Even though I had called Air India earlier about the weight limit, it was not helpful as the people in the airport told me a completely different number. The line was so long for the flight and and I am desperately to trying to figure out what to throw away from the suitcases. Clothes, books, tax documents, certificates, gifts. I thought I had already downsized to the most minimum, but still it was not good enough for Air India. Jet lagged, tired and had to make quick decisions at 2 am. In that frustrating moment, I decided that I would simply pick half the things except my certificates and leave it next to the trash bin. That is what I did and I did not want to own too many things from then on. I felt so stupid to own any of this and how much importance I had placed in owning all of that. After I unloaded half of the Stuff,  I never wanted to own too many things ever. All things feel like junk to me.

Recently, I picked up Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard from my library. I had seen the video couple of years back and I thought it was real good. The book is quite fantastic too, with some good advice as to how one can reduce owning Stuff. She says that one get off the work to shop treadmill lifestyle of the US and offers solutions for that.

The part that I enjoyed thoroughly was what happens in the landfill. Every week, when I put the trash out in San Francisco, I am always wondering what really happens. Do the things in the recycle bin really get recycled? I had never been sure. The author makes a good case for Zero waste and why recycle should be the last option on anyone’s mind. The first option must be to reduce, reuse and then recycle.

The other interesting part of the book is e-waste and how manufactures force people to constantly buy new things instead of fixing the existing ones. The interesting idea she proposes is that the manufacturers must take responsibility for the recycle and maintenance of the product. The packaging material for most Stuff is a nightmare at the landfills. The manufacturer must be made responsible for the packaging stuff too. I thought this idea is brilliant.

While I used to work at FreeGeek, I had heard about how countries like USA and Canada dump their toxic wastes, e-waste on poor unsuspecting countries in the disguise of donations or mix it in the fertilizer or some other loophole in the law. Annie Leonard tracks a company in Philadelphia that wants to dump tonnes and tonnes of toxic ash from the incinerator of landfill by a ship. As part of Greenpeace, Annie Leonard and her team makes it miserable for the ship to unload the ash in most ports of poor countries. The ship finally dumps a part of the ash in Haiti before Greenpeace gets a chance to alert Haiti. This turns out to be a nightmare for Haiti to return the garbage back to the US. It sure is easy is to consume here in the US and it has been made so easy to dump the toxic waste on such poor countries. It is quite sad indeed.

I enjoyed reading the book. Sure, it did make me think about what happens to Stuff that we buy here in the US.

Here’s the video that came out two years ago.

Yoga in SF is all about if one can wrap their leg around the neck while balancing calmly on just one hand or may be even a finger. Now you can do all of that with a partner, either to impress the partner or be impressed by the partner. I do think western Yoga has become a separate species, a form of its own. Yoga exists today only because it has been resurrected by the west. So, the path of Yoga evolution is completely in the hands of the west as well. I do hope it finds a balance somewhere instead of calling anything Yoga.  I have always dreaded the poses that one needs to do with a partner, a handstand or downward dog or the wheel or anything else. I don’t like involving another person in my practice. Partner and acro yoga creates a great break point for me.

Of course, I can ignore all the white noise and stick to my practice and what I believe in. I do understand I do not have to get into a tizzy just because anything can be called Yoga. The Yoga lessons that made a big impact for me were not the physical aspects at all. The Yoga sutras made a lot of sense, especially the santosha and aparigraha. The contentment and being non-greedy have been some of my biggest lessons from the Yoga Sutras among others. I do not find any of it here in SF Yoga and I will not shell out almost $20 for a physical practice anymore. Home practice it is for me, for a long time. Adios, (SF) Yoga!

This obstacles are disease, idleness, doubt, heedlessness, sloth, lack of detachment, erroneous conception, not attaining any yogic stage, and instability to stay in a yogic stage. They are the distractions of the mind.

“Anything that prevents the yogin from cultivating the attitude of inward-mindedness [pratyakcetana] is considered an obstacle, be it physical or illness or psychic disorder”, says the indologist Feuerstein when explaining this sutra. This obstacles are removed by devotion to ishvara, says Patañjali in the previous sutra. And Vyasa, the commentator par excellence, notes that these obstacles prevent us from attaining the state of yoga because they occur along with the vrttis: ” These occur along with the modifications of the mind. In their absence the above said modifications of the mind do not take place“.

