For Kevin’s website (with his classes and workshops) pls go to www.kevingardiner.net
02 January 2009
Dear Friends,
A soundless snow, so light it seems not to be falling at all but turning back and whispering at the windows, this morning, the first of the year, my third year, in Budapest, brought me back to TSEliot’s voice :
“…Last year’s words belong to last year’s language
and next year’s words await another voice”
So, standing at the window a quiet prayer rose up me.
That this year’s words be words of PEACE,
a language unhindered,
from the Voice of LOVE.
“…A condition of complete simplicity
And all shall be well
And all manner of thing shall be well.”
From our window looking towards the River and the Buda hills Erika and I send you all our best wishes for the New Year.
For us 2008 was full of discovery and changes that brought us to a partnership and our own little yoga studio, The Amrita Yoga Center, right across the street. We are thankful for all the support we have received and the encouragement to move forward from a lovely and growing community of earnest Iyengar yoga students. You can have a look at: www.amritajoga.hu
…for info and details. If your Hungarian is not up to snuff, click “classes in English”.
I got to travel quite a bit this year with teaching in Stockholm, and Munich, and a wonderful week on the Aran Island of Inishmor. A workshop with Lois Steinberg took us to a small town outside of Krakow, Poland. I liked the long train rides through the planes and mountains of Central Europe. Quiet alternatives to the intensity of airports and flying.
I got to travel quite a bit this year with teaching in Stockholm, and Munich, and a wonderful week on the Aran Island of Inishmor. A workshop with Lois Steinberg took us to a small town outside of Krakow, Poland. I liked the long train rides through the planes and mountains of Central Europe. Quiet alternatives to the intensity of airports and flying.
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploration
Will be to arrive at where we started
And know the place for the first time” TSE
I was at the New York Institute for August where I was blessed to have some precious moments with Mary Dunn and be with all of my friends and colleagues at this sad time of loss, or as she herself so wonderfully said, at this time of “beginning and resolution”. I will be in NY again in February for the “Celebration of Mary’s Life” at the Institute on the 14th and 15th. The following weekend, 21-22 I’ll be teaching in Woodstock. For details: www.barbaraborisyoga.com
Summer plans are still in the works but October and November we will be in India at the Institute in Pune. Please check the web for my whereabouts this year (Stockholm, Dublin, NY, the moon) and of course it’s such a thrill for me to see a familiar face on this side of the River. I do my best to keep it all up to date…and translated into English. Our web addresses: www.kevingardiner.net and www.iyengaryogabudapest.com
We are very happy that our friend Bobby Clennell, author of “The Woman’s Yoga Book” will be coming to Budapest to teaching a weekend residential workshop in a quiet town a short distance from Budapest, on woman’s issues, the first weekend of May. Details will be posted very soon.
Finally I invite you to have a look at the last week of May when we will again
A week of retreat and Yoga on the Aran Island of Inishmor off the West coast of Ireland is a step out of time into an ancient landscape and that dimension of nature that brings an effortless stillness and inspiration. You may check the details on www.LateWisdom.com
With our thanks and Best wishes.
For words of Peace and
The voice of Love,
Kevin & Erika
Summer plans are still in the works but October and November we will be in India at the Institute in Pune. Please check the web for my whereabouts this year (Stockholm, Dublin, NY, the moon) and of course it’s such a thrill for me to see a familiar face on this side of the River. I do my best to keep it all up to date…and translated into English. Our web addresses: www.kevingardiner.net and www.iyengaryogabudapest.com
We are very happy that our friend Bobby Clennell, author of “The Woman’s Yoga Book” will be coming to Budapest to teaching a weekend residential workshop in a quiet town a short distance from Budapest, on woman’s issues, the first weekend of May. Details will be posted very soon.
Finally I invite you to have a look at the last week of May when we will again
“Return to Inishmor”
A week of retreat and Yoga on the Aran Island of Inishmor off the West coast of Ireland is a step out of time into an ancient landscape and that dimension of nature that brings an effortless stillness and inspiration. You may check the details on www.LateWisdom.com
With our thanks and Best wishes.
For words of Peace and
The voice of Love,
Kevin & Erika
4 September 2008
In Loving memory
It was sometime in 1984 that I first walked into Mary Dunn’s class on the Upper West Side. It was delight at first sight. The teaching was challenging, sensitive, and enthusiastic, and a clear voice of intelligence and encouragement wound its way through me. Something was awakened in me. From her there was a sense of being surrounded by a sustained sensitivity, a kind of grace, and clarity of intelligence, spontaneous and insightful, always and intentionally poised for discovery. I and many others, knew our teacher had arrived, with a love for the art of teaching… and there was much to learn about the art of learning. I felt so very fortunate and that has never left me.
