|
Namaste and welcome to the September edition of our Conference Connection.
Don't forget the early bird discount for the Florida Conference at the fabulous Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa ends Friday, October 3.
This month our teacher spotlight is on Cameron Shayne, founder and creator or Budokon Yogic/Martial/Living Arts System.
Cameron, who will be teaching at the upcoming Florida Conference, shares how his life path intertwined yoga and martial arts. From being Pauly Shore's body guard, to Courtney Cox's personal trainer to a student at Cyndi Lee's Om Yoga center, it's an amazing story you won't want to miss.
Also this month, writer and Yoga Journal Work Exchange Coordinator, Nicole Dunas, shares her experience with Ahisma, an action that does not cause pain, or, action motivated by kindness.
Namaste,
The Yoga Journal Conference Team
Estes Park 2008
September 21-28, 2008
If you're planning on coming but haven't registered, we strongly advise you to not delay any longer!
While a limited number of single class and day passes are still available, many classes are full or close to sold out.
The Anusara Grand Gathering with John Friend is completely sold out!
Click here for more information and registration.
Florida 2008
November 14-17, 2008
The Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa
Hollywood, FL
Register Now!
With the Florida Conference a little more than 2 months away, many classes are getting full.
If you are thinking about attending, don't delay or you may not get to attend the classes of your choice!
Early Bird Discount ends Friday, October 3.
Click here for more information and registration.
6th Annual San Francisco Conference
January 16-19, 2009
Hyatt Regency
We're back in the city with yoga luminaries from around the world, innovative programming for all levels, and yoga classes for every style of practice.
Although registration has only been open for a few weeks, the response has been tremendous. Register eary, this conference will surely sell-out.
Click here for more information and registration.
September 6, 2008 marked the 10th anniversary of famed musician, filmmaker and activist for peace Michael Franti's free Power to the Peaceful Festival (PTTP) in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
Beginning in 1998, this music, arts and yoga festival, dedicated to educating attendees on issues of social justice, non violence, coexistence and environmental
sustainability, has become a staple of San Francisco. Growing from a crowd of 6,000 ten years ago to an estimated 60,000+ for last weekend's event,
PTTP is one of the nation's largest free annual music, art and action festivals.
Don't miss Power to the Peaceful 2010!
by Nicole Dunas
Recently, as part of an in depth yoga training, I was asked to write an essay on ahisma, which has been translated in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as action that does not cause pain, or, action motivated by kindness.
In this training, which focused on anatomy, asana, and formal study of the sutras, my initial training in a strongly devotional form of hatha yoga set me apart from some of the students, whose training was more focused around the physical aspects of asana. Often in class I felt challenged to tears. I found it difficult and
painful to practice asana without an outward expression of the sacred in the room.
As the training continued, I consistently asked myself, why am I not easeful? If I am the one declaring a practice of connecting to what is beyond myself, why am I struggling to embrace other useful forms of knowledge and practice? Why am I in tears while others are expressing joy? I was eventually able to lighten up. Not
surprisingly, as this happened other students opened to me. Where before I consistently drew an invisible line between us, by the end of the training, I found
myself laughing with the other students and delighting in their real beauty.
One insightful practitioner said to me at our farewell party: "I know you have a devotional practice, Nikki, which is great, but I felt at the beginning of the training that your devotion was causing you as much pain as it was light." Though my intention was not to harm, I did allow feelings of condescension to flow
towards others in the room as I felt they weren't honoring the sacred in a way I thought necessary to be called "Yoga." This caused me pain, and likely did not
portray me as overtly kind.
Aadil Palkhivala makes the point in his wonderful book, Fire of Love, that there is a difference between discernment and judgment. "Discerning between appropriate and inappropriate actions," he writes, "is very different from forming judgments about the person who is performing the action."
I still choose to practice through a deep honoring of the sacred as this feels true in my heart. I still hold ideas about what I practice through yoga, which others may not share. Yet this month, I saw how my grip on what I think I know can keep me from acting with ahimsa, or kindness. There may be beauty in what I know. Yet
when I hold my knowing as a constraint, I use it to close off, which can feel to others like harm or rejection. When I hold my knowing as a constraint, I fail to
recognize the beauty of each practitioner's unique discovery of yoga! Once again I exhale in gratitude for my practice that instructs me daily.
Nicole Dunas has been practicing yoga since 1994, and has been a devoted yoga student of Sofia Diaz for over five years. She is a Yoga Journal Conference Work Exchange Coordinator, is certified to teach yoga, and holds an M.F.A. from the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Editor's Note: Cameron will be teaching at the upcoming Florida conference.
Click here for more
information about his classes and demonstration.
Cameron Shayne was born the first of 3 children in Charlotte, North Carolina. His extended family had very strong influence during his early years. His father's side was filled with an unusual mixture of artist, musicians, and unorthodox characters with a lineage tracing back to the nineteenth century American folk hero Davy Crockett. On his mother's side were educators, military officers, business men, horse breeders and political figures.
Cameron spent most of his adolescent years catching snakes, playing in creeks and woods surrounding his family's middle-class home in the North Carolina country side. His parents divorced when he was 10. His mother remarried Ken Smith who became an important role model for Cameron throughout his life.
Cameron began studying martial arts in his teens. Through out his early twenties Cameron took odd jobs to support his martial arts training. He worked as a bartender, bank employee, horse trainer and night club cooler. He briefly moved to Atlanta with his teacher Paul Harmon to pursue his Olympic style Taekwondo training.
At 24 Cameron moved to Los Angeles with friends. During this time he met LA club promoter Rick Calamaro. Rick took Cameron under his wing and introduced him to a number of celebrity clients who frequented his nightclubs. The first client was actor comedian Pauly Shore of the famed Comedy Store. Cameron began touring with Shore as his body guard in the late 90s and continued to work with him on and off for several years.
