February 2007 Volume 6/Number 1
--------------------- Mantra 101:
Lessons in How to Love God By SAM SLOVICK
--------------------- Vagabonds and Bedouins meander in moonbeams through midnight streets of squalor as antediluvian cadence and meter collide in mantra. Primordial resonant renderings conjured before there was a before, an organic element in the soundscape of Calcutta.now Kolkata. The city of joy, whose name is synonymous with human degradation and suffering in the age of Kali. Read article...
Finding Love on the Mat: Dating and Yoga By FELICIA M. TOMASKO "When I saw her walk into the class, I knew. Later I told the teacher I would marry her." Jagatjoti Khalsa first laid eyes on his wife when they were fellow students in yoga classes, fifteen years ago. It took a few gatherings before they crossed paths, but in the meantime, he says he couldn't date anyone else. When he speaks about her today, while manning his store, Tara Home next to Sacred Movement/Exhale in Venice, his voice is reverent. Read article...
Ayurveda Q&A: By DR. JAY APTE Ayurveda has been practiced in the U.S. only about 25 years, yet it is the 5000 year old Indian system of medicine and yoga's sister science. Readers are invited to submit questions for "Ayurveda Q & A" to ayurveda@layogamagazine.comom
Q: I am helping a friend who suffers from Crohn’s disease (chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines, in her case inflammation/scarring of the colon) with Ayurvedic remedies. She has had two surgeries and is looking for natural treatments. From what I can tell, Crohn’s is a vata disease. Can you suggest dietary recommendations along with herbs and any other Ayurvedic healing modalities that will help her out? She also suffers from herpes and she has the virus for HPV. She eats meat, drinks coffee and soft drinks, sometimes smokes cigarettes and has asthma! From what I can tell she is pitta/kapha but has many vata vikriti symptoms. Thank you dearly!Read article...
She’s happening! In song, in book, and on the mat.
Well known for the collection of devotional chanting CDs she has produced over the years, Wah! continues her spiritual offerings with a newly released book Dedicating Your Life to Spirit. The title is a summary of her life; the book full of pages of practices she follows and teaches. Still, a book cannot capture Wah!'s complexity, woven into a fabric called surrender, toned by a lifetime of spiritual pursuit, ethereal nature and yogic discipline. Here's why.
Julie: Let’s talk about the story behind your book.
Wah!: Speaking is a lot more real for me than writing, and there’s a certain energetic exchange that happens.
When I was at my computer and just wrote, it was okay, and it was knowledge based and wisdom. But there wasn’t any energetic exchange. When we did the book, we basically took all of the lectures that I’d done at teacher trainings, the things that I’d said at concerts, all these yoga classes, transcribed. But it comes forward differently in writing.
When I met with publishers, they wanted to make it a little more exact. They wanted to make it more organized and to present something that conformed to their identity. After several tries with publishers, I decided to self publish and leave it transcribed, which gives it this kind of authenticity and also the feeling like you’re there with me, in the moment.
It’s different when I’m together with people in an audience setting.
Talking about muscles is one thing, feeling them in action is a learning experience.
When Katie Griffith, an anatomy teacher in Torrance, started practicing yoga seven years ago, she assumed her school teaching and her love of yoga were separate. That was until she decided to put her West High School students to the test - she asked her students to try a yoga pose to learn about their muscles firsthand.
I took a level one certification class and started teaching gentle yoga at a local adult school. I thought, 'The kids would like this,'" said Griffith. "So last year, I created my own workbook to try it out. I asked the kids to bring in towels. We went down to the gym. I had everyone doing Downward Dog. We learned about the muscles and their movements. At the end-of-the-year reflection, half the class said that's what they
She’s happening! In song, in book, and on the mat.
Talking about muscles is one thing, feeling them in action is a learning experience.