mOmentOm yOga. . . steady, cOmfy, happy, yOga. . .

We are very happy to welcome Jancy Yeo to mOmentOm yOga. Jancy will be taking some of the regular classes from today. Some of you have met her as early as in 12 October when she generously stepped in to teach a yoga class when Michele and I were not available. Call it fate or karma or what you will but Jancy and I were once yoga classmates when we were new to yoga AND Jancy was in the same class as Michele at one point too! Are we surprised to see her with us again? Some things are meant to be. . . so welcome home, Jancy!

Here's an little introduction to our new family member:

Jancy first took up yoga as she was curious to find out more about this age-old discipline, which everyone told her is relaxing and beneficial to the physical and mental health. “When I first started yoga, I was only interested in being challenged to do the various poses. However, through the years as I continued to attend classes, I learnt to focus my mind and in the process, experience calm and serenity which I am not able to get from the other physical exercises that I do regularly.”

Yoga, to Jancy, is a continual and life-long journey, one of self-discovery and realization. She considers each student a blessing as often times, it is through teaching that she discovers about herself more, allowing her to deepen her understanding of the subject. Jancy hopes that she will be able to share her enthusiasm of this age-old discipline and influence her students in appreciating the fact that it is an individual unique path for each one and thus discovering their personal journey with yoga.

She is grateful to her teacher and mentor, Jacqueline Ospovat, her first yoga teacher and whom she is still studying with, for her guidance and generosity in sharing her yoga knowledge.

Jancy received her yoga instructor training from Vivekananda Yoga Centre, Singapore. She is also a trained teacher with a Postgraduate Diploma in Physical Education from the National Institute of Education, Singapore and a certified aerobics instructor. In her free time, she enjoys running and playing peek-a-boo with her 6-month-old daughter.

We will be uploading the December class schedule tomorrow.

In the meantime, some updates for classes the rest of the week (no change to other regular timeslots unless stated below):

30 Nov, Thursday
7:15pm FUNdamental class cancelled (all the regulars can't make the class)
8:30pm MOMentum class cancelled as per previous announcement

1 Dec, Friday
12pm FUNdamental class will be conducted by Jancy
7:15pm INtensity class will be conducted by Michele

As mOmentOm yOga and I go into our transitions now and into December, many realisations are ripening. I come to experience many things that I thought I understood but really grasped only intellectually before. . . like what it really means to take on the challenge of life without turning away and what it means to truly let go of expectations of desired outcomes of our strife -- what it means is that we live realistically and we live in genuine freedom. I am grateful for the experience and to all of you who have made it possible, and thankful for your continued support so that mOmentOm yOga can continue to bring such realisations into others' lives. From what I've seen -- from the touching emails I've received, and yogis who are continuing to renew your class packages and sign up new friends even in the recent weeks which is going into the festive period low season -- I believe this is already happening more and more.

Today I read again Master Sheng Yen's (a modern Zen Master) "108 Paths to Liberation" (available as a free distribution leaflet at mOmentOm yOga) and his words nicely sum up what I realised:

To take on anything, one must first be able to let go. One is truly free who can take on and let go of anything in peace.

Know yourself and others, and the ways of the world, so as to have a peaceful body and mind. Recognize, cherish, and nurture your blessings, and seize every chance to be of service.

For those who can take things on and let them go in peace, every year is an auspicious year. For those who can sow with wisdom the seeds of blessings, every day is a good day.

This article on Yoga Journal's online magazine talks about how the two practices complement each other: http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/442_1.cfm

It's that time of the year. . .

Due to the school holidays, the approaching public holidays season and the transition of classes from Sau Fen to Michele, and Dr Kajal's upcoming visit home to India. . . please bear with us as we work out our December timetable. Look out for the new December timetable here which will be available soon after our instructors meet to finalise the schedule on Wednesday night.

