentor and living inspiration.

I cherish our time together: the gentle touch, the silent smiles, the soothing words, our conversations, your ability to see beauty everywhere and the immense Yoga Sutra wisdom that you so beautifully shared with us… and your beloved guruji stories. You make me feel his presence, almost physically. Thank you for embodying the perfect student and wanting to know more about my culture. I love you.

Thank you master Jules Febre. You made every single day of this intense month feeling light yet so powerful. Your humility, great wisdom and playfulness enchanted me. I guess my ribs remember your assist in handstand as well! Thank you for the amazing soundtracks and your signature holy hip-hopness in whatever you do. You rock!

Words are not enough… Soaking in the teachings of Yoga for a whole month – meditating twice a day and sitting at the feet of my teachers every morning, making new friends and being now part of the beautiful Jivamukti lineage – is a rare, precious and life changing privilege. I only wish to share these powerful practices of Yoga and find ways to give back, to contribute to some good around me

With joy,

Jeanine

You may say I’m a dreamer (1)

Launching a serie of beautiful yoga videos …
Starting with “Yoga in New York Project” …featuring friends, teachers, masters, amazing NYC backdrops, peaceful warriors, dancing queens, birds and many other aerial creatures, trees, flowers, rivers, snow…yellow cabs, towers and graffiti…

LIFE in so many forms and shapes!

Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah/ Sarve Santu Niramayah /Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu/ Ma Kashcid Duhkha-Bhag Bhavet/ Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

~May all beings be happy. May all be free from sickness. May all see and experience what is good and beautiful in life. And may no one be unhappy. Om Peace. Peace. Peace. ~

Don’t You Want Me, Baby: An Interview with David Life and Sharon Gannon

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t You Want Me, Baby: An Interview with David Life and Sharon Gannon.

A case of mistaken identity

A couple of weeks or so ago, Donna de Lory blessed AOMYOGA with her divine presence.We practiced asana and sang together.It was a small, almost intimate class led by David Newbery exploring the theme of “the song of your heart”. Donna is a petite woman and humble yogini whose mighty voice reaches right to your heart. After chanting sanskrit mantras the essence of the sounds remains inside you…their vibes enter your body cells. We started by chanting AHAM PREMA (I am divine) , SO HAM (I am that)….Then we had Donna sometimes practicing asana, sometimes singing while we were practicing, and mOMents we sang altogether … I am short of words to tell you how powerful and uplifting this experience was… There was magic in the air.Pure bhav!

I AM THAT was the main message of Sri Brahmananda Saraswati, founder of Ananda Ashram. http://www.anandaashram.org/peacefulCoexistence.pdf. 

Yoga works and yet I (the fake “I”) am always aumazed that it works…

Well, you well know how much I love Ram Dass… he is a big inspiration. As weird as it might sound, I have often felt the presence of his guru, Sri Neem Baba Karoli(affectionately called Maharaji or babaji). The first time it happened I thought I was dreaming… but I was not. I did not do anything special but it happened, it still does sometimes…. I know the thing might feel too big to grab… . Anyways, I highly recommend Ram Dass’s books, articles and videos, they are invaluable resources. Though I’ve never met him in person and I’ve never been to the holy city of Vrindavan, through Ram Dass and his fellow gurubais‘ work (Krishna Das and Shyamdas, to name a few), seekers are blessed to experience Maharaji’s darshan  (It’s good to know that it happens to other people). As Ram Dass would say: “this is Maharaji’s grace ….”

Anyways, more recently, Vrindavan and the “SO HAM” mantra/meditation were brought back again while watching Suzanne Bryant’s insightful documentary: Yoga Is. Of all the documentaries on yoga, this is probably the film that touched me the most as I could relate to Suzanne Bryant’s experience on a deep level. With his soothing voice, David Life reminded us that: ”(…)we all suffer from a case of mistaken identity, we do even have ID cards to proove who we are and that we were born.Yoga says this is a case of mistaken identity, who we really are is beyond any passeport ID, beyond any driver license, that we are in this temporary costumes and these containers in order to work out our karmas, and that work is inter connected work, it’s interconnected to the Earth and to all beings that we share this planet with” (David Life in Yoga Is).”Ultimately, we cannot do Yoga, Yoga is our true nature”  added Sharon Gannon. Many other contemporary great teachers and yogi(ni)s are featured in Yoga Is. We hope to host a screening in Geneva soon…

It is of first and outmost importance to never lose sight of the big picture, to never confuse the practices and Yoga itself.

