Tushita and the Hairy Bearded Dude Meditation
I finally made it to Tushita today, a Buddhist meditation center between McLeod Ganj and Dharamkot, where you can drop in for daily morning meditation. It was our day off, so the walk through the forest with its silent, tall trees was a welcome shift from the tuk tuk, taxi and car fumes we try to avoid by breathing through...
Ayurveda and Yoga
Ayurveda is the Vedic science of healing for both body and mind, developed in ancient India around 1500 BC. The word means "wisdom of life". It's a vast subject, and I like the way it's summarized in the book, Yoga for Your Type - An Ayurvedic Approach to Your Asana Practice (David Frawley and Sandra Summerfield Kozak): "We develop disease because of...
Daily Scenes of McLeod Ganj
[gallery type="circle" ids="522,69,91,114,120,145"] Halfway through the teacher training tomorrow; amazing how quickly it's whizzed by and how the foreignness of things has subsided into the new normal. The monkey that came ransacking last week appeared again tonight at my door and this time I was armed with my squeegee/mop thing to chase him off the balcony. I am officially a local! Other...
Great Yoga Master, Guruji BKS Iyengar, Leaves Us
[caption id="attachment_116" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Sri BKS Iyengar - no longer with us, but always in our hearts[/caption] Sad day today ...
Yoga Philosophy
We've been diving quite deeply into the extremely broad subject of Yoga Philosophy. The mind is swirling with concepts of Vedanta, Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Jainism, Charuvarism, Buddhism, the Vedas, and the Ashramas (four stages of life). It's fairly heavy going, but also fascinating and rich in the history and the culture of ancient India. Parts of the Vedanta philosophy appeal...
Hanuman Comes Visiting
[caption id="attachment_1396" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Monkey Business[/caption] Today, a monkey strolled into my yogi cottage. And when I advanced towards him, shooing him away, HE advanced towards ME, and bared his teeth. I backed off and watched as he made his way to the kitchen shelves and started to pick things up and toss them across the room, while I tried my...
Yoga Kriyas and Welcome to the Digestive System
Yogi Sivadas' teaching of yoga is classical and is also strongly influenced by Ayurveda, the ancient science of better health. He believes that most emotional, hormonal and physical imbalances and agitations of the mind are caused by bad diet, poor digestion and a sedentary and/or stressful lifestyle. Healthy digestion and elimination is crucial. The exasperated expression, "Oh, she's full of shit!",...
How Important is Yoga Asana in India?
Another glorious sunrise over McLeod Ganj; eagles soaring in wide circles and birds singing happily, and as I sit on the balcony, I think about the class I taught last night as part of our teacher training. I smile and remember how at one moment during the class, I looked out over the valley and thought, "Holy crap! I'm standing...
Delhi Belly, Grumpy Yogini
Oh, woe is me. I have the dreaded Delhi Belly, which apparently doesn't restrict itself to just that ancient city. Who knows where I got it from, whether it was last night's meal, or if I inadvertently got water in my mouth as I washed my hair and face in the shower, but I feel pretty miserable today. Ah, well,...
Tibetan Prayer Wheels and Temples
[caption id="attachment_1405" align="alignleft" width="200"] Tibetan prayer wheels[/caption] Our yoga teacher training schedule is crammed, so we relish the little bit of free time for exploring the area and early one morning I enjoyed a visit to the Buddhist Kalachakra Temple (no photos allowed). There were local Tibetans making their daily circuit of the temple; praying, spinning the prayer wheels, stopping to...