Yoga weekends 2012

Our yoga weekends are relaxing and fun.

They are practical and non threatening. Whatever your ability you are welcome. The venues are picked because they offer great food, fine wines and are in areas of outstanding beauty. So for any non yoga person there is plenty to do.
 
There are 6 hours of practical yoga instruction spread over 4 classes
Special attention is given in helping you develop a home practice. learning to relax, using yoga to keep your body and mind in good health and lots more.
 
The classes are suitable for all levels so expect to be challenged in our normal smiley way.
Phil Aston

Yoga Teachers Wanted

We are expanding and are looking for additional yoga teachers to help cover future yoga weekends - read more

Yoga philosophy for modern living 

[page 1] [page 2]

1. Facing difficult situations with The Bhagavad Gita by Phil Aston BWY Dip
2. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Book One Verse 33  to help you keep a peaceful and serene mind [this page]

Practising yoga opens the doors to various ideals whether it’s trying to remain calm under stress, apply new disciplines through asana work or just trying to be a better person. Many of us start to take a fresh look at the way we run our lives and situations we can find ourselves in. It is very easy to want to retreat from life and avoid situations which may cause harm to others.

However, pain and difficult decisions are a part of life, sometimes you have to look beyond the immediate action and look at the bigger picture.

In all action there is a sense of duty of what is right for the situation. Yoga gives us clarity of awareness but just like Arjuna’s doubt on the battle field and his conversations with Krishna, the Gita can help us with our own internal battles of the senses and karma.

On first glance the Gita seems difficult to understand and relate to in this area. Personally I found the Buddhist teachings of the eight fold path, such as right speech, right action, right livelihood etc far easier to understand.

The first six chapters of the Gita follows a similar route especially chapters two and three.

Chapter two outlines the whole of the Gita and chapter eighteen acts as a closing summary.

All of us at sometime have faced something which has filled us with dread and foreboding and can probably relate to Arjuna when he say’s

 'Life goes from my limbs and they sink, and my mouth is sear and dry; a trembling overcomes my body, and my hair shudders in horror' Chapter 1 verse 29

A common element in approaching any problem is through stillness of mind and the senses. This theme is stated throughout the Gita (and we will move onto some of my favorite verses) We all aware that moving into stillness can hard at the best of times but when faced with difficult circumstances it can be very difficult indeed.

The Gita offers encouragement in Chapter 2 verse 40:-

This is a very encouraging verse, which in essence is saying that even if we stumble towards our goal at least we are still moving forward, nothing is wasted. If you do just 5 minutes of breathing or breath awareness throughout the day it will do some good. Again as we shall see later we should not become attached to our goals.

If you set yourself the goal of doing 2 hours of asana work every morning, it's still worth doing just ten minutes if that’s all there is time for rather than thinking I’ll leave for it for today because I can’t fit my normal program in!

In life, everyday the difficult situations we generally find ourselves in are usually beyond the, shall I re-set the alarm or should I get up and do 2 hours of rigorous yoga scenario.

So how do we deal with life’s more challenging moments.  Normally our concerns about any stressful situation is fear of what will happen to us.  In a nutshell our attachment to the outcome. Krishna offers advice to Arjuna as follows:-

For example Chapter 2 verse 47

‘Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward. Work not for a reward; but never cease to do thy work’

In Juan Mascaro’s translation of the Gita Arjuna gets direct and sometime difficult advice on the sense of duty towards work and our attachment to it.

Attachment to the outcome of any action colours our perception and our interpretation, it effects the way we listen to others how we formulate our opinions of events and situations and our desire to control them.

If we think about it most of our stress is due to letting our senses run away with themselves. Our thoughts re-live past failures or times when we did not do so well and super-impose them over future events taking us away from our appointment with life which only exists in the present moment – the here and now.

We all have situations to deal with which have the possibility to cause us pain or suffering, whether it accepting bad news or delivering bad news to others. We have a duty to handle this in a way that means that our actions do not make any situation worse than it is and that our minds are focused and unattached to our senses and goals.

In chapter 18 Krishna talks to Arjuna about the surrender of works

One of the most important teachings in yoga and meditation is moving to stillness and being present so that our actions are free from our own senses and ego.

In summary, the Gita teaches us that we cannot avoid our duty in that every task, no matter how small, is important. It is an opportunity to be mindful of our actions and their effect on ourselves and others.

No matter what life throws at us we always have a choice on how we react and deal with it as individuals. Just as Arjuna faced the battlefield, we face ours everyday and the Gita offers us timeless wisdom in an ever changing World.

The last words I leave to Swami Sivananda Radha and her summary of the Gita.

Daily life is a constant battle. Instincts, mechanical reactions, impulses, false pride, false modesty, selfishness, self importance, self pity – all these negative characteristics the aspirant has to fight and balance with positive characteristics in order to over come their destructive and painful influence. Life can then take on greater quality – depth, peace, joy, and harmony.

(Penguin Classics 1962)

(Integral Yoga Publications 1997)

Kundalini – Yoga for the West by Swami Sivananda Radha

(Timeless Books 1978)

[top of this page] The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Book One Verse 33  to help you keep a peaceful and serene mind

Yoga teacher Phil Aston teaches with a rare perception:- how to translate yoga from its eastern culture to our western acceptability’s, without compromise.

eg, how to use yoga as a tool in life to attain union within mind, body and spirit.

This he achieves in his grounded, compassionate manner, always tinged with his self-effacing sense of Humour.

I have been looking for the right yoga teacher for 8 years and the fact that I have traveled 70 miles for a 1.5 hour lesson each week must tell you that this man is worth checking out – you won’t regret it! [read more yoga student feedback]

Carol W