Vajrasati news December 2006
December 19th, 2006
This month sees a wealth of exciting new developments on the site, with the following new content…
Input from teacher training graduates Beka and Khadine
Seasonal illumination by Jim Tarran
Christmas and New Year class dates
New classes & retreats for 2007
Welcome to the jungle: news and photos from Jim’s Thailand retreat
From Now is the Knowing by the venerable Ajahn Sumedho
From the Ganakamoggallana Sutta
Teacher’s resources: for new applicants, trainees and graduates
Input from teacher training graduates
In this issue, we have our first input from teacher training graduates, Rebecca Card and Khadine Morcom. Up until now, Jim has written all the content for the site, but we hope to see more input from graduates as they spread out into their life as a yoga teachers.
Vajrasati is all about the harmonious relationship between individual expansion and collective knowledge share and debate. It is the aspiration of the Vajrsati school of yoga that all its teachers and as a result all of their students will benefit and grow together. Expressed simply, the growth of one inputting to the growth of all means that the individual teachers will be able to learn and stay inspired that would be impossible replicate alone.
Furthermore, Vajrasati aims to develop a cohesive teaching and methodology that can be recognised at any Vajrasati class whilst staying always open to refreshing and extending the teaching and practice of one and all. This input, then, from graduates is one of many ways in which the school is beginning to explicitly demonstrate this trust in the shared learning approach.
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Seasonal illumination
This is of course the festive season, whether or not you are celebrating one of the religious festivals held at this time of year. The days draw darker up to the solstice and this evokes all kinds of responses in all aspects of nature including us. It is at this time of year that we need to reach out for one another, as is expressed (whether skilfully or not) by the various acts of giving encouraged at this time. It is a natural response in many living beings to pull together in adversity. So it makes sense for us to do likewise, ready for what would have been, the very challenging winter months ahead. The diminishing light makes us wish to reach out for light, and all the candles, fairy lights, reflective baubles and tinsel, no doubt symbolise the sun and our aspiration towards light.
This aspiration towards light of course is not just external but internal too. We all yearn to be cast open – to be seen to be known – and so much of what we do in the darkness (that is hidden from others and often ourselves) yearns for the light. It is light itself that purifies, so called ‘dark’ acts are always accompanied by other forms of denial, and ignorance, quite literally ignorance.
Having friends with whom we can share and confess our experiences, helps in this bringing to the light process, and it is this illumination that in yoga is pointed to by such expressions as satya (honesty, truthfulness). This truthfulness needs support and other yogic principles make this clear, ahimsa (non violence) is the space that self-possessed denial needs to move light-wards.
Other traditions also exemplify this realisation, the Buddha is sometimes referred to as the sun, and Buddhist mindfulness (p-sati/ skt-smriti) is to be practiced without covetousness or grief for the world and is said to lead to complete wisdom and the compassion that is born from that presence of mind (skt & p-citta-heart/mind).
Of course mindfulness or illumination benefits from some support, so Buddhists and yogis are encouraged to abstain from unethical behaviour; that is disturbing, unsettling behaviour. And in the the yogic tradition, we are encouraged towards more satvic (one of the three gunas) states which are claming, settling, cooling and spacious conditions. In both traditions, the end game is the transcendence of ethics and or the gunas, but it is recognised that this is not the same as ignoring or cutting them of, it is more a case of moving beyond. It is, after all, the ‘tranquilising’ benefits from these practices, as well as from our other yogic practices, such as mantra, meditation and asana, that eventually lead to the calming and stilling of the waters of the mind. This makes the mind a suitably reflective tool for ‘mirroring reality’ whereby all conditions are transcended and a relaxed inclusive, illuminating consciousness is all that is left. It is this ‘intuitive awareness’ that is capable of spawning truly appropriate (p-kusala - skilful) action, that is the only qualification for transcending more clear-cut moral codes.
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Namaste
vajrasati yoga
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