Yogis please be assured that this is a interim timetable in view of the above reasons and you can look forward to 2007 when we will be back again with the full schedule, a more power packed class programme!

In the meantime, please note that there will be no Thursday 8:30pm class on 30 Nov this week.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

mOmentOm yOga is very happy and honoured to be hosting the Vipassana Meditation Centre's (VMC) next One Day Mindfulness Retreat on Saturday, 9 December 2006, from 9:30am to 6:00pm. This is a one day meditation retreat open to all who are practising Vipassana Meditation (also known as Insight Meditation).

. . .

Latest info:

One Day Mindfulness Retreat will be conducted on
9 December (Saturday) and 25 December (Monday).

Registration: 8:30am-8:45am

Time: 9:00am-6:00pm

Venue: mOmentOm yOga at 241B Victoria Street

Retreat is open only to yogis who have attended Meditation Course for Beginners conducted by Vipassana Meditation Centre (VMC) or are practising meditation in the tradition of the late most Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw.

To register, please email your name, gender and your contact number to vmckm@singnet.com.sg or send a sms to Nelson Lim at handphone number 96985157.

. . .

On a personal note, do make a donation if you would like to help out the good people of VMC, who are a bunch of sincere down-to-earth folks earnest in their efforts to provide opportunities for people to learn and practice meditation. They also support a resident monk, Sayadaw U Pannananda, from Myanmar, who teaches and guides the meditators. I have attended his meditation course and sat with this group from time to time and have benefitted much from the experience and their kindness.

More about VMC: http://vmc128.8m.com/

Notes on yoga class schedule:
. . . the 10am-11am PRANayama/DHYANa class at mOmentOm will be cancelled on that day of course, because meditators can practise at the One Day Retreat itself.
. . . Dr Kajal's 8:00-9:30am class and Sau Fen's 6:00-7:30pm class will not be affected and will take place as scheduled. For yogis arriving early for 6:00pm class, please help to maintain Noble Silence for the meditators' sake. Thank you.

What I am going through now is like dying without any of the associated disadvantages. People and I are telling each other how much we cherish each other and showing gratitude to each other. Everyone ready to be open to new changes. Unlike if I were really dead, I am able to hear and respond to the feedback and I cherish the experience! I like to keep a morbid-sounding but wise zen practice on the top of my mind all the time: imagine that death is at hand right now over your shoulder like a dark looming shadow and might happen to you in the next moment. . . and how would you respond the petty circumstances and problems you are facing now knowing that death is imminent? Puts a healthy perspective on things and forces you to focus on the really important things in life!


Teaching is hard to do. Why do I do such a difficult thing?

I remember when I first embarked on teaching, I read a encountered a common saying and decided to take it to heart and make it my teaching motto:

Bad teachers tell.
Good teachers show.
Great teachers inspire.

What does it take to inspire, I wondered? I have been fortunate to have encountered inspiring teachers before so I have a clue. One such person hard to forget is Venerable Pannyavaro. A short encounter with a great teacher is enough to learn all you need. I had the opportunity to have Venerable Pannyavaro as a meditation teacher in a 5 day meditation retreat in Singapore. There, I experienced how effective it is when a person chooses to live in a way embodying the teachings rather than by simply telling someone else how to live. When Venerable spoke, his words are his own, formed from personal insight through personal experience and not from book learning. When he spoke, I listened, because his words were made of truth, and spoken with love. There is no self-interest at all, no attachment even to how you would respond to his words, there is only the voice of a human being who has beautifully been actualised. When he wants to encourage us to meditate, he does not just verbally exhort us – instead, he takes his own practice seriously. No matter how busy his duties, how many people are in need of his help, he will take his yearly personal retreat and go off into the Australian bush for 3 months and do his solitary practice. In his doing this, we know how important it is for us to do our own practice, we do not need to be told.

