ARTICLES MARCH 2009
JOHN MCEVOY | YOGA BEATS | GORDON SMITH
YOGA -
In today’s consumer society many people have become dissociated from their true sense of self. They have sought gratification, happiness and fulfilment from the pursuit of perfection.
The perfect job, the perfect partner, the perfect home, the perfect body. We are all guilty of it. Yes even us yogis….the perfect asana, the perfect physique to demonstrate the perfect asana.
As our society has evolved and become more civilised it would seem we have moved away from the simplicity that is essentially nature’s chemist, healer and beauty box. We have spent so much time trying to turn our lives into a magazine cover we have lost touch with our internal rhythms.
One of the beautiful things about yoga and meditation is that it teaches us to listen honestly to those internal rhythms. How much food, water, exercise or sleep we need.
How often do you spend time tasting your food, listening to see if you are still hungry and eating what we need rather than what we think we should eat. How often do you take appropriate exercise? Do you have the same practise day on day or do you change it to fit in with your cycle, your needs, and your health. Do you sleep when you are tired and get up when you wake or do you fit in with some regimented anarchic view that you must have eight hours or you’re not going to be refreshed.
Yoga teaches us how to listen to those rhythms and then how to set appropriate boundaries for ourselves.
In asana practise we learn to listen to when we are at our limit and when to be still or when to move deeper into a pose. Do we push too far, unable to say no for fear of losing face, or losing out? Maybe we are lazy and don’t push enough but stay safely within our comfort zone, afraid of trying new things. Perhaps we compete with others around us, not feeling good enough unless we can do the same or better than others in the class. These boundaries or lack of them are truly a pure and honest reflection of our interaction with the world around us. What happens on the mat is just a mirror of our experiences in the world.
By listening and respecting the boundaries we have it is possible to achieve that
elusive state of health and well-
As the Bhagavad Gita tells us, ‘The soul that moves in the world of the senses and yet keeps the senses in harmony….finds rest in quietness.’
We yogis know that health and beauty – real health and beauty -
The simplicity of nature is profound and miraculous. People the world over are now beginning to feel the benefits of applying the yogi lifestyle. The medical profession are beginning to cautiously accept the benefits – encouraging patients to try yoga for high blood pressure, stress, insomnia, anxiety and back ache.
When the student practises asana it is possible for the physical body to be repaired even in profoundly ill patients. I have used the following techniques with students who had Breast Cancers and Multiple Sclerosis with very good results.
I am very careful to never advice the student on medical matters, either diagnosis or comment on their medications. I leave that up to them to explore. But alongside whatever they choose to do I have implement the following practices. Some of the students utilized western medicine and others choose to go it alone. It is fair to say that in my admittedly limited experience the students found the technique of huge benefit to them mentally, physically and emotionally.
But always I will refer them to ancient wisdom of yoga and its healing powers> As
the Hatha Yoga Pradipika says, ‘Asanas make one firm, free from maladies, and light
of limb.’
The practise of doing something for themselves to help their recovery or
at least manage their symptoms was immensely empowering. Often when a person discovers
they have a serious or potentially fatal condition they feel disempowered. They
are put on drugs which can cause horrific side effects, sometimes the side effects
can be worse than the illness. They may be mutilated in surgery, they may be put
under extreme pressure by doctors, family and friends. And yes, they may have no
choice but to take the drugs or have the surgery, but by taking some control back
their sense of empowerment returns and with it a belief in there own ability to heal. As
I point out to all of the clients at the outset, our cells replicate at an amazing
speed, we have a completely new liver every six weeks. Our eyes are renewed every
couple of days. Our body wants to heal, it is programmed to heal, create the right
environment within your body and utilise the power of your mind and miracles can
and do happen.
Together with a group of professionals I am creating a study to explore the benefits which can be achieved with yoga, meditation, reflexology and cranial sacral therapy on Multiple Sclerosis.
Below is just one example of a client I am working with at the moment.
This 44 year old lady began her practise 18 months ago. She had a distinct limp, poor stamina and a highly rigid spine. She was in constant pain due to activity of her nervous system which was in a constant state of alertness.
