Asana, Pranayama & Mula Banda with
Danny Paradise
on BaliSpirit.com
Astanga Series Master Class
Astanga Series Master Class:
Asana, Pranayama & Mula Banda with Danny Paradise
The Workshop:
Danny Paradise is here in Bali!
Danny and Reema Datta, are holding a series of one day yoga workshops for all.
The Workshops are taking place in Ubud and Seminyak. Locations to be announced,
depending on attendance. Danny's workshops are by donation.
Next workshop is
Monday August 22nd from 5pm- 8:30pm
at The Yoga Barn©, Jln Hanoman Ubud
Please join us!
A Typical Danny Paradise Master Class lasting 3hrs+/-
Introduction to discussion Pranayama & the Bandas
Astanga Series 1 practice, followed by Series 2 for those who know it
Ending with Shivasana and discussion
Call or email
askme@balispirit.com
for Dates and Times!
How to Register:
Please register online
ASAP or call +62-361-970-992/973-361 to make a reservation. Please
leave your phone number and email address so that we can get back to you with
directions to Yoga location.
About Danny:
Danny has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga for 28 years beginning in May 1975 and
teaching publicly {and occasionally privately} worldwide for the past 24 years.
He teaches all levels of students and teachers and was in one of the earliest
groups of westerners to learn all the classical sequences of Ashtanga Yoga.
His first teachers were
David Williams & Nancy Gilgoff. David was the first western Ashtanga
adept. He began teaching with David Williams in 1979 and was asked to assist
him at that time.
Since 1982 he has had the good fortune of introducing Ashtanga Yoga throughout
the world.He is happy to introduce the form to beginners or teach the advanced
sequences to experienced practitioners. Many people he has taught are teachers
now and have their own schools. He's also introduced the Ashtanga forms to many
people who were Yoga teachers in other traditions and styles.
He's taught numerous well known artists, musicians, dancers, sports champions
and studied with K. Patabbhi Jois in 1978 in Hawaii and 1980 in Hawaii in the
USA. This included K.P. Jois's first advanced series public classes in 1980
which were in Maui, Hawaii.
He's also studied and practiced with numerous teachers of other Yoga forms as
well as various martial arts including Karate, Kung Fu and Tai Chi. His
influences in Spirituality have come from Krishnamurti, teachings of Buddha,
Jesus, Shiva, Yoga, as well as numerous Shamanic traditions of Native North and
South Americans, from indigenous cultures of the Pacific, Tibet, Africa and
South East Asia. Some of these traditions also include Mayan, Egyptian,
Hawaiian...
His main objective is to help people develop a sacred, personal, private, safe,
healing, meditative, consistent Yoga practice.
A few of Danny's personal thoughts:
-
Everyone is born to follow their dream.
-
Borders were created by narrow-minded men {not women!} to divide and control
people, but God created a world and a universe without borders, without
limitations...
-
Only a person with a tiny mind wants to lock people out or in.
-
Death is just another stage of evolution.
-
Love is an endless well available at all times from the Great Spirit...no
charge!
-
Go organic! Stay Flexible...
About Reema:
Reema grew up in a family of yogis and teaches yoga worldwide. She is the
CO-author of a fabulous new book Sacred Sanskrit Words.
Reema is also the founder of a wonderful foundation dedicated to bringing the
benefits of yoga to local and global communities. Read more about the Usha Yoga
Foundation.
You can purchase Reema's Book here:
www.amazon.com
The Usha Yoga Foundation:
Bringing the benefits of yoga to global communities
Usha Yoga
The Usha Yoga Foundation was founded in December 2003 by Letha and Reema Datta.
Letha teaches in three nursing homes and one psychiatric institute in her local
community in Maryland, USA. Her daughter, Reema, travels and teaches yoga
worldwide while raising awareness of Usha Yoga's vision. Reema recently
published the book "Sacred Sanskrit Words" with co-author Leza
Lowitz.
In Sanskrit, Usha means "dawn, awakening, a new beginning." It is
also the name of Reema's late grandmother, who had mastered one of yoga's core
teachings - maintaining a serene mind in the midst of activity. Inspired by the
calm and grace with which Usha moved through her life's challenges, Letha and
Reema spread the messages of yoga under her name.
Our mission is to spread the original message of yoga:
Self Perfection for World Perfection. As practitioners of yoga, we learn to
build peace and strength within for the purpose of sharing it with our
surroundings.
"Spirituality and Service go hand in hand. Yoga is a
science which helps us become personally perfect and socially useful."
— Narendra Kumar
yogi and founder of Manav Mandir
a non profit organization in Khaknar, India
Our vision is bring yoga to communities that cannot access yoga because of financial or other constraints through:
1) Scholarships to fund yoga teachers to teach yoga in their local communities
(schools, drug rehabilitation centers, battered womens shelters, etc)
2) Scholarships to fund yoga teachers to bring yoga to remote areas of the
world. Areas in China and Brazil, for example, have requested qualified yoga
teachers to visit, but cannot afford to pay high prices.
