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

update

2007-05-06T09:22:00.000-07:00

Dear yogis,

For refunds of unused classes from valid class passes, please email to momentomyoga@gmail.com by 31 May 2007, stating your full name (as in bank account), your bank account number or your mailing address. All requested refunds will be sent by June 2007. As we are closing accounts, we regret that we will be unable to process any requests for refunds after 31 May 2007. Thank you for your kindness and patience.

Namaste.

clOsure

2007-04-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

We are closed. Please email momentomyoga@gmail.com for more information.
Thank you.

Thursday's FUN class cancelled

2006-12-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

Please be informed that tomorrow's (Thursday, 7 Dec) 7.15-8.15pm FUN class is cancelled. There will be no yoga classes tomorrow. Classes from Fri-Sun will take place as per schedule posted. Do check the website regularly for updates.

Give More, Consume Less

2006-12-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

Our fellow yogi, Herman, who also goes by the moniker, Heage, is sharing his art with us this Christmas season! Check out Herman's gorgeous designs at Heage. Email him to receive a limited edition Christmas card featuring his design. Two years ago, I received one of Herman's cards in a form of a bookmark and I have cherished it till now. His generosity and love for art should inspire us to extend personal and creative presents during this holiday season, which can sometimes landslide into consuming, mindless shopping.

On behalf of a friend or family member, donate to their favourite charity. Hand out personalised "coupons" and "vouchers" which your friends can redeem. Buy a vintage dress from Granny's Day Out, a vintage clothing store owned by another fellow yogi. Check out this article for healthy holiday gifts and a friend of mine who maintains an eco blog has fantastic and original ideas on giving "waste-free, non-consumerist gifts that were not only carefully chosen with the giftee in mind, but also reflected [their] values".

Be happy with less. Happy holidays!

Namaste,
Michele

big welcOme tO jancy

2006-11-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

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.

yOga class schedule update

2006-11-29T23:54:00.000-08:00

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

tips frOm a zen master

2006-11-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

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.

vipassana & yOga

2006-11-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

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

yOga class schedule update

2006-11-27T16:35:00.000-08:00

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!

One day Of mindfulness at mOmentOm yOga. . .

2006-11-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

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.

like dying, withOut any Of the disadvantages

2006-11-22T15:01:00.000-08:00

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.

the russians are cOming

2006-11-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

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!

afternOOn classes

2006-11-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

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.

sabbatical & new beginnings

2006-11-20T01:20:00.000-08:00

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.

keeping quiet

2006-11-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

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.

insights frOm the mat

2006-11-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

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......

One day Of mindfulness

2006-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Y Thanks to Irene for asking about the retreat info and to all yogis for your continuing practice.

. . .

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
*********************************************

if everything yOu wish fOr cOmes true, what wOuld yOu dO?

2006-11-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

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?"

nOvember yOga class schedule

2006-11-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

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.

hOw tO gain enlightenment, lOve, save the wOrld and becOme really pOpular fOr S$22.84

2006-10-31T12:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, time to act.

Theory, analysis and understanding gained from reading, meditation and yoga is all very nice but nothing is achieved if there is no change in our daily actions. We know we need to understand our minds, we have the right motivations to want to improve our lives, we are willing to invest our time and effort in this but. . . but. . . but where do we really begin?!

No worries, eager yogis. Help is at hand. I have found (or did it find me?!) a helpful book that provides practical steps taking you on your own path from self-centredness to selflessness, and to enjoy happiness, contentment. . . and world peace.

I think the Dalai Lama has outdone himself with this book. The clarity of the simple words help greatly to present the resounding logic of the argument for altruism as a necessity for good living. The practices outlined so clearly and simply allows us to put action what we learned AND through our own actions, experience real transformation. The languange is simple but the effects are profound. I challenge anyone to read this, attempt the practices and not be transformed in any way. I challenge the world to read this, attempt the practices and not become a better place.

The concept is universal, beyond the confines of specific religions or cultures: "All you need is love". The practical exercises essentially train you, in stages, to cultivate the seeds of loving-kindness first within yourself and then spreading out to widening circles of people (and animals. . . ). This is loving-kindness practice in real life, written with a lot of sympathy for the modern person, living in a busy, pluralistic, materialistic, angry world. The practices work. . . I can't get the idea out of my head now that a cockroach I see could be my mother in my former life. . . (read the book to make sense of this!). . . and the thought of killing it makes my stomach churn. . .

How to achieve world peace:

Step 1: Find $22.84.

Step 2: Purchase the book:

Widening the Circle of Love
by HH Dalai Lama XIV / Hopkins, Jeffrey
ISBN:1846040280
Publisher:Ebury Press Published 2006/05

Step 3: Read the book.

Step 4: Do the practical exercises.

Step 5: Attain inner peace and spread more peace to the folks around you.

Step 6: Pass on the book to another person and urge him/her to follow Steps 3 to 6.

Step 7: Achieve world peace.

Not bad for S$22.84 (price at Kinokuniya).
Saving the world should be cheaper after 10% discount with their privilege card or on ebay, amazon, etc. . .

the purpOse of mindfulness

2006-10-30T18:50:00.000-08:00

What is the purpose of mindfulness cultivated in meditation or yoga? Just what is it that we want to come to be mindful of?

We want to see clearly how the mind works and understand how the way the mind works affects us. Being ignorant of how the mind really works is the ultimate trap for you as a human being. The emotional ups and downs you experience are wrongly perceived to have external causes, rendering you helpless to what you experience in life and you feel that you are not in control all the time, open to whatever fate throws at you. Being aware of how your mind works, you rid yourself of this delusion and you truly choose and act as a free human being.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is a well known meditation teacher and he explains in the exerpt below how gaining mindfulness helps us to understand and cope with fears and anxiety.

. . .

Exerpt below from p. 345/6, Full Catastrophe Living: How to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn

As you look deeply into the process of your own thinkng from the perspective of calmness and mindfulness, you may come to see. . . .that much of your thinking and emotions occur in recognizable patterns that are driven by discomfort of one kind or another. There is the discomfort of being dissatisfied with the present and wanting something more to happen, to possess something more that would make you feel better, more complete, more whole. This pattern could be described as the impulse to get what you want and to hold on to it. . .

If you look deeply into it, you will probably find that, at a deep level, such impulses are driven, much as we might hate to admit it, by a kind of greediness, the desire for "more for me" in order to be happy. Perhaps it is money or control, or recognition or love that you want. Whatever it is you are craving at the moment, to be driven by such impulses meants that, on a deep level, you don't believe that you are whole as you are.

Then there is the opposite pattern, dominated by thoughts and feelings of wanting certain things not to happen or to stop happening, the desire to get rid of certain things or elements in your life that you think are preventing you from feeling better, happier, more satisfied. These patterns of thought can be described as driven by hatred, dislike, rejection, or a need to get rid of what your don't want or don't like so that you can be happy.

Mindfulness brought to our actual behaviour may drive home the realisation that we can be caught, in our mind and actions, between these two driving motives of liking/wanting (greed) and disliking/not wanting (aversion) -- however subtle and unconscious they may be -- to the point that our lives become one incessant vascillation between pursuit of what we like and flight from what we don't like. Such a course will lead to few moments of peace or happiness. How could it? There will always be cause for anxiety. At any moment you might lose what you already have or you might never get what you want. Or you might get it and find out it wasn't what you wanted after all. You might still not feel complete.

Unless you can be mindful of the activity of your own mind, you won't even notice that this is going on. A blanket of unawareness, our old acquintance the automatic-pilot mode, will ensure your will continue to bounce from pillar to post, feeling out of control much of the time. This is basically because you think happiness is solely dependent on whether you are getting what you want. . .

This process winds up consuming a great deal of energy. It can blanket so much of our life with unawareness that we hardly perceive that we may actually be basically okay right now, that it may be possible to find a core of harmony with ourselves in the midst of the full catastrophe of our fears and anxiety. In fact, when you think about it, where else could it possible be found?

The only way to free yourself from a lifetime of being tyrannized by your own thought processes, whether you suffer from excessive anxiety or not, is to come to see your thoughts for what they are and to discern that sometimes subtle -- but most often not-so-subtle -- seeds of craving and aversion at work within them. When you can successfully step back and see that you are not your thoughts and feelings and that you do not have to act on them, when you see, vividly, that many of them are inaccurate, judgemental, and fundamentally greedy, you will have found the key to understanding why you feel so much fear and anxiety. At the same time you will have found the key to maintaining your own equilibrium. Fear, panic, and anxiety will no longer be uncontrollable demons. Instead you will see them as natural mental states that can be worked with and accepted just like any others. Then, lo and behold, the demons may not come around and bother you so much. You may find that you don't see them at all for long stretches. You may wonder where they went or even whether they ever existed. Occassionally you may see some smoke, just enough to remind you that the lair of the dragon is still occupied, that fear is a natural part of living, but not something you have to be afraid of.

mOtivatiOn

2006-10-29T23:36:00.000-08:00

Live as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Think as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Speak as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Work as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Laugh as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Love as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Meditate as if countless number of lives depended on it.
Practise yoga as if countless number of lives depended on it.

Because countless number of lives do depend on what you choose to do,
What you choose to do must be chosen wisely, responsibly
and done without hesitation, with reverence, in joy.

No one lives in isolation. You condition the lives of countless beings.
Be a cause for good
For kindness, generosity, wisdom, patience, peace.
Nothing arises and has no effect. So what you do will become.
Mahatma Gandhi said: "You must be the change you want to see in the world."
Countless numbers of lives depend on your doing this.

No one lives in isolation. You are conditioned by the lives of countless beings.
So you will suffer the effects of evil. Recognise the hate in your own heart.
You are not this hate since you can stand apart and see it arise and fail.
Do not let this become a further cause for evil.
Extinguish this hate within you because only you can do it.
What you destroy in your self perishes in the world.
Countless numbers of lives depend on your doing this.

Not a single moment of ours is free
until we spend it as if countless number of lives depended on it.

Not a single free moment is ours
until we realise how
Meeting our own needs alone will never satisfy us

Happiness is incomplete when it excludes others

If our purpose is to be happy

how can we be when we see others unhappy?

Let us take our place in the world seriously

Recognise the nobility of our motivation

and the urgency of our action

Let not another moment be wasted

because countless number of lives depend on us.

weekday evening meditatiOn, etc.

2006-10-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

There has been some requests for meditation sessions on weekday evenings as the current class is on Saturday mornings. We are very very happy to hear this clamour! It is a sign for a maturing practice. Looking at the current timetable, we can have these sessions either on Monday 8:00-9:00pm or Wednesday 8:45-9:45pm. Please let us know your preference and we will get these going.

. . .

As for requests for guided loving-kindness meditation instructions, we are happy to provide for our yogis free audio CDs at our studio from today - so ask for these when you come to class if you are interested. The recordings are by a teacher I practiced with, Venerable Mahinda, whose kind and good-natured demeanour so imbued the instructions with an added power of authenticity: I keep thinking, "here's the living example, the clear proof, of the beneficial outcome of the practice!" Whenever I hear his voice, I recall the earnestness and humility he brought to the instructions at the Metta (Loving-kindness) Meditation Retreat I attended and I am moved to become even more motivated in my practice. ;-)

You can also download guided meditation instructions for loving-kindness meditation instructions and Vipassana Meditation, as well as explanations about the practices from the following website: http://www.buddhanet.net/audio-meditation.htm
I practised under Venerable Pannyavaro and I recall his precise instruction - always challenging us to see and think clearly - his deep learning and his commitment to the practice. I've benefitted much from the instructions he gave me during a Vipassana Meditation Retreat he conducted. May you benefit from these too.

Also available at our studio is a CD for guided meditation for relaxation by Venerable Kwang Sheng (the current abbot of Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery). This is available in Chinese and English tracks. . . and with a choice of either backgroud music or the sound of flowing water! Essentially, this is a comprehensive body scan technique which is great for deep relaxation and an excellent prelude for other forms of meditation.

. . .

While the instructions are by Buddhist monks and stem from the tradition, these do not invoke particular deities nor do they force you to believe in any religious dogma. The instructions are given in a straight-forward manner with a focus the practical, even mechanical aspects of how to practice meditation. The purpose of these meditations are to relax body and mind, nurture loving intentions and to learn to observe, understand and cultivate the mind for yourself.

. . .

Suggested sequence of practice is: body scan, loving-kindness, then mindfulness (also known as awareness or insight or Vipassana) meditation. You can also do each on its own. Just be sure of which you are doing and not flip-flop between the different practices when you are sitting and confuse yourself.

I find it helpful to download these to your PDA or mp3 player then you can have a portable meditation teacher with you all the time! For beginners, it is helpful to have such recordings because the consistency of each session is available to you - it may not be possible to have such good guidance at your convenience otherwise. The repeated encounters which are the same each time, create mental habits which allows you to achieve a reasonable ease in settling down to meditate each time you practice. After a while when you become familiar with these instructions, and have internalised them, you can do away with the recordings and build up on your own skills. Then, as I said to some of you, you can get to the really interesting part of your practice of meditation!

It is beneficial to your meditation practice to. . .
. . . practice regularly, have a similar time and place for practice - set a daily time for practice, the time may not be long, but it must be regular - this encourages consistency and makes it easy for you to settle the mind. Remember: You don't find time to practise, you make time for practice. If something like understanding and developing your mind is important to you, don't you want to make time for this?
. . . take care of your health and not over-indulge in pleasing your senses - poor health and having our 5 senses overstimulated with indulgences creates a busy busy mind which makes it hard to settle down, relax and watch mental processes just because there are too many things going on very fast in your mind - this is especially hard for beginners to cope with.
. . . practice with and associate with others who are also practising, especially, with those who are more established in their practice - this keeps you motivated and consistent
. . . while written instructions and recorded guided instructions help us start a habit for regular practice, it is important to seek out a teacher/mentor who can guide you as you encounter obstacles and insights or have questions.

On why we need to meditate, read our many earlier posts, including this one: http://momentomyoga.blogspot.com/2006/04/were-running-serious-business-here.html
. . .

The guided meditation recordings are given with a lot of compassion and are free of charge because it is considered beyond material value. If you feel you've benefitted from the instructions -- then share it with others, you can make copies for your friends or donate to support the replication of more copies for distribution. Donation details are enclosed in the CDs and on the website.

. . .

Y Thanks, in particular, to Betty, Michelle Khoo, Leon and all Saturday meditators, for your enthusiasm and feedback. May you grow in your practice. . . walk on and meditate your way to liberation!

thursday nOOn class

2006-10-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

Dr Kajal's Thursday noon class has been cancelled as there are too few attendees. Do continue to give us your feedback on your preferred class timings. We are always striving to keep the schedule convenient for your participation!

yOga class schedule update

2006-10-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

Due to the public holidays, there will be no regular yoga classes on Saturday 21 Oct and Tuesday 24 Oct. Responding to feedback gathered from our yogis, there will also not be any yoga class on Monday 23 Oct.

Do remember to come down for our 3rd anniversary celebrations on Saturday though. 2-4 pm.
See our earlier post, click on "Latest News" on the homepage links, for details. Do let us know if you are coming down!

Happy Deepavali & Hari Raya Puasa!

self fulfilling prOphecy

2006-10-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

I like watching The Apprentice which had started a new season Sunday evening on TV. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is a “reality show” by Donald Trump where contestants compete with each other to be the final one left not “fired” by The Donald and “hired” by him to be part of his “business empire”. Rather than seeking sadistic enjoyment from watching people fail at their tasks and getting kicked out of the game each week, what I enjoy really in this show is see people rising up to their potential.

In the first episode, there’s a guy with an exceptionally high IQ who turned out to be a let down in terms of leadership – he nearly escaped getting axed simply because there was someone else who got on The Donald’s nerves by foolishly interrupting him incessantly. Many of the contestants are otherwise successful and bright individuals in their own right but how come some do well when met with challenges and some can’t seem to function at all?

