Welcome To Wijerama Yoga
Yoga we are taught from the most ancient of texts is the union of body, mind and spirit. In other words, it is not a practice that is separate from anything. Indeed it seeks to obliterate the delusion of a separate self , of an ego , and unite with All. In other words yoga is not a private obsession with the self for narcissistic purposes. It is deeply committed and deeply purposeful.
However we all come to realize what our purpose is in our own way and in our own time. We may come to yoga to relieve stress, to feel better, to seek better health of body and all of that yoga will provide. It is the dream of Wijerama Yoga to help people, to become stronger, of body and mind, healthier of body and mind and to realize the great tasks that each precious human being has to fulfill in order that we may be One – one human race in solidarity with one another and living in harmony with the planet. We are without question n the same boat – a little blue planet in an infinite universe – we are more connected than the cells of a body. We must realize this unity and by so doing save ourselves and save our planet, so that we may eliminate suffering and find a new foundation of happiness.
Wijerama Yoga will use the daily practice of asana to bring strength and flexibility to the body and prepare the foundation.
Wijerama Yoga will use the daily practice of mediation to still and focus the mind to provide a proper platform for our intelligence.
Wijerama Yoga will be socially engaged and speak truth to power.
Manjula (Manj) Daminda Wijerama – About Me
My yogic journey began as a child in a small temple in Sri Lanka where I was exposed to the teachings and practices of the Buddha , an Indian yogi who realized himself 2500 years ago. I was touched by the beauty of the simple temple as a child , with its Pipal tree where we would sit under to meditate and the smell of incense and the offering of flowers. The tenet of Ahima – or harmelssness – made a deep impression upon me . It made sense to me to do no harm to humans or animals from a young age.
Between the years of 6 through 17 I was traveling back and forth between Sri Lanka and the USA, between east and west, between cultural, class and national boundaries. All of this impressed upon me the deep commonality at the root of all humanity despite what seems at first like endless difference. It instilled in me through lived experience a boundless perspective of humanity and the planet we share. That we all suffer and that we all seek liberation from suffering.
In New York City, as a undergraduate student working my way through public university I was drawn to student activism in defense of the right to education for working class youth which was increasingly under threat by priorities that placed the wants of the few over the needs of the many. I threw myself into studying and working for the defense of the voiceless and the marginalized and of the worker who creates all wealth but who seems to have no say over what is done with the wealth she creates.
During these years I discovered yoga asana practice which seemed to perfectly complement my early training in Ahimsa. I found that to stay in balance in a society that seemed increasingly out of balance , that was full of stresses, particularly for the working class, that it was necessary to train not just in the moral teachings of Ahimsa, of the Yamas and Niyamas, but also to practice the body and breath – to practice Yoga Asana and to practice meditation.
It was after another two decades of work, practicing yoga and mediation and trying to reconcile what I am here on earth to do that I decided to turn myself to the teaching and living of yoga.
