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David 원산 Kessel

@advised.elks

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holding coffee space @moondaycoffee
ashtanga yoga, authorized level 2 by Sharath Jois

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Maine, first installment: the yogis

#❤️⚡️💎

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Rooted in lineage, strengthened by community. Teachers, students, friends- linked by breath, discipline, and care. I love you all ♥️

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Hi. Not sure how it’s been going in IG world, but here’s a six-month hug redux. Starting yesterday, back to Nov 10.

Intent of the year: be sweet to each other. Ernesto said it to John the night Sharathji died. Next morning I passed it on to the group in Charlottesville. In a hall heavy-scented with stargazer lilies, sacramental chai, and the salt of a million tears. Let us be sweet to each other.

Half a year already. I’ve mostly taught at the Michigan shala. Trips also to NYC, SLC, MT, Paris, Amsterdam, Italy. A connection tour.

Sharathji’s death creates a void of structure and authority. A power vacuum. Another way to say this is freedom. Sometimes it may be more than we can handle.

It’s normal to respond with despair. Chaos. Opportunism. Intrigue. Fighting. Rejection. Escape. More trauma.

But what about choosing sweetness, treasuring, trust, reconciliation, vulnerability, creativity, discipline, passion. We have the freedom.

I feel…. Love is all that matters. Not in a fake stupid way. In a discerning way. Love is a warm blanket; love is a knife to cut away delusion.

I predict that this year’s feelings will leave long term traces. The flash of our shock will be a fixative for how we feel for years to come.

Now is a fertile time between paradigms.
There need be no new structure yet. It’s not correct. We need a year. For now we are halfway through replenishing the soil.

🤍🕯️✨

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🌟New Stillpoints Podcast🌟

I’m so excited to share with you the return of the Stillpoints Podcast. It begins again with a special new series called Memories of Sharath, where we honor the life and legacy of Sharath Jois, a teacher who shaped so many Ashtanga practices and lives.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing new episodes and voices. I have spoken to so many people about Sharath and his profound impact on them.

In this first episode, I’m joined by some very special guests who share their personal stories and memories of Sharath. From his humor and humility to his deep dedication to the practice, these stories offer a unique look into his life behind the teachings.

✨ Episode One Featured Contributors:
• Joanne Darby
• Mark Darby
• Angela Jamison
• Petri Raisanen
• Hamish Hendry
• Greg Nardi
• Kino & Tim
• Sushmitha
• Olivier David
• Shelley Washington
• David Kessel

These memories make up just a small part of Sharath’s profound impact on the world of Ashtanga yoga, and I’m honored to share them with you.
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Thank you to @simply______elle for the beautiful editing 🧡
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🎧 Listen to Episode 1 now! Link in bio.

#MemoriesofSharath #SharathJois #AshtangaYoga #YogaCommunity #Legacy #Guruji #YogaLife #StillpointPodcast #YogaJourney #YogaFamily

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I left my big ❤️‍🩹 in Charlottesville…
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Forever rest in love, Guruji… 🐅🤍🙏🏽🕉️✨

Ps: thank you to all who captured and shared these moments..🕊️
#ashtangayoga
#ashtangacommunity
#1111

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Forever grateful to have practised with our beloved Guruji and to have participated in his last class, training and conference in Virginia. I love and miss you deeply Sharathji. Thank you for teaching me. Forever at your feet. Always in my heart 💜x

I would love to invite anyone who is interested to a memorial class for Sharathji today, Saturday the 23rd of November 2024 at 0900 UK live streamed from Mysore. I will be offering a traditional Sanskrit counted primary, followed by chanting the Mṛtyunjāya mantra 108 times for Guruji:

ॐ Tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhim puṣṭi-vardhanam ।
urvārukam-iva bandhanān mrtyor-mukṣīya mā-āmrtāt ||

After we will have conference in which I will share a few stories and photos of Guruji, speak of my experience of being in Charlottesville and Mysore and answer any questions. All welcome. It would be beautiful to share the practice with you. Let's keep Guruji's flame burning brightly with inclusivity, warmth, loving kindness and compassion, together x

#Repost @livesonima with @let.repost
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Remembering the final class of Sharath Jois, a true legend of Ashtanga Yoga. His unwavering dedication to the practice, his wisdom, and his incredible spirit have left an indelible mark on all of us. Like all his classes his last was a beautiful testament to his love for teaching and his commitment to sharing the transformative power of yoga. His legacy will live on through each of us who continue to practice, honor, and spread his teachings. 🕉️ #SharathJois #Ashtanga #YogaLegacy #guruji

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Light filled moments amidst the darkness 🤍

One of my biggest reflections from the past week in Charlottesville is the power of community, love & friendship, especially when times are hard.