But this is not just for Yoga; it seems to be true for every dimension of our life; it’s not possible to settle down in a relationship if there is doubt or apathy; or to accomplish any important task with carelessness or laziness. I think that this sutra it’s self-explained. I just would like to comment on two points:

First, I’m not sure how devotion to ishvara  could help us to prevent these disturbances, mainly when Patañjali held such a pragmatic view of yoga practice. I found two interesting comments that, in some way, help me to understand it. The first is from Swami Hariharananda Aranya:

Bodily disturbance and illness should be removed by wholesome and measured diet taken only after the food previously taken is digested. This is the sure way of killing illness. By special devotion to God, refinement and good sense will come which will prompt the yogin to take good and limited quantity of food at proper intervals and he will take proper care of his health, so that he will never lose that good sense.

The next comment is from “Changing Minds” a book that looks at yoga sutra from the point of view of cognitive neuroscience:

Therefore, repetition of pranava, that is, mantra style or other form of meditation, may be helpful in remedying some of the antarayas (disturbances) and visepas (distractions), at least in terms of providing relief from stress and over-activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

And stress is a major cause for the rest of the obstacles. So, in my skeptic point of view, ishvara works like an “inspiration”… we do all the job to get better, to remove this obstacles, thinking that anything else is helping us, but it’s only based on faith (sraddha), some kind of hidden self-confidence that works like a charm… some kind of useful but inert placebo pill.

Second. A couple of weeks ago I read an article entitled: They’ve cracked it at last! The chicken DID come before the egg; in this article, the researchers said that the chicken comes first, because the formation of egg shells relies on a protein found only in a chicken’s ovaries. Therefore, an egg can exist only if it has been inside a chicken. What it has to do with Patañjali and this sutra?

Vyasa notes in his commentary to this sutra that “These nine distractions of the mind are known as impurities of yoga, foes of yoga (and) obstacles to yoga”. For me, and for most of the people that I know in the tiny “yoga world”, these nine OBSTACLES that prevent us from attaining the state of yoga are also, in our time and this corner of the world, the main forces that drive us to get in touch with yoga at first time: most of the people I know approached to yoga because was told that it would help them to relief some backache, or to recover from surgery (disease), or to relax, or overcome some depression (languor), or to improve their concentration (idleness), and a long list of etc. So, it seems that these obstacles are the reasons that push us toward yoga in the first place.

vyadhi – sickness, disease, disorder, ailment

styana – languor, idleness, apathy

samshaya – doubt, indecision, irresolution , hesitation

pramada – heedlessness, carelessness, negligence

alasya – sloth

avirati – lack of detachment, dissipation, incontinence

bhranti – false, confusion, error

darshana – vision, perception

alabdha – not obtaining

bhumikatva – stage, ground

anavasthitatva – instability, unsteadiness

citta – consciousness, mind

vikshepa – distraction

te –they, these

antaraya – obstacle, disturbance, impediment

The pursuit of Yoga requires a journey to go inward, which helps overcome the obstacles.

If any of us think that the path to Yoga is extremely difficult, then we are not alone. Patañjali repeatedly says that this is a difficult journey fraught with interruptions and obstacles. It requires extreme dedication, energy and will power that one can muster. When the mind is taught to go inwards, the obstacles tend to disappear. Going inwards is having faith in oneself, restricting oneself, understanding the self and always in touch with what is important. What are the obstacles that live on the path of Yoga? The next sutra will let us in on what can crash our plan of Yoga.

tatas – thence

pratyak-cetana – reverse/inward-mindedness (from prati + ac is to bend + cit is to be conscious)

adhigama – attainment (from adhi + gam is to go)

api – also

antaraya – impediment, obstacle ( from antar is between + i is to go, lit. get between)

abhava – disappearance (from a + bhu is to become)

ca – and

I can picture myself being on the internet when Mr.Yama (not to be confused with yama/niyama of  Yoga Sutras), the Lord of death shows up and tells me  that it is time to close all connections and leave. I will be pleading for 5  more minutes online. Wait, I actually hear someone telling me the time is up.  I look up, the person looks quite normal. He tells me I need to leave this terminal at the library, my time is over. Damn, I am addicted to this.

Iśvara is someone like god and that he is a special being, quite extraordinary. He is untouched by delusion, agitations, actions, afflictions, consequences and time. He represents past, present and future. He knows everything that is to be known. He is simply the teacher of all the teachers. He is addressed by a special symbol Pranava that specifies the qualities of Iśvara . By meditating on Iśvara, one can realize oneself (or go nearer). By meditating on an object, one imbibes the qualities of the object. How can meditating on Iśvara make oneself realize themselves? Iśvara is within all of us and one needs to be able to see for themselves. Iśvara is part and parcel of all of us.

You can read all the sutras that have been discussed on this blog.

**Vancouver rates, per session

Yoga is definitely an elite activity, you got to make tons of money to spend on a yoga class.

I like this trailer a lot. May be I will watch it sometime this summer. Kung fu cult says, everything is Kung fu, just like the Yoga cult.