The Joseph Yoga Blog

Quote of Year

October 24th, 2009

indian holocaust

“When they created America and their voting, Natives (American Indians) were excluded because we were the enemy, Blacks were excluded because they were property, Women were excluded because they were mentally inferior, and White Males who did not own land had no taxable value so they were excluded. So this theoretically majority rule thing was decided by the smallest numerical minority. So the decision was made by them to protect their interests and nothing has changed [to this very day]. – John Trudell

Taken from BENEATH THE SURFACE WITH ROSEANNE BARR on KPFK Radio. Listen here: http://kpfk.org/programs/171-beneath-the-surface-wroseanne-barr-a-johnny-argent/2669-roseanne-barr-and-john-trudell-102109.html

John Trudell is an acclaimed poet, national recording artist, actor and activist whose international following reflects the universal language of his words, work and message. John who is Santee Sioux was a spokesperson for the Indian of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971. He then worked with the American Indian Movement (AIM), serving as Chairman of AIM from 1973 to 1979.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Health Care Cure

August 15th, 2009

The Healthy Cell knows to give. The Sick Cell hold energy in to itself alone.

Yesterday in Malibu, I saw a booth set up to protest President Obama and his Health Care Reform plan. There was a large photo of our president and drawn on his face was a Hitler mustache. Two men stood by the booth spending time their time and money running it.

American citizens have given trillions of dollars since September 11th for war and bailouts, but money for sick Americans? — Now that’s a problem for many tax payers. We will give money for war because it’s for our own safety and protection supposedly. We will give money for bailouts because it’s to protect our major corporations and our economy. But money for sick people? Many say no. After all, what does that give to me? What is in it for me to help the sick?

Health Care Reform is a spiritual action and it requires the heart. And this is exactly what President Obama asked Congress to remember during their deliberations. Health Care Reform is asking us to share and help the poor and sick. It’s that simple. It is not attractive! Sharing is not fun! That’s why it’s hard to do! It’s far easier to be an animal that only thinks of itself! Health Care Reform is an extension of the work of Jesus, but many Christians have a problem with it. Jesus healed the sick and poor and spent time with those people. On the five sensory level Health Care Reform is money spent for no reason. Why does a middle or upper class American want to pay for a sick person with no insurance? Why can’t they pay for themselves? How does that affect me or benefit me to help? There is no apparent benefit for this contribution like there is for a bailout or war. On a spiritual level, Health Care Reform is a national action of lovingkindness and the benefits are for our soul. Every cell in the human body works for the benefit of the whole body and not for its individual self. The human cells don’t think for themselves. Did you know that the brain can feel all the pain of anywhere in the whole body but it cannot feel its own pain? Operate on a human brain and there is no need for novocaine. When we think of others, our problems don’t exist. As soon as a cell thinks of itself it becomes cancerous. Health Care Reform is a step to remove cancer from our own bodies, from the United States and from the world.

We need to look and see closely at what people protest so hard about. When a snake bites it does so because it’s afraid. Be like a lion. Be not afraid to love and share. Use the heart and feel the pain of others and the need of others. As Karen Berg from the Kabbalah Center says, “Only when an Israeli mother feels the pain of an Arab child and an Arab mother feels the pain of an Israeli child will there be peace on Earth.”

Posted in Health, Politics, Spiritual Laws | No Comments »

No Truth Again

August 2nd, 2009

I was excited to visit “truthaboutzits.com” in hopes to find a site dedicated to those who suffer from acne offering Truth about the skin disorder. Instead I find another glorified drug dealer — a pharmaceutical company — trying to drug up more Americans for profit.

Since there is no truth on this website other than carpet bagging drug dealing, I would like to offer some real truth on the subject.

Hormonal imbalance is the cause of acne. Hormonal imbalance is created from the fake foods we eat today in modern USA. These foods send our insulin levels to unnatural levels and create most of the health problems today including acne.

These foods are:

*white bread and pasta
*high fructose corn syrup
*chemicals like: artificial sweeteners (aspartame is in everything!) & fluoride
*sugary drinks, bars, cereals using sugar and fruit juices
*the lack of healthy fats and water.
*cheap vegetables like carrots, corn and potatoes

All these foods are created and manufactured because they save the manufactory money. These foods are made because they are cheap and they sadly are our poisons. Diet is the cause of acne. Acne is unfortunately just one of many side effects of diets full of the foods above. Scarily, acne is the most innocuous side effect.

