[ Bikram Yoga - Teacher Training 2008 ]

Anatomy of a World Leader - Alex Grey

2009-03-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

"After hearing Barack Obama's speech in BerIin, and noting the degree of excitement and hope that he generated throughout many countries besides the US, I started to see him as one of the first true "world leaders." This may be partly because of his extraordinary childhood and political life that has bridged many cultures. Obama's restraint and intelligence, exhibited as foes were bating him throughout the campaign, his heartful clarity coming through in his talks are all qualities of a highly evolved person.

We need to consider our planetary citizenship, because solving the world's ecological and economic problems, and creating a culture of peace and reconciliation will require the co-operation of all nations." (Alex Grey)

Ramakrishna zingt

2009-01-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

Onthoud dit o geest, niemand is van jou,
vergeefs dool je rond in de wereld.
Verstrikt in het listige net van maya,
vergeet niet je Moeders naam.

Slechts een dag of twee wordt je hier geeerd
als meester en heer; al te gauw,
moet deze gestalte, nu zo geacht,
wanneer Meester Dood er de hand op legt,
noodzakelijk worden geloosd.

Je geliefde vrouw zelfs, om wie, nu je nog leeft,
je voortdurend zit te tobben,
kan niet met je meegaan, ook zij zegt vaarwel
en mijdt als een kwaad ding je lijk.

(uit Ramakrishna; gesprekken)

Goed en Kwaad

2008-12-18T16:10:00.001-08:00

Volledig ontwaakte zielen zijn verheven boven deugd en ondeugd. Zij realiseren zich, dat het God is die alles doet.

Er was eens ergens een klooster. De monniken die daar woonden gingen dagelijks uit om hun voedsel bijeen te bedelen. Op een dag zag een monnik, terwijl hij uit was voor zijn aalmoezen, een pachtheer die een man onmeedogenloos sloeg. De barmhartige monnik kwam tussen beide en verzocht de pachtheer om ermee op te houden.
Maar de pachtheer werd woedend en zijn toorn keerde zich naar de onschuldige monnik. Hij sloeg de monnik totdat hij bewusteloos op de grond viel. Iemand meldde de zaak bij het klooster. De monniken liepen snel naar de plek en vonden hun broeder die daar lag. Vier of vijf van hen droegen hem terug en legden hem op een bed. Hij was nog steeds bewusteloos. De andere monniken zaten bedroefd om hem heen; sommigen wuifden hem koelte toe.
Eindelijk stelde iemand voor om hem wat melk te drinken te geven. Toen het in zijn mond werd gegoten kwam hij bij. Een van de monniken zei: "Laten we eens kijken of hij geheel bij bewustzijn is en ons kan herkennen". Hij zei luid in zijn oor: "Eerwaarde, wie geeft u melk?" "Broeder", antwoordde de man Gods met zachte stem: "Hij die mij sloeg is het, die mij nu melk geeft."

(uit Ramakrishna - gesprekken)

CONSCIOUSNESS = LIFE ENERGY = ONE

2008-10-18T08:38:00.001-07:00

Final Breathing and Relax in Savasana

2008-06-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today we arrived back at our 10 Euro per night Hotel in downtown Acapulco, training is over and the rainingseason here has just started. Yesterday we even couldn't take a taxi cause the roads were all fludded. No better way to end the 9 weeks of enlightening yoga vibrations in the highly luxureous Fairmont Princes Hotel then to come down and chill a little in the 'normal world'. After all we've been in quite a bubble for a while i realize now, slowly opening my eyes in a totally different country here, strange but true. I've even seen some animals i' didn't see before here now my eyes are off the dialog ;-)
Eventhough the whole training had this double sided experience of time; of endlessly painfull and hard times and at the same time all just being one big, fast momentum, the last couple of weeks were like speeding through a bottle neck even more. I'll just look back on some of the things that happened here before our graduation.

So about two weeks ago Tinus arrived here, causing even more confusion under our fellow yogi's; because all three of us are tall and have little to no hair on the head, people were wondering if they we breeding us somewhere in the hotel. Anyway really nice to have him visiting us, giving the encouragements for the final weeks, and spreading the word of not drinking water during class as we did (some people really were amazed and inspired about it) All in all he was quite proud of all the Dutchies, you could tell. Below you'll find us all in a taxi with Susan after having dinner at ... the 100% natural restaurant, of course.

