Namasté Friends You are invited to
join us for a NEW YEAR'S DAY ~
INTENTION SETTING KIRTAN ~ January 1st, 2013
7
PM
HAPPY NEW YEAR! ~ BLESSINGS FOR NEW BEGINNINGS ~ OM GUM GANAPATAYE
NAMAHA
Let's mark our shift to the NEW YEAR
2013 A YEAR OF TRANSFORMATION AHEAD We'll start it off
by setting our Highest Intentions, singing our truth and delivering
the spirit of the NAME with our friendly voices lifting in
call and response KIRTAN and Mantra
meditation
Bring your intentions, sankalpas, admirable
resolves and unwaivering determination to make this your best year, ever!
You might even consider writing your sankalpa on paper and having it
with you.
Join Sandra Leigh (Vox, Harmonium), Stefan Cihelka
(Tabla), Kim Fischer (Response) & many friendly voices. All are welcome. No experience is
needed.
PLEASE NOTE A DIFFERENT START TIME for this
special event: 7 PM Open Door Yoga
Studio 2111 W.16th @ Arbutus in
Kitsilano (doors open / warm up at
6:45) ~ Gratitude ~ $20 donation /$15
underemployed / $10 concession
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
☆ This event is fueled
by donation in order to keep the KIRTAN lamps burning
brightly. No one turned
away for lack of funds because we have volunteer exchange
available. Please
contact us before the event for details. KIRTAN IS THE YOGA OF
LOVE
Jane Fonda: I started yoga late in life, in 1996. As is my way, I
went from not doing yoga to doing Asthanga. At the time, I was married
to Ted Turner and found a great teacher who would travel with me so I
had great and detailed teaching for several months. I practiced Asthanga
for about four years; then I stated practicing Iyengar. Then I stopped
for a while because of back surgery—I had arthritis, which is why I’ve
had hip and knee replacements and I have only restarted yoga recently.
LA YOGA: What inspired you to begin?
JF: All along, there was a little wise voice in the back of my head
that was a whisper at first: “You need to meditate; you need to learn to
do yoga.” I’m wound tight, I have a lot of energy, I move fast, and I
know that I need to slow down and go in. I didn’t realize how yoga does
everything — it is aerobic, it works your muscles, and it works your
soul and mind. It keeps you limber, balanced, and centered. It had a
huge impact on me.
In my book Prime Time, in the chapter “The Work In,” I talk
about learning to meditate while on an eight-day silent Buddhist
meditation retreat at the Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico. Eight days of
silent meditation in a group—that is hard! But if I’m going to do
something, I’m going to go right into the fire.
LA YOGA: Why these videos now?
JF: It took me three years to do the research for Prime Time. All the
research pointed to the importance of staying physically active, to the
extent that it blew my mind. If you ask Dr. Oz and other experts what
is the number one most important thing for people to age successfully,
they would say to stay physically active.
I thought: Who better than I to help people do that because I’m old
and I’ve build up credibility in the workout arena? Most of what’s out
there is for people who can do what I used to do, and since I can’t do
that anymore, my demographic is being left out. And I don’t mean just
people who are chronologically old but people in their 40s who have
never worked out, are out of shape or have had surgery, or people who
are getting back into exercise or beginning it for the first time. These
are all included in the demographic I address now.
LA YOGA: What do you do in your own life to stay balanced?
JF: Now I do the yoga videos, but before yoga, I knew that I needed
to stay active. Something happens to me when I start to move: I feel so
good and have such a sense of well-being that I miss it when I don’t
have it. It keeps me centered. I come from a long line of depressed
people on both sides of my family, and without staying active, I would
tend to become depressed. The older I’ve gotten, the more important it
is. I used to do it to look good but now I do it to feel good.
LA YOGA: How has your fitness regime changed?
JF: One word. Slower. When you grow older, you want to go slower or
you will get hurt. You can still lift weights, but they are lighter. I
no longer run, but I do walk. There is something about yoga that when
you are done with it you feel elegant, taller, straighter, prouder, and
wiser. I feel that I look better from the inside out. I know that 90% of
that is attitude that comes from the inside. I think that yoga is one
of the major contributors to that inside-out beauty.
