This collection and commentary of various Bhavagad Gîta songs, directed to Yoga and Budo practitioners, is the result of a work and study carried out over several years together with a group of students who accompanied me in the realization of the Ten Chi – Space of study, reflection and inner evolution through the practice of Budo, Yoga and Zen.
In this introduction I would like to present a brief historical retrospective of the path taken and, especially, of the spirit that animates the experience of our practice, as it is the same that runs through our commentary on various songs of Gîta.
When I arrived in Portugal more than thirty years ago, yoga was almost unknown in this country. There was a single practice room where some students studied and worked in solitude, although great scholars had passed through Portugal, such as Professor Mircea Eliade, who taught at the Faculty of Arts in Lisbon.
The beginning of my teaching begins, shyly, in Cascais, then my
first Yoga book made our school known which widened with the training of new instructors. In 1979, we entered the “Ten Chi period”, where all my attention was directed to the construction of a center, far from the city, a space for gathering, study and meditation. It was a long way and an extremely tough test for the small group that followed me and helped to carry out this project.
Despite all these difficulties, Yoga classes and seminars have always existed. In the early days, they were performed outdoors, such as during the visits of Swami Satchidananda, a traditional South Indian yogi who motivated us to continue our study and work. Later, already with some infrastructure, we received several visits from Tara Michael who with his great scholarship introduced us to the great sacred texts of India.