| His journey into yoga also led him to travel to India and America as well as various places in Europe, allowing him to meet many well-known yogis such as David Svenson, Erich Schiffmann, Shandor Remete and Angela Farmer, to name but a few. Although he studied many different styles of yoga under many different teachers, he never felt the need to stay with one in particular; this led him to develop his own fluid and organic form - Yogabeats.
Yogabeats classes are always accompanied by an eclectic mix of ethnic/world fusion music – compiled by David Sye himself - because he strongly believes that music has this undeniable ability of putting us in the now. “Music helps us find implicit order inside explicit disorder. We can feel stillness within the music; music helps us find silence inside”, he explained. There is rhythm in music and in life. A life devoid of rhythm becomes dull, mechanical and lifeless. Like life itself, David Sye’s classes are utterly unpredictable, constantly evolving from the merging of everyone’s energies and are always infused with a strong sense of playfulness (lila), inspiring creative expression. Since the time when he worked in wartime Serbia and experienced first-hand how loud rhythmic music had drowned the sound of falling artillery during the yoga classes he ran for the soldiers, music has always been an integral part of all his classes.
David Sye does not want an easy life. Challenges provide true opportunities to learn and grow and once we begin to change our attitude towards the difficulties we encounter in our lives, they can become interesting and fun. Yoga is not something that we do; it is something that we are. Yoga is a way of being, it is pure awareness. It changes our perceptions and shapes the way we interact with everything and everyone. Sometimes we have to go against the flow to be true to our Self and live up to our highest ethical values. This often requires that we step out of our familiar comfort zones and follow our inner guidance, not giving in to outside pressure. For a long time, David Sye had to contend with criticism from the British Wheel of Yoga and their shift towards a more positive attitude is only recent.
Having integrity means that we walk the talk and that we have the confidence and courage to say no. “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” - Alan Cohen. Releasing what we have but no longer serves us or is no longer true to our heart is an act of courage. David Sye admitted having a hard time getting over from the recent break-up of a six and a half year-long relationship; though the wounds are still raw and the pain tangible, he has however managed to put the past behind him and is now moving on. Life is made up of constant walking away from people and opportunities which at one time seemed attractive. David Sye stands strong in what he believes and will not be swayed to compromise for the wrong reasons, he will not be snared in the net of name and fame. He mentioned for instance how he could not find it in his heart to stay in California where everyone is a nobody unless they are famous and where gurus such as Guru Frawley feel the need to print guru on their cards! On another occasion, he told us how he turned down a lucrative offer to appear in a McDonald’s advertisement for a salad bar, even though the money would have been extremely welcome to fund his projects…
As well as a dedicated yogi with twenty-two years of teaching behind him, I found David Sye to be a visionary, a peace activist, a compassionate listener, and a strong voice for global change through yoga. His incisive humour, piercing insights and playful irreverence concealed a much deeper-rooted concern for the happiness and welfare of all human beings. The central thrust of his work is to promote a sense of oneness, bridging different ethnic, faith and cultural communities, celebrating our diversity and differences instead of letting them tear us apart. Unity is not uniformity. There is unity within diversity. It is a sad fact of modern living, he went on, that we are losing our identity; individuality is thwarted or denied and is being replaced by conformism and monoculture of the mind. All peoples should be allowed to celebrate their differences and work out their own destinies. It is not because we are different that we cannot get on, poverty of spirit is an attitude that prevents us from acknowledging that we are of one community. No one should be considered any “less human” or “less worthy” of life, because of their race, gender or creed, added David Sye. At this point in the conversation he also briefly evoked his interest in Sufism. Sufism advocates liberation from dogmas and preconceived ideas and transcends the barriers of religion. Sufis believe that there is only one Truth but several interpretations of it. It is the way that we perceive our differences that needs to be addressed by promoting mutual respect and understanding and an acceptance of the intrinsic worth of every human being.
David Sye has joined the people of goodwill who believe in the fundamental freedom of the human spirit and who entirely respect that we can all be and act according to our own conscience. By beginning to take active steps to create peace in our own life, that of our community and the wider world, we participate in humanity’s awakening consciousness. We use our talents and skills and the gift of our human life to make the world a better place. This means that if we are a yoga teacher, we should try and be the best teacher we can possibly be. We can be mighty in our small peaceful ways. Peace is an every day choice that has far-reaching effects. When we find peace within our hearts, we begin to inspire peace to those around us. As the vibration of light that we are now experiencing on our planet becomes stronger, we have the potential of growing more rapidly and clear our karma from the past.
David Sye’s yoga is a yoga of action and commitment. He strongly believes that there is no distinction between what is good for him and what is good for the rest. His strong sense of empathy for all people led him to adopt a Serbian name – despite his Russian origin – whilst he was in Serbia. By bringing yoga to places of conflicts, he can convey his plea for peace. His purpose is not to teach the advanced postures he has mastered himself and show superiority but to share the gift of yoga with those who desperately need it in the hope that their hearts too will be touched by its transforming grace. Yoga helps us to move beyond what we perceive ourselves to be, yoga allows us to transcend the day-to-day drama of our lives; yoga makes us humble and respectful, yoga enables us to go deeper and deeper into our own being until, ultimately, we can reach infinite consciousness. Already as a result of David Sye’s efforts to date, wounds are beginning to heal and genuine bonds are being developed in communities around the world. The women inmates at Bronzefield prison in Middlesex where he teaches yoga classes report that yoga is helping them find meaning in their lives, providing them with the welcome physical relief their neglected bodies crave for and bringing them to a safe and supportive place to nurture themselves. Yoga is enabling them to see that violence is hurtful to others and to themselves and is providing them with a way of changing their aggressive and hostile behaviour for a more peaceful one; yoga promotes self-confidence, self-worth, a sense of belonging and a sense of community. In yoga, they discover a way to reclaim their dignity and freedom; yoga empowers them to make positive choices. At the end of each yoga class, they always leave feeling “exhausted and totally blissed-out” commented David Sye.
David Sye is also putting a lot of efforts into a London project which supports the needs and interests of deprived London teenagers involved in prostitution, crack addiction, gun culture, etc. These youths see in violence a means of asserting control, temporarily numbing their feelings of fear and insecurity in the process. David Sye is hoping to reach out to these teenagers who have fallen through the net through yoga, bringing them to another level of consciousness in which violence is not the solution to violence. Violence can only exist in a context of fear. When we remove the roots of violence - the rising tensions - , violence loses its raison d’être. Global violence can only come to an end through raising the global level of consciousness. Opposing violence will only lead to more violence, it is not the solution. Violence can only end when global consciousness has reached the point where unconditional love has become stronger than fear. This comes through forgiveness. As more and more people expand in consciousness, others are inspired to do the same. When we extend ourselves for others, we are serving them. This way we fulfill our fundamental universal purpose in life which is to make a positive difference in the lives of others through service.
We fear what we do not understand and fear perpetuates violence. Everything that we feed will grow. As we develop in awareness, we begin to understand that if we water the seed of violence in our hearts, it will keep on growing stronger and that if we water the seed of compassion in our hearts, it will keep on growing stronger as well. It all depends on what we want to manifest. Even though more and more people are now awakening to this reality, they choose to do nothing, hoping that the feeling of “uncomfortability” will eventually fade away. David Sye feels a strong sense of responsibility for helping solve some of the major problems in the world. |