Venerable’s words still guide my meditation and his gentle but firm countenance constantly appear in my mind and check me back into reality. He is one of my role models having made a positive change in me and I aspire to his model of teaching.To help, you need to teach, to effectively teach you need to inspire change, to inspire you need to live the teachings. Of course, I am guilty of less than inspiring moments. This is because I am not totally free from greed, hatred and delusions yet. The limits of my self cultivation will limit my abilities to help effectively as a teacher. Thus I learned that to successfully help others, I need to strive to develop myself to the utmost extent through further training. We know that only in perfecting our wisdom and compassion that we can be effective agents for beneficial change. So I will not lose heart and I continue to aim for this ideal.


Letting go is hard to do. Why do I do such a difficult thing?

Folks have been asking this since the "sabbatical announcement" (see below).

Because in order to love something perfectly, healthly, wisely, we need to love without possessiveness, we need to love it in a balanced, non-attached way, we need to love it without clinging on to it. Simply put, we need to let it go. I want to love yoga and our yogis perfectly, healthily, wisely - so I need to let go. This doesn't mean I give it up entirely! I am not giving up on yoga & our yogis, I only give up the feeling of attachment to yoga and our yogis. The love remains. . . and now remains in a pure form, without self interest, without possessiveness, unconditioned. Ultimately, the yoga ethic of aparigraha or non-grasping is a key to freedom. Love can make you feel so good that you get so worried that what you love will end. With non-grasping love we simply love without worrying because this love is not tied to things being the same.

As long as wanting to be away from unpleasant things causes us to suffer, and as long as wanting to be with pleasant things all the time causes us to suffer - we will never be truly happy, never truly have real peace. I remember both my yoga teacher and meditation teacher saying that when they found they have grown a fondness for a particular sweet or food that they will purposely eat tonnes of the stuff until they throw up and the fondness will show its real limits - and they have rid themselves of an attachment. All things are transient, nothing lasts forever. Our possessiveness is a human response to this. We want to have AND to hold. To possess something to make it last forever in the same state. This inevitably leads to much suffering since the intrinsic nature of all things is change. That is not to say that we can't free ourselves from this type of suffering. We see how our love is defiled by possessiveness and we let go of this pollutant and purify our love in this way.


Taking on new challenges is hard to do. Why do I do such a difficult thing?

If I believe it to be true, I need to act on it. If attachments are unhealthy to my mind, I need to act to free myself from it. In yoga, the principal ethic of satya urges a commitment to the truth in this way. This is not just about telling the truth and not lying. This is about living the truths with your own life. There is no use just knowing the truth and caressing it with our intellect from the cushy armchair of our study removed from reality, we need to live the truth in an imperfect world. This is not an easy path. Yet I want to walk this path because it is walkable. And it is a path that leads to more and more freedom and inner happiness. I sincerely think that we can all be enlightened, I believe that while suffering is a fact of existence, it is not our destiny because we know how to transcend suffering. We fail because we give up before we really try. There is no serious commitment. And when there is no commitment, there is no energy to power change. We need to know that we can, by everyday decisions, liberate ourselves, little by little, from greed, hatred delusions created by an ego-based perspective and develop a more balanced and global perspective. We can arrive at a larger heart by opening ourselves to acting outside of our comfort zones, again and again, without losing heart - because we see the big picture - we want to live in a better way today. While behaving like this may be uncomfortable in the short run (and may even be dangerous!) the knowledge that we are progressing along our path to achieving our greatest self, we will plod on, happily.

The upside is that many problems become petty issues when you made a decision to live what precious time you have in the best possible way to benefit as many people as possible. As the Dalai Lama always teaches: While the group of people you want to benefit includes yourself, the vast number of people other than yourself shifts the locus of your attention beyond the narrow concerns just yourself and your loved ones. We are able to transcend our day to day sense of helplessness and meaninglessness and even with a simple act of choosing what to eat during lunch feel ourselves reconnected to the world that we live in all the time but yet only really participate in part of the time.

