The Master Class at Move Studio in Dallas, TX this Sunday, March 14 may get canceled if we don't have enough sign ups, so Ricky has decided to hook you up!  Please email the definition of SEVA to info at rickytranyoga.com, and we will send you a 50% discount code for online/phone registration.

Ricky will also be giving away some Manduka Yoga stuff to a couple lucky attendees!
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There will be FREE Manduka giveaways to a couple lucky attendees!
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Art of Adjustments and Thai Massage Workshop with Ricky Tran and Leanne Hall - Dallas, TX (Mar 13 and Mar 20, 2010)
When:  Saturday, March 13, 2010 & Saturday, March 20, 2010
                            1:00pm - 4:00pm both Saturdays
Where:   Tower Athletic Club and Spa http://www.towerac.com
                           2711 N. Haskell Avenue Dallas, TX, 75204 See map: Google Maps
Cost: $84 for both Saturdays, $69 for one Saturday

PARKING: From Haskell, take RAMP 5 towards underground parking.  Proceed to lobby and take elevator up to the 3rd floor.  Parking ticket will be validated on the way out. Call 214.540.0056 if you get lost.

If you like receiving adjustments, this workshop is for you!  There will plenty of hands on adjustments for everyone!

Yoga teachers Ricky Tran http://www.rickytranyoga.com/ and Leanne Hall http://www.trueyogainc.com will be leading an Art of Adjusting Yoga and Thai Massage Workshop for students and teachers who are interested in taking their practice to the next level and accessing greater flexibility and strength in their poses and practice with the help of a partner/friend.

These are awesome techniques you can practice at home with a partner or friend, or share with your students, if you are a teacher.

You will learn partner adjustments to support one another in developing greater strength, as well as, greater openness and flexibility.  Great for teachers!

These tools will help you to grow with greater support and ease in your practice, especially in the places and poses where you feel challenged to strengthen and grow.

This will be a two-part workshop and you are welcome to attend one or both of the sessions. We will explore even more adjustments in the second part of the workshop, assisting you in developing even further in your Yoga practice and beyond.

Enjoy hot tub/steam room in the spa after the workshop!   There are two large hot tubs in the spa.

*Note: workshop will not take place in water as pictured on the flier.
 
 
Thankful for everyone that was part of this monumental event between 4 local Nashville yoga studios!  Yoga means to bring together and this yoga event brought together the yoga commUNITY!

Photo albums of 3 of the studios are below. 

inJOY

RTY

Art of Floating and Flying and Inversions at Yoga Source

Master Class for All Levels at Yoga Country

Lotus Vinyasa Workshop at One 2 Yoga

 
 
On Patanjali

By Srivatsa Ramaswami

Patanjali is a name that generates awe, veneration and inspiration among experts of disciplines like Yoga. That his work “Yoga Sutra” is considered to be the most authentic work on Yoga by conventional Yogis is well known. But he is also considered to be one of the greatest original contributors towards the development of the classical language Sanskrit. Then there are many practitioners of ancient medical system, the Ayur Veda who consider him as ‘Caraka’, the author of one of the earliest texts on Ayurveda, the Caraka Samhita. There are many experts of Indian traditional dance who consider Patanjali as an exceptional exponent of Indian Dancing system.

How is it possible for one person to excel in many disparate and original disciplines, as the old timers believe? Is it possible that there were different Patanjalis who lived at different places at different times who wrote different texts under the name of Patanjali, as some of the modern historians would aver?

A brief of account of Patanjali’s story may be in order. One of the popular stories refers to Patanjali as an incarnation of Adisesha, the serpent king, who acts as the couch of Lord Vishnu. Once, Lord Vishnu after He came out of His divine slumber narrated the vision of Siva’s cosmic dance which He experienced in the divine dream. He also said that Lord Siva wanted Adisesha to take a human birth and prepare an authentic work on Sanskrit grammar, as the human race was going through a crisis without a proper structured language. Lord Siva had earlier created the original basis for Sanskrit grammar through 14 sutras (aphorisms), called Maheswara Sutras, said to have emanated from the sounds of the hand drum (damaru) of the Lord during the Cosmic Dance. Panini who witnessed the dance wrote an elaborate text in 8 chapters the entire work of grammar, based on Siva’s 14 Sutras, but because they were terse and ambiguous, could not take roots among the people. Now the Lord wanted Patanjali to write a detailed commentary on Panini’s works so that Sanskrit would become accessible to mankind.

Adisesha in due course took a human form, born/adopted to/by a great soul, Gonika and therefore also known as Gonikaputra. He was known as Patanjali, as he is said to have descended or fallen (pat) from heaven, answering to the prayers (anjali) for a worthy son by Gonika. After leading an ascetic, yogic life, Patanjali felt ready to start his life’s mission. He traveled to Chidambaram, in South India, which boasts of the famous dancing Siva temple. There were other great souls, divine beings, sages and yogis all ready to watch the cosmic dance. Siva directed Patanjali to watch the dance carefully so that he could completely understand the Maheswara aphorisms and write a proper commentary to Panini’s work.

Patanjali went into yogic Samadhi, so that the divine dance could be experienced, so did the other yogis gathered around there. He watched the dance minutely grasping the nuances of the Siva Sutras as the sounds emanated from the drum (damaru) of the dancing Nataraja. And when the dance reached a crescendo, everyone in yogic trance was swaying with the dance of the Lord and in raptures. When the dance stopped, they experienced oneness with the Lord, the supreme consciousness, the ultimate reality. This they realized was the advaitic oneness of the Vedantins or Nirodha Samadhi of the Yogis.

