Etan Says:
“I started teaching hatha yoga and meditation in 1971 after returning from an intensive 3 month training at Gitananda Ashram in Pondicherry, South India.
I taught classes in the few early yoga studios located in the New York City area, Berkeley, Amsterdam and Prague before yoga became YOGA!
For the past 15 years, I have studied with and taught at Bryan Kest’s classes at Power Yoga Studios in Santa Monica. Also, I have taught at numerous other LA studios, as well as guest-teaching workshops at studios and yoga conferences nationally.
The “Insight Meditation Yoga’ I teach is a slow vinyasa that infuses meditative techniques from the insights I have garnered completing several intensive 10 day vipassana meditation courses as taught by S.N. Goenke.
I teach a mixed level class so there is something for everyone. I do not use heat but I like to keep the windows closed so that the body gets warm and flexible. We do not do headstands or any sort of acrobatics. That is not the traditional use of asana according to the teachings of Patanjali and other historical yoga rishis.
In our class we move slowly, with continuous breath awareness. We are able to process deeper into the experience of the postures, gaining real physical, emotional, mental and spiritual insights. We meet the posture halfway, then go to meditation which is the simple observation of all that is occurring in this moment, using an easy 4-part technique as taught by the historical Buddha himself in the Mahasatipathana Sutta (The Great Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness).
Through the personal insights gained here, we start to release habitual and unwholesome reactions to any toxic stimuli in our daily lives. We leave the class re-energized, and with better tools to engender positive change within ourselves and in the world at large.”