Dear Bangkok Ashtangis,
Here is the Ashtanga Yoga Jiva Newsletter for March & April 2012.
Dates For Your Diary :
March
Wednesday 7th : No Class (Full Moon Day)
Friday 23rd : No Class (New Moon Day)
Friday 30th : Nigel’s last class!
April
Monday 2nd : Boonchu’s first class!
Friday 6th : No Class (Full Moon Day)
Wednesday 11th - Tuesday 17th : No Class (Songkran)
Saturday 21st : New Moon Day
For a variety of reasons I have changed some of the Moonday dates for 2012. I wont confuse and bore you with the various reasons, but rest assured it is for students benefit! Please check Moondays for updated 2012 Moonday calendar.
Because there will be no class for the Songkran period - Wednesday 11th to Tuesday 17th - all monthly passes with validity during the break will be extended accordingly.
FIT Studio have started a yoga teacher training course which takes place every Tuesday and Thursday for about the next 6 months. Therefore, every Tuesday and Thursday, we need to finish in the yoga room before 9am, and shift ourselves to the smaller room next door.
Mysore Classes in Bangkok to continue with Boonchu Tanti & Leena Kinger
In May, Nigel will be returning to the UK. His last class in Bangkok will be on Friday the 30th of March.
Happily, the class will continue, and from Monday April the 2nd, will be taught by Authorized Ashtanga Yoga teacher’s Boonchu Tanti and Leena Kinger.
Both Boonchu and Leena are Authorized (Level 2) to teach Ashtanga Yoga by the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India.
More Information on Boonchu & Leena
Please show your interest in the class by signing up on the Facebook Event Page.
Prices as usual.
Please note: It is very important and it is your responsibility that you let your yoga teacher know about your injury / difficulty / idiosyncrasy. Your teacher does not posses x-ray eyes or a special power to know about your body! Please go here for more information and other class guidelines.
Questions of Food for Practice and for Life
Questions about food suitable for yoga practice are often asked of the yoga teacher. Most days I get asked something about food.
If I become a vegetarian, will it help my yoga practice? Do I need to become a vegetarian if I want to be a yoga teacher? Is fish better than Chicken for yoga practice? Can I eat spicy food if I want to practice yoga? How about chocolate? Ice cream? Coffee? Pizza?
To try to understand the yoga approach to diet, for yoga practice and a healthy life, it is very useful to know something about the three Gunas - the three qualities of nature. They are; “Rajas” - that may be broadly described as creation, “Sattva” - preservation, and “Tamas” - destruction. All of nature and the process of evolution is carried out by the combining and balancing of these Gunas, all three of which have a necessary function.
And so, all types of food can be described as being a combination of the Gunas, but with one Guna predominating. The following article, which recently came to my attention, saves me the bother of writing my own piece.
The Yoga of Food: Foods to Enjoy & Avoid
Sattvic, Rajasic, and Tamasic Foods
By Nicky Moona
“You are what you eat—what does that statement mean to you? To most people, it simply means that the vitamins, carbohydrates, and proteins in food build cells, blood, and bones in the body. In yoga, however, “You are what you eat” has a far more subtle and powerful meaning. Food is known to directly influence consciousness and feelings. It can induce bliss or anger, contentment or restlessness, thoughts of the sacred or the profane. The quality of the food you eat literally creates your state of mind, emotions, and consciousness. The teachings of yoga advocate a vegetarian diet with special emphasis on foods that bring peace to body, mind, and spirit.
The highest form of duty to oneself is the partaking of foods that are directly beneficial to health. “What” you eat and the “state of mind” you eat in have direct impact. The state of your health is dependent not only on what you choose to eat but also on what you choose not to eat. Being aware of the types of foods you consume—in terms of both benefits and ill effects—is very important.
Fundamental Yoga Food Distinctions: Sattvic, Rajasic, and Tamasic Foods
Sattvic Food (Eat the most)
Sattvic means “pure essence.” A Sattvic diet includes the consumption of pure foods that lead to the essence of true health. This is the purest form of the yoga diet and most suitable for serious yoga followers. It not only nourishes the body but calms and purifies the mind to maintain a peaceful state, enabling the body to function at its maximum potential while attaining spiritual growth. This type of food is all natural and easily digestible. It generates vitality, vigor, energy, and mental alertness; increases strength; eliminates fatigue; and enhances spirituality, peace, and tranquility. The human body has fundamental requirements: fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, fiber, and water. The Sattvic diet satisfies these requirements by including the majority of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lentils, beans, nuts and seeds, therapeutic spices, herbs, milk and natural sweeteners.
Rajasic Food (Eat moderately)
Rajasic food signifies the “can-do” attitude, and provides that extra stimulation the body needs at times. It is believed to generate ambition, anger, greed, lust, and egotism. However, it also generates excitement, fantasies, sensuality, sexuality, and the energy we need to accomplish, create, and achieve. We require a certain amount of Rajasic energy to survive; it enables us to keep pace with the changing world around us. For understandable reasons, Rajasic foods are recommended for only moderate or occasional consumption. These include all spicy, hot, bitter, sour, gaseous, and pungent foods, which are not as easily digestible as Sattvic foods. Examples include too salty, bitter, sour, and gaseous foods such as toor lentils, white urad lentils, black and green gram, chickpeas, soybeans; hot spices such as chilies and black pepper; and stimulants such as onion and garlic, tea, coffee, tobacco, soda, chocolate, and refined sugars.
Tamasic Food (Eat less)
Tamasic foods are known to benefit neither the mind nor the body. Under their influence, the body’s resistance to disease is destroyed, and the mind is filled with pessimism and the negative emotions of greed, anger, and impure thoughts. This type of food is very difficult to digest and generates the least amount of energy, often leading to dullness and lethargy. Tamasic foods enhance laziness, compulsion, suffering, depression, and dullness of the mind. Tamasic foods are impure, stale, fermented, highly processed, and addictive. They include meat, fish, eggs, intoxicants, alcohol, stale food (food kept for more than twenty-four hours). Processed, canned, and frozen foods are Tamasic, as well as foods containing preservatives, chemical additives, artificial flavors and colors, and reheated and deep-fried foods. These foods consume large amounts of energy while being digested and are believed to create antagonistic feelings. The body feels heavy, and the mind unfocused and uninspired. Tamasic foods are anathema to the basic goal of yoga: the union of mind and body.
The yoga diet’s potential for physical and mental transformation and its accessibility make it an ideal diet for people who want to be healthy and happy. And who in the world would want anything different.”
Also of interest may be old-school Ashtangi Anthony Gary Lopedota’s article on his Ashtanga Yoga Therapy web site: Injury or degeneration, the role of nutrition
See you in class!
Namaste
Millions of people are living meaningless lives because of this utterly stupid idea that meaning has to be discovered. As if it is already there. All that you need is to just pull the curtain, and behold! meaning is here. It is not like that...
Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create meaning. Meaning has not to be discovered: it has to be created. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is not lying there somewhere behind the bushes, so you can go and you search a little bit and you find it. It is not there like a rock that you will find. It is poetry to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.
Osho