As I read these lines from TSEliott’s Four Quartets, and I thought of Mary…
As I read these lines from TSEliott’s Four Quartets, and I thought of Mary…
“…yet surrounded by a grace of sense, a white light still and moving.”
Mary’s “Grace of sense” spread out like a light and inspired a community of teachers to come together. So, we, and our students learned. As our teacher she also accepted the responsibility to lead and over the years has inspired not only in the classroom but by skillful communication and boundless energy working together in countless meetings, and with enormous good will, Mary has been the light of inspiration that has knit together this extraordinary community known as the Iyengar Yoga Association Of Greater New York….and together we have carved out an even greater dream of having this singularly preeminent Institute of Iyengar Yoga…in fact I dare say there would be no association with out her, nor it’s extraordinary Institute.
“…yet surrounded by a grace of sense, a white light still and moving.”
It is exactly this… a still light of insight that has not only enabled us as teachers to shape our words and as practitioners to expand our horizons but a light that has often brought us to the profound intersection of Time and Soul.
It is this light moving that has enabled us as colleagues all to sit and press into difficulty together and sort out our differences and move forward, and share our vision together, to serve our community, our students, and our association that supports us, with gratitude and Love.
…light still and moving…insight and action… generous, courageous, unwavering and consistent for all these years, since the beginning…she has brought out the best in us, and it is cause for tribute and it is what sets our strong course for the future.
And now with such heavy hearts of grief we mourn her passing and count ourselves among the very fortunate to have had some time with her in this “drift of stars.” She was a true Yogi and taught the whole subject from beginning to the end. And of the millions of brilliant things she said in the thousands of hours of teachings I will never forget her saying as we sat one morning for the invocation… “Now as you lift and open your chest …be there…in the House of Elation”.
For me, this is what she taught, this is what she was really building, and as we set our course for the future, and open and lift our chests…this is where we will find her,
It is this light moving that has enabled us as colleagues all to sit and press into difficulty together and sort out our differences and move forward, and share our vision together, to serve our community, our students, and our association that supports us, with gratitude and Love.
…light still and moving…insight and action… generous, courageous, unwavering and consistent for all these years, since the beginning…she has brought out the best in us, and it is cause for tribute and it is what sets our strong course for the future.
And now with such heavy hearts of grief we mourn her passing and count ourselves among the very fortunate to have had some time with her in this “drift of stars.” She was a true Yogi and taught the whole subject from beginning to the end. And of the millions of brilliant things she said in the thousands of hours of teachings I will never forget her saying as we sat one morning for the invocation… “Now as you lift and open your chest …be there…in the House of Elation”.
For me, this is what she taught, this is what she was really building, and as we set our course for the future, and open and lift our chests…this is where we will find her,
…”I can only say, there we have been: but I can not say where.
And I can not say how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded by a grace of sense,
a white light, still and moving.”
And I can not say how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded by a grace of sense,
a white light, still and moving.”
In Loving Memory,
Kevin
Kevin
And now remembrances:
Over the years every class I took with her was an inspiration and I never left a class of hers that did not leave me astonished at her unique ability to transmit extraordinary profundity with simplicity and ease. Not to mention her wonderful sense of humor, metaphor, playfulness and fun.
Some time ago at the 24th St. Institute…It was Holloween and the word went out that the Tuesday morning class was “costume optional”. Well, we were all a bit shy even though the suggestion came from the students, and none of us actually gave it much thought…But on that Tuesday there was our delightful Mary in cat whiskers and tail and a little black nose in absolute earnest…”…now when you go to the side…Lift your chest.
Over the years every class I took with her was an inspiration and I never left a class of hers that did not leave me astonished at her unique ability to transmit extraordinary profundity with simplicity and ease. Not to mention her wonderful sense of humor, metaphor, playfulness and fun.
Some time ago at the 24th St. Institute…It was Holloween and the word went out that the Tuesday morning class was “costume optional”. Well, we were all a bit shy even though the suggestion came from the students, and none of us actually gave it much thought…But on that Tuesday there was our delightful Mary in cat whiskers and tail and a little black nose in absolute earnest…”…now when you go to the side…Lift your chest.
2008-2009. Kevin Gardiner. All rights reserved.