At the end of that week on friday we had the talent show. This started some years ago spontaneously, and has now made it to a real tradition in the teacher training. Basically the people doing the training are of all ages, background/nationalities and profession. A lot of them sing, dance or play an instrument, and not all that bad either ! The evening totally blew everyone's head off i could say, it was just so wonderful and fun to see all the qualities of the people you've seen half naked, sweating and reciting dialog only for the last 2 months. There was a ballet performed by Claudia en Johannes in which some of the yoga postures we do were woven in, so beautiful and funny to watch i wished there was a video to show. Also Kasper is such an amazingly good singer, that i suggest the students in Amsterdam to ask him to sing for you after class some day, you'll be surprised. (his first class is next wednesday ;'))
By the time the last act was performed, a Bollywood song 'Ohm Shanti Ohm', everyone on stage was dancing, all people singing, Bikram sitting in his chair in the centre with a bat circling over his head ! seriously ! Hard to discribe; magical for sure.

The last week, coming close to finishing the training, the sense of completion was in the air. Although for me, monday took off with something like an emotional throw'up in class, the rest of the week was real nice, intens though but strong. We had classes from Emmy (who came back for graduation), Jason Winn, Craig, Rajashree and Bikram of course; all not the leastest of yoga teachers around ! Also the week before, 22 people for the graduation demonstration were picked out of the 290 around. I happened to be one of them, together with Huub, Ruben, Claudia and Kasper. We made quite an impression i guess, as 4 of the 5 male demonstraters were Dutch. Thumbs up for Bikram Yoga in the Netherlands ! Some people even came up to us, asking what exactly they put in our water over there. To think of it, the Dutch water is pretty good, too much chloride over here.
The slightly minor thing as demonstrators was the fact that we even had to do some more yoga as a training for graduation day, (getting us all in alignment and synchronic order) but it actually was real fun to do! On wednesday we had the chance to get inspired by the advanced series demonstration which was nice to see. The postures i´m allowed to teach right now are the beginners series. There's also the advanced series of postures which look somewhat like this...

Bikram himself also joined the advanced demonstration so we got a chance to see his practice. It was rather funny to see as has style is quite agressive and his postures not outstandingly good, but what can you say; the man has been practicing yoga since the age of four, sleeps 2 hours a day, can live on 1 sandwich for 3 days and still has energy like a newborn child, at the age of 62. Nothing but respect in that sense.
On thursday some pictures were taken with the demontration group as promotion material for the teacher training. Doing yoga underneath the palmtrees with some fresh oceanbreeze in your face, there's nothing like it!
Below you'll see Kasper doing his standing bow on a little stone wall, he got an award for best anatomy test at graduation day; as you might notice in the pictures, his own anatomy is quite good too, no musclefibre left unattended in that body.

Friday the final day was really there !!! The demonstration went well, we listened to some speeches, received our certificate from Bikram and got a chance to take a picture with him, all that formal stuff. Everyone looked beautiful, all dressed up and shining like stars. Only to get wasted that same night at the graduation party. After 9 weeks of intens yoga, 'no kissy kissy, no huggy huggy, no fucky fucky', no alcohol, no drugs, you can image some people just let everything go for a change. It was a great party, sharing the happiness of fulfilling the teacher training with the fellow 290 yogi's who've become close friends during the past 2 months.
The last couple of days we finally had some time to just hang around, eat whenever we're hungry, catch some sleep, enjoying the wonderful surroundings of the hotel we've stayed in.
With a little pain in the heart. Throughout the weeks, the intensity of the program, the yoga and our teachers, slowly allowed everyone to open up, and create this wonderful little loving caring community in a heavenly environnement i've only known from travelagancy's magazines. It's hard too see it disintegrating again this rapidly, as everyone is leaving to teach this yoga all over the world, wherever they came from. I guess at the same time it's one of the most valuable things to take home and share with the rest of the world.

