2nd Edition

No one has to like absolutely EVERYTHING:

I have been instructed in meditation, yoga and pretty much any spiritual practice out there that not everything is for everyone. I strongly believe that people need to try all types out before they settle. Unless, miraculously, they walk into the exact right yoga class or start with the exact right type of meditation the very first shot; bravo to you.  I think when we find ourselves on the wrong path, it becomes obvious.  We become apathetic, we force ourselves, we speak negative words about, we dread whatever practice it is. This goes for work too. If we’re in the wrong career or wrong company, the same may apply. (Believe me, I know this one)  Just as some people absolutely swear by Bikram Yoga, and others couldn’t dread going into a 106 degree room more than anything else.  

The best thing is to be respectful, do your best and move on. The student will find their master as the master will find the student.  I say this because I’m pretty clear that the place where I’m at, is not my path.  It’s clearly the path for quite a few people here and enriching for some others and clearly not for others.  It’s interesting, to me, how polarizing I’ve seen the spiritual practice become.  I say, though, don’t give up hope. Don’t believe your first drink from the well is your last. Keep drinking.  We all find our path if we are looking with earnestness and passion.

I feel blessed, in this life, to have been struck deeply by a book I read when I was about 12.  A young white girl gets lost in the Australian Outback.  She remembers what one of her farm hands told her.  When someone gets lost, they start looking for landmarks. A tree, walks to it. A creek bed, walks to it.  A boulder, walks to it. The premise is, eventually one is walking the path of their family and will meet up with their family.  She does this, meets her ‘family’, and is safely brought ‘home’.  I have lived my life this way. One landmark after another.  Some may call it short sighted, some call it living in the moment.  I have rarely been able to answer the question of, “What’s your 5 year plan? What’s your 10 year plan?”  Seriously? I have no idea where I’m going to be. That rock has not appeared.  In the meantime, I will walk along this creek bed and revel in the river rock and the feel of the sand in between my toes.  I love living this way.  I generally am not thinking about 2 or 3 landmarks from now, just have my head up looking for the next one.  I have been able to live an extraordinary life this way. One I am generally proud of. 

May you all find your ‘family’.  May you find the melody that makes your heart sing and your soul find comfort. May you find home.

Panchakarma:

So, I’m feeling almost 100%. Dealing with a lingering cough and blowing my nose something fierce, still... But, I’ve got hope that this too shall pass, and soon.  

Since our last installment, I’ve experienced quite a bit in the PK.  I had a couple days of Shirodhara. This is when a continuous stream of warm oil is focused on the forehead/third eye area for an extended period of time. It’s a powerful experience. I found myself, at first, observing myself. I felt the oil, the smooth flow of it and then I started to relax. It was lovely. At one point, Sindul (my therapist) rubbed my forehead and it felt tingly and sensitive.  The last day of Shirodhara, I kept falling asleep and jerking and sleeping and jerking. It was funny. It was like being in a deep state of meditation and just going past the veil.  On each Shirodhara day, I would get Nasya. Nasal drops. I’ve been using an Ayurvedic trained friend of mine as a consultant because my therapist isn’t well enough versed in english for me to adequately get my answers of what’s this, what’s that, what does it do, so on and so forth. Nasya administers herbs and treatments quickly as there is a this barrier between the nose and the brain. 

Purgation day. Root word: Purge.  I went to the clinic and had to drink a cup of this herbal concoction. It was like very dense dirt, almost. Very spicy too. Then I was handed a kettle, told to go to my room, drink a cup of warm water every 10 minutes. Wait. Another man was walking around with his kettle at the same time, it was like a brotherhood symbol. We both knew what we were in for.  I went back to my room and within an hour, massively threw up my herbal concoction... oh yeah, pretty sure that wasn’t the aim. So, I walked my happy self back to the clinic, reported in. She said, keep drinking the water and if no bathroom, tomorrow we will try a different medicine. I think I was kind of cheating, because purge I did. I can’t even begin to imagine what my experience would have been had I not thrown up... yeah, messy.  Needless to say, I was pretty empty.  I used toilet and toilet paper for this experience, in case any of you lefty questioners were wondering!

Today, started the enema process. Let’s just say I’ve never had one, so I’m nervous right? I go in, and proceed to get a massage. The entire time all I can repeat instead of Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram is Enema, Enema, Enema, Enema... pretty sure NOT the healing message I was trying for with Ram, Ram, Ram. :) I was fixated, to say the very least!  So, after my usual daily massage and hot herbal compress tap down, THEN I got the treatment. “Little One, today,” she says, as she pours a large bowl of oil... Sweet, this means tomorrow I get a big one... can’t WAIT to see the size of that bowl.  All in all, it was an easy process and all is going well. 

Karma Yoga:

I’m starting to get into the swing of things as I feel like I can manage the PK, I’m not sick as a dog (how sick is a dog by the way?) and I am somewhat regulated, I guess. We do an hour of Karma Yoga a day, I have created a very symbiotic Karma yoga process. This lovely strong man from Manchester lugs these hugely heavy bins of produce waste, from the Health Hut, to the compost pile and I wash them out. Bravo. I feel like a participating member of Karma Yoga after struggling with how to get the massively huge bins to the compost pile as I am not a large and strong man... :)  I figure I’ll just be really getting into the swing of things as it’s time for me to leave the ashram and move on.