Cape Men's Yoga & Meditation class - 23 August 2015
Sunday 23 August 2015
10.00 until noon
Fresh on the thrills and fun of our Fire & Ice winter retreat, we are back on the mat in Cape Town with another 2 hour naked men's yoga and meditation class.
Join us for an energising vinyasa class this week. We'll be intregrating some of the Tibetan wisdom and images into the vinyasa flow class.
We will also be including special attention to arm balances in this class.
Beginners are welcome. The class is based on voluntary teaching and donations from the men participating.
Class starts on time at 10.00. Door is locked so be on time.
We are in practicing at a venue in central Cape Town. For the venue details contact us on:
Whatsapp or sms zero eight two 579 6868 or email capemensyoga AT gmail.com
On the retreat we worked with the five faculties of the mind, the five elements and touched on the five states of awareness in our way in which we engage with the world.
Five Faculties
Faith and Wisdom balance each other, as do Energy and Concentration. The Five Faculties are ‘controlling' faculties because they control or master their opposites. The faculties and powers are two aspects of the same thing.
1. Faith/Conviction (saddha) - controls doubt
2. Energy/Effort/Persistence (viriya) – controls laziness
3. Mindfulness (sati); - controls heedlessness
4. Concentration (samādhi) - controls distraction
5. Wisdom/Discernment (pañña, prajña) – controls ignorance
The four mythical and living beings which appear on the Tibetan flags and which also come up in yoga asana are:
Garuda (sacred bird), Dragon, Tiger, and Snow Lion which are the four sacred animals representing the Four Virtues of Wisdom, Strength, Confidence, and Joy.
Associated with these symbols and concepts are the deeper teachings on wisdom of perception which we did not explore much during the retreat but which may be useful for you in meditaiton. These include:
The Five Wisdoms are:
1. Tathatā-jñāna, the wisdom of Suchness or Dharmadhatu, "the bare non-conceptualizing awareness" of Śūnyatā, the universal substrate of the other four jñāna;
2. Ādarśa-jñāna, the wisdom of "Mirror-like Awareness", "devoid of all dualistic thought and ever united with its 'content' as a mirror is with its reflections";
3. Samatā-jñāna, the wisdom of the "Awareness of Sameness", which perceives the sameness, the commonality of dharmas or phenomena;
4. Pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna, the wisdom of "Investigative Awareness", that perceives the specificity, the uniqueness of dharmas;
5. Kṛty-anuṣṭhāna-jñāna, the wisdom of "Accomplishing Activities", the awareness that "spontaneously carries out all that has to be done for the welfare of beings, manifesting itself in all directions".
Here we are referring to how we see the world. Take for example if you have to deal with an unpleasant person or situation. You can get angry, frustrated, despondent, fearful or any other number of responses that you learned while growing up and dealing with other situations. Often we learn these things from our parents or our cultural environment. The mindfulness teachings offer us a different way to engage with the world that is less stressful and more conducive to opening up wisdom and skills that are dormant in us until we make use of them.
We can just let things be as they are. Not judge and observe. The empty mind protects us from suffering.
We can reflect what is going on, share feedback to the person / situation like a mirror. Sometimes people are acting in an unpleasant way without realising they are doing it or thinking of the consequences.
We can see in the action of others and the things that upset what we know in ourselves. It is so much easier to judge others than to careful observe and adjust our own behaviour. When people push our buttons, it can often be precisely because we know we also do that sometimes and we don't like it then either. We see the sameness of the context and we feel greater compassion and patience.
We can watch, listen and learn. This is a challenging one. Instead of always reacting, sometimes it is appropriate to see the whole picture, wait for the events to continue unfolding. What looks nasty now may actually be beneficial in the long run. Sometimes we need to act, sometimes we need to observe.
Lastly, we are on a path of spiritual awakening. Whatever we do with our perceptions and wisdom should complement our life journey of reducing our own suffering, the suffering of others and sharing greater harmony in the world. Whatever your life path is should remain in your mind and your actions should flow in that direction as water flows down a mountain side.
