“StI am aware” is the theme of the largest Italian yogic gathering, in Milan, organized by YogaFestival on the day of World Yoga Day proclaimed in 2014 by the United Nations.
The Spanish maestro will direct the match at the Arena Civica Carlos Fiel, doctor, musician, artist, yoga teacher since the 70s.
Carlos Fiel passionate about yoga since 1967
Born in San Sebastián in 1950, Fiel has known yoga and meditation since 1967, «I was sixteen» he says as soon as he landed in Milan. In 1980, together with his brother Emilio, hhe founded the Rainbow Community, which developed both in Spain and in Europe between 1980 and 1995.
At the same time, in 1980, he founded the Sadhana School, a training center for teachers of yoga and psycho-body therapies. Sadhana currently has eight training schools, one of which is in Livorno, Italy, twelve trainers and more than two thousand teachers trained over the years.
As for his personal work, focuses on meditation and comes from a long development in both Zen and Tibetan Buddhism and the Theravada world, where he has concentrated for the past fifteen years. Since the 1970s he has traveled constantly in the Orient, mainly in India, as well as in other countries of the Vipassana world, such as Burma, Thailand, Korea or Vietnam.
A practice dedicated to mindfulness
Yoga master Carlos Fiel
Carlos Fiel what exactly does awareness mean in yoga?
Mindfulness in yoga means opening of the heart. It is the condition of being present, of being attentive to the life you have and lead. To be aware, however, you must also look at others. At a time when the bond with those around us today is more fragile than ever, your decisions, your bonds of friendship and trust are important. I am happy if I am aware and have an open heart. In this condition, negative emotions such as worries, greed and selfishness do not take over. I believe that today the recovery of tenderness is important, it makes us trust in life and in those around us. Automatically create positive actions.
Does yoga help build confidence?
More than the practice itself, it helps the awareness of knowing what yoga is. We talk about yoga, but often we don’t know what it is. The practice is always connected to the opening of the heart. The more yoga is done, the more a deep feeling develops that makes us live in connection with emotions, with love or even with pain. You become more sensitive. You begin to use your eyes to listen to others and your heart to comfort each other. Otherwise the practice is an end in itself. It is not a dogmatic militancy.
Carlos Fiel: «I discovered yoga at sixteen»
You have been practicing for over… fifty years: how has it transformed you as a human being?
For a long time it was an obsession. Maybe at the beginning, having started very young, I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I always had faith that I was on the right track. Then I relaxed over the years after realizing that yoga is the deep meaning of you, of others and of life; it is that sense of tenderness, that way of relating body, mind and heart that makes you understand that there is not only one way of acting in life, but a broader perspective. Practice is transformation, it’s a pilgrimage to go from head to heart.
You are a doctor: does yoga help “heal” the soul?
In medicine it has helped me to see the architecture of the human body in all its complexity. Anatomy is a matter of awareness. You don’t heal by what you know but by who you are. For your empathy in the relationship with each other.
The Summer Solstice is a very profound spiritual time.
In summer the fruits of the sown are reaped, the base, the humus, the earth, humanity. Summer is a moment of sharing, of openness, a season to share the fruit of life, the world, relationships. Yoga means “union” and in this sense I see the Solstice as a day of sharing, a small stop in front of the door of the Sun. To open your life you have to start looking at the earth, water it. Life is all here, in this awareness. In your breath, in the life you have inside you, in the sense of shared intimacy. everything I want for my life, there is a need for a lot of awareness.
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