25 january 2018, our trip to Nice
we left our village, my sister and I, and parked her car at Chateauneuf to catch the public bus Grasse-Nice. We stopped over at Cap 3000 as I had to buy a part for my computer. We then took a (nice) city-bus to Nice centre. I bought the 2 tickets, and both rushed to get a seat. A few stops later, a team of 6 men got on the bus to control tickets. I give my 2 tickets, one guy says, ‘come out with me.’ I call my sister, we get off the bus, which goes away. I had not ‘validated’ these two tickets (each 1.5 euros) because we did not know they had to be validated, and because we did not see any sign, though there are, to mention that.
I paid a 40 euro-fine per person, i.e. 80 euros for not having validated two 1.5 euro-tickets!!!! I was in a rage! It was humiliating to be treated like a thief, like one of those young North African who come as ‘immigrants’ to my country and refuse to abide by its laws.
Anyhow, we were to meet an old friend of mine, and have lunch together. We go to our favourite restaurant, with provençale cuisine, and a lovely atmosphere. To the table next to ours, two women sit, mother and daughter. Suddenly in the street where we were, two muslim women pass, completely covered with a burqa. The daughter started bravely I must say, to verbally abuse the women, saying they had to go back to their country, that we French women spent generations and generations to be treated equally with men, and that this backward attitude had nothing to do here.
The shops around also belong to Muslims, and they shouted back at the woman. They even threatened her to death. The restaurant owners, 3 old ladies, asked the woman to leave, they offered her the lunch, no matter. The woman did not want.

The Indian 300-hour TTC was quite eventful. Even before I went to India, three Hong Kong students cancelled because the relationship between China and India had soured (quite normal with China who has trouble with all her neighbours, Vietnam, Japan…) and these women claimed that they were afraid that Indians would be aggressive toward Chinese citizens. It’s ridiculous but they would not hear me.
Then I flew to India and some students were already there, most would come after me. I need to arrive earlier to prepare a TTC, to adapt myself to new climate, new food, new environment, and so on, which is always demanding on the body and spirit too. Added to that the jetlag and the long flight!
The organiser finally moved me to another place than his place, where, he said, there were 19 rooms, just that many rooms were simply not acceptable—no windows, mouldy, dark. Finally some of us stayed in his place, 5 minutes from the TTC-hotel. The yoga room also was not ideal, two blind walls, one wall with 2 windows facing the hills, and the back of the room hot, often too hot. Added to that, ill-conceived and I always need walls, for handstands for instance.
Anyway, I accepted because I knew that everywhere, there are problems, nowhere is perfect. The main thing was to teach that TTC.
Three Chinese women arrived together. I took them to the “market”, introduced them to Rishikesh. Next day, one of them freaked out, she had not said a word for one day, and she left. I think she could not cope with the mess that India is.

October 8th. Got up early, packed up, took a cab to the airport for a 1st flight Bangkok to Saigon (I will never call this town HCM). Saigon airport is chaotic to a point that it reminded me of India! That says a lot. After many an incident, I finally go to gate 8, and last minute, had to go to gate 6. I knew it was going to happen, because the speakers were constantly telling passengers that such a flight had its gate changed. It happened to mine. Finally I arrive in Nha Trang.
My friend Lan came to meet me, and I got a taxi. And I did something I already did once in Koh Samui: I left my shoulder bag on the back seat—I always sit next to the driver. and I always hold my shoulderbag tightly on my lap. And like years ago in Koh Samui, I forgot the bag on the back seat: it contained money, and above all, my laptop AND the backup disc!
I walked home from where the taxi dropped me. A few minutes later, a man enter, I did not recognise him… he told Lan that I had forgotten my bag.
I ran to the taxi, grabbed my bag. I could not thank this gentleman enough for his kindness, his honesty too. I was so grateful to my guardian angel.
All my life I have made him/her work so hard. And I have no excuse, I did not come from the other side of the planet.

Whenever I finish to teach a TTC, I always wonder: if I had a yoga studio, is there any of these new teachers I would hire?
And in Shenzhen, two students got my attention: both had the intelligence to create beautiful krama-s (sequencings), with a choreography, a great understanding of the essence of each posture. But mostly, what drew my attention, was their human qualities, their sensitivity. Their intelligence was combined with their sensitivity.
They were interested in just everything, not just the physical aspect of yoga, but the psychology too.
And I believe sensitivity and openess are essential qualities to become a good yoga teacher.

  To join my 200 hour TTCs you don't need any special preparation. There is no entrance-examination or any special requirement.
BEGINNERS ARE WELCOME IN MY 200-HOUR TTCs. But please, bear in mind that there are always very few beginners in my TTCs (if at all)--one person was afraid to be amidst beginners! No way!

    My TTCs are deep and constructive, and when the TTC is over, I also give guidance for ongoing studies, because yoga is not something you can learn in 200 hours.

     Why have I chosen the Vinyasa style? This style is a method, not a system, thus it is totally ‘open’, what a system is not. I offer variations on an initial posture, and I stay a certain number of [my] breaths in each. If I was to have the students stay, say, 15 breaths in an uncomfortable posture, not sure they’d gain any benefit. But if I ask them to stay, say, 3 breaths in 5 variations, then I am sure, and it is visible that they gain benefit.
     “Yoga” changes, evolves. And it has to, because life is movement itself, if you refuse change, you refuse life! and yoga is becoming more and more modifiable: we, yoga teachers, are free to use stillness but also movement, and I have discovered this need of adaptability in my own body, before I observed the same evolution around me, should it be from Youtube clips, or any other source available through the Net.
     I also alternate movement with stillness, then again movement, then again stillness… What I observe in my students and my own body is a much better alignment, a greater comfort, a greater confidence too in what we can do, "we" being my body and my mind together.
    
I have no reason to follow any one else’s sequence, not even Pattabhi Jois’s famous ones, because this person had a different body from my own. I deplore that all yoga teachers who teach so-called “Mysore-classes” are so dogmatic as to refuse I join the class to do my self-practice, with what MY body needs. I dream of a flexible yoga world, where Mysore-style teachers would simply allow whoever to do their own stuff while guiding them, and adjusting them without imposing them someone else’s sequencing! When I taught “Mysore” style classes, this is what I did!

I see some confusion about my TTCs

I have recently been bombarded with funny questions by students interested in my TTCs. I think that there is some confusion.
My TTCs are NOT spiritual retreats, somewhere in the desert, in silence, sacred place etc. They are YOGA TEACHER INTENSIVE TRAINING COURSE, gathered in 25 days, with 8 hours per day, where I have to share the time into various topics, and with specific requirements from Yoga Alliance.
If I was to lead a spiritual retreat in the Himalayas, the schedule would be different.

This only represents a tiny fraction of what I have read... 点击下载此文件
To get the other 'resources and bibliography" dedicated to the 300-hour students, please send me an email.