Bit by bit

Walt Whitman was a yoga teacher?!?

2010-02-09T19:47:00.000+05:30

"To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breath- ing, laughing flesh is enough, To pass among them, to touch any one, to rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment—what is this, then? I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it, as in a sea."

गुरु

2009-06-01T05:26:00.002+05:30

Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwara Guru Sakshath Parambrahma Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha Guru is creator Brahma; Guru is preserver Vishnu; Guru is also the destroyer Siva and he is the source of the Absolute. The Guru that is nearby, the Guru that is beyond all form. I offer all my salutations to the Guru. -From Adi Shankara.The word guru is derived from the Sanskrit root "gru"

NYC memorial for Guruji

2009-05-21T08:52:00.003+05:30

From the AYNY website:He lived the life of AmbushAnd went the way of DuskAnd now against his subtle nameThere stands an AsteriskAs confident of him as we—Impregnable we are—The whole of Immortality Intrenched within a star—--Emily DickinsonIt is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, who was a crown jewel among teachers. Unsurpassable in knowledge, kindness,

"Not ending, only beginning..."

2009-05-19T02:06:00.002+05:30

Everything is feeling fragmented, as I try to piece together a mosaic of the bits and pieces of Guruji stories I've amassed since I first met him in 2001. There is no cohesion, only snapshots right now, and that smile, kind and mischievous and boundless, and those feet, strong and hard-worked and ever-present right when you needed most.The first lesson I learned from him was that he knows better

Soon coming

2009-01-30T05:46:00.005+05:30

It's been forever since I've blogged about practice- for the longest time, my response to the question "how's your practice?" has been, "it is". and sometimes, it hasn't been- my ashtanga practice, that is. After a break from teacher & shala, then a break from Mysore in general (hello, Dharma Mittra and Jivamukti!), I came back home to AYNY and the rigors of an (almost) daily practice this fall.

Light it up, 8/7/08!

2008-08-02T23:41:00.001+05:30

Hi, Do you, like me, care about freedom and want to have a say about it? Please unite with more than 100,000,000 people in the Biggest Light Protest on Earth for a Free Tibet. Light a candle on August 7th at 9:00 p.m. (At your home, or in public)Join and enjoy special light actions on the same night.Drive with your car's headlights on during August 8 2008.Watch "Sad Smoky Mountains" teams paint

Doing the best I can

2008-03-19T00:25:00.001+05:30

The blog is not dead. It’s just that every time I’ve been online has required taking care of things rather than reflecting on them. I am still here. Balancing practice and rest, the restaurant and sharing the teachings, sometimes soaring, at others crawling- into spring and new starts. In my heart, I now know my time in Mysore would have been very much bitter sweet. A challenge to be at the

Cheap date

2008-01-03T23:48:00.000+05:30

Anyone else get a buzz from this stuff?

This "something"

2007-12-18T01:53:00.001+05:30

Everyone around me sensed my resistance to the trip to India. The letter of intent to Guruji's school, unsent. Dates and flights, not committed to. Notice at work, postponed. I attributed it to fear and soldiered on, making plans to sublet my apartment for three months, nonetheless. Then kitty took a turn for the worse. She was an old lady and pretty mellow and I'd been preparing for the

Catching flies

2007-10-23T02:58:00.000+05:30

Grab a tissue, envelop the little sucker, firm but soft, let him buzz around in your relaxed fist as you ease him off the window pane and drop him out into the warm autumn sunshine. Hunt down his brother bashing his face against the bright glass, repeat. Say a little prayer for the siblings stuck between glass and screen, forgive yourself for doing only what you can do, move on with your day.As

Loving Chios

2007-08-29T01:04:00.001+05:30

Today was my last day on the island. Last night, we had an amazing dinner in the old port on the waterfront. We went to the rock'n'roll outdoor sit-down bar we always go to. We were joined by my ex-stepsister and her brother and an old flame who abducted me and took me to Satva, the only bar open for dancing until late on weekdays. Dance we did. This booty shook like it hasn't in a while,

Leaving Chios

2007-08-21T18:19:00.000+05:30

Back in those same places and patterns I've loved and loathed so much, on the island my dad grew up on, a fifteen kilometer stretch of cobalt sea from Turkey's west coast. I am on Chios, landed straight here after an endless direct flight on Olympic Airways from JFK. This year, more than ever, determined to do it on my terms and not compromise and adjust what to me constitutes a good time-

Jai Ma!

