All other classes are ON as usual. Thank you.

Please be informed that only morning classes will be on as usual tomorrow morning (Saturday, May 5- Wesak Day).

Also, do note that the deadline for Early Bird Signups for the upcoming 3-Day Ashtanga Vinyasa workshop is this Sunday May 6, after which date Regular fees apply. Happy Wesak Day :)

Manoj has spoken! This year’s Yatra (Manasa’s annual yoga retreat) will be  Manasa’s 3^rd yatra to Rishikesh. Located in the foothills of the Himalayas, this rustic town of Rishikesh is the perfect place for a yoga retreat to get your batteries recharged. ‘Veteran’ Rishikesh yatra-goers can once again look forward to serene practices by the refreshing crystal clear Ganges as our Guru Manoj guides us in a wisdom-enriching retreat true to the Manasa tradition.

Dates:                    7 to 16 DEC 2012

Yatra Fees:          RM3000* (Early Bird: RM2500* if you sign up with a non-refundable deposit of RM1000 by 1 AUGUST 2012)

* ^{Yatra fees cover 5 full days of yatra programme conducted by Manoj Kaimal, a free day for roaming about, food & lodging and return ground transfers from New Delhi Airport to Dayananda Ashram in Rishikesh.}

^{*Yatra fees DO NOT INCLUDE AIRFARE. Yatra goers can either purchase their own air tickets to New Delhi or they can get assistance from our appointed travel agency who will be facilitating the group booking of air travel on Malaysia Airlines (MAS).}

^{* Ground transfer will depart from New Delhi Airport on Dec 7at about 2:00PM, to accommodate the MAS flight arrival from KLIA. If you are not flying on MAS, please arrive before 2 PM on Dec 7. For more information, please email info@manasa-yoga.com}

Please take note of changes in class schedules for the upcoming public holidays. Tuesday MAY 1 LABOR DAY - Only one 9:30AM All-Levels Class on; and Saturday MAY5 WESAK DAY - Only morning classes on as usual. Take note of the classes available so you can keep your practice regular even on public holidays!

Announcing the Manasa 3-Day Ashtanga Vinyasa Workshop 2012 by Manoj Kaimal

To commemorate Guruji Patabbhi Jois’ death anniversary, Manoj will be conducting a 3-Day Ashtanga Workshop on May 18, 19 & 20 followed by the Ashtanga Vinyasa Week at Manasa – where every Manasa class will be an Ashtanga Vinyasa class.  To ready yourself for the Ashtanga vinyasa week, it is a good idea to attend the 3-Day workshop where Manoj will break up the Ashtanga Vinyasa tradition into palatable and accessible parts – useful for both long-time ashtangis or newbies. Are you ready for your ashtanga vinyasa flight?

DAY 1:  7 to 9:30 PM, Friday MAY 18 (night)

DAY 2: 5 to 7:30 PM, Saturday MAY 19 (evening)

DAY 3: 8 to 10:30AM, Sunday MAY 20 (morning)

THE DETAILS…

DAY 1: The Take Off

7PM to 9:30PM FRIDAY, MAY 18

Manoj will guide you into an indepth exploration of Bandhha, Ujjai, Drishti & Vinyasa and walk you through the tips for standing lift-ups, smooth jumpthrus, and tricky transitions etc. Be ready for an intense start to the 3-Day Workshop!

DAY 2- Smooth Landing

5PM to 7:30PM SATURDAY, MAY 19

In this session, Manoj will get you to immerse into all seated postures up to navasan, incorporating bandha and drshti. Expect to engage ‘additional’ effort and work in lift-offs and pull-backs!

DAY 3- Beyond the Flight

8AM to 10:30AM SUNDAY, MAY 20

In this final session, Manoj will get you to work on inversions, backbends, drop-backs and tricky transitions like backrolls, etc.  And as an added bonus, you will also learn how to stretch ashtanga philosophy to your daily life.

FEES*:

For Single Day** (May 18, May 19 or May 20)

EARLY BIRD RM100/- (Payment by MAY 6)

REGULAR RM120/- (Payment by MAY 17)

SAME DAY SIGNUPS RM130/- (Payment made on MAY 18, 19 or 20)

**Single day fees also apply to those signing up for 2 sessions.

For ALL Three Days

EARLY BIRD RM260/- (Payment by MAY 6)

REGULAR RM320/- (Payment by MAY 17)

SAME DAY SIGNUPS RM350/- (Payment made on MAY 18)

*Please note that fees are Non-refundable and non-transferable.

 Attendance will only  be confirmed upon sign-up with fee payment. Confirmation of attendance via FB event page is only valid if it is supported by payment of workshop fees.

SPACES ARE LIMITED so do sign up ASAP to avoid disappointment!!!

