Marc & I will be teaching a Partner Yoga & Massage on the 3rd Aug Wed 7-9.30pm @ OmShiva Yoga (Turf City)
Marc will also be conducting a series of Acroyoga workshops on the 6-7 August weekend! Come and join us!!!!!
Partner & Acroyoga workshops with Marc Bauchet
Marc & I will be teaching a Partner Yoga & Massage on the 3rd Aug Wed 7-9.30pm @ OmShiva Yoga (Turf City)
Marc will also be conducting a series of Acroyoga workshops on the 6-7 August weekend! Come and join us!!!!!
ACROYOGA WORKSHOP - TURN YOUR WORLD UPSIDE DOWN!!
ACROYOGA WITH JACOB HANDWERKERWed 2 March 7 - 9pm
This workshop will explore partner yoga, acrobatics, and human pyramids. By working together, we will cultivate trust, strength, and flexibility. A playful, safe, and supportive environment will empower the whole room to be upside down. This workshop is open to students with yoga experience and a headstand practice.(No partner required)
Investment : $40 (Early Bird Price : $35)
Early bird registration & payment must be made before 10 Feb.
Location : OmShiva Yoga Studio (Turf City)
Registration Contact: 90114405 / acroyogasing@gmail.com
www.acroyoga.org
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About Jacob Handwerker
 | Residence: Nomad Birthplace: Maine jacob@acroyoga.org / Ashtanga Lanka Yoga Resort |
 Movement has always been an integral part of my life. Before discovering AcroYoga, Ashtanga Yoga, and Vipassana meditation I spent years kayaking, climbing, skiing, backpacking, and dancing. Now, by "showing up" every morning to do my practices I have experienced profound and deep changes in my life. One of the greatest lessons I have learned is how to connect to my breath. The breath is the only constant we have from birth to death and can be one of our greatest teachers.I grew up in a house hearing the words yoga, meditation, tai chi, meridians, etc. but it was not until I was 26 that I started to explore them. Besides AcroYoga, I study Ashtanga Yoga with Kathy Cooper, and practice Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka. I believe that by helping people connect to themselves and one another we can create peace around us and in the world. I am excited to share my passions and teach AcroYoga across the planet. I am based out of Portland, Oregon but I travel throughout Europe and Asia for many months of the year.   | |
Happy shorts for Happy People by Happy People
COTTAGE INDUSTRY - COMMUNITY PROJECT
In a moment of folly, my girlfriend, Chin & I decided that we wanted to help poor tailors in India and ordered a bunch of yoga shorts! They are really quite cute and each one is unique! You can be happy knowing your shorts did not come from some sweat shop but were individually made by happy tailors in Goa!!!
Stretchy Cotton Shorts (Grey & Black)
We are selling them at S$20 / USD$15 / EUR12 (Including shipment anywhere in the world). You can order them by sending me an email elainehuilian@gmail.com or on-line from http://www.idband.net/product.php?type=3
28-32" Wasit / Hip (Worn below belly button) + 14-16" Thigh
I am not Buddhist
After a brief flirtation with Buddhism, I have come to the conclusion that "I am not Buddhist"!!!
I spent the month of December in India on what was originally to be a Yoga holiday. (It ended up being a lot more holiday and not so much yoga!) I will save the India story for a different post.
The highlight of the trip was the 10days I spent at a Vipassana Retreat. There was no talking, no reading, no writing and no yoga allowed!!! Just meditation and nothing but meditation except for 1hr a day of Dhamma talk (on video) by Goenkeji. Vipassana is not Buddhist. It is a meditation technique that will work for anyone; universal and non-sectarian. Goenkeji is however a Buddhist so even though the dhamma talks were about the Vipassana technique, they nevertheless covered quite a bit of Buddhist philosophy.
