Amazingly I received the link to this video from a friend in India who saw it in the Washington Post — “The Dirty Little Secrets of Yoga Teachers.” Or, the light in me honors the stink in you.
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/271557392
I don’t know which is worse: the smelly butts or the creepy dude yoga teacher. “Savasana massages”? I don’t want anyone touching me in savasana! Let me guess…he only massages the young and the skinny.
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(a crazy old yogini)
I’ve written before about how according to Yoga Journal the only good yogi is the young, white, skinny woman sans cellulite and wrinkles. Two years ago when I was 53 I wrote this post about American yoga and ageism. So I was glad to see the latest issue of YJ devote a few pages to American yoga’s spiritual elders: Patricia Walden, 62; Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, 67; Sharon Gannon, 58; David Life, 59; Angela Farmer, 71; and her partner, Victor van Kooten, 69.
I like the phrase “spiritual elder.” I attended a Buddhism workshop at the Omega Institute over July 4th weekend that was led by Lama Surya Das. Lama Surya referred to an old woman as a “spiritual elder.” She said she’s a former Quaker and she asked many questions and challenged Lama Surya on some things he said. Every time she did, he’d smile and they would spar a little. Toward the end of the workshop he referred to her as a spiritual elder, that unlike the East, in this culture we lack spiritual elders, that we look at certain pop celebrities as our new “spiritual elders”, that is until the next big book comes out then there’s a new spiritual elder.
Like the older yogis in the latest YJ, my yoga practice has also changed the older I’ve become. I wrote this post asking people to get real about their practice if they’re in their 40s, or 50s, or 60s. No offense to the young teachers out there — we all start out green and we can and do learn from everyone no matter the age (I have a 17 year old student who has been with me for three years and she’s a joy)…but I’m just not drawn to a younger teacher. Go ahead and call it reverse-ageism if you want to (I’m too old to care.) I am certainly not saying a young teacher does not know anything or that I know more or that seasoned people like me know everything. I’m saying that there is much to be said about life experience. It’s not all about what you read in the yoga books. I did not become a yoga teacher until I was 48 and frankly I am very grateful for that because for me the difference between 28 and 48 is not just 20 years but light years. You’ll see. Maybe it’s time that younger teachers start listening to us crones in our 50s and 60s. It’s good to be a crone.
Not only my own practice, but my teaching has changed. I used to feel that I had to keep people entertained and like Angela Farmer, I also feel the atmosphere of a class. I want people to intuit their own practice and get out of their heads and into their bodies, I don’t want students to mimic what I do. The longer I teach, the less I demonstrate, the more I walk around the room, even with beginners. I hate routine, one foot has to be this way, the other that way, the arms have to be here or there. How boring. How rigid. How dull. That is yoga prison to me. I choose to be a rasa devi and move in and with passion.
Fancy arm balances and pretzel poses no longer impress me. Show me how you live your life and what you can give up for 10 days at a retreat without complaint — that will show me what you’ve learned from yoga. Show me your service and gratitude.
I live with chronic pain nowadays and like Buddha said, there is no escaping old age, sickness, and death. Yoga and my spirituality has made me comfortable with it all, even the thought of death. During meditations I’ve had visions of myself of what seems like 20 years from now — I now know where that place is, where I will be. Just burn this crazy old yogini’s body and throw my ashes in Ma Ganga. I will have been grateful for it all.
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UPDATE:
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“I did not begin when I was born,
nor when I was conceived.
I have been growing, developing,
through incalculable myriads of millenniums.
All my previous selves
have their voices, echoes, promptings in me.
Oh, incalculable times again
shall I be born.”
–Jack London
I will die in India….
and be reborn in Africa.
this I know in my bones.
time for old paradigms to die.
the end of the beginning.
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I have exciting news to sweeten the yoga adventure in Africa pot!
To chill out after the craziness of the Kumbh Mela and before Tanzania, I will engage in some island time on Zanzibar.
The Blue Oyster Hotel will graciously give Yoga Adventure in Africa participants a 10% discount off 2010 prices when you book for a minimum of 5 nights BEFORE the retreat. The Blue Oyster is a small family-style hotel directly adjacent to the white sandy beach of Jambiani, picturesquely surrounded by coconut palms…
Mention “METTA YOGA” and you get the discount. There are only three or four sea view rooms and two courtyard rooms available for this time period so act fast! This discount is available to Yoga Adventure in Africa participants ONLY — proof of retreat participation must be shown at Blue Oyster check-in.
There ya have it, yoga peeps — you have their choice of a beach paradise BEFORE and/or a safari AFTER.
This is a yoga experience of a life-time…a yoga camp with international yogis, visit a Masai village, and help support an eye clinic. For complete details, visit Metta Yoga: Mind-Body Education.
See you in paradise.
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There’s no turning back now from METTA YOGA’S YOGA ADVENTURE IN AFRICA, February 26-27-28, 2010.