3) Excursions to a tribal village in central India where locals and foreigners
can share their experience of the many aspects of yoga. (See below for details)
Scholarship Opportunities
Yoga is a science of independence, freedom and complete well-being. Its
empowering and liberating messages can make a difference to anyone in need.
The Usha Yoga Scholarship applies to yoga teachers who wish to bring yoga to
their local school, hospital, nursing home, clinic for the terminally ill,
battered women's shelter, drug rehabilitation center, prison, after school
program, among other venues. Help a battered woman reconnect with her strength
and power, a young adult follow his/her unique voice and path, a recovering
drug addict regain independence and control, a child maintain youthful
instincts and creativity, a prisoner feel a sense of freedom, an anorexic
patient regain control over the shape and functioning of his/her body, an
elderly or terminally ill patient connect with his/her eternal, deathless soul.
The list is endless as are the physical, mental and emotional benefits of yoga.
The scholarship may also be used towards teaching the staff of schools and
community organizations. For application details and other scholarship
opportunities, visit
www.ushayoga.com
Excursions
In February 2005, Manav Mandir (Temple of Humanity) — a nonprofit
organization located in Khaknar, a tribal village in central India — went
from being a rural community center to a global center. Twenty-one yogis from
all over the world came to Khaknar and inspired the villagers with their strong
and elegant hatha yoga practice. Meanwhile, the visitors were inspired to
witness how the principles of yoga — living with acceptance, gratitude,
compassion, and constant awareness of the sacred — are very much alive in
this village that is beyond time and influences from the outer world.
Narendra Kumar, founder of Manav Mandir, has practiced yoga for most of his
eighty three years and lived all around the world while working for the United
Nations. Mr. Kumar has opened his community center up for anyone to experience.
Whether you simply wish to witness village life, practice yoga and meditation
in a serene environment, or volunteer to teach your style of yoga to the local
villagers, you are welcome. If you would prefer to go to the village with a
group, email ushayoga1@yahoo.com for details on our next trip. Each trip
includes chanting, discussions, ayurvedic meals as well as classes in hatha
yoga, pranayama, and meditation.
Previous Accomplishments
-Funds raised in USA, Japan, and India while raising awareness of Indian
culture, spirituality and economic realities.
-Yoga initiated in The Rainbow House, an orphanage in Goa, India.
-Yoga studio built and yoga teacher hired at the Little Stars School, a school
for street children in Varanasi, India.
-Yoga Studio built in Khaknar, a tribal village in Central India.
-First trip to Khaknar with guest teacher, Danny Paradise.
Contact Details
www.ushayoga.com
Reema – reemadatta@yahoo.com
ushayoga1@yahoo.com Letha
– latayogini@yahoo.com
"True spirituality is not just a speculation on the Absolute,
however profound and philosophical, nor is it just a quest for personal
salvation... He alone is a true spiritual being who understands the pains and
sufferings of others."
— Mahatma Gandhi
Press:
The Asian Wall Street Journal
DON'T CALL DANNY PARADISE a guru. The yoga instructor for luminaries like
Madonna and Sting aims to show his students how to find the guru within
themselves. Yoga "is not about following a teacher," Mr. Paradise
says. "It creates total independence."
That's a bold statement in an era of yoga's soaring popularity, one in which
numerous celebrity instructors have achieved fame and fortune by cultivating
followers devoted to their classes, methods and products.
Mr. Paradise, however, has yet to make an instructional video or write a book
about yoga. He doesn't operate his own yoga studio. Instead, he travels the
world for eight to nine months out of the year, staying with friends and
holding public classes in which he encourages participants to develop their own
daily practice so that they no longer have to rely upon the guidance of a
teacher.
Mr. Paradise is on a tour of Asia that will include stops in Khaknar, a tribal
village in north-central India , as well as Goa and Bali . He teaches ashtanga
yoga, a rigorous form in which practitioners move rhythmically through a series
of postures meant to build body heat while improving flexibility, strength and
balance. But ashtanga yoga is more than just a tough workout, he says. It's a
meditative process that allows people to achieve peace in the face of everyday
fears and stresses, as well as when facing the ultimate fear -- death.
"The result of yoga is not the perfect body, and it's not being able to
put your foot behind your head," says Mr. Paradise, who at the age of 53
can do that and much more. Rather, it's a matter of tapping into a source of
internal strength that allows one to maintain both physical and mental vitality
through old age, and, ultimately, to accept death with calm and grace.
