Meditation

I went to Kumar’s meditation class this evening. He holds 3 a week for an hour and there is a different subject each week. Tonight was fear and getting in touch with that place in ourselves and finding the original cause of our fear. There were about 30 people in the room, including my 3 lovely Japanese neighbors.

It was a really nice session and I easily went to that fear spot lodged in my upper right shoulder blade. He took us back to see when the first time we saw fear in our lives. Again, I was an animal. A tiger cub this time with my family. They were eating a deer and I was thoroughly horrified that we had to kill something to eat it. I was thinking, why not plants and berries? Ahh, connecting the dots, makes sense why I am a vegetarian now and my sympathy for all animals that are in need of help. Hmmmm, hmmm, la, la, la…it’s all coming full circle here in Mysore.

Tomorrow’s session is anger. I will be interested to see how that goes. He laughed and suggested we sit farther apart for tomorrow’s session.

Sanskrit class was before meditation class and I actually understood what we were doing. We are now down to 3 people from 7.

Practice was good today. I am moving along and one of the Japanese girls commented on how nice my practice is and asked how long I have been practicing. That was nice to hear as you never really think of what you look like, especially when you are soaked in your clothes and it’s 100 degrees in the shala.

Today was such a quiet day. Our breakfast date with Kathryn was a no show, so we headed to Nagarantha’s thinking she might be there. She wasn’t, so we had her home cooking to ourselves. Mags was outside most of the time playing with one of the kids who lives there and the cleaning ladies. But she came in when the dosas came out and ate every last morsel of hers. Nagarntha’s daughter lives in seattle, so we are taking saris and snacks back for her family. It will be nice to meet them. They have a 3 year old daughter, live in Bellevue and she is an amazing cook too and has offered to make us dinner anytime. Hooray!

After lunch we came back to our house and rested till 4. We haven’t had a day like this of just resting and relaxing for probably weeks now. It is quiet here in town and I am really liking this.

We fed all of our dogs today, kept our dog bowl full outside our house and the Lead Garbage man, Krishna, came knocking today to ask if his 4 dogs could be spayed and neutered. Shiva and I are going to help him before I leave. Mandu, a rickshaw driver, is bringing his girl to the doc at noon tomorrow for us to spay her. The word has spread around town now and it is really promising. I can see that one day the homeless dog problem is really going to be in a better situation these next few years.

My transgression therapy session for Friday has been moved to Tuesday now. My poor friend, Sheila, couldn’t go under today so she is taking my spot on Friday as she flies out Friday evening. I laughed at her doing this right before she leaves, she’ll open a channel and be crying the whole way back to LA.

Our power is out again. It’s hot and the fans are off so the mosquitoes are snacking on me. I am going to close here, but wanted to share some great advice I got years ago and I can’t remember from who. But it truly has opened my eyes all these years and it is always a 100% right on, at least for me. Here it is: When you go to a restaurant, take notice of how the people you are with treat the waiter and the wait staff. This shows their true character and is a clear indication of how they will treat you and others in their lives. This has worked for me so many times over the years. People you wouldn’t expect can really be different in restaurant situations. Later on, I find out that is really how they are overall. I am bringing this up, because we go out to eat so much here and I am really getting to know and see my fellow yogis in a new light: good and also enlightening.

I miss all of my friends, family and students.  11 more days. I hope to dig into the meditation, finish my sanskrit class, soak in every ounce of Sharath and the shala I can in my practice, eat some great food and maybe even partake in a week long Ayurveda class. My goal is to become an Ayurvedic doctor, which will complement nicely with my yoga.  Let my journey can start here with this.

Namaste!