This is the real truth about zits!

It’s very sad to see another company lying to children/teens/adults, taking more money and feeding people with yet another side effect laden drug that won’t solve the real cause.

Posted in Health | No Comments »

America’s Vision

May 27th, 2009

From the heart to the hand. Thought to Action

America’s vision is yet to be fully manifested. But we are close. The wheels of progress run slow. I can not express enough that the California Supreme Court’s decision to stand behind Prop 8 is not just a gay issue. It is an AMERICAN issue. I believe all Americans should rally behind this civil rights fight. It is quite ironic that GOP who claim to want the government out of their lives and love America’s freedom always disappear when these important issue are threatened. This is not the first time hypocrites walked the earth. When Jesus entered the temple and saw the merchants cheating and selling in the Temple he was outraged by the hypocracy of what people say they believe and what they actually do. There is a healthy anger. It means you are alive and you have wisdom and heart and passion.

I am a humanist. I am an American. I am a freedom fighter. And I am a against Proposition 8.

“My freedom is interconnected with everyone else’s freedom. If someone isn’t free — neither am I. I care because it’s about me too.” — A Summer Volunteer of the 60’s Civil Rights Movement

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Taking Off My Clothes

April 13th, 2009

Here I go...

In today’s Blog, I am going to get naked. I am going to do something that
really makes me uncomfortable but I know it’s going to help other people.

I met an angel recently. Like any real angel, they can’t be seen by
everyone and they are fleeting but leave a powerful impression on you.
This angel gave me more than just assistance, she breathed life into my
spirit and renewed strength in my life and in humanity.

I remember reading in BKS Iyengar’s books about the difficulties of being
a yoga teacher financially. It is a spiritual vocation. Old tradition of yoga
dictates that the teacher shouldn’t even touch money. This type of spiritual
practice is passed on from teacher to student without money. It is done
out of a moral duty and integrity and never meant to be a business. Yoga
teachers lived a life of simplicity and humility. But as Caroline Myss,
medical intuitive and spiritual author tells us, the days of sequestering
yourself in a monastery are over — you can not ask you boss for a
meditation break. We have the responsibility to merge the spiritual with
the mundane. It’s the age of Aquarius where wisdom is poured on all
people and no longer kept hidden. And as a result, we see practices like
yoga becoming apart of the business world and the extinction of spiritual
masters living a sequester life. Now spirituality has become mainstream.

Being a yoga teacher isn’t easy. Being anything isn’t easy. Every job is
difficult. And today as people around the whole world are loosing their
homes to foreclosure, as retirement funds vanquish, as children die from
hunger, I stand with many of you naked and admit I am one of them.

Some of you may be surprised to know that before Suzanne Somers was
a ditsy blond on Three’s Company she was a published author. One of
her books is called Keeping Secrets. Keeping Secrets is an
autobiography of her life as a child of an alcoholic. And what I learned
from the book was that secrets separate people. And there is a
separation between us if I drive around town pretending everything is OK
when at times it’s not. Do we do a service to others when we don’t admit
the truth? Do we do a service to each other when we pretend to be a
flawless cover page model? No we don’t.

I stand here naked in front you to admit that at times I haven’t had money to
eat. At times I have had to give pennies for gas. At times I have been
almost evicted from my apartment and my car repossessed. At times I
have had to beg for help. And yet like all of us we have to show up to work
with a smile.

Today’s economic times have found many of us in a similar situations. I
have heard about 50 year old Malibu residents having their cars
repossessed and thriving business owners living in tents. I am tired of
pretending I am immune to it. Having a lot of pride is helpful in a few
situations in life, but mostly it gets you in trouble. I know that to follow a
creative field like yoga isn’t easy. I know that the term starving artist was
coined for a reason. And I also know that even business professionals
have also found themselves in financial ruin as of late. I am not
complaining, but I wanted to get real and be honest with you my friends
and students. Keeping secrets only separates us and I wanted to come
clean.

