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Tradition
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The Tradition of Yoga
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In dark times, yoga has flourished as the means by which ordinary folk absorb the nurturing force of Life. Throughout history, this has always been so. Today yoga again spreads rapidly through our human community, countering forces of orthodoxy that suppress, even destroy the common, peaceful life each of us desires to live and breathe fully.
The Mission of Heart of Yoga is simple, necessary and urgent: to teach real people their own perfection through real yoga. To teach them that no matter how bad things appear, individuals and their friends, together as a community, can heal each other and enjoy their natural state of breath and perfection.
More than half of the U.S. population, about 110 million
people, has an interest in the practice of yoga.
Yoga is the number-one group activity among people
today*. Eighteen million Americans (over 7% of US adults)
practice yoga regularly, an increase of 29% over last year; 25 million people (about 12% of the U.S. population) are interested in the practice of yoga; 36 million people express the intention to try yoga within the next 12 months. What an opportunity.
Ironically, until quite recently yoga was not a “commercial” activity. While we honour modern commercial form, and the need to make a living, we also feel yoga also must be provided freely to everyone who asks. The recent commercial explosion of the yoga “industry” warrants both praise and great caution. Proliferating “standardized divisions” of yoga can empower us as well as create confusion and frustration at the individual level. As these forms grow more and more removed from their source, packaged under the agenda of personal gain and fitness, we lose the sincere intention of yoga: to truly breathe, help and serve.
* IDEA Group Fitness TrendWatch
** Yoga International research
In ancient times, yoga was continuously supported by the community – not unlike major religions of today.
From everyday merchants and traders to the fortunate and wealthy: all acknowledged that yoga was for the health and caring of all, especially mothers, the nurturers of the community, and gave generously from their hearts. We ask that if you feel the same, to please do the same.
Thank you and Namaste.
Mark Whitwell
Heart of Yoga Association
The Heart of Yoga is a non-profit
corporation 501 c 3. (tax id # 91186114)
established to make yoga education
effective and available world wide.
All contributions are fully tax-deductible.
Yoga in the hands of male Brahmins became an exaggeration as part of their attempt to know God as if God is absent. This abberation has played right into the Western obsession with the outward appearance of things.
The idea that spiritual or physical gymnastics are needed only denies the reality of our own wonder already given. Yoga actually is the means by which ordinary men and women can easily absorb the nurturing force of life freely available to every one. Truth is not something we have to seek out. It is not something absent and far off, requiring great effort to find. Truth is present in you, as you, right here, right now, as the Life that is you.
Recently this understanding has come forth in popular media in best sellers such as The Red Tent, The Da Vinci Code and the wonderful film from New Zealand, Whale Rider. Wisdom is always delivered into society through story telling and until very recently these stories could not have been told or even thought of. They investigate how the feminine was lost in the social equation and the surrender of the orthodox male mind to the obvious nurturing force of life.
Of course in ancient tantric societies the supreme relevance of male/female polarity and equality was obvious. It is the way it has always been and we are finally getting around to addressing the curse of male doctrine. Likewise the great Lord of the Rings epic is the story of our time; the end of elite power structures of acquisition and the victory of the natural life, the ordinary hero, the ordinary hobbit in the natural state. Here the accord of man and woman and the care of others is the ultimate adventure. This ancient yoga is part of this modern story as the practical means to restore the feminine for each person and for society.
"The essence of motherhood is not restricted
to women who have given birth;
It is a principal inherent in both women and men.
It is an attitude of the mind. It is LOVE--and LOVE is
the very breath of life."
AMMA
The tradition of dana grows from our community's conviction that truth (dharma) can neither be sold nor bought. Rather, the relationship between teacher and student, service, generosity, giving and receiving is an integral process of spiritual growth and advancement.
