New York Yoga's Teacher Training Program

So the current teacher training program at New York Yoga is going really well. It has been an amazing experience directing the teacher training program over the past year and a half. The current group is a great group and it is inspiring to see how much they have learned so far. It is always very interesting to see people's practice deepen, them begin to be able to do postures that they were previously unable to do, and their skill and ability to lead others through practice develop and come together. We are more than half way through the training and New York Yoga is doing something interesting where the fall Teacher Training Program which is coming up soon, will start before the current summer teacher training program ends. One of the great benefits of this is that the fall teacher trainees will be able to see what they summer teacher trainees are doing as they get nearer to testing and graduation. Having the new group able to see the old group and having the old group able to work with the new group and remember where they started from is very valuable in the learning process.

This weekend, Sunday August 2nd at 6:00PM, I am hosting an open house for the fall teacher training to answer any questions prospective trainees might have about the program. I will also host another open house on Sunday August 30th at 6:00PM.

For more information about New York Yoga's Teacher Training Program go to:

http://newyorkyoga.com/index.php?content=training_fall09

or here:

http://www.newyorkyoga.com/

Another Quote from Ram Das, Paths to God

I like this quote. There is a lot in here:

Now, in a way, purification I s a hype. You take your body, just as it is, and your mind, just as it is, and your feelings, just as they are—and right here, in this very place, lies the Brahman, the enlightened state. It’s right here! It’s not there or then, it’s not in India or Tibet, it’s not being kept secret by “him” or “her,” it’s not in this book or in that book. It’s right here, and you are it—right now.

Okay, so then what’s the point of purification? What, in fact, is the point of any of these practices if we already are the Brahman? They’re to get rid of whatever in us prevents us from really knowing who we are at this moment. See, from a practical point of view, we’re faced with an interesting paradox. At one level of our intellectual understanding we know that we already have all the riches—we know that we are the atman, that we are the Buddha, that we are free. We know all that. But if we look inside, we’ll notice that although we know it, we somehow don’t believe it. And that’s what all the purification methods are about: getting us from where we seem to think we still are, to where we don’t think we’re anywhere anymore. Hence we have all these practices, like karma yoga and jnana yoga, like sacrifice and mantra, like renunciation and purification. All of them, by one route or another, are designed to get around that roadblock between our knowing and our believing.

P 128 Ram Das, Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita

Quote from Ram Das, Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita

This is a great quote from Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita by Ram Das

Those of you who have been in human relationships where real love was present recognize experiences in which the well-being of your beloved was more important than your own. You’d offer your own discomfort to ensure their well-being. If you can extrapolate from that experience to a time (called the Satya Yuga) when everybody makes that kind of offering in relation to everybody and everything else, you’ll have a taste of what it is like to live in the Spirit. (P. 111 Ram Das Paths to God.)