Yoga SCOTLAND have to say, ‘hmm—I don’t think you know what you are talking about.’ Jivamukti means liberation for the soul – all souls, not just human souls. To become truly liberated, we must rid ourselves of prejudice. Asana and meditation practice can help. Bhakti can help. Being vegan can help. But no practice will be effective unless we are willing to open our minds and hearts to see beyond the ‘reality’ presented to us by our culture, which has conditioned us to see other animals as inferior and even soulless. Many spiritual and religious traditions insist that animals don’t have souls or that they don’t have the type of souls which would allow them to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, citing that the human birth is the only birth that affords the chance for spiritual realisation. To work to dispel this type of ignorance and to awaken to the truth that all beings are endowed with consciousness and the yearning for happiness and freedom is a noble pursuit. Non-human animals are more like us than most humans would like to admit – they are people too – individual individual persons with the capacity to think, to contemplate to feel emotions and communicate through language. Human beings are not the only species capable of evolving towards enlightenment. To insist that we are is to be bound in ignorance and deluded by prejudice. Speciesism (hate for other animals) is a deeply ingrained prejudice, perhaps even more so than misogyny (hate for women), which is deep enough. But the good news is that prejudices are not hardwired in us; they are learned behaviours and what is learned can be unlearned. With compassion, humility and sincere desire, we can shift our perception and be able to see others so clearly and deeply that otherness disappears and only truth remains. That truth will be seen as love itself – the nature of the soul – the ground of being for all of existence.
Tayside Yoga SEMINAR PROGRAMME AUTUMN 2015 BOTH SEMINARS IN Nilupul Centre 51 Reform Street Dundee DD1 1SL Date 4 October 29 November
Teacher Ann Hunter Tina Gilbert
Sunday mornings: 09.45 – 12.45 Admission: £15 Further details from: Frances Morgan 07732 696 802 or, please e-mail: taysideyogaassociation@hotmail.com
STUDIO OY YOGA OGA & PI PILATES LATES EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT
35% 3 5% off off most most products products ffor or Y Yoga oga T Teachers!* eachers!* Yoga & P Yoga Pilates ilates accessories, accessories, huge h uge cchoice hoice o off m mats, ats, p props, rops, cclothing lothing a and nd mu much ch m more! ore! **10% 10% o off ff Clothing Clothing & Media. Media.
Call 01 Call 01386 386 425922 425922 ffor or o our ur Y Yoga oga E quipment C atalogue or Equipment Catalogue or visit visit w w w.Yoga-Mad.com www.Yoga-Mad.com
studios at at Wholesale W holesale accounts accounts for for teachers teachers & studios w w w.Yoga-Mad.com/ Wholesale www.Yoga-Mad.com/Wholesale
TRADE ACCOUNT CARD 01386
859555
Fitness-Mad.com Yoga-Mad.com Pilates-Mad.com
27