Namaste,

Jeanine

PS: check out these two links

1) a very well articulated piece by Ramesh Bjonnes published in Elephant Journal

2)Ram Dass last newsletter:  http://ramdass.org/stretching-our-concept-of-humanity

Guru Purnima Day: Teachers and Teachings(2)

Aujourd’hui, 15 Juillet 2011, nous aurons la plus grande et belle lune de l’année. Dans la tradition hindoue et bouddhiste est célébré GURU PURNIMA.

Le yoga est une pratique spirituelle, il n’y a pas de yoga sans dévotion. La fête de GURU PURNIMA est une si belle tradition! L’opportunité nous est donnée d’honorer nos maîtres spirituels.

C’est un privilège que d’avoir rencontré dans cette vie présente des êtres humains qui vous ouvrent une porte sur l’éternité. J’en suis reconnaissante au delà des mots. Infinite gratitude, love and pranams to Sharon Gannon and David Life for the gift of Jivamukti Yoga, for being living inspirations of compassion, wisdom and fearlessness. Thank you for believing that awakening is possible and that kindness will bring success. OM bolo Shri Tripura Sundari Ma, OM bolo Shri Deva Das ki JAI!

En ce jour très spécial, toute ma gratitude va aussi à mes gurubais, à toutes celles et ceux qui m’ont apporté leurs lumières et parfois leur part d’ombre (autant d’occasions uniques pour évoluer).OM bolo shri sat guru, bhagavan ki JAI! Cette foi /shradda(en sanskrit) partagée me porte -

“Faith is a way in which your are connected to the universal truth. Faith and love are intimately connected. As it is said in the Ramayana, without devotion there is no faith; without faith there is no devotion. In a way it’s the guru’s own incredible relation to God that’s the transmission of living faith, the fact that he or she is living in the light of God. That connection is love. A book doesn’t give a living transmission. It’s the light coming through the guru, the remover of darkness. Faith really comes from within you, and the guru is awakening it. Faith comes through grace. You can cultivate it by opening your spiritual heart and quieting your mind until you feel the validity of your identity with your deeper Self. The qualities of that Self are peace,joy, compassion, wisdom and love. Faith is not belief. Faith is what is left when your beliefs have all been blown to hell. Faith is in the heart, while beliefs are in the head. Experiences, even spiritual experiences, come and go. As long as you base your faith on experience, your faith is going to be constantly flickering, because your experience keep changing. The moment you recognize that faith lies behind experience, that’s just being, not the experience of being but being, then it’s just “Ah so” “ Extrait de “BE LOVE NOW, the path of the heart” par Ram Dass

Je dédie ma pratique aux gourous des mes gourous. Il y a un fil très fort qui nous relie. Je me sens plus forte d’appartenir à une famille, un lignage, Parampara . Ce lignage remonte à des temps immémoriaux qui nous ramènent à Ishvara, Shiva, le premier Yogi, notre premier gourou. OM NAMAH SHIVAYA.

Enfin, cette journée qui a apporté son lot d’annonces de décès me rappelle aussi le privilège (et la responsabilité) que nous avons d’être simplement en vie.

Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it, I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can. H.H. the XIV Dalai Lama

Happy Guru Pūrṇimā गुरु पूर्णिमा

Jeanine

NB: Vous pouvez lire aussi le focus du mois de l’école Jivamukti: The guru as a mirror 

Namaste

Jeanine

Le yoga est-il pour vous? Is yoga for you?