All mOmentOm yOgis are warmly invited to the next cultural offering from our partner:

Russian ACT is an international festival of contemporary art that showcases Russian culture all over the world.

For yogis who enjoyed the Musical Antiqua Koln concert in October, this month, we invite you to TWO concerts: a classical Baroque music concert and a jazz concert by artists from Russia on 1 & 2 Dec respectively.

Click on the image below for details on the events and email Tania Goh today to reserve your seats at russianact@gmail.com!

Yogis, please note that right now, Tuesdays there is a 12pm-1pm FUNdamental class by Sau Fen and Thursdays there's a 12:15-1:15pm FUNdamental class by Dr Kajal.

Hi yoga fans!

A sabbatical is an extended period of time granted for professional development and spiritual renewal away from normal ministerial responsibilities and in a manner that is not possible during the busyness of a typical work year. Sabbaticals are not vacations, but carefully planned periods of time devoted to study, reflection, rest, and renewal. They frequently become a path to understanding one's vocation in new ways or as a vehicle for a transformed sense of pastoral identity. Some pastors travel, experience different cultures, learn new skills, or spend time reading during a sabbatical. It is also possible to think of even doing something like a semi-monastic retreat. This is a time to experience "being" in addition to "doing"; it should be a time of freedom and authenticity. One of the goals of a sabbatical is to return to the congregation renewed and refreshed. ( from Boston University School of Theology's website)
. . .

I think the word sabbatical appropriately describes what I am planning to do. In academic circles and in the Catholic church, sabbaticals are time granted to professors and spiritual workers to renew and refresh themselves through self-study and development. A fter more than 3 years in yoga teaching, I am ripe for further training and development. From this December, I will be taking a sabbatical from full-time yoga teaching to do further training and to rest and renew myself.

When I am teaching full-time, I prioritise my time, energy and wellbeing for the running of the classes so I am not able to do too much advanced training because I cannot risk sustaining injuries and fatigue that would affect the teaching of the day to day classes. Thus to grow as a yogi, I need to take a sabbatical so I would thus have more freedom to undertake this kind of training as well as longer term intensive meditation retreats since other instructors would be ensuring the continuity of the daily classes.

New beginnings

We are happy to announce that one of our regular teachers, Michele Thompson, will turn full-time from December to teach and run mOmentOm yOga and Dr Kajal will also take on more classes so our yogis will be guaranteed the enjoyment of the same the steady, comfy, happy yoga that we do at mOmentOm yOga. We are also talking to other yoga teachers on coming on board to enhance our studio's offering.

During my sabbatical, I would also be taking time to contribute spiritual work in the foundation of an important Buddhist temple and pilgrimage site housing the relics of the Buddha -- Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. The historic event will establish a permanent cultural and spiritual landmark in Singapore. There is an opportunity at this crucial stage of their inaugural year in 2007 to offer up my skills and efforts to help the people, to encourage more people to avoid evil, to do good and to cultivate their minds, thus finding happiness. If you feel you have benefited from what I have shared with you in mOmentOm, imagine being able to share the same beneficial transformations effectively with countless other lives on a global scale. It is a huge and important challenge that I have been called upon to take on, and in the spirit of yoga, I find it hard not to search within for the courage to rise up to the task when so much good can possibly be accomplished by it. As Mother Teresa said:

If we pray, we will believe
If we believe, we will love
If we love, we will serve.

With your patience and kindness, I am confident I will have your support and understanding in this endeavour to renew and grow myself and mOmentOm yOga. I feel that mOmentOm yOga has grown and has developed its identity beyond just being a "Sau Fen" place. My inner wisdom is telling me that I need to step aside a little and allow others to have the chance to take the lead and further develop what mOmentOm can offer. While my ideas may have set up the place, perhaps others' ideas can make the place really soar. And in this case, as Michele is taking the lead, I am excited about what mOmentOm can become, with her heart, creativity and her intelligence all in. Additionally, you can also look forward to more classes conducted by Dr Kajal including his popular workshop programmes.

