Kirtan with WAH!
WAH! will be leading Kirtan at Integral Yoga on Saturday evening March 29

For more info go to the website : www.iyiny.org

Bikram Yoga

There are a few Bikram studios around Manhattan ... these 2 are offering unlimited yoga for a week.

Warning: Bikram yoga is done in a very hot room (100 degrees?) and NOT recommended if you have high blood pressure or heart problems.

Bikram Yoga Union Square - One week unlimited yoga for $20 www.bikramyogaunionsquare.com.

Bikram Yoga 797 8th Ave (48th St) one week unlimited yoga for $23
www.bikramyoganyc.com

Satsang in the City with Joan Suval

Joan is back from California. Satsang is the first Wednesday of the month.
7-9pm by donation.

Location:
The ARCH Space
66 West 39th Street betw. 5th & 6th Ave. (closer to 6th Ave.), 3rd floor
phone 212.924.0718

Yoga weekend retreat March 21-23

Come welcome Spring with us up at Ananda Ashram !! Our weekend yoga retreat is just 2 weeks away ! If you are interested in joining us, please let me know ASAP !

you can email me for more information via this blog ... quietyoga@msn.com
Bring your friends ! Tell your friends !
Namaste

CityStretch - guide to NYC Yoga studios

This is a Zagat-like rating guide to yoga studios in NYC. It costs $15 but includes $450 in vouchers for free yoga classes around town.

Wish I had thought of this..... oh well.

http://www.citystretch.com/

Going to the Dogs ....
This has nothing to do with yoga (except the notion of being considerate of all sentient beings) but it is so inventive and crazy that I had to put it on my blog ... so for all you dog lovers out there.... hey, I'm sure your kids could use it too !! You can own one for $30 !

Click on the link : http://www.petpeek.info/index.htm

Leave a comment !!! : )

YOGA TO THE PEOPLE
I have mentioned this yoga studio before --and I hope you all went there to check it out. They are in the E. Village on 8th St and give awesome intermediate level vinyasa yoga classes for a donation of $10 per class. You pay what you can and it's no problem.

now they have some of their classes online... so if you're too lazy to leave the house, you can still participate in a class at home-- for free !!

Click here to get the video link :
http://www.yogatothepeople.com/tryOnlineClass.shtml

YOGA RETREAT March 21-23, 2008

Come join Rikard Skogberg (Anusara Yoga Teacher) and myself for a weekend of yoga and bliss up at Ananda Ashram -- just one hour out of NYC.

We will be in the beautiful Catskill Mountains (near Bear Mountain) to enjoy delicious, healing vegetarian food, participate in yoga, meditation, fire purification ceremonies, and satsang ....

Come join us !! Feel free to contact me for more information. We'd love to have you participate with us!
email: quietyoga@msn.com

Searching for happiness

Everyone and everything wants to be happy. A chicken has it's own happiness.... to run around outside, eat well and have the company of other chickens... a plant will turn itself and grow towards the sun... a cat will luxuriate in the sofness of your bed, knowing she is safe, warm and well fed. Everyone wants to be happy.

Humans really want to be happy. A new car, a new job, a bigger house... always looking for something external to give them the illusion of happiness. People even expect their spouses to make them happy. But according to yoga, happiness is already within you. Nobody can make you happy because you are already happy -- it's inside of you.

do you have the courage to stop looking for happiness?

Laws of yoga
In yoga, we have our own version of the 10 commandments. Generally referred to as yama and niyama. These are laws that you are supposed to take with you out into your daily life -- a yogic attitude to living.

There are many branches to yoga:

Yama (suggestions for social behaviour), Niyama (suggestions for personal disciplines), Asana (physical postures), Pranayama (breathing exercises) Pratyahara (sense withdrawal) Dharana(concentration) Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (Super consciousness).

I have written about Ahimsa (non-harming) many times on this blog. But I thought I would list the Yamas and Niyamas for you as food for thought and you help you in your practice :

Niyamas:
Saucha - Cleanliness. Not only a means of keeping our bodies clean and healthy, but a practice of keeping a clear mind.
Samtosha - Happiness and modesty. To be happy with what you have, instead of being unhappy over what you dont have.
Tapah - Keeping the body fit and healthy through healthful eating, exercise (asana) and kriyas.
Svadhyaya - Meditation and self awareness. This can be done through the repetition (japa) of mantra or the reading of the scriptures.
Isvarapranidhana - Surrender. knowing that you have done your best and that you offer your actions to the Universe.

