Queen Street Yoga July Newsletter

[Queen Street Yoga]

Queen Street Yoga Newsletter

Summer is here! And so is our Summer Special! Starting July 1st you can do all the yoga you want for $125! This summer we are maintaining a full schedule, to make getting to class convenient, as to keep classes a reasonable size. Please tell your friends, bring your family and join into the fun of a summer of yoga. (If you already have a pass the runs into July, or need to buy a pass to get you through June, we will put it on hold July 1st and it will be re-started September 1st.)

We are open for all Holidays this summer. If you have Canada Day free, join Meaghan for the new two hour Power/Restorative combo! 12-2pm

1) New Classes on the Schedule and Schedule Changes for July and August

2) Restorative Yoga: June 28th

3) Om Mani Padme Hung Workshop with Lama Gursum: July 9th

4) QSY's first Summer Retreat! Join us for a weekend of fun July 10th-12th!

5) Yoga Teacher Training and Continuing Education for Teachers

6) Yoga Festival Toronto

7) Kunga's Meditation Adventures in India!

1) New Classes Added to the Schedule, starting July 1st

Mondays, 5:45-6:45pm, Power Hour

Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00pm, Power Hour

Wednesdays, 1:00-2:00pm, Relax and Restore (You can combine the Wednesday noon and 1pm classes for a great two hour afternoon class!)

Power Hour Classes

Build strength, get sweaty, and have fun with Meaghan in this upbeat class open for all levels. You don't need a lot of yoga experience, you just need to want to work hard!

Relax and Restore Classes

Restore your nervous system, relax your muscles and soothe your mind with one hour of gentle and supported postures. The class immediately follows the Power Hour on Wednesdays. You can do both classes together, or just choose one.

2) Restorative Yoga, June 28th

This class has been postponed.

3) Om Mani Padme Hung (Mantra of Compassion) Workshop with visiting teacher, Lama Gursum

Thursday July 9th, 7:30-9:30pm. Suggested Donation: $20 or PWYC

Yogi Lama Gursam will explain the meaning of the popular Tibetan Buddhist mantra of compassion, Om Mani Padme Hung, and lead us in a session of melodic chanting followed by silent focused meditation uniting compassion and calm abiding. After the practice session there will be an opportunity to ask general or specific questions about meditation, Tibetan Buddhism or culture.

Yogi Acharya Lama Gursam is a Tibetan teacher of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions of the Drikung Kagyu lineage. He is the founder of the Bodhichitta Foundation (www.lamagursam.org), an organization dedicated to preserving ancient Tibetan texts, culture and yogic practices. Lama Gursam has served as the director of North American Drikung Kagyu Center, and has practiced and taught in India, Nepal and Tibet, where he completed a six month retreat in Milarepa's cave at Lapchi. Lama Gursam continues to return every year to India and regularly leads pilgrimages there. A humble and respected teacher, Lama Gursam is committed to offering Buddhist teachings worldwide, both for those new to these traditions as well as for more experienced practitioners.

4) A Yoga and Meditation Getaway with Meaghan Johnson and Nancy Schaeffer

July 10th-12th

There are just 4 residential spots and 3 non residential spots left! Please contact us soon if you would like to come. It is going to be so much fun! If you need to pay in postdated cheque installments, please let Meaghan know.

Take a real break this summer with a weekend of Yoga, Meditation and Mindful Walking at the Soul Garden Retreat Centre in Fergus! You will be nourished with great food, hot tubs, and time for swinging in the hammocks or swims in the gorge. We will enjoy an evening's entertainment with musician Charlena Russel performing and inviting us to join in on singing around the campfire.

This weekend includes:

8 hours of Yoga

3.5 hours of Meditation and Mindful Movement

Brunch and Snacks both days

Evening Entertainment with Charlena Russel

Time for Hot Tub, Hammocks, Garden, Swimming, Exploring Fergus and Elora

Treat yourself and join us this fun and relaxing weekend away together!

Cost:

Residential (room two nights, breakfast and lunch Sat. and Sun.) $350 plus GST

Non-Residential (breakfast and lunch included Sat. and Sun.) $280 plus GST The retreat centre is only 40min drive from Kitchener.

On Saturday night we will go to a wonderful Indian restaurant in downtown Fergus, please budget $20 for the meal.

The schedule and details are online: http://www.mjyoga.com/workshops.html

Please email us to reserve your space.

5) Summer of Unlimited Yoga

Spread the word! We will be offering our Summer of Unlimited Yoga again this year! The Unlimited pass will begin July 1st and End August 31st. The cost is $125. We will have more classes on the schedule than last year, to provide more choice! Dive into your practice this summer and feel fantastic!

6) Yoga Teacher Training at QSY

If you are interested in deepening your personal understanding of yoga, and perhaps one day sharing your love of yoga with others, there is still room for you in our training starting September 2009. There are about 8 spots left, so please contact us soon if you want to see if this is right for you. http://www.mjyoga.com/training.html

7) Yoga Festival Toronto

This is an amazing non-commercial three day yoga festival. It is a wonderful chance to study with senior yoga teachers in three hour workshops, and also to hang out with lots of like minded yogis! Our very own Hart Lazer will be there this year. It is Augsust 21st-23rd. To find out more go to their website at yogafestivaltoronto.org.

8) See below for Kunga's Adventures!

That is the news! See you soon!

Nameste,

Meaghan and the QSY crew.

Kunga's Meditation Adventures in India!

I just arrived in Rishikesh the other night from Delhi, where I had the good fortune of going to see a cool Hollywood film, the remake of the original Star Trek. I really enjoyed it, a nice break from all the meditation retreats and traveling. Though I don't think it was a big hit with the Indian populace. There were twelve Indians in the cinema and one of them was sleeping by intermission.

