Aroma
Boutique:
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Here you can find the products
used in the Aromayoga class. You can read about how the
products are made and what ingredients are used. The
essential oils help to open up the seven chakras or energy
centers and can help to release blocked areas of your
chakras. They also aid in releasing memory and emotion that
are stored within these centers of your
body.
If you
do have any allergies and sensitivity to essential oils,
please let me know before class, or just do not participate
in applying them during our pratice. All ingredients used
are complelety free of any synthetic additives and chemicals
and should not cause any irritations, since they are diluted
in a carrier oil. All ingriedients are either organic or
wild
crafted.
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Tuesday AromaYoga Class:
21. August
2007
SURRENDER
Within
these past few weeks and months, the word surrender came
up a lot for me and I was looking at how I could apply
it and live in my daily life. Recently it was brought
up by two people in my life and these two people
inspired me to write about it in todays newsletter.
(You know you who are....thank you for inspiring
me).
More on surrendering
from the viewpoint of different people, teachers and
traditions in the texts below.
I hope this inspires
you.
I would be happy if you want to share some of
your stories of surrender with me.
Take some time before
todays class and meditate on:
Where in your life do
you feel the need to surrender? What does it mean to
you? How can you apply it into your daily life, into
your asana
practice?
Please note: The next two classes will be
canceled due to my travels out of the county. I
apologize...I know it has been a scarce summer, but I
will be back full force after Labor Day on 11. Sept.
Promised.
See you on Tuesday
evening: 6:30pm (new time),
Namaste,
Tanja
Indira
Devi
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"SWEET"
SURRENDER
"Surrender literally
means:
submission"
Surrender in spirituality and
religion means that a believer completely gives up his
own will and subjects his thoughts, ideas, and deeds
to the will and teachings of a divine power or deity.
The concept plays a role in several religions, such as
Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism, as well as
some mystic and esoteric traditions.
The term is
also used in a similar manner, in some schools and
approaches to psychology, in which sense it is an
equivalent of hostility, signifying something to the
acceptance of ones own nature and that of the
world.
In Sikhism and
Hinduism
According to
the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most authoritative
scriptures of Hinduism, Krishna, said the following to
the warrior Arjuna who became his
disciple:
"I consider the
yogi-devotee - who lovingly contemplates on Me with
supreme faith, and whose mind is ever absorbed in Me -
to be the best of all the yogis." (B.G., Chapter 6,
Verse 47) "After attaining Me, the great souls do not
incur rebirth in this miserable transitory world,
because they have attained the highest perfection."
(B.G., Chapter 8, Verse 15) "... those who, renouncing
all actions in Me, and regarding Me as the Supreme,
worship Me... For those whose thoughts have entered
into Me, I am soon the deliverer from the ocean of
death and transmigration, Arjuna. Keep your mind on Me
alone, your intellect on Me. Thus you shall dwell in
Me hereafter." (B.G., Chapter 12, Verses 6-8) "And he
who serves Me with the yoga of unswerving devotion,
transcending these qualities [binary opposites, like
good and evil, pain and pleasure] is ready for
liberation in Brahman." (B.G. Chapter 14, Verse 26)
"Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, offer service
to Me, bow down to Me, and you shall certainly reach
Me. I promise you because you are My very dear
friend." (B.G., Chapter 18, Verse 65) "Setting aside
all meritorious deeds (Dharma), just surrender
completely to My will (with firm faith and loving
contemplation). I shall liberate you from all sins. Do
not grieve." (B.G., Chapter 18, Verse
66)
Several gurus teach their
disciples the importance of surrender to God or to
themselves, as part of the guru-disciple relationship.
A beautiful
example, Prem Rawat, formerly called Guru Maharaj Ji,
was quoted in 1978 as:
"But there is nothing
to understand! And if there is something to
understand, there is only one thing to understand, and
that is to surrender!"
 sweet
surrender
___________________________________________________
In Christianity
In
Christianity, Christ is the head of the believer. The
main principles of 'surrender' to the Christian are:
1) Dying to Self, or the "emptying of self" to allow
Christ to live through the
believer.
If
you remember one of the last newsletters, where I
wrote about the yamas and niyamas. One of them was
about: Ishvara pranidhana, wich means: surrendering to
our higher divine power.
ISHWARA
PRANIDHANA: Devotion to God (ishwara=Lord +
Pranidana=to give your efforts, devotion)
Before
you do any action offer it to God/higher power/ divine
power.
