Having been born in Rabat, Morocco, but growing up largely in France, I started my inward journey in 1993, driven by a strong impulse to explore life in more depth rather than to experience it through the eyes of the media and largely materialistic society we live in.
I travelled to India and it was love at first sight. I didn't have a clue where I was heading but I felt at home. Order in chaos was my first impression, authenticity in ordinariness my second, and simplicity in tragedies my third. A vibrant country populated by bright people. Thirteen years later, my view is unchanged.
My first encounter with the path of yoga was in the same year in Rishikesh when I ventured into an ashram. I enjoyed the quietness and the fact that it was nothing like France - or anything else I'd come across. After a month or so of practicing Hatha Yoga I was about to leave when my teacher approached me and asked that I never give up what I had learnt here.
My journey had only just begun!
 Guruji-March 1996 |
After many auspicious coincidences I ended up in the foothills of the Himalayas in a Tibetan community in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, where I first encountered the beautiful philosophy and practices of Mahayana Buddhism and meditation. After meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama I was hooked and shortly after undertook my first retreat, led by my precious root teacher Shri Dharmakirti - now I was addicted! I couldn't get enough and moved on immediately to Bodh-Gaya for a further retreat with Venerable Shri Dharmakirti. After a period of time I decided it was time to move on but was asked by Shri Dharmakirti to move to the Himalayas full-time to study intensively the Lineage of Lama Tsongkapa (Gelugpa) and the Prasangika Madyemika philosophical view. The world is a dream-like illusion and we are stuck in ignorance and suffering I was told. I declined and thought, well, if it is, I'll find out for myself. Silly girl ... I should have gone.
But I was young with a very inquisitive mind, and moved on. I flew to Nepal and then Thailand where I studied Traditional Thai Massage. I had been bitten by the Dharma bug and felt a constant strong urge to continue studying the Buddha-Dharma. I tried to get visas to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam but it was difficult because I was travelling on my own and told it was not safe. So I opted for Burma? I was allowed to stay for a period of fourteen days only, but six months later I was still there, having been ordained as a Buddhist nun in a Theravada monastery. This was to be my life; I had found my spot on the planet. I decided to devote the rest of my life to the study of the most important and precious practice I had ever come across: meditation.
Life however had decided something quite different and after a further passage of time I was forced to leave the monastery in Yangoon for my own safety. I had to give up the robes and move on, but I kept my ordained name- Ma Yasavati. My life, mind, and heart had changed irrevocably - now there was no going back - inside at least.
In 1994, after many more adventures, I moved to Key West in Florida. I took up Bikram Yoga there and practiced intensively for the next two years at the College of India. My teacher advised me to become certified and for that I had to move to Los-Angeles. Around the same time another teacher approached me with a copy of the Yoga Journal and a video of Richard Freeman and asked me to check the materials first before making up my mind about the move to LA. The Ashtanga form felt inspirational immediately and two weeks later I was back in India - this time to hopefully meet the head of the Ashtanga form - Sri K. Pattabhi Jois or Guruji.
I stopped off first in Puna with the hope of meeting Sir Iyengar but whilst there realised the real importance of knowing exactly what you want in life - and I felt a strong pull to Mysore, where Shri Pattabhi Jois is based. I called Guruji first to make sure I could come along to his centre in Mysore. He said if I was not coming then 'I was a very bad lady' - so I thought I would rather get on a train and get down there I soon as I could rather than being called a 'very bad lady'!
We met. He gave me a hard time because I did not have an Ashtanga background but said to come along early the next morning and 'If you like, you do. You don't like, you go'. Deal. He then offered me some biscuits; he was a friend for life!
The next day I went along and it just happened that some members of the 'ashtanga family' were there: Chuck and Matty from Yoga Works in California, Lino Miele, John Scott, Graham Northfield, and I think Annie Groover, Dena and Karen H, as well as Rolf N. It was really cooking in there and I thought to myself, 'This is just phenomenal, but it's not for me thank you'. Guruji called my name out of the blue; I thought I was going to have a heart attack. He said, 'You like? You do? You don't. You do'. I thought 'You don't, you go, right?' I am sure He could read my mind because He gave me such a look. I thought I'd better give this man a straight answer but I just could not say 'No'. So whilst my head was moving from side to side meaning 'No', what came out of my mouth was a very shy 'Yes'. 'Tomorrow, 5 am, you come!'
A new adventure started and I was privileged enough to practice with the old family and get closer to them and understand more on the reverence that everyone was feeling for Guruji, and why. At the same time I was also studying in the evening with Acharya Venkatesha in classes purely attended by Indians. There were only two foreigners at his sessions - my brother and I - and it was fantastic! I am forever grateful to everyone, particularly to Guruji, for His patience, kindness, and for pushing me the way He did, and to Yogacharya Venkatesha for teaching me the art of simplicity.
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After six months practicing under the guidance of Guruji and Yogacharya Venkatesha in Mysore I was told to fly to Colorado and study with Richard Freeman which I did in the summer of 1996. In the winter of 1997 Richard encouraged me to start teaching, which I did from time to time. However I was more interested in learning and practicing under his guidance, and I did this for the next seven years, whilst also attending workshops with Tim Miller, Annie Pace, Gabriella Giubilaro and Guruji, and in France with Lino Miele and Graham Northfield. I will forever be grateful to Richard for teaching me the art of refinement within my practice, amongst many other things, and like Guruji, they have my innermost and unlimited gratitude and respect.
Whilst living in Boulder I continued my dedicated studies of the Buddha-Dharma and meditation, and practiced with the Shambhala Sangha founded by the very special Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. This is a very impressive and brilliant Buddhist community through which I had the great honour to meet and treat with Thai Massage high Tibetan lamas from the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. A very special and unforgettable time ...but life moves on.
After leaving Colorado I followed my heart again and moved to Canada for a short while to be with my future husband before coming to bonny Scotland in 2002. I then started teaching yoga part-time, mainly at the Yoga Centre.
Shortly before the turn of 2007 I took the leap and decided to start my own business teaching yoga and meditation. After running classes at a converted convent in Edinburgh, I am now teaching at the Danish Cultural Institute. Many students have joined me from my previous classes and new people come each week to sample the practices of yoga and meditation which I have learnt through the kindness of my own teachers. It is hoped that I will be sufficiently successful to raise enough funds to pursue my dream of building a charitable foundation to support my root teacher, Venerable Shri Dharmakirti, in His work in the Kullu Valley, India, and also in building a Buddhist monastery to the north of Delhi, following the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
I live with my husband Valentine, and our cute (but slightly obese) cat Neo who behaves like a dog and our dog George a Rhodesian Ridgeback without a ridge.