I think the difference is self-knowledge. Looking back at the previous seasons, the best leaders and workers, whether naturally talented or not, seem to have an understanding of who they really are and how they relate to those around them. They have a goal and they have motivation because they realise their own potential and limitations and they take a responsibility for actualising their potential and overcoming their limitations: knowing that undertapping on their inner resources is ultimately being a disappointment unto themselves. There is little internal doubt about what they can do because they can clearly see the distance between their expectations and the reality before them. I think this kind of self-accountability is very much evident to those around them and people are attracted by this kind of intergrity as it inspires them to want to perform up to their expectations too.

It is hard to be honest to our self. In yoga, one of the core ethical precepts is satya or truth. This is sometimes translated as the trait of “non-lying”. But to put this in a positive, proactive perspective, when we practice satya it does not mean that we simply refrain from stating untruths but we act according to truth. We commit to the truth. If we know that exercise is good for us, then we need to practise and not find excuses to stray away from our regular sessions. If we know that meditation practice brings us inner peace and harmony, then we need to invest the kind of energy into it that brings our practice into fruition. If we know we need to cultivate compassion, we cannot let a harsh word escape our mouths. We cannot allow ourselves to sell ourselves short. You may find this is hard to actualise. But why?

Why do we underperform when we are fully aware that we could have done better? How is it that we let ourselves sabotage our own efforts to excel? Are we born under-achievers?

I once did an IQ test. I won’t go into the specifics but when I got the test results I was embarrassed. Perhaps it was the other kids at school who knew about it and teased that made me feel I wanted to dumb down so that I can fit in. I did not want to be labelled “the genius” as much as I did not want to be labelled “the idiot”. I just wanted to fit in. I coasted through exams after that where I knew I could ace if I worked harder. And I ticked random choices at the multiple choice section in the next IQ test. The rest is history.

I sailed through my career choices and working life too before I practised yoga when I just cruised through jobs which I thought were interesting enough but didn’t really put in the kind of effort that would trailblaze. “Just do enough to get by, why waste effort on things that don’t really matter all that much anyway? It’s not like you’re going to get recognised for your efforts anyway! Why work so hard and make yourself suffer more?”, I thought. For some other reason, I went through another IQ test at that time and the results reminded me of the first test. Both had pointed that I should be a university professor, an inventor, or some kind of leader.

When I examined the gulf between that and the reality of what I choose to spend my daily efforts in, I experienced a kind of disappointment that I would really rather do without. I had based my actions and the amount of effort I invested in tasks on what I thought people expected of me. The problem with this, my friends, is that usually people did not expect much from you at all! And when they do have any expectations, usually, the expect the worst from you! Hahaha. What an unrealiable and terrible yardstick of your performance! When I look back now I realised that there was a load of resentment seething within me at the time. I knew that I have not lived to my potential and I was far from being true to myself. I need to validate my actions and performance based on something more real than what people randomly thought of me and how they reward my efforts. But at that time, all I know is that somehow I am feeling that I am being less than I can be and this is robbing my daily tasks of significance. Yet, unpleasant as this feeling might have been, there is no real push for change. So I continued to let the feeling gnaw within me and dragged my feet about life, wrapped in a cloud of futility.

After I took up yoga, the push for change came. I realised that knowing is never as cool as doing. We know we want happiness but few really make happiness. We know we are capable of love, few invest real effort into action that will free people from misery. It doesn’t take a genius to know if we are living in happiness or not, whether what we are doing brings us satisfaction or not, whether we are giving and receiving love or not. All it takes is simple honesty to own up to the truths that we hold within and simple wisdom to live up to these truths. We rise up to the challenge of actualising the potential for good that lies within us: we make real what we know is good. And we do this in every day, in every way, each task is not spared, each word comes from this sacred core of authenticity. We strive to excel not because of the force of mindless discipline but because we have aligned ourself with our inner wisdom and we choose to do right by it.

I read the biography of Mahatma Gandhi and his story woke me up to the power and urgency of practising what you preach. He took the twin ethics of satya (Truth) and ahimsa (Peace or non-violence) and made the way he lived a living example of these principles. What I understood from his words and example is that once you know what is right, there is no other way you should live but by what is right. To do any less is to fail yourself and also to doom humanity to failure. To live as a champion of truth and peace is not just to rise to the highest potential of being human, it IS being human. To live in ignorance of truth that you realise only in your heart is to live forever conflicted, within yourself and with the outside world. The distance from the reality of your actions to the reality you realise in your heart is your personal performance yardstick.

Then I knew what I had to do, spend all my time, effort, abilities to bring real help, happiness and humanity into existence. . . and never stray from the truth in my heart again. The scale of what I can do may not be big but it must be total, complete, all choices stem from this, each step taken from this heart. In this way, no task becomes so mundane as to rob me of my humanity again. The kind of satisfaction, contentment and joy of living in this way is a constant source of motivation to carry on, a constant validation of your life. The kind of satisfaction, contentment and joy of living in this way is the aim of yoga. You live as well as you, a temporary package of problems and promise, can. As happy as you can be to see someone else rise to a challenge and excel, there is utter happiness in seeing yourself rise to the challenge of life and put in your best effort, in the face of self-centredness, cynicism and passivity impoverishing the spirits of our society today. Walk on, in truth, in joy, in courage, even if you walk alone.

Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are.
Despite all appearances, no one is really evil.
They are led astray by ignorance.
If you ponder this truth always you will offer more light,
rather than blame and condendation.
You, no less than all beings, have Buddha Nature within.
Your essential Mind is pure.
Therefore, when defilements cause you to stumble and fall,
let not remorse nor dark foreboding cast you down.
Be of good cheer and with this understanding, summon strength and walk on.

- exerpt from Dhammavadaka

. . .

If they answer not to thy call walk alone,
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,

O thou of evil luck,
open thy mind and speak out alone.

If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou of evil luck,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track travel alone.
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O thou of evil luck,
with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart
and let it burn alone.

- Ekla Chalo Re, by Rabindranath Tagore, a favourite song of Gandhi

"If music be the fOOd Of lOve, play On"

2006-10-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yoga is not just all work and no play! However, playing is not for killing time, we should choose our entertainment according to whether it can inspire us to realise the best in ourselves. This is the reason why we, a yoga studio, have encouraged our yogis to visit interesting exhibitions, attend moving performances and read inspirational books. The stuff we expose our senses to are the raw materials from which we build our dreams. So better start feeding yourself with all the good stuff!

Very happy to continue to hear from yogis who have attended the performance of Musica Antiqua Koln at Victoria Concert Hall last Thursday that they enjoyed the show. One of our yogis, Kng Huang, even sent us a charming picture of joy that is herself and her husband holding the tickets to the concert. Thanks Kng Huang, for sending the picture, it will certainly go into our album!

Feedback from other yogis who smsed or emailed:

"Hey thanks for the tickets. It was a very enjoyable performance. Thanks. :-) "
-- from Wei Ren

"Thanks for inviting us to the concert, was quite lively, it was eye opening for Lexuan..."
-- from Wasana & Cheng Hock who brought their little girl to the concert

"Hi the performance was very enjoyable. . . thank you very much for the tickets!"
-- from Stanley

"Wanted to thank you once again for thinking of me for the Musica Antiqua Koln concert. It's been a while since i've attended a classical concert. It was indeed a very pleasant evening"
-- from Tiffany

"Thank you for the tickets to the Musica Antiqua Koln. My husband and I enjoyed it alot.
Congratulations on mOmentOm yOga turning 3!!!!"
-- from Aileen

And as to Serene's question of whether you can look forward to such musical events as a regular part of our yoga studio's activities, I've spoken to our partner who produced the Musica Antiqua concert and yes, we can certainly look into this. Art, music and creative words are part of our celebration of life. And if there's anything that we can learn from these great musicians from Koln, it would be that practice makes perfect, and what we are perfecting here is not just playing musical instruments, we want to perfect ourselves and live to our greatest potential - this is our greatest gift to humanity. We can create magic through diligence, aspiring to be the best we can be and also wanting to give a gift to the audience, to share the joy of music-making with others. We can create great happiness and truly celebrate what it means to be alive by working steadily to perfect ourselves through yoga, uniting our daily efforts with our highest ideals. We also break the illusion of boundaries between ourselves and others by giving and sharing.

Happiness is a simple thing. Give and you are happy. Start counting the "sesame seads and green peas" (chinese saying) and hoarding and you are miserable. It is as much a joy to give as to receive. If you feel you've enjoyed the concert, "pay it forward". Let it inspire you to bring the same kind of joy to others in whatever you are able to do today - not asking for anything in return but simply to enjoy the act of giving in itself.

sit with friends

2006-10-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Dear yogis,

if you've attended the 10-11am PRAN/DYAN class on Saturdays before, you would have some taste of Vipassana Meditation (according to the Mahasi Sayadaw method) which is the form I've been practising. I sometimes sit with the following lovely group of people from the Vipassana Meditation Centre. Sayadaw (Burmese term for Shi Fu) is a kindly patient teacher with an sense of humour that will catch you by surprise... You will feel grounded with his straightforward instruction, and yet inspired by the dedication of the other fellow meditators to their practice. Group sitting is something I seriously recommend if you want to add momentum to your practice. If you find it hard to sit on your own in your daily practice, sitting occasionally with a dedicated bunch helps to keep the practice going. Of course the by-product of such occasions is that you meet a group of friends in the most authentic of circumstances.

May you have the chance to experience all this and the happiness it brings!

Subject: One Day Mindfulness Retreat on Sat 14 Oct
Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:12:36 +0800 (SGT)
From: vmckm <vmckm@singnet.com.sg>

Dear Friends in the Dhamma

VMC is organising a One Day Minfulness Retreat this Sat.
Date : Sat 14 Oct 06
Time : 9am to 6pm
Venue : 33B Lowland Road (5mins walk from Kovan MRT Station)
Teacher : Sayadaw U Pannananda

Fee : By Donation
Lunch will be provided

If you have attended the meditation course conducted by VMC or are practising in the tradition of the late most Ven Mahasi Sayadaw method are welcome to join us for this One Day Mindfulness Retreat as we hope to provide an conducive environment to sharpen your practice.

If you are interested to join us , pls provide your name ,gender , age , contact no and vegetarian food (if required ) via email or sms to Bro Nelson @ 96985157.

With Metta
Vipassana Meditation Centre (Singapore)
*********************************************
Do not give way to heedlessness.
Do not indulge in sensual pleasures.
Only the vigilant and meditative attain greathappiness.
The Dhammapada Verse 27
*********************************************

class update

2006-10-11T23:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's (Thursday 12 Oct) 7.15pm FUNdamentals class will be conducted by Jancy Yeo in Michele's place.

Jancy is a trained yoga instructor with professional qualifications and experience in fitness instruction. She will be conducting more yoga classes at mOmentOm yOga. . . soon. We will be uploading her profile on this website shortly. Let's give a warm welcome to Jancy!

musica antiqua kOln

2006-10-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already received my sms. . .

mOmentOm yOgis are warmly invited to a the Musica Antiqua Koln concert
at Victoria Concert Hall tomorrow night at 8pm.
See the flyer online: http://208.106.149.214/musica_antiqua_koln.jpg
or on the sistic website: www.sistic.com.sg

The tickets set aside on complimentary basis for invited guests of mOmentOm yOga are the $70 tickets. So please let me know if you are able to attend by today. You can sms me at 97631374.

Unfortunately, I have class 6-10pm so I will not be at the concert. Such is the life of a yogi!

Thank you to yogis who have already replied. Enjoy the performance!

laugh at Our 3rd anniversary

2006-10-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

All yogis and friends are invited to our 3rd anniversary celebrations
on Deepavali 21 October, Saturday from 2pm to 4pm at mOmentOm yOga!
(Regular scheduled yoga classes are suspended on Public Holidays so there will be no yoga class at 8am, 10am and 6pm on 21 October).

At 2pm, we are happy to have Dr Kajal lead a Laughter Yoga Workshop.
Come and experience this practice and other sound yoga techniques guaranteed to infuse your being with the joy of life! Everybody knows that laughter is the best medicine. I have often tried to make yogis laugh in class when I start seeing earnest yogis start pushing themselves too hard. . . I rather we keep things light-hearted just so that we stop taking ourselves too seriously and loosen up into the practice a little. Yoga must be steady, comfy AND happy.

At 3.30pm, join us for tea and refreshments as you browse through an exhibition and sale of beautiful handmade yoga bags and other handicraft from India lovingly put together by one of our yogis, Christine Neo. I would also be putting up an exhibition of based on my India/Nepal trip.

Please email or call us if you would like to come.
Only $5 per person for workshop and to buy us tea and snacks for mOmentOm yOgis.
$8 per person for public.

"dO nOt be afraid Of death but the unlived life"

2006-10-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

mOmentOm yOga is happy to recommend Broadway musical "Tick, Tick. . . BOOM!" now showing until 8 October at Victoria Theatre.

The producers of the show in Singapore are happy to present mOmentOm yOgis with a 15% discount off ticket prices.
Please email tania@the-go-getter.com and cc to momentomyoga@gmail.com for ticket orders and queries. For info & pictures: www.fictionfarm.com.sg
Flyers available at mOmentOm yOga and SISTIC counters.

When I watched RENT in Chicago in 1999, it changed by life. That's no exaggeration. I was moved by the raw energy of the lyrics which can only stem from a creative soul who is grappling with the hard realities of finding meaning and humanity in a crazy cynical materialistic world. I watched RENT the musical when I was also at the crossroads of my life and after I had already spent a year more or less living a la vie boheme in the art and theatre scene. I identified with RENT's creator, Jonathan Larson's struggle because it is the same as my own. What I got from his musical is in fact a push to seize the day and to rise above the sorry self-pitying ego to reach for dreams which inspire us and illuminate the world. Tick, tick. . . BOOM! is the story of Jonathan Larson's own no less inspiring life.

"Ever imagined
Working like you don't need the money
Loving like you have never been hurt
Dancing like no one is watching"

we are 3!

2006-10-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

This October is mOmentOm yOga's third anniversary!

It was exactly three years ago, on Deepavali, that we opened as Om Improvement at Stamford House. We are now gearing up for a celebration event on Saturday, 21 October, also Deepavali. Details will be available soon so make yourself available that day and come down and join us!

. . .

To commemorate the occasion, we would like to invite our yogis to reflect on our studio’s journey thus far. Let’s contemplate what are the factors that make mOmentOm yOga our steady, comfy, happy yoga home. Your thoughts will serve as a nice introduction to new yogis who are just joining our family. You are welcome to email us at mOmentOmyOga@gmail.com your thoughts on any or all of the lines below.

. . .

My name is ___________________.
I have been an Om Improvement/mOmentOm yOgis for ___________ years/months.

What makes mOmentOm yOga my yoga home:

I practice at mOmentOm yOga because. . .

Everytime I enter mOmentOm yOga’s studio I. . .

I find that the people I meet at mOmentOm yOga are. . .

Since I practised yoga at mOmentOm yOga, I. . .

As mOmentOm yOga grows I would like to see. . .

Finally, I would like to say. . .

jOin yOur uniOn

2006-10-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Why are you?

What is your purpose?

How do you become you?

When people first become yogis, many are suspicious of what is the spiritual dimension of yoga. They say to me, “just give me the physical exercise but cut out the mumbo-jumbo religious stuff okay?”. I always say, “Sure!” And I wait. . . Because not long after, the same yogis will inevitably come to me and say, “Hey, what is meditation? Can I learn meditation? How to I find out more about myself? Are there any yoga practices that can bring me lasting peace? Happiness?!” Why is this so? What is it in yoga that makes us ask these interesting questions when all we want at first was just to work up a sweat?

Spirituality does not mean praying for external help from divine sources nor suspending belief in the logical and investing faith in the superstitious. Spirituality means finding coherence: making a lasting connection between the meaning of being you and your place in the scheme of things. As much as it is human to feel, it will be human to seek meaning in our lives. Hence, as long as we feel the urge of trying to make sense of what happens to us, we cannot help but search for the spiritual dimension of things.

