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Guru in Scotland

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Enigmatic guru, Swami Ramdev got into touble with Indian health authorities recently for claiming that yoga can cure diseases including cancer. They asked him to stop making false claims.

In July he will visit Scotland to instruct people in how to help themselves, the Sunday Herald reports.

Sunit Poddar, a yoga teacher who organized his visit says, ""Before I met him I was sceptical," she said. "But I have become a complete believer. I lost more than five stones in five months and I had several different health problems, such as hypertension, for which I had to take 12 tablets a day. Now I am not on a single tablet."

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1251042.0.0.php

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Young, Young, Young, Yoga Teachers

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The New York Times comments on the issue of young, unseasoned yoga teachers. Who wants to be taught by someone with no life experience? Some people do. The article essentially says:

"Those who drop in once a week for a class don’t necessarily want a seasoned teacher, or an evolving connection with an instructor. But discerning students who are committed to their practice feel a teacher should be a wellspring of inspiration about how best to live."

And Shiva Rea, perenially wise adds a cautionary note that I wish more instructors would heed:
"Shiva Rea, 40, a renowned vinyasa flow teacher, who trains other teachers, is more blunt. A 50-year-old student doesn’t want to hear a 20-year old teacher “ramble on about the profundities of life,” she said. “I tell people you’re learning to be a river guide, but it’s all about the river. When you’re really connected to your breath then you’re in the river, and leading people through it. When in doubt, don’t talk.”

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:BgE312eLMA0J:www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/mar/09/unconventional_twist_yoga_younger_teachers/+%22Unconventional+Twist+in+Yoga:+Younger+Teachers%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

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California Lumber Yard Offers Yoga

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This is cool. Check out the pics of workers doing yoga on stacks of plywood.

From the article: "Here, contractors and clerks limber up, before they lumber up. It's a program called Yoga for the Construction Industry.....

"Am I standing squarely while I'm drilling a hole, rather than drilling it over to the side?", he asks, as he mimics the motion of drilling. "Can I actually drill it straight ahead where I have the most energy and the most power."

It's California!

Beauty!

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Yoga Teacher Walks from West Coast to New York

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This just for the novelty of it: Dunja Lingwood, 56, of Anacortes, WA, is walking from the far, far west coast to New York on a cause for peace.

According to the article on GoAnacortes.com, "She said “Retirement should mean, not a cessation of activity, but a change of activity with a more complete giving of your life to service.”

"dunja plans to walk 12 miles a day, making her way down Whidbey Island first and eventually getting to the Pacific Coast and Highway 101.

By word of mouth, she has lined up people to stay with in Oak Harbor, Port Townsend, Seattle and other cities in the Northwest."

Visit her blog about her journey at peaceishealthy.blogspot.com

Go Dunja!

http://www.goanacortes.com/articles/2007/03/07/news/news04.txt

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What is Yoga?

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A few--just a very few--thoughts on what yoga is from the Web site and blog, yoga-abode.com. As the editor, London writer Lucia Crockcroft notes, no one can agree on a snug definition.

She says, "Perhaps it's sensible to follow the lead of yoga teacher Jo Stewart, and give up the pigeon-hole approach. "Yoga defies a rigid definition and is not practiced dogmatically", she says."

http://www.yoga-abode.com/node/399

Here's another think piece on myyogahealth blog: http://myyogahealth.blogspot.com/2007/03/yoga-explained.html

What is yoga to you? I'm curious.

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L.A. Lawyer Does Yoga like a Human

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A good profile in the Wall Street Journal of an LA lawyer's yoga practice. I say "good" because it shows a real person with a real practice. He has a non-yogi job, a family, a good diet, a routine. He has stress and ambition and he sticks by yoga without getting crazy about it.

To me this is both an interesting story and an ideal example of yoga working in a life.

Read about it: John Shaeffer, 43

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Thai Yoga to be Protected

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http://nationmultimedia.com/2007/02/26/headlines/headlines_30027942.php

According to The Nation magazine, "Thailand will propose that 200 year-old inscriptions and statues that teach traditional Thai yoga at Wat Pra Chetupon Wimolmangalaram be included in the Unesco Memory of the World (MOW) Programme in 2009."

Thailand is trying to do what India tried to do, too late--save its cultural heritage from profitable pirating from other cultures. Still, it didn't work in India because it was extremely difficult to patent the poses. Who owns the poses?

Even yogis who like to sue can only patent sequences, not poses themselves. At least in America.

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Yoga Adapts to American Culture

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Sigh. It's unstoppable. "J. Crew and Puma now offer yoga accessories and Nike has a yoga shoe called the Kembali. There is yoga perfume and jewelry by the truckload online, and now, there is even yoga skydiving. America has effectively Big Mac-ed yoga, only, unlike the Maharaja Mac, American yoga offers enlightenment instead of high blood pressure."From UC Davis campus paper.

http://media.www.californiaaggie.com/media/storage/paper981/news/2007/02/23/Features/Yoga-The.New.American.Pastime-2739338.shtml

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Be Quiet! UK Yogis Disturb the Neighbours

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London's most popular yoga center, TriYoga, disturbs the neighbours with its chanting and drumming. Chief offenders are the lunch time Mommy and Baby classes, and the Prenatal classes. Wooo noisy mamas!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2004267,00.html#article_continue

From the Guardian:
"The complaints focus on a mother and baby yoga session in which the women sing nursery rhymes while stretching their babies' limbs in yoga-inspired movements, and a pregnancy class in which music by George Harrison, Bob Marley and Aretha Franklin is played. Camden council has issued an enforcement notice which could result in a fine."