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What is a Global Yogi?
Global yogi and writer Chantal Hauser reports on what it means to her to be a global yogi. Currently in Switzerland, Chantal is living a global yogi life, and doesn’t currently have a fixed home address.
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BaliSpirit Festival: A cultural crossroads
“I see the BaliSpirit Festival as a cultural crossroads, an intersection point for all these cultures to create harmony. We are all different threads that make up the same cloth,” said Rocky Dawuni, CNN’s Top 10 African artist and BaliSpirit Festival headliner. Press release from the 2012 BaliSpirit Festival discusses the musical elements of the festival and how musicians form a cultural bridge between peoples.
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Yogawoman: film review
Yoga was bought to the west from India by a lineage of male teachers. Now there’s a generation of women who are leading the way. They’re strong they’re inspiring and they’re radically changing peoples lives. From the busy streets of Manhattan to the dusty slums of Kenya YOGAWOMAN uncovers a global phenomenon that has changed the face of yoga forever.
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Oh, Meditation
Many articles have been published in recent months on meditation and a lot of people have noticed. Meditation is the talk of the town. Could the reason be that spring is around the corner in the northern hemisphere and people feel restless and confused? Chantal Hauser investigates what this thing called ‘meditation’ means for her.
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Satya: the second Yama
Manish Pole investigates the third of the yamas: Satya, or ‘truthfulness’. In observing SATYA, we must not even resort to this fanciful creation called – white lies! No, SATYA means that we do not lie. Period. Not even if we believe it to be non-harmful – not even if we can find any number of justifications to lie. Any words (or actions) of ours that may wrongly influence other persons regarding our motives, is to be avoided.
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Chavutti – the ‘dancing massage’ from India
Elena Sepúlveda unveils the mysteries of this ancient Indian massage technique, where the masseur uses their feet, while suspended above by a rope – to release tensions and strain in the body.
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Wat Buddha Dhamma: A Buddhist haven in the forest
I arrived on a sunny Sunday afternoon in early February to spend a week at Wat Buddha Dhamma – a Buddhist monastery of the Thai forest tradition, just a couple of hours north of Sydney. Having come from a three-day festival of music, yoga and dance, I was looking forward to spending some quiet time at the monastery; meditating and reflecting on life in the company of like-minded souls.
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The phoenix arises on Mangrove Mountain
I was lucky enough to attend the recent second edition of the Phoenix Weekend: three days of yoga, dance and music – held over the first weekend of February this year. Organisers – the dynamic duo that is the Future Sound of Yoga: Matt and Angel Sigmin – drew a big crowd of more than two hundred and fifty people to the event.
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Icelandic geyser turns yogini upside down
Chantal Hauser met with an unfortunate accident after slipping into a burning hot geyser – one which turned her yoga practice inside out and upside down. She recounts her harrowing experience in Iceland, which, surprisingly, led to a whole new outlook on her yoga practice.
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A prayer to answer all prayers in Nepal
TGY caught up with Amanda / Mahan Shrestha – an Australian yogini now based between Melbourne and Nepal – who runs yoga retreats and a non profit training centre in this Himalayan kingdom. Inspired by recurring dreams about a magical country somewhere far away, she first arrived in Nepal aged twenty barely having read her Lonely Planet guidebook, to take her first steps into the country she now calls home.
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What’s in your yoga lunchbox?
TGY interviews Kara-Leah Grant, founder of the New Zealand online yoga magazine, the Yoga Lunchbox. She discusses the yoga scene in NZ and also what inspired her to start The Yoga Lunchbox.
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TGY Short Guide to Meditation
The TGY Short Guide to Mediation is an e-guide available for free download and includes an overview of the origins of meditation, an introductory description of a few different practice techniques, including recommended postures and some pointers on developing a regular meditation practice.
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Kundalini Yoga Meditation
What is Kundalini Yoga Meditation? This was the question I asked myself before going to my first retreat with Swami Ganeshananda last year on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca – where he regularly leads retreats. Kundalini Yoga Meditation is a meditation practice that focuses on the release of the kundalini energy stored at the base of the spine.
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The Phoenix Weekend & The Modern Yoga Collective
The Modern Yoga Collective and the Phoenix weekends are both projects initiated by the dynamic duo behind The Future Sound of Yoga, bringing progressive, cutting-edge yoga, dance, and music to Sydney and the surrounding area.
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Yogagenda – A three in one yoga diary
Elena Sepulveda is the heart and brains behind the Yogagenda – a newly published 3 in 1 yoga datebook now available for purchase in shops and online. Global Yogi caught up with Elena via Skype from her home base in Barcelona about how she came to dream up and bring to life this wonderful resource for yogis.
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What about Asteya?
Continuing on our Yoga Sutras article series, Clayton Horton – a global yogi based between San Francisco and the Philippines, discusses the third of the Yamas – Asteya, or ‘non-stealing’… “I admit, when I was eight or nine years old, I used to steal fishing equipment from our neighborhood department store. It was exciting. As I got older, I realized that such activity was dangerous, not smart, and not nice…
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Sunflower Retreat Holidays, Casperia, Italy
Relax, rejuvenate and rejoice at Sunflower retreat centre – in the mediaeval village of Casperia, near Rome in central Italy. This is a place where visitors can step away from their busy lives and relax and enjoy the real Italy untouched by mass tourism.
