Flying Time

Wow!  Time is just flying by!  Where does it all go?  It feels like yesterday that I was packing my bags.

Whew!  I can't believe that two weeks have gone by without me finding enough time to do this blog thing!  So let me try to remember what has been going on....Oh yes, the cleansing technique of swallowing the cloth.  I told you that I'd tell you all about so, here goes.  Apparently you ate to swallow 22 ft. of a sliky like cheese cloth thing.  1 inch wide.  Um yeah then you do some stomach rolling and pull out the cloth.  All of this must be done before the sun comes up and in no more than 10 minutes, becuase after 10 minutes the digestive process begins to start....So I watched Vishva do it and he swallowed the whole 22 ft!  Gross! We were given much smaller one, 6 ft and I was able to swallow oh maybe about 4 inches.  Then my gag reflex kicked in and I almost puked my guts out.  Its amazing how much slime came out of my throat from just those 4 inches.  I did feel better, more clear, and my voice sounded clearer too.  But it one helluva way to start your day!  Anyway, it was a very interesting experience which I was NOT open to at first but eventually I thought, what the hell?  I'm hear to learn about yoga and apparently in the advanced yoga teachings we learn about these ancient cleansing practices.  I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon though.  Here's me swallowing my cloth.  mmmmm breakfast =)

So anyway, what else?  Last week we did our first teach outs. Mine went fine, although my perfectionistic tendencies always thinks that I could've done better.  But the reason I am here is to learn to let go of that behavior and become a better teacher so I'm open to all the suggestions I can get.  Hmmm, oh we did a ceremonial fire Pitra Puja down by the river.  This is an ancient ceremonial ritual that all Indians do.  When the stars are aligned just right, they go down to the Ganga and elevate their ancestors.  So this incredibly intricate ceremony either connects you with your "elevated" ancestors or if they are suffering, ie: haven't made it to heaven or their next life yet, this will elevate them from their suffering.  I called my mom and got all the names of my grandparents and my great grandparents.  My great aunt Edith and my aunt Beverly were also part of my ceremony.  This ritual is said to heal all the relationships in your family.  Even going back several life times.  It was very complex and mostly in Hindi and many tasks were involved.  We were given two silver trays.  One was to be kept empty the entire time.  The other was filled with a spoon, two small bowls, a nut, flowers, a cup, and eventually 10 balls we made from dough.  We spinkeled water from the Ganga on our balls along with yogurt, honey and milk.  Each representing the sweet nectars of life.  Then we moved all that stuff on to a leaf plate and filled our tray with water from the river.  Then we put the water from the tray into the empty try in a certain way based on which family member we were elevating.  Then we offered our dough balls covered in yogurt, honey, and milk into the Ganga for the fish.  Which would somehow carry our elevations to our ancestors.  It was a beautiful and strange thing. After that we were all tried and our lunch was cut short becuase of it but I was happy that I did it. 

Last week a Swami, or wandering Baba as they are so fonly called, came to "teach" our yoga class.  He was over 100 years old!!  He said that he planned to be in this body for 50 more years.  Vishva told the story of how me met him 20 years ago and that NOTHING had changed.  It was a pretty amazing morning, watching this centinarian folding himself into a prezel.  I will never forget the way he shouted, "RELAX!" when we went into Savasana (resting pose).  He spoke only Hindi and Vishva translated his insturctions into English so that we knew what to do.  He moved so fast!  We could barely keep up!  And eventrually we all resorted to just taking pictures becuase we couldn't do what he was doing and he was just so amazing!  I was moved to tears a few times as he sang some chants and taught us clapping and laughing yoga.  He told of how he took care of Osho when Osho was a boy.  A day I will never never forget.  I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to meet such a devoted soul. 

