Montreal Yoga Teachers Cultivate Inner Consciousness for Outer Action
How You Can Be Part of It

This post celebrates three Montreal yoga teachers who feel that the job description goes far beyond the yoga mat and the inner world, to action in the outer world on environmental and social causes.




As Yasmin Fudakowski-Gow puts it: “Yoga means union. The practice is to unite or bring together the various aspects of our being: to make a mind-body-soul connection. But in fact is more than that. It’s the earth-body-mind-people-planet connection." Yasmin put this view into practice in 2008 when she joined a Climate Change awareness tour of 21 university campuses across Canada sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation, The Canadian Federation of Students and the Stephen Lewis Foundation. She taught yoga to the people on the tour and students on the campuses, and joined luminaries such as David Suzuki, Stephen Lewis, and Maude Barlow on stage as an opening speaker, addressing the question of Cultivating Inner Consciousness for a Truly Sustainable Outer Environmental Consciousness and Social Justice. Her message looked at the role of marketing in creating an inauthentic identity, playing on insecurity and ultimately leading us to consume more to be less happy.

“Excessive consumerism/materialism negatively impacts societal values and the environment. After all, the more we prioritize working, earning and spending on luxury goods, the less time we have for ourselves, for family and for friends, and of course, the more resources we unconsciously devour.”

For a yoga teacher, the quality of inner peace is related directly to the quality of peace in the world, according to Jasmin. The work of a yoga teacher can address both sides of this equation.

In November, 2008, Jasmin put on a Sustainable Holiday Fair at her yoga studio on the West Island, Centre Holistique Om West. It was a benefit for the David Suzuki Foundation, raising $450 and raising consciousness of among many particiupants as to how they can address the environment in their own lives, from composting to environmentally friendly holiday shopping.

In 2009, there will be more events at her studio or elsewhere that carry on the outer work, as well as the inner work of yoga. Watch for them on the pages of yogampontreal.com, check her website at www.westislandyoga.com or call 514-836-5578 to find out how you can be involved.





Dawn Maurizio's Karmic Connection

For Dawn Maurizio, the karmic connection was inspired by a workshop with Sean Corne, called Off the Mat into the World. “It was a five-day intensive that looked at finding your true purpose in the world, a beautiful experience.”

In 2008, she acted on her vision by organizing 108 Sun Salutations for the Environment, a benefit that provided a great yoga experience on the East slope of Mount Royal, and raised $2,200 for Equiterre, a local environmental organization.

Dawn’s busy world of environmental and social activism includes her role as an ambassador for Lululemon, and a weekly newsletter to an ecological group Better Half, with about 500 members, and ongoing initiatives to promote both environmental and social causes.

“When I ask: What breaks my heart in the world? The answer is abandoned children,” Dawn told us. In 2009 she hopes to follow a seva challenge with Sean Corne to raise money and go to work in an orphanage in Cambodia.

Her approach to yoga combines the methods of Hatha Yoga with Vipassana meditation, and uses them as a means for spiritual activism. Yoga practice does not mean withdrawal from the world, for Dawn Maurizio. “Yoga practice helps you stay grounded and keeps you from being overwhelmed by so much to do; you can avoid that overload sometimes leads to a passive approach to the world.”

Watch for more of Dawn’s events in 2009 on the pages of yogamontreal, or check out her website at http://www.dawnmauricio.com.



The Karma of Biological Diversity

Christine Anderson, a yoga teacher at Ashtanga Yoga Montreal, has felt the call to return to the Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary in Costa Rica. She will leave Montreal early in January 2009.

Last year she discovered this sanctuary at the edge of Costa Rica’s oldest national park, Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco, which has the mission of helping to rehabilitate this small and very important part of the earth. “This project is very close to my heart, because I have worked with these guardians of the planet, in awe of the bravery it takes to dedicate one’s life to giving back to our shared earth,” said Christine.

Founded and run by Mary Lynn Perry and Simon Gomez Gomez, Rainsong helps by rehabilitating and releasing injured animals, and has promoted the purchase of land to be preserved in the natural state. It is also helping in the reforestation of lands with hardwoods and other important elements of the natural habitat.

Rainsong operates solely from donations and the heard work of volunteers, so as Christine heads off to Montreal for the call of the wild, Ashtanga Yoga Montreal has scheduled a benefit fundraiser for her last class in Montreal. Montreal yogis who wish to support Christine in her mission to the Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary are invited to join this special class of 108 salutations to the Sun, on Saturday, January 3rd, at 2:30 PM. For more information, visit http://www.ashtangamontreal.com/files-contents/AYM.jpg or call 514-875-9642