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I would like to open by offering my deep respects and thanks to my teachers, whose guidance has enabled me to grow in the path of yoga. These practices have offered me stability, strength, balance, openness and love. I am forever grateful to this direct contact and all those who came before, invested their life in learning about how to live and passed on the teachings. Only this has placed me in a position to teach. In addition, each day I learn from my young son, Sean, and loving wife, Jutima. Daily interaction with students keeps me reflecting on myself and helping me to grow. My yoga path has been grounded in certain practices, growing in intensity over the years. However, their influence and effect has refined my behaviour and helped how I live in this world and interact with others. My direct teachers are O.P. Tiwari and Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. These masters have built my practice, grounded me and how I teach and allowed for deep inner growth. My practices have been built on ashtanga vinyasa asana and authentic pranayama. Early on I was exposed to most asana approaches and many different gurus and lineages of teachings. But growth only comes from dedication and practice of a particular approach and letting go of your ego to go under that teacher's direct guidance. It is really the path had me more than I made such a decision and this became clear as I realised I knew nothing. All I have really done is wholeheartedly commit to the practice and living of what I am taught, aiming to understand it, apply and then pass it on in the realm of teaching. All these really ground the student in meditation which I have been fortunate to settle in and practice 'being' daily. I have made it a point to look into Buddhism and other approaches but it is really my teacher's influence and guidance that has directed me mostly within to the realm of meditation.
O.P. Tiwari is an accomplished yogi from India, head of the Kaivalyadham Yoga Research Institute, Lonavla. He is one of the few remaining sources on pranayama and the true practice of yoga. Many who do not understand separate yoga from meditation. Yet the yoga practices with the breath lead one to the deep state of meditation and inner growth. He has taught me pranayama, philosophy and other deeper levels of the practice, only taking myself and one other through the entire pranayama system. I am most grateful to him and to the belief he continues to have in me. I continue to spend extended periods of time in study and practice with him and he also loves to spend time with us in Thailand. I have been trained extensively in ashtanga vinyasa yoga, as taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. I have had the good fortune to study with him and his grandson, Sharath, and I continue to do so in Mysore, India. Both Guruji and Sharath have given me specific authorization to teach this system. I have gone through the advanced series and keep a daily committed practice only because I love it and know its power and benefit. But it took many years to discover this through perseverance and many growing pains. It has grounded with a deep understanding and execution of asana and how to teach it to others.
On
pilgrimage at the holy Mount Kailash, 2002 Prior to all this I grew up in Ireland and completed a degree in Economics and Business at Trinity College, Dublin. I discovered yoga in 1995 in New York. I did not go out in to the world with any notion of becoming a yoga teacher but life presents you with things. I had worked in business and entertained my passion for acting yet yoga and the spiritual path strongly called me and I could not refuse. I taught in New York for four years and by late 2001 moved to Asia and have been based in Thailand since, teaching there and internationally. My initial intention of leaving New York was to go deep into the practices. I have been fortunate to spend a lot of time in India with my teachers, meeting other masters and on pilgrimage. After many years of such immersion I could not avoid the pull to teach and found Thailand becoming the base, especially as Jutima had been born there. Yoga Thailand and the Institute were started so the teaching of courses, trainings and retreats could properly and authentically be given.
Back bend adjustment with Sharath in Mysore
In early days I studied with many of the leading yoga teachers and found Richard Freeman to be most inspiring. Prior to this I practiced many of the other forms, trained and certified with Om Yoga in New York, yet found ashtanga the most profound and transforming approach. I have spent much time living on and practicing at the Sivananda ashrams, and some other ashrams in India and the US. I feel these have contributed to a well-roundedness in the approach to yoga and teaching it. Thank you for taking the time to 'meet' me. I hope we can do so in person at some stage.
Om Namah Sivaya
I was raised in a Buddhist household in Bangkok,Thailand and was transported to the Western life in America when I was 10 years old. Meditation and spiritual studies have always been part of my family traditional life. I am grateful for the loving spirit of my grandfather who has and continues to guide me along the way. I received my education in international business at the University of Georgia and spent many years working up the ladder in the corporate world. I really started yoga as a recreational practice as a time for me to de-stress from my hectic city schedule. At 26 years old, I was living a comfortable life style in New York City and thought I had everything in life I had ever wanted. As yoga slowly became an integral part of my life, I knew there was something more beyond my secured "safe" sense of security.
The desire for deeper studies and spiritual practices were a strong calling for Paul and I. Being with a partner who shared the same desire in life, we convinced ourselves that we would go in search for our teachers and more spiritual studies. So on September 18, 2001, we packed up our lives in NYC with a one way ticket to Asia. I was nervous, scared and excited at the same time. I had not been back to Thailand since I left as a child and so desired to spend more time in my birthplace. This was not an easy path but when we learnt to somehow surrender to the process, things began to happen. This I can not explain.
Two great smiles: Sean and Tiwariji I
have been a direct student of Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois and Sharath
Rangaswamy for many years now. I first met them in NY in 2000 and
have been with them every year in Mysore ever since. I am
also extremely grateful to have the direct guidance of Sri OP Tiwari,
known to us as "Tiwariji", in our lives. His strong
force and teachings continues to evolve who we are, what we do and
how we teach everyday. He is grandfather figure and a teacher
to me. We are so blessed to have Tiwariji spend a few months
a year with us in Thailand. Without these direct guidance
of our teachers, this would not be possible. I am honored,
and feel blessed, to share with you these experiences through the
creation of Yoga Thailand.
Thank you for taking the time to "meet" me. I feel it's an important step for you to do before you decide to come visit us. Om Shanti
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