Fw: Yoga as Therapy

February 19, 2010

----- Forwarded Message ----Antonio Sausys <antonioyognat2001Sent: Fri, February 19, 2010 11:20:21 AMYoga as Therapy

Yoga as Therapy

Yoga for Health News

February 2010Newsletter

February 18, 2010

- Vol 4, Issue 2

In This Issue

Single worskhop registration

Tirukural daily to your inbox

Yoga Therapy or 'Yogopathy'?

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March 6th, 2010 in NYC

GREETINGS FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

In this newsletter I want to let you know that we have opened a Single Workshop Registration option for those of you who can not attend the whole One Day Event in NYC next Saturday March 6th; turn you on to a great online service showcasing Yoga's knowledge and share with you some words from Dr. Ananda Balayogi diferentiating Yoga Therapy from what he calls 'Yogopathy'.

I hope you will enjoy this edition of Yoga for Health news!

Single worskhop registration

In response to the economic difficulties that many americans are going through and to accommodate the needs of those who can not be part of the entire day at Pure Yoga in NYC, we have now opened a Single Workshop Registration option. Workshops are 2.5 hour in length and present 25% theoretical information and 75% experiential practice guidance.The presentations that will be offered are:

Yoga for Healthy Joints - Ellen Saltonstall

Yoga for Pain Management - Nina Priya David

Yoga for Grief Relief - Antonio Sausys

The price for an individual workshop is $65.

To register visit

Tirukural daily to your inbox

On one hand, most of us like to receive words of inspiration, some guidance to help us move through the difficulties and issues that we are to live. On the other, we daily receive a considerable number of emails that either we are not interested in opening or not always carry news we want to hear about. I'd like to introduce you to an online service that has enlightened many of my days and helped me with amazing words of wisdom exactly when I needed them. I find this coincidence between needs and resources to be another example of the old saying 'ask and ye shall be given' I refer to the Tirukural, one of the most revered scriptures

of Hinduism that contains wonderful insights into life and really

teaches us how to deal with the various feelings and circumstances

that come to us in our interactions with others. Although it has been translated into English by many scholars, the

Holy Kural has never been widely known in the Western world. There is

a similar work, written in modern times by the mystic Kahil Gibran,

called The Prophet which has been widely distributed. In the Tamil language, "tiru" means "holy" or "sacred", and "kural"

means anything that is brief or short. The entire scripture consists of 133 chapters with

each chapter elucidating a different aspect of human virtue or human

fault. There are ten kural couplets per chapter, making a total of

1330 couplets in the entire scripture. It has been explained to me that the saint Tiruvalluvar, one of the most venerated of the saints of Saivism,

spent the fullness of his life quietly, simply observing the

human condition. Then, toward the end of his life, he was asked to

speak out and share the wisdom others in the community knew he

possessed. The Holy Kural is his response.The Himalayan Academy sends you 10 verses daily to your inbox, and believe me, they are worth reading!

I must yet warn you that this text belongs to a tradition within Yoga that in the past was reserved for men only and that sometimes the ideas presented could easily clash with the modern understanding of the equality of the sexes. I invite you to go beyond this issue and to receive it. Then, if you'd like, let me know what you think!

Here are some verses:KURAL 167

Goddess Fortune, intolerant of those who cannot tolerate others'

success, introduces them to her sister, Misfortune, and goes away.KURAL 883

Dread hatred from within and defend yourself against it.

In calamitous times it will cut deeper than a potter's knife.

KURAL 763

So what if a legion of rats roars like the raging sea?

The mere hiss of a cobra will deaden their din.

KURAL 376

Though you guard it well, what destiny does not decree disappears.

Though you cast it aside, what destiny calls yours will not depart.

KURAL 430

Those who possess wisdom possess everything.

Whatever others possess, without wisdom they have nothing.

KURAL 332

Amassing great wealth is gradual, like the gathering of a theater crowd. Its dispersal is sudden, like that same crowd departing.KURAL 338

The soul's attachment to the body is like that of a fledgling,

which forsakes its empty shell and flies away.

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Yoga Therapy or 'Yogopathy'?

Modern Yoga therapy seems to have lost touch with the real essence of Yoga. Yoga aims to help us regain our psycho-physiological balance by removing the root cause of the disharmony (dukka samoiga viyogam-BG).

Dwaitam or duality is the main initial cause of the imbalance that may then manifest through the psycho-

somatic stress mechanism through the various Koshas (aspects of existence) as various disorders depending upon the propensity of the individual.

Tituvalluvar the great Tamil mystic says in his Thirukkural, Look for the disease, look for the primary cause of it and then treat it. Similarly sage Vashistha tells Lord Rama in the Yoga Vaashistha that the essential disease (sara adhija vyadhi) is that of being caught in the vicious birth-rebirth spiral. He also says that this essential disease can be remedied only by Atma Jnana or the inner awareness of the higher Self.

Unless we aim to correct the manifest psycho-somatic disassociation as well as the underlying ignorant jaundiced perception of reality in the individual, we are not practicing Yoga Chikitsa (Yoga therapy).

Managing and suppressing the manifest symptoms with Yoga techniques is just as good or bad as modern Allopathy that focuses on symptomatic management without ever getting close to the real cause of most disorders. How many doctors look at the emotional and psychological issues that are the primary cause of the problem in so many of their patients?

When Yoga therapists make the same mistake of merely treating the manifesting symptoms without remedying the cause, I prefer to call it YOGOPATHY.

An example of this Yogopathy is when they use Shavasana to manage patients of hypertension quoting research that has shown that Shavasana reduces blood pressure. Real Yoga Chikitsa would try to look for the primary cause of the patients hypertension and try to tackle that along with Shavasana for symptomatic management. Without an attempt to do so, it is merely Yogopathy.

Another common example is of using the left nostril Chandra Nadi Pranayama to lower the blood sugar or using the right nostril Surya Nadi Pranayama to relieve bronchospasm without looking for the real cause of the patients diabetes or asthma.

I recently encountered a Yoga Therapist who said that he advised his patients to do their prescribed Pranayama while watching television to help them save their precious time! When queried on the fact that Prana flows where the mind goes, he retorted that he was talking of therapeutic Pranayama whereas I was talking of spiritual Pranayama!!!!

THE RISHIS MUST BE TURNING IN THEIR SAMADHIS!

-- Yogacharya Dr Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Chairman

ICYER and Yoganjali Natyalayam

25, 2nd Cross, Iyyanar Nagar

Pondicherry, South India

www.icyer.com