As a Yogi practitioner, I have maintained a Yoga practice for 42 years. I am the founder of Folded Leaf School of Yoga and also the inventor of the Tai Chi/Yoga bags. I’ve written and produced my own Yoga therapy DVDs to help others. These include ‘Yoga for Your Eyes’, ‘The Power and the Will to Using Yoga’ and Tai Chi and Strength Training for people who have multiple sclerosis. I have taught over 10,000 classes in this lifetime. Another thing that attracted me to Yoga was the diet of staying away from processed foods. I met Dick Gregory, who was a comedian and political activist. He said, “Stay away from meat.” I agreed with him and am a strong believer in vegetarianism, I practice Yoga to stay away from the pain, suffering and degenerative diseases that our bodies are faced with. I am humbled and blessed by the grace of Yoga.
I’ve never been on any medications and I have no joint pain. That’s what I call good fortune – to grow old without being in pain with suffering or chronic diseases. First Lady, Michelle Obama, said, “Let’s get moving.” Kids aren’t moving enough in school, nor do they have the luxury of going to city parks because of the threatening gun violence present in their neighborhoods. This problem of obesity is not going away anytime soon.
These next comments come from the book, Rational Fasting by Arnold Ehrets. He asks the question, “Have you ever been sick?” He also talks about what it means to have no appetite because of illness When they get sick, wild animals have no doctor, drugs or a place to rest. They have no equipment to help them like we have. Through this example, nature teaches that there is only one disease and overeating and consuming the wrong foods cause it. Yoga teaches one to reduce the intake of food and to fast in order to give the digestive system a rest.
Every Yogi must find his own way and stick to it. I found my voice and calling as well as my style of self-healing using Yoga, Tai Chi, Restorative Yoga, Yoga for Your Eyes, Yoga for MS Yoga for pre-natal care, Yoga for knee and hip replacements, Yoga for osteoporosis and Yoga for the back.
We have to take pages out of our history books. True primitive life was simpler. Primitive man had to experiment with foods to learn which plants were beneficial or poisonous. He would fall ill and he recovered only with options of primitive medicine or magic. He either got better or he died. We have the most, expensive health care system in the world. We have gyms with machines to work out on. We have organic foods. Yet many of us are dying at early ages. There’s something wrong with this picture.
In the book, “The Major Writing” by Nichiren Daishonin, there is a Gosho study named The Eight Winds. Buddha hood Sutra: Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds; prosperity, decline, disgrace, honor, praise, censure, suffering, and pleasure. The heavenly Buddhist Gods will surely protect one who is unbending before the eight winds. We are taught not to be swayed by our attachment to any of the eight winds. My message is not intended for everybody. It is dedicated to those who are in a search for truth.
CLOSING WORDS
HOW TO MANAGE STRESS: taken from Fitness, Health & Nutrition, Managing, Stress
From Morning to Night, Time Life Books Inc. c1987.
Stress invites diseases into the body and leaves people feeling ill. Researchers say that many people rely on false, short-term quick fixes to relieve stresses in their lives. Eventually, they become dependent on them to avoid unpleasant feelings. When these quick fix substances are withdrawn, the raw reality returns, along with the side effects of the addictions to the substances. Ingesting quick fixes, which can alleviate stress in the short term, may include coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, tranquilizers, sleeping pills and other drugs, some herbal teas, tobacco and overuse of vitamins and chocolate. There are no quick fixes for our health. Just a healthy diet, staying close to nature and eliminating processed foods. Advice is to exercise often, breathe fresh air and to try to develop one’s innate spiritual energy. I once attended a workshop given by Judith Lasher, a physical therapist and Yoga instructor, who wrote a book on Restorative Yoga called Relax and Renew. She maintains that Yoga is about what YOU can bring to the Yoga community. I agree. I am a’ practicing Buddhist for 32′ years who chants NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO
I am in prayer 90 minutes daily, 365 days a year. I am a teacher and student of Yoga following in the footsteps of a Yogi and practicing Yoga 365 days a year as well.
What chanting Buddhist mantras has given me, is powerful in the Buddhist God’s Hands. He has given me the gift of life my health. This allows me to help others with their poor and failing health difficulties. Yoga is my passion, and my gift to the world is Yoga For Your Eyes. I am Issac the Yogi. Till we meet again.
Namaste:
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Bachelor of Science, Accounting, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, .1984
Yoga Instructor Certification, Temple of Kriya Yoga, Chicago, IL,1995
Founder of Folded Leaf School of Yoga, State of IL, 2000
Inventor of Tai Chi Yoga Bag, 2001
Senior Fitness Instructor Certification, Symbria Rehab. 2005 to present. Duties breathing, balance, flexibility, weight training, strength training with ban or tube, step arobri, yoga tai chi.
Tai Chi Instructor Certification, Master Lee Won, Chicago, IL 2007
CPR Certification, American Heart Association, 2005 to present
AVOCATIONS
Playing, and teaching, chess to students in the Chicago Public School System„2011 to present
Self-taught Vegetarian cooking throughout life.
The discipline of partial fasting each day accompanied by full fasts on occasion.