It’s getting crowded on the road to enlightenment

It's getting crowded on the road to enlightment... This is the title of third item in three weeks that the Times has written about yoga and "enlightenment". This is obviously a good selling tactic at the moment, but it might be useful if they got their story straight.

In the first item they wrote "how wonderful yoga is for you". Item two said the opposite "yoga is not good for you". Item three mixes up yoga, Buddhism and Kabbalah and how many people are rushing off to India in search of enlightenment, and how much it's all costing us gullible Westerners.

The item then goes on to say Julia Roberts converted to Hinduism after appearing in Eat, Pray, Love; Demi Moore, Britney Spears and Madonna are all followers of Kabbalah; Tiger Woods said his Buddhist Faith would help him recover from sex scandals; Steven Segal announced in 1997 that he was the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama...

Is the Times therefore using the above statements to reassure us that the collection above are on the crowded road to enlightenment? Or purely filling their newspaper with any old bullshit?

Comments

Neti pot

When I was training to be a yoga teacher, one of the 6 purification techniques taught to us was Jala Neti ( also called Neti or Jaaneti). Purification techniques are sometimes performed as a way of preparing the body for a yoga practice. Whenever the neti pots came out, I disappeared, always needing to be somewhere else at that moment in time… I had many techniques to avoid it: the bathroom, the water fountain, the shop, anything but the Net. Pouring a saline solution up my hooter was really not for me and I have avoided it right up to today. I have got a steaming cold and, as a result, I now have sinus pain, so I have decided to give it another go. Talk about waiting until your back is against the wall! I rushed to the Sivanada yoga studio nearby and bought myself a ceramic neti pot and salt. I had to follow the one photographic image as the instructions were in German!!! Although I did not find it as unpleasant as some people describe, it was not as bad as I remembered. So I will us...

Sharath Jois in London 2013

Sharath Jois will be in London teaching a week of primary and intermediate ashtanga yoga From 25th-30th of August- in a central London location. Booking for this will open mid May. Through http://www.astangayogalondon.com/index2.cfm A rare and wonderful treat to have Sharath in my home town-A big thank you to Hamish Hendry and ashtanga yoga London for organising this. Going to have to set an alarm on my phone- as there will be a lot of takers for this....

All about the balance

A snap from inside my fridge this week. The mix of wine, beer and Vita Coca sort of sums up my family really. The ones that drink wine and beer don't go in for the coco water, and the coco water drinker doesn't go in for wine or beer. In summary, none of us need worry about the other nicking all the drinks. :-)

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