In
this way you free yourself of selfish action. The
perfection of action comes from the perfection of
thought. What is a perfect thought? One that is devoid
of all selfish motive. Through this practice you
develop Bhav. The mood that will enable you to reach
for something higher than the apparent limitations of
body and mind. If you do actions without Ishwara
Pranidana you will most likely stay the same, bound in
the ignorance of the ego.
by
Shri Brahmananda
Sarasvati
For Patanjali, Ishvara pranidhana is a
potent method for dissolving the endless agitations of
the mind, and a means to the unified state of yoga:
samadhi. Ishvara pranidhana shifts our perspective
from the obsession with "I", that causes so much of
the mind's distraction and creates a sense of
separation from our Source. Since Ishvara pranidhana
focuses not on ego but on our sacred being, it
reunites us with our true Self.
B.K.S. Iyengar states in his
book Light on the Yoga Sutras:
"Through
surrender the aspirant's ego is effaced, and . . .
grace . . . pours down upon him like a torrential
rain." Like the descent through layers of tension to
rest in the release of Savasana (Corpse Pose), Ishvara
pranidhana provides a pathway through the obstacles of
our ego toward our divine nature-grace, peace,
unconditional love, clarity, and
freedom."
To practice Ishvara
pranidhana/surrender, we must first start with our own
intimate connection to the universe. In yoga, this is
referred to as your Ishta-Devata. The
yogic concept of Ishta-Devata recognizes that we each
have our own, personal relationship with the Divine
and that this serves as a powerful means of finding
the unity within. Traditionally, many sadhus
(monks) in India praise the god Shiva as the
archetypal yogi. Many other Indians praise Vishnu,
especially in his incarnations as Rama or Krishna.
Still others are drawn to female manifestations of
divinity, like the goddess Lakshmi or Kali or Durga.
But Sri T. Krishnamacharya, probably the most
influential figure in the tradition of yoga to the
West, advocated that Western yoga practitioners use
their own language, imagery, and names of the sacred
to deepen their connection to Ishvara.
Finding a form that
vibrates as this pure vibration in your own heart.
Through intimate listening to this voice within
yourself, you can begin to have a relationship with
your inner guidance in all aspects of your
life.
Finding the connection
to this inner sense of direction and listening how it
guides you through your thoughts, speech, feelings and
actions. Surrendering in trust to your inner
voice.
(Please share any personal
thoughts on this, I would love to hear about it and
see how I can improve my own practice this way, I am
always open for inspiration).
Practicing
to staying connected to that inner essence throughout
the day.
Ishvara pranidhana is also translated as
"offering the fruits of one's actions to the
Divine."
As we consider how to make
Ishvara pranidhana a living part of our yoga practice,
it's useful to look to India, where the act of
offering pervades the culture.
Throughout India,
images of the Divine are everywhere, and people of all
ages are making offerings of fruit, incense, and
gestures, from Anjali Mudra (hands together at the
heart) to full-body prostrations. Also certain parts
of Europe: southern Germany and Italy where the Saints
and especially Mother Mary is devoted so
beautifully.
Finding way of
offering/rituals in your daily life and applying
them.
For us Westerners, who rarely grow
up with such a constant ritual life, establishing
Ishvara pranidhana may require some extra attention
and internal listening, much like the process of
learning to take long, slow, and constant breaths in
asana. Like breathing more deeply, Ishvara pranidhana
shouldn't feel strange or uncomfortable.
Ishvara pranidhana can
be especially useful: at the beginning of any action,
as a way of shifting your perspective when faced with
difficulty, and as a method for experiencing fully the
simple acts of life.
The yoga mat is a
wonderful "safe space on which you can practice
Ishvara pranidhana/ Surrendering. And so is life.
Every day we have hundereds of opportunities to
practice surrendering.
I have found once I
completely surrender to what is, magic happens
instantly.
__________________________________________________
How can you start
practicing:
What I personally find very helpful, is if I
have something or someone that I can focus and
dedicate my practice to. Like a person dear to me, or
a cause that I feel needs my energy. Thats why you
hear me saying in class very often, I would like you
to dedicate your practice to something or someone
other than yourself.
Like an offering. Because when
you practice you create beautiful energy and karma for
yourself and this energy can be passed onto someone
that needs this energy, that is the most beautiful
gift that you can
give.
Start
with:
- Inner
listening
- setting your
intention
- chanting
- visualization
- Suryanamaskar
(Sun Salutation/your moving
prayer)
- Practicing
asanas
- Noticing
attachments to things, people,
circumstances
- Practicing
accepting what is, instead of fighting it, (this
accepting does not mean giving
up)
- Acknowledging
that there is something higher than yourself and
honoring that divine power
- Trusting in
that Divine power/ surrendering/letting
Be!
- Being!
In your
asana practice you become more aware of the gripping,
tension and holding. Try to offer your tension to the
source, emptying and surrendering again, then you will
experience a shift from your small, crowded inner
world to a big picture of being alive.