We are sorely lacking in one key aspect in our process of educating individuals for the challenges of modern life and how generally to stand on our own two feet: we are not taught how to find this kind of unity. Instead we indoctrinate book knowledge, we propagate technical competency and we create individuals who are able to make a good enough way of life materially but who are clueless about finding the kind of real happiness that comes from inner coherence. Oops.

From my own pre-yoga experience and from what yogis at mOmentOm have shared with me, I find that a lot of unhappiness comes from feeling we are somewhat helpless in the face of the daily onslaught of people and things that do not agree with us. This creates tons of stress and resentment. We slide from depression to anxiety to anger to depression, momentarily lifted by brief visits of excitement or anticipation only to be dropped back into the downward cycle once again after these inevitably evaporate. It is understandable given this scenario, where so-called “happiness” is momentary and followed by a huge anti-climax, that people are skeptical of practices that promise a way out of misery and into lasting happiness.

The root of the misery is that we feel we are not in control. We know we are not actively participating in our own lives – instead, we let life "happen" to us. This is not just upsetting, it is dehumanizing. We become robots, haplessly processing endless streams of data from external sources and suffering innumerable programme failures and system crashes.

When we feel upset that things are not going according to our liking, we really feel this bad. This is because there is that guiltridden part of us who knows we have already surrendered our freedom to the randomness of life and we have willingly damned ourselves to the consequences of such randomness. We know deep inside that we are ultimately the saboteurs of our own happiness because we have given up our freedom to choose how we want to be AND to make actions that originate from this choice. We just roll along with whatever comes by and feel unhappy because we know we are allowing ourselves to be bounced like a pinball from one event to another. This is that nameless feeling that gnaws at you on sleepless nights and haunts your daily tasks with a feeling of impotence and fills your frenzied plans with a sense of futility. Within ourselves there is a primal yearning for unity: to unite our actions with our purpose. . . to be true to ourselves and thus to have some kind of direction.

The meaning of the word “yoga” is “union”. And the purpose of yogis (“union makers”?) from antiquity to the present is to find ways of bringing individuals to a state of unshakeable union: where our inner being and outer actions are intimately connected. Where our daily behaviour becomes the truest manifestations of our purpose in life, we find ourselves in a state of authenticity that is called “the happiness that surpasses all happinesses” or samadhi. Samadhi is a kind of self-assuredness of living up to our most treasured expectations. All the yoga practices are explorations of how to bring about this kind of union. These practices, even if practised without knowing their purpose, will lead us to seek out our own path to union.

As I teach, I observed such a hunger for a “safe” way of spiritual enquiry from people. They do not want to dismiss their logical minds and take things on faith to discover who they are. They need not worry, in fact, because there is no need to leave your common sense at home to practice yoga, to seek coherence and union. As a matter of fact, you need ALL your senses, common and uncommon. We want to bring individuals to a state of complete union afterall. It is good news that we have adequately developed a healthy curiosity and a scientific spirit of inquiry that encourages us to accept only as facts what we have tested through experiment. As we delve deep into our being, our consciousness, we need these skills to differentiate reality from delusions. And when you find a yoga practice effective in bringing about mental clarity and inner peace, then you believe in it, then you share it and practise it with diligence, making it a part of your life. Authenticate all pursuits, spiritual or otherwise, with your own experience and wisdom. Then live by the truth.

It is significant that yoga is experiencing a revival now. That mankind has reached a spiritual crisis of unprecedented proportions is old news. But today I get a sense of more and more people feeling that “enough is enough” and taking their lives into their own hands and taking on risks to find a way to live in harmony with themselves and the world. We are taking back our humanity. And we are infusing our daily tasks with considered intentions from the largest of hearts. Thank goodness! I think even if just one person practises yoga and reaches to a peak of spiritual attainment, there is already so many benefits for the rest of us just by experiencing someone so authentic and purposeful. And here we are, so many of us practising. This is good. And as I always say, “it gets better”.

May you drop the burden of self ignorance today and join the path to self knowledge.

OctOber yOga class schedule

2006-09-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Class schedule starting this Sunday 1 October here:
(click on image for enlarged view)

Note:
. . . No classes on public holidays 21 Oct (Deepavali) and 24 Oct (Hari Raya Puasa)
. . . Thursdary 12.15pm class has been cancelled as of 26 Oct.
. . . Friday gongfu class is still on hold until we have enough participants to form a class. Please come for Sunday's class instead or of you would like to try out the gongfu class.

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.

actiOn fOr self prOtectiOn

2006-09-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

Please note that there will not be any gongfu class this Friday 29 Sept as a new course starts next Friday 6 Oct 2006.

The Friday gongfu timeslot will now be a Self Protection Wing Chun Class for ladies and will be held at a new timeslot of 7.30-8.30pm at mOmentOm yOga. . .

Details:

LADIES SELF PROTECTION - WING CHUN (New Class)

Date of new class : 6 Oct 06
Fees : $200 for 10 lessons ie $20 per lessonEvery Friday, 7.30pm to 8.30pm Online Registration, visit http://www.organise4u.com.sg/yoga&wingchun2.html
or call Desmond at 97631900
Venue : mOmentOm Yoga Studio241B Victoria Street, Singapore 188030

In Support of Women Fitness
How active are women in Singapore?

The National Sports Participation Survey (NSPS) 2001 showed that while 38% of the respondents participated regularly in sports, among females, only 32% do so regularly as compared to 45% among males. The survey clearly showed that Singaporean women were mostly sedentary and not as physically active as men. This gender gap widens as girls grow up. For teens the proportion among the sedentary and irregular participation in sports was 40% and grew to 69% among young adults; to about 72% among middle-aged adults/senior citizens.

Wing Chun

When a person thinks about martial arts in the movies, the name "Bruce Lee" pops up almost immediately. Bruce was the actor who made martial arts movies such a big hit during the seventies. Even to this day, nearly twenty years after his death, Bruce is idolized by many martial artists all over the world.

Although Bruce founded and practiced his own techniques called "Jeet Kune Do" ("The Tao of the Intercepting Fist"), his martial arts background was based on the Wing Chun system. Up until the death of his teacher, Yip Man, in 1972, Wing Chun was taught in secret to only selected students and was not open to the general public. Bruce's abilities made the public aware of the existence and devastating power of the Wing Chun system. After Yip Man's death, his students opened the school's doors to the public. As a result, Wing Chun has become one of the most popular and sought after Kung Fu systems in the world today.

The History of the System

The roots of the Wing Chun system can be traced back to the famous Shaolin Temple on Mt. Song in the Honan province of China. About three hundred years ago, one of the survivors of the infamous "Fire Destruction of Shaolin," Ng Mui, fled to the White Crane Temple on Mt. Tai Leung at the Yunan-Szechuan border. During one of her daily walks into the surrounding wilderness, she observed a fight between a fox and a crane. (some said snake and crane). She was totally captivated by the simplicity, effectiveness, and directness of the techniques of both the fox/snake and the crane. A Kung Fu master herself, she proceeded to research and develop a new fighting system based on the movements of the fox/snake and crane. The resulting system formed the foundation for modern day Wing Chun.

Yim Wing Chun, a peasant girl who sold bean curd for a living at a nearby village, was the first inheritor of this new system. Ng Mui taught her the system to enable her to protect herself and her family from a powerful bully who lived in the village. In the actual confrontation, she destroyed her opponent (who was much stronger and bigger in size than she, and also much more experienced in martial arts) with much ease. Her husband, Leung Bok Chau, named the system "Wing Chun" after her.

From there, Wing Chun was passed down in secret to a select few, and eventually settled down in the city of Futshan in the Canton province in southern China. There, it gained prominence through a doctor of traditional Chinese Medicine by the name of Leung Jan. Then, in the earlier part of this century, it was brought out of China and into Hong Kong and hence the world by the late Yip Man who was the seventh successive inheritor of the system. Today, the tradition of Wing Chun being taught as a secretive art and only to a selected few, is still being practiced in many places all over the world.

An Introduction to the System

Wing Chun is basically a "soft style" system that utilizes the opponent's power against himself/herself. The following sayings best describe the characteristics of the system:
"Soft, yet hard." "Relaxed, yet explosive." "Peaceful, yet intimidating." "Uses four ounces to move one thousand kilos."

Wing Chun training focuses on developing the proper body structure and posture so that the most powerful techniques may be delivered using the smallest amount of effort. The student learns to develop "soft power" which maximizes the delivery of power with the muscles relaxed. The Qi (internal strength/energy) is sunk to the lower body which acts as the generator of power during delivery. The upper body, meanwhile, remains relaxed at all times. All fighting is done in extremely close range using very soft but effective and strong techniques. Economy of techniques is stressed, so that there are no fancy, circular moves like those that exist in other systems. Because of its nature of using relaxed power rather than brute strength, Wing Chun is considered to be an ideal system for women and small-sized people.

In the school itself, every student is treated as part of one whole family, with the teacher as the parental figure. There are no belts nor ranking system, and each individual progresses at his/her own pace. Every person respects one another as brothers and sisters, with seniority determined only by the date one was accepted into the school.

The system itself is very small, comprising of only three empty hand forms, one wooden dummy set, and two weapons sets. Despite this, it takes a lifetime of learning to master the system. There is a Wing Chun saying that goes, "Many know the system; few master it."

Aside from the fighting nature of the system, there is also a philosophical side to it. As part of their training, Wing Chun practitioners learn more about who they are, what they can achieve, and who they can become. They learn to accept themselves and other people as they are; they learn to be humble; they gain confidence and find inner peace and harmony.

Master Chua Kah Joo

Chua started learning Hung Gar Kung Fu at the age of fifteen in Singapore. Five years later, he was assisting Master Soh Ting Hong teaching Hung Gar Kung Fu.

In 1971, he met Joseph Cheng in London and had his first contact with Wing Chun martial art. Fascinated by this technique, he has not looked backed since. He went on to learn from Nino Bernardo. In 1980, he taught Wing Chun Martial Art at the London University Union with Nino Bernardo and Frankie Awson. In 1982, he founded Wing Chun Martial Arts Academy in Streatham, London, UK. In 1986, he formed a branch in Maidenhead, UK. In 1990, he returned to Singapore.

Chua is also well versed in Tae Kwan Do, Shido Tyu Karate, Thai Boxing, Bak Mei, Praying Mantis, Tai Chi, and Sing Yee but Wing Chun remains his preferred form of martial art training. His school's website: http://www.geocities.com/kahjoo_chua/

Article edited from Spring Living in the North East magazine,
March-April 2002 issue SINGAPORE

Ballet and martial arts may sound like an unusual combination but not to Chua Kah Joo of Pasir Ris. Kah Joo or 'Sifu' (Cantonese for 'Master') to his students teaches classical ballet during weekends and Wing Chun Martial Arts on weekdays.

A classical ballet dancer for 17 years, Kah Joo worked all over the world before coming home to Singapore. Working with Germany's Wuppertal Ballet, the Scottish Ballet and London City Ballet, Kah Joo has danced with ballet greats like the late Dame Margot Fonteyn in the 70's and the late Rudolf Nuruyev, between 1979-1981.

He has also rubbed shoulders with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Yul Brynner, acting with Harrison Ford in the 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' in the early 80's.

The Chua Kah Joo of today is the owner of a humble martial arts centre teaching the ancient art of Wing Chun Kuen. His students range from ages 14 to 40. Chua Kah Joo's finesse in both Wing Chun Kuen and classical ballet propelled him towards an international career as a freelance actor and dancer from 1971 and 1991. Upon receiving a classical ballet scholarship to study in Switzerland, the doors to Europe were opened. "I had the chance to work with all the ballet greats including choreographers like Oleg Donovsky. Dancing onstage with Nureyev was a turning point that really inspired me."

After falling in love with his wife of nine years, Kah Joo returned quietly to Singapore in 1992. "I'm a very low profile person. Nobody knows I'm here. Life's path is destined. Wherever I'm led I follow its path and let nature take its course.

Nature has led him to see the flourishing of the Wing Chun Kuen art in Singapore. A beautiful, unusual art, it integrates an understanding of the body's natural force for powerful yet graceful combat. It also endows the discerning quality of knowing when to take action and when not to.
Just be warned of Chua Kah Joo's cheeky sense of humour as well! "The second time I met Spielberg he asked me 'Do you remember me?' and I said no!"

Testimonials

Brandon Ho: "Wing Chun is an extremely efficient art. It not only strengthens the practitioner physically, but also mentally and spiritually. Its emphasis is on sensitivity, technique and body structure instead of speed, power and agility. The training atmosphere is relaxed, allowing one to focus on learning and practice, yet tough enough to work up a sweat and test one's limits. More importantly, the art equips the practitioner to continue practising beyond old age, without sacrificing any of its effectiveness."

Lim Chee Han: "I started practising Wing Chun at a pretty mature stage of my martial arts career because I was dissatisfied with the other fighting systems I had previously learnt, especially as I grew older. Wing Chun is a system characterized by finesse, rigor and logic. It may not be aesthetically appealing (at least, not visually) but it is efficient and surprisingly practical in close-quarters alley and disco/pub self-defense situations and I would recommend it to anyone, especially ladies and current martial artists, if they are looking for something that makes sense and allows the practitioner to continuously improve him/herself."

Celeste Pang: "I started learning Wing Chun primarily because I wanted to fit some exercise into my life. What I didn't expect was to be continually fascinated with the intricacies of this Southern Chinese martial art. I have been fortunate enough to learn from Master Chua Kah Joo for the past 4 years. Not only is he experienced and knowledgable, he also takes a personal interest in his students' growth as martial artists. Master Chua explains Wing Chun fighting techniques in a simple and straightforward manner, making it easy for the student to grasp the essentials quickly. It has certainly benefitted me in the early months of my training when I was new to Chinese martial arts."

Elizabeth How: "I had never been much for physical activity and for the longest time I had convinced myself that I would never be able to pick up a martial art. Wing Chun has taught me differently. With it's focus on sensitivity, structure, even a not so fit person (as I was when I started) can pick it up. And with Master Chua, who has been very encouraging and with the environment created by him and my fellow students, learning Wing Chun has been a lot less intimidating then what I had expected when I initially thought of trying out a martial art. Best of all, my fitness has certainly gradually improved and I am learning a skill that is very practical for self-defence."

To the testimonials by Master Chua's disciples listed above, I am happy to list mine:
Chee Sau Fen: When at first a common friend proposed the idea to work with a gongfu master to bring martial arts classes to mOmentOm yOga, I was hesitant. Here we are teaching people to find peace within themselve and in their actions towards others and then we have teaching people how to fight now?! Yet, when I first met Master Chua, immediately I wanted to work with him and learn from him because he was the epitome of calm. It was a powerful and quiet calm I experienced from him as we talked in the first conversation. We discovered that we have many commonalities in what we are trying to do separately in Wing Chun and in yoga. This led happily to a meaningful collaboration and a constant exchange of ideas to date. Since attending Master Chua's lessons myself, I find that this is really the next step in my yoga training. It is easy to find peace within when the circumstances around you are calm and the environment quiet. But how many of us can find stillness in the midst of attack, in the thick of action and under the threat of violence? In the practice of Wing Chun I have found a method to do that. And this is at once, fascinating and liberating. May you have the opportunity to benefit from this excellent skill from a talented and fatherly teacher. Thank you, Master Chua, for teaching me how to stand on my feet again and how to unflinchingly face my problems directly and dissolve them.

Yoga and Wing Chun Kung Fu (2 in 1 Package) http://www.organise4u.com.sg/yoga&wingchun2.html

meditatiOn fOr beginners

2006-09-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a message from my friend, Sam. I attended a meditation retreat at this place and have benefitted much from the experience. May you have the chance to encounter the same kind of peace and insights.

. . .