 Ok what else.....hmm Oh yes, we've been studying Kunalini Yoga this past week which is interesting.  Its main goal is to raise your energy evenly through your body, stabalizing the chakra energies.  It's a new technique that I am really enjoying learning about.  The chakras parallel so many differnt things in all types of religions.  I'm not getting into that now.  We can have a conversation about it when I get home.  Speaking of which, today, that feels really far away.  We did another cleasing technique Saturday to cleanse the enitre stomach, intestines, and bowel.  We had to drink glass after glass of salt water and perform gentle yoga poses.  AND THEN (the best part) run to the batheroom (mine is on the 3rd floor thank you very much) and "eliminate" (the nice way of saying it) our bowels until we were "eliminating" the same color fluid we were taking in.  mmmm.  fun shit. literally.  I felt throughly scrubed out.  But now, of course, we have to very careful as to what we put back in the stomach.  Se we're eating kitcheri.  My least favorite thing.  Its rice and letils over cooked about 100 times and tumeric and cumin and a boat load of ghee (clarified butter) to lube up the intestinal tract and stomach.  So flippin nasty.  This mornig we got yogurt too!  I thought I was in heaven.  Tomorrow we get papaya.  I've never been so happy about something so small.  But its a good experience in the sense that I'm noticing some eating habits (mostly our of boredom) and the level of awarenss I have as to what I'm going to put back in this body again.  Yeah.  I don't want to do that again...until next year perhaps =)We bought an avacado, and just so ya know, we're getting totally ripped off back home!!  These things (organic) are gigantic!  And they only cost about a dollar!  Unbelievable.  Although, we have to wait to eat it.  (Sigh).  I just finished reading two books.  Rumi's Daughter, which was pretty uneventful but did contain some valuble nugglets of wisdom.  And I learned a bit about the magical poet, Rumi's life.  Interesting man.  Complex indeed.  And that Shams charater.  What was he all about?  Some wandering Dervish...I'll have to read more about that.  My mom and I did some whirling once at a sacred dance thingy and whew, what a way to praise God, eh?  Oh and speaking of "eh" its unfortunatly found its way into my vocabulary.  Almost 90 percent of the people here are from Canada.  Anyway, I also read The Alchemist.  It was fantastic.  I recommend it to everyone.  I very very easy read.  It's by Paulo Coleho and its a short story of a boy who dreams of finding treasure and learning how to follow the signs and listen to his heart to fulfill his destiny.  Very wonderful!  It speaks of four obstacles when trying to achieve your destiny. 1) getting over the fact that we've been told that what we want is impossible 2) Love.  We are afraid that if we sacrifice all that we have to go after our dream that the ones we love will abandon us. 3) Fear of failure.  Those who pursue their dreams suffer far more than those who do not.  For when things don't work out we can't fall back on the old excuse, "oh i really didn't want that anyway."  Becuase we do!  And we've staked everything on it.  So we must learn patience.  The secret: to fall 7 times and get up 8.  And 4) Fear of attaining that dream.  Any soul of a normal person feels guilt at the idea of achieving what it is that they really want.  We see those around us who have failed at their dreams and feel that we don't deserve it either.  This is the sneakiest one.   I really identified with each one of these obstacles.  Now that I'm more aware of them and know that they are normal I will just keep going!!  READ THE BOOK.  ITS AWESOME.  I'm now readying The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari.  GOOD TOO.  I'm supposed to be studying for a test! But the books are better!  And now I'm writing to yo guys instead too because I don't wanna study!  I can just hear Eddie now, "just do it babe."  So I'm off to just do it.  Love you all.  Promise to wrtie again soon soon.  I won't make you wait two whole weeks again.

Swami Vishva Ji and his Guru.  A very wise and profound man.  I had so many questions to ask him.  Like how to you let go of attachments?  How do you forgive yourself for the past?  How do you stay positive all the time?  But I could ask.  I was too shy. He smiled and said.  All you need is love, trust and faith.  And all your qustions will be answered.  Sit in silence and eventually all your questions will dissolve.  He said it so matter-of-factly that I believed him.  And all my questions felt answered.The other is a business logo I came up with while "paying attention" in class.  Its a rough sketch thats gotten better while I'm "paying attention".  What do ya'll think?

Me in my Punjabi Suit.  And a little monkey man.  Funny little things.  Still waiting for that elephant to appear though.  I've heard that they have those here in India =)  I'll believe it when I see it.  Miss you babe. xoxo Ok I miss all of yous!!  xoxoxo