I was ok with everything he said probably until about Day5, then it became all about misery, and I honestly didn't get it anymore! Like at the Zen Meditation temple (I spent the month of June studying Zen Buddhism in Japan and didn't get it then either! http://elaineguru.blogspot.com/2010/06/zen-101.html) I started having issues as soon as they started on the 1st noble truth "Life is suffering". I don't understand; why is life suffering? Why would our loving and compassionate God create a world where there was nothing but suffering and misery? My God isn't masochistic. He isn't mean. He isn't cruel. He is love! I truly believe that life is nothing but an accumulation of experiences that we choose for ourselves so that we can experience our highest self! What we consider suffering or misery, is not good nor is it bad; it is just an experience. There can after all be no light, if there is no darkness. There is no pleasure like food for a hungry man or water for a thirsty man. It is the whole dichotomy of life so we can have the deepest experiences and remember our truest self!
My second blockage came when Goenkeji started talking about attachment. Our sufferings are caused by desires; attachments to what we consider"pleasure" and aversions to what we consider "pain". err...... yeah, and what is wrong with that? God wired us to like pleasure and dislike pain!!! But the Buddhist feel that we should have NO ATTACHMENTS, and in that way, we will have no sufferings. Goenkeji told us a story to illustrate this. He was given a watch by a student from far away. It was a beautiful watch; magnificent, very rare and expensive. He loved the watch and wore it everyday. At night, before going to bed, he would carefully take it off and put it on his bedside table. One day, whilst taking off the watch, he dropped the watch and it broke. This was a very rare watch and there were no spare parts for this watch in India. He could not repair the watch and was very very very sad. Now if the same magnificent, rare and expensive watch were on another man's wrist and broke, Goenkeji wouldn't have been sad at all! Same watch, just as rare, just as expensive.... but since it wouldn't have been his watch, he would not have been sad! In fact, he probably would have chastised his friend for not being more careful! The sadness from breaking the watch did not come from the intrinsic value of the watch, but from the attachment that he put on the watch. The ME, MY, I!!! "My Watch"!
I liked the story, but my take on the story is slightly different. I think it is great that he was given a watch that he loved. It is great that he was given the opportunity to build an "attachment" to it, so that every time he looked at the watch on his wrist, he felt a silent elation at seeing that beautiful watch on His wrist (and not on the wrist of some other man!). Not only did he have the joy of wearing the watch, he had the joy of taking care of it, taking it off carefully every night and placing it on his dresser. Knowing that the watch was fragile and impermanent, he cared for it even more, taking pains to look after it. He enjoyed the watch for the years it served him. Now that it is broken, yes, he feels sadness, but the sadness will go away, and he can have fond memories of his watch and move on to buy a new watch. Should he have given up all the years of pleasure the watch gave him because he feared that it would one day break? Should he have treated the watch with disdain and carelessly, like any other watch? I say "NO"! The watch was special to him and because of the "attachment" and special importance he placed on the watch, he had years of pleasure wearing and caring for the watch. Why give all that up just because of fear that one day the watch would break? We know that the watch would one day break; because watches always break; because nothing lasts forever; because everything is impermanent. But that should not stop us from loving fully and freely whatever is here and now!
Don't get me wrong; I am not advocating that we should have attachments to expensive watches and the likes. The quest for material riches is futile; it is never-ending and the hoarding of material goods is senseless! I just feel that there should be room in us to keep "attachments" to things (and people) who are special; that we treasure a little more than the average. As long as when it is time for us to give them up for whatever reason (and as everything is impermanent, that time will come!), we can have the courage to let go; appreciating every moment we had in the past and happy to embrace whatever new thing comes to take it's place!
Buddhism aside, Goenkeji is a wonderful teacher and I loved all his stories. The Vipassana technique of meditation is also truly amazing and I have been telling everyone I know to go. It will be 10days that you will never forget!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story of the Taoist Farmer
This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to condole over his terrible loss. The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?"
A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, "What makes you think this is good fortune?"
One day, the farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, "What makes you think it is bad?"
A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. "What makes you think this is good?" said the farmer.
I spent the month of December in India on what was originally to be a Yoga holiday. (It ended up being a lot more holiday and not so much yoga!) I will save the India story for a different post.
The highlight of the trip was the 10days I spent at a Vipassana Retreat. There was no talking, no reading, no writing and no yoga allowed!!! Just meditation and nothing but meditation except for 1hr a day of Dhamma talk (on video) by Goenkeji. Vipassana is not Buddhist. It is a meditation technique that will work for anyone; universal and non-sectarian. Goenkeji is however a Buddhist so even though the dhamma talks were about the Vipassana technique, they nevertheless covered quite a bit of Buddhist philosophy.