Happy to inform you that Mangala Vihara temple will be organising the next meditation course for beginners in Oct 2006

We are pleased to invite you, family members and friends who are keen to learn meditation to attend this course organise specially for beginners. Detail is as follows:

No of lessons: 4 plus 1practical session (weekend retreat)
Lesson 1-how to do sitting meditatiom
Lesson 2-how to do walking meditation
Lesson 3-how to overcome difficulties and hindrances in meditation
Lesson 4- how to apply meditation to your daily life

Teacher: Ven Cittara from Myammar
Language: English

Date: Every Friday on 6,13,20 and 27 Oct 2006
Time: 7.30pm-9.30pm( pl come in at 7.15pm for registration as class will start punctually at 7.30pm)
Retreat will be from 27 to 28 Oct 2006

Venue: Mangala Vihara Temple,Level 2, 30 Jalan Eunos( at traffic light junction
in front of Eunos MRT station)

Fee: Free

Registration: Pl register with Sam Ho at samhopru@yahoo.com.sg with your name and contact no.

If you have any query, you may call him at 98208050.

Regards,samho

cc pl circulate this message to as many friends as possible.thanks

life is ticking

2006-09-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

mOmentOm yOga happy to be part of a joint promotion with TIMEX. Check it out. Click on poster below for an enlarged view. The colours are a bit off because the file is converted but you can look at the actual poster in our studio or better visit the shops to see the watches.

earth friendly yOga

2006-09-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

We have found a new yoga mat supplier who is providing some earth-friendly yoga mats for environmentall conscious yogis!

PER is polymer environmental resin and is fast replacing many yucky PVC yoga mats of old. If you are sick of smelling the sticky plasticky smell from your PVC mat, it's time to do the right thing: switch to PER. PER is also hypoallergenic which means that if you're skin is as sensitive as mine, this is the choice for you.

As usual, I never recommend something I've never tried myself, so I've given the PER mats some trial and I must say that it's a good deal. The mat we are supplied is 5-6mm thick which is more than the usual 3-4mm of yoga mats out there. The mat is dense and springy and the surface is suitably resistant to some amount of hard wearing. I think it is a durable mat. It is also non-toxic, and does not emit any pungent smells. The best thing to know is that when you eventually discard it, the earth is not going to be any worse for it.

Another version (see the beige mat in pictures below) incorporates an organic material, jute, combined with PER so that the face of the mat that you use has a nice natural feel. Yogis with sweaty palms would like this one as the natural fibres ABSORBS moisture and STAYS grippy not slippery. ;-)

Come and check it out in our studio now.

Pictures (click on image for larger view):

PER yoga mat: Usual price $45, mOmentOm yOgis price $42

Jute+PER yoga mat: Usual price $70, mOmentOm yOgis price $65

yOga class schedule update

2006-09-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

1. . . Yoga class at noon on Tuesdays will be put on hold until further notice starting tomorrow, 12 September.

2. . . There will be no yoga class at 8:30-10:00pm on 21 Thursday 2006. Class resumes at this timeslot the following week.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused, yogis. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Namaste.

breathing sunday

2006-09-11T02:18:00.000-07:00

Y Thank you to all yogis who woke up early on a Sunday to attend our 2nd Pran Vidya Workshop yesterday morning. Here are some pictures from the event.

Thanks for to yogis who gave us the positive feedback after the session. We are happy that you've found the workshop useful. Please continue to give us your feedback on this and other programmes at mOmentOm yOga. . . so that we can continue to present classes that are relevant for you as you grow in your practice. See you in class!

breathe in a better way tOmorrOw

2006-09-09T01:33:00.001-07:00

Gentle reminder that our 2nd breathing workshop is on tomorrow, Sunday 10 September at 8-10am at mOmentOm yOga. . .

See details on the content of the workshop below.

Yogis who attended the first session in July should attend this as it will be a series of deeper techniques which builds on what you've learnt in the first session. Yogis who did not attend the first session or folks entirely new to yoga can still attend this workshop because it will include a refresher on the techniques practiced in the first session. As we are opening up the session to the public, please register early to ensure your place. Please reserve your place by making payment in cash or cheque (payable to "Chee Sau Fen"). $48 for mOmentOm yOgis, $58 for public. Because we want to have the time to ensure that each yogi practises the techniques correctly, there will be limited places in the session, so book today if you are interested.
[As of 9 Sep, the few places left are filling up fast so call now if you want to attend.]

See pictures from previous workshop: http://momentomyoga.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_momentomyoga_archive.html
scroll dooooown on the page for the pictures.

Note:
GONGFU+YOGA class at 10am-12pm follows the breathing workshop on Sunday so you can make full use of your new found energies to try out this class!
Trials are $15 per person. Details & pictures: http://momentomyoga.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_momentomyoga_archive.html

writeup from previous post:

PRAN VIDYA WORKSHOP

mOmentOm yOga will be conducting a pranayama (breathing techniques) workshop by yoga master Dr Kajal Pandit. "Pran" refers to "pranayama" which is the mastery of your body's energy (or 'qi') and "vidya" means "knowledge". Most of us have a superficial understanding of what it takes to energise ourselves and no knowledge of how to exercise our energy body. So do yourself a great favour and make sure you arrange your schedule so that you can attend this workshop because this a not-to-be missed opportunity to learn not just pranayama techniques but also to practice together with this master of the techniques.

Learn how to manage your body's energy through breathing techniques which either energise or relax you. Breathing well is the basis for physical, emotional and mental health - it ensures that you are at the peak of your performance in whatever you choose to do whether it's running a marathon or striking a business deal. Once and for all, learn how to manage the stress in your daily life. In this comprehensive workshop you can directly experience the benefits of practice and learn how to apply the practice to your daily lives. And with regular practice, you can enjoy long terms benefits in health & happiness.

Remember: while we can't change what happens to us in life, we can always change how we respond to these happenings. . . by breathing well we develop a steady and ready frame of mind come what may.

september yOga class schedule

2006-08-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Class schedule starting this Friday 1 September here:
(click on image for enlarged view)

Note:

. . . No classes on public holidays.
. . . Master Chua’s new gongfu class has started on Fridays is now at 8:00pm-9:00pm. This is on a package of 10 classes for $200. This is an ongoing class, so new students can join in any week.

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.

yoga class schedule update

2006-08-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

Dr Kajal is in India from now till 5 September 2006. His classes on 30 August and 2 September are cancelled. Dr's classes resumes from 6 September.

pain and path

2006-08-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes after a vigorous yoga class, you may encounter some aches and pains from overstrained muscles. When I started my yoga practice, this is a weekly reoccurance. . . which lasted a week each time! In such times, you will ask yourself why you practice. The truth is, whether you practice or not, you are open to pain. In fact, whether you are physically healthy or not, you experience pain of some kind or other, for long or short periods. We practice not to free ourselves from pain but to teach ourselves to live with pain without suffering. We do not rid ourselves from pain, that's impossible -- instead, we free ourselves from reacting to it in unskillful ways which may be more harmful to us that the pain itself.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

-- Cheri Huber

Yoga is a path that allows its followers to learn how to come to terms with the conditions of their existance without feeling that any pain is something of a personal calamity or tragedy. This sounds straightforward and many have found that even a few beginners classes are already miraculous in changing their perspective of how they view their bodies and its various phenomena, painful or otherwise. However, to establish ourselves in the practice of yoga means that we practise through all kinds of life circumstances, sticking to the path even when we feel generally disheartened or stress-laden with the demands of our daily lives. This is not mindless adherence but mindful action. It is when the going gets tough that the tough gets yoga because practising through pain and happiness firmly places us in the still centre of each experience -- where we encounter a timeless steadiness, an "OK-ness", that is the true essence of life beneath all the turbulance on its surface. We accept the present and LIVE in each minute fully, neither turning away nor grasping. Isn't this what freedom really is?

It is important to remind ourselves that we are not on this path of practising yoga to achieve some joy in the future. It is the path itself that is joyful. The path firmly places you on the substance under your feet. Here is grit, here is dirt, here are flowers, here is shit, this is it, your life is here, soak it all in. Yoga sensitises your soles and you feel for first time, for all your running about, life has happened and you realise you are standing in it. The people on the path are not merely striving towards some reward in the future. They are interested in living in a better way right now. Sinking their teeth into life, tasting everything. So it is important to practice, not because practising will lead us to a better state of affairs but practising IS the better state of affairs.

The path is under your feet.

-- Zen saying.

There's only us,
There's only this.
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.

No other road,
No other way,
No day but today.

-- Affirmation from Jonathan Larson's musical Rent

pran vidya wOrkshOp: part 2

2006-08-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

After getting feedback from yogis and Dr Kajal, we are changing the proposed second repeat session of the Pran Vidya workshop (see earlier post here for details) on 20 August to a Part 2 of the first session and it will now be held on 10 September 2006 8-10am at mOmentOm yOga.

This means that yogis who attended the first session should attend this as it will be a series of deeper techniques which builds on what you've learnt in the first session. Yogis who did not attend the first session can still attend this because it will include a refresher on the techniques practiced in the first session.

As we are opening up the session to the public, please register early to ensure your place.

Thank you!

paradise pOstpOned

2006-08-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Dear yogis, while we had much interest in the Bali yoga retreat, we are sorry to announce that we were unable to get the kind of numbers we need to make the retreat viable this time round for the dates planned. Also today, after reviewing what our air-ticketing agent could offer us in terms of the flights available, we think that the lack of direct flights (meaning a 2.5hour transit in Jakarta) was also not ideal for our trip.

So we are postponing our Bali retreat to a later date when the stars are more favourable. Apologies again for any inconvenience caused and we would like to THANK ALL YOGIS for your support and positive feedback. We would still like to hold the Bali retreat one day, if you have any preferred dates, please do share them with us now.

Do look out for our soon-to-be announced alternative programme for our 3rd anniversary! We are now exploring several options but if you have any suggestions of how you would like to celebrate the occasion, do let us know too! We are always listening.

yOga class schedule update: Tuesday 15 August

2006-08-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

There will be no 12pm-1pm class tomorrow, Tuesday 15 August, as the regular yogis are unable to attend.

what's the cOnnectiOn?

2006-08-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

Today I experienced and understood a wildy liberating thing:
I can be happy without an external cause.

We always say "something happened to me and caused me to become happy" with that something being an external thing: some event, some word, or some sight, etc. We wait for it to happen, that one moment we worked hard for, that smile from a person we admire, that pat on the back from someone you respect, something outside of ourselves. Conversely, we say "something happened to me and caused me to be angry or sad". It is as though we're helpless victims subject to a series of life events, hopefully waiting for the moments to come that make us happy and fearful of the moments that make us feel dreadful. Is this all that our life is?

Is there a way out of this without injecting ourselves with illegal substances?! Or subjecting ourselves to thorough brainwashing?!

Sure, there are those activities, like yoga and meditation that fill you with peace but once you step out of the cosy yoga studio, you're on your own again and you wish for something to happen to make you feel not so blue. We can't sustain the feel good feeling even if we know that practices that bring our minds to a still place help greatly in creating balance in our perception, creating inner peace. Life hits us hard once we open the door of the yoga studio to re-enter the world and we just lose it. How can we be happy when confronted with the fast hitting reality of our work day?

Today, I faced yet another day of challenges. Face this alone. Again. Then a thought occured to me. Just out of the blue. "I don't care what is going to happen next. What's the next thing that's going to happen got to do with my being happy? What's the connection anyway?" Something clicked into place.

The next thing happened. I had to meet up with a friend who was feeling down. I had planned to do some work in the studio in the afternoon but when she called, I knew I had to meet her. I've had those kinds of days too. When I listened to her, I started to feel down too. Just like that. But I remembered my earlier thought. "What's the connection?" There is no connection. While I sympathise and console, did I need to be unhappy too? I searched for my inner happiness and it was still there. Interesting. . .

Later, I re-examined my earlier blog post. "Everytime I run close to being flat broke, I want to write a book. . ." What's the connection between being broke and being happy? Perhaps there is a limitation in the number of options you have but there is nothing here to do with how happy you are. Real happiness is independent of such superficial causes. We are either happy are we are not - come what may. My good friend, Tania, who is also running her own company on her own never fails to remind us that there was once when we both did not have to worry about getting our fat monthly paycheques but we were sooo unhappy then! We know that money does not solve anything because we experienced it. Happiness must be found within ourselves. If we wait for it to drop in on us, accidentally in seems, with the right set of circumstances then what a terribly random kind of happiness we wish for ourselves!

If everything is linked in an endless chain of cause and effect, what is the cause of happiness then? What is the source of the inner happiness if not external circumstances? I examined my own case and here's what I think causes my newly re-discovered inner happiness:

[1] Gratitude for all that I have: I learnt that counting my blessing reminds me of how much I already have and promotes a heart that cherishes all these things that I have because . . .

[2] I know that things are not forever. Darkness will pass into dawn. Day will fade into night. Troubles will cease and arise. Loved ones come and go. This is the nature of the world. This changeability is what gives something life. Cherish the fragile grace of life. We spend way too much time wishing things aren't the way they are turning out to be, we waste too much energy resisting change, denying change. Accepting things they way they are doesn't mean being ok with it ultimately and dropping into passivity, it is recognising reality in the meantime while continuing to work for the best outcome. Rather than going against the grain of change, flow with it. Strive and let go.

[3] Human beings are creative animals: I can always find another way.

[4] To have the ability to help others is the greatest blessing. My daily toil is dedicated to helping others: service is the reason for my work, my talents are given meaning because they serve a purpose.

[5] I make sure the burdens I carry are the burdens I choose. When my bags are getting heavy, I re-pack. I see if I'm only carrying the essentials. If it is a heavy item but an important one and I choose to put it in and I will carry it without complaint. I am free, I make the choice, I shoulder it.

[6] Zero expectations = zero disappointments. If find yourself very disappointed at a turn of events, you got to ask yourself "What did you expect?" It is not because of the way things turned out that makes you disappointed but it is your expectations that make you disappointed. The discrepancy between what you expect and what really happens is a problem that exists only in your mind. As the zen saying goes: "Everything is as it is". Manage your expectations. This is not to say that we no longer have dreams, aspirations and goals. It means that we "strive and let go", we balance effort and release. We recognise our goals for what they are, moving targets in our minds where we direct our daily efforts and see reality as it is, a set of conditions created by multiple causes not within your control. I like to ask myself as soon as I sense an expectation for a certain outcome (that is a my mind opening itself up for a future disappointment): "what's the craving that caused this expectation to arise:?" There is no smoke without fire, often expectations arise because we have certain desires. We have to admit this. The most painful disappointments come from the most selfish desires because the ego has such a huge investment of vested interest in these. If we can manage and even eradicate selfish desires, we will have no more disappointments. Every outcome, every moment, is as it is, full and marvelous, free from the projections of our ego's desires.

[7] There is Buddha nature in each of us. We are already enlightened. . . we are compassionate and wise but we just lost our shine because of worldly pollutants. Once we clean away all the greed, hatred and delusions, the decent folk that we are shines forth again!

[8] No matter how noisy, busy, trashy the day becomes, when I close my eyes and watch the breath, watch each thought, each feeling and stillness returns and I become stillness again.

[9] You can't be too depressed nor too angry if you're still singing. . . it's silly but I literally do this. . . even before the movie Anger Management (with Jack Nickolson and Adam Sandler) came along. It works because if you can retain a sense of humour even in your darkest hour, you maintain a more objective viewpoint and never allow yourself that headlong plunge into the abyss of navel-gazing selfpity. "I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and wise!. . ."

These are unshakeable causes. They never die (though sometimes they can be forgotten out of neglect). Which means in theory, my inner happiness cannot end. External circumstances cannot touch this. Yay!

what dO yOu expect?