Mr. Paradise, a native of Canada , began practicing yoga nearly 30 years ago
while in Hawaii , where he met David Williams and Nancy Gilgoff, among the
first Westerners to become adept at the ashtanga practice. Soon Mr. Paradise
was traveling the world, teaching yoga and playing his guitar in restaurants
and clubs. One night, while performing in a Greek restaurant in London , he met
a man who would later become Sting's guitar player. This led to an eventual
introduction to the singer, with whom he is still close, and to a string of
other celebrities who became students, including Madonna, John McEnroe and
Donna Karan.
Mr. Paradise is soft-spoken and unassuming, his face framed by a halo of bushy
hair. He shies away from prescribing strict rules regarding diet or lifestyle,
saying that plenty of yogis enjoy a glass of wine or cup of coffee. He notes,
however, that dedication to yoga often forces a shift in priorities. "When
you begin these studies of healing yourself, it gives you a renewed energy to
re-evaluate your life," Mr. Paradise says. "It forces people to make
radical changes."
For those interested in trying yoga for the first time, Mr. Paradise recommends
observing a class to find a teacher who is gentle, because moving too far, too
fast into poses can cause injury. Many students try several forms of yoga and
teachers before finding the right one, he says. The key in any yoga class is to
eliminate the idea of achievement, because the yoga postures will unearth
numerous weaknesses, both physical and emotional. "You really have to drop
your ego," he says. "Yoga is a very humbling experience for
everybody."
-- Danny Paradise Retreats: Khaknar , India : village grounds, Feb. 20-28. Goa
, India : Purple Valley Yoga Center , March 5-18. Bali: Four Seasons Resort
Bali at Jimbaran Bay , April 1-3. Web:
www.dannyparadise.com
Your Life -- Weekend: Flexible Terms
By Ginny Parker
28 January 2005
The Asian Wall Street Journal
P10
About Yoga
by Danny Paradise:
One of the beautiful things about Yoga is that it's open to wide
interpretation. I think if you ask any Yoga teacher what Yoga is about you will
get a different answer from each one. This is one of the examples of the
freedom for exploration within the teachings of Yoga. One thing for certain: It
is ultimately a devotional science and practice, recognizing the sacred
blessing of life and the importance of taking care of this 'Temple of the Mind
and Body and Spirit' on the highest levels possible.
Though an ancient teaching it is adopted by all eras and re-interpreted for
each age with new understanding and even new language to describe the processes
of the practices. Yoga is also a tool of survival in an ever more dangerous
world...It can arm and purify us against the poisons we inflict upon ourselves.
At the same time it is part of the ' Ecstatic Ways of Knowing.'
Concerning my views about "authorities" in Yoga, I personally feel
that usually teachers of Yoga represent people who have been exposed to the
practice a little longer than their students and therefore are valuable in
order to represent their own views as to how the practices have affected them
and how to pass them on. They can be examples of the living effects of the
practices and hopefully inspirations to younger or newer students of the
teachings...In this sense Yoga teachers are older brothers and sisters on a
sacred trail of initiation and evolution toward the discovery of truth... At
the same time we are all teachers and students every moment.
Some teachers may have become proficient at asanas but this does not make them
authorities on the vast teachings of Yoga and how to make a personal connection
to our soul, to understanding God or the great mysteries that surround us. It
is up to the individual to use the guidelines of Yoga to make their personal
connection to the Great Spirit. As one of my teachers told me..."Don't
look for your leader outside yourself." or as the Buddha and Jesus both
taught; "Be a light unto yourself."
My personal exploration has led me to understand that Yoga comes from Shamanism
and is possibly much older than the archeological evidence in India . In fact
in the Egyptian Temples at Karnak I have seen Yoga asanas carved into their
reliefs. These temples are being dated currently at much older than 5000 years.
Some people feel that some of the monuments in Egypt could actually be anywhere
from 10,000 to 80,000 years old. No one knows for certain. There was an
exchange of information and teachings between Egypt , India , South East Asia
and the Americas many thousands of years ago. The origin of the word Shaman
comes from the Vedic word Sram which means to heat oneself or practice
austerities.
Interviews I've read with Mayan elders indicate that 'Kundalini,' {which
is essentially the same word in Mayan}, is a Mayan understanding and teaching
that may be up to 100,000 years old, {"to speak with the sacred or God
from the vibrations of the coccyx" or referring to the sleeping serpent
energy coiled at the base of the spine or coccyx that rises as a person becomes
enlightened...} Some Mayan elders feel that Mayan ancestors were the original
constructors of the monuments of Egypt.
Yoga seems to predate the rise of all organized religions including Hinduism.
Yet Hindu, Buddhist and Christian teachings have clearly adopted aspects of the
teachings of Yoga in their religious traditions.
To me Yoga is an endless inquiry that can guide us back to our common heritage
of our indigenous mind and into the mysteries that surround us in this endless
universe... leading us to happiness, well being, continuous creation, total
fulfilment. As we evolve we may discover that we are unlimited, free, eternal
children of the Great Spirit and inheritors of the Universe.
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