This thursday i'll be flying to San Francisco visiting Mary Jarvis' studio and hopefully teach my first class over there, exciting! I'll try to keep you posted about my experiences over there. During training they told us many times, the circle of teacher training is only to be completed the moment you teach your first class.

happy brithday dear ruben

2008-05-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Rubens birthday, and as we do to all people, a couple every week, we sang for him with all the 300 of us. Friday evening we went out for dinner with a group to celebrate. But actually i just wanted to show the fantastic picture i made of him yesterday, look at that !

Countdown has already begun for us here in Acapulco... they said it would happen to us at the very start of the training. ''You're gonna miss this training so much as soon as you get back'' Everyone was like yeah yeah.... But indeed there's only two weeks to go and i believe we all have the feeling of not wanting to rush through it that fast, but enjoy it while it lasts, even when times are still going to get rough. As Bikram returned from his short trip to Calcutta to bury his friend last weekend, he's now totally committed to fire us up at the last part of training.

The posture clinics are almost finished; most of us only have to do the last final spine twist on monday, so there'll be much space to be filled in by Bikram lectures and Bollywood movies. Actually this week we watched ''Jodha Akbar'' a new production of Indian history about the formation of India, how the two main religions (Hindu and Islam) came together through love. It's quite a ride, highly recommendable to everyone interested. A lot of dansing and singing throughout the scenes which is quite spectacular.

Furthermore a lot of teachers were here last weekend for the recreticfication (a teacher has to come back to training after a while for check up) including Zefea from Amsterdam and Susan from Texas who taught some classes in the the Hague studio. This sunday also our friend Martinus arrived here for the last two weeks of training, we picked him up from the airport as a surprise with the three of us (Ruben, me and Susan)

Staying such long time in the hotel, makes the best friends out of the hotelstaff here; our maid brings us flowers every week for our little altar, the girl at the computer centre is trying to teach us some spanish, and the waitresses at the restaurants greet us with openhearted kindness as we visit them every single day, they know our names too. Some of them even take class with us. It's real fun, in general the Mexian people whome i met all are truely warm friendly people.

So some of the people here below Elaine, from Korea living in Vancouver, Canada who really shows passion and joy in teaching as you can see below
And Emly who was told by Bikram not to cut here hair anymore, later i found out that she did that because she likes to wear a wig sometimes; She's from Los Angeles.

update

2008-05-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

Next week the posture clinic wave is going to hit, and we'll probably finish it at end on friday. Because i still have a lot of studying to do before i'll just list some of the things that've being going on here.

- For me the toughest week so far, monday i was so sleepy i just nodded off with my eyes wide open, quite an experience. Then thuesday and wednesday i was justed totally cooked during classes, it's a challenge to do a Bikram yoga class when you feel like a soaking wet towel. I believe i prefer active participation over unconcious participation ;D. but at least the heat is getting all the bad stuff out for sure!

- The main thing happened this week was Rajashree lecturing us about the 26 postures, correct alingnment and their benefit. Actually the yoga set is built up in a way that is benefitial for all the systems in your body. Resperatory system (breathing, lungs), Circulatory (heart and lungs), Endocrine system (glands), Nervous system (brain, spinal cord and nerves) etc.
Each posture has it particular focus on the different parts of the body. By compressing and streching, you cut of the blood and energy supply in a particalar part to let it flush through shortly after, taking away all the stuff that might have got rusted in there over to years. And it feels good too !

- A real funny contrasty situation here, this week the Botox company has landed in the hotel for some conventions or group injections i don't know. These sigar smoking surgeons/businessmen with the pumped up young women around them, some sweaty yogi's running around crossing each other, Inside Out. I only wished they invited Bikram to speak at their dinnerparties ;D

- The whole group is becoming like one family more and more. The yoga automatically creates a band beacuse of it's intensity, it's opening people up, major differences seem to be clearing out, like the really shy or popular person merge into the same equally minded group. It's a beautiful thing to be a part of.

- Still the same balcony view
- We're getting stonger and stronger, This is Kasper and Tori who are both in my group. So funny, i made this picture, they started standing like this, and it turned out to look like a power drink commercial or something like that. i guess it's the yoga...

- Below a peak of the yoga room, before class; doing class twice a day with so many people in one room still is a special thing. In the left back there's the podium where the teacher stands, and the comfi couch/chair only Bikram sits in, drinking his ginger tea out of an orange cup.