2006-08-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

When I re-read the "Strive and let go" post I wrote earlier, it occured to me that it may seem a tad un-optimistic to some folks. It seems that even if we act out of good intentions, trying to change a bad situation into something better, we can't hope for much. This is not what I intended to say. Of course it matters very much if we act out of good intentions or bad -- it's just that we can't be certain when and how the outcomes of our actions hit us. While the rules of cause and effect that balances out the actions and reactions of all the people in the world are acting all the time: there is nobody (ok, we're talking about non-supernatural, non-superhuman folks here) whose mind is so broad to be able to comprehend it all. It is naive, delusional, to act thinking we are in absolute control of what happens ultimately to us. So trust that if you move out of kindness and generosity each day, the kindness and generosity will be returned to you. . . you just have no idea when nor how. I am optimistic this way. And I think this is the beautiful part of life. But this is a faith that is grounded in many many real life encounters I have had. So act with the best intentions, live in hope.

And hope is very very important in our increasingly cynical world. What we want to do really is to place our hope in the right place, where it will continue to motivate us, where it cannot ever be extinguished.

Everytime I run close to being flat broke, I want to write a book. Not because I expect the book to make me money! But because I learn so much about what you really need to live well and happily. . . and I learn about hope. We have to admit as long as we have money, it is hard to learn this. When we run into a problem, we think we can buy a solution to our problems. Even if we can't, we can buy pretty good distractions form the fact that we can't buy a solution to our problems! This works in degrees of success until we happen to run out of money. Then we have something of a crisis. . . then if you're not in panic, you will be lucky enough to experience something of a revelation. The solution to your problems is not out there, it is in here, within you, within all the resourcefulness and patience that is you. There is a primal ability of endurance that is the human spirit which is the source of a hope that cannot die - there is always something you can do, there is always a way out of the darkest night. Ah! When you hit this, you start to really dig deep into yourself for solutions. You start to see that the problem itself, as Krishnamurti says, is the solution. Like this wise sage wrote, what we do when we "solve" a problems is that we are really attempting to get rid of it. That, according to him is not solving it, it is running away from it. We want to face the problem as it points to something we need to resolve within ourselves to become the great human beings that Krishnamurti urges each of us to be.

yOga escape! scenes frOm bali

2006-08-08T01:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some sights you will see on retreat on 25-29 August. Click on the images for enlarged views.
Scroll down to the post below for details on the yoga retreat and registration information.

2006-08-08T01:46:00.000-07:00

Views of ARMA Resort:

2nd yOga escape!

2006-08-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

In celebration of mOmentOm yOga’s 3nd anniversary this year,
come and fly away with us for a unique yoga holiday to ARMA Resort, Bali!

5 Days/4 Nights
Friday 25 to Tuesday 29 August 2006

For mOmentOm yOgis: $ 888 per person
For all other guests: $ 988 per person

Price includes:
-Return flights from Singapore to Bali on Garuda Indonesia
-Bali airport transfers
-4 nights twin-sharing air-conditioned accommodation in ARMA Resort in Ubud, Bali
-6 yoga sessions
-2 full day tours and admission to all attractions on the tours
-1 evening Balinese traditional dance performance at ARMA
-4 breakfasts
-2 dinners

Price does not include: Bali airport tax: Rp100,000 (about S$17) per person, travel insurance, meals other than those stated in itinerary. tips to drivers, etc.

Limited places!! Book early!
We are having only 24 yogis maximum.

How to book?
Fill up your personal particulars on our Yoga Escape! registration form and make full payment to reserve your place. Payment by cash or cheque made payable to “Chee Sau Fen”.

Queries?
Please call Sau Fen at Tel: 63344100
Email mOmentOmyOga@gmail.com

About ARMA and ARMA Resort: www.armaresort.com

Proposed Yoga Escape! Plan:
(subject to change)
Note: No time difference between Singapore and Bali.

Day 1
25 August 2006 Friday
3:55pm
Meet fellow Yoga Escapees at Changi Airport for flight check-in
5:55pm
Our flight to paradise departs. Dinner on board.
8:25pm
Arrival at Denpasar Airport in Bali and the good folks from ARMA Resort whisk us away to our home away from home.
10:00pm
Check in to ARMA Resort in the enchanting evening.
Then have a good night’s rest in the heart of Bali.

Day 2
26 August 2006 Saturday
6:30am
Awake in paradise and find yourself in the embrace of the beauty of nature and nurture within the grounds of ARMA. Wake earlier and wander on your own in the extensive gardens and padi fields of the resort.
7:00am
Greet the dawn with a gentle yet invigorating session of yoga on a high platform overlooking calm padi fields. Share the same cool clean air as our farmer neighbours as they go about their morning chores.
9:00am
Enjoy a healthy and hearty breakfast buffet spread prepared with tender loving care and loads of creativity by the ARMA folks sitting in the water gardens.
10:30am
Today, you will be introduced to the amazingly varied natural and cultural landscape of Bali on a full day tour. Our unharried tour travels through a mix of villages amidst rice terraces and allows us to meet the folks carving wonders on the distinctive black indigenous rock or artists painting in their iconic yet individual style or weavers working on batik & ikat or goldsmiths creating ancient and modern jewellery designs, etc. You will experience the creativity and warmth that so distinguishes the Balinese people. You will walk into an extrodinary living architectural heritage that is emulated the world over, visiting the Bali Museum, entering ancient palaces and seeking out remote temples perched on impossible cliffs. Lunch at own expense
5:00pm
You return to the comfort of ARMA Resort for an evening session of yoga and relaxation techniques to soothe your tired legs and wind down your excited mind with calmness.
7:30pm
Balinese art comes alive for you tonight as you are treated to a traditional dance performance by the critically acclaimed troupe based at ARMA. This is definitely not your standard tourist fare. Balinese dance and music are living heritage and very much a part of the daily lives of the people. ARMA is well known for running its programme training generations of young Balinese in their in the traditional performance. You will be happy to know that your stay in ARMA Resort continues to fund this noble programme for keeping the arts alive in Bali.
8:30pm
Tuck into a delicious dinner consisting of a spread of local goodies and share your day’s favourite encounters with fellow Yoga Escapees in the casual, cosy ambience of the pavilion-style open air Kafe ARMA.
10:30pm
Have a good night’s rest with pleasant dreams.

Day 3
27 August 2006 Sunday
6:30am
Arise again in the paradise that is Bali.
7:00am
Revisit the padi terrace platform for a refreshing session of yoga and breathing techniques to take in all the fresh energy of the new dawn.
9:00am
Be amazed at the variety of the breakfast buffet presented by the good folks of ARMA.
10:30am
Today, you will be whisked away to mountain lakes as we explore the volcanic landscape that is Bali. Be taken aback by the breathtaking beauty of the highlands as you seek out far away temples in the mist and clouds. You will pay a visit to family homes of the original inhabitants of the island in traditional villages by ancient rivers and walk on black sand beaches with the fisherfolk on coasts unscathed by tourism Lunch at own expense.
5:30pm
Return to your home sweet home at ARMA and enjoy an evening session of relaxing yoga.
7:30pm
Stroll out into central Ubud for a remarkable dinner spread at Bali Buddha restaurant. Healthy food should always taste this good! Evening at your own leisure.
10:30pm?
Return to ARMA for another night of lovely rest, free from any Monday Blues!

Day 4
28 August 2006 Monday
6:30am
Awake for a new day of discovery in Bali.
7:00am
Greet your farmer friends again on the way to your yoga session on the padi terrace.
9:00am
Our ARMA hosts will astound you again with their limitless creativity and culinary skills for yet another bountiful breakfast.
10:00am
Day is free at your own leisure.
You can choose to:
- Experience the quality cultural workshops at ARMA:
- Balinese Painting Tour: learn about the art in ARMA
- Balinese Gamelan Music: learn to play the gamelan!
- Woodcarving: unleash your inner sculptor!
- Balinese Dance: first hand experience guided by 2 of the most famous dances in Bali
- Balinese Cooking: learn how to create the menu you’ve enjoyed so far by the master chefs of ARMA
- History of Bali: learm more about your island paradise
- Balinese Astrology and Numerology: find out your Balinese birthday and its corresponding meaning!
- Traditional Balinese Architecture: learn “fengshui” Bali-style
- Balinese Batik: learn to appreciate and identify the different traditions of batik and have a go at your own masterpiece
- Offering Making: learn the meaning of the daily offerings Balinese make learn how to make your own
- Painting class: capture the romance of your own Bali in paint with helpful instruction of a master painter
- etc. (Check with ARMA on the first day of your stay for the updated information, costs and registration.)
- Yoga Escapees can hire a driver and car for about US$50 for a full day and explore the island on their own. Your helpful hosts at ARMA can suggest various exciting routes.
- Or you can take one of the many guided tours conducted by ARMA. Inquire at the ARMA reception for details and registration.
- Seek out adventure in the wild by going white water rafting, trekking, diving or snorkelling or you can laze around on the numerous beaches around this magnificent island.
- Take the free transport from ARMA to the centre of Ubud and take a leisurely walk on your own around the laid back town which is by all accounts the cultural heart of the island. Visit the homes of artists and pick out artworks directly from his studio. Browse the many shops for art and craft, yoga wear and yoga mat bags, books or CDs of mesmerizing gamelan music. Hangout at the numberous restaurants and cafes in this bohemian enclave and meet fellow strangers lost in paradise.
- As a guest in ARMA Resort, enjoy free admission to the Agung Rai Museum of Art and watch a class of dance or gamelan students going through their rehearsals in the musuem lobby then hang out at Warung Kopi and enjoy a nice cup of Balinese brew. Find a bale or sheltered platform to meditate or enjoy free afternoon tea and coffee and get a tan by the resort pool.
Lunch, dinner and activities at own expense
8:30pm
End your exciting day with an evening session of yoga relaxation and meditation.
10:30pm
Enter easily into slumberland after the day’s exploration and the evening’s relaxation.

Day 5
28 August 2006 Monday
7:00-10:00am
Awake at your own time and re-order your favourites at your last breakfast in ARMA and spend the morning at leisure.
10:15am
Check out of ARMA Resort
10:30am
Say goodbye to Ubud as we depart via ARMA’s transport to the airport in Denpasar.
12:10am
Check in to your flight back to Singapore and feel free to explore the many shops at the airport for last minute gifts for the folks at home or take a snack at the many airport cafes.
2:10pm
Flight departs for Singapore. Lunch on board.
4:40pm
Arrival at Changi Airport, say good bye to fellow yogis as you carry fond memories home of your latest Yoga Escape!

What to bring:

Essentials:
- BIG smile, open mind, patience and kindness
- passport with at least 6 months validity (Singapore PRs, foreign passport holders please ask about Visa requirements)
- day pack (small backpack to carry essentials while on activities)
- sweater or jacket for cool morning, evenings and highlands (Ubud is sort of high land too...)
- yoga mat
- yoga wear
- towels (for yoga)
- personal medication/first-aid kit
- water bottle
- flashlight
- neti pot for Jala Neti cleansing technique (if you do not have one, please order & purchase from mOmentOm yOga at least 1 week before departure)
- Travel insurance: you are advised to arrange for your own travel insurance prior to departure
- Some Indonesian Rupiah, US Dollars or Singapore Dollars for meals and shopping.
(Exchange rate: Rp100,000 = about S$17)

Good to have:
- sarong plus a sash or scarf to tie at the waist for temple visits (or you can borrow one from the resort, rent one from the temples or buy one in Ubud)
- sun block, sun screen lotion, hat, sunglasses
- swim wear for resort pool and beach
- good walking shoes or sports sandals for outdoor activities or treks, slippers for beach, bathroom
- maps and guidebook

Others:
Toiletries:
- toothbrush, toothpaste
- shampoo, soap (also provided by resort)
- hair brush/comb
- face cloth / tissues
- pajamas
- feminine sanitary products
- collapsible umbrella
- camera
- insect repellent
- Mask, fins, and snorkel, swimming goggles
(Hair dryer and bath towels are provided by resort)

yOga escape! tO the mOrning Of the wOrld

2006-08-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Good news! We will be posting the details of our yoga retreat to Bali soon today so watch this space!

In the meantime, we are looking at a slight change of dates to 25-29 August 2006, Friday to Tuesday and the investment per person for a ticket to this yoga adventure in paradise should be S$888 per person (price for mOmentOm yOgis).

Brochures should be available from our studio desk by this evening.

Please register your interest early, we have about 10 names on reserve already!
Capacity is 24 people.

Yogis who have earlier stated your interest, please re-confirm the spelling of your full name as it appears in your passport. Thank you.

this is my cOuntry, this is my flag, this is my future, this is my life

2006-08-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

No yoga classes on National Day 9 August, Wednesday.

mOmentOm yOga wishes Singapore a happy National Day!
May all yogis take time to appreciate all that we have here. . .
. . . it may not be paradise (yet), but it is home - and there is only one home.

return tO paradise

2006-08-03T01:43:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over a pond outside my room in Bali.

I'm back from Bali. As I return from that paradise to this paradise, I wonder how long we need to cultivate ourselves so that we can create a paradise of peace within us that will never change where ever we go. This is why it helps to go for retreats where we can have the space to tune in to ourselves and create a quiet place within us that is a paradise where the sun never sets.

More information on the planned yoga retreat will be out soon. Watch out for it here.

More pictures coming soon. . .
Lotus & rice fields beyond my room.

View of my room from pond

away in bali 29 july-2 august

2006-07-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dear yogis, if you’re wondering what happened to our plans for our 2nd Yoga Escape! we are happy to say that we’re now in the process of making the arrangements for our next yoga retreat. We hope to have the details confirmed by next week.

So here are several announcements for all our yogis:

1. . . We had earlier planned to have the retreat around National Day but seeing how it’s hard to make a booking during the peak season, now we are looking at having the yoga retreat during 23-27 August 2006 (Wednesday to Sunday). So quick chope your leave from your workplace! We will confirm the exact dates next week. We have VERY limited places so please let us know if you are interested to come for the retreat.

2. . . We are looking at holding the retreat in Bali. I would be going to Bali this Saturday (29 July) to next Wednesday (2 August) to discuss the arrangements with the retreat venues there and also to check out the variety of activities that can be arranged for our yogis during the retreat.

3. . . As a result, there will be some changes to our yOga class schedule during the period when I’m away (see next post for timetables):

Saturday 29 July:
8am class by Dr Kajal: no change
10am class by Sau Fen: no change
6pm class by Sau Fen will be held at 1:30-3:00pm. There will be no class at 6pm.
(my flight is at 5pm+ so I have to leave for airport immediately after 3pm)

Sunday 30 July:
10am-12pm gOngfu+yOga class will be conducted at the same time by Master Chua and Michele.

Monday 31 July:
7pm FUN class is cancelled.

Tuesday 1 August:
12pm class is cancelled.
6pm FUN class will be postponed to Friday, 4 August, 6-7pm.
7pm class is cancelled.
8:30pm class is cancelled.

Wednesday 2 August:
7pm class will be combined with 7:15pm class.
One MOM class will be held at 7:15pm-8:45pm and conducted by Dr. Kajal.
(my flight is scheduled to land at Changi Airport at 4:40pm but knowing it’s Garuda, we are not expecting it to be on time. . . so I doubt I’ll be back in time for class.)

Classes resume as per our normal schedule from 3 August Thursday onwards (see the next post for the August timetable). The timetables below summarises the changes for next week.

4. . . I’ll be on autoroaming when I’m away in Bali. So for non-urgent matters, please email me. For urgent matters, you can sms me: 97631374. Note: if you call the studio number 63344100, you also connect to my handphone. So sms is the best.

Y A BIG THANK YOU to all yogis for accommodating the changes!
Y And THANKS to Dr. Kajal and Michele for covering the classes.

yOga schedules frOm this week On

2006-07-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here are the timetables for this week and the next weeks.
Click on the timetable images for larger views.

Changes due to my Bali trip (see details above) are highlighted in light blue.
Scroll down for index of abbreviations used in timetable and for further notes on classes.

24 July-30 July:

31 July-6 August:

August is nearly upon us. So here is the August timetable:

Note:

. . . No classes on public holidays. In this month, no classes on National Day, 9 August.