2007-07-15T21:48:00.000+05:30

We have Jai Uttal here at the ashram, this weekend. One thing that's gonna stick with me and I need to keep remembering is, one need not be in a particular place or state to chant. As I take small steps in singing bhajans on my own, I need to remember I don't need the harmonium or a satsanga or a smooth voice to pray and be filled with joy and love. Like with asana practice, ya gotta do it

Urban Zen?

2007-06-12T01:20:00.000+05:30

Once, every couple of years, I question where I'm at and where I'm going. This is that time, again, where in my heart I know- it's just taking the other faculties a while to catch up and concede. It's a matter of reconfiguring directions, not making any about-faces. So, I sit tight, and wait for it to catch up. Or maybe I will run away from it for a while, and go play a while longer.

Rough month

2007-04-30T01:42:00.000+05:30

Ready to see April on his way out. The same weekend Guruji was hospitalized, got quite sick with this cold/bronchial/walking pneumonia-type-thing that still lingers. Even through the euphoria of Easter week and the bonus vacation time in the city, the seventy-degree first days of summer, the beauty of spring’s first flowers, I’ve pretty much felt like crap. Then, coupla days ago, took a major

Spring cleaning

2007-04-10T00:37:00.001+05:30

After all the planning and anticipating and re-planning re-anticipating, first for Florida with Guruji, then Boulder with Richard, ended up exactly where I needed to be. As we always do, anyway. When I found out, about a week after Guruji had gotten sick-then-better, that he was back in hospital and that Eddie had taken off for Mysore, I didn’t know for about a day if I was to take a flight to

Devi days

2007-03-20T03:02:00.000+05:30

Today is the first (of nine) days of the devi, or goddess. Happy Navaratri. Things are shifting all around as my feet slip and slide and crunch through the ankle-high snow last week's storm brought. The lake polished silver with a gold sun-strip as I did my sun salutations this morning. The birds are flirting though, even as the deer, scraggly and fluffy in their winter guise, eye us

Thawing out

2007-03-13T02:27:00.000+05:30

Spring is officially on her way back, with a loving but firm kick in the butt to winter. The geese, so vocal and visible at the ashram during the sweeter months, came back this weekend. As did Joan Suval, the warm and wonderful mother figure at the ashram who does readings and talks every Saturday. She, too, heralds better weather soon-coming. Ashram crush asked me to join him for prasad, the

Winter Sunday

2007-02-26T04:11:00.000+05:30

Last night we stayed up late, singing to Radha and Krishna and Shiva. Some stayed up 'till early. I yogarella'd out at around one.Right after practice this morning, I crossed the ice-crunching lawn and joined my friends in Sanskrit class. After lunch, I stole the bright orange round plastic sled-thing and let it take me hurtling down the hill, startling about twenty deer off the island with my

Why I am single?

2007-02-13T03:27:00.000+05:30

Gato is my neighbor's cat. Really, she is. Even though she pretty much lives with me. Even though I leave the door open for her when I go away so she can hang out. Even though she greets me at the stairs when I come back, and anchors me to the City and West 89th Street when I think of living elsewhere. She is my neighbor's cat, and I love her. Who am I to deny my inherent Cat-Ladiness?

Bienvenudos a Miami

2007-02-06T04:30:00.001+05:30

The perfect remedy to the coldest day in two years: booking my flights for the Florida trip- 3/28 to hang out in Palm Beach and/or Miami with friends, then the shuttling to the workshop with guruji & Co. 4/1 thru 4/6, when I rush back to help out for the big weekend at the 'shram.

Winter time

2007-01-30T02:50:00.000+05:30

He finally emerged from his cave, all pale skin and piercing eyes. Danced across the pond, dodging the boys on their skates, sprinkling powdered-sugar snowflakes in his wake. I can’t expect body to yield and bend as it does in the warm sweet days of summer. So it is, for a while. It will be plenty hot in Florida in March, though. My guruji is visiting the US, opening a school to teach at in

Happy new year

2007-01-09T03:49:00.000+05:30

Yes, it is.

At Prayag

2006-12-05T02:24:00.000+05:30

Still feeding off those vibrant thanksgiving days and nights, every day and night this past week have been filled with a quiet constant joy and gratitude. With the exception of prasad last night at the Krishna Consciousness Temple (yes, that's the Hare Krishnas- worthy of a whole other post at another time!) wherein ghee was unavoidable, have successfully avoided any animal products all this week

Giving thanks

2006-11-28T02:41:00.000+05:30

Up there with learning to program my VCR so I could tape Wimbledon in ’98, or figuring out how to post photos online two years ago, or finally purchasing, schlepping home up four flights of stairs and actually installing an air-conditioner all by myself last year: asked and was talked through how to include links on my blog. So bear with me while I get it out of my system.