At first during classes she experienced great frustration at her limitations. Constantly comparing herself to the other students in the class, pushing herself way beyond appropriate limits, and became angry and tearful with balancing postures in particular.
She has learnt to listen. Stops when it is enough, move within her own range of
movement, to push where appropriate and to be present in her asanas. She began in
a beginner’s class working very gently but methodically building strength and stamina. She
now attends four asana classes each week and her postures are equal to the most advanced
students in the class.
She commented in the study recently that when she first attended
class she was unable to perform any asanas which involved lifting her left leg due
to the nerve damage which is irreparable – however she now can perform many poses
including balances such as Ekapadangustasana and the elusive T balance. She believes
that her practise has re-
In her most recent M.R.I. scan it was revealed she was in a highly active phase of relapse, her spinal column was lit up like a fluorescent bulb. Her specialist could not believe she was walking, exercising, healthy and strong. Unfortunately, this specialist is opposed to yoga as he believes it to be potentially dangerous. So she has as of yet been unable to tell him that she believes her result is due to her consistent practise.
We combined this practise with meditation and proper and adequate relaxation. As yogis we know that relaxation is perhaps one of the most powerful techniques we have. When our bodies are in a truly relaxed state the cells are allowed to repair more efficiently, our body’s organs and systems are given time to rest, restore and repair. Combine the relaxation with a powerful yoga nidra and the effects can and are profound, indeed miraculous.
Scientists and doctors agree now that the power of the mind is paramount in the recovery
of a patient who is ill or has been in surgery. Patients who believe they will die
or get worse are much more likely to get that result. Patients who stay positive,
upbeat and pro-
So by harnessing the power of their minds the student is able to send a powerful
message to the nervous system suggesting the nerves calm, cool find a stillness -
The meditation I use takes the student deep into Savasana and then asks them to focus on the breath. They visualise the breath as being a brilliant white which is sent through the spine then out into the nervous system. They then will visualise the healing breath as cooling, stilling and calming the nerves.
This meditation lasts 20 minutes and should be done at least once a day. It is particularly
good for the student when they are in an active phase of M.S. as it seems to work
very well in reducing pain. I put the meditation on a c.d. and this is available
for anyone who wishes to utilise it. Please simply e-
Perhaps in this time of change which is upon all of us we may find a return to simple
pleasures and a sense of well-
Through our practise our moment to moment sense of awareness we can bring ourselves back into a sense of beingness….
‘There is a spirit which is pure and which is beyond old age and death…This is Atman, the spirit in man.’ Chandogya Upanishad
For information on dawns meditation c.d.s and retreats please contact Dawn on dawn.lister@btinternet.com
YOGA BEATS | GORDON SMITH | DAWN LISTER
THE SINGING CURVES OF YOGA John (Mac) Evoy
Yoga postures, asanas, have special qualities which make them different from shape making, gymnastics, exercise, or even dance. This is an attempt to point to some of those qualities.
Everything Waves
Despite the fact that, through our senses, we construct a nice, solid model of the world in which to operate, eat breakfast at tables, avoid being run down by buses and all the other activities essential for surviving daily life, everything can be seen as waves. Light, sound, touch, taste and smell all caused by, generally tiny, vibrations. The more closely we look at things the more they are made of little vibrations, waves.
“All natural objects vibrate at different frequencies.” Solidity and stillness are
convenient illusions we use to get by. Ok, that’s a rock, it’s not going to suddenly
jump up and bite us. Even very big things, though, vibrate. One of the biggest things
around, the super-
When one thing vibrates at the same frequency as something else we get this enhanced effect, called resonance. The body of a violin enhances the sound of its strings; the soprano breaks the glass; soldiers marching in step can destroy a bridge. “Resonance is a way of getting a large return for a relatively small effort, by making an effort at just the right time and pushing the system the way it ‘wants’ to go.” Think of pushing a child on a swing.
Resonance can produce surprising and powerful effects. Tickle a special ruby at just the right frequency and, bingo, it emits a stream of coherent laser light.