. . . Please note that we have adjusted the Wednesday and Friday class types. This is in response to feedback from our yogis that they would prefer Tuesday and Wednesday’s classes to be different types and also Friday and Saturday’s evening classes to be different types. So let’s try this schedule and see how it works out for us. Do continue to give us your feedback as the class schedule only makes sense if it helps us all to practice yoga better!

. . . Master Chua’s new gongfu class has started on Fridays at 7:45pm-8:45pm. This is on a package of 10 classes for $200. This is an ongoing class, so new students can join in any week.

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

2nd pran vidya wOrkshOp 20 aug

2006-07-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

For those yogis who missed the Pran Vidya Workshop conducted by Dr Kajal on 2 July (see previous post here), we are happy to announce that there will be another breathing techniques session on Sunday, 20 August at 8am-10am. So don’t miss it this time! Book now! For yogis who have attended the first session, you can attend the 20 Aug session for a refresher.

Please reserve your place by making payment in cash or cheque (payable to “Chee Sau Fen”). $48 for mOmentOm yOgis, $58 for public. Because we want to have the time to ensure that each yogi practises the techniques correctly, there will be limited places in the session, so book today if you are interested.

The above session and the one held on 2 July are a basic introduction to pranayama. Thank you for your feedback, yogis who attended the first session. We are happy to hear that you found the session helpful and enlightening. In response to your feedback for further instruction in pranayama, we are planning a series of workshops soon on advancing the pranayama practice. Keep a look out on our website for the announcement.

key tO happiness at wOrk: strive and let gO

2006-07-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

As we progress in our yoga, we are often nice and steady and comfy when we're in yoga class. We may even practice the openness and even-mindedness by extending the yoga practices into our home life. Yet, the instant we enter into our office the next day, we're back where we started: angry, stressed out, unhappy and lost souls. "Is there a yoga for happiness at work?" our yogis often ask me in the studio.

I understand the desperation, the exasperation in that plea. I, too, was a part-time blissed out yogi and a full-time stressed out executive. Perhaps it is even worse for the yoga?! Because we encounter an episode of peace in our yoga class, our daily chaos at our workplace feels even more chaotic for the contrast.

This, you will be happy to learn, has been explored by the ancient yogis. In fact, they wanted more than anything to develop a complete coherence between our inner peace and divinity and our outer unrefinement and profanity. The sages came out with something called the "yoga of actions" or Karma Yoga. "Karma" means "action". They were interested, not just in how to make our daily actions happier and freed from stress, but they were also interested in how we can transform ourselves by making each and every action the realm of our yoga practice. Remember they were striving for unity (yoga): a coherence between our internal and external worlds. This means the yoga practice is all pervasive, all encompassing.

So what does Karma Yoga involve? There are a series of guidelines on how to purify our actions. The purpose of the practice is to bring about coherence and its resultant peace and happiness. The central idea of Karma Yoga is that the key to happiness in the present is through purifying our daily actions: each act becomes full of passion and empty of selfish expectations. We become mindful of the fact that while we can set our intentions, plan our actions, execute our every step meticulously, we can never, never shape the ultimate outcome of our strife. There is an emptiness inherent in our actions and it is a delusion to think otherwise: we think we can affect changes in a situation or in the world. The reality is that the world is made up of a whole lot of folks, thinking the same thing! So how could each instance possibly become true? What results from a heck of a lot of individuals thinking this way and acting from it is that almost all people end up disappointed that things do not work out the way they wanted. Taking the wider perspective, we see the need to let go of the strings we have attached to our actions and their outcomes. We simply act with the best intentions and are happy simply with the fact that we do.

In doing this, we are, in fact, liberated by freeing our actions from self-interest. In turn, we are freed from the tyranny of expectations which can never logically be met. When we work, we offer up each fruit of our labour to the larger good, without any expectation of any returns to ourselves, except the satisfaction of having put in your all into the work and having done so with the interest of all. We strive and then we let go. Each task is never too mundane, never too distasteful because it fits into a larger purpose: to contribute your daily toil to something greater than yourself. Never disappointed with outcomes. . . . Then when you do get rewarded, that's like a special job bonus!

backgrOund On backgrOund

2006-07-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

The new website revamp is complete. Thank you yogis, for bearing with us.

Some words on the new page:

. . . A new link to "Latest News!" has been added to the links menu on our site. This takes you to the latest important announcement, including urgent class schedule updates. So do check this frequently so that you won't miss out on new developments for our yogis at mOmentOm.

. . . "How to find us in Bugis Village" link is something you can point out to your friends attending yoga class at mOmentOm for the first time. It has pictures illustrating how to get to the studio.

. . . "How to get started in yoga" link was the former "Yoga FAQs" link.

. . . the wallpaper or background of our new site is a photograph of the shadows cast by Michele and our tour guide on one of the giant astronomical instruments at Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, India, an extraodinary observatory built by Sawai Jai Singh II, built between 1728 and 1734. He believed that the bigger the instruments the more accurate the measurements. . . hence this collection of momumental astronomical instruments. To me, the whole place looked more like a sculpture park. This attempt to understand our place in the cosmos really moved me: we are so small in the cosmos, seemingly insignificant, yet we are an inseparable part of the whole scheme of things. A fact, long understoond by yogis of old, a fact that is at the same time, humbling and grand. Our gentlemanly guide was a retired professor and was something like 80 years old. In robust health, he credits his wellbeing to years of yoga practice. He was amused and visibly pleased to hear that we are yoga instructors in Singapore.

new lOOk website

2006-07-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

mOmentOm yOga is happy to present a fresh new look for our website. Enjoy!

Please bear with us as we are still in the process of upgrading the links and tweaking everything into place.

Latest updates (5pm 13 July 2006):
Y Thanks to Eng Kiat for the feedback on the fonts. Yes, I agree that the font on the Om Improvement site is easier on the eyes. So now I've adotped the same fonts now for the new website. Do continue to give your feebback yogis!

new friday gOngfu class starting 21 july

2006-07-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Those of you who were interested to learn gongfu but could not make the Sunday yOga+gOngfu classes would be happy to know that Master Chua Kah Joo would be starting a purely gongfu class on Fridays at 7:45-8:45pm from 21 July 2006. So sign up for the package and learn some skills!

To register, please call Desmond 97631900 by 15 Jul 2006.

Details:

WING CHUN KUNG FU Class (for anyone from 10 yrs old to Adults)
New class on 21 July 06.
Price : S$200 per pax for 10 lessons (1 hr per lesson)
Every Friday, 7.45pm to 8.45pm
Venue mOmentOm yOga. . . 241B Victoria Street, Singapore 188030

yOga class schedule update

2006-07-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

Yogis, please note that Tuesday 12-1pm yoga class for 4 & 11 July has been temporarily put on hold. Class should resume at this timeslot from 18 July 2006.

If you are unsure if any class is on or not, do give us a call to check: 63344100

breath by breath

2006-07-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to all yogis who woke up early to come for the Pran Vidya workshop yesterday morning! We hope you found the workshop helpful for developing your practice.

We received some post-workshop feedback on Sunday and there are some yogis interested in further pranayama workshops. Also some yogis who could not make it for the workshop yesterday have requested for another session. Please continue to give us your feedback (mOmentOmyOga@gmail.com) and let us know if you are interested in future pranayama workshops. Some yogis also mentioned that they could not remember all the practices taught. Not to worry! As for all yoga practice, you will become familiar with the techniques through regular practice. So if we have enough people, we will conduct anther session similar to yesterday's which was really an introductory workshop to the pranayama practices. And if there is interest, we can look into organising regular practice sessions for our yogis to keep up their practice.

Pranayama is an important component of your yoga practice. A mastery of your life force leads to a balanced physical, emotional, mental life. . . in other words, more health & happiness! Let this workshop be the start to your exploration of your inner life.

If you missed the session yesterday, here are some scenes of serenity from the workshop:

2006-07-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Dr Kajal giving an introduction to pranayama to our participating yogis.

2006-07-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Yogis practising nadisuddhi pranayama to balance the breath.

2006-07-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yogis getting one-to-one attention from Dr Kajal.

2006-07-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

Yogis using sound resonance to bring about mental serenity.

pran vidya wOrkshOp tOmOrrOw, 2 july 8am

2006-07-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Breathe in a better way tomorrow! Just a reminder that the pranayama (breathing techniques) workshop (see earlier post for details: click here) conducted by Dr Kajal is on tomorrow at 8-10am.

To all yogis attending:
. . . you are kindly reminded to please be punctual. If you need to settle payment for the workshop, please come at least 15 minutes before class. . . and bring exact change.
. . . Also, please do not to have too heavy a breakfast.
. . . following the pranayama workshop you can attend a trial of the yOga+gOngfu class which happens at its regular timeslot 10am-12pm on Sundays. mOmentOm yOgis who are attending the pranayama workshop simply pay an additional $10 for the yOga+gOngfu trial.

See you all bright & early tomorrow!! mOmentOm yOga studio will be open by 7am tomorrow.

yOga class schedule: july 2006

2006-06-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

3Click on timetable image for an enlarged view.

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

Notes:
. . . No classes on public holidays
. . . yOga+gOngfu classes are on Sundays 10am-12pm

yOga class schedule: until 30 june

2006-06-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Click on timetable image for an enlarged view.

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

Notes:

. . . No classes on public holidays

. . . yOga+gOngfu classes are on Sundays 10am-12pm

new class 7pm wednesdays starting tOmOrrOw

2006-06-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Gentle reminder here that Dr. Kajal's conducting a new yoga class at 7:00-8:30pm Wednesdays starting tomorrow.

Yogis can use their existing mOmentOm yOga class package cards to attend this class. (Yogis transferred from Rejuvoir, you can use your transferred yoga classes to try out Dr Kajal's class until 30 June 2006.)

— When you come down for class this week, also don't forget to register for the Pran Vidya (breathing techniques) workshop on Sunday 2 July 2006.

Profile of Dr Kajal Pandit:

International Yoga expert and award winner, Dr Kajal Kumar Pandit began studying yoga at the age of 10, under the careful guidance of his guru, Swami Tushar Kanti (Disciple of Swami Shibananda Swaraswati). Born in West Bengal, India, Dr Kajal spent his youth studying yoga, music, art and environmental science. Through many years of single-minded dedicated practice and with the encouragement of his elder sister, Annapurna Pandit, herself a great yogi and spiritualist, his perseverance ultimately led him to an academic career in the field of educational yoga. He has received numerous degrees from prestigious universities.

His illustrious study and teaching of yoga has earned him recognition in both India and abroad including the ‘Proud Son of India’ gold medal (1999) and the ‘Great Son of India' gold medal (1998), awarded to him by the International Human Council for his contributions to yoga education. Dr Kajal has an impressive portfolio, having been an advisor to a host of organizations including India’s Institute of Ecology & Environment, and personal trainer to Indian ministers including the Late Minister Raj Mangal Pandey (H.R.D. Minister of India) and P.N. Sinha (Minister of Science & Technology, Bihar). He was also physical education/yoga instructor at the Mother’s International School in New Delhi, India for thirteen years.

With an educational specialization in the treatment of Chronic Illnesses Dr Kajal emphasizes the therapeutic potential of yoga through proper breathing techniques and correct body alignment to prevent injuries. He treats yoga as an art form, and believes yoga should be performed gracefully and in a mindful manner. While his methodology focuses on improved physical balance, flexibility, and coordination of the body, his calm and insightful teaching mannerisms create a healing environment of relaxation and body renewal for his students.

Dr Kajal holds a PhD in Yoga Education from Moscow, Russia; a DSc in Yoga with emphasis on Alternative Complimentary Medicine from the Netherlands; and a MS degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from India.

breathe new life

2006-06-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

This is an update of a previously posted news.
Please note that the date of the breathing workshop is now Sunday 2 July 2006.

PRAN VIDYA WORKSHOP

mOmentOm yOga will be conducting a pranayama (breathing techniques) workshop by yoga master Dr Kajal Pandit. "Pran" refers to "pranayama" which is the mastery of your body's energy (or 'qi') and "vidya" means "knowledge". Most of us have a superficial understanding of what it takes to energise ourselves and no knowledge of how to exercise our energy body. So do yourself a great favour and make sure you arrange your schedule so that you can attend this workshop because this a not-to-be missed opportunity to learn not just pranayama techniques but also to practice together with this master of the techniques.

Learn how to manage your body's energy through breathing techniques which either energise or relax you. Breathing well is the basis for physical, emotional and mental health - it ensures that you are at the peak of your performance in whatever you choose to do whether it's running a marathon or striking a business deal. Once and for all, learn how to manage the stress in your daily life. In this comprehensive workshop you can directly experience the benefits of practice and learn how to apply the practice to your daily lives. And with regular practice, you can enjoy long terms benefits in health & happiness.

Remember: while we can't change what happens to us in life, we can always change how we respond to these happenings. . . by breathing well we develop a steady and ready frame of mind come what may.

Date for workshop: Sunday 2 July at 8:00-10:00am.

Investment: $48 for mOmentOm yOgis, $58 for public

Venue: mOmentOm yOga, 241B Victoria St, Bugis Village (opposite Bugis Junction). See map.
As our mOmentOm yOgis would know, the space is limited in our humble studio.
So reservation of places is absolutely necessary. Reservation is upon payment of the workshop fees. First-come-first served. . . (workshop fees are non-refundable - you can get someone to replace you in the event you can't make it after you've reserved your place)

Preparation:
Please do not consume a heavy breakfast before coming for the workshop. (Light snack is ok.)
Wear clothes that enable you to sit comfortably on the floor.
Workshop is suitable for adults, with or without prior yoga experience.

--------------------------------

** Special Bonus **

Since you've already got your self up early on a Sunday, why not make the most of your trip down to mOmentOm yOga on 2 July?

Following the Pran Vidya Workshop, you can attend the yOga+gOngfu class at 10am-12pm in same venue for only $15 per person.
AND for mOmentOm yOgis with valid class packages, if you attend the Pran Vidya Workshop, you simply have to pay an additional $10 for the yOga+gOngfu trial.

So make good use of your new found energies after the energising session of Pran Vidya and put it into learning some new martial arts moves and gentle yoga stretches!

new yOga classes!

2006-06-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

mOmentOm yOga is happy to introduce Dr Kajal Pandit to our yogis.
"Doctor", as he is affectionately addressed by his students, is an experienced yoga teacher with more than 30 years behind him in the field of yoga. He teaches a dynamic hatha yoga practice which is invigorating for all aspects of your body, heart, mind and spirit.

We will be steadily adding more new classes by Dr Kajal. The first weekly yoga classes to at mOmentOm yOga conducted by Dr will be:

Wednesdays, 7:00-8:30pm (starting 21 June 2006)
Saturdays, 8:00-9:30am (starting 17 June 2006)

Existing mOmentOm yOgis can use their valid class cards' credits to attend these classes.
Yogis transferred from Rejuvoir need to purchase a mOmentOm yOga class package to attend these classes.

Please let us know if you would like to come down for these classes: tel 63344100

Our new brochure and the online timetable will be updated soon as we are finalising details with Dr K. Please bear with us.

practice fOr life. . . tOday

2006-06-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Yoga is not a religion.
Yoga is not an idea.
Yoga is not an exercise programme.
Yoga is not something that makes you feel good.
Yoga is not an option.
Yoga is not a hobby.
Yoga is not an indulgence.
Yoga is not a luxury.
Yoga is not a distraction.
Yoga is not an obsession.
Yoga is not a challenge.
Yoga is not a competition.

Yoga is life. All life is yoga.