Coco

2008-05-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

This training you could look at it like this; we've build this hard shell around us to protect us from the outside world, while at the same time there's this very lively fresh juice inside which everybody know we have, but can't quite reach it.
Then there's is this great yogi who knows how to reach the juice so you can drink it, his head is so hard that he can break the shell off for you if you allow him to. It might take some nine weeks and could be quite an intense experience, really all it takes is a little trust.

This week has been for many the hardest up till now, fatigue is kicking into a lot of people, and also the whole week was a bit out of track, starting with the return of Bikram and the news that his best friend Bisu (son of his guru) died that monday. Bisu had played a very important role in Bikram's life; they both did these 'fakirish' yogi shows together which we saw video's of this week (elephant walking over yogi, yogi on a nailbed run over by a motorcycle, yogi swallowing snake's and frogs, that kind of stuff ) He also joined him in his journey to Japan to get the attention on yoga over there. The best thing he could do in respect to his friend was to take a yogaclass with us, because if not for his friend he might have ended up somewhere totally different ('selling vegetables in the streets of Calcutta'). It turned out to be a dual-teacher class which was quite funny.

On wednesday a lot of mexican press had gathered in the hotel to do their stories on what's happening over here. Bikram gave about 15 interviews, in the evening there was a demontration in the hotel's lobby; for the occasion some yoga champions flew in to perform some more advanced hatha yoga
On thursday we were lectured by Jon Burros about the emotional body and how the streching in yoga has positive influence on the energy flow throughout the body. Basically his point of view was that there's a tissue which is connected throughout the whole body and it's parts, which functions as a passageway for energy. Whenever damage is done (physical or emotional) it can leave it's marks, memory in the tissue creating blockages in the energy flow. In life when lots of these injuries are not processed properly, the blockages can crate pain or injuries in the bodyparts where the tissue is connected to. This can have quite far reaching effects. One story was about a young girl who had had a heart transplant. She was given a heart by someone who was murdered; after the transplant the girl had visions of the murderer in her dreams, when reconstructing the image they actually managed to catch the murderer.

Posture clinics going good! I got some nice feedback this week. Furthermore Bikram's continued his lecturing on the filosophy of yoga, and the Indian model of a human's life path. All this accompanied by late night movies;, we're watching the Mahabarata (Indian mythology) Bikram doesn't blink an eye when he continues till 4.30 in the morning, everyone lying on the ground sleeping, He himself doesn't sleep for days in a row. For me i've ot reached that point yet, so bye for now!

btw. there are a lot of people keeping up a weblog for their folks back home, at this site a lot of them are listed http://www.yogabootcamp.blogspot.com/

2008-05-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

All you need is a Yoga Truck

2008-04-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to post something the last two weeks because i had very little time to do so (learning dialog, anatomy test, a CPR test and 2 make-up classes on sundays) I'll just shortly list some of the things that have been going on here.

Two weeks ago we started with posture clinics (basically practicing how to teach; you perform your studied yoga-dialog, and get feedback from experienced teachers)
The whole group has been divided in to 16 seperate groups to speed up the process, also nice because the training became more dynamic; you get to know people better, perform your dialog, and do some yoga postures for others to deliver their dialog)
In the beginning it has been especially interesting to see how different people all have their individual way to react to the unpleasant situation of not knowing, or not recalling the dialog; laughing, crying, nervous tics, inner anger; you really get to see people; what kind of shell they've build around themselves, we all have have our ways.

As for me it's quite an experience to learn how to fill a room with my voice, projecting to a group of 30 people (in a commanding way), is not something i am used to do very much.
The feedback we get, is given by teachers who are teaching for quite some years. One of the reasons this particular training is so succesful, is because the previous trainees, now teachers, come back training to teach the new.
They "very much like to be in service" is what i hear from most of them. This alone just says enough, since most of them are here completely voluntairly. Some teachers stand out because of their great teaching, others bring their life's experience, telling their story and how the yoga changed their lives.
For example Charlie, a New York fireman, retired at September 10th 2001, lost numerous colleges, friends and neighbours the day after. This of course had an overwhelming impact on his life causing anger, confusion and depression. Doing the yoga and teacher training eventually allowed him to accept the situation and forgive the people who responsible. It's just one of the numerous stories on how the yoga is able to transform peoples lives.