This is the ad that will appear in the September-October issue of Yoga Chicago magazine.
For complete details about the yoga camp and two safari options, see here.
A Midwest winter can be rather brutal, at least it can be in the Chicago area. So you have your choice: a Chicago winter or OMing in a private acacia forest under the African sky.
YOGA + MEDITATION + BUDDHADHARMA + SEVA UNDER THE AFRICAN SKY
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…because my 55th year on this planet will be a year of world travel for me….touching ground in 7 countries in 9 weeks…from here to Abu Dhabi to India to either Qatar or Dubai to Kenya to Zanzibar to Tanzania, back to Kenya and then landing somewhere in Europe before flying home….
…because plans are in the works to teach in Australia and Bali next year….
…because I was given travel brochures from Spain and was told “put your group together and go for it”, “it” being a yoga retreat in the Pyranees, in a place where there are no border guards and you can walk back and forth from Spain to France…another sign that this is what I am meant to do….
…because I saw the movie Julie & Julia yesterday, a movie about two women — one young, one who was my age when she found herself — finding their passions and rebirthing themselves….
…because I will anoint myself with water from the holiest river in India….
…because I dance with wildness knowing that I would rather fail at the right thing than succeed at things that are not right for me….
…and because I like Dead Can Dance.
enjoy.
The Invitation
(Oriah Mountain Dreamer)
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
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I want to acknowledge the two yogini bloggers who awarded me the MeMe Award. I am in good company with all of these blog award winners!
Thanks to girlwarrior of it’s all yoga, baby who said that I am “sassy, opinionated and sincere in her practice”, and thanks to Brooks at Yoga, the Mind and Culture who said “she’s really doing her yoga, and shares inspiration and road bumps along the way.” Thank you, thank you, thank you! I especially want to thank the yoga bloggers who supported me during the Troll Event — you know who you are!
I’m not really into rules but the rules to this award are that I should (1) share 7 tidbits about myself and (2) share this MeMe Blog Award with 7 blogger friends. As for those tidbits about me, I think if you read LYJ from the beginning you will certainly glean more than 7 tidbits about me (!!), but here goes:
1. My first OM was with Beat Poet and Buddhist Allen Ginsberg in 1973 when he came to my junior college for a poetry reading.
2. I’ve been green since the first Earth Day in 1970, many years before being green became the thing to do. I helped organize my high school’s Earth Day celebration and I ordered the Earth Day flag decals (they were cool!). I’ve never seen decals like that again.
3. I am also a garden designer. My business is Loba Landscapes…Gardens With a Touch of the Wild. My niche is native plants in the home landscape and eco-gardening.
Yes, that’s my backyard.
4. I was in a riot in 1970. Sly and the Family Stone were supposed to play a concert in Grant Park in Chicago and in those days Sly was known to show up late or not at all for concerts. People got upset and a riot broke out. I ran from the police just as they started to tear gas us. Ah….those were the days…the smell of tear gas and major doobage in the air, flowers in our hair….
I still loves me some Sly!
I am sure 1970 must sound like the olden days to many of you but throw the peace sign up, it will do you no harm!
5. I was named one of Illinois’ best high school poets when I was a junior.
6. Besides being an activist for the environment, I’ve always been an activist for women’s issues. I know some of you don’t remember the days before Roe v. Wade, but at that time when I was in junior college abortions were legal in New York City. As a member of a women’s liberation group at that time, I helped a few women get to New York City.
7. I am clairsentient and clairaudient.
I give this award to:
Shelley, for caring so much about India’s children;
Svasti, for being so real and open and honest and brave (we are both survivors);
Nadine, for being a fellow KYM-er, for being sweet enough to consider me her “yoga mother”, and for becoming a friend;
Amanda for supporting me and also becoming a friend;
Flowergirl, because I love her stories about India as much as I love India and because she has become my thankachi;
Fernanda, because she is as passionate about our Mother India as I am, and for becoming mi amiga (and who is trying to get me to teach in Brazil, YAY!);
YogaDawg, for obvious reasons!
Blog on!
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“It’s truly a sight to see when the inhabitants of any planetary civilization cross the tipping point and begin to individually accept complete and eternal responsibility for their own happiness.
Yet, this hardly compares to the mountain quaking, body shaking, polarity-flipping, hero-making occurrences that transpire when such inhabitants graduate to accepting complete and eternal responsibility for their every twinge of unhappiness.
Yeah, the second one is a lot trickier.”
Regular readers of this blog know that I get a daily email from The Universe, and I got the one above just the other day. Yes, THE Universe, and sometimes they are so right on it’s scary.
I’ve noticed over the years (and yes, also in myself, but not so much anymore) how many times people blame others for the troubles in their lives. “If only” we had the right man, the right car, the right clothes, the right whatever. “If only” we had done one thing over the other. “If only” we had the money to do whatever.
As I stood in line at the supermarket today I noticed the tabloids and the magazines like Oprah’s and others, and every one of them screamed a message