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Les hommes et le yoga: des obstacles à arriver au tapis?
Par Jason Wachob

Beaucoup de gars ne s’essayent pas au yoga. Alors quel est le plus grand obstacle qu’un homme rencontre avant sa première classe ?

David Regelin: je pense que la plupart des types abordent le yoga comme ils le feraient d’un sport. Vous choisissez un sport selon vos aptitudes. Les grands jouent au basketball, les costauds jouent au football américain, les coureurs rapides jouent au football, etc. Alors si vous n’êtes pas flexible et si vous avez un mauvais équilibre, vous pourriez penser que le yoga n’est pas pour vous parce que vous ne commencerez pas avec un avantage compétitif. Mais c’est exactement la raison pour laquelle le yoga est pour vous. Vous devenez flexible et fort au fur et à mesure que vous pratiquez. Et vous apprenez à être efficient. Vous apprenez vraiment une méthode pour engager et relâcher les muscles à volonté. Vous commencez aussi à contrôler votre esprit en contrôlant votre respiration.

Studies in Sanskrit: Yoga

(Taken from Grasping at Intangibles. Used with permission)

One could say that yoga headed West in the 1960s, and be mostly right. When Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became the very public spiritual advisor for The Beatles in 1967, a whole generation felt the call to seek the ancient wisdom of the East, and the counterculture found a beat it could march to. By August of 1969, Sri Swami Satchidanana was giving the opening address at the Woodstock Music Festival to nearly 500 000 open hearted explorers. Both yoga and TM (Transcendental Meditation) exploded onto the scene from seemingly nowhere.

The truth is that the information had been inching it's way across the continents for decades: 

Swami Vivekananda traveled to China, Europe, Canada, and America before the turn of the 20th century, speaking about Hinduism and Buddhism at the Parliament of World's Religions in Chicago in 1893. He is quoted as saying in one of his American speeches: 

"I do not come to convert you to a new belief. I want you to keep your own belief; I want to make the Methodist a better Methodist; the Presbyterian a better Presbyterian; the Unitarian a better Unitarian. I want to teach you to live the truth, to reveal the light within your own soul"

illustrating the fact that yoga has and always will be, the path rather than the destination. By 1895 he was teaching yoga classes in the Thousand Island region.

The word yoga comes from the root word "yuj" meaning to yoke, or control, which of course makes sense when we consider the discipline involved in pranayama (breath work), or even in maintaining a consistent practice. The word also means "union", and this is the commonly accepted meaning. 

Unifying with what, then becomes the question. From even a secular position, yoga can be used to remind us the non-duality of everything. We are part of the eco-system, the universe, the collective subconscious; our existence depends on our neighbors, on our planet, and vice versa. From a spiritual point of view, we are connected not only to all that we see and understand, but we are also made of the same celestial pixiesticks and cosmic rainbows as our neighbors: the spark that makes them human makes us human; our souls can relate to other souls; we are all drops of God, even if we call God by a different name. Simply, thou art that.

There are as many paths toward union as there are creatures seeking them, and the truth is, you don't need to unroll a mat to be in yoga. Sure, physical practice helps to get you there (hatha, raja & kriya yogas), but devotional practices (bhakti yoga),  or philosophical approaches (jnana yoga) will as well. In all honesty, whatever leaves you feeling in tune with all that is, will be, and ever was, is your best path to union. Whether it be composing a song or dancing the night away, your sense of fulfillment and completion is the goal behind each route. Be yoga now.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new online home for the HappyTree Yoga community!

Whether you're a regular smiling face at the studio, looking to find a new place to unroll your mat, or new to yoga and looking for a starting point (and a mat!), you're in the right place.

All HappyTree classes are given on a drop-in basis, which means that you can try a class without ever having to commit to a style, a schedule, or a membership package. We do of course have Class Cards as well as Monthly and Annual packages.

Our teachers are skilled, approachable, dedicated people, eager to help you explore the joys of yoga on and off the mat, and our studio is a lovely oasis amid the concrete, only steps away from downtown.

What makes us special is the sense of inclusive and loving community that HappyTree offers. Smiles live here. Friendships have been planted at HappyTree, and grown well beyond these walls. Laughter and tears find safety here, in a place where it's understood that humanity is something that we truly are in together.

We have danced, sung, raised glasses and given out countless hugs since we opened in the fall of 2007, and we've certainly only begun.

Feel free to stop in for a class, a tour, a cup of lovingly homemade yogi tea, or just a moment of peace. We look forward to meeting you.

Visit us online at happytreeyoga.com, or call with any questions you may have at (514)846-YOGA.