Patanjali then left the place and very carefully wrote a great commentary (Maha Bhashya) on the Panini’s wok after getting all the clarifications by minutely watching the dance of Siva. To cut the story short, Patanjali had to really work hard to propagate his work. Since he was the sole repository of the knowledge at that time, he had to teach as many people as possible. An interesting episode is mentioned about how Patanjali reached a larger student population. He stood behind a curtain separating him from the large student population sitting in front of him. He assumed his original form of a thousand headed (hooded) cobra, and taught each of the students, one on one. It helped him teach and answer questions individually. He was a thousand teachers at the same time. Without closed circuit TV, Internet and the print facility, it was the best possible solution at that time!

Then he also wrote the Yoga Sutras, meant to clean the mind and weaken the influence of Rajas and Tamas, and become very Satwic and ultimately transcend all the three gunas and attain stage of Kaivalya or spiritual freedom. He is also credited with another important work on Ayur Veda, the ancient medical system.

Let us get back to the original question. How can one individual get the expertise needed to write three authoritative and original texts so important to humanity? The answer is that he got all the knowledge from Lord Siva the Iswara. In fact Patanjali says in Yoga Sutras that Iswara is the ultimate repository of all knowledge, and by meditating on Him all knowledge can be obtained. And as mentioned earlier, the basic informations or cues of Vyakarana or grammar came from the dancing Siva’s drum. It is also believed by musicologists that the basic seven musical notes also came from the Lord’s drum. Patanjali, after watching the dance of Siva became a great dancer himself, and again classical dancers in India revere Patanjali as a great dancer. There is a beautiful onomatopoeic poetic work in Sanskrit attributed to Patanjali, called ‘Siva Tandava Stotra’.

When Patanjali went into Samadhi, not only was he able to witness the Cosmic Dance, but also got to experience the ultimate state of Yoga, the Nirvikalpa or Nirodha Samadhi. With that experience and the grace of the Iswara he was able to write an authentic text on Yoga. Lord Siva is also known as Yogiswara, the Lord of all Yogis. He is also known as Bhaishajya or one who has the wisdom of Curing. And Patanjali could get the necessary expertise on Ayurveda also from Siva and thus wrote a medical text par excellence.

A civilization is said to be at its best when the people enjoy good health, express themselves clearly and profoundly, through a perfect language and have clear and pious minds. Bhartruhari, a great scholar and grammarian emphasizes the purity of the three basic human activities, of mind, body and spech, called the tri-karanas. And Maharshi Patanjali is believed to have written three great texts and evidence in terms of a eulogy is to be found in the ancient prayer said by thousands of yogis all over the world, daily, as they start the yoga sadhana.

yogena cittasya padena vācām
malaṁ śarīrasya ca vaidyakena
yopākarottaṁ pravaraṁ munīnāṁ
pataṁjaliṁ prāṁjalirānatosmi|

Through Yoga, of the mind, by grammar, of language
Through medical science of the body,the drosses,
The one who eradicated, to Him of the lineage of sages,
To Patanjali, I remain offering my salutation

Srivatsa Ramaswami is the longest standing student of the legendary Shri T. Krishnamacharya, outside of the teacher's immediate family. Read Ramaswami's article My Studies with Shri T. Krishnamacharya published in Namarupa Magazine

Ricky had the fortune of studying yoga with Ramaswami for 6 weeks in 2008.
 
WEBSITE UPDATED 03/02/2010
 
We are working diligently to fix this.  Thank you for your patience.

RTY
 
 
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This is the first time 4 studios in Nashville are working together to host one event!  It is nearly SOLD OUT!

Ricky is excited to be giving away a Manduka yoga mat to a lucky yogi or yogini this weekend!

If you are interested in coming, we suggest connecting with one of the studios to reserve your space ASAP!  Some of the workshops are already sold out!

www.yogasource.info
www.yogacountry.com
www.kaliyugayoga.com
www.one2yoga.com


See you on the mats!
 
 
We have decided to go live with this new website!  It is a work in progress, and we hope you can find what you are looking for with ease.  We will constantly be making changes and updates as time permits. 

Comments or suggestions that can make this a better web experience for you would be appreciated.

You can find Ricky's complete schedule by clicking on CLASSES and scrolling down to the CALENDAR.

Please bear with us, as we are updating the UPCOMING WORKSHOP schedule.  There are about 10 more workshops that need to go up!  Hopefully, we'll get them up within the next few days.

Join the MAILING LIST and FACEBOOK on the right and stay updated with the yoga happenings in DFW around the country.

We have uploaded some yoga images and videos from the past few years, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed creating them!  Stay tuned for more images and videos!

We are also waiting on the design of a custom banner above.  Hopefully it will be up within the week.

We are also booking workshops for the September, October, November and December 2010.  If you are a studio owner and would like to host 3 action packed days of yoga classes with Ricky, please use the contact form to connect.  These workshops are doing well and some are selling out!  We are so grateful for the receptivity everywhere!

September 2010 is just about booked up, and October and November is starting to fill up.  Please act quickly if you are serious about making it happen.  Also booking 2011 if you are ready to discuss details.

Thank you,

The Ricky Tran Yoga Team
 
 
Just a heads up on upcoming yoga events for January and February!

I will be teaching at each of these locations.  Information for each workshop as well as a full listing of workshops for the year are available in the Workshops page!

 
Welcome! 01/18/2010
 
Welcome to RickyTranYoga.com! 

Ricky Tran is a Dallas-based yoga teacher.  Ricky's invigorating classes, positive energy, and insightful instruction will help take your yoga practice to the next level!

Please make sure to bookmark this page and check back frequently for the latest class, workshop, and event info!