Payment options: Cash or cheque to ‘White Lotus Sdn. Bhd.’  Bank transfer to EON BANK Acct # 006 0100 199 769 (White Lotus Sdn. Bhd.), after which please scan bank transfer slip to info@manasa-yoga.com

Namaste, Manoj
After struggling with my morning practice yesterday, I woke up this morning even before the alarm clock and I was really awake. No sleepiness at all, I was kind of surprised… I felt just so awake. So I did my morning practice and I enjoyed the silence, both while practicing and also during the minutes before everybody else woke up.
On mondays I sometimes go to a ceramic school, I haven’t been there for a while, so today I went as I wanted to make some presents for my family in Europe which I can take with me end of June.
So I had an vague idea of what I wanted to do, I completely concentrated on the clay (thinking of the earth element), how it felt in my hands and how it changed forms and temperature with pressure of my hands (thinking of subtle elements and organs of action), I realized that I was relaxed and I finished 3 pieces, and an additional one, which wasn’t planned, but I had time and did a little animal figure for my son to give him a treat. So, to make it short, I realized, that in comparison to the other 5 or 6 times I went there I was:

1. completely “there” (Atha) and relaxed (my shoulders weren’t stiff anymore as they have been the times before)
2. focused on the clay with all senses (my mind was free of “it will probably not come out so nice” or “all these pieces from other students on the shelf look so nice, will I ever be able to do this?” etc..)
3. I was happy with the result (not perfect, but handmade), and I was already looking forward to next time so I can choose colours for the pieces after they have been fired…

Thank you for your email, it helped me a lot to focus today…

See you tomorrow.
Marina

Please be informed that the April 22 Hanumasana-Splits Workshop will have to be cancelled because Manoj has suffered a sudden back injury this morning. Pranayama workshop on April 21 still ON as scheduled, and the Splits workshop will be ONLY be on April 29. If you have signed up for April 22 Splits workshop, please attend on April 29. If you are unable to make April 29, your workshop fees will be credited for the next Manasa workshop you attend.

Thank you for understanding.

Please be informed that Friday 645-8PM Ashtanga Vinyasa Class will now be taught by Manasa teacher Jean. Manoj will resume teaching the Friday Ashtanga Vinyasa class when we have MOVED to our NEW SPACE… hopefully (keeping fingers crossed) in MID MAY- in time for the 3-Day Ashtanga Vinayasa Workshop and Ashtanga Vinyasa week!

Imagining and fantasizing is generally considered un-skillful. But when teaching TTC, sometimes I do fantasize on that ideal way by which I can teach, where the students can easily assimilate all the teachings, with a sense of total entertainment. Let me share one such fantasy.

Newsflash! NASA has discovered a fantastic new planet. This planet has oceans, hills, beautiful people, fun joints, great food, etc. But there is one problem. This new planet is light-years away and there is no way one can get there in this lifetime.

 Newsflash Again! PS 3 and James Cameroon in a joint collaboration with NASA have created an avatar-like virtual reality game. This game lets you almost directly experience this fantastic new world, where once you create an account you can form a game personality (avatar), which can implant itself in that planet as the avatar . It is also totally amazing that this game personality has the capacity to absorb your consciousness into itself after a few months of regular playing, after which it gains autonomy. And then what is required is you continue being logged on and watching this game, as it is through your watching that your consciousness gets passed on to this game personality. 

 Now the cool thing or the thrilling part is, since your consciousness is not different from the game personality’s consciousness, whatever the game personality directly experiences in this beautiful world, is also experienced by you, as a direct, visceral experience of that world. Isn’t that super amazing?

 However, the more you remain logged into this game, the more you are lending your consciousness to the game, and through that, the game personality draws more intelligence, it starts to create a developed nervous system and brain for itself, and slowly starts to think that it is a totally autonomous, self-intelligent being. Through this, sadly, that part of your consciousness which is now with the game personality gets trapped in it. It starts to worry and suffer as the body of the avatar personality after a time starts to wither away.  Also, we find that since it is our consciousness which is the seed consciousness of  this game personality, the avatar is not getting that settled, peaceful, at home feeling, as somewhere inside it knows that this is not its real home.

 And the thrill is seeing this prototype of us trying to find its peace and happiness by running in ignorance to all kinds of places, and ending up suffering. And finally it turns in its quest to find its essence-you. You watch this returning path of your avatar.

This whole game is played at 8 levels.

1. The basic level is called the ’5 elements’ level. The locals of that land calls this level ‘pancha bhutas’
2. The second level is the level of sonic codes and photic frequencies, which is termed the ’5 subtle elements’ level. Locals there call it ‘tanmatras’.
3. The third level is ’action’ level, where there is 5 outer instruments of action (karma indriyas)
4. the fourth level is the 5 outer instruments of perception (jnana indriyas).
5. The fifth level is the level of likes, dislikes and confusion, termed ‘the level of the mind’. They call it ‘manas’
6. Sixth level is the level where you keep getting severely affected by everything, called the ‘the ego level’ (ahamkara)
7. The seventh level is termed ‘wisdom level’, where the game personality’s consciousness clearly understands that its home is not this alien world. Here, the locals bow to the game personality as the ‘wise one’, the viveki. The game personality understands that the root nature of this game world is rajas, tamas and sattva, and that pure consciousness is different from these three.. and…
8. The eight level is ‘the freedom portal’ the samadhi, where it gets merged into you, the observer’s consciousness (the locals call it purusha). The game personality identity drops, and the entrapped consciousness in that identity merges with you, the observer.

This is the Manasa game of sankhya. These 8 levels correspond to this philosophy’s 24 evolutes of nature (prakrti), with the pure consciousness as the observer, experiencer (purusha). Hopefully one of future Manasa game whiz programmer can design this and let the students play to learn. Then we have real yoga games for wisdom, and TTC will be such fun.

But, let us not wait for the future. The game is already on, say the teachers.  Where are we on the game? The Ashtanga path or the 8 limbed path (Patanjali’s path) is one secret path which will guide you safely through the 8 levels of the game, and put the game personality consciousness back to its true self- you. This path is where I am, and it is here that I have met all of you too. Let us keep going..

Manoj