Blogging again…my personal experience of a 300 ryt.

I’m picking my blog back up and will simply hold off on all odd experiences until we meet in person.  To be fair to myself I did reread all my blogs and they were actually quite funny, light hearted, peppered with yogic insight as well as compliments about my experience.  Most complaining was about the noise of this town and my old achy body.  And I personally wouldn’t know not to mix the sharing of experiences.  (Shhhh..cactus juice).  I’ll also eliminate references to where I am and what I’m involved in for our google bots.  

Have you ever been in a bad mood and gotten a text message from someone and read it really snarky?  For example I keep getting text messages from my landscaper that my bill is due which I know, but my banking apps won’t load in Guatemala so I can’t pay until I get back.  I know these are autoresponders from their billing system. Still, when I read them through my lense they seem aggravated and annoyed at me.  I tell myself they are autoresponders and it is okay and I know my landscaper will wait until I return, but my mind sees what it sees.  I think some of that is going on here.

I’ve resolved my issues by simply withdrawing my energies which is perfect for the “third world” or world of the Condor where we are supposed to intimately connect with spirit and the non material beings of this world.  Funny as I’ve spent so much time on my own lately reading Vivekananda’s Vedanta (which you must read) that I’m truly questioning the merit and benefit of the existence of God and a spiritual life.  I’m not sure what yoga is nowadays, but it certainly isn’t what Vivekananda says it is.

I remember a lecture of Yogi Bhajan’s when asked if a student should seek a spiritual life.  He says “absolutely not.  The spiritual life is as hard as a non spiritual life, just in a different way.”  I see in Western yoga culture today (my only view) a blending of both worlds and a half healing taking place.  At what point do we simply surrender the past and move forward?  At what point do you let go and apply the teachings?

Vivekananda says you must embrace your spiritual quest with the passion a drowning man seeks a breath of air.  Do you want to see God that badly?  To see God he cautions you to live alone and to not participate in anything that may cause anxiety or what I call Karma Drama.

But wherever you go, there your are.  So what is this secluded anxiety free life?

(Later in the day update!  I’ve been assigned the Kaivalya Upanishad and it is about…get this…aloneness (which I’m practicing) Synchronicity!   And then I remembered why to do these practices!  To go beyond the material world or the ability to use magic! (Thanks Dr. Deepak Chopra) And then in our meditation class tonight the guy teaching said “wherever you go, there you are which is what I have been thinking all day.)

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Guatemala as I’m sure you know.  We did have the day off.  There are three groups of friends who came to the training together and most others have roommates they have bonded with.  So Thanksgiving for me was spent alone reading.  It wasn’t that bad.  It did remind me of when I was first divorced.  We would flip flop (and still do even though the kids are grown) Thanksgiving. I usually would schedule a special yoga class for Thanksgiving day when I didn’t have the kids so I at least saw some people on that day.  Spending Thanksgiving alone, however, did make it easier to decide to spend the last 1/3 of my training mostly to myself.

I did go to the most excellent Kundalini Yoga class led by one of the teachers at the the place I’m staying.  It was so much fun and I felt perfect after.  I have to start teaching Kundalini once a week again for you guys.  You need it too.  We used to have five classes a week in Montgomery before that community fell apart and I do miss it.  I wish I could hire someone else to teach it though so I could simply attend.

Friday, November 29th

Friday was a tough day.  My back is incredibly sore from sitting and oddly from laying in bed.  At night it gets dark and I am in bed at 7:30 or 8 reading.  My back is what brought me to yoga in the first place so many years ago so while I know it is healed, it is also a maintenance issue.  I’m looking forward to being more active, but remembering I’m coming home to Ohio winter.  Still, Marley (the dog) is going to get her puppy buddhi back in shape when I get home.

We started the day with a yin practice which seemed to be a big hit with everyone when we shared in the afternoon.  For me I sat in the wrong place of the Shiva Shala.  I absolutely love that yoga space and always sit in front of Shiva’s alter which is in the back of a cave.  It’s been windy and cold lately so the at 6:30 am it was freezing and the wind was whipping down that cave.  It was a good lesson for me about yin and goosebumps.  If you are shivering, you simply can’t do yin very good.  It makes me think all of our yin classes should go back to 80 degrees at Elemental OM.  We don’t have. A heating system in either of our studios, but we can turn up the HVAC.

Saturday, November 30th.

I think I’m just tired.  I remember a hard yoga class which I had to modify because it was all about jumping to the front of your mat with a block between your legs and jumping back to chaturanga with same block.  I don’t jump with my wrist and shoulder situations. I have to step forward and step back.

Chatturanga isn’t talk in my classes because most people do not have the strength to keep their shoulders above their elbows or harder still, at the elbows.  This causes the rotator cuff to tear.  I teach 8 limbs instead….bring the knees, chest, and then chin to the earth and migrate to cobra or up dog. I do wish I was stronger.

We started on the Upanishads which I would like to teach to you in our 300.  Fascinating study of how to know brahma.  Brahma is basically God and is unknowable.   Ponder that….

There was a lesson in the daily routines for Ayurveda.

There was a meditation lesson.  You know if you’ve worked with me… Find a comfy seat, breath, withdrawal your senses, one pointed focus on anything of your choosing, turns to concentration, turns to bliss.  Easy Peasy!!!