Traveling to Manhattan last week, I took my familiar trek to Union Square where I met up with my Jivamukti teacher Dechen Thurman, son of the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman. Sharon Gannon and David Life, artists who merged as activists and created the Jivamukti yoga schools along the way, founded Jivamukti in 1989. Jivamukti means liberated living. A Jivamukti is one who is liberated and lives to benefit the lives of others … a tall order. The style is vinyassa flow and incorporates chanting, postures, and concepts of Indian philosophy. Each month, Sharon and David emphasize a theme, and the theme this month is Asteya, or “non-stealing.” The concept is this: When one stops stealing from others, prosperity (material, mental, and spiritual) appears. Stealing can be defined in its many forms: things, ideas, thunder, parking places. Sharon Gannon takes the stealing concept even further to support her vegan philosophical theories … for example, confining an animal steals its life and by consuming meat, we steal the life and happiness of billions of animals.
Check out her concept:
.What is Stealing?
