Five Tibetans Workshop
24 December 2006 -- Christmas eve morning 2006 saw a small gathering of people at La Vida Loft. Most people would choose to sleep in on a Sunday, but our group of people was all eager to get started on the Five Tibetans Workshop, conducted by Dhyan Tara.

Some of us attended with no knowledge, while others had heard about it or read about it. One participant even tried it on his own, but wanted to attend the workshop to confirm that he was doing the exercises correctly.

All in all, it was a good session. Everyone went away happy, energized and ready to get into the Christmas celebrations.

Some information about Five Tibetans
The Five Tibetans are a yogic system of highly energizing postures and exercises that originated in the Himalayas.

Two thousand years ago, Tibetan monks claimed that the aging process could be reversed. They developed the Five Tibetans series of exercises by condensing 21 yoga exercises into 5.

Benefits
The Five Tibetans exercises open up the body/mind energy system to balance energy. They take a minimum of daily time and effort to do but can dramatically increase physical strength and suppleness as well as mental acuity.

Even newcomers to yoga will experience the Five Tibetans liberating effect on the innate energetic power of the human body and mind. Regular practice of these exercises relieves muscular tension and nervous stress, improves respiration and digestion, benefits the cardiovascular system, and leads to deep relaxation and well-being.

The Five Tibetans can be a powerful vehicle not only for enlivening the senses but also for generating and harnessing vital energy for self-transformation.

Ringing in 2007 with Laughter
31 December 2006 -- Our little community came together on New Year's eve 2006 to welcome the New Year 2007 with Laughter Meditation.

At the Osho Meditation Resort in Pune, as well as in many Osho Centers around the world, it has become tradition to celebrate the New Year with laughter. And so it is with our own small community in Singapore.

We began our celebration with Dynamic Meditation and other meditations and worked our way to the main event -- Laughter!

In some Zen monasteries, the monks start and end the day with laughter. Osho says: "Laughter is therapy. And if you are allowed from the very beginning to enjoy a belly laughter without restraint, without inhibition, to find out your buddha will be the easiest job, because you will be free of all seriousness. You will be free of all tensions, inhibitions, suppressions, and in this freedom only one finds the buddha."

So in the spirit of these Zen monks, we ended one year and started another with laughter... laughter which we hope to carry with us throughout 2007!

Text on Workshop and Laugher by Dhyan Darshan     Text on Five Tibetans from The Five Tibetans Rites