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Prana Yoga Teacher College

shakti mhi is the Co-Founder of Prana Yoga Teacher College (est. 1982), Canada's only accredited institution of higher learning for yoga teacher training. Students of Prana Yoga Teacher College are given the opportunity to expand their knowledge, heighten their awareness and acquire the skills and tools to teach yoga from an authentic place within themselves.

For more information on Yoga Teacher Training programs, and workshops please visit www.pranayogacollege.com or email info@pranayogacollege.com

Spiritual Dialogue with shakti

We are pleased to be offering Spiritual Dialogue with shakti mhi beginning Tuesday May 6, at 7pm.

This is a spiritual discourse between teacher and student, and provides the opportunity to ask direct questions relating to spirituality and other esoteric matters.

Where: Suite #3106, 1009 Expo Blvd. Buzzer #1839
When:
Tuesday 7pm (Starting May 6, and ongoing)
Cost: by donation

Please contact 604.676.8812 or 604.682.2121 for more information and location.

Hatha Yoga classes with shakti mhi:

Please join shakti mhi for drop in hatha yoga classes open to the public at The Centre for Peace in Vancouver.

No Pre-Registration.
Please bring your own mat and a blanket or cushion.
Hatha Yoga: 9am - 10:30am

Dates:
Tuesday: April 29 & May 20 (FS)
Tuesday: May 6 & 13 (GH)
Thursday: May 1, 8 & 15 (GH)

Location: Centre for Peace,
(1825 West 16th Ave, Van.)
FS = The Great Hall (main floor)
FS = The Fireside Room (upstairs)
Instructor: shakti mhi
Cost  = $10.50 (Cash Payment Only)


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Satyananda Teacher Training

May 15th, 2008 by Karen

Dear Shakti,

I did your TTC in Thailand in 2006 and enjoyed it more than words can say. I now want to do more teacher training but cannot come to Canada for 1-2 months to do your level 2 because of work. There is a very good Satyananda yoga centre near where I live and I have applied to do a two year teacher training course with them starting late this year. I have no doubt about the authenticity of the course or the teachers, they are wonderful and teach from the heart. However, my only reservation is that I don’t love the Satyananda style as much as I love the prana yoga style. But many of the most important elements are there for me. I don’t like the fact that the classes don’t flow.
Having said that, I think this may be the best quality teacher training in Ireland. Should I go ahead and do it, trying to ignore the aspect of flow and bring my own style to it afterwards? I’m confused. What do you think?

Peace and Love,
Karen

Posted in All About Yoga | 1 Comment »

Yoga and Silence Retreat with shakti mhi

May 1st, 2008 by shakti

Prana Yoga College has some exciting news:

We are happy to be offering an upcoming Yoga and Silence Retreat with shakti mhi from June 24 - June 30 2008 at the breathtaking Sea to Sky Retreat Centre near Whistler.

This springs yoga and silence retreat will be held from June 24 - June 30 at the breathtaking Sea to Sky Retreat Centre near Whistler. For the first 3 days, enjoy yoga and mediation, intermixed with educational seminars and spiritual discourse. The last 4 days will be in silence, combining meditation and mindfulness with the peace and serenity of the natural environment.

For more information on the Sea to Sky Retreat centre, please contact us. You can visit their website at www.siddharthasintent.org

The below cost includes full board and accommodations for the duration of the retreat.

Cost

Registration discount of $100 prior to May 15! Cost is $750 + GST.
Regular cost for the retreat is $850 + GST.

To register for this retreat, please contact our office by email or phone:

Email: info@pranayogacollege.com
Phone: 604.682.2121 or 604.676.8812

Posted in Shakti Writings | Leave Comments »

Spiritual Q and A - Money and Spirituality

April 21st, 2008 by shakti

Dear shakti

The statement: “MONEY IS JUST ENERGY!” IS JUST PURE PLAIN NONSENSE and an excuse for the spiritual bartender who is by some means not skilled enough or forced by powers of fear, unable to live from pure prana.

Money is a must in the world of capitalism that is consuming the free organic and etheric worlds.
A system that enslaves humans to pay taxes, fees and burns trees to make place for non ecological destructive (capitals) cities.

I do understand that in these time most of us are forced to live in this way, most of us do not live with Mother Nature anymore. We learn about her from so called organic- or some kind of new age philosophy (work) shops, but most of us lost contact with her long time ago. Simply because we are not allowed by the reign of fear to live freely with nature or because we fell into an other state of mind (the fall).

