Yoga - I did it with Orlando Cani a great Brazilian teacher

Back in 1979/80 I did yoga and it was a great experience I wish I had never stopped. This is my teacher and his site is in English if you want to visit it.

This is his biography:

"Orlando Cani was born on November 1935 in the city of Rodeio in the north of Santa Catarina where he lived until the age of 13, when he came to live in Rio de Janeiro. At 16 he got to know Yoga through the professor and master Jean-Pierre Bastiou, with whom he practiced corrective gymnastics. At 18, he entered the army’s school of parachuting. At 20, he graduated in Physical Education, and soon after began competing both on a national and international level at various sporting events. He was Rio de Janeiro’s champion of Olympic gymnastics and swimming, as well as acting as a coach in both events. He participated in various world championships of the Military Pentathlon (competition that involves five events, running, swimming, shooting, obstacle course and throwing with precision and distance), making him two time world champion, receiving personally from the from the country’s president, at the time, Castelo Branco, the highest award in sports the “Sport Medal of Honor” (Cruz do Mérito Desportivo).

In 1973, he went to India for a specialized course in Yoga at the Yoga Institute of Bombay, and there met his guru of Hatha Yoga, sri Yogendra. In Richikech (Ashram de Sivananda), he met his spiritual guru, Swame Chidananda.Orlando Cani has been a professor of physical education since 1956 and a professor of Yoga since 1961. He trains and has trained athletes in various events, like Rickson Gracie in Martial Arts; the Olympic female and male volleyball teams (an invitation from the coach Bernardinho); the double teams of beach volleyball, like Guilherme and Pará and Shelda and Adriana; the bi-champion of the triathlon Dolabella; surfers like Ricardo Bocão and Mudinho among others. He participated as a trainer in body expression in theater and dance and as a lecturer in national and international conventions on physical activities since 1979.

On a more personal level, he belongs to a beautiful family, made up of his wife lara Cani, his daughters Roberta and Patricia and his grandchildren Bruno and Rodrigo, as well and his numerous friends and long time students. This family gives him incredible affectionate and emotional support."

Sometimes I do it at home and it is as if I go back in time and I am there at that room, he still teaches there now with his daughters, and I will try to go back this year. I stopped because I didn't had money and he was kind enough not to charge me. But I started feeling ashamed. I'm sure I would not be having back problems if I didn't stop. But I'm getting better and better so I believe that soon I will be back at that room and I am very happy thinking about it because I feel that even though I stopped I still carry what I learned and it is part of who I am.

It will be great to go to a class where you only think about what you are doing and stop thinking about quotidian and foolish things especially at the end of the class during relaxation. You really stop thinking without effort. What else can someone aspire?