Yamas:
Ahimsa - Non violence. Do not kill. Do not harm anyone by action, word or thought. Do not show cruelty to any sentient being. Treat every life with respect and compassion. Do not cause injury by your spoken word -- do not gossip, do not lie, do not insult. Do not use other people or animals.
Satya - Truthfulness/honesty. Do not mislead people through lying or half truths. Do not mislead by omission.
Asteya - Non stealing. It's not referrring to stealing just material things. It means do not steal somebody's time (dont be late, dont stay in a relationship with people in whom you are not sincerely interested), do not steal somebody's trust, do not steal somebody's love.
Brahmacharya - Sense control/ restraint. Most typically, this refers to sexual abstinence. However, it means do not lose your path -- act responsibly towards moving towards your Truth. Do not allow sensual attractions (e.g. over-indulging in eating, smoking, drinking, shopping) to distract you.
Aparigraha - Do not hoard. Clear out your closets. Do not take or use more than is necessary (dont buy something just because it's on sale, dont overload your plate at a buffet, dont drive a gas hog). Do not exploit others for your gain. Do not grasp onto money -- grasping blocks the natural flow of energy. Give away what you dont need or use.

Virtual Stock Market Game

Here is a link to another virtual stock market portfolio you can play with to learn about the financial markets.... you start out with one million "dollars" and you can play the market in real time. it is free to sign up... so go play and learn.
http://www.marketocracy.com/

Undercover Investigation Reveals Rampant Animal Cruelty at California Slaughter Plant – A Major Beef Supplier to America’s School Lunch Program
January 30, 2008

go to the Humane Society web by clicking on this link : http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/undercover_investigation.html
See video from the undercover investigation, and take action to stop this cruelty. WARNING: Very graphic images of cruelty.Video evidence compiled by The Humane Society of the United States shows inhumane handling methods that may have endangered the health of children.

A shocking undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States reveals widespread mistreatment of "downed" dairy cows—those who are too sick or injured to walk—at a Southern California slaughter plant.

The investigation at the Hallmark Meat Packing Co., of Chino, pulls open a curtain on the scandalous treatment of animals slaughtered to supply the National School Lunch Program and other federal aid programs.

Video evidence obtained by an HSUS investigator shows slaughter plant workers displaying complete disregard for the pain and misery they inflicted as they repeatedly attempted to force "downed" animals onto their feet and into the human food chain.

Cruelties that Defy Belief
In the video, workers are seen kicking cows, ramming them with the blades of a forklift, jabbing them in the eyes, applying painful electrical shocks and even torturing them with a hose and water in attempts to force sick or injured animals to walk to slaughter.

"This torture is right out of the waterboarding manual. To see the extreme cruelties shown in The HSUS video challenges comprehension," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS.

"This must serve as a five-alarm call to action for Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our government simply must act quickly both to guarantee the most basic level of humane treatment for farm animals and to protect America's most vulnerable people, our children, needy families and the elderly from potentially dangerous food."

Beef Distributed for School Lunches and the Needy
Hallmark's Chino, Calif., slaughter plant supplies the Westland Meat Co., which processes the carcasses. The facility is the second-largest supplier of beef to USDA's Commodity Procurement Branch, which distributes the beef to needy families, the elderly and also to schools through the National School Lunch Program. Westland was named a USDA "supplier of the year" for 2004-2005 and has delivered beef to schools in 36 states. More than 100,000 schools and child care facilities nationwide receive meat through the lunch program.
Hallmark Meat Packing has no connection to Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Temple Grandin, a renowned expert on animal agriculture and professor at Colorado State University, called the images captured in the investigation "one of the worst animal abuse videos I have ever viewed."

A Demand for Action
The HSUS recently completed its six-week undercover investigation at the federally-inspected slaughter plant. Videotape evidence and investigative background have been given to law enforcement authorities in San Bernardino County, Calif.

See the extended first-person investigator's video and take action to stop this cruelty. WARNING: Extremely graphic images of cruelty.
In releasing footage from the investigation, The HSUS demands that the USDA move swiftly to tighten its confusing regulations on the slaughter of downed cattle. Downer cows must not be used for food—plain and simple. As The HSUS video shows, this is necessary to protect animals from suffering. As science has made clear, this is necessary to protect food safety. The practice of slaughtering downed cows is especially troubling now that the link between downed cattle and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, has been firmly established. Of the 15 known cases of BSE-infected animals discovered in North America, at least 12 involved downed animals.

At the same time, The HSUS is urging Congress to intervene. The Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act (H.R. 1726) would set modest animal welfare standards, including humane euthanasia of any downed animals, for producers who sell food to federal government programs, and the Downed Animal Protection Act (S. 394 and H.R. 661) would ban any slaughtering of downed animals for human consumption.

Events around town in February

Feb 5 Bhagavad Gita Advanced Course (8 weeks) Tues 8.15PM -9.45PM at Jivamukti. Led by Joshua Greene, PhD $120

Feb 8th Kirtan with Krishna Das 8.00PM at Dharma Mittra Yoga Center 297 Third Ave/ 23rd Street. $28

Feb 24 George Harrison Musical Tribute 7.00PM at Jivamukti. Live music and slide presentation to celebrate George Harrison's birthday. $20

Have fun !!

