Greetings from South Africa

[Pandara]

Hi All,

I am now already a week on the forum and decided to first check the forum out before I do my introductions. So here goes:-

My name is Willie, I am a Hatha Yoga teacher in Pretoria part time, my full time job is a running my own graphic design business. I am a student of Sri Durga Devi, who is an initiate disciple of Swami Sivanada Maharaj of Risikesh. Swami Sivananda propagated the yoga of synthesis which means that one should incorporate all the different aspects of yoga, i.e. Bhakti, Dhyana, Karma, Japa, Laya etc. into your practice. I am doing yoga now for nearly ten years and started beginning of this year with my own classes. I completed my yoga teacher training in the tradition of Swami Satyananda, who was a disciple of Swami Sivananda, under Mother Mirashee.

Pandara is the consort of the Amitabha Buddha and although not my spiritual name, I associate strongly with this Mother as I had a strong connection to the Amitabha Buddha in many past incarnations and I continue to have it in this incarnation as well. I selected the Mother's name in great reverence to represent me on this forum and I pray for her Wisdom when answering questions.

I am a vegetarian now for about 5 years and enjoy every moment of it. I live a simple life with my partner, my three dogs, three cats and my beautiful garden. I do some painting sometimes, love meditation and I am also busy with my training as a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church.

My own philosophy is: "Today well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope."

[Nichole]

Welcome Willie,
I am already enjoying your contributions here. Thank you for sharing so much about yourself in this post. I was curious about what you meant when you mentioned "my training as a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church" so I looked it up on Wikipedia. I had never heard of a liberal Catholic Church. My parents are devout Roman Catholics and this was how I was raised, attending mass three times a week when I was young. I see that these two churches are very different from each other. The Liberal Catholic Church has a very interesting story too.


Again wishing you a warm welcome.
Blessings,

[Bentinho Massaro]

Thanks for sharing, your contributions are indeed outstanding.

L&L,
B.