Jules Febre
Jules Febre was born and raised in a section of New York City known as the Lower East Side. He grew up in the L.E.S. during a very rough period surrounded by violence, drugs and a general atmosphere of anger. At the age of 13, Jules spent three months in India; two of which were spent in Mysore studying Ashtanga Yoga with Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois. During that time he was invited to share satsang with Swami Nirmalananda and Shyam Das, two radical yogis that have each helped to add to the progression of yoga in the West. At the age of 16 Jules began working at the Jivamukti Yoga School helping to clean, by 21 had become the general manager of two Jivamukti Yoga Schools and eventually became the C.O.O of Jivamukti Inc. in New York City. After years of working behind a desk Jules realized his need was to be with others in a more hands on relationship and took the 350 hour Jivamukti Yoga Teacher training. After completing the extensive one month training, he chose to work for an additional 350 hour advanced certification program. Jules decided it was time to give back to the neighborhood he grew up in and started Hip Hop Asana with two other Jivamukti Yoga teachers. Combining hip hop music and his street smarts, he teaches classes geared toward those interested in the hip hop culture and yoga; especially those who cannot always afford to pay for classes. So far, Hip Hop Asana has been taught by Jules in New York City in Homeless Shelters, High Schools and Recreational Centers for inner city youth. Teaching yoga is Jules' passion. He is grateful to his teachers, Sharonji, Davidji & Yogeswari for igniting his devotion to the Jivamukti Yoga practice and inspire countless students.
Sessions $50 each
$40 per class if you register for 3 or more classes
All Classes and Workshops $300

Wednesday, June 10th 5:00 Basic
Wednesday, June 10th 6:45 Open
Thursday, June 11th 5:00 Basic
Thursday, June 11th 6:45 Open
Friday, June 12th 5:00 Basic
Friday, June 12th 6:45 Open
Saturday, June 13th Forward Bending Workshop 9:00 a.m.-11:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 14th Hip Hop Asana Workshop 11:00 a.m.- 1:30 p.m.

BEGINNER BASICS COURSE If you're a beginner struggling with downward dog or a more advanced student perfecting your shoulder stand, give the Basics course a try. Take advantage of a more intimate environment and focus on the fundamentals. Each week of the month features a concentration: standing poses, forward bends, back bends, and finally, combinations and inversions. The classes are popular and fill up quickly, so reservations are encouraged
OPEN Whether you're a beginner, deciphering the difference between a halasana (plough pose) and sirshasana (headstand) or an advanced yogi, the Open class encompasses all levels at Jivamukti. You work at your own pace, following the teacher's constant guidance. A typical Open class consists of flowing vinyasa sequences partnered with Sanskrit chanting, traditional Vedic and contemporary teachings and commentary, breath awareness, meditation, hands-on alignment, and relaxation. We do sitting, standing, and inverted postures, and suggest challenging variations for more advanced students. Exuberant, eclectic music plays an integral role; in a typical Open class you might practice to a shifting soundtrack of ragas, global trance, Bob Dylan, the chanting of Krishna Das, Miles Davis, Gregorian chants, and Dido
Limited Space available. Registration open Now. Contact The Yoga Studio of Corpus Christi to register by phone (361)883-1052 or by e-mailing michelle.acebo@yogastudioofcc.com.

Jivamukti Yoga Focus of The Month~April '09

The Seat Of Isis

sarva mangala mangalye shive sarvartha sadhike sharanye tryambake gauri narayani namo’stu te (from Durga Saptashati, Chapter 11) I salute the three-eyed goddess, who fulfills the desire for liberation. Realization arises with Her blessing. She is the world itself. Only through the experiences of life can the soul be perfected. Honor this gift, your life.