Thank you to all for sharing your practice with me and for making mOmentOm yOga what it is today, a steady, comfy, happy home for all of us. Please continue to give us your support as we grow! And of course, you all will continue to see me at mOmentOm yOga. . . likely as a fellow yogi in class!

Look out for the December class schedule out soon on our website.
(See below for holiday announcement)

. . .

One of the great blessings on my path in yoga is to have met Michele. Her quest for truth, her kind heart and openness have been a constant reminder to me to be real, big-hearted and to be present. I remember her generosity in Nepal when in a moment, she gave without hesitation her share of what little money we had to buy more books and pens for the children of the villages. I was very moved by that beautifully spontaneous and real action. I see her trekking steadily ahead of me in the same mountains in Nepal and I admire the inner strength that carries her on in what she sets herself out to do. I always make it a point to sound out to her first on new ideas and developments for mOmentOm yOga because I know that her comments are always fair and wise and based on a lot of love. It is not an exaggeration to say that mOmentOm yOa as it is today would not have been possible without her help. She is as much a part of mOmentOm as I am, though she has till now stayed humbly out of the limelight. Her passion for yoga and her will to help others find their happiness will guide mOmentOm yOga through to heights comparable to that of the Himalayas!

Thank you, Michele, for your companionship on the path.
May your wish to teach yoga bring you happiness and peace!

A message from Michele:

"Dear fellow yogis,

Some of you have attended my classes and others I have met on my yogic journey... The journey has been a very enlightening one. With the support and encouragement of Saufen, I started teaching yoga to deepen my practice. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to share and be part of your journey.

Indeed, we are sad that Saufen will no longer be a regular "fixture" at the studio. She has touched many of us with her patience, guidance, wisdom and open heart. She will continue to come by and teach whenever she can. Let us wish her happiness in her ongoing journey!"

. . .

Holidays

Some yogis have been asking for a break in December due to the holidays. There are a number of public holidays on Monday 25 Dec, Monday 1 Jan and Tuesday, 2 Jan 2007 (as Hari Raya Haji is on 31 Dec 2006 falling on a Sunday).

Dr Kajal will also be back in India visiting his family from 17 Dec to first week of Jan and Michele visiting hers in Malaysia over Christmas.

So mOmentOm yOga & yOgis will take a rest from 24 Dec and reopen on 3 Jan 2007.
Yogis' class package validity period will be extended accordingly.

mOmentOm yOga wishes all yogis and their families health & happiness in the holidays, new year and beyond!

. . .
Health & happiness,
Sau Fen
mOmentOm yOga. . . steady, cOmfy, happy, yOga.

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
wthout rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
About keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.


. . . Pablo Neruda



I think perhaps Neruda practiced meditation? That seems what he is talking about.
Are we all guilty of purposely "making our lives busy" so that we can ignore our inner search for peace, meaning and connection? If you have been avoiding the confrontation with this "sadness of never understanding ourselves", then stop now, keep still, observe and be aware. I want to cry everytime I read the lines "would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing. " I think of the "terrorists" and "counter-terrorists" and think about them as they are, ordinary folks like you and I who have the same wish for happiness and fulfillment in their lives and how it has all gone so wrong, being mislead by anger, hate, delusions. . . a wave of sympathy and regret arises for the lives which have been lost or corrupted by people who want to keep "moving our arms so much". Makes me more determined to encourage and teach all who would come, how to meditate and find the stillness and peace within that is the true self.

