Meet Sally Adnams Jones, our new Centre Director

I am delighted to be serving the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga as the new Director, and am grateful to the DS Board for giving me an opportunity to live, learn and grow alongside this special community.

My hometown is Durban, South Africa, famous for its beaches, sugar cane and the largest community of Hindus outside of India. I was introduced to meditation practices early on, witnessing as a child the joyful street dancing of the Hari Krishnas; the lights and fire-cracker celebrations of Diwali; and the deep trances of the fire-walking ceremonies, where aspirants would walk bare foot across beds of burning coals, or hang avocados from hooks in their skin without bleeding or signs of pain. From a young age I noticed the joyful bhakti, and the self-discipline of people’s minds, and was curious.

As a teen, I was given a mango and a copy of the Gita by a sadhu on the street. I enjoyed the fruit, but the sacred text gathered dust in my bookshelf for several years, until at nineteen I started to practice yoga, which I recognised immediately as a natural expression of my spirituality. Over the years, I have studied with many teachers, some in lineages, and some who have blended their own meditative practices. I took my YTT 500 at the Amrit Yoga Institute, and then, being a Jnana geek, I decided to do a Masters Degree in Yoga Education at the Hindu University of America. Being fascinated by human potentials, I have followed this with PhD studies in Transformative Education.

In my professional life, I have taught art and designed clothes and interiors, and have been the director of a Wellness Centre, but over the years, as I became acquainted with Babaji’s books, the Centre began to feel like my spiritual home. Six years ago, while sipping chai at Latte da, I mentioned to a group of elders that I knew the centre would somehow be in my future, but I did not know how or when. So I am very happy to be here now, if a little overwhelmed, and am grateful to the community for their patience as I learn the rhythms and nuances of all the operations.

I would like to thank every previous director, and the hundreds of karma yogis who have contributed so tirelessly, in so many ways, to the development of this unique experiment in human possibilities. The centre would not exist without you!