The security at the cinema was much like at an airport, and there were signs all around about how you should not touch any strange objects you find lying around the lobby. Terrorists must hate movie goers or something.

The desert city of Jaipur was cool, of course not literally, as it reached a peak of about 47 degrees on some days. The place i was staying had AC which only worked well enough to allow me to sleep without sweating. But it was not as humid of course which was nice. 

The last retreat i did was in the desert city of Jaipur. It was an 8 day intensive for old students called a Sattipathana course working on a sutra as spoken by the Buddha. It was indeed intense. 

I was ill for the first few days and had barely enough energy to walk around. I had to meditate with a posture resembling that of a sickly old vulture. But once i got better, things were a bit easier. 

The heat was intense, but the electricity was fairly consistent at least, to keep the fans turning.

This particular Vipassana center had a very jungle like feel to it. Full of strange birds and creatures, including monkeys and peacocks. Peacocks though beautiful are really quite loud. My room was near one of their breeding grounds unfortunately. I learned that they have about four different calls, one of them an annoying sound similar to a very large, very hungry house cat meowing. 

The monkeys can be stand-offish and it is best to not make eye contact. I had to walk through a narrow path with a group of monkeys down both sides and was afraid I might have to fend them off, lest they steal my glasses or watch. I was pleased to find that it is not as common for them to throw poop as I had imagined.

The food was very tasty and consistently spicy. They have this strange curried mango drink they serve the old students in the evening, since we cannot eat after noon. It tasted a lot like curry juice. I think the general motto around food over here is "if it aint spicy, yoghurty or intensely sweet, why bother?"

The previous ten day retreat I sat in Bodhgaya was even harder than this retreat in some ways. I did not get sick at this one, but the heat was almost as intense and much more humid. The electricity was on only half the time, and seemed to be off when I needed it the most.

I remember one night, as I lay in my bed covered in sweat and mosquito bites (from the hotel next to a swamp I stayed in the night before), I heard a click. I realized that the slow moving, half powered fan above me which was giving me the slightest merciful breeze was now unpowered. As I watched it turn it's last rounds I struggled to find the words to express my feeling of despair. But the Irish guy in the cabin next to mine found the words instead. We aren't supposed to talk on retreat, but in such circumstances it can be challenging. My feeling of despair however changed into compassion as I realized that as bad as I am suffering, this other person was suffering more. Then I felt a slight lightness of heart which allowed me enough space to reflect on the impermanence of the situation.

Then an American guy next to my room on the other side thought some creature was trying to get into his room and cause him some harm. It turned out to be just a wall lizard. His panic attack was a good distraction from the heat for me though.

The meditation hall was large and mercifully mosquito free. When the fans were on it was a tolerable temperature. I got used to sweating all the time, though it took a while. I had to learn to drink water at every possible opportunity and gained a whole new appreciation for it. Sweet liquid life juice.

An Indian man sitting behind me in the meditation hall had the worst belching gas I have ever known, and was not shy or subtle about its release. This was a bit distracting, but I was not in the hall a lot of the time.

The old students were allotted cells in the meditation pagoda in which they could sit alone and meditate for most of the day. It is a small room about 5x8 feet wide with a small, high, circular window to the outside and an entrance door on the other side. 

Sure, it bears a striking resemblance to a solitary confinement cell you may find in a prison, but I prefer to call it solitary refinement; a place you go to refine your concentration and develop wisdom and compassion. It's easier to stay in there all day if you look at it this way. 

I struggled a lot with bugs on this retreat, since some of them are mosquitos, and will bite you. Some of them are just tiny ants that might bite you, some are flies that won't bite you, and sometimes it is just a bead of sweat running down. The uncertainty is the hardest part I think.

One might wonder why someone would subject themself to such torture for ten days, and then for an additional eight. The food can't be that good can it? Well, it was pretty good; but the reason I loved the retreat despite it's difficulties is the inner peace that it brings. Despite all the external challenges, there were deep, wonderful moments where I could really connect with a part of myself which was beyond all of that. 

I left both of the retreats feeling lighter. I now am left with a deep sense that there is some kind of divine plan unfolding as my life; and all the kicking and screaming I've done for so many years to try to get it to unfold the way I wanted it too just no longer seems necessary. 

For anyone interested in taking this ten day course (if this letter hasn't freaked you out about it completely) please know that it is much easier in Canada. 

But now I'm in Rishikesh. The bus ride here from Delhi was quite unpleasant as the buses are not made for people my size. I happened to be lodged between an overweight, ornery Indian man and a pole. Serenity now.

But yesterday morning I had a private yoga lesson with a fellow named Ravi Yogi. He was nice, and his class was insightful. However he did not know the proper translations for the poses to English which was confusing. I am pretty sure Tadasana doesn't mean palm tree pose, and downward dog is not mountain pose, though I guess it does resemble one from the side. It was still a nice class. I will check out another class tomorrow at another place.

This morning I went with a friend I just made named Marvin from Arizona to a hotel that was rumored to have a swimming pool. Indeed it did, and it was marvelous. Some Indian kid asked me to give him a swimming lesson. We had to slip some guy 300 rupees on our way out. 

Marvin just showed me a great restaurant that makes a killer spinach omelet and grilled cheese. Oh baby. And they didn't even add any curry.

I will be heading to Dharamsala tomorrow or the day after to meet my friend Dylan who I met at a Vipassana center last year. I bumped into him in BC strangely enough, before coming to India. We will be going on a trek before we will serve at a centre there. Hopefully we will beat the monsoon.

Anyway, that's my schtick. Wow that's long. Thanks for reading.

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