MY YOGA TEACHER TRAINING EXPERIENCES IN INDIA

I was asked to address the audience before my spiritual guru Swami Rajarshi Muniji on 3rd February 2010 on graduation day that marked the end of my Yoga teacher training for this year in Rajarajeshwara (王者之王自在天) Jakhan, Gujarat, India. I summarized my speech into four main points.

Firstly, I have found the missing piece of puzzle that helps me see the big picture and  find my way home. Before I went to India for Yoga teacher training, friends and peers in my Buddhist community were not supportive and asked me why I had to learn Yoga from non-Buddhists when Buddha himself relinquished Yoga practice to meditate on his own and later succeeded in realising Supreme Enlightenment. They were disappointed and had lose faith in me. I told them to have an open mind because I would learn from my guru with an open mind. So I came to India with a blank notebook and now I know that the missing link is the sequential purification of our gross body, subtle body and causal body through Yoga practice, and thus attenuating the afflictions and tattva in this process of involution. Specific to this process are the shatkriyas and pranayams not known to traditional Chinese Zen. Here I also observed how young Swamiji purified his food by pouring from his silver cup into his scooping hand water and dripping a circle around his platter of food before offering it to God. After this he partook of it.

Traditional Chinese Ch'an or Zen meditation requires that the practitioners to sit in a fixed posture, usually padmasan, for hours on end, and then on the sounding of a wooden stick on the floor, also requires them to run around in circles called running meditation. Anyone who are caught in wandering thoughts will be caned with a wooden stick. They claimed that this way will awaken the practitioners to his original undefiled identity. This way of meditation is still practised in some famous Zen monasteries in China, namely the Gaomin Temple (高旻寺) in Hangzhou. Now I know that even with the slightest bit of impurity in our bodies, there is no way a Zen practitioner can realise everlasting enlightenment. He is bound to fall back on his old habits no matter how many times he has awakened himself.

Secondly, diet comprises spiritual and physical components. Yogic diet adheres great significance to his spiritual diet by first observing the yams and the niyams. This forms the foundation for other limbs in the eight-fold path for yoga practice. Knowing my body type and learning how to balance my doshas is another gain. A yogic diet is a sparing diet. Food is considered the medicine to alleviate hunger only. To the Yogi, his tongue is the knot of Lord Vishnu (God of Virtue) where he sleeps. Most people eat three meals per day and answer to Nature's calls only once a day if he/she can afford to be regular. A yoga practitioner is careful to eat a sparing diet consisting of 50% of solid food and 25% of liquid food and leaving 25% of his stomach empty to ease digestion. Fasting is also used to consume undigested food and as a remedy for many kinds of diseases according to Aryuveda.

Thirdly, I have learned to love the Indian culture and her people. Food delicacies such as home made sweets, ghee, and chappati are some of the things I must learn to make when I get home. In fact, I cooked four pounds of organic butter to make ghee and shared half of my virgin creation with my dearest pupil. I also made a carrot sweet cooked with my own ghee and mixed with crushed cashew nuts and almonds and organic sun dried black currants and organic cane sugar. You will notice that everything I used are organic because as a yoga practitioner, I don't want to feed toxins into my body and later have to swallow 11 feet of cotton cloth to cleanse my stomach! lol....

Then there are the cows in the ashram. They listen to devotional songs before they let anyone milk them. And this is exactly how the Indians treat their cows. Guruji drinks only the milk of one cow and she has a name. Their caretaker take them for a walk twice a day. They are very friendly and they love people. When they hear us resting and talking in the yard, a cow will walk into the yard and let us pet her. Once you start petting one cow, you will attract other cows to come for your attention and love. During their walk, their caretakers make sure that their shed are cleaned and washed. A group of volunteers are their all the time to prepare feeds for them. When they return from their morning and afternoon walks, they are ready to feed. Beside their shed, Muniji has instructed to have a Cow Temple built and construction is underway now. Now you wonder why you keep saying Holy Cow in the west!

Then comes the traditional Indian devotional and classical music and classical dance forms. Each dance always tells the story of some gods or goddesses. During our training and cultural exchange, LIFE Mission has arranged to have a thirdteen year old kid perform her collection of classical Indian dance for us including one that tells three stories of Gautama the young prince and later Buddha. This makes the Indian dancers and the Indian people in general exceptionally spiritual. In my opinion, the Indian is by far the most spiritual people I've ever met in my life.

Lastly, and closely related to the spirituality of the Indian people, everywhere you meet people, they greet you with joined palms and say Jay Bhagwan or Namaska, meaning Hail God or Homage to God. Here they serve you with all their hearts and might and when you say, "Thank you," they say, "No, not thank you, Jay Bhagwan!" literally, don't thank me, thank God. So when I told Master Sea Cloud about this, he decided that when the Taiwanese group return home, they will start saying Jay Bhagwan instead of "Xie, Xie" (Thank you in Mandarin). I have translated that into its Chinese equivalent, "Rongyao Gui Sanboa!" (榮耀歸三寶) literally, "Glory to Buddham, Dharmam, Sangham!"

Posted by Ven. Longyen

SECOND LAKULISH WORLD YOGASAN CHAMPIONSHIP

WAS held on Jan 8, 9 and 10 in Mumbai, India. On the 8th, observers from different countries were surprised that they were asked to perform on stage as international competitors. The teams comprised of delegates from Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the US. Each competitor must perform five designated asanas. Two judges marked each competitors on a 10-point scale such as in the Olympics.

Results of the international competitors were

1. Men Team Winner: India
2. Women Team Winner: India
3. Men Team Runner Up: Taiwan
4. Women Team Runner Up: Taiwan

Results of the individual international competitors were:
1. Man's Gold Medal: Joseph Tucker of the UK
2. Man's Silver Medal: Master Longyen of Canada
3. Man's Bronze Medal: Mr. Mau Lian Su of Taiwan
4. Woman's Gold Medal: Holly Yates of Canada
5. Woman's Silver Medal: Joey Leung of Malaysia.

On the 10th, the international team performed three skids directed by Swami Satyanandji and won the applause of the audience.
 

SECOND HUAYEN UPASAKA/UPASIKA MEETING

Be it known to all that the  SECOND HUAYEN 2553 UPASAKA/UPASIKA MEETING was held on 28 December 2009 in Vancouver BC at Bo Kong Restaurant. Matters discussed included:

1. Our lineage Ci'\en School and the Mahayana Yogacara School of India and their relationship
2. The definitions of the Tathagata (如來禪) and Patriarchal (祖師禪) schools of meditation and their differences
3. Chapter 35 of the 40-fascicle Avatamsaka Sutra (四十華嚴卷三十五彌勒菩薩章)relating to Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi as expounded by the Bodhisattva Maitreya (彌勒菩薩) to Kuruma Sudhana (善財童子)
4. Tale of the late Yogacharya Swami Kripalvanandji Maharaj (Bapuji) as related by Ven. Longyen from his childhood to age 19 when he met Mahatma, the saint, in Bombay
5. Composition of the new ABCBC Board of Directors
6. Introduction of the Burnaby Practice Centre and the Sunday sutra recitation program. See calendar for details.