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ADVANCED POSE

Having taught at the 1st Egypt Yoga Festival lastyear, I was honoured to be asked to teach againthis year, particularly as Lama Tensing was tobe present. The organiser, Hossam Darwish ofT.E.N. Tours, engaged the services of Anthony

Sadasiva, Director of Yogasynthesis in New York as executive con-sultant to the festival. With people coming from South America,USA, Europe, Asia and the Middle East it was an internationaland truly memorable experience. The aim of the festival was tobring together highly experienced and multi-dimensional teachersfrom several continents to share their knowledge in an openatmosphere. Festival participants of all levels were able to explorenot only their own practice but to experience diversity in the dif-fering threads of Yoga teachings and gain knowledge and under-standing of its philosophy and science.

This year the festival took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotelin Taba Heights, a resort situated near the top of the Gulf ofAqaba in Sinai developed by Orascom. It is a beautiful location,nestling between mountains and the sea. The stunning architec-ture of the hotel with its wonderful gardens created a serene envi-ronment. One of the aims of the Festival was to enable partici-pants to expand their own creativity and spirituality, and most ofall to unify in the quest for “Global Peace”. Thus it was poignantthat from the beach we could see Eilat in Israel to our left, Jordandirectly in front and Saudi Arabia across to our right.

The opening ceremony, consisting of Bedouin music anddance, took place in the Hyatt’s Bedouin encampment in a wadi(deep mountain valley) on the evening of our arrival.

Subsequently, our days would start at six AM with meditationon the beach just after sunrise. There followed three different abil-ity levels of classes held either on the beach, in the gardens orinside. Lectures and workshops followed breakfast with furtherones after lunch. During the afternoon we had free time to appre-ciate the beach and the local area. We would resume in theevening with a yoga class, lecture and dinner. All in all we hadvery full and fulfilling days.

The yoga teachers came from a wide variety of traditions. Iprovided dynamic-flow yoga classes set to music from a broad baseof Indian, African and Celtic origins. Lila Leuzzi from Braziltaught Kundalini yoga. This is a very spiritual form of yogainclined towards meditation and seeking a higher state of con-sciousness, making great use of sound with the aid of gongs and aShurti Box (reed drone instrument). Jayadev Jaerschky is originallyfrom Germany and now a member of the Ananda community

near Assis in Italy. Ananda specialises in community living and inapplying spiritual principles to every aspect of life.

Jonathan Panks, a singer-songwriter and teacher of hatha yogabased in Florida, not only taught his classes, he also delivered aconcert of his music based on his life and observations of Americanhistory and social change. Guru Dileep Kumar and Dr NanditaDevi a husband and wife from India and the US, taught classesbased on Gurukula yoga. This powerful and therapeutic form freesup prana by dissolving energy blocks. Yoga Mata Guru Wafaa fromCairo is an artist as well a yoga teacher. Wafaa’s classes combined acreative, energetic and compassionate style using dance moves. DrYogita Mehta is originally from Gujarat in India and is now teach-ing hatha yoga at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations inCairo. She specialises in yoga and ayurveda.

Some of the lectures and workshops were presented by theteachers, others by particular specialists. Stephen Quong is a VedicAstrologer from California. He practices Jyotisha (the science oflight in Sanskrit) which originated in India over 6,000 years ago.His lectures showed the links between astrology, yoga and spiritual-ity.

Swami Ramaswarupananda is from the Divine Life SocietySivananda Ashram near Uttarhashi in the Himalayas. He presentedlectures on How to Cultivate Virtues, Thought Power and AnIntroduction to the 8 Limbs of Raja Yoga. Mahgo Suh is originallyfrom the Korean mountains but now lives in the US. She ran aworkshop to introduce the Dado tea ceremony that has been hand-ed down through her family for generations and later demonstratedthe full ceremony.

The state of our health,according to yoga psychology, is the

balanced flow of energy(prana) through all theenergy circuits of the

mind and body. When this flow gets interrupted, by interfering with or break-

ing some laws of Nature, the body begins to revolt. This revolt isseen and experienced in the form of different symptoms, discom-fort and disease. Ancient people knew how to re-establish the lost

YOGA IN EGYPT

Egypt’s second

International Yoga FestivalWords: Heather George Taba Heights, Sinai – March 2007

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harmony and rhythm of the body andmind by utilizing the power of sound. Thesystem is called Nada Yoga (the Yoga ofSound).

G S Sachdev, a world leading expo-nent of Nada Yoga, plays the Bansuri flute,one of the oldest instruments in existence.Sachdev ran two workshops on theFoundations of Nada Yoga where heexplained the two bases of Indian classicalmusic – the “raga”, the melodic form andthe “tala,” or time measure. At the secondworkshop he was joined by TapanBhattacharya, a leading tabla player origi-nally from India and now based inBarcelona, Spain. Tapan explained thestructured rhythms played on the tabla andhow they fit with the flute. On our lastevening, with Anthony Sadasiva on theTanpura (a four-stringed, fretless droneinstrument), they provided a beautiful clas-sical Indian music concert. Having had thetheory explained in the workshops, wewere able to fully appreciate the complexmusic and the musicianship.

Lama Tensing Yignen is originallyfrom Namgyal Monastery, the personalmonastery of the Dali Lama in Tibet, andis now based in New York. He deliveredlectures on the Basic Thoughts andPractices of Meditation, the Four NobleTruths, and Developing Love, Compassionand Kindness. The rest of the time hespent creating the Mandala of Buddha ofCompassion. This intricate design is abouta metre across and made from different-coloured rice flour. He started by chantingand then laid out the blueprint of theMandala. Tensing applied the flour from along metal funnel called a Chakpu, startingat the middle and working out. This took anumber of days. At a concluding specialceremony he explained the meaning of theMandala in terms of the symbols included.He emphasised that he was not creating awork of art or something of material value,but engaging in a process that benefits himand also serves to benefit others. A key tothis is the absence of attachment, which

was reinforced as we all helped to dismantlethe mandala, putting the flour into a jar.We then formed a procession to the shoresof the Gulf of Aqaba, chanting Om ManiPadme Hum. Here Lama Tensing contin-ued to chant as he poured the flour into thewaters to send the compassion off to all.The fact that Israel, Jordan and SaudiArabia are within sight, and just a few kilo-metres away, made this very poignant. Thisis the first time this Buddhist ceremony hasbeen performed in an Islamic country.Everyone was very aware of the significanceof this and was touched by it.

So a deep thank you to HossamDarwish and the team from T.E.N. Tours,Anthony Sadasiva , Nikki Priestley fromOrascom together with the staff of theHyatt Regency for organising and hostingsuch a special event.

T.E.N. Tours are now planning theThird Yoga Festival after the great success ofthe first two. It will take place on 7th to15th April 2008 (see www.egyptyogafesti-val.net). This time the festival will be splitacross two sites. The first two days will bespent in Giza with yoga classes, lectures,workshops with teachers from across theworld. This will include encircling andembracing the Khufu Pyramid in an ancientceremony of Unity and Peace. On the thirdday we will travel across the sacred andmagical Sinai to Taba Heights to continuethe festival. I am trying to encourage asmany people as possible to attend next yearand share this wonderful experience. If youare interested please contact me atheather@omtropy.com.

Heather George (www.omtropy.com) is a yoga, Pilates and ChiBall teacher andlife coach from Staines and was represent-ing the Independent Yoga Network. Sheteaches in spas, health clubs & schoolsand for the CRISIS homeless charity, andruns classes, workshops, retreats andcourses on stress management for privateand corporate clients.

YOGA IN EGYPT

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