Instead ‘civilized’ people learn form mother’s tribes the knowledge of herbalism, yoga and energy and then enslave those innocent systems and hereafter sell the crap out of their knowledge, wisdom and resources to the people of the so called civilization.

Money can not be fed to a plant, animal or human; it is therefore not simply energy! It has a value set by a capitalistic system, which is expressed by symbols of the aristocrat society which introduced money in the first place.

There are pictures and symbols and cunning texts of imperialists, secret societies and other dominators that are set into precious metals, which should have stayed in the soil in the first place to enrich the soul of mother earth, or pressed on paper that comes from cutting trees. These resources should be left alone or could be used for far better things, things and ways that are in harmony with mother’s ecology and organic systems and her inhabitants.

Not to mention the use of gold bars in safe houses, the mining of diamonds for which people die every day in places that are hidden from society, and such.

DO NOT TELL ME MONEY IS JUST ENERGY! That is simply an excuse for the state of mind ‘modern’ man has fallen into and which is destructive to the human soul and the soul of our planet.

Money could therefore be used as a temporary survival method along the path of one who seeks spirituality!

Dharma’s are collective thoughts and therefore not possessions.
The goal of yoga is to meet with the pure spirit, which is connected to the matrix of pure prana and has nothing to do with money at all! The TRUE SPIRIT is free, as is LOVE which connects it with MATTER (Mother)!

We are on our way to become true spiritual beings and we have to find the strength to look within ourselves and to admit we somehow lost being it along our path of evolution. But never give up to find that true union with the pure spirit, which is YOGA!

LuX

shakti’s response is below in red.


Dear Lux

The meaning of the word yoga is union. Any spiritual practitioner or a yogi will easily preach to you about “union” and “oneness” but rarely will you meet one that actually lives it (Maybe the reason is that the ones, who live it, don’t preach about it).

When most of the new age yogis talk “union”, they talk about the union of every(thing), as long as “the thing” falls under their approval as a pure, good or a positive thing, otherwise it is dismissed as part of the oneness. Manifestations such as capitalism, ‘civilized’ people, aristocratic society, materialism and MONEY are not part of the New age-union or New age-oneness. This is how, paradoxically, the so called “spiritual” or “conscious” people, often create greater separation then the ones they judge for doing “bad” or “impure” things.

Talking “pure” is the most dogmatic way of practicing spirituality. The moment you distinguish one thing as purer then the other, you are the one creating a sheer separation and destruction. Objectively, everything is part of the flow of existence. Of course, as individuals we all have our point of views as well, perceptions and choices of how life should be conducted, but none of the phenomena in existence are outside of the big flow, no matter if our small self approves of them or not.

You talk about love. You Said “The TRUE SPIRIT is free, as is LOVE which connects it with MATTER (Mother)!

Easy enough to say, however, you may want to check with yourself how much love you have for all the people that don’t see life in your way. You may want to check how much compassion you have for people that may not have the capacity to see things from your point of view or for the ones that do get driven by the fear of surviving.

Now, if everything is part of existence, everything is energy. Everything is vibrating in different capacities and frequencies, from your thoughts to a 10 dollar bill.

Money is not an opinion, it is a fact. Money is a part of an exchange that takes place in our human tribe the same way as language. Neither my opinion about it nor yours, matter in the big picture if either one brings more separation.

Prana is the vibration in everything.

When you talk with hatred about money you are vibrating it at that level even more. You actually negatively empower it more then those who use money dispassionately. When Mother Theresa accepted donations to feed the hungry, she vibrated the coins to their highest energy. Likewise, the reason why you talk so passionately and angrily about money is because it is prana and it vibrates you in this manner. Any form of prana can be changed to any frequency by the one who chooses to use it or not use it.

And last:
You talk about “pure prana” as the ultimate form of living (unlike other filthy forms such as money etc). Those who engage in the yogic practice of Pranayam know that even the so-called pure prana, if not used and mastered properly, can unbalance you in a severe way. This demonstrates that nothing, objectively, is an absolute of good or bad. The same with money, it is truly all one; it is just a matter of mastering it all. How to master it and not get mastered by it is another discussion.

With love and respect

shakti

There is a misguided perception that money is the evil side effect of modernity, the truth is that money has been around for thousands of years.

