FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
MISSION
To provide an uplifting, healing space where people from all over the world can unfold themselves through the study and practice of yoga in a nurturing community. We seek to provide an intimate, safe place for students to explore self-transformation through yoga, meditation and pranayama. We are not interested in yoga or the yoga studio as a commodity, brand, or competition. That’s why our studio will ALWAYS be grass-roots, community-based, non-commercial, liberal and organic. We love to share the beauty and magic of yoga. Come join us!
As Donna Farhi noted, the world doesn’t really need more people who can bend their bodies into amazing positions. What it needs are kinder, more compassionate, generous people with open minds and hearts. Our motto is Gandhi ’s “BE the change you wish to see in the world.” Our aim is to offer a place where people can discover and share their gifts through yoga.
Sun and Moon classes are Hatha Yoga, inspired by Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kripalu, Sivananda, Tibetan Buddhism and many other yoga styles. Our offerings are grounded in a deep awareness of yoga history, philosophy, breath, alignment, chakras, bandhas, and the subtle energy body. Our classes seek to help you nurture your full potential on this planet–physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. We embrace more than asana–in any given class we might explore meditation, breathing, kirtan, poetry, and yoga texts both classical and contemporary.
Owner Leza Lowitz wanted to bring a California sense of relaxation to Tokyo, so she opened Sun and Moon Yoga in December of 2003. Sun and Moon is honored to have a great team of dedicated, experienced, kind, creative, and mindful teachers from all over the world. Since opening, Sun and Moon Yoga has had the privilege of sharing yoga with thousands of people from all over the world who stop into our warm, welcoming studio. We hope you will join us.
PHILOSOPHY
NAME
Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means “yoke” or “union.” Yoga unifies the body and mind through the breath, opening channels of energy that send the life force– prana or ki–through the body. Yoga offers us a way of Being rather than Doing. It’s a powerful gateway into the soul, which is why it’s called “the science of conscious awareness.”
The studio’s name is taken from the Sanskrit word hatha, which is the type of yoga we practice. Ha means “Sun” and tha means “Moon.” Through the practice of yoga postures, breathing, meditation and awareness, we balance the opposite energies of the body/mind (sun and moon, male and female, light and dark, left and right, heaven and earth) and create union (Yoga)–a sanctuary for the soul.
The physical benefits of yoga are manifold–reduce stress, release toxins, revitalize the systems of the body, tone, strengthen, increase flexibility and vitality. The non-physical invitation is to let go of the constructs we create on the ego level and open to deeper self-discovery, healing, interconnectedness and transformation–finding our innate vitality, balance, calm, joy and balance. Then we take these gifts off the mat and into community (kula) with others.