I was ok with everything he said probably until about Day5, then it became all about misery, and I honestly didn't get it anymore! Like at the Zen Meditation temple (I spent the month of June studying Zen Buddhism in Japan and didn't get it then either! http://elaineguru.blogspot.com/2010/06/zen-101.html) I started having issues as soon as they started on the 1st noble truth "Life is suffering". I don't understand; why is life suffering? Why would our loving and compassionate God create a world where there was nothing but suffering and misery? My God isn't masochistic. He isn't mean. He isn't cruel. He is love! I truly believe that life is nothing but an accumulation of experiences that we choose for ourselves so that we can experience our highest self! What we consider suffering or misery, is not good nor is it bad; it is just an experience. There can after all be no light, if there is no darkness. There is no pleasure like food for a hungry man or water for a thirsty man. It is the whole dichotomy of life so we can have the deepest experiences and remember our truest self!
My second blockage came when Goenkeji started talking about attachment. Our sufferings are caused by desires; attachments to what we consider"pleasure" and aversions to what we consider "pain". err...... yeah, and what is wrong with that? God wired us to like pleasure and dislike pain!!! But the Buddhist feel that we should have NO ATTACHMENTS, and in that way, we will have no sufferings. Goenkeji told us a story to illustrate this. He was given a watch by a student from far away. It was a beautiful watch; magnificent, very rare and expensive. He loved the watch and wore it everyday. At night, before going to bed, he would carefully take it off and put it on his bedside table. One day, whilst taking off the watch, he dropped the watch and it broke. This was a very rare watch and there were no spare parts for this watch in India. He could not repair the watch and was very very very sad. Now if the same magnificent, rare and expensive watch were on another man's wrist and broke, Goenkeji wouldn't have been sad at all! Same watch, just as rare, just as expensive.... but since it wouldn't have been his watch, he would not have been sad! In fact, he probably would have chastised his friend for not being more careful! The sadness from breaking the watch did not come from the intrinsic value of the watch, but from the attachment that he put on the watch. The ME, MY, I!!! "My Watch"!
I liked the story, but my take on the story is slightly different. I think it is great that he was given a watch that he loved. It is great that he was given the opportunity to build an "attachment" to it, so that every time he looked at the watch on his wrist, he felt a silent elation at seeing that beautiful watch on His wrist (and not on the wrist of some other man!). Not only did he have the joy of wearing the watch, he had the joy of taking care of it, taking it off carefully every night and placing it on his dresser. Knowing that the watch was fragile and impermanent, he cared for it even more, taking pains to look after it. He enjoyed the watch for the years it served him. Now that it is broken, yes, he feels sadness, but the sadness will go away, and he can have fond memories of his watch and move on to buy a new watch. Should he have given up all the years of pleasure the watch gave him because he feared that it would one day break? Should he have treated the watch with disdain and carelessly, like any other watch? I say "NO"! The watch was special to him and because of the "attachment" and special importance he placed on the watch, he had years of pleasure wearing and caring for the watch. Why give all that up just because of fear that one day the watch would break? We know that the watch would one day break; because watches always break; because nothing lasts forever; because everything is impermanent. But that should not stop us from loving fully and freely whatever is here and now!
Don't get me wrong; I am not advocating that we should have attachments to expensive watches and the likes. The quest for material riches is futile; it is never-ending and the hoarding of material goods is senseless! I just feel that there should be room in us to keep "attachments" to things (and people) who are special; that we treasure a little more than the average. As long as when it is time for us to give them up for whatever reason (and as everything is impermanent, that time will come!), we can have the courage to let go; appreciating every moment we had in the past and happy to embrace whatever new thing comes to take it's place!
Buddhism aside, Goenkeji is a wonderful teacher and I loved all his stories. The Vipassana technique of meditation is also truly amazing and I have been telling everyone I know to go. It will be 10days that you will never forget!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story of the Taoist Farmer
This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to condole over his terrible loss. The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?"
A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, "What makes you think this is good fortune?"
One day, the farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, "What makes you think it is bad?"
A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. "What makes you think this is good?" said the farmer.
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