What is yoga?

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Mind Training

Yoga is a wonderful gift from our ancestors. Going back over 5,000 years it has stood the test of time.

It is here for us to enjoy, learn from, enrich, use for healing, and to share with others. It is a great privilege for me to share the sacred art of yoga with you.

Yoga is an immensely powerful tool. A well-designed and regular practice of yoga postures can make one physically stronger and healthier.

But this is a means rather than the end. Contrary to popular belief, yoga is mainly concerned with refining, or even mastering, the mind.

After all, the mind is so powerful that it, as John Milton said, "can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven".

"WE WILLINGLY SPEND a dozen years in school, then go on to college or professional training for several more; we work out at the gym to stay healthy; we spend a lot of time enhancing our comfort, our wealth, and our social status.

We put a great deal into all this, and yet we do so little to improve the inner condition that determines
the very quality of our lives.

What strange hesitancy, fear, or apathy stops us from
looking within ourselves?"

Matthieu Ricard

If you'd ask me to describe yoga in just two words, I would use

the term "mind training"—and certainly not L.A.-style "body sculpting".

Unfortunately the latter is a common Western interpretation...

Goal of Yoga

Yoga's ultimate goal is to have the ability to direct the mind towards a peaceful, positive object or idea without any interruptions. Just think about this for a second... When was the last time you were able to do that?

Now if we follow this idea, and direct the mind towards what is beyond it, Self-realisation can take place.

The mind, then, is like a beam of a lighthouse illuminating that part of us which can be called the 'soul', 'seer', or 'Self'.

It is the insight that we are more than just our mind & body—along with a true understanding of what this 'more' is.

Here, the mind is used only to observe the Self so that it gets fully absorbed by it.

Yoga considers an undisturbed connection between the mind and the Self a state of complete freedom.

Freedom is when we're no longer we're bound by the mind's selfish desires, attachments to the past, projections of the future, fears, and insecurities.

"THEN, WITH REASON armed with resolution, let the seeker quietly lead the mind to the Self, and let all his thoughts be silence.

And whenever the mind unsteady and restless strays away from the Self, let him ever and for ever lead it again to the Self"

Bhagavad Gita, verse VI.26

Yet this is a place many seem reluctant to explore, as Matthieu Ricard, (see first quote above), rightly observed.

Perhaps people don't know where or how to start?

Yoga may offer you the right tools to get started. And taking up classes with me in Reading may turn out to be a defining moment for you.

Yoga in 2008

Yoga is particularly relevant to those who are leading a modern life. The 21^st century is characterised by an unprecedented emphasis on consumption, materialism, and continuous hyperactivity.

Many people are showing symptoms of over-nourishment of the senses and the body. Yoga can be tremendously helpful in addressing this.

But even if you're a perfectly healthy & happy athlete or dancer, you will find that yoga can improve your concentration and make you feel more grounded—which can improve your performance.