Last week's friday we were set free from the tight scedule we run here (of yoga, lectures and posture clinics) At the end of class we were treated with "All you need is love" from the beatles, Just image 300 people, getting to their maximal physical, mental, emotional level and beyond, hearing that song after they are told they have a whole free night! An amazing atmosphere which really gave me a sence unity and a smell of where this whole thing is headed.

The week following supposed to be the week were the yoga truck was going to hit us, just at the moment you think you could cross the street easily... It was a hard week indeed, although not exceptionally harder then the previous weeks. We especially went through a lot of posture clinics, finishing triangle pose on friday which is quite fast compared to previous trainings. One amazing teacher (Jim from San Diego) arrived this week and taught / lectured us about Bikram, Yoga and being a yoga teacher, which was really inspiring to listen to.

Today (monday 5/5) Bikram arrived back in Acapulco after his 2 weeks travelling to LA, Hawaii and Japan. After this mornings class Craig announced that Bishnu Gosh's son, Bikram's good friend, died today. Although because of this we get the day off, everyone just left yogaroom with a rather sad expression on their face.

It's amazing how fast the weeks go by; due to the busy scedule they just seem to fly by like days. There's actually no time at all to stop and even think what's going on, creating a rather pleasant "forward" mode of focussing straight ahead, keep forgetting and eventually only living in the present moment, there's just no other way here.
Staying in this hotel for 2 months gives us the immediate status of a "Platinum Presidents Club Member", which is pretty cool and gives all kinds of extras. It's funny to have this luxourious resort as the background for the intense teacher training; on fridays a lot of people arrive here for their holliday and on mondays, a lot of them leave again, going back home. This whole hotel industry just seems to be running alongside with our little more permanent stay.

Tormorrow the training will resume again and with Bikram being back, i expect it's going to be an intense, late night- week again, i'd better take my chance an do some studying on this free day to stay ahead in posture clincins. Below a mexican road, Sarah (world champion 2nd place) doing something with her right leg, and our heavenly balcony view.

Having something doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to use it

2008-04-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Bikram started his lectures this week about Idian Mythology, Yoga, Life, Love, and Self-Realisation; handing out our flight scudule for the upcoming weeks. Converted to image, it looked a little something like this...

Since this is the inside core of the Piramid we're in, with room number 810 (make it 108) i'd say we're in pretty good alignment here ;D
He told us about the difference between the Eastern and Western world, Especially India; having nothing material but everything as spiritual beings vs. The Western world; Living in great material wealth but a poor spiritual life.
"Having something doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to use it" relates to this many opportunities and material wealth people in the Western world are blessed with, and at the same time have no clue how to live a fullfilling life, in harmony with spirit. In other words "How are you going to start a Cadillac with a Toyota key?"
Yoga is the answer, As Bikram received the mission from his guru Bishnu Gosh, to help people realize a state of union (yoga) in their lives and heal their bodies trough the form of Hatha Yoga (physical exercise), so are we handed down part of this mission to heal others in becoming Yoga teachers.

But first we have to heal ourselves... This week Ruben got sick on sunday having a stomach infection, then on monday i catched a cold which lasted the whole week. This' supposed to be pretty normal during training, every week has it's own character (complete with all sorts of physical, emotional and mental disturbances) As the physical and mental body is heated and challenged, all the stuff you've stored, holding back your energy, now has the opportunity to release itself. At itself a beautiful proces, but challengng indeed from time to time.

Emmy, Bikram's senior (82) teacher had the privilege to challenge us from monday till friday,
and in the end it turned out the privilege was all ours to receive her teachings. She's an amazing woman, surviving two concentration camps during the 2e World War, having loads of wisdom about body and mind and pain, you just have to have a lot of respect fo her. In her lectures and classes you could really feel all this knowlegde, not as pure knowledge but as knowlegde obtained by own experience, which is always most interesting to hear. And by the way her legs look like those of a 14 year old, i heard some women say the other day.