10.00 until noon
Fresh on the thrills and fun of our Fire & Ice winter retreat, we are back on the mat in Cape Town with another 2 hour naked men's yoga and meditation class.Join us for an energising vinyasa class this week. We'll be intregrating some of the Tibetan wisdom and images into the vinyasa flow class.
We will also be including special attention to arm balances in this class.
Beginners are welcome. The class is based on voluntary teaching and donations from the men participating.
Class starts on time at 10.00. Door is locked so be on time.We are in practicing at a venue in central Cape Town. For the venue details contact us on:
Whatsapp or sms zero eight two 579 6868 or email capemensyoga AT gmail.com
Mind and Body
On the retreat we worked with the five faculties of the mind, the five elements and touched on the five states of awareness in our way in which we engage with the world.
Five Faculties
Faith and Wisdom balance each other, as do Energy and Concentration. The Five Faculties are ‘controlling' faculties because they control or master their opposites. The faculties and powers are two aspects of the same thing.
1. Faith/Conviction (saddha) - controls doubt
2. Energy/Effort/Persistence (viriya) – controls laziness
3. Mindfulness (sati); - controls heedlessness
4. Concentration (samādhi) - controls distraction
5. Wisdom/Discernment (pañña, prajña) – controls ignorance
The four mythical and living beings which appear on the Tibetan flags and which also come up in yoga asana are:
Garuda (sacred bird), Dragon, Tiger, and Snow Lion which are the four sacred animals representing the Four Virtues of Wisdom, Strength, Confidence, and Joy.
- Garuda eating a snake represents the frightening away of unwholesome thoughts or intentions;
- Dragon represents the removal of different threats from the sky, such as lightening and storms. The dragon masters both fire and wind elements;
- Tiger represents each step of life without hurdles or obstacles;
- Snow Lion is the front-runner in each step of life, he includes our intuitive abilities and our pioneer spirit.
Associated with these symbols and concepts are the deeper teachings on wisdom of perception which we did not explore much during the retreat but which may be useful for you in meditaiton. These include:
The Five Wisdoms are:
1. Tathatā-jñāna, the wisdom of Suchness or Dharmadhatu, "the bare non-conceptualizing awareness" of Śūnyatā, the universal substrate of the other four jñāna;
2. Ādarśa-jñāna, the wisdom of "Mirror-like Awareness", "devoid of all dualistic thought and ever united with its 'content' as a mirror is with its reflections";
3. Samatā-jñāna, the wisdom of the "Awareness of Sameness", which perceives the sameness, the commonality of dharmas or phenomena;
4. Pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna, the wisdom of "Investigative Awareness", that perceives the specificity, the uniqueness of dharmas;
5. Kṛty-anuṣṭhāna-jñāna, the wisdom of "Accomplishing Activities", the awareness that "spontaneously carries out all that has to be done for the welfare of beings, manifesting itself in all directions".
Here we are referring to how we see the world. Take for example if you have to deal with an unpleasant person or situation. You can get angry, frustrated, despondent, fearful or any other number of responses that you learned while growing up and dealing with other situations. Often we learn these things from our parents or our cultural environment. The mindfulness teachings offer us a different way to engage with the world that is less stressful and more conducive to opening up wisdom and skills that are dormant in us until we make use of them.
We can just let things be as they are. Not judge and observe. The empty mind protects us from suffering.
We can reflect what is going on, share feedback to the person / situation like a mirror. Sometimes people are acting in an unpleasant way without realising they are doing it or thinking of the consequences.
We can see in the action of others and the things that upset what we know in ourselves. It is so much easier to judge others than to careful observe and adjust our own behaviour. When people push our buttons, it can often be precisely because we know we also do that sometimes and we don't like it then either. We see the sameness of the context and we feel greater compassion and patience.
We can watch, listen and learn. This is a challenging one. Instead of always reacting, sometimes it is appropriate to see the whole picture, wait for the events to continue unfolding. What looks nasty now may actually be beneficial in the long run. Sometimes we need to act, sometimes we need to observe.
Lastly, we are on a path of spiritual awakening. Whatever we do with our perceptions and wisdom should complement our life journey of reducing our own suffering, the suffering of others and sharing greater harmony in the world. Whatever your life path is should remain in your mind and your actions should flow in that direction as water flows down a mountain side.
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