winter solstice Wishes

Winter Solstice

This is the night of the solstice

The longest night of the year

Now darkness triumphs yet gives way to and changes into Light

The breath of Nature is suspended

All waits while within the Earth the dark king

 is transformed into the infant of Light

We watch for the coming of the Dawn when the great mother again gives birth to the divine child sun who is the bringer of hope and the promise of summer

This is the stillness behind motion

when time itself stops

We turn the wheel (Mantra or Prayer) to bring the Light

Peace   Peace   Peace

We gather in friendship and community at this time to affirm the sanctity of Life...All Life

In our memory we hold the ancestoral knowledge that some would not survive the rigours of winter and the possible famine it might bring.Today we may have food and shelter to physically survive but we recognise the poverty of spirit which leaves so many isolated and fearful.  Allow your true self to gain power over any negative beliefs of your little self .

 Just as the seed waiting beneath the earth will come to flower when the time is right ; 

 so too will we blossom and shine with the Light of the True Self

All is Well

  Seek out quiet spaces and people to be with and trust that others will understand .  If you cannot avoid big groups at work or play then just escape for short bursts of nature or silence and visualise your cloak of light.

We wish you all a peaceful transition into 2013 

   

LOVE

Reflection

Please enjoy and share the video link below which is a version of the Forgive Me track on  The Reflection CD available to hear on www.yogawise.co.uk.  Enjoy!

Forgive Me ~ Meditation

Diwali festival of Light

As we come to the last day of Diwali for 2012 we stay in the light amidst all the darkness arising in the world.    Love is all there is and even in conflict we do not take sides - we stay peaceful so that our peace spreads to others and their hate and suffering is absorbed by our love.   Difficult as this seems in dire situations we can be inspired by others who have chosen this path even when they have suffered terribly at the hands of others.  They have acknowledged that it is always ignorance that causes others to behave less than their true potential.  How can you not forgive a child who has yet to learn right from wrong?   

Let us hope many more humans chose to grow up sooner rather than later!

Please consider adding the Om Shanti Shanti Shanti  Om Peace Peace Peace chant/mantra to your daily meditation practise up to and including the winter solstice on 21st December 2012.

Be a Light in the World

Brownsea Island

Just back from beautiful Brownsea Island ...nature at its best.  Red Squirrels and Sika Deer and so many birds!    The sea and forest added to our deep connection with nature and refreshed the spirit as always.

Also met some wonderful people and now back for Yoga up to end of year.   Some photos for you to enjoy.

Krishnamurti Wise Words

To bring up children without comparison is true education

"One is everlastingly comparing oneself with another, with what one is, with what one should be, with someone who is more fortunate. This comparison really kills. Comparison is degrading, it perverts one's outlook. And on comparison one is brought up. All our education is based on it and so is our culture. So there is everlasting struggle to be something other than what one is. The understanding of what one is uncovers creativeness, but comparison breeds competitiveness, ruthlessness, ambition, which we think brings about progress. Progress has only led so far to more ruthless wars and misery than the world has ever known. To bring up children without comparison is true education." - Letters to a Young Friend,18

Full Moon Tonight

Autumn Term Mon 3rd and Wed 5th Sept

This term there will be two meditation circles in October and a Silent Walk and end of year social in December in addition to the flow classes on monday and wednesday evenings

Please contact me for full details if you wish to join us.

Opening the Heart

Patanjali Sutra related to Calming the Mind: 
The Heart meditation we will be practising in the Yogawise Circle focuses on cultivating
four important attitudes outlined in this Sutra: 
1. an attitude of friendliness towards those who are happy;
2. compassion towards the unhappy;
3.  delight and joy for the virtuous
 4.  an indifference to those who do wrong.
 Patanjali also says that concentrating on our inner light steadies the mind. Our Eternal Self can be found  in  the brilliant inner light radiating from the heart Chakra, the energy centre of our hearts. 
 Seeing that supreme light within ourselves takes us beyond all anxieties, fear and worry

Olympics London 2012

Our beautiful Bushy Park welcomes the cyclists after their trek through the streets of London and past our riverside in Richmond and Twickenham.        The Diana Fountain shone in gold and the Goddess truly blessed them all in their endeavour to strive for perfection!
Michelle Obama gave a truly inspiring welcome to the USA team and her words must have spurred on the little Gabrielle (another angel!) USA gymnast who won Gold. 
I love the feeling of all the nations here together playing and sharing with each other as well as competing.
All the little things that go astray are not as important as this opportunity for all of us to see the things which we share in common rather than our differences.  Perhaps the day will come when there will be one flag and one anthem and one team?    WE ARE ONE!

Summer Solstice Wishes

Solstice - The sun stands still.  A time for fertility in all its forms to flower.  Father sky and Mother earth rejoice!


II.42. SAMTOSAD ANUTTAMAH SUKHA-LABHAH
'From contentment comes supreme happiness.'
Commentary:
We are ever searching for happiness in external objects, but it can
only be attained when the mind is satisfied with what has been allotted
and is no longer looking. When the mind is stilled and contented,
happiness is automatic.


I was reading the above sutra this morning and it felt very apt for this time of 'austerity' for some and immense wealth for others. If one is content then either extreme is of no importance and we all know from our own experience how we are sometimes very happy when not that well off and very sad when we have riches. It all depends on our inner state of mind.

As the sun stands still perhaps we can also meditate and be still and content.  Join with our soul group in this momentous 2012 and see what unfolds.

Shiva on the banks of the Ganges amidst all the work and mud and toil sits serenely and allows all to be exactly as it is.