One of our mOmentOm yOgis, Irene, has an excellent suggestion which is to invite yogis to share with each other how they integrate meditation into their daily lives, or indeed, we can extend it to how yogis integrate any yoga practice into their daily lives. We can encourage each other in this way and our practice really comes alive! Sometimes, yogis can come up with pretty interesting and ingenious ideas on how to live better with the wisdom they unearth from within themselves through their own earnest experience of the practice. So let us share these gems! Just email us your insights at mOmentOmyOga@gmail.com

Irene recently completed her attendance at a Insight Meditation course at Mangala Vihara and she has this to contribute:

The Venerable from Mangala Vihara said something to this extent - Meditation is like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. You can choose not to do it (ie. brushing teeth/shower) but you know it's not good to neglect this habit. I like this analogy. Whenever I feel the inertia to meditate, I ask myself, "So am I not going to brush my teeth or take a shower today?". Sometimes the inertia gets the better of me & I tell myself, gosh I smell..... Haha......

A number of our yogis are actively practising mindfulness (or Insight or Vipassana) meditation now and many of you have expressed interest in attending group meditation sittings. This is such an excellent development! Well done yogis! You are on to a great adventure of learning more about yourself and developing your minds. From what I hear about your practice experience, you are on the right track and making progress. Keep it up. Each second of practice accumulates into a great big meaningful practice. As we learnt in school: "Tiny drops of water, tiny grains of sand, make the mightly ocean and the pleasant land"!

As requested by yogis last night, see below for the information on upcoming the one day meditation retreat organised by the good folks at Vipassana Meditation Centre. Do attend if you can and deepen your practice with this friendly bunch of people. Do make a donation for lunch and the upkeep of the centre which is a non-profit organisation. . . they work really hard!

(Note about the message below: the mindfulness meditation method that our yogis have been learning is the Mahasi Sayadaw method)

Many of you have collected the free Metta (Loving-Kindness) Meditation CD from the studio. Hope you find the guided instructions helpful. If you need more copies, you can copy the CD and pass to your friends, more copies can be found at Awareness Place bookstore on the groud floor of Bras Basah Complex.


. . .

Message from Vipassana Meditation Centre:

Dear Dhammafarers

Are you looking for a place to meditate to sharpen your mindfulness so
as to reduce your defilements ?

VMC is organising one day Mindfulness Retreat again.

Date : Sat 11 Nov 06
Time : 9am to 6pm
Venue : 33B Lowland Road (5 mins walk from KOvan MRT Stn)
Fees : By Donation
Lunch is provided for registered yogis

This retreat is organised for those who have completed Meditaion Course for Beginner conducted by VMC or are practising in the tradition of the late most Ven Mahasi Sayadaw.

If you are interested please contact or sms Sister Lian Sim @ 9670 5776
for registration on first come first serve basis.

With Metta
Vipassana Meditation Centre (Singapore)
http://vmc128.8m.com/

*********************************************
Do not give way to heedlessness.
Do not indulge in sensual pleasures.
Only the vigilant and meditative attain great
happiness.
The Dhammapada Verse 27
*********************************************

With great power comes great responsibility.

-- Uncle Ben in Spiderman


Imagine that you have the power to get everything that you wish for.

What would be the outcome?

Perhaps after a disappointingly brief period of exhilaration, you actually get the nagging feeling that this is not that great a power to possess because you do not know how to use it. Perhaps you might experience that after you got what you want the outcome of that may not be what you anticipated. Perhaps you realise that getting all that you want does not equal to getting all that you need because you do not yet have the wisdom to know what you truly need. Perhaps you might even lose interest in life, seeing that you can get whatever your heart desires without having to work for it, without surprises, without any tinge of suffering the space of anticipation. Perhaps you might even become ashamed of wishing for and receiving petty, frivolous things when you see others around you unable to get their basic needs met no matter how hard they tried. Perhaps you might decide to use your power to benefit others whether or not they exploit your generosity. Perhaps you might develop a sense of urgency over the need to learn how to understand and refine your mind so that unfortunate and downright evil thoughts are eliminated and do not accidentally get wished into existance by you, to the detriment of yourself and others. Perhaps you might start to own up to the direct effect your mind and actions have over the happiness of all others and begin to live not just for yourself. Perhaps you might learn that being able to get what you wish for does not automatically mean more happiness for you and that it is how you use the power with compassion and wisdom that brings you happiness.