Yesterday evening we went to Acapulco city to have some dinner with all the Dutch people here, The original 6 people group has extended to 8 since there's Manon who lives in Australia and Gwendoline from Swiss. The total 300- group is getting closer every day, which is nice to experience, everyone's going trough a similar proces which automatically creates the opportunity to make contact very easy.

"Welcome on board"

2008-04-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

First week of training basically meant getting on board of this 9 week yoga journey.
Now as wonderful and luxureous the hotel and it's surroundings may be, "getting on board" in this context equals dropping all your inconvenient and energy-absorbing luggage; such as tears, vomit and diarrea... It was a tough week for most of the people. And as you can see in the selfportret below; it's not avacation !

We became to meet Bikram a bit during the yogaclasses and posture clinics, (everyone had to diliver the first half-moon posture in front of him and 300 others)
In class he's a true yogamaster, sending energy out to 300 people at bulletspeed with such a strong intention you think he's talking to you personally, add with that the enery from the rest of the yogi's and you have a very tough class, which took most people some days to get ajusted to.
During the posture clinics, he shows more of himself as a storyteller, guru, wise man, funny man, entertainer, he can be uniquely funny and quite upset at the same time, a moment later he gives so much love through beautiful singing to an insecure person, like a hurricane always telling you the truth, non sugar-coated.
Also he knows quite alot of people; "Last 100 years who entertained the world?, Hollywood, Guess who entertains Hollywood? Bikram!" - Although this is a known fact i was still surprised to hear he spend some time with Elvis Presley in this very hotel we're staying in, guru of George Harrison, thought yoga to president Nixon etc etc. The stories are endless.

On wednesday it was my turn to diliver the dialog. After i had finished he made me do it again, together with this really expressive girl from New York, making a duet; At the end this didn't work out that well but was quite funny to watch for others. He especially told the girl not marry cause she coulnd't listen...

Below some pictures from the place where i'm staying, it really is a paradise, temperature is of a degree to wear a thin shirt day and night. "The hotel is so luxureous, when you shit your pants at night they come and clean it up while you're sleeping, so you wouldn't notice"
In the morning from 10.00 till 12.00 there's free buffet which has everything you could want for on it, including unlimited fruit/vegetable juice acces. Although Bikram repeatedly states the BEST food to be NO food, for now i've chosen to go by more with what Craig is saying; "Eat twice as much as you think you can eat", I might even gain some weight these two months ;D

So unfortunately this is only supposed to be the introduction week, next week Emmy (Bikram's most senior teacher, 82 years old) will be here killing us, plus the heater is going to go up...
For now Bikam said, he's in a good mood and is being easy on us, i guess we'll find out next week.
Monday the train starts rolling again, alarm at 7.30, class at 8.30, lunch from 10.00 till 12.00, lecture, posture clinics from 12.30 to 16.00, 17.00 class, 21.00 lecture up till, whenever Bikram feels like; 12.00/1.00/2.00 - monday till friday, one class on saterday and we're off for the weekend to enjoy ourselves here, which is no poblem !
I've met a lot new people which, they tell us, are going to be my new international yogafamily-friends, really nice all that except for the fact that most people can't pronounce my name that well, Shud? Steward? Then i tell them Sure with D in the end, o Steward with SJ instead of ST, x 300.

Kasper sipping his water

Orientation

2008-04-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today we arrived at the most luxueous Fairmont Princess where the training is being helt.
The hotel is so lux that you almost feel guilty concentrating on other things then, the five swimming pools, 4 restaurants, spa centre, wonderful ocean beach and two gigantic gulf fields, but we're here for the yoga of course, Orientation Day

Rajashree, Bikram's wife, introduced herself today and talked about the history of the training, and the fact that the training has reached a new level being at this most beautiful place, She is a wonderful person, given the message to care about all living beings, the earth we inhabit especially right here right now. Also she will be there tomorrow when Bikram introduces himself, just to smoothen people's opinion about him when meeting with him for the first time.

Craig, the director of the training, pointed out today, we're going to recieve the ancient healing technique of hatha yoga straight from the source, which sounds pretty good !
He also mentioned that it was his honour to help us challenge (read kill) ourselves the comes 9 weeks, comparing the proces to the peeling of an onion, He liked this metafor because of the tears that would show up during the proces, ... of joy ... he quickly joked after .