Traveling to Mysore & practicing Ashtanga yoga for the past 10+ years has introduced me to some of my closest friends. And this trip to Charlottesville introduced me to many more.

Although we don’t see each other often, we pick right back up where we left off like no time has passed.

Thankful for all the friends, the Ashtanga community & the support that we all share with one another 🥰

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He showed me my capability and always led me to my heart. He pointed out my weakness and squashed my strengths. He simply made me lighter by showing me the heavy. He was my source of discipline and play.

He made me laugh, so much.

He would always say to me “always smiling, always laughing” and I would tell him “well you are too” and that would make us both laugh more.

Grateful to you @sharathjoisr for my lifestyle, my community, and being my guide all of these years on this wild ride of Ashtanga yoga.

“You are my guru because you love ice cream” ♥️ ..and so much more.

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It’s easy for the day-to-day to slip from ritual to routine. You lose sight of the bigger picture, forget to zoom in and out, gross to subtle. At the core, yoga, and service work, are a practice of love. It takes hard work to surrender to the vulnerability of this truth. Practice, teaching, devotion to hospitality – they all work the energy body. The Gita says, śraddhā – faith – “is where one places one’s heart.”

I had started to write this as I was planning to return to India this February, for the first time in about five years. Going back to charge up at the source. (India is an origin country for coffee too.) I’ve had to fight for it, cracking open space, plowing through fear and resistance, deep grooves of attachment and aversion. Sometimes you have to climb a thousand dusty steps and elbow your way through the crowds to receive the blessings.

As anyone who does hospitality work thoughtfully knows, this work is mind-control, holding space a continual refinement of infinitely subtle awareness, an unraveling of layers and patterns of conditioning. If it is to be sustainable, it needs support. Tools need sharpening.

I went last week back to where it began for me, to convene with teachers, as students, bright eyes and open hearts. Guruji, our teacher – our teachers’ teacher – came from India to gather us around him. He died, suddenly, a bolt of lightning to the heart, in our midst, in the mountains, on a beautiful fall day, blue sky and crisp forest air.

The normally subtle conduits that flow between our hearts were torn wide open this past week. We held each other in a bounded, sacred space of healing and true collective self-practice that was almost too powerful for my heart to hold. Yoga only exists in relationship. Community is there. I’m so, so grateful, and I have so much love for you all.

Continued in comments

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Still in college, I squeezed in a trip to Mysore for January 2016 before the Spring semester was in full swing. It was a whirlwind - my first time practicing with Sharathji in Mysore, worlds away from NYC led classes or the Mysore room at UVA, but also the first trip “back” — returning to a city and place I had fallen hard for on my first trip and worked hard to find my way back to
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I recall practicing near @markrobberds on my first Mysore morning in the shala, catching a glimpse of something gnarly in Advanced B as I rolled out my mat. As if I needed more fire in my nervous system! I’ll never forget the first Surya Namaskara and the sensation of flying way too far and fast in the first jump to standing. Over time of course we adapt to these new spaces, the nervous system calms, syncs into the rhythm, but the space never loses its energy. There’s always a certain resonance to fall back on if you’re in need of a little boost.
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The crew from UVA rolled in strong that year, at least 5 of us making the Mysore trip before returning to our home base in Charlottesville and the guidance of @johnbultman
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Jan 2016 | Mysore, India
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#ashtanga #ashtangayoga #yoga #mysore #india

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Our beloved chanting/ Sanskrit teacher…. Mister Shmeesh🙏🏼❤️

I think i took Sanskrit 1 and 2 3x times from him- and his sutra and gita course… simply loving his energy, and feeling a need to learn as much as possible from him- and knowing my homework would have red corrective lines on them each year.

Thanks for putting up with us all these years! Your patience and kindness is unmeasurable!

Every morning, for 9 years, Ive been chanting some of the chants This guy has taught me. My babies will join me for this part of my practice too. #lineage

Thank you for teaching me to sing again- and help open my voice and my #adityahridayam 🙏🏼🇮🇳 🎶

🕉️

#sanskrit #guru #teacher #mysore #sing #chant #mantra

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Drawing while listening

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