ASHTANGA IMMERSION
April 12-17 2013
NORTH BALI
Dive deep in the ocean of yoga and take your practice to the next levels. 40+ hours of yoga training including mysore style ashtanga, pranayama, meditation, asana clinic,
yoga anatomy, philosophy and more..

ASHTANGA RETREAT
April 20-27 2013
UBUD, BALI
Join in for a week of serious fun yoga adventures with mysore style ashtanga every mornings and organic yoga explorations in the evenings.Plenty of time to explore, relax and enjoy the island of the Gods.

His heart sings to the tune of the Balinese philosophy “Tri Hita Karana” or three-fold harmony, in which all endeavors should enrich the person, the local community and the global environment. Being a traveling yogi he has the opportunity to extend the gift of yoga to communities who would not necessarily have access to  it and use his loudspeaking voice to empower local activism and individual actors of the social revolution.

Aware of being a co-creator in our global ecosystem, he feels honored to be able to sow today the seeds for a better tomorrow and invites all, yoga studios, teachers and students to participate in any way meaningful or appropriate.

From Ashtanga with love.

It seems lately my body is cumulating injuries, some related to sports, some to yoga and some to enjoying life with kids. There could be many an explanation as to how and why each one happened, but really those are stories in a past i cannot change and so i find it more useful to look to the present to see the gifts they bring.

Injuries used to be associated to quite a bit of stress, especially as an ashtanga yoga practitioner and teacher. What s gonna happen to my practice? How can i keep flying without my daily yoga fix? what kind of a teacher do i look like if i cannot demonstrate?..

I notice this time there has been very little resistance to his last injury. A grade 2 tear in the calf muscle as a result of being hit by another surfboard, which led to my being bed-ridden for 2 full weeks and experience a lot of pain. I welcomed it as an opportunity to give this body a deserved vacation and an invitation to do some computer work i had been procrastinating on.. like writing blogs

So, on looking closer i realize that Injuries are only stories of the mind. An injury is only an injury when i tell myself the story that:

1. it shouldn’t be happening.
2. it’s painful!
3. it s keeping me from doing what i want / need to do.
4. ..etc.. basically stories of resistance

Without these story-lines in the ‘Damien Telegraph’ i find more space for acceptance and ultimately peace of mind, and those so called injuries begin to look entirely different:
As all things seem to be in balance in the universe, it becomes apparent that the more physically active i am, the more prone to injuries i become.. Couch potatoes, may have other imbalances to deal with, but sports-injury is rarely one of them! I become aware those injuries are teaching me to slow down, do less and be more, and to take care of myself..

When ‘injury’ happens the body automatically goes into healing mode. i m amazed and grateful of how well it knows how to do that. If it had been left to me or even the best doctors around to make that happen, i would have been gone a long time ago!

Healing actually to means ‘to make whole’. so i can infer that i was fragmented and unbalanced in a way that i wasn’t able or willing to hear and the body-mind had to resort to ‘injury’ in order to heal and restore itself to wholeness.. From this perspective life becomes a lot sweeter and simpler: How do i know i needed to be made whole again? i got injured is the answer!

I can find many more reasons why ‘injuries’ are good and the lessons they teach me priceless and actually see them as being the tusks of elephant god Ganesha prodding me to keep growing:

1. they guide my yoga practice toward the deeper limbs of the ashtanga method, pranayama, meditation and Self-inquiry.
2. They keep me real, honest and humble as a yoga teacher.
3. They teach me how to be more sensitive, caring and loving toward myself and others
4. They help me appreciate and experience the simple miracles of life: walking, eating a dragon-fruit, looking at a bird..

I m not saying go and get injured, there are others ways to learn. Although injuries seem to be part of the course when we become a bit ‘hard-of-hearing’. I invite you to look at your injuries from a different perspective, as an opportunity to regain balance and wholeness. And remember that a well-deserved vacation is just on the other side of the story.

Happy healing!

June 08 2012           DON’T BE A JERK!

When the teacher gives an instruction, i often notice students jerking themselves to match the cue. this is a very interesting point to look at!

First it helps us see that the conditionings of wanting to do well, not being last and obeying authority are very deeply imbedded in us. We are trained and conditioned since our youngest age to seek recognition and validation from the outside. The practice of of yoga invites us to look at these conditionings and may be realize that they don’t necessarily serve us in the best way!

Remembering the 1st yama of ashtanga yoga, Ahimsa or non-violence, we want to apply it foremost to ourselves by connecting with a sense of inner peace and treating our body like our best friend. There may be some qualities we don’t necessarily relate to with our friends (like how vain they are about gossiping all the time…) but for the most part we accept and love them  as they are. The gift here is to do the same with ourselves and stretching our mind to embrace our Selves as we are, especially our tight hamstrings or locked shoulders..

So, just as we follow the breath into a pose, or the hands of a teacher into an adjustment, when given an instruction it is important to slow down and move toward it with a soft sense; not with a quick jerk.. Connecting first with the idea, finding that place in the body, sensing how it feels, and then beginning to move in the required direction, gradually and slowly, following the stretch.. With a little practice all this can be done in less than a second, but the connectivity and presence are dramatically different.

By realizing that yoga is now and not something to achieve we want to see that as soon as we re trying to change ourselves or gain something we are out of the Self and accomplice to the violence .. there are no goals, no straining, no doing but really mostly listening and being with the knots that obstruct, constrict, or reduce the spaciousness and watch them unravel as we breathe into them..

We approach our limits mindfully and slow down before we feel any pain or tensing.
More importantly that kind of “listening” connect us with what is alive inside and to yoga as a process, rather than just “doing what we ve been told” in order to reach a goal we move in an organic way, following the opening rather than pushing it.. softly we get the same place (or more often, deeper) but the journey is entirely different.

Happy yoga-ing!

ASHTANGA MANTRA
Opening prayer

 OM

VANDE GURUNAM CHARANARAVINDE
I bow to the lotus feet of the gurus

 SANDARSHITA SWATMA SUKHAVA BODE
Who show the way into the joy of pure being

 NIH SREYASE JANGALIKAYAMANE
Acting like the jungle medicine man

 SAMSARA HALAHALA MOHASHANTYAI
Able to remove the poison of conditioned existence

ABAHU PURUSAKARAM
In the form of a man up to his arms

 SHANKHACHAKRASI DHARINAM
Holding a conch shell, a wheel and a sword

SAHASRA SHIRASAM SWETAM
With a thousand radiant, white heads

 PRANAMAMI PATANJALIM
I prostrate before the sage Patanjali

OM

MANGALA MANTRA
Closing prayer

OM

SWASTIPRAJABYAHAH PARIPALAYANTAM
May the well-being of all people be protected 

 NYAHYENAMARGHENA MAHIMMAHISHAHA
By the powerful and mighty leaders with law and justice

 GOBRAHMANEBHYAH SHUBHAMASTUNITYAM
May good success be with all the cows (divinity) and scholars

 LOKAHSAMASTA SUKHINOBHAVANTU
May all the worlds be happy and pleasant

 OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI
Om peace peace peace