As for Bikram, today we had a first peak at the yogastudio, specially build here for the Bikram Teacher Training, big posters stated "Bikram Yoga Teacher Training, Acapulco 2008 - Hotter then ever!", this quote with a flamed background looked funny and dangerous at the same time.
And as we enterered the building we felt this quotation becoming reality right away, but the guy who showed us told us the heater was not on at that point ;D

2008-04-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

So everything is set'up to do bikram yoga in this cheap hostel where we´re staying,
some speakers connected to an ipod playing bikram. and it looks a bit like this ...
Yesterday also Huub arrived and today we met up with Marjan also
joining the training,
Tonight we planned a dinner with all of us celebrating the Dutch invasion, and then finally tomorrow will be the beginning of the training so that´ll pretty exciting

2008-04-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,

Yesterday arrived in Acapulco, and met up with Ruben and Kasper today, It´s pretty warm and moisterous here so outside no heater would be needed for a Bikram class; but i guess Bikram´ll have a different opinion on this.

The part we´re staying is the old part of the city, not too many fancy hotels and clubs around here, but the real mexican experience; little shops and markets everywhere.
All in all it looks a bit like Cuba or Marokko, although the newer part (where i´ve not yet been) seem to be looking more Western.
In regard to this a couple of tall skinny white dutchies really draw the attention on the street here, as yesterday evening quite some people run into us asking for all sorts of stuff.
As a bonus there´s a really nice English hostelguest on the same floor as we´re staying, comes out his door and tries to pick up a fight every time you walk by, nice to know for family and friends ;-)) Above, Rubens ocean view, below my mountainside view, then a pregnant cat at the laundry service and Ruben-Kasper at the 100% organic restaurant .

Ruben weblog can be read at http://www.rubenreinders.blogspot.com/

Acapulco !

2008-03-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class has proven itself to be a uniquely therapeutic form of yoga. By learning to instruct this powerful yoga class, you have an opportunity to share the life-enhancing benefits of this yoga with others. This intensive program, designed for dedicated students of Bikram Yoga, offers more than 500 hours of study, providing you with the tools to begin teaching Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class. By giving you a solid foundation, the course prepares you for the lifetime journey of becoming of yoga teacher.

Esak Garcia - the Hague

2007-07-14T04:53:00.002-07:00

Esak Garcia visited the bikram studio - the Hague on sat 7 + sun july 8, to lecture and demonstrate both bikram beginning and advanced series. He won the Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup; in 2005, and now travelling around, he is lecturing and teaching other interested yogi's.
After the demo he gave a pretty intense class, meaning: getting you into your deepest, furthest posture so far . One thing pointed out was the purpose of having a yoga competition, (as yoga is thought to be more about introspection); the goal of competing could be a step up to having yoga join the olympics; more and younger people could be inpired to do yoga, and ! since the benifits of yoga affect lots of different aspects of life, the progress of lots of people would go much faster !!
Monday july 9, the studio was closed because of Bishnu Gosh's birthday, mentioned many times, for some reason i forgot, ending up in front of a "closed" studio. not so. As a bonus; me, Suzanne, Martinus, Lydia and Isabella took class with Esak who was still in town. Thank you for the nice birthday gift !

Yoga system outlined by Patanjali

2007-07-08T05:45:00.001-07:00

The Yoga system as outlined by Patanjali is known as the Eightfold Path. The first steps, (1) yama and (2) niyama, require observance of ten negative and positive moralities-avoidance of injury to others, of untruthfullness, of stealing, of incontinence, of gift-receiving (which brings obligations); and purity of body and mind, contentment, self-discipline, study, and devotion to God.
The next steps are (3) asana (right posture; the spinal column must be held straight, and the body firm in a comfortable position for meditation; (4) pranayama (control of prana, subtle life currents); and pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses from external objects).
The last steps are forms of yoga proper: (6) dharana (concentration); holding the mind in one thought; (7) dhyana (meditation), and (8) samadhi (superconscious perception).
This Eightfold Path of Yoga which leads one to the final goal of Kaivalya (Absoluteness), a term which might be more comprehensibly put as "realization of the Truth beyond all intellectual apprehension."

Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramhansa Yogananda