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WELCOME
omagain.com was established:
     
      • to serve as a resource on yoga
to keep in touch— with you

 
yoga news
 
 
 
Richard Freeman is coming to town
see Events page
 
 
 
IN MEMORIAM

Much beloved guru of so many of our friends and teachers,
Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois passed away May 18, 2009, 2:30pm Indian Standard Time.
 
 
 
yoga studios at risk   
 
The states' economies are hurting, and yoga-related businesses are grossing some $6 billion a year. Naturally, the states want their piece of the action. And who better to decide how to run your local yoga studio, than bureaucrats in the Dept. of Education? Many changes are afoot. See "NY State Licensing Update: Yogis Unite!" at yogadork.com.
 
 
 
coping with the crisis
 
In the yoga tradition, obstacles are seen as our teachers. Although crises are by definition painful, they also present opportunities. They force us to come back to what is essential. Thanks to Thomas Friedman (NY Times, 3/7/09: The Inflection Is Near?) for helping to shift some of the focus— in the discussion over what some have called a global de(e)pre(ce)ssion— to the root of the problem, an insane economic model with an impossible notion of infinite growth and no regard for Earth’s limited resources. It’s very well put by a climatologist Friedman quotes: we have not been generating real wealth but rather stealing it from future generations in what is basically “a Ponzi scheme.”
 
Might our entire way of life be called into question? This is just the sort of questioning the path of yoga demands of us: the honest reflection of svadhyaya (self-study) with discipline or tapas (literally, heat). We put ourselves in the hotseat. Of course, it's all too human of us to want to create scapegoats (Those greedy guys on Wall Street did it). The ego is all too eager to be the enabler for our avoidance of any reflection as to whether we may ourselves be part of the problem. So here's a fun link I'd like to share, from the incomparable TED.com, re. one of many impacts our collective bad behavior has on the environment. See: Sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch



omagain exclusives

    nycYogaShortlist: Events

 
    nycYogaStudioFinder:  New York yoga studios
 

om
again.com maintains what is probably the
most comprehensive and current listing of Manhattan's diverse array of yoga centers. 
 



    video short: "Vinyasa Yoga with Daniel Dale"


On the health & wellness website iHolistic.tv, a short presenting the fundamentals of vinyasa yoga.
 

 

  


Highly recommended
 

Boulder, Colorado-based master teacher Richard Freeman now has a blog where one can listen to his Studio Talks for free. Click & play, download them, or subscribe to podcasts.
What a gift! Many thanks to Richard, Mary & Co.


Practice tips
Some days you may be up for a very vigorous practice of yoga asanas, but at other times that might be counter-productive. Here are some ways you can "soften" your practice:
• Smooth out the breath, gently. Complete each
exhales & inhales. Do not push further into the
asana (pose) if the breath becomes constrained.
 
• When doing a forward bend, you can step the feet a bit
apart and bend the knees.
If the classical form of any
asana would be uncomfortable,
just take your time—
perhaps years— to ease
your way patiently towards it,
if at all.
 
• If lowering into chaturanga dandasana is too intense,
try a "knees-chest-chin" approach. That is, you can
always touch the knees to the ground first, when
lowering from a plank position.
 
• Then, you can always substitute a cobra pose for an
upward-facing
 dog, keeping the pelvis on, and pressing
into,
 the ground.
 
• As a substitution for downward-facing dog, try balasana ("child’s pose") or try what I like to call “downward
puppy,” simply by bringing the
 knees gently to the floor
from downward-facing dog, while still reaching up and
back
through the sitting bones.
 
 
                                                                       > full article


For explanations or pictures of  the aforementioned yoga asanas, you might try searching in the Yoga Journal Pose Finder

 
In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny.
— Henry David Thoreau

The Upanishads are the most rewarding and elevating reading possible in the world.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
 
 
 

 
 
 
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        In yoga, we are going for perception,
        not perfection.
 
        — Michael Gilbert
 



   
 
 
        Whatever you do, have a good breathe.
 
        — Mark Whitwell
 




 

When our mind is not turbulent for a little while, we tend to think we’re in a slump and start groping about for something that can stir it up again: a thrilling movie, a stiff drink, a spirited quarrel, anything to “get the juices flowing.”...

When we fix our eyes on a higher goal, we begin to see beyond the immediate appeal of short-term satisfactions. Confident that a far greater joy is ours, we can hold out against the voices from all sides that cajole, “Eat this; drink that; watch this; buy that.” True joy is found when the mind is still, not when it is excited.
 
— Eknath Easwaran
 





 

 
Treat somebody to private yoga instruction
with an omagain
gift certificate.
 
 

 






 



Favorite yoga mat: Central Park's Great Lawn
 
 






 

 

 
  
 
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