Crucial Curves
When we look at vibrations, or waves, they are composed of curves.
Curves have different qualities, they may be flaccid and loose, angular and bent like a tangled ball of string or a crumpled sheet. Some curves, however, sing. The simplest of these is a sine wave, the mathematical shape of a single, pure note, indeed of all music. Music is composed of sine waves laid one upon another, this is how a CD works.
There are many examples of such resonant curves. A skilled potter knows by instinct and touch when the line of a pot is just right. Look at the exquisite curve of a Sung vase, for example, apparently small and humble, but whose line can hit the eye from across a crowded room.
Nigel Forster, master guitar maker of Newcastle and yoga adept, eloquently describes
the invention of the violin, springing out of the power of the double-
A crucial quality of singing curves is their balance, not too tight, not too loose,
like the double-
Yogic Curves
The body moves, not in straight lines, but in curving waves. As an example try standing
in Trikonasana, arms extended, and with each exhalation bring the hands onto the
hip bones. As you observe the path the hands trace it will be a curve, part of a
wave. The whole body moves like this. Vinyasa, the flowing movement that connects
postures, makes this self-
Through extensive experiment it can be found that every asana has a flowing movement
that leads naturally into and out of it. Take as example a very simple posture like
Uttanasana. As you reach down to the mat, or wherever your body allows, the balance
in the feet changes. If you bend the legs as that happens, the spine extends more
easily out of the pelvis and hips. As you re-
Stillness
I am fortunate to live by the side of a wild, mountain river and spend some time
watching it. For most of its course it runs over rocks and man-
Asana shares this quality. Releasing into stillness is not diluting energy but rather
focussing or concentrating it. So, to return to our example, the process of releasing
into Uttanasana can be felt as focussing ever more clearly on the sensations of the
breath-
The Body As Container
We are so used to treating our bodies as containers. All of our culture encourages this. There are mirrors everywhere, most particularly in other peoples’ eyes. We think of ourselves as a size whatever. Do I look good in this? The image we hold of our bodies is imag(e)ined through the gaze of others and is a thing of a certain size and shape, sexy or sagging but contained, limited, an object.
When we look inside, however, when we practice yoga and focus on what it feels like to be alive, those limits disappear. From the inside the body is infinite. This is one of the greatest gifts of asana. There is no limit to how sensitively the awareness can reach down into muscles sinews and joints, into the deepening balance, homeostasis, of the whole body.
The breath-
Interconnectedness
John Muir, the 19th Century naturalist, once said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”. Modern day quantum physics demonstrates how literally and profoundly this is true. “The collision of two atoms can, and does, change the future of the universe.” Seth Lloyd – Professor of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT. Everything is connected, it just doesn’t feel that way most of the time because we are used to separating things in order to survive. That’s a tree it will not bite me but in the tree there’s a bear who might.
Yoga asana addresses this head on, initially by providing direct experience of inter-
So asana, posture, and pranayama, breath awareness, are intimately connected as are body and mind. How I think is profoundly affected by how I sit, move and breathe.
Coherence
When waves come together, when they share phase and frequency and other qualities, they are called coherent. Laser light is coherent. Quantum particles, viewed as waves, are coherent before we try to measure them. Before human senses get involved the universe, in some sense, consists of a coherent wave, everything together and we know not where.
As the waves of the body-
mac@elementalyoga.co.uk
JOHN MCEVOY | DAWN LISTER | GORDON SMITH
YOGA EVENT TO CONTINUE FRANKIE’S EASTERHOUSE CAMPAIGN
Legendary singer Frankie Vaughan’s yoga teacher son returns to Glasgow next month
to host a special yoga and music event to raise awareness of and funds for a new
community centre at Easterhouse and his long-
‘Yogabeats’ will take place on Sunday 15 March at Platform, The Bridge from 1pm – 4pm. More than 150 people are expected to take part in this fun, energising fusion of David’s own style of yoga with lively music, from James Brown to Cuban rap.
David’s late father made a famous impact on reducing gang violence in Glasgow when he helped to set up The Easterhouse Project in the 1960’s – a community centre designed to get young people get off the streets – which was demolished over 15 years ago.
