MY STYLE
My YOGA teaching stresses the importance of awareness of all
aspects of yoga: the body, mind and soul, and is the culmination of a life time`s study, practice and teaching of yoga. The
physical exercises include both gentle stretching and also strong challenging exercises. At all stages students work within
their own levels of ability.
Emphasis is placed on practising yoga with awareness, thus helping to avoid unnecesary injury, but also to
begin the process of harnessing the power of the mind to transform us.
My teaching now incorporates aspects of the styles of the Sivananda
school, Satyananda, Iyengar, Astanga Vinyasa Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. However with the increasing tendency of yoga teachers
and `schools` to try to patent or at least copyright their `names` and styles of teaching my answer to the question `What
style of yoga do you teach?` is `Yoga`. Looking at the traditional forms of yoga - Raja, Hatha, Bhakti , Karma
etc in fact my teaching is closest to Tantra which incorporates all aspects in a framework of the eight limbs of Patanjali
and ritual. Tantra was developed to be appropriate for students of yoga in this modern age ` Kali Yuga` - dark
age.
Tantra uses physical and mental techniques
together with ritual to open the individual to an experience of the Divine within them. It is this
approach which inspired Budd Thompson to develop what he called Bodylife, a way of teaching incorporating
many approaches, ancient and modern , to achieve the same effect.
Remembering the words of my guruji at initiation `Clothes are a barrier between you and god, and should be
worn only when necessary `, I believe that yoga is ideally practised. naked (digambar) However in class
and other group situations it is better to be relaxed and comfortable wearing clothes where necessary.
Ultimately yoga is a spiritual practise seeking the realisation of
the Self within us. Sadhana is the psiritual journey that we take through life. To that end all methods have a
value.
