Once Upon a Time.

Lord Krishna was the 8^th reincarnation of Lord Visnu; the God of preservation.  He was Lord Vishnu in human form possessing both divine and human qualities blended in him.  In one sense he is the supreme reality and the highest truth to foster truth and annihailate evil, and on the other hand he is human being though endowed with extroidinary intelligence and power.  Today Wednesday 28^th of August is his birthday and I celebrate it with this story of how he overcame the mighty serpant Kaliya.  For me he is intriguing this blue colour human God, he had so many glories in the feats he performed although he was non-phenomenal in nature.  For me I hold him most dear in his guiding of Arjuna through the great battle within the Bhagavad Gita, which teaches us about this life, our duties and addresses itself to all human problems.  The Bhagavad Gita opens with the statement from Krishna – there is no cause for grief Arjuna.  There is no need for us to feel inadequate or feel the inability to face a certain situation.  So like Krishna in this story let us all feel courage and the ability to deal with all the mighty snakes that rise in our lives and then face them with compassion.  Have a wonderful day.

“In the river Kalindi there was a pool which was the abode of the mighty serpent Kaliya, who polluted the water of the river by his venom causing great hardships and harm to the inhabitants of the area and their herds.  So powerful was his venom that even the birds who flew over the river fell dead on the ground.  In order to subdue the great serpent, Krishna climbed a Kadamba tree and placed his yellow garment, peacock crown and garland on its trunk and then jumped into the river and began to play in the water striking it with his arms.  Kaliya the mighty serpant was enraged and circled Krishna with his coils.  Krishna’s companions on the bank were all terror struck and fell senseless on the ground.  Krishna however through his determination freed himself from the great snake, he so enlarged his body that the great snake couldn’t take his weight and rapidly released him from his coils.  Krishna took this opportunity to then dance on the snake, this rendered the snake powerless and he surrendered to Krishna.  The wives of this great serpent saw that he had lost his power and were distressed at the plight of their lord and appealed to Krishna.  Krishna spared the snakes life but banished him forever from the river, however he granted him protection from the mighty eagle Guruda; the destroyer of all serpents, whom Kaliya this great snake had fled from and had taken refuge in this river.

Om Lokha Somasta Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings find balance, harmony and peace

Om shanti.

mangala / nicky :-)

A beautiful daily affirmation.

Dear Great Spirit of Consciousness and Awareness

You are within my every breath

Within every tiny bird, drop of water and mighty mountain

Your sweet Touch reaches everything

I am well protected.

Thank you for this beautiful day in front of me

May Joy, love, peace and compassion

Be part of my life and those that surround me.

I am healing

I am Healed.

Om Shanti.

As We Think So We Become.

Thought is an object, thought is an energy, it has shape, power and travels like a bullet.  Negative thought goes in a negative direction, positive in a positive direction.  How we use our thoughts is in our hands, whether we allow ourselves to go along with these thoughts or not.  All thoughts have a really powerful energy and they can come at us from all directions, so we think so we become.  If we believe we are sick then we get sick, if we believe we are healthy we stay healthy, thought power is incredible.  Observing your thoughts mindfully is so interesting, watching our reactions to situations and people and once you can learn how to watch your thoughts then you can start to control them and change the reactions from what may have been negative into a positive.  It is easy to become carried away by our thoughts and then situations can escalate from something that really was nothing into huge mountains, by watching our thoughts we can at least try to keep them as mole hills!

You also attract thoughts with your own thought waves, for example love attracts love, hate attracts hate, so what you are thinking is so important as to what you want to surround yourself with.  Become angels and not monsters, as we think so we become.

I will be off on my travels again for the next 6 or 7 weeks, some time for family, some time for introspection and time to watch my thoughts!  I will also be taking an Ayurvedic course which I'm very excited about and hope to share my learnings with you when I'm back and connected again.

For now I would like to thank you all for allowing me to share this wonderful thing called yoga with you and wish you all have wonderful summers full of peace and love.

Looking forward to connecting with you all again in mid August,

for now shine brightly like the lights that you are and keep up the practice,

Om Om Shanti Om

mangala / nicky :-)

Kakasana; Crow Pose - Learning how to Fly!

Learning how to fly may seem like an impossibility as we try and try again to lift up our feet from the mat, trust ourselves to let go of the security of the connection between the soles of the feet and that trusted mat underneath you and lift up onto the wrists.  Kakasana may seem like one of the more challenging postures but like all postures with practice it will come, it just takes time and that will be different for each individual, for some it may come quickly and for others the light at the end of the tunnel may seem a distant speck.  But like all the postures it is the process that matters, it is the journey of the posture where we learn.  All postures were designed to be mental exercises as well as physical, improving strength in the mind as well as in the body, but it is the balancing postures that give the most notable improvement in the powers of concentration and prepare us for meditation.  Kakasana brings mental tranquillity and although we may fall to begin with, practiced in the proper way with the proper approach it is much easier than it may first appear.

Here is how;

1. Sit in a squatting position with feet and knees wide apart.  Place the hands on the mat in front of you, spreading the fingers nice and wide to make a firm foundation.  Keep the hands slightly rotating inward.  Make sure the hands are beneath the shoulders.
2. Bend the elbows a little outward, making shelves for the knees, placing the knees into the armpits, or on the respective upper arms.
3. Focus the eyes on a point several feet in front of the body, this will help you balance, if you look down it will be much more difficult.  Shift the weight forward onto the hands and hold the position there with the big toes still resting on the mat for support.
4. Begin to pull the belly into the spine and slowly lift the feet up, one at a time to begin with.
5. Breathe there and enjoy this flying sensation!  Even if you can’t bring the feet up to begin with you will still gain much benefit from bringing the weight onto the wrists.
6. Slowly lower the feet back down to the mat and gently shake out your wrists.
7. Remember never to jump into this position, you should always move slowly and gracefully and only go into full posture when the strength and flexibility is there.

