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Featured Article
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Upcoming Retreats and Workshops
The Spirit of Yoga
Rancho La Puerta
Tecate, Mexico
April 30 - May 7, 2011
Rancho La Puerta Registration
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The Purposeful Evolution of Consciousness Esalen Institute Big Sur, California May 15-20 2011
Esalen Registration
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Awaken the Sacred
Feathered Pipe Ranch, Helena, Montana July 2 - 8, 2011
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Feathered Pipe Registration
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Dear Friends,
In this issue, we are introducing some exciting new ways for you to practice with the Raja Yogis in 2011. First we are delighted to have been invited to teach at the Feathered Pipe Ranch in Helena, Montana, which has offered Yoga retreats and workshops for over 30 years. Esalen Institute continues to be a favorite and we are excited to be returning again to the coast of Big Sur.
After years of people asking, we are finally offering a Raja Yoga Teacher Training program, certified through the Yoga Alliance. We will have more information about our teacher training program in the Spring, so please check back.
As we move through our days, do you have any idea how many thoughts we think in one day? Close your eyes and think about it for a moment. (*answer is at the bottom of our newsletter.) Whatever number you came up with, imagine knowing that 90% of those thoughts you already thought yesterday! If our minds are so full of yesterday's thoughts, how do we open up to the possibilities of thinking something new?
It is through Raja Yoga - the mental Yoga - that we begin to reprogram the subconscious mind and to create new pathways that lead us to a stilling of the mind and eventually, to Samadhi or Enlightenment.
In our article below, we explore how our minds are directly linked to our consciousness.
Peace, Harmony and Well being,
Michele and Mehrad
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Mind Your Mind
by Mehrad Nazari, Ph.D.
On the way to teach a class, I was pondering, what angle should I teach about Raja Yoga (the mental yoga) today? The answer came through loud and clear. Our brain is a computer, our mind is the software and our consciousness is the software engineer. This software could be designed to make or break the computer. It could be of credit or discredit to its host.
Daniel Siegel, author of The Mindful Brain writes: "The cortex is the outer part of the brain, enlarged in mammals. It enables us to mediate the more complex processes such as perception, planning and attention. With many lobes carrying out different functions, there are varied ways of describing complex capacity of this region, which is not highly developed at birth and thus very open to being shaped by experience."
What is interesting is that our brain is not being shaped by our environment or interactions, rather, by our perception, our interpretation and experience of them. In order not to have a distorted view, we must clean and fine-tune our instrument through meditation. This will allow the light of Atman to shine through the mental body (manamaya kosha).
Professor V.S. Ramachandram in his new book "The Tell-Tale Brain" shares that Indian and Buddhist mystics assert that there is no essential difference between self and other, and that true enlightenment comes from the compassion that dissolves this barrier. I used to think this was just well intentioned mumbo-jumbo, but a neuron has been discovered that doesn't know the difference between self and other.
Are our brains uniquely hardwired for empathy and compassion?
Share your thoughts with us.
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A new view
through the The Tenth Door
Michele's The Tenth Door: An Adventure Through the Jungles of Enlightenment" offers you many ways to maneuver through the ups and downs of life. From a cramped attic apartment in San Francisco, to the crashing surf on the beaches of El Salvador and finally into the arms of her true love, the ethos of Walt Baptiste's guidance leads us all through the magical Tenth Door. You will not be able to put this book down.
Below is an excerpt of a review from Amy Weintraub, well-known author, Yogini and owner of LifeForce Yoga.
"Hébert has written a 21st century spiritual adventure that is in large part "Autobiography of a Yogini" with an ounce of Eat, Pray, Love. Hébert lives through dangerous and even potentially life-threatening experiences, but as she puts it, "because I trusted my guru more deeply than I have ever trusted another living being, I was at peace with everything that was - and was to come." Whether or not you have a teacher on your own spiritual path, Hébert's story of devotion to hers, told with such clarity and kindness, will touch your heart. You may even question your assumption about the guru disciple relationship. Self-inquiry is a good thing."
- Amy Weintraub, LifeForce Yoga
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Yoga and Meditation products to enhance your home practice
Raja Yogis has a wide variety of yoga and meditation-related products,
including yoga and meditation CDs and DVDs, music and books.
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