Why this site ...

When I started these pages I wanted to establish a manual on the net that would help novices to start their own practice and also intrigue more experienced fans of yoga to expand their knowledge, scope and depth of practice. I also wanted a place where I could write and ramble about how I view yoga, and what it means to me, and this is what it became; a place to share the way I approach life and yoga with others.

The internet provides wonderful exposure for my classes, workshops The Five Keys to Well-being book, CD and DVD; much of this content appear on these pages. The easy to follow links to mp3's and video clips makes this site a valuable addition to this material. Additional articles, photographs and stuff that cannot fit into print can be enjoyed without limitation of space. Perhaps these tools may offer a bit of the magic of a real life teacher.

I hope to eventually find tine to include a few of snack recipes, poems, a travelogue and such things to illustrate how poetry, literature and, for example, nature conservation can form the basis of yoga as much as the yoga experience can lead to the enjoyment and pursuit of the creative arts and creative living. I guess everything I do in life, especially yoga, will always be threaded together by the thin silver line of the mercurial quality that music plays in my life. These links are already being explored on in my work an on the site.

I offer this site in the spirit of the nineteen sixties popular culture theory about the interconnectedness of 'everything in the universe'. The more I live the more I subscribe to the idea of sometimes wanton thoughts on seemingly random subject matters that intertwine to form our reality, in always flowing streams of consciousness. Is this not what well-being and the concept of ‘holism’ is based on? Therfore I want to includes and embraces all of life and living, not fragmentize it. Insight comes from overview, not from specialization alone.

... and about the spirit of my teaching

I think that yoga has firmly rooted itself in Western popular culture because of how good it makes one feel.
The incredible sense of well being that yoga offers is derived from its ability to combine body and mind integration, free from restrictive categorization. All of the things I like doing makes the point that yoga can be a great lifestyle enhancer, that anyone can benefit from practicing it.

One does not have to be super flexible, one cannot be too old to start, one does not have to start a new religion - just have faith in yourself, a will to work with the body and mind that you've got and a desire to improve its health. Bringing spirituality into one's life is touching the spirit of yoga, and the spirit of yoga about bringing more life and spirituality to one's lifestyle, hence the title of these pages ... the Spirit of Yoga.

To discover the depths of yoga may take a lifetime of study, but only a few simple stretches and a deep breath will provide body and mind with a great sense of well-being through wholesomeness.

While yoga is a serious subject to be taken seriously, much literature on it fails to bring its subject into an ordinary experience. When the 'spirit of life' powers one's life it empowers one to experience the magic of life in the most subtle and simple ways, making everything better not by masking reality but through a deep experience of a multi-faceted reality that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. I have little argument with traditional yoga methods, or with the glossy publications found in all book shops. It just when 'tradition' becomes narrow-minded and 'glossy' superficial that they tend to misrepresent the very 'spirit' or 'meaning' of yoga.

The Zen art of enlightenment is the art of life as the art of bringing spirit and the material into one fulfilled being, yoga is the art of self-realization by balancing the multitude of yin-yang manifestations of the philosophy of the Way of the Tao. The point I make is not an intellectual one, but an encouragement of open-minded thinking that rather liberates than chains, that reads 'try me', 'infuse my wisdom with yours, so we can share our universal truths rather than creating universal chasms'.

I therefore prefer to teach the most simple stuff based on common sense, and to relate yoga to the wide variety of individuals I encounter, rather than to expect them to relate to yoga. I do not use Sanskrit names of postures - a headstand is a headstand, a forward stretch a forward stretch - and I do not assume that everyone is as interested in the subject as much as I am. There is a host of literature available already that contains elaborate detail on all facets of yoga. My aim is to relate some of the value of yoga practice in the light of a broader perspective of any thinking person with an interest big enough to start scratching the surface of this marvelous lifestyle science.

I do hope that the energy that goes into creating this website will inspire you to take up yoga or some of vital essences that the spirit yoga teaches. And don’t sit around thinking about it, go and learn form from life itself. Practice life living it. Breathe when taking a walk, sit or stand upright; when you drive your car, or sit in the movies, check your posture. Teach yourself to relax. If you like to go for a drink, or some coffee, wash it down with a glass of water. If you are a surfer, take a day off and disappear in the sea. Watch the waves, the play of light on the water. Yoga should help you to make life a better experience, whether you are out at play or at the daily grind.

... a few words from Tom Robbins

One of my favourite writers, Tom Robbins manages to verbalize some great truths-thought currents rather efficiently and effortlessly. From a recent interview on the web:

"What I try to do, among other things, is to mix fantasy and spirituality, sexuality, humour and poetry in combinations that have never quite been seen before in literature. I would like for him or her to be in the state that they would be in after a Fellini film or a Grateful Dead concert. Which is to say that they've encountered the life-force in a large, irrepressible and unpredictable way and as a result their sense of wonder has been awakened and all of their possibilities have been expanded.

At the same time, I don't think that a novel is supposed to be a guide book to happiness any more than it's supposed to be a journal of one's personal pain and frustration, which most novels are today, unfortunately. I think the novels that are most important are those that are more on the order of those coyotes that howl on the hills outside of town. Something mysterious and wild and hypnotic.

It's wonderful that literature can have that kind of effect on people. On the other hand, it's a little sad. I think the healthy thing is - when you encounter a book that has something to offer and that can change the way you perceive the world - if you can take those things out of it and incorporate them into your own life to help propel you down your own path, rather than becoming obsessed with that book. It's like becoming obsessed with a spiritual teacher, like a guru. The really great gurus won't allow that. They say: I'm just the vehicle through which this knowledge is being imparted, don't get hung up on me. Because then you're mistaking the messenger for the message."

(Taken from an interview with January Magazine in promotion for his 2000 novel "Fierce invalids from home". (a href='http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/robbins.html')

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