The angel I met recently was a friend. I told her I didn’t know if I had money
to get to work and she came over and gave me all she had. She told me
how in the last several months, even with her graduate degree, she has
had to give the gas man pennies, is loosing her home and has cried
herself at night scared of what tomorrow brings. I couldn’t believe it. You
mean I am not the only one? In a town of luxury cars and homes and
beautiful people this was possible? I realized that we both took a chance
to reveal ourselves and we broke our hard ego shells and we were set
free. This angel, my friend, reached out and did whatever she could to
help me. Even with these difficult times, she brought me money. Over the
past months I have asked people with lots of money for a loan and they
have denied me. And I have asked people with a moderate incomes
willingly loan me like they were on the Forbes list. There is an old story
about everything in Heaven being only $1. From a Rolls Royce to a house
on the Mediterranean. Yet the only money we get to spend in Heaven is
the money we gave away hear on Earth.

If you are reading this and you have found yourself in a similar situation at
times I don’t know anything else more important than to let you know that
you are not alone. You are not alone. Those words have comforted so
many souls over the ages. In a town where some of the most wealthy
people in the world live, this is not an easy admission. But i wanted to let
you know that there are people out there who are willing to give their last
dollar to help someone else. I wanted you to know that you are not the only
one. I wanted you to know that angels are real. And i wanted you to see
more of the truth.

I thank my Angel today, yes for the money but most importantly for allowing
me to see that I too am not alone and for letting me see that selfless
compassionate acts of generosity do exist and for that we are as rich as
we can be.

I am one voice, and I am singing.
I am one voice, and I am singing.
I am one voice, and I am singing.
I am not alone.

We are two voices, and we are singing.
We are two voices and we are singing.
We are two voices, and we are singing.
We are not alone.

We are one hundred voices singing.
We are one hundred voices singing.
We are one hundred voices singing.
We are not alone.

We are one thousand voices singing.
We are one thousand voices singing.
We are one thousand voices singing.
We are not alone.

We are one voice, and we are singing.
We are one voice, and we are singing.
We are one voice, and we are singing.
We are not alone.

By Don Eaton

Posted in Life as a Yoga Teacher | No Comments »

Mercy For No Reason

April 5th, 2009

Balancing judgement and mercy is hard to do....

One of my favorite lessons my teacher taught me was on the deep
incomprehensible love that the Creator has for humanity.

It is said that the Creator loves us so much that during our Earth School
experience He gives us a “buffer” between cause and effect. What does
this mean? Normally nothing would prevent cause and effect from
occurring in rapid cessation. So if you caused harm to another, we would
immediately feel the consequence. Imagine calling someone a hurtful
name and embarrassing them and then simultaneously being called a
hurtful name by someone and feeling too embarrassed. It’s a wild concept
to think of Earth without this “buffer” between cause and effect. But, the
Creator loves us so much that He wanted us to be able to have a second
chance before we suffer our own effect. This “buffer” or “second chance”
is called Time. Time is the buffer between cause and effect. In this
compassionate system, we can behave egregiously toward our fellow
neighbor and not experience the effect for years or even lifetimes in the
future. In this system, we are able to change our behavior before the
boomerang comes back to hit us. It’s a school system where all the
students are guaranteed to pass.

Now, lets look at our hearts. Often times we care so little for our fellow
man, we have such small hearts and apathy and even hatred for each
other that when we witness a fellow neighbor commit the slightest
transgression, we want instant cause and effect. We want the murdered
killed. The felon convicted. We want the traffic offender ticketed. We
want the cheater to suffer. We want the punishment, not just to
happen but to happen immediately. That’s how little we care for each
other. And this type of hatred for no reason is the root behind our wars,
our tsunamis, our floods, our earthquakes, and our global and individual
chaos.

Gandhi was once almost beaten alive and then refused to prosecute his
assailants. He knew better. He knew that if he sped up the process of
cause and effect for his assailants, he would also experience the same
increase effects in his life from his own actions For our lives are built on
our consciousness. And how we treat others is how we will be treated.

Time = Mercy = Love.

Today, as insurmountable as it seems, give your fellow neighbor Mercy
For No Reason. They do not have to earn it. You give them love just for
being alive. And I promise, without a shadow of a doubt, this love will spill
over to you, like sweet rain from the sky. For learning to love another is
learning to love yourself. We can tell how little you regard yourself by how
you regard others.