LA YOGA: What has shifted for you as a result of your yoga and meditation practices?
JF: I’m kinder. I listen to people with more compassion. I am more patient.
As I describe in “Work In” in Prime Time, I had a powerful meditation experience that inspired me to study physics.
Meditating is hard. Once you achieve mindlessness, you know where to
go and it becomes easier. It’s like you can’t do it, can’t do it, can’t
do it, and then you can. My “can” happened on the seventh day. There
were sixty of us at the temple at Upaya, and there was a noise that
accompanied the sensation and I felt as though I was being sucked into a
tunnel—the doors were opened and we went out the doors and over the
tops of the trees and over the hills and out there.
On some non-cognitive level, I experienced the fact that we are all
one. We are made from molecules of the stars and we are all just fields
of energy. Yoga helps remind me to not be stressed when I breathe and
realize that we are just part of the stars. Yoga is the thing that
brings me back there.
LA YOGA: Did these experiences surprise you in any way?
Yoga practice offers a link to the state of mind which I have come to
cherish. As you get older, it can make the difference between living a
self-realized life or not.
LA YOGA: Speaking of acting, how does it feel to be acting again?
JF: It has helped me to be in the moment and stay present. Whenever a
young actor happens to let it be known that she does yoga, I think,
“She is going to be okay.” I wouldn’t want to be a young actor for
anything. It’s much harder now; it was harder for me than it was for my
dad. It’s become more competitive with more pressure on the wrong
things. People old and young need something to maintain a perspective.
Yet, if you are doing yoga and thinking about what you have to do
during the day, you aren’t really doing yoga. You have to be present in
your body in the moment to get out of it what there is to get out of it.
When you are present in your body, you are capable of compassion and
empathy for yourself as well as others. Your brain isn’t just between
your ears; it’s in your whole body, the neurological system in your
whole body.
If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of
yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate
all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to
give is that of your own self-transformation. ♥
A
25-foot (7.57 metre) tall sand sculpture of Santa Claus, created by
Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, is seen at the Golden Beach in
Puri on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2008. Despite Christians forming a
little over two percent of the billion plus population in India, with
Hindus comprising the majority, Christmas is celebrated with much
fanfare and zeal throughout the country. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit
should read STR/AFP/Getty Images) 2008 AFP.
Bangla Dhun (Live in New York City 1971) - Ravi Shankar And Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
"Goodwill unto all religions; peace unto all people; peace unto all
creatures; peace unto all that lives." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Beautiful!
I AM ~ Guru Singh & Seal
The
first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within
the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness
with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the
center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is
really everywhere, it is within each of us.” ― Black Elk
FRIDAY, December 21, 2012 GLOBAL KIRTAN & Mantra
Meditations
ST. PAUL'S
LABYRINTH 7 PM 1130 Jervis @
Davie West End, Vancouver (pay parking at
the old Super Value lot on Davie)
CANDLE LIGHT & LABYRINTH
Mantra Meditations on PEACE & LIGHT &
LOVE
Featuring the
inspiring energy of the WORLD PEACE FLAME with Sandra Leigh (Vox, Harmonium) Stefan Cihelka
(Tabla) Kim Fischer (response vocals) and many friendly
voices
ABOUT THE GLOBAL KIRTAN: We at GPaC Kirtan Community feel
honoured to be participating in this Global Kirtan & World Peace
Prayer event. Thanks to the initiative of K.d. McComb in California,
thousands will gather internationally, connecting heart engines, positive
intentions
to wake up to our Highest
Aspirations, both individually and for the whole of creation. It's a very
special time for us ALL
WE ARE ONE HEALING VIBRATION
!
Come sing, dance, walk or rest in
meditation a while. The Labyrinth is a mystical, magical healing space of
transformation.
Wherever you are:
21.12.2012 set the positive intention of
GRATITUDE, Future Hope, LOVE, HEALING,
respecting one another and this beautiful planet we call
EARTH.
Join us in this
special celebration
EVERYONE IS
WELCOME Admission : $20 /$15 for
underemployed $10 for students and seniors