If we live but anything less than in yoga, we live beneath our potential, we live in denial of the immense promise of life. To live in yoga means to live united in body, heart, mind, spirit. The fact that we have different words for body, heart, mind, spirit shows how divided we are within ourselves. The purpose of the yoga teachings is to teach us how to exist with the inner coherence that makes us great men and women. There is a joy from this completeness that surpasses all other joys: it is the feeling that wherever you are, whatever you do, you are not ever alone. You are always taking care of the whole. Your selfish concerns and fears have diminished to zero. You move with courage, with urgency, because what is important concerns the welfare of all. There is no more disappointment because all your efforts have already been channeled towards the highest goals for the larger good without expectations of any returns for your ego. When we live in this way, how can we believe that we can be anything less than divine.

This is the meaning of the practice. Yoga is not that which happens in the classroom for 1.5 hours, it is what we choose to do the rest of the time too. The classroom gives us a chance to learn some skills, "the rest of the time" is the arena for practice. . . this "practice" here is not a rehearsal, it is the application to real life and it has real consequences. Our yogis often come excitedly to me and report with some surprise that they tried some yoga practices in their daily lives and "it works"! Of course it works. 4,000 years of trial and error has been spent on these techniques and teachings. It is like this in the beginning. But when we realise that some practice "works" for us, making us happier, healthier, then we should grow in confidence for the effectiveness of the practice AND be committed to practice, becoming mindfully aware of yoga in all aspects of our lives. Give ourselves the chance to live in a better way. Come on, if you know something works and can make your life happier, healthier, aren't you shortchanging yourself by not actively putting it into practice. How is it that we can continue to allow ourselves to be deprived in this way? How is it that we do not recognise the urgency of the task since our lives are so fleetingly short? We live as though we will always have a second chance tomorrow, but there will come a day when there is no tomorrow. . . that day could be today.

Today, it is time, to ask yourself how serious you are about yoga. You can continue to exist as you have, an unresolved, discontented individual full of inner conflict, subject to the unrelenting uncertainties of the randomness of feelings, desires, thoughts, living apart from the world isolated by the narrowmindedness of your ego-centric perspective. Or you can rise above all this and find union within your being and come home to your place and purpose in the grand scheme of things, never be apart from the joy of knowing who you are again.

Practise for life. Our life is our practice.

anatta

2006-06-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

Just who do you think you are?

I have talked about 2 of the 3 universal characteristics of all things: anicca (change or impermanence) and dukkha (unsatisfactoriness). I took a long time with the last of these characteristics because it is hard to explain and harder to accept for me. Usually anatta is translated as “non self” (I can hear the collective “huh?!” from all of you) which does little to clarify anything. I was frustrated with this but then I learned that this goes to show the limits we have so frequently with language. The problem is not the language per se. The limitations of our language is a reflection of how we are so stuck in a certain way of viewing the world. We have not the proper words for reality because we have a habit of forcing reality into categories which do not exist except in our own minds. It is meaningful that it was through poetry where I first had an inkling of anatta, in particular, zen poems which breaks down the ordinary uses of language and words, and so breaks down ordinary thought patterns.

The concept of anatta or non-self is the hardest for me to understand, the most difficult to live with in daily life. We instinctively think, “if there is no me. . . then how?!” We feel we have reached the end of our universe as we know us. . . and beyond the confines of who we normally think we are, we think there is nothing. And boy, do we not want to go there and drop over that abyss! This all goes to show how strongly attached we are to our self-image. It shows how much this self-image tries to protect itself to perpetuate what turns out to be a lie, delusion, mirage.

There is nothing essentially wrong with us. What is wrong is how we perceive the world. What is wrong is the habitual ways with which we view the world - ourselves included. This kind of view is flawed because it creates problems when it clashes head on with reality. We weave a story where we are the hero and everything happens to this hero. If something bad happens to this hero, it’s a tragedy. If something great happens, it’s an epic tale. The slings and arrows of outrages fortune hit us hard and we suffer for it because we think about ourselves in this way – there is someone, a target, to suffer the shots of slings and arrows. We think we are stuck in a fragile “self” that suffers good things and bad. This is an illusion and we suffer greatly for it because we are trying hard all the time to protect this illusion from harm. Yet, this also means: if there is no fragile self to protect and sustain, there can be no suffering.

I went through a dark, dark period trying to figure this out before meeting the right teachers who pointed out to me that there is no figuring out to be done, and asked me to sit in silent meditation. For it is in silence, when habitual methods of thinking ceases that we exist as something that is other than our self-centred self -- and we start to realise that vast spacious joy of existing beyond our narrow-minded, selfish, intellect-created self. We experience that there is only phenonena and the consciousness of phenomena, there is no real observer to mediate that experience, there is no permanent entity that interacts with phenomena and is conscious of it. There is only a constant stream of consciousness about changing phenomena. It is an illusion to identify with some parts of these streams of consciousness as "myself" because there is no permanent distinctive quality in these streams that is stable, that is graspable, that is independent of other causes.

When we finally experience anatta in the phenomena around us, it seems as basic as the air we breathe. I do not think we can remain unchanged once we truly experience this. We become generous, equanimous, larger than we can ever imagined because our former "personal boundaries" are abandoned, boundaries which used to separate "me" from "them", boundaries that used to be the boundaries of our personal protection, boundaries of the limits of our love and concern. All greed dies, all anger evaporates, and we become one with the miracle that is simply being. It is like a BIG BIG sigh of relief, a release of all tension you have felt in living life, guarding your precious little hide. In yoga, we call this. . . well, we call it “yoga” or “union”. It is a union of your small ego self with the larger self called the universe or all there is in existence. We dissolve into the larger self and cannot see ourselves nor our fate as separate from the larger existance any more. We will never feel like we are apart from the world anymore, we no longer feel alone for we are no longer trapped in the confines of our limited self consciousness which defines our separateness.

In a world where we are not the centre, we still exist and we exist fully. There is just no more separation of “me” versus “others”. Then we see how very deluded we were, fighting all the time over “mine” versus “yours”. It is no longer feasible to be angry because there is no other person for you to be angry at. When the mind is lax and starts to follow its habitual self-serving thoughts again, I like to do this exercise to keep me from losing sight of the larger self: When someone does something annoying to my ego-self, I just think, “that’s me over there doing that irritating thing – that’s me here who is still in delusion about who I am”. It is also not possible to be discompassionate nor emotionally callous because “that’s me over there who is suffering – that’s me over here who is still in delusion about who I am”. Try this, find union and wake up to who you really are today.

. . .

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

-- Albert Enstein

bOOks to free your mind & save the wOrld

2006-06-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

One of our yogis commented last week that I seem to read a lot. I do. And I read it for you. . .for everyone. I think we read too little. And out of the little that we read, we learn even less. And out of the less, we put into practice practically nothing! This thought keeps me reading. And more, it motivates me to practice what I preach: the keys to our own happiness and freedom is already in us. . . however we need to walk the the darn door and turn the key and walk through ourselves! We read and learn and practice what the wise ones have taught -- we can do nothing less than miracles in making the world a better place. We can become a positive force for change if we but put one ounce of learning from the great teachers into serious practice. I wonder how we can allow ourselves to do anything less.

Perhaps it is because we love intellectual stimulation for it's own sake. It is like a drug - we get high on ideas and feel momentarily free from the troubles of daily life. Sometimes reading something inspiring feels as good as solving our problems. "Yeh! That is a great idea! It could work! I can finally be happy! There is hope after all!" We feel that our intellect has been nicely and thoroughly massaged and we feel that we are above our problems and faults because it seems so clearly resolved in our thinking minds. We forget that there's a vast chasm between our thinking and doing. When the feeling of mental europhoria inevitably fades, we find ourselves right back where we were in the same mess because with our inaction, nothing has really changed. Then we plough through our bookstore or library shelves for the next book to get us the next high. We are, many of us, book junkies. I was like this. Until yoga happened for me - I learnt the importantce of creating a momentum for change through a personal commitment to practice - and I read Mahatma Gandhi's biography and I tried to live by his example.

As Mahatma Gandhi says: "The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems".

I learned from this great man that life is not an idea, nor a series of random catastrophes that happen to us which we try to cope with, it is one great opportunity to accomplish individual fulfillment by developing our potentials thoroughly and be an asset to humanity. Through his practice of what he believes in his daily life, he has inspired millions and changed the destiny of many.

Here are some of the books I live by:
[Libraries and bookshops (try Kinokuniya) should have these books in stock: if these are not in stock, demand that they bring the titles in! People need to have access to them!]

Non-fiction:
Stillness Speaks. . . by Eckhart Tolle
The Wisdom of Insecurity. . . by Alan Watts(many other titles by this author is worth exploring)
The Book. . . by Alan Watts IF THERE'S ONLY ONE BOOK YOU CAN READ, MAKE IT THIS ONE!
There is Nothing Wrong with You. . . by Cheri Huber
Meditation. . . by Eknath Easwaran (many other titles by this author too)
God Makes the Rivers to Flow. . . edited by Eknath Easwaran
How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life. . . by The Dalai Lama (many other titles)
many titles by Mahatma Gandhi who was a prolific writer
Beat Spirit. . . by Mel Ash
Bring out the Magic in your Mind. . . by Al Koran
Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung? (earlier published as "Opening the Door of Your Heart") by Ajahn Brahmavamso
many titles on the teachings of Ajahn Chah
many titles by Alain de Botton
A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last. . . by Stephen Levine
Cave in the Snow. . . by Vicki MacKenzie

Classics:
Upanishads (various published versions try the one edited with commentary provided by Eknath Easwaran)
Bhagavad Gita (various published versions, also try the Eknath Easwaran one)
Dhammapada (various published versions, also try the Eknath Easwaran one)

Fiction:
Veronika Decides to Die. . . by Paulo Coelho
The Baron in the Trees. . . by Italo Calvino
Silk. . . by Alessandro Baricco
The Egony and the Ecstacy. . . by Irving Stone
The Lord of the Rings. . . by J.R.R. Tolkien

Read some, learn much, practice more. . .

and so, I too, am writing a book about what I have learnt through my practice.

. . .

However many holy words you read,
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act upon them?

Read as few words as you like
And speak fewer.
But act upon the law.

-- Dhammapada

retreat!

2006-06-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

Good news!

Master Chua (who co-conducts our Sunday gOngfu+yOga classes) and I are in discussion to organise a joint retreat for his disciples and our yogis.

For those of you who missed out on our Yoga Escape! to Loola, Bintan last year. . . don't miss it this time! See pictures of the fun we had here.

The plan this time, for Master Chua and I, is to jointly conduct the programme at the retreat. Master Chua is not just an expert of Wing Chun (Yong Chun) Gongfu but he is also an instructor of Qi Gong and other methods. This means that participants would have the opportunity to practice these techniques in the outdoors, in nature -- as our Loola participants found, practicing with nature was an exhilarating feeling -- bringing about a sense of oneness with the universe.

We are in the process of developing the programme, the location and prices are not confirmed yet. But similar to the Loola retreat, the programme would not be jam-packed with too many things to do. We want to quiet down our mental noise not create more noise! You can look at the previous programme for an idea of how things were done.

In the meantime, Master and I would like to find out the level of interest out there for such a retreat if we were to conduct this on the following dates: 9-12 August (Wednesday to Saturday) the National Day weekend. Participants can have the option of staying one more day on their own on Sunday. Please drop us an email, mOmentOmyOga@gmail.com and let us know if you're interested. Participation is open to all yogis and their friends. Prior experience in yoga and gongfu not required.

yOga class schedule: june 2006 (starting 1st june)

2006-05-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

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

Notes:
. . . No classes on public holidays
. . . yOga+gOngfu classes are on Sundays 10am-12pm

hOw tO make things happen

2006-05-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

Until one is committed, there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising to one's favour all manner of unforeseen accidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

. . . Goethe

where is unhappiness?

2006-05-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Have you searched for unhappiness? Chances are, you haven't. Nobody would want that! Who wants to find Unhappiness? We spend our lives finding happiness. But the trouble is, you often observe that unhappiness is just really good at finding you. . .

Some of us have spent time trying to find just where unhappiness resides. And the revelation of where unhappiness comes from really wakes us up to how blindly we have perceived things. . . and also points to a way out of our sorry predicament. The bad news is that it's a place that's very close by. The good news is that knowing where this favourite hiding place is, we finally have the chance to root out unhappiness from our lives whenever it starts to squarter there like an illegal immigrant.

Unhappiness never exists outside of our own minds. Unhappiness likes to live in our own minds and often it does so undetected because we never thought it would be "in here" -- we always like to think it's "out there". This is because we spent our time looking at the external world outside our minds thinking that these are the sources of our unhappiness. However, unhappiness does not come from others, does not come from those "problematic people", it is not found in problematic things or events. There is nothing in the world that is inherently the cause of happiness nor unhappiness. It is the way the mind perceives these things that creates unhappiness or happiness because "the mind is the forerunner of all things". When we realise this, we stop blaming others and start to really work on ourselves. This has the side effect of transforming our relationships with others tremendously.

We need to take a step back. What causes unhappy states of mind? There is really only one thing: "grasping". Human nature likes to discriminate amongst the things we perceive. We look at all things through a filter of preconceived opinions and bias in our subconscious mind (meaning we are often not aware of this filter), and then immeditately, we discriminate amongst these things that we are looking at: we like this, we dislike that. As a consequence, we develop an aversion towards things we feel we do not like -- we want to run away from these things -- and an attraction towards things we feel we like -- we want to run towards these things. These two ways of grasping the phenomena of the world are the roots of unhappiness. Because of the existance of this process in our minds, this makes everything in the world, ultimately, unable to give us real satisfaction and peace. . . not to mention the fact that it causes us to run around a heck of a lot for nothing!

So how now? Once we know that unhappiness exists only in our minds due to its grasping nature, we can finally have a real shot at weeding unhappiness out of our lives. We need to learn how to observe how we perceive things. First, we honestly familiarise ourselves with the filters
of our perception: What are our bias? What do we hold as our values? Beliefs? What do we base our opinions and decisions on? Once we know what colours our perception, we become open to the fact that we have certain expections of how things should be and when things do not meet these expections, we are not disappointed because that is the nature of the way things are. Then there is no longer a gap between how we expect things to be and how things turn out. Because there is no gap, we do not feel there is a lack and so we dwell contented within the realm of our present experience. We relax internally and develop an open, equanimous mind and lessen it's grasping nature (it is hard, though not impossible, to totally eradicate grasping. Once you have done that, you would enjoy ULTIMATE HAPPINESS called Nirvana!)

Furthermore, if we become really observant, between "looking" and "grasping", we have a space for "choosing". No matter what external factors happen to disrupt our lives, you have always got a choice in how you want to react to these factors. Before we succumb to the automatic emotional response caused by our own biased pattern of thinking, if we have a sharp mind, we can choose how we want to respond. So even when unhappy things happen, we can choose not to be unhappy.

Are things starting to sound farfetched or too hypothetical or cheem by now? Hahaha. You need to practise it to believe it. Often, all this facts can become apparent to us in an instant's experience. We can create an conducive conditions for this revelation to happen to us if we practice yoga or meditation or any practice which helps us to
[1] slow down - mental phenomena happens quickly and so go by undetected if we live a harried life - when we slow down, slippery mental processes are easy to observe,
[2] develop strength, sharpness and alertness of mind to be able to observe clearly what is happening,
[3] develop a peaceful place within ourselves where we can start to observe how our minds work in a clear and non-judgemental way.
In stuff like this, a little guidance goes a long way. Take comfort in the fact that others have already done this work successfully and they are at hand to show you the way. But you need to be open to this and initiate the search. As the zen saying goes:"When the student is ready, the master appears."

Sounds like a lot of hard work? Here's the motivation:
Once you have found the source of unhappiness, you can choose to be happy always. . . So if you want to be happy in this life, make this your life's work.

this wOrld is nOt for cOwards

2006-05-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Do we avoid doing something because it is difficult? Do we avoid doing a yoga asana (pose) because we wobble so much or we feel it knocks the wind out of us? Do we think the teacher sadistic in repeating the pose again and again, while watching us struggle with it? If we avoid the asanas that challenges us, it is likely then, we also find ourselves sidestepping challenges in our daily lives. We are supposed to be steady and comfy what? I would like to say here that in the very positions (asanas and in life) that push us to the edge of our abilities and courage, are the greatest opportunities for us to be who we really are meant to be.