January 24, 2008 - article from The New York Times
Bending, Posing and Teaching Beyond the Mat
By KATIE ZEZIMA
BOSTON
LIVING in a spartan cottage for eight days during a boot camp for aspiring yoga teachers in Hawaii, Sue Jones practiced from 7 a.m. to midnight, silently watched the rhythms of the Pacific Ocean from a bluff and, she said, gained the confidence to return to Boston and mend her marriage.
But Ms. Jones made another discovery that gnawed at her.
“Everyone had enough money to pay $4,000 to get to Hawaii,” she said, “and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, there are 100 people here and thousands of trainings every year, and I don’t hear anyone talking about teaching yoga to people who can’t afford it.’ ”
After returning to Boston, Ms. Jones started teaching yoga at a substance-abuse treatment center. She asked fellow teachers to help and received a flood of responses.
In May 2006, Ms. Jones started YogaHope, an organization that teaches yoga at eight Boston-area women’s homeless shelters, substance-abuse treatment programs and domestic-violence safe houses, as well as two programs in Seattle. The focus is on teaching restorative yoga, and though many teachers have completed at least 200 hours of training, it is not a requirement.
Driven by a sometimes missionary zeal and a sense that yoga has become an exclusive pursuit, a small but growing number of yoga practitioners are forming organizations that teach yoga in prisons and juvenile detention centers in Oakland, Calif.; Los Angeles, Seattle and Indianapolis. They are working with the addicted and the homeless in Portland, Ore., and with public-school students in New York City.
Though concern about the cost of yoga is an issue (studio classes can cost $20 for a drop-in session, though some offer free or low-cost classes taught by less experienced teachers), most of the practitioners are motived by a desire to introduce yoga to those who might need it most, but wouldn’t think to do it on their own.
Ms. Jones of YogaHope said she saw a change in the first women she taught after only one class: they held their heads higher, amazed at what their bodies could do. At that moment, she decided to spread yoga to other women. “We’re like Christian missionaries,” said Ms. Jones, a petite blonde whose green eyes flash with emotion as she speaks. “We really want to offer it to people who don’t know better or can’t access it.”
Those who teach or do research on yoga say these programs have increased in recent years as more yoga devotees decide to spread its gospel.
“You can’t do all those prostrations without it doing something to you,” said James Wvinner, the founder and director of yoga, tribe and culture films for Acacia Lifestyle, a distributor of mind, body and spirit DVDs.
Mr. Wvinner, who taught yoga at a federal prison and fondly recalls the sociopath who never missed a class, said more yogis are working in prisons and social-service centers.
Others believe bringing yoga to such places harkens to the ancient practice of karma yoga, or the yoga of action and selfless service. “What it speaks to,” said Kaitlin Quistgaard, the editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal, “is that social activism is becoming more and more a part of mainstream American yoga. People are realizing it’s almost a requirement to give back.”
Research in the United States on yoga’s effectiveness in helping treat drug addiction or mental illness is limited. Most studies have been done on a small scale in India, and the findings aren’t universally accepted.
But yoga’s function as a stress reliever is not in dispute. “Yoga and meditation do several things, and perhaps one of the most important is that they allow individuals to cope with stress better,” said Sat Bir Khalsa, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies the medical effects of yoga. “At the core of a lot of addiction is a search for that kind of relief from the stressful world.”
Patricia Gerbarg, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, in Valhalla, N.Y., taught yogic breathing to survivors of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, and found that tests scores that measure post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression dropped dramatically.
One recent night at the Volunteers of America Hello House, a residential substance-abuse treatment center for women in Boston, about 15 women lunged on their mats, which were squeezed into a common area.
“Tap into your breath to deal with the unknown,” said Amanda Richter, a YogaHope teacher. As they moved into the downward dog position, deep breathing filled the room. “Whatever hurts, whatever bad energy you have in your life, you can let it go here,” she said.
The women said yoga enabled them to do something that was frightening at first: focus inward. “The teacher always says how you’re a good person and to love yourself,” said Katey Sullivan, 39. “That makes you feel good about yourself, and you want to stay clean.”
That lesson was initially hard for Nikki Meyers. She dabbled with yoga in the 1970s, but soon “men and drugs and sex took priority,” she said. In the early 1990s, she got off drugs with the help of a 12-step program and yoga, which she started teaching to children in Boston.
Ms. Meyers moved to Indianapolis and opened Cityoga, a studio and health center. Certified under a 500-hour teacher-training program, she also teaches at the Hamilton County Juvenile Services Center outside Indianapolis. “I tell them that they did movement, breath, and a little sitting still for an hour,” she said, “and went from irritated and angry to calm and relaxed without taking a drug, without taking a drink, without having alienated your family.”
Bidyut Bose, who grew up in India and learned yoga from his father, started teaching it to seniors in 1998 at the Downtown Berkeley Y.M.C.A. in California. As he saw the students gaining in strength and self-esteem, he started to wonder about others who could benefit. Mr. Bose began contacting treatment centers, hospitals and homeless shelters. “If millions of Americans are doing yoga, then there are millions who are not getting it, not coming to a studio, not able to afford classes,” he said.
Mr. Bose later founded Niroga, an organization in Oakland, Calif., that teaches yoga to people in drug rehabilitation programs and juvenile detention centers, formerly homeless veterans and victims of domestic abuse. He is also training black youths to become yoga teachers throughout Oakland.
Alex Briscoe, assistant director at the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, which pays for the yoga classes taught by Niroga and another agency, said that yoga for children has allowed psychiatrists to better treat them.
One hurdle in teaching yoga, especially to teenagers, is debunking ideas that it is a wacky, new-age practice. “There’s resistance, shyness, embarrassment,” said Anne Desmond, who taught yoga at New York City schools and formed Bent on Learning in 2001. The organization, which offers yoga instruction to students and youth centers, teaches at nine schools.
“There’s such a transformation,” she said, “from this not knowing about yoga and resisting it to really loving it.”