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Byron Spirit Festival Feb 2012
The Byron shire town of Mullumbimby will host the inaugural Byron SPIRIT FESTIVAL in February of next year. This event will unite the worlds of yoga, kirtan, conscious dance, tantra, healing and music to invigorate body, mind and soul in an inclusive, community-based celebration.
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Yin Yoga with the Gods in Bhutan
Australian yoga teacher Amy Cleghorn uncovers the secrets of happiness while on a yin yoga retreat in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Immersed in a country whose goverment legislates for the happiness of its people Amy starts to unwind, de-stress and actually see the world around her.
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Vipassana Meditation
Vipassana is an ancient form of meditation in the Buddhist tradition that uses the technique of self-observation to gain an understanding of the true nature of reality. With roots in the Pali language (spoken in ancient India by the Buddha), the common English translation of Vipassana is ‘insight’.
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Ahimsa or Nonviolence – the first Yama
Ahimsa, or nonviolence is the first of the Yamas, or moral restraints. The Yamas are the five moral restraints that form the first limb of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga. Amisa literally means to do no harm. It is the opposite of himsa – which comes from the Sanskrit root hims – to strike. Ahimsa means kindness and non-violence towards all living things.
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Thirty Days of Yoga
On October 30th just past I completed my 30-day challenge at a local yoga studio here in Melbourne, Australia. I am now quite tired, and I think I’ll take at least three or four days off before doing another class.
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The Global Yoga Mala
The Global Yoga Mala peace project was dreamed up by world-renowned yogi Shiva Rea in 2009 as a way for the international yoga community to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace. Each September around the time of the Spring / Autumn equinox, yogis around the world celebrate and promote world peace with108 sun salutations.
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Rishikesh Photo Essay – An Indian Odyssey
Australian artist, photographer and adventurer Charlie Sublet reports from the yoga capital of the world, Rishikesh, India, where he spent some time uncovering the subtle and not so subtle spiritual undercurrents of this fascinating place.
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The Africa Yoga Project
The Africa Yoga project is a wonderful example of the yogic principle of ‘seva’ or selfless service in action. An initiative of Paige Elenson and her yoga teacher Baron Baptiste, AYP is bringing yoga to the poorest people in Kenya, giving them new hope and providing a path out of poverty.
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Recent insanities mark the need for a more soul-friendly society
Shervin Boloorian investigates how the shocking and tragic attacks in Norway last month were committed to halt the spread of ”multiculturalism” among other perceived threats, according to prime suspect Anders Bering-Breivik’s manifesto while at the same time a talented if troubled pop-icon, Amy Winehouse, OD’d and dropped dead at her own hand in the UK.
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The TGY Beginners’ Guide to Yoga
I am pleased to introduce the first TGY E-Guide – The TGY Beginners Guide to Yoga. It is available for free download now.This guide is designed for beginner yogis and also for students who are eager to learn more about this ancient philosophy of living but don’t yet wish to delve into Patanjali’s Sutras.
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Tapas or ‘Voluntary Suffering’
What is Tapas? A mystery to the lazy… a magic ingredient for the evolving yogi….accomplished athletes, yogis and musicians know it well. Tapas is traditionally defined as to burn or to glow or a method to produce energy…or a process which illuminates the imperfections of one’s own personality.
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Internal Sunrise Meditation
The Inner Sunrise meditation is a style of meditation based on connecting with natural planetary rhythms. Since time immemorial, yogis, fakirs, shamans, monks and the like have awaken before sunrise to conduct their spiritual practice. All of life on planet Earth begins to awaken as the Sun’s early rays begin to fall upon the planet.
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Yoga and the pull of the moon
In the Ashtanga Tradition of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, both full and new Moon days are regarded as holidays and asana practice is not recommended. Guruji explains that when the triad of the Earth, Sun and Moon are all in a straight line in space, universal energy is much stronger on these days and the possibility of injury is greater.
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What is The Future Sound of Yoga?
What is The Future Sound of Yoga? This is the question I found myself asking when I saw it billed on the opening night of the Bali Spirit Festival in March this year. Curious to hear the yogic future in music, I went down to ARMA (Ubud’s museum of modern art and host to the musical program at the festival) to find out.
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Poems to the Bliss of Awareness, By Swami Ganeshananda
Swami Ganeshananda is a spiritual teacher, who teaches Kundalini yoga meditation to students all around Europe. Kundalini yoga meditation practice springs from the ancient teachings of Tantra and exists within the schools of Hindusim and Buddhism.
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What is Meditation?
What is meditation? Meditate: focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation. Meditate upon: think deeply about (something)…
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Yoga and Motherhood
Harriet Gaffney is one happy traveller on this trip called life, but as it does for many it got wobbly for her there for a while, once she hit the place called motherhood. It was yoga that brought her back to solid ground, awake, alive and eager for more. She investigates yoga and motherhood, and how one is always complementing the other…
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Do you need a Spiritual Teacher? asks Swami Ganeshananda
If you are considering starting a meditation practice, or if you are already practicing some form of meditation, you might be wondering about the role of a teacher. Do I need one? Do I want one? What will I use him or her for?
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