As far as possible, I purposely try to do the very thing I find difficult to do. This is not masochism. It is something I have learnt from the teachers and heros I admire about how to grow yourself. A challenge is a call to arms, not a call to abandon arms. I see a challenge as a neon sign post which reads "Here be skills and potentials you have yet to develop!" The very skills and courage you need to face a challenge IS FOUND DOING the challenge.

When we put it that way, it sounds as though we "lack" some qualities in the beginning which need to be "found" later. At this point, we need to understand that we cannot ever realise any qualities that is not already existing within us. It is not because of any lack in us that we fail to be strong in the face of life's challenges, but the potential to be strong is simply at the moment underdeveloped, not fully realised. Think about this: these potentials will NEVER be developed if we do not strive beyond what we think we can comfortably do.

Something initially perceived as "challenging" or "beyond me" indicates the very thing I need to allow me to grow. That is the very pose I need, that is the task I need to handle. I need to face it if I want to live freely. . .
. . . Have you any idea how many doors this kind of thinking opens in your life?!?
I have.

Sometimes, we do not want to face a challenge because it simply feels bad. We don't want to recognise that we are underdeveloped in any way. We want to be in our comfort zone. Safe. We don't want to work so hard, to struggle. We want to do things we are good at. What can I say? It is up to you. Chances are, you find that the comfort zone becomes a very tiny, restricted and uncertain space - and you start to wonder how "other people" always have it so good. For the rest of us who want to live freely in the world, we have to know, "this world is not for cowards" - it has a knack for throwing THE VERY things at you that are beyond you to do - again and again. We need to wake up to the nature of things and rise to the challenges as they come. The strength is already in you, you need to give yourself the chance to exercise it - we only strengthen through practice. In the end, through practice, we will find steadiness in mind, ease and comfort in the body, happiness in the heart come what may. . . and we will come to a point where we start going about HUNTING out the really important but challenging things which need to be done. . . and then do them. Then I congratulate and thank you on becoming an active participant in your life and a good citizen of our world.

This world is not for cowards

Do not fly. Look not for success or failure. Join yourself to the perfectly unselfish will and work on. Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined will and perseveres. Live in the midst of the battle of life. Anyone can keep calm in a cave or when asleep. Stand in the whirl and madness of action and reach the center. If you have found the center, you can not be moved.

. . . Swami Vivekananda

18 & 25 may

2006-05-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

Sau Fen will be taking the 7:15pm FUNdamentals classes on these 2 Thursdays 18 & 25 May 2006 while Michele is away.

. . .

Our apologies to the yogis who turned up for Thursday classes in the past two weeks. We had to cancel these in the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances and we try to inform the regular yogis who attend this class of the cancellation.

Please let us know if you had come on those days and left when you saw the class cancellation notice on the studio door. We will extend your yoga class package validity period for 2 additional weeks from its expiry date.

We try to post the latest class schedule information on this website as far as possible but if you are not certain if a particular class is on or not, please call us at 63344100 (do leave a message if there is no answer, I could be teaching).

Thank you all yogis, for your patience and understanding. Namaste.

yOga mat bags

2006-05-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

A new supplier has provided our studio with some new yoga mat bag samples.
Check them out on our shelves when you next come down to the studio.
Each piece is lovingly crafted from brocade cloth from India and retails at $28 each.

what's yOur real age?

2006-05-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

I remember posting a newspaper article on Dr. Roizen's concept of Real Age on the notice board at our old yoga studio. When I took the Real Age test then, I turned out to be 25. . .

If I remember the story correctly, Dr Roizen was at a point tired of seeing the same patients again and again coming to see him over the same health problems which could have been prevented by simply being more health conscious and developing healthy living habits. He thus developed the concept of Real Age to work out the biological age of your body, based on how well you maintain it. His Real Age test shows the aging or anti-aging impact of factors like what kind of exercise you do and how frequently you do it. Dr Roizen's test (essentially an online questionaire which you can take for free = the cool thing is that not just works out your real age but also generates a list of healthy living recommendations to further lower your Real Age.) includes all kinds of factors from diet to exercise to less intuitive factors like how many hours you spend a year in a car (opening yourself to the effects of pollution, stress, risk of accidents. . . )

Here's the link to find out how "old" you really are and how "young" you can become: http://realage.com/

YThanks to Wasana & Cheng Hock for reminding me about this. May your spines be young and nimble for years to come.

water workshops

2006-05-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Yogis are flexible. This is another way of saying, yogis are creative.
We need to adapt, create, express our originality to live freely, to reunite with our true Self.

mOmentOm yOga. . . is happy to present our new Water Workshops:
http://watergallery.blogspot.com/

Workshops start this Saturday at 1pm.

Email us today to reserve your place!
mOmentOmyOga@gmail.com

Come and explore the brilliance of your true self!

thursday 11 may 7:15pm class cancelled

2006-05-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Michele's 7:15pm class this week is cancelled. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Do call us if you have any questions on the schedule or to check on the status of any yoga class.
Tel: 63344100

vesak day

2006-05-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

This Friday 12 May is a public holiday, Vesak Day. There will be no yoga classes on that day.
This Friday's 12noon-1pm class will be held on Thursday 11 May.

So how would you be spending this one day?. . .

Better than a hundred years of mischief
Is one day spent in contemplation.
Better than a hundred years of ignorance
Is one day spent in reflection.

Better than a hundred years of idleness
Is one day spent in determination.

Better to live one day
Wondering
How all things arise and pass away.

Better to live one hour
Seeing
The one life beyond the way.

Better to live one moment
In the moment
Of the way beyond the way.

from Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, translated by Thomas Byrom

mOmentOm yOga wishes all health & happiness and an enlightening Vesak Day.

Pictures of Lumbhini Garden, Birthplace of Buddha, from our recent trip to Nepal:
Could this be where the tree and pond where Price Siddhartha (who became Buddha, "Enlightened One") was born? No one knows for sure. The white building protects the original Maya Devi (Mother of Prince Siddhartha) Temple which was built to commerate the birth of one of history's greatest thinkers. In front of the temple are the bases of former stupas. Inside the Maya Devi Temple, crowds still form lines to view the stone slab which was laid by King Ashoka to mark the place of Birth.

the lamp Of wisdOm

2006-05-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

To all who long and strive to realize the Self,
Illumination comes to them in this very life.
This divine awareness never leaves them,
And they work unceasingly for the good of all.
When the lamp of wisdom is lit within,
Their face shines, whether life brings weal or woe.
Even in deep sleep they are aware of the Self,
For their mind is freed from all conditioning.
Inwardly they are pure like the cloudless sky,
But they act as if they too were like us all.
Free from self-will, with detached intellect,
They are aware of the Self even with their hands at work.
Neither afraid of the world, nor making the world afraid,
They are free from greed, anger, and fear.

When the waves of self-will subside
Into the sea of peace that is the Self,
The mind becomes still, the heart pure,
And illumination comes to us in this very life.
When this supreme state is attained,
They neither rise nor fall, change nor die.
Words cannot describe the supreme state
For it is fuller than fullness can be.

from Yoga Vasishtha, translated by Eknath Easwaran, exerpt from his book God Makes the Rivers to Flow.

pOlling day classes

2006-05-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Our Saturday yogis have voted to have the 6pm-730pm class moved to an earlier timeslot at 11am-12.30pm on this Saturday, which is polling day.

Meditation class remains at 10-11am on that day.

yOga unlimited

2006-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious mudita! Happiness is a continuing yoga student!
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Mudita means "appreciative joy". I think the greatest joy I have over the years that I've been teaching is to see our yogis growing and coming again and again for yoga class. I know how easy it is to give in to the feeling now and then of wanting to just go home early and watch TV or go out for some shopping therapy than coming to yoga and sweating it out to win your all too short time in shavasana (corpse pose). I've been through that. I know how it is our minds would rather do a thousand and one things rather than come and sit on a meditation cushion and face the difficult task of understanding our own minds. I've been through that too.

Ah. Then isn't it great that the divine spark in you and I would not allow us to sink into the mundane and waste this precious human life by making us climb up the 3 levels of stairs into that familiar space for contemplation? It urges: "If you can't climb up just 3 floors of stairs to gain momentary peace tonight? How can you hope to gain Ultimate Peace and Liberation?! Duh!?"

We often give ourselves a lot less credit than we deserve. It is good to remember that we bow at the end of the class not so much to the external teacher who conducted the 1.5 hour class but to our internal teacher who conducts our entire life. We bow to that which is already wise and accomplished within us. That part which is already enlightened.

I remembered that when I first started learning yoga. In the beginning I wanted to give up before each class. But I kept on telling myself, "just one more class, then see how" and at the end of the class, I would say to myself "Another class down the belt! I've survived another one! Whoohoo!" Whatever that means. . . anyway, I congratulated myself HEARTILY for SIMPLY BEING PRESENT and doing something really good for myself although it was difficult for me. . . Then I slowly began to learn that there is no limit to what we can do with this kind of attitude.

So please each time you come to class, congratulate yourselves heartily for simply being present.
. . .

And to encourage those who want to come to class more frequently, mOmentOm yOga is happy to introduce our new yOga unlimited packages:

6 months unlimited yoga package: $1,200

12 months unlimited yoga package: $2,100

We have classes 7 days a week now. . . and we will soon be introducing more classes by other instructors, so these packages are very timely to take advantage of these new developments. See you in class!

For easy reference, here are our existing yoga packages (subject to changes):

Trial class (for first-timers): $15

Single drop-in class: $25

10-class package(classes valid for 3 months): $200 = $20 per class
20-class package(classes valid for 6 months): $300 = $15 per class
40-class package(classes valid for 7 months): $400 = $10 per class

*Students 20-class package(classes valid for 6 months): $200 = $10 per class
[*Students of tertiary institutions holding student passes.]

yOga class schedule: may 2006

2006-04-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

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

Notes:
. . . No classes on public holidays: for this month, no classes on 1 May (Labour Day) & 12 May (Vesak Day).
. . . yOga+gOngfu classes are on Sundays 10am-12pm
. . . gOngfu classes are on Fridays 7:45-8:45pm

yOga + art = water

2006-04-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

The idea of Water Gallery came to me when we were still in Stamford House.

Strange as it might sound, a lifetime of love for the arts and years of working in the arts world led me to yoga. Huh? It is the business of art to be concerned with truth. . . what is the nature of all things? What is the meaning of it all? . . . a truth which cannot be learned nor reasoned out -- a truth which is the basis of our very being, a truth that can only be experienced.

To me, the purpose of art is the same as yoga: to be a whole person, we need to develop ourselves fully, engage all our senses, skills, body, mind, to realise our full potential, to be happy. To really live fully, we need to live creatively.

With this in mind, we are starting 2 initiatives:

[1] Water Gallery
Exhibition of art and all things creative enough to suitably unsettle and stimulate our mind, body and spirit. An Art of Cause project will showcase artworks for sale where proceeds go to charitable causes.

Coming soon. . . The Window In (working title) Art Exhibition

[2] Water Workshop
Practice is central to all yoga paths. Behind all great works of art are many many years of diligent practice --- just like behind challenging yoga poses, there are many hours training on the mat. However, as yogis know, being guided to the right techniques ensures that you don't just practice hard but you practice smart, leading to steady growth in your practice. Workshops here will be on a wide range of creative endeavours. You do not need to be an artist to be creative. Humans are creative animals.

Coming soon. . . Jewellery Design Workshops (Series I)

For details see www.watergallery.blogspot.com

yOga bOOks clearance sale

2006-04-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a great chance for our yogis to catch up on your Jnana Yoga (Yoga path of intellectual development). . .

As many of you know, in our former incarnation as Om Improvement, we were located in a retail unit in Stamford House. We were required to have a store front and so there we had a stock of yoga merchandise for sale. Here in Bugis Village, we are in an office/commercial school unit and so. . . no more shopfront required! That's a big relief for a full-time yoga instructor, believe me, because I would rather spend my time training and preparing for yoga classes than negotiating with suppliers and waiting for deliveries. . .

Anyway, we are now doing a clearance sale of the remaining stock of yoga books we had from Stamford House days. These are solid books which have been painstakingly selected and sourced --- and they are now going to get to your bookshelves at extraordinarily low prices!! So if you had an eye on any yoga books at our studio for a while, now is the time to grab them. Extremely limited stock, so first-come-first-served.

Some titles are:
. . . Desikachar's The Heart of Yoga
. . . Iyengar's Light on Yoga
. . . The American Yoga Association's Yoga for Sports

may day

2006-04-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Monday is a public holiday, Labour Day, so there will be no yoga class on.

. . .

There will be yoga classes on for Polling Day 6 May. So walk over from your "Walk Over Constituencies" and come for yoga.

We are taking a poll on this Saturday on whether our yogis would like to move the 6-7.30pm class on 6 May to the morning at 11am-12.30pm.
Let us know if what you think: mOmentOmyOa@gmail.com

gOngfu trials nOw at $15

2006-04-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

You can now try out the yOga+gOngfu classes and gOngfu classes at $15.

Call Desmond Wong, our organising partner, to reserve your place today!
Tel: 97631900
Email : desmond@organise4u.com.sg

"We're running a serious business here. . . "

2006-04-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Those are the some of the parting words of my teacher, Ven. Vivekananda, when he met Michele and I for the last time before we left our meditation retreat in Lumbini, Nepal, after practising meditation there for more than a week. He was refering to how serious the retreat was about the practice. A meditation retreat is not a holiday camp, not a leisure activity, not solely for rest and relaxation, not a mind spa, not an escape from reality. We need to practice meditation as if our life depended on it -- because it does depend on it. In so far as meditation is used to teach us how to observe how our mind works, to understand the nature of all things, to eliminate the causes of greed, hatred, delusions, to generate love and peace, then we cannot live to be best of our capacities until we learn how to meditate.

Indeed self-cultivation is a serious endeavour. My teacher's words keep re-emerging from the depths of my mind with louder and louder echoes. It is a serious business. Not something we do "only when we are free", when we have problems we want to escape from, when we are down and depressed, when we want to learn something cool that appeals to our intellects, when we find a meditation method that is easy and enjoyable. If it is our goal in life to be happy, don't you think we need to learn what is the mysterious process in the mind that allows us to feel happy or sad. We need to understand ourselves, our true nature, to understand the nature of all things, to appreciate our inevitable role in making peace in the world. Otherwise, we are throwing our lives away -- we are treating a wonderful opportunity way too casually. And then we get upset when we have problems and are sad! Think about it today: how many hours, okay, how many minutes a day do you invest to making happiness? Do you think you can gain returns to something you have invested nothing in?

The urgency of my teacher's words come all the more strongly to me now with all the political turmoil gripping Nepal these days. Greed, hatred, ignorance will never cease to create unhappiness for people in the world until we root out the causes of greed, hatred, ignorance in our own hearts. You want to change the world? Then, like Mahatma Gandhi said: "You must be the change you want to see in the world."

Lumbini is very far away. And what is happening in Nepal is distressing. But I realised that the best way to honour my teacher, to make things in the world better, is to continue to practice and teach. . . become the change I want to see in the world. . . and treating this as a very serious business.

May our loving-kindness, our prayers, our practice, and the merits we generate from our practice be shared with all in Nepal.
May all beings be well and happy, may all beings be free.

Venerable Vivekananda (extreme right) with the staff at Panditarama Lumbini International Vipassana Meditation Center.

. . .

You can learn how to meditate with us on Saturdays at 10am at mOmentOm yOga. Meditation instructions are also incorporated into our yoga classes as part of the essential teachings of yoga.

gates Of Panditarama Lumbini International Meditation Center

2006-04-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

rOse garden in centre of Panditarama Lumbini, brick walls of meditatiOn hall

2006-04-24T13:19:00.000-07:00