Posted in Spiritual Laws | No Comments »

Revealing the Concealed

April 3rd, 2009

Life is a Paradox. What is small is big. What is big is small.

http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/2009/04/republican_pigs.php

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

Fertile Ground

April 3rd, 2009

Bakasana (Crow Pose): A beginning Arm Balance Posture

This past week in class we have been focusing on Arm Balances. Arm
Balances to beginner students can feel overwhelming and almost
impossible. It’s important to remember that those students who continue to
practice their standing postures consistently and well find Arm Balances
becoming easier and easier. Standing postures are the foundation of your
whole practice. If your standing work is weak, so will everything else you
do in yoga. Until Arm Balances return to our class curriculum, continue to
practice your standing work, which is why every class consists of them. I
have never seen a student who performed a standing asana well who could
not do an arm balance. They come one in the same.

Posted in Yoga Postures | No Comments »

Water Water Everywhere

January 28th, 2009

This is the month of manifestation! Enjoy the blessings and learn to work
with people and see the bigger picture. Do you really believe in global
peace? Dream big!

Posted in New Moon Energy | No Comments »

Here Comes The Sun

July 27th, 2008

We are in an incredibly important time. These are the days when the
maximum level of energy enters our planet. More energy is more
responsibility. During the last days of Cancer and the first days of Leo, we
have a period of time know as The Three Negative Weeks. Throughout
the year, the universe’s light is heavily filtered before it reaches us. Each
month, the universe’s light is filtered through a planet that corresponds to
that months astrological influence. For instance in April, we have the
influence of Aries and the filter is the planet Mars. The light of the universe
is filtered using the planet Mars. However, in November, Mars is also
used as it relates to the constellation of Scorpio. What this tells us is that
the energy that enters our planet is shared and split and diminished
significantly during most of the year because ever single month shares a
celestial body filter. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Venus all share two
astrological signs a piece and thus dilute the light that enters the planet.
However, when we enter Cancer and Leo there is no filter. Cancer’s
partner is the Moon and the Moon is only used for Cancer and Leo’s
partner is the Sun and is only used for Leo. During Cancer and Leo the full
power of the Moon and the Sun shine on us. This is the true reason why
this months bring warmer temperatures. However, what is happening on a
non-physical level? On a physical level the days are longer and the
weather is warmer, but what’s happening non-physically? A great deal is
happening. The energy is so massive that we all get spiritually sunburn
during this time and as a result these Cancer/Leo weeks are known to be
“negative.” Carolyn Myss, medical intuitive, reminds us that our greatest
fear is the speed in which our life changes. This is Truth. We all work over
time slowing the speed of change in our lives. Why? Because spiritual
change is the painful removal of the ego. We all know that we love
speed when it’s about serving our egos. When we want something we
want it FedExd, Over Nighted, ASAP! But spiritual change is about the
sacrifice of our selfish ego nature, which we fight and delay with every
chance we get. We run after comfort and run away from any sacrifice.
During these negative weeks (July 20th to August 10th), time is sped up.
The onset of spiritual light always decreases the amount of earthly time,
space and motion. Time, Space and Motion is directly opposite to
Heavenly and Divine speed and logic. These weeks everything is sped
up. Usually there is a birthing process. When we look at the creation of a
child we have conception, usually a pleasant experience. Then we have
nine months of growth. Ending with an intense painful birth and then a joyful
manifestation. During these weeks, time is removed. And what we find
is that we go from conception straight to the pain of birth! This time is
the time of opposites. When you wish for good, you will seemingly get bad.
When you wish for bad you will get good. It’s the removal of time that
causes the illusions of these opposites. What actually is occurring is the
removal of the process. You conceive the baby and the pain of birth is
immediate. And the opposite is true, you go through the pain of work and
the pay-off is immediate. As a result of this intense energy, many of us will
find ourselves in an interesting predicament. Most of us are use to the
slow dulling effects of time and as result, we are shocked during these
weeks as we are instantly experiencing the effects of our actions! These
weeks can be filled of misfortune and chaos more than usual for our
actions are not buffered by time and our instantly shown to us. Now, the
opposite is also true. These weeks contain great potential as well if we are
willing to make sacrifices, engage in work and go against our comfort
zone. These weeks have such burning energy that its recommended that
we do not sign any new contracts, we do not move, we do not marry, we do
not buy major purchases, avoid sun exposure, the swimming in the ocean
and most importantly we need to avoid anger, hatred and judgement of
others. There is no filter until August 11th, we must be our own filter using
acts of love and sharing that can filter the light through us as opposed to
burn us. Good luck and be safe, especially on August 10th. Try to lie low
that day. No flying. No risk taking. Have a good a time as you pay
attention to all the fruits of your actions!

Posted in Astrology | No Comments »