Everyone likes to ask you if this is your first time in Mysore.  I ask it, people ask me and it is sort of the conversation opening.  No one talks about the series or the poses, what  you do at home, what you do here, just if this is your first time and then how long are you staying.    I also like to know when I meet people how seasoned they are.  You can start to tell and I know I totally look like a novice but I’m finding my way.    I was able to walk in with the early crowd today.  It’s fun and they look like that have a notion of exactly what spot they are taking. Some have been here a while and have developed these samsakaras around this I think.  In any event, it is like that everywhere and human nature is basically the same.  I was just glad for the heads up from Chuck about the uneven places.   I felt more at home today in the Shala.   Every day you learn, every day you grow in the practice.

There is a welcome shift that comes with practice here.  It is a calming shift to doing a practice with no expectations, no agenda, no hurry, no worry and to take the practice inwards.   When it comes down to it we are working to controlling the mind. I am finding that I have a lot of mind stuff that comes up and I am working on being patient with that.  It is easy to get distracted with these beautiful practices that seem to flow without skipping a beat and then with the practices that are taking a little more work.  What I am finding is that everyone is working on doing what the practice calls them to do and to finding that inner peace and tapping in to the source or Atman as it is referred to in Yogic Philosophy.

For this Ashtangi, I did not have this voyage in the forefront of my mind until fairly recently, and I think this is one of the places you come to want or long to get to eventually especially since I enjoy teaching so much.   I think the situation right now in this time is unique with Parker at Saraswati’s Shala and me in the main Shala.  My expression of how proud I am of this cannot be put into words as whatever happens there is a tapping into the source that is happening here for this  young man.   I walk down to the Shala with him and feel special that I have something so precious as this relationship as I walk quietly back up to the main Shala.  I tuck it right in my heart.

With the universe in it’s perfect order, the new session of the Yoga Sutra class started this morning.   It is just under an hour and we covered a lot and for Parker this was interesting as it was the basics.  We all need to go back to the basics to remember how and why we are called to this practice.  There are what we call the 3 D’s to take benefit from yoga; determination, dedication and devotion.    And the key is that it is required to have all 3 to start to begin to practice yoga.

With things not so perfect I am installing myself in the middle of a Sanskit class and getting some special help this afternoon before tomorrows session.  This should be interesting to say the least.

Om Shanti!