David made media headlines in October last year when he visited local youth groups and community activists after he heard of The Phoenix Centre campaign to get a new community centre up and running, which is being led by Blairtummock and Rogerfield Tenants And Residents Association. (BARTARA) and supported by Sport and Culture Glasgow.
Yoga is often seen as a middle-
“I think that a Yogabeats event would be a great way of bringing attention to what is needed in this community, as well as being a fun and unique experience for people whether they are yoga teachers, yoga students or have never even tried yoga before.
“Community activities are important, whether its yoga, football or drama groups,
but they will only really work if a centre can provide ongoing support. During my
work with notorious teenage gangs at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, as well as in
London’s Brixton -
Richard McShane, Chair of BARTARA, believes the event will be a great start to the community centre campaign. "When Frankie Vaughan came here 40 years ago people were being stabbed and murdered," he said. "He made a real difference and there's no doubt that it saved lives.
"There's a lot of youth projects on the go now but there is no central meeting place. We feel that a new facility could have a similar impact to the one in the 1960’s.
“We’re thrilled that David has offered his support. He is hugely talented and charismatic and is busy teaching Yogabeats all over the world, so we really hope people in Glasgow will support our campaign to bring yoga to Easterhouse and take this opportunity to experience it for themselves.”
Yogabeats is yoga with a difference. It’s designed to be enjoyed by people of all
levels of fitness by using ‘micro moves’ -
For tickets and information please contact Louise or Richard tel 07748513327
email louisehousley@gmail.com or visit www.yogabeats.com
Sunday 15 March – 1pm – 4pm at Platform, The Bridge, 1000 Westerhouse Road, Glasgow
JOHN MCEVOY | YOGA BEATS | DAWN LISTER
THE YOGA OF LISTENING by Gordon Smith
Nada Yoga is listening for the subtle background of sound that underlies creation.To listen to sacred music or sit in quiet woodland aware of the subtle sounds of nature against a background of stillness is a help in becoming aware of the first movements toward manifestation. Stillness is the canvas on which the eternal presents its life forms, and listening to the subtle sounds of nature helps in refining the consciousness of listening.
To quote from Byron:-
There’s music in the sighing of a reed;
There’s music in the gushing of a rill,
There’s music in all things, if men had ears,
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
Nada Yoga, the Yoga of listening, has been from the earliest times a reference to the mystical or inner sounds, which can be heard during this form of meditation. These sounds are referred to in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and to quote a few lines from these early Sutras:
“Yogis who practise Samadhi (Contemplation) on those internal sounds experience an indescribable joy.”
“The Muni (Sage) should close his ears with his hands and fix his attention on the internal sounds until he attains perfect stillness.”
“At the beginning of practice various sound are heard, and as practice continues subtler and higher sounds.”
The Pradipika also describes the types of sounds, which are heard, such as the sounds of the ocean, small drum, a conch, a bell and a gong.
For many people sounds heard within the ears are an unwanted phenomenon and listed under the medical condition “tinnitus aurium”. It may be that some of these sounds are more than just a malfunction of the hearing system. Yogi Dr Ramamurti Mishra, when a guest at Faith House Yoga and Natural Health Centre, put forward the remarkable theory,that some tinnitus was the result of psychic or higher levels of consciousness attempting to make a break through whenever a change of direction was needed.
It is during the meditative process of stilling the mind and listening that we become aware of the profoundly subtle, and if we attempt to verbalise the intuitive response at this level it can resemble a Zen koan. For example one meditator described the transcendent sound of the breath as the ‘sound of unstruck gold’, which at one level appeared very apt, but at another not to make much sense.
The Yoga of listening is both therapeutic and healing as there is a level of transcendent awareness at which healing is more likely. It helps along the way to listen to sacred music which one writer described as music that is not chained to the instrument, but which when released, reaches heavenward, transforming the nature of the listener.
