It felt fabulous to be sharing Animal Yoga™ face-to-face with many yoga-loving attendees of the very first Eastbourne Yoga Show yesterday.

The banner definitely worked a treat to help attract attention and convey what we’re all about. There was intrigue, compliments, much interest and amazement that a similar venture has not been shared with the world before (to everyone’s knowledge)!

At 4pm, the Founder and currently sole Teacher (though not for long!!) of Animal Yoga™, Jenny Mace, delivered a well-attended taster session. Very difficult to condense a long 90-min practice into half an hour but again there was all the more intrigue, compliments, much interest and excitement. Next-up is sharing the Thursday eve class in Eastbourne with more people and offering Animal Yoga™ workshops in Brighton, Hastings & London. Thanks to everyone for their support. 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which card/animal/message will you pick or which shall find its way to you…? 🙂

 

 

 

Animal Yoga™ has been very fortunate to receive a gift to mark its birth – none other than an approximately 4400 year old bull antique originating from the Indus Valley, the oldest civilisation on the Indian subcontinent!! A testimony to the influence of animals within ancient civilisations and specifically within ancient Indian civilisations where yoga was born – and also highlighting perhaps how sacred the cow is in Indian culture. Also, a frog antique from ancient Sumeria where writing first began – wow!

Ahimsa: non-harming to all living beings

This is the transliteration from Sanskrit. The original Sanskrit (especially translated and created for Animal Yoga™) can be seen in the image here. Beautiful.

Many of us probably already embrace this principle a lot in our life but let us try to do one more little thing in honour of ahimsa today – toward ourselves and other fellow planetary beings regardless of the species  🙂

Please celebrate with us even if you live further afield. We plan for classes to spread far and wide before too long for to reach as many people as possible 🙂

We start near to Eastbourne! Please book your attendance now. No drop-ins. No doubt you’ll first wish to commit to just a single session to see how this new practice floats your boat, but then it’s advisable to book a 6-week consecutive bundle for £54 (£9 per session). Single sessions booked in advance will be £11 per session (apart from your first one – still £9).

BRING A FRIEND FOR FREE UNTIL THE END OF JULY.

“When you feel the suffering of every living thing in your heart, that’s consciousness” ~ attributed to The Bhagavad Gita

The will of ahimsa (non-harming) and respect for all animals within yogic teaching/ancient origins/Hinduism is further highlighted by this phrase Shree Pashupatinath meaning Respected Protector of Animals. Pashu means organism, pati means protector and nath refers to Lord. We can endeavour to embody this protectorship of animals through our yoga practice and in our lives.

It may interest you to know that Shree Pashupatinath is revered throughout the Hindu world and especially in Nepal where Pashupatinath has National Deity status. In fact, there is a whole temple in his name that is one of the most important Hindu temple in Nepal – Pashupatinath Temple (only slightly damaged in the recent earthquake). It is a hugely unique (and for many, culturally shocking) place. It has a constant atmosphere of death (not a negative thing from the yoga perspective – indeed, in the words of Iyengar, the whole of life can be seen as a preparation for death) as many elderly Hindus flock there in the last weeks of their life in the belief that that shall be spared from returning as an animal regardless of any former wrong-doing and impact on karma (we hasten to add, that we don’t acutally defiantly believe this part – we don’t necessarily think it’s intrinsically undesirable to be an animal – we perceive animals as wonders of their own, although we remain open-minded). It is usual for visitors to even witness an open-air cremation, there are many rituals themed around death and an endless smell of cremated bodies, which apparently has an aroma of spices rather than decaying flesh! There are Sadhus also present – ascetic yogis who have given up everything in the pursuit of liberation and freedom from death/rebirth cycle and suffering – they have a very distinctive appearance!To top it all off, there are monkeys (not overly friendly ones supposedly) and deer wandering around the temple complex! Legend has it that a god came to the area and was so blown away by the beauty of the valley and forest that they morphed their self into a deer and entered the forest – they refused to return when later being found. See more here: http://www.pashupatinathtemple.org/

Oh the marvellous history, spirituality and animal-ness to be found 🙂

See more information here.

 

See link here for more information.