His next client was actor Charlie Sheen. Cameron lived with Sheen for a summer to help him rehab from drug addiction. This was an influential time for Cameron as he
was exposed to the power and wealth of Hollywood's elite. During this same time Cameron met his next student actor comedian Chris Tucker. Tucker hired Cameron as his personal trainer and fight scene choreographer for both Rush Hour 1 and 2.
Cameron left the film business to train private clients such as Courtney Cox, Jennifer Anniston, Renee Russo, David Arquette, Sugar Ray Leonard, Rodney Peete, Sean Penn, Amber Valetta, Christine Davis and Jamie Lee Curtis. During this time he also worked with Olympic Volleyball legends Karri Walsh and Casey Jennings. Cameron was credited as being a pivotal part of Walsh's gold medal.
In 2007 Cameron married Liz Ordenstein Arch who became his life and business partner. Liz, a black sash in Tai Chi, helped to bring elements of the ancient Chinese martial art to the Budokon curriculum. Cameron and Liz travel and teach together year round.
Cameron grew up surrounded by men that were street fighters. His father and uncles were raised in a rough section of Charlotte, NC. During racial integration fights were common among the economically challenged kids in his neighborhood. According to his father, young Cameron was not much of a fighter and had little interest in
hitting or being hit. His mother remembers him as being very soft hearted and sweet natured. This kind disposition was not well received by the local boys as he was often the target of bullying.
It was at the age of 12, he was finally enrolled in a Moo Duk Kwan (a traditional Korean style of Karate).. This school maintained a traditional approach to the martial arts with focus on breaking, sparring and kata. His teachers considered him to be unusually gifted athletically and he flourished in this environment.
Cameron credits the Harmon brothers, the owners of the school, as being his first true childhood role models and still trains with them during visits to Charlotte, NC.
In his 18th year Cameron shifted training to Olympic Style Taekwondo, following the Harmon brothers. The Olympic style approach is the science of kicking, technique drills, and competitions. Within this style Cameron mastered the art of technical kicking and point fighting. While he enjoyed the technical and endurance training
found in the Olympic Style, he was dissatisfied with the absence of philosophy and meditation. Cameron hit a cross-roads in his martial arts career. He made the decision to move to Los Angeles and expand his knowledge of the arts as well as further develop his creative talents.
In early 2000 Cameron began studying Yoshukai Karate, under Shihan Gerry Blank, a very traditional Okinawan style of Japanese karate-do. This was Cameron's first introduction into Japanese Budo and Bushido. This art is a combination of traditional kata, kumita and weapons; nunchaku, sai, bo and katana. He advanced through the
system from white belt to second degree black in an unprecedented eight months. It was here that he developed his budo skills further in the areas of hand breaking
techniques. Yoshukai's founder, Mamoru Yamamoto, was famous for his incredible breaking skills. This exposure to the traditional Japanese arts profoundly affected
Cameron's direction as a teacher. During this time he began to focus his self taught meditation practice into a more formal Buddhist Zen mediation practice. He also shifted from competition based training back to classic technique and kata work.
The Yoshukai school was sharing space with Cameron's next teacher, Jiu-Jitsu legend Rickson Gracie. For 2 years Cameron watched and trained side by side with the Jiu-Jitsu students but was disinterested in the art. It was not until he met and began training with a former student of the academy that he became a believer.
Cameron started studying privately with Tiago Vela, a Rickson Gracie brown belt. After 2 years of diligent study Cameron officially joined the Rickson Gracie
academy and achieved his blue belt in an unprecedented six months. Cameron credits Jiu-Jitsu with profoundly changing his understanding of leverage and balance, as well as completing his skill sets as both a stand up and ground martial artist.
Cameron went to his first yoga class at Cyndi Lee's OM yoga studio in NY during the summer of 1996. It was here that he was introduced to Vinyasa flow and Mysore style Ashtanga. He was immediately impressed with the focus on self-observation and uncovering layers of resistance and weakness in the body. Shortly after joining
the school he was asked to attend teachers training as the class posture model. Each teacher would correct his positions, align his body and practice cueing him
through postures. He believes this was a blessing in disguise, as executing postures was far more educational for him than teaching postures.
Returning to Los Angeles the following winter Cameron began a home practice that would last 8 years until he was introduced to his next teachers Bill and Patty Asad in 2001. Bill and Patty were well known teachers, under Chuck Miller, and they were the founders of Jiva yoga studio. Cameron's yoga practice was took a quantum leap
forward as Bill was able to mold Cameron's raw intuitive practice into a technical, science based practice. Shortly after this relationship started Budokon began to evolve into the yogic/ martial art form that it is today.
|
|
Save 40% in Estes Park
Please stop by the Gaiam booth at the Yoga Journal Colorado Conference to receive 40% off all yoga accessories!!
Mats, blocks, straps and more!
Code: gaiam08
|
Certified Organic Tulsi Teas on SALE!
Experience the soothing effect of Tulsi - the Queen of Herbs
- Reduce stress
- Revitalize the senses
- Regulate blood sugar
- Boost immunity
Tulsi Tea - Certified Organic, Healthy and Delicious!
Sale price: $3.99
Click here to order
|
Upcoming Conferences
Estes Park 2008
YMCA of the Rockies
September 21-28, 2008
Registration Now Open
South Florida 2008
Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa
November 14-17, 2008
Registration Now Open
San Francisco 2009
Hyatt Regency
January 16-19, 2009
Registration Now Open
Save the Dates
2009 Conference Tour
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa
March 26-29, 2009
Registration opens Oct. 2008
New York City
Hilton New York
May 15-18, 2009
Estes Park 2009
YMCA of the Rockies
September 20-27, 2009
|
|
|