The History of Money

In the Beginning: Barter

Barter is the exchange of resources or services for mutual advantage, and may date back to the beginning of humankind. Some would even argue that it’s not purely a human activity; plants and animals have been bartering — in symbiotic relationships — for millions of years. In any case, barter among humans certainly pre-dates the use of money. Today individuals, organizations, and governments still use, and often prefer, barter as a form of exchange of goods and services.

9,000 — 6,000 BC: Cattle

Cattle, which include anything from cows, to sheep, to camels, are the first and oldest form of money. With the advent of agriculture came the use of grain and other vegetable or plant products as a standard form of barter in many cultures.

1,200 BC: Cowrie Shells

The first use of cowries, the shell of a mollusc that was widely available in the shallow waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, was in China. Historically, many societies have used cowries as money, and even as recently as the middle of this century, cowries have been used in some parts of Africa. The cowrie is the most widely and longest used currency in history.

1,000 BC: First Metal Money and Coins

Bronze and Copper cowrie imitations were manufactured by China at the end of the Stone Age and could be considered some of the earliest forms of metal coins. Metal tool money, such as knife and spade monies, was also first used in China. These early metal monies developed into primitive versions of round coins. Chinese coins were made out of base metals, often containing holes so they could be put together like a chain.

500 BC: Modern Coinage

Outside of China, the first coins developed out of lumps of silver. They soon took the familar round form of today, and were stamped with various gods and emperors to mark their authenticity. These early coins first appeared in Lydia, which is part of present-day Turkey, but the techniques were quickly copied and further refined by the Greek, Persian, Macedonian, and later the Roman empires. Unlike Chinese coins which depended on base metals, these new coins were made from precious metals such as silver, bronze, and gold, which had more inherent value.

118 BC: Leather Money

Leather money was used in China in the form of one-foot-square pieces of white deerskin with colorful borders. This could be considered the first documented type of banknote.

800 - 900 AD: The Nose

The phrase “To pay through the nose” comes from Danes in Ireland, who slit the noses of those who were remiss in paying the Danish poll tax.

806 AD: Paper Currency

The first paper banknotes appeared in China. In all, China experienced over 500 years of early paper money, spanning from the ninth through the fifteenth century. Over this period, paper notes grew in production to the point that their value rapidly depreciated and inflation soared. Then beginning in 1455, the use of paper money in China disappeared for several hundred years. This was still many years before paper currency would reappear in Europe, and three centuries before it was considered common.

1500s: Potlach

“Potlach” comes from a Chinook Indian custom that existed in many North American Indian cultures. It is a ceremony where not only were gifts exchanged, but dances, feasts, and other public rituals were performed. In some instances potlach was a form of initiation into secret tribal societies. Because the exchange of gifts was so important in establishing a leader’s social rank, potlach often spiralled out of control as the gifts became progressively more lavish and tribes put on larger and grander feasts and celebrations in an attempt to out-do each other.

1535: Wampum

The earliest known use of wampum, which are strings of beads made from clam shells, was by North American Indians in 1535. Most likely, this monetary medium existed well before this date. The Indian word “wampum” means white, which was the color of the beads.

1816: The Gold Standard

Gold was officially made the standard of value in England in 1816. At this time, guidelines were made to allow for a non-inflationary production of standard banknotes which represented a certain amount of gold. Banknotes had been used in England and Europe for several hundred years before this time, but their worth had never been tied directly to gold. In the United States, the Gold Standard Act was officialy enacted in 1900, which helped lead to the establishment of a central bank.

1930: End of the Gold Standard

The massive Depression of the 1930’s, felt worldwide, marked the beginning of the end of the gold standard. In the United States, the gold standard was revised and the price of gold was devalued. This was the first step in ending the relationship altogether. The British and international gold standards soon ended as well, and the complexities of international monetary regulation began.

The Present:

Today, currency continues to change and develop, as evidenced by the new $100 US Ben Franklin bill.

The Future: Electronic Money

Digital cash in the form of bits and bytes will most likely become an important new currency of the future.

From Nova PBS

Posted in Spiritual Questions | Leave Comments »

Spiritual Q and A - Falling in Love with a Teacher

April 10th, 2008 by shakti

Dear shakti,

What if you fall in love in with your teacher? How is it possible to make the difference between the two: the master and the lover?

Kind regards,
“A”

shakti’s response is below in red.