Because
Ishvara pranidhana connects every action to its sacred
source, Krishnamacharya is said to have described it
as the most important yoga practice for the Kali Yuga
we live in, an "Iron Age" in which all humanity has
fallen away from grace. Just as the Buddhist
commitment to bringing awareness to every action is
called mindfulness practice, Ishvara pranidhana could
be called "heartfulness" practice; it awakens our
constant devotion to the Source of life and keeps our
hearts open to the Divine in every moment, no matter
what arises.
Blessed
Be!
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What are
Chakras?
Chakras
are psychic centers that lie along the axis of the
spine as consciousness potentials. The chakras are not
materially real and are to be understood as situated,
not in the gross body, but in the subtle or etheric
body. Repositories of psychic energies, they govern
the whole condition of being. In the Hindy tradition
they are usually represented as
lotuses.
As kundalini energy
reaches each chakra, that lotus opens and lift its
flower; and as soon as she leaves for a higher chakra,
the lotus closes its petals and hangs down,
symbolizing the activation of the energies of the
chakra and their assimilation to kundalini.
Each of the chakras,
according to the Tantras, corresponds to one of the
elements of which the known world is compounded.
Muladhara represents solidity; Svadhisthana,
liquidity; Manipura, the gaseous; Anahata, the aerial;
Vishuddha, the etheric, or space.
This ascent through
the chakras can be viewed as an upward journey through
the self.
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Please
come to Centerpoint Studios weekly ongoing
ChakraAromaYoga Class.
The level of this yoga
class is from advanced beginner to intermediate. I do
try to accommodate all levels. If you have no
experience in yoga at all, you are welcome to just
join in and sit on your mat. Observe, visualize,
meditate and experience the oils and the sounds. No
one will be send away and there is absolutely no
judgement. This is a feel good class and healing does
occur from being part of the circle. Its about healing
from the inside out and not about how many advanced
poses you can do.
Please always listen to your
body and only do what feels right at that certain
moment. Please let me know about any injuries that you
have before we start class.
Class is every Tuesday
evening from 6:30pm-7:55pm.
Centerpoint Studios are
located at: 324, Lafayette Street, 7th floor (just
north of Houston) By subway: take the 6 to Bleeker, or
W/R to Prince Street or V/ B/D/F to Broadway
Lafayette |
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Ego and the Illusion of
Darkness
by Swami
Nithyananda
Q:
How can we surrender the ego, when this wanting to
surrender is itself an expression of the
ego?
The ego is like
darkness, it has no positive existence. Just like
darkness is simply the absence of light, the ego is
nothing but the absence of awareness. To struggle to
kill the ego is like struggling to push the darkness
out of the room. To really expel the darkness, what
you need to do is to forget all about dealing with the
darkness. Focus your energy on Light instead. Just
bring a small lamp into the room, and you will find
that the darkness has fled on its own! So, I tell you
to forget all about the ego. Instead, focus on
bringing a lamp of awareness into your being. When
your entire consciousness has become a flame, you will
find that the ego is no more.
The ego is an
illusion. You cannot surrender it when you are unaware
-- because you don't know how. Of course, you cannot
surrender it when you become aware either -- because
then you realize that there is nothing left to
surrender! What you have heard, read, been taught --
'Surrender the ego in order to attain
Self-realization' -- this is an utterly nonsensical
idea. It can happen only the other way around.
Self-realization dawns, and suddenly you cannot find
the ego anymore. The surrender has already happened,
just like that.
However, I am glad
that the question has arisen in your being. The ego is
the root cause for all your anxieties, sorrows,
tensions. [...] To actively feel that you want to drop
the ego, to feel the need to be rid of this burden is
itself a step towards awareness. It shows that you are
stirring from your sleep!
--Swami
Nithyananda
__________________________________________________
SURRENDERING BY
AMMA
Surrender
arises from
helplessness.
Helplessness provides the
opportunity
for you to release your
ego.
The ego
makes you feel
important,
but a hopeless situation makes you
realize
you are
nothing and will not be
free
unless
you give up the sense of I.?
This
realization dawns
when you experience the burden of the
ego.
Only a
great blow or a serious
threat
can
bestow this knowledge.
***
The
difficulty is not expressing
love
but
letting go - outgrowing - the
ego.
Love is
human nature;
it is already present within
us.
but we
are held back
by our individual
boundaries.
We have to outgrow our
individuality
in order to become
universal.
Ego stands in the way of
love.
When it
is removed, we can flow like a river.
Amma
__________________________________________________
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As
a courtesy to other yogis, please try to be on time.
If you want to reserve your space you can do so by
going to www.mindbodyonline.com,
click on yoga and then enter centerpointstudios. Its
easy.
Aromatic
Blessings,
Tanja
April
Aromatics
tanjab1@mac.com
http://www.aprilaromatics.com
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