David Life, qui a confondé le Jivamukti Yoga, nous a raconté une anecdote au sujet du ténor Pavarotti qui les a chaleureusement reçus chez lui en Italie. Pavarotti, vivement intéressé, a demandé à David Life s’il pouvait lui enseigner le yoga. Toutefois le ténor émettait de nombreuses conditions notamment le fait qu’il ne fallait surtout pas lui obliger à respirer par le nez car cela serait dramatique pour son métier. Sur ce, en riant, David lui a répondu qu’il ne pourrait pas lui enseigner le yoga.

Trêve d’anecdote, s’il est bien une question récurrente que j’entends c’est bien “Est-ce que je suis fait(e) pour le yoga?” ( sous-entendu ou parfois assorti de “je ne suis pas assez souple, mince, jeune, etc…” ). Sans la moindre référence à l’aspect physique, David Life et Sharon Gannon répondent clairement à cette question: Le yoga n’est pas pour tout le monde. Et je les cite:
“This is not for everybody. And I’m gonna say that from my heart: Yoga is not for everybody. It’s not for people who are interested in staying the same. It’s relevant for people, it’s important for people if they’re interested in evolution , if they’re interested in change, if they’re interested in making a better world.  If everything’s fine for you in your world, if you’re happy, Yoga is probably not for you.If you’re dissatisfied, if you have one grain of unhappiness in you that’s pulling you down,then you should consider it. And I wanna challenge you, are you the one it is for? Maybe …maybe, let’s see, let’s see what you can do” David Life

“Spiritually, we Americans were children when the yogis came to show us their practices, and, like children, we took them apart to examine them. In doing so we discovered some useful exercises that can improve one’s quality of life. But studying yoga as disparate useful exercises is rather like taking a camera apart and wondering why the disassembled parts aren’t enabling you to take a picture. We hope to encourage you to move beyond studying the various interesting shapes and attributes of the yoga practices and start fitting them back together. After all, the aim of yoga is not a better body or a calmer mind, even though the practices may improve your body or calm your mind. The aim is enlightenment, the state in which everything fits together.” Sharon Gannon  et David Life dans Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for liberating body and soul.

En français, nous traduirions “enlightenment” par “illumination”. Je vois d’ici le sourcil levé, la moue dubitative qui pointent peut-être… et je souris. Il y a plus de dix ans déjà, je me suis moi-même profondément ennuyée dans mon premier cours de Hatha Yoga. Outre la musique new age et le parfum de l’encens qui m’irritaient, plutôt que de suivre les consignes de l’instructeur, j’étais obnubilée par les orteils crochus de la femme enceinte en face de moi. Plus tard, je suis tombée littéralement amoureuse d’un autre type de yoga où les genevois stressés venaient transpirer à la pause de midi. Nulle trace de OM et autres religiosités dans ce cours très physique !  Plus j’explorais le yoga et ses différentes pratiques (y compris le Hatha Yoga doux et la méditation qui m’horripilaient par le passé ainsi que le kirtan que j’adore), plus je le trouvais familier. Familier c’est le mot… Et mon expérience n’est pas unique. La Bhagavad Gita (livre-référence  dans lequel le Seigneur Krishna explique le Yoga au guerrier Arjuna, voir les versets 43- 44 du chapitre 6) en parle. AHA!

Cela vous amusera (peut-être?) de visionner (il se trouve sur youtube en 8 parties) le documentaire Enlighten UP! réalisé par Kate Churchill. Derrière la caméra de Kate, le spectateur découvre les tribulations de Nick Rosen, un yoga-septique . Enfin pas exactement…car sa maman est chaman (un peu pour dire, j’ai un demi-gène “follo”). En commençant par New-York où il vit, Nick va parcourir les grandes écoles de yoga avant de se retrouver en Inde. Dans son périple,  il rencontrera plusieurs grands maîtres et yogis. J’ai particulièrement aimé le voir chez certains d’entre eux… Chuuut je n’en dis pas plus.

Namasté

Jeanine