Consider this seriously. Consider it for a while.

Because when your mind is clear and your heart is peaceful,
you will see that you already have this power.

. . .

The following is an exerpt from p. 324/5, Full Catastrophe Living: How to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn


One of the major sources of suffering in our lives is that we usually want to have things our way. Thus when things happen that we like, we feel that everything is going our way and we feel happy. And when things "go against us", when they do not happen the way we want or the way we expected or planned for, then we tend to feel thwarted, frustrated, angry, wounded, unhappy, and we suffer.

The irony is that often we really don't know what our way is, even though we want to have it all the time. If we got what we want, we usually want something else in addition. The mind keeps finding new things that it needs in order to feel happy or fulfilled. In this regard, it is rarely satisfied with things as they are for very long, even if things are relatively peaceful and satisfying.

When little children get upset because they can't have everything they see that they like to have, we are apt to tell them "You can't always have your own way." And when they say, "Why not" we say, "Because" or "You'll understand when you grow up." But this is a fiction we perpetrate on them. In fact, most of the time we grown-ups don't behave as if we understand life any better than our children do. We want to have things our own way too. We just want different things than they do. Don't we get just as upset when things don't turn out as we want them to? We find it easy to smile at their childishness or to get angry at it, depending on our own state of mind. Perhaps we have just learned how to hide our feelings better.

To break out of this trap of always being driven by our own desires, it is not a bad exercise to ask yourself from time to time, "What is my own way?" "What do I really want?" "Would I know it if I get it?" "Does everything have to be 'perfect' right now, for me to be happy?"

Alternatively, you might ask yourself, "Is everything already basically okay right now?" "Am I just not noticing the ways in which things are good because my mind keeps coming up with ideas for what it has to have or has to get rid of before I can be happy, just like a child?" Or, if that is not the case, you might go on to ask, "Are there specific steps that I can take, seeing my unhappiness right now, that would help me to move toward greater peace and harmony in my life?" "Are there decisions I could make that would help me to find my own way?" "Do I have any power to chart my own way, or am I fated to live out the rest of my life unable to experience happiness or peace because of fate, because of the decisions I made or that we made for me decades ago, perhaps when I was young and silly, or blind, or insecure, or more unaware than I am now?"

If you practice incorporating asking yourself about your own way into your meditation practice, you will find that it is very effective in bringing you back to the present moment. You might try sitting with the question "Right now, what is my own way?" It is sufficient to ask the question. Trying to answer it is not necessary. It is more fruitful just to ponder the question, keeping it alive from moment to moment, listening for the response from within your own heart. "What is my own way?" "What is my own way?"

Class schedule starting today. Click on image for enlarged view.
















Note:
. . . No classes on public holidays

Instructors:

C: Master Chua Kah Joo
K: Dr Kajal Pandit
SF: Chee Sau Fen
M: Michele Thompson

FUNdamentals (1 hour): for newbie yogis
. . .yoga basics for people who are entire new to yoga & beginners
-introduction to the practices of yoga pranayama, asana, relaxation techniques

MOMentum (1hour 30 minutes): for regular yogis
. . .regular yoga classes for those who are already familiar with basic poses, techniques
-development of basic skills. Introduction to variations of practice, eg. yoga flows.
-help to develop basis for a home practice-introduciton to meditation

INtensity (1hour 30 minutes): for seasoned yogis
. . .to develop deeper understanding of individual and the yoga practices, pranayama, asana, etc.
-emphasis on meditative approach, eg. Yin Yoga, as a foundation for meditation practice.

PRANayama/DHYANa (1 hour): for all yogis
. . .breathing techniques for engergisation and relaxation leading to meditative techniques for mental strength and health

For information on class packages, click here.