Transit of Venus - Return of the Goddess

Many are feeling the powerful energy of the stars in their courses!   Tuesday 5th June will herald the transit of Venus and it will be the last time this occurs in our lifetime so perhaps a little space to reflect on the wonders of our universe and the wonder or our existence at all.
Meditation will help to balance us and accept what is in this present moment and also to allow any changes that need to happen to happen without resistence.  Resistence will only give us pain...reisitence is truly futile in the case of universal law and karma.
I wish you all who are awakening or who are awake already GRACE and PEACE and LOVE.

Om shanti

New term starts mon 14th and wed 16th May

Life is Love a poem for You

Life is Love by Ella Wheeler Wilcox


Is anyone sad in the world, I wonder?

Does anyone weep on a day like this,

With the sun above and the green earth under?

Why, what is life but a dream of bliss?



With the sun and the skies and the birds above me,

Birds that sing as they wheel and fly -

With the winds to follow and say they loved me -

Who could be lonely? O no, not I!



Somebody said in the street this morning,

As I opened my window to let in the light,

That the darkest day of the world was dawning;

But I looked, and the East was a gorgeous sight



One who claims that he knows about it

Tells me the Earth is a vale of sin;

But I and the bees and the birds - we doubt it,

And think it a world worth living in.



Someone says that hearts are fickle,

That love is sorrow, that life is care,

And the reaper Death, with his shining sickle,

Gathers whatever is bright and fair.



I told the thrush, and we laughed together -

Laughed till the woods were all a-ring;

And he said to me, as he plumed each feather,

"Well, people must croak, if they cannot sing!"



Up he flew, but his song, remaining,

Rang like a bell in my heart all day,

And silenced the voices of weak complaining

That pipe like insects along the way.



O world of light, and O world of beauty!

Where are there pleasures so sweet as thine?

Yes, life is love, and love is duty;

And what heart sorrows? O no, not mine!

Think Pink!

Spring 2012 All is One

Those coming to class are sharing their feelings of deep unrest and sense of helplessness in the midst of rapid change that we are all part of in this Kali Age. This is manifesting in pain of various sorts be it in the body or in the mind or in the spirit.

Some are more aware than others that this is a disconnection with the true self as all pain is just a resistence to 'what is'; a lack of acceptance or 'what is.'
I am not saying that pain is not 'real' and 'painful' for all of us who are in this human state but I am offering teachings which give light and help to lessen those intense feelings by understanding who we truly are. By way of example we can examine the pain felt by amputees in a limb which is not there; that pain is real for them but it is in the mind. From this we see that the mind is our biggest challenge which is why yoga's first sutra - truth - is the call to still the mind. If even one thought remains it is dominant and hides the true self; such is the power of mind.
Once we realise that we are one then we realise we cannot lose anybody or anything. Once we realise that we are not this body, this mind, this breath; we have no pain. We detach completely and flow with all that is.
Ok...perhaps not this week! I just ask you to read the following and meditate on the wisdom of Love as a virtue and not an emotion. The true self is Love which has no sense of 'me' and 'you'..........just the one which is whole and complete in this moment of Now.

*******************************************************************************

What is the Self?     (Extract  c. What are you doing with your Life?  J Krishnamurti)
Do we know what we mean by the self? By that, I mean the idea, the memory, the conclusion, the experience, the various forms of nameable and unnameable intentions, the conscious endeavor to be or not to be, the accumulated memory of the unconscious, the racial, the group, the individual, the clan, and the whole of it all, whether it is projected outwardly in action or projected spiritually as virtue; the striving after all this is the self.
    (nb, This self is the ego or peronality that we call ME)


In it is included the competition, the desire to be. The whole process of that is the self; and we know actually when we are faced with it that it is an evil thing. I am using the word 'evil' intentionally, because the self is dividing: the self is self-enclosing: its activities, however noble, are separative and isolating.

We know all this. We also know those extraordinary moments when the self is not there, in which there is no sense of endeavor, of effort, and which happens when there is love. -
 (nb. no division from the 'other' means there is 'no other''; only Love, only ONE. The hollywood version of love is actually only sensation and emotion between two individuals - rarely Love!)


*********************************************************************************
I wish you all strength through this year which holds further upheaval but which will be better for those who did the 'work' through 2011 and will get better if you start now to meditate every day and keep connected with like minded souls for support.


Classes getting deeper now as we start to incorporate mudras and more more stillness after four weeks of loosening up with Kriyas (cleansing), pranayama (breathwork), meditation and of course Asana!

om shanti shanti shanti

narayani

Happy Valentine's Day

Think pink!
Spread some love today with a smile to all you meet.

Full Moon 7th February

Full moon shone down on our snowdrops as they light up our garden again this year.  All things Pass as beautiful George once sung and so we hope for sunshine amidst the cold and darkness to Light up our Lives this 2012.   Keep singing and dancing and of course - Yoga!
The new term started on monday and tonight we will see who comes to join our circle and who choses the sofa and tv.   Law or Karma......each action has a re-action...each choice impacts on our future .
Choose well.     

New Term Begins Monday 6th February 2012

What a beautiful start to 2012 as we walked along the beach in Portugal in the sunshine with dear friends.
After such a sad year for us with family deaths and the chaos of the world as it realised it could no longer sustain an attitude of non-caring for others and the planet and went into meltdown; we had the offer to spend time in a different place and space to dream again.  Acccepting help and gifts is one of the spiritual laws - giving and receiving - and it is one of the most beautiful.  Allow yourself to receive with grace and then pass it on!

Classes start again on monday and wednesday nights at 7.30 pm 6th and 8th February and Tuesday 11am on the 7th February for eight weeks.  I look forward to working with those who are seeking the deeper truths of existence and to finding that peaceful centre which is always there for us to replenish the spirit in this Kali age.

Love and Light

Narayani