High Definition Televisions

As you know, next year , they are changing the broadcast system for television.. but apparently, you will be ok if you have a cable or satellite connection already. You dont need a new TV, and you dont have to buy a HD tv. If you dont have a cable connection, you have to get a converter box for your TV-- and the government will give you $40 towards that purchase.

A lot of people are still going out to buy new HD televisions -- there is one interesting thing that nobody is pointing out -- these new HD tvs use a lot more energy than your old tv and you will see that reflected in your ConEd bill.

I'm no engineer, but here is what I have gathered :
The bigger the TV, the more energy it will use. a 52" TV will use almost twice the energy of a 32" TV.

Plasma vs. LCD : Plasma HDTV uses about 50% more energy than the LCD HD televisions.

So think it over. Think Green. Think about how you use the Earth's resources.

Osho Meditation

If you are interested in Osho, there is an Osho Mediation place in the West Village (Barrow St)
Here's the link : http://www.oshopadmameditation.us/calendar.asp

Weekend Yoga Retreat March 21-23, 2008

We are looking forward to Spring already !! Come welcome the Spring Equinox with us at Ananda Ashram ! I will co-host teaching with Rikard Skogberg (Anusara Yoga Teacher extraordinaire !!!) and together we will lead you deeper into your yoga and meditation practice. Beginner yogis welcome !

Spending the weekend at the ashram also allows you to experience "living your yoga" and helps you carry that back into your day-to-day life. The price for the weekend includes your room and board, 3 veggie meals a day, our yoga classes and the ashram programs.... Meditation, fire purification ceremony, satsang, kirtan etc.... Dorm room: $375 Semi Private room: $390

The ashram is on 85 acres of beautiful land and you can go for easy hikes in the woods, walk around the lake or feed the ashram deer.

Massage and Reiki therapists are available by appointment for an extra fee.

Rikard and I have done a few of these retreats now and our students always ask us to do another retreat ! So here we have it -- Come join us.

Please let me know as early as possible if you want to come to the retreat as we have to give the ashram bed reservation information ASAP. We will also need to ask you for a 50% deposit to hold your space.

The ashram is just 60 minutes by bus from Port Authority -- near Woodbury Commons.

Thank you so much for your interest and enthusiasm for our retreats -we love teaching you all !!
OM
email: quietyoga@msn.com

My Teaching Schedule
My regular class at Integral Yoga in Greenwich Village is:

Friday 630pm-800pm Intermediate Level Hatha Yoga (hatha II)
$15 for the class. Mat/props included

Just Do Yoga. OM

Three Jewels Yoga
Over by Astor Place, there is a small yoga school. They teach Tibetan Heart style yoga, meditation and Buddhist studies. This yoga belongs to the style of the Tibetan Dalai Lamas combining familiar yoga poses with special Tibetan poses and methods . It is a charming place and you should all try a class.

We are sooo lucky to live in New York and have all this at our fingertips. All these great teachers are here to teach us. Please take advantage of it.

$12.00 per class $ 95.00 10 classes

New students : $20 for a week of classes

http://www.threejewels.org/yoga.html

Ashtanga Yoga
I just found out there is a great Ashtanga yoga school in the East Village ! Check it out !
I read the bios of some of the teachers there and they have great backgrounds.

Ashtanga Yoga Shala 295 E 8th St (corner of Ave B) NYC
http://www.ashtangayogashala.net/