Johann Kotze Music & Yoga

05/11/2025

The bodymind is the temple. To make oneself the place of practice, sacred. The temple building and its religions and rituals is only to remind us to be humble. And provide a place to be with others, in community. When religion is a dogma it distracts us from our own sacred physicality, and without love even the purest intent becomes profane. Mindfulness and prayers, when disconnected from the heart, are empty words, mere concepts. A physical practice without mental grasp lacks the fullness of bodymind as one. I was amazed how the temples l visited in Bali had very little of the multitudes of figures as featured in many Indian temples. Even the Hinduism felt different in Bali, less emphasis, perhaps, on the Vedic aspects. Be that as it may. My brief trip to Bali reminded me, in so many ways, that my own bodymind is the most direct sacred ground available, to me.

04/11/2025

Every week in my email I find two quotations, sent by the Ananda Kutir. One each by the two patron saints of the ashram. Their words of Vedic wisdom and Universal Light usually jolts me back to enquire, even if for a movement, into who I am. To just stop, and recognise myself.

“There is no other duty for man except meditation on the self. Dismissing all else, one should establish oneself in the self. The supreme self is experienced in the fourth state of consciousness. It is neither this nor that - it has no quality in particular and yet it is everything. It is peaceful, blessed and non-dual. It is the cessation of all phenomena. It is the ātman that should be known and realised. That is the purpose of life.” Swami Sivananda

“When we meditate on Rama, we saturate ourselves with the divine qualities that characterised Lord Rama. When we meditate on Jesus or Buddha or our own Gurudev, we grow in the divine virtues that characterised them. Without any effort at all, those qualities seem to come and dwell in our heart, provided we meditate intensely and with faith and devotion.” Swami Venkatesananda

16/09/2025

I'm away Wednesday 17th - Friday 26th. Last class Tuesday 9.30 AM 16th, next class Saturday 9 AM 27th.

Classes subbed by Sandra Thu PM. Sat AM, next week Mon PM and Thursday PM.

I.e. no morning classes rest of this week, or next week.

16/09/2025

Hum AUM… https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14DMaLULC6h/?mibextid=wwXIfr

14/06/2025

There is NO Class Monday 16 June. Class Saturday 14 as usual.

29/04/2025

"Long weekend" Friday 2 May and Saturday 3rd classes as normal.
Thursday 1 May (Public Holiday for some) please message me for booking.

23/04/2025

When l share a post such as this my motive is to share an idea. Energy. The body is a container, and vessel, for life. Life is energy. Mind is an aspect of life, and it is connected to being alive in the the body. In Yoga as l learned it in the lineage of understanding Body, Mind and Sprit, the practices are directed at harnassing the forces of nature into a cohesive and harmonious Whole. Awareness that this Life Force is what annimates the bodymind equals consciousness. This energy is the driver, of the human being, and it is the Source of Life. Because an understanding of this root energy has been taken out of day to day living, being alive, the human condition has come to lack connection to its own physiology, psycology and spirituality. All of this goes deeper than religion and science and mechanical anatomy. Technology mimics human, earth and universal systems, but is never life itself. An organ, in the body or the brain, is literally of a different fabric, or constitution than machine. To be human is to be of local and universal organic and DNA fabric of consciousness. To tap into a bodymind and spirit practice requires a mindset that begins with this understanding of energy and matter. It is not a religion ir belief system. The metaphysics of yoga is not philosophical or a model of physics. Energy and matter requires a study of awareness, or consciousness as a science of connection - to Self, and All That Is. All modalities and practices and banalities and intricacies, of war and peace, computers, opinions, ideals, personal or global issues, depends, simply, on energy. And energy is consciousness. And consciousness is never misleading, it is always leads to Source.

15/04/2025

Easter Weekend
NO classes
- Friday 18th and Saturday 19th
There is class Monday 21st
Please note starting time at 6 PM (not the usual 5.30)
It's a special 1 hour 15 minute session Yoga with Mantra & Sound Medicine.

Notice: April Easter long weekend, No classes Friday 18, Saturday 19th. Monday 21st 5.30 PM class is replaced with a Sound & Mantra session. Monday 28th April class as usual.

18/03/2025

Self realisation - to realise who, and what, we are - is at the heart of the practice of Yoga. Without such “making whole”, gathering of the parts or aspects of being, there is no Yoga. Then asana are exercises, and breathing is respiration, not pranayama. In the Way of Yoga as a Way of Being there is no need for specific cultural or nationalistic symbols. Consciousness exists in self awareness, beyond trivial pursuits. Beyond distracting thoughts or emotions. Yet the mind stuff and body stuff, citti and vritti, is the basis of physical bodymind existence. To know and understand these layers of identity is to know self in Yoga.

05/02/2025

Here is a free class recording from this morning, Wednesday 7 AM. "True Self, In Natural Being". (Available for a week or two). It's typical of my hatha sequences, gently athletic, opening the breath space, and affirming Body, Mind & Spirit Yoga as a Way of Being.

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