remembering new york - yoga style -
a yogi's perspective
We can never imagine what fate has in store for us when we make a new journey. Byron Shire yogi, Rachel Zinman, left the green hills of Goonengerry nearly five years ago for the concrete jungle of New York City. She went there with her husband, Nyck Jeanes. His plans were to explore the possibility of broadcasting in NY. Many readers will be familiar with his Letter from New York on BayFM and often printed in the Echo. For Rachel it was a journey that led her to an authentic yoga teacher in an urban setting.
The yoga scene in New York is diverse; in every section of the city there's a loft or warehouse space dedicated to yoga; yoga mats are a regular accessory on the shoulder of the seasoned subway traveller; ads for organic soymilk with yogis in impossible poses are splashed on Times Square billboards, and its common to see meditators chanting mantras on park benches. One of the main reasons yoga is booming is that the stress of 9/11 caused many urbanites to re-examine their lives and find new ways to deal with that stress.
With so many places and styles on offer it's hard to imagine that yoga in a big city can be both authentic and innovative. Rachel was fortunate enough to find Be Yoga and to work with Alan Finger, the founder of ISHTA Yoga. Ishta is a style of yoga that combines the ancient sciences of hatha yoga (the physical practices of yoga) tantra (the yogic philosophy that honours the perfection in all beings) and ayurveda (the science of life). It's also a practice that tailors itself to the needs of the individual.
Alan Finger is a South African who grew up practicing yoga with his father Mani, who was initiated by Paramahansa Yogananda, the author of Autobiography of a Yogi. Alan's father was so inspired by his meeting with Yogananda that he founded an ashram in his home and invited many different Indian babas and gurus from different lineages to share their wisdom with his family and friends. At the age of 15 Alan, overweight and suffering from anxiety, asked his father to teach him yoga. After six months of practice Alan had lost weight and began to reach spaces of stillness and bliss he had never thought possible. Alan, with the encouragement of his mentor Swami Venkatesananda, Sivananda's main disciple, began to teach and share his experience of samadhi (a connection with unbound, unlimited consciousness) through the practice of shaktipat. Shaktipat is handed down from guru to disciple and is an experience that can bring on shaking, colours, amazing states of bliss and lightness, or an emptiness and stillness that is indescribable. Shaktipat is an initiation into a higher aspect of the self. Alan's passion for teaching led him to LA where he founded Yoga Works and then to New York.
For Rachel meeting Alan was like coming home. It wasn't long before she was teaching in his school, writing and running the Teachers Training program, facilitating and mentoring students within the program and assisting Alan in his weekly classes. One of the most profound experiences for Rachel was being in the city on 9/11. She was at the yoga studio when the planes hit the towers. Alan lived downtown and was running from a burning building and couldn't teach his class. Instead of closing the studio Rachel and other teachers decided to lead a meditation. On that morning forty yogis sat in stillness sending compassion to those suffering as the sirens screamed down the streets and the towers crumbled. It took Rachel seven hours to get home walking with her two children and thousands of others over the 59th St. Bridge. There was an incredible feeling in the air, a mixture of fear, devastation, humour and love. People were laughing and telling jokes as if there was a party happening. It seems that New Yorkers are incredibly resilient and handle pressure extremely well due to the intensity of living together as they do, squashed into subways, living the New York minute.
"Being in the presence of a loving and compassionate yoga teacher is a gift wherever you are, working with someone like Alan in a crazy place like New York post 9/11 was incredibly healing. He always gave a clear and honest reflection of the truth in the moment. Asking his students to fill their hearts with compassion for the suffering of others while keeping the bigger picture in mind. Life according to yogic philosophy is a complex web of illusion with fear distracting us from the never-ending and unchanging stability of our greater consciousness. Alan believes that a steady meditation practice is the antidote for any unrest in these complicated times." Rachel shares.
After four years in New York, Nyck and Rachel have returned to Byron Shire. When Rachel moved to New York it was the spirit of Byron that gave her a unique approach to teaching, it was also that spirit that resonated with Alan and the reason why he felt that Rachel should become a part of his school. Now it's ISHTA yoga that has deepened her connection with the thriving, and diverse yoga community that exists in this Shire. Rachel will be teaching an ISHTA yoga workshop on balancing the chakra system in January as well as running the ISHTA system teacher training in Byron Bay in March.