Kakasans will bring much strength to the wrists, arms and shoulders.  It increases breathing capacity by expanding the chest, and increases the powers to concentrate helping to remove lethargy.  It is an excellent pose for people in jobs who are in danger of getting repetitive strain injury. 

So join me on the mat and lets learn how to fly together,

Have beautiful days

Om Om shanti Om

Mangala / nicky.

Exploration to Transcend.

So we have said that the cause of our ignorance and suffering are our senses, that they bind us to the sensual world and limit our being.  We become involved with satisfying our sense of taste, touch, sound, smell and sight.  We like to eat what we consider to be beautiful food, we like to look at beautiful things, hear beautiful things etc, and when it’s not that way we become disturbed.  Our mind is but a limited thing, actually it is not really much more than an organiser of information much like a computer, the knowledge is not there in the computer before we put it there, much like the knowledge is not there in the mind but somewhere else.  So how do we transcend this limited mind and the senses to a higher level?  How do we find this knowledge to overcome our ignorance, we are told the knowledge is there within us, all possibilities are within us, all joy, bliss and peace are there within us, but how do we get there? 

Is there a direct route that some Rishi somewhere is keeping a secret?  No, we get there through an exploration of practice, an exploration of this body and mind until we can transcend this limited being and find the true self.  That is where the knowledge is, that is where the unlimited ocean of peace is and that is where the magic happens.  But we are so full of memories and bad habits, impressions from past experience both in this life and past, we are full of impurities of our likes and dislikes.  The mind tosses back and forth and because of this tossing it prevents us from deeper self-enquiry and creates emotions that are difficult to keep under control.  But by making a leap forward into an exploration of practice we can make progress.  We can transcend these likes and dislikes by practicing the act of Karma yoga, the act of selfless service.  By embarking on any work where you can give up the fruits of your action, do something for somebody without expecting anything back, be able to take on any task no matter what it is with a smile and just do it, without hating or loving it but just doing it.  We can prevent this tossing of the mind by practicing Raja yoga; the eight fold path, which incorporates our observances and restraints, withdrawing the senses, the practice of asanas and pranayama, concentration and meditation to reach the blissful state.  Then we can transcend the emotions by the practice of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion, by making all you do an act of devotion, by chanting the mantras and devotional songs we can sublimate these emotions that cause us so much trouble!  Then we can transcend our whole being by Jnana yoga, the practice of deep self-enquiry to reach the truth, through the practice of meditation.  These four paths lead to the same destination, and that is one of oneness, of union, which path is more suited to you well you will have to explore all of them to know that, but by practicing all four paths the destination may just come into sight, and what a journey!

Sounds easy, of course it’s not, but as Christopher Columbus set sail across the oceans on a journey of exploration of the globe, set sail across the oceans of yoga on the biggest exploration of all, an exploration of the self. 

So looking forward to seeing you on the mat and setting sail.

Om Om Shanti Om

Mangala / nicky

Dancing in the light of Saraswati

I open my heart 

as the lotus blooms in the moonlight

let go let go let go

surrendering myself to that pure light

it pulsates within me

around me 

all is energy

feeling that pulse of the vast unseen

floating

floating

truth reveals itself

under the silver light.

enjoy every breath of this beautiful existence

Om Om shanti Om

mangala / nicky

A lotus is a flower that grows deeply in the mud.

A lotus is a flower that grows deep in the mud, the deeper the mud the more beautiful the lotus.  I think you have probably heard this saying, it is one that resides deep in my heart and I am often referring back to it in regards to practice.  Sometimes the practice is going so well, everything is feeling good, the mind is calm and focused, and nothing seems to bother you.  And there are times when it seems to be more of a struggle, there is pain in the body, the mind becomes confused and busy, other things in life seem to be hurling themselves at you, and time for practice, real quality time becomes harder to find.  It is in those times I often think of the lotus so symbolic to our spiritual growth.  Yes at times we face many obstacles, but we have to take courage and know that it is with this experience that our lotus will bloom.  We have to learn to be so adaptable and find the yoga that is truly working for us through our own experience and nobody else’s.  By learning how to deal with our body and mind system on a daily basis, trying not to just follow systems dogmatically but to learn when to push ourselves on and when we need to hold ourselves back.  We are all incredibly different at the same time as being one, which leaves me in amazement.  Take courage to leave the shore of broken shells and dive deeper into a new world of endless possibilities.  To discover one country we have to leave the last one behind, and for that be brave learn how to let go, take courage and have faith.  Learn how to no know anything, as if we only base our knowledge on this limited mind we are going to fall down.  The world you seek contains more possibilities than you can imagine, you will be able to see things that you cannot imagine.  If thinking is an amazing thing then not to think is even more amazing.  The only way you can reach that beautiful blooming lotus is through your experience with your practice, learning how to transform yourself, not to just be able to sit in a cave in padmasana and reside in bliss, but to make that experience one you can enjoy in every moment no matter what you are doing.  Removing the chaos around you to find your peace is not the answer, removing the chaos within you and being able to float to the heights and continue to float back down at the lower levels is our goal.  Our experience is the mud and there is no other way than to plough through it.  What you will reach with determination and dedication is indescribable, what you will discover is indescribable, set sail oh seeker over the oceans of the unknown and discover yourself and shine, shine brightly like the light that you are.

For now I am enjoying the mud!

Love and light

Om Shanti

Mangala / nicky