To the ancient Egyptians, the Goddess Isis was the divine personification of the perfection that comes through the ability to connect perfectly. It was Isis, after all, who, through her power of love, reintegrated the dismembered body of her brother/husband, Osiris. She knew how to put it all back together because she held the key that connects: love.
Interestingly, the Egyptian hieroglyph for Isis, the Divine Mother Goddess, looks like a chair. Her hieroglyph looks like a seat, and its phonetic sound is st, like the Sanskrit sound sthit, which represents stability (the English word “steady” is related).
Obviously, the Egyptians did not mean that Isis should be referred to as “Your Chairness.” They were worshiping a quality of connectedness and relationship to the Earth that is inherent in the power aspect of the goddess.
Ram Dass, the great American spiritual teacher, put a chair on the cover of his classic 1971 book Be Here Now. Not a symbolic chair like the Egyptian hieroglyph for Isis, but an early American ladder-back, rattan seat chair, entangled in a network of interconnected lines that form a wheel. How appropriate for such an innovative book, one of the first books on yoga written by an American to reveal that yoga is about so much more than physical exercise.
Yoga is about being kind and good and connected well to the Earth. When you are, the Earth will support and sustain you. She as the Mother Goddess will also provide you with the means to go beyond mere sustainability, allowing you to rise out of all that has previously bound you to the mundane and impermanent. Through the experiences of life, opportunities to purify our karmas arise, leading to enlightenment or liberation from the world of suffering. Asana can be a means to overcome the limitations of the body revealing the more subtle sources of physical form.
Asana practice is a form of goddess worship. The Earth is another way of referring to the Divine Mother. Mother Earth is the Goddess. To practice asana means to practice perfecting one’s relationships with all aspects of the Earth and all beings that inhabit the Earth.
The Goddess supports those who are not greedy. Selflessness is the key to living happy in the world. It is the key to successful asana practice. It is the key to the attainment of Yoga. It is the way of the jivanmukta, the liberated being. A yogi walks in peace upon the earth, embracing each day, each experience, as providing opportunities for giving back more than he or she has taken.
The root of every asana is this steady connection to the earth. When your connection to the earth is stable, you feel ease in body and mind. Through this ease of being you begin to feel whole and with that wholeness, disconnection subsides, revealing your holiness -your own divine nature.
Practice: Seat of Isis Sequence found on pages 110-111 of the Jivamukti Yoga Book -Sharon Gannon (text adapted from the JY book)

Jivamukti Yoga Focus of the Month~March 09

Guru Mantra
Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnur, Gurur devo Maheshwarah,Guruh sakshat, param Brahma, tasmai shri guravay namah -Guru Stotram
Our creation is that guru (Brahma-the force of creation); the duration of our lives is that guru (Vishnu-the force of preservation); our trials, tribulations, illnesses, calamities and the death of the body is that guru (devo Maheshwara-the force ofdestruction or transformation). There is a guru nearby (Guru Sakshat) and a guru that is beyond the beyond (param Brahma). I make my offering (tasmai) to the beautiful (shri) remover of my darkness, my ignorance (Guru); it is to you I bow and lay down my life (namah).
Guru is the remover of darkness: Gu means darkness, and Ru means remover. Darkness refers to what obscures the light of awareness. Guru is the enlightenment principal that aids one in the realization of the true Self, the whole Self, the holy Self. The guru removes avidya, or ignorance, which is a case of mistaken identity. It is when you think you are your personality, mistaking your body/mind container for who you are and ignore who you really are. It is when you feel separate from the whole.
By reciting this mantra with a sincere heart, you will see that the power that enlightens is all around you at all times. The mantra asks for the ability to see the guru in all names and forms, and even to acknowledge, love and serve the guru who you cannot see, who is beyond all visible forms. The guru is your own self, the inner guiding light.
Your own birth, the creation principle, holds within it the potential for enlightenment. This would include your parents, your day and the place of your birth and all the circumstances surrounding your birth. Many people find it difficult to recognize the guru in their parents. Many of us spend a lot of time complaining about the bodies we have been given by our parents and blame our parents for the difficulties in our lives.
The situation we are living in right now at this time is where guru Vishnu manifests. If we could see our present circumstances-who we work with, who we live with, who our friends are-as embodying the guru principle, we might stop perceiving them as in the way of our happiness and begin to realize that they might be providing us with the way for our enlightenment to unfold.
The most difficult circumstances to accept in a positive way are the calamities, the injuries and illnesses that befall us physically or mentally. Guru devo Maheshwara manifests as the big challenges in our lives, which actually provide us with the greatest opportunities for clearing away avidya and embracing all that happens to us as a gift from God. Destruction always opens the door for transformation.
To see the guru in the teacher who is right in front of you, giving you the teachings of enlightenment, may be very difficult for us due to preconceived idealistic notions about what a guru is suppose to look like. This prejudice may disable us from seeing past the outer form or personality of the teacher.
To acknowledge that the guru is beyond name and form, beyond what we could imagine with the limited vision of the thinking mind, is to begin to open to the mystery of cosmic awareness.
The most potent prayer is the last line of the mantra in which we ask to have the good sense to be humble enough not to miss our chance to recognize the guru when they do appear. Only if we can let go of our self-cherishing, our pride, our need to be recognized and our yearning to be given credit for the things we do, can we ever hope to encounter the guru, that which brings enlightenment to our soul.
-Sharon Gannon

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