Dear “A”,

It is not rare that a student may have strong feelings and attraction to her* spiritual teacher. When a teacher carries immense prana, (energy or life force), he may glow with a charisma that may be very attractive. If the teacher experiences oneness he may generate a field of the energy of unconditional love around him which the student will long to bask in permanently. If the teacher lives a healthy and clean lifestyle he may radiate physical beauty which appears to shine from within.

In addition, the teacher becomes the provider for the hungry student. He holds the most nutrition (”food for thought”) that the student craves. As a provider of wisdom, depth, and direction, the teacher may present the ultimate parent figure that most of us always yearn for but never had. When these exceptional qualities affect the student (who is in a constant state of lacking energetically) the only thing the student wishes for is to merge with her teacher. When the student finds herself physically attracted to her teacher an internal conflict arises between the “ordinary” feelings on a man-woman level and the wish to keep the connection outside and above the ordinary.

There is no need to separate the master from the lover. Masters often conduct their teaching to their students with the passion of a lover even when physicality is not involved. At the same time lovers should take the role of being a master:

Mastering the art of making love,
Mastering the art of serving,
Mastering ones own lust, etc.

If the Master/teacher brings his high frequency vibration to the love affair and is able to lift his student’s/lover’s energy to his frequency, this relationship will be free of:

Emotional abuse,
Jealousy,
Manipulation,
Demands,
Expectations,
Attachments,
Pain and suffering.

The problem arises when the teacher lowers his frequency to the student’s vibration and the relationship originates from an engagement of two small needy minds. This can end with pain and heartbreak, as the student and teacher are not in the same place of power. The student is often in a fragile and confused state.

Sometimes the so-called “teacher” never operates from a high frequency of consciousness. The teacher simply appears wise, but is actually just as needy as his student. This is when you hear about cases of spiritual teachers preying on the weak and gullible disciples for their own selfish satisfaction.

The bottom line is:

It is pretentious to say that a spiritual teacher should not have a love affair with a student, as life is a dance and most teachers interact mainly with students.

If you engage in a love affair with your teacher, make sure it is a master who walks his talk; otherwise you will end up with a low frequency love affair that brings about all the suffering and pain you already experienced in your past relationships.

If and when you do engage with a teacher romantically do not dismiss yourself by following blindly without questioning, as you are not less a master yourself.

True love will never cause pain.

Namaste,
shakti

*As the question came from a female my reply is from the point of view of love affair between a male teacher and a female student. Please feel free to reverse the sexes in any way it suits you as the spirit is the same for all other combinations (female teacher, male students etc), as long as all those involved are adults and coherent!

Posted in Spiritual Questions | Leave Comments »

Spiritual Q and A - Teaching Yoga…More Than Meets the Assumption.

April 9th, 2008 by shakti

Dear shakti,
I have just moved to a smaller town and the teaching opportunities here are MINIMAL. There is a yoga studio in town but their classes now are not that full as it is. During these few years while I am here (I’ve moved to go back to university) should I be concerned that I won’t be teaching as often as I was before? My instincts tell me that it will pass and that it will all unfold as it is supposed to… and I’m ok with that. I just thought that I would turn to my teacher for some guidance in case there is something I am not thinking of.

I hope this finds you well. I love the new hair cut!

With love,
Joanne

shakti’s response is below in red.

Dear Joanne,

Do not waste your time by assuming what is coming or by being concerned as a result of comparing your future that is not in existence yet, or with what occurred in the past that is not in existence any more.
Assumptions and concerns are what freezes us from being creative and authentic, as you already set the tone in your mind for how things should unfold in reality.

Do what ever needs to be done.

Teaching one class is like teaching the whole word.

Be creative and come from the right intention, quality and love, versus quantity.

You said you are going to university. University is already a great opportunity for teaching. You have endless students that need yoga. You may need to educate them about the power of yoga. Do it step by step. Maybe you can offer in one of the many university events an open class introducing yoga. Maybe you can write in the university news letter about yoga. Offer classes to the staff members. Place posters on the boards. Enhance the yoga benefits for students: increasing concentration, relaxing the nervous system, helps to sleep better etc. Create one evening where people can come and meditate together. Become the yoga expert for your university. The sky is the limit.

Start teaching one class and the rest will roll on its own.

Love shakti

Posted in All About Yoga, Shakti Writings, Spiritual Questions | Leave Comments »