Yogzilla

One of the highlights of my teacher training in San Francisco was that we were taken to Samuel Merritt College in Oakland. To meet the dead. Or, I see dead people tour to quote my yoga teacher. I did not know what to expect as we were told this is not for everyone and people were asked to eat light or skip it. And, every reaction from the wanna be yoga teachers would be normal. We all reached there early in the am. The person in charge of the lab read paragraphs from Siddhartha and Bhagavad Gita and how we need to thank them (the dead) for the offer of studying them. In short, we were not allowed to say anything inappropriate about the dead was the message. We wore thin gloves, divided ourselves into small groups and off we went inside.

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Symbol of Iśvara is the Praṇava, which is Oṃ.

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I recently watched this interesting documentary in my library. It explores how malls have been designed after the model of a church providing religion and a sense of purpose. The malls use the elements of the cathedral ceilings, water, plants and light, which essentially means that a place supports life.  All this planning to entice people in has never worked on me. I disliked going to a mall the first time and every single time. I don’t enjoy feeling like a zombie. Here’s Papi’s take on shopping which gets too religious.

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Here’s one man who has impressed me so much. Nobody knows who he was or much details about him. His work is compiled under a pseudonym. His work on Yoga is what I consider the best and many others do. When there is a such brilliant piece of work written by someone, the natural tendency for people many centuries ago was to associate this person with some divine powers. Hence Patañjali was known as reincarnation of Adisesa, the serpent used by Vishnu during meditation. Adisesa provides sthiram and sukham. Vishnu also has Garuda the eagle to take him anywhere he wants. The serpent and the eagle are such opposite forces, but they coexist here for Vishnu. The reasoning why Adisesa was chosen for Vishnu’s support for meditation was that Adisesa was associated with a mature personality who has gone through a lot in life. Adisesa is also supporting the Earth on his head and taking care of Vishnu, who has an important job to perform as the Preserver of the Universe. Vishnu  needs a strong support and wisdom as a guide in Adisesa. A lot of stories are symbolic in Hinduism. Kausthub Desikachar writes Patañjali Unplugged, an interesting article on Patañjali .

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Ever since I got on the minimalist bandwagon, I have stopped buying things. It does not interest me anymore to be heavy, which I learnt as part of my vagabonding. To be lugging too much around saps energy off of me. I do not even own a full time mattress. My room is quite empty, with a few books, some clothes and a few yoga mats. I do a Walden every morning.  Walden must be any minimalist’s best friend. I remove the futon mattress out of my room every morning and move it to the futon in the living room. Then the bed room transforms into an empty space where I can “do” yoga.  It is finally spring  in RainCouver (that does not mean that the rain has gone away!) and every one talks about spring cleaning. While everyone does some cleaning in the  spring, I pretty much do it every day. I hardly own anything and it is such a relief to be so light throughout the year. I am lovin’ it!

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For more on how  iPad will change your life, here’s Attaining Nirvana through iPad.

What is Canadiano? It is like Americano, but way better. This is what the barista told me with a wink.

You know, this can happen only in Canada. You can walk into a bank and ask for a bunch of loonies in exchange for a few dollars. The banker will not laugh or hide a smile. He will say, yeah sure, I can get you some loonies in a moment. What other country on earth can anyone do that?

Ok, a loonie is a one dollar coin. A toonie is a two dollar coin. It took me a long time to get over this.  Loon is the national bird of Canada and the one dollar coin has a loon on it.

Yoga and a full time job sometimes don’t work out well. I know really well that I need to practice my asanas  when the work gets demanding. Even a short yoga session improves the day a lot by helping with the breath. In spite of all this knowledge, what happens in reality is something different. Sometimes, I skip my practice as I wake up later and need to be at work at a certain time. I know what it takes to get my practice in the morning. To let go of the day at 10 pm in the night.

With the internet access at my finger tips, it is quite difficult to stop reading whatever it is and retire. The constant connection to the universe is affecting me. I notice the clock at 10 pm and I am not yet ready to sleep. My alarm clock goes off at 4.30 in the mornings. I automatically put it off. When I wake up, it is too late to practice. I did not worry too much about issues with time when I had taken time off from life.  There were no complexities, no variables. I had the entire day to think about yoga. Now with the limited time, I need to plan the day quite well. I do understand that there is always time in a day for what you like doing. Internet is  what I need to give up for a few hours.  It is all clear. I will try to cut myself off the net after 8 pm and see if that will help me keep up with my daily practice.