It is worth noting that there is a close link between the Sanskrit word Nada (sound) and Nadi (nerve Vessel), that is the channels in which the vital force travels around the body, and when listening to music the body becomes a sounding board and the music can be felt to resonate at different levels. The purer the tone the more specific is the level affected.
To quote from an article by Roland Everett, Music in Teaching:
The three families of the musical instruments are representative of the three elements of music, of melody, harmony and rhythm, and these again are closely connected with the threefold aspects of Man; thinking, feeling and willing.
Instruments Elements of Music Faculties of Man
Pipe – wind section
Of an orchestra melody thinking
Lyre –string section
Of an orchestra harmony feeling
Drum – percussion section
Of an orchestra rhythm willing
Background music played in a Yoga class can prove to be a useful aid in creating a stress free and relaxing atmosphere as well as being conducive to healing, and to support this here is an extract from an article by June Kynaston, “Can Music cure sick minds?” (Health for All, July 1958). Hephzibah Menuhin, the concert pianist and sister of violinist Yehudi Menuhin, claims to have made an extraordinary experiment with music. It is the curing and rehabilitation of the insane through social clubs in which music plays a very large part.
“Music is a mysterious thing” she said, “like the mind. Perhaps that is why I have found it a language that speaks directly to lost minds,” Between concerts and recording sessions, Hephzibah spends much time in mental hospitals playing, singing and talking to patients... In Australia, three hospitals have paid tribute to this novel approach to mental patients, which, unlike the dangerous medical methods at present in vogue, may prove to be a humane contribution to the constructive treatment of mental illness.
There is no doubt as to the value of music in its ability to calm and relax and for sacred music in its power to build up and mould the organs of spiritual perception. It is however an aid under the control and direction of the Will, not the earth bound Will conditioned by earthly expediency but the Will of the higher Self that flows through life and nature. To quote Schopenhauer, “music is the inner life of the Cosmos”. The aim of Nada Yoga does not lie in the separate notes which appear in time but in the space between and the transcendent harmonies, beyond which lies perfect stillness and the silent voice of the Universe.
Many inner sounds or voices are not mystical in origin, but suppressed thoughts long kept out of sight. By meditating with a still mind thoughts will rise like bubbles to the surface of a pool. You will hear the sounds of parents and educators telling you things. Some things you will agree with and others not. Some things will be said with great authority, none the less examine them all and say to yourself, “do I really believe these things?” If they stand the test of your conscious examination, affirm them and make them your own and keep them close to your heart. If not, throw them out, and by so doing avoid the second death, which will be the death of all your unrelated ideas. By so doing you will be working to be reborn in this lifetime to all that is universally true.
Listening to spiritual and uplifting music is simply a means to an end on the Journey toward experiencing Nada Yoga and the perfect stillness which is the living backdrop to life itself. The music sounds or mantras that we choose are usually subjective and we have to discover our own as time and place will determine the music that is needed for the next step. The right music has the power to transform at the levels of Mind, Feeling and Will and to quote a line from Carlyle, “Music is a kind of inarticulate speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite and lets us for a moment gaze into that”
A good time to listen to relaxing and soothing music is immediately prior to sleep when it has the power to calm the mind after a busy day and transport us into the eternal presence of the Divine. Here is a quote from the writer Eleanor C. Merry in “The Flaming Door” (Rider)... “(Music) is there in eternal and inaudible beauty and we speak of this – to us – inaudible beauty, as the “harmony of the spheres”. Sometimes, in the moment of waking out of a sleep we can feel ourselves streaming earthwards in a river of light and of great organ tones – a magnificent and indescribable harmony comes with us, “trailing clouds of glory”. Then suddenly we are awake, and it is silent.”
The pure sounds and tones which we experience in music, mantra and the sounds of nature, remind us of God as Supreme Artist and the harmonies we establish within ourselves provide the subtle link between the world in which we live and the profound underlying stillness in which wisdom lies. Great teachers of the past such as Patanjali came to this realisation and to remind us of his sutra, “Yoga is controlling the activities of the mind (chitta)”. When this is achieved with full awareness we can truly listen to the pure tones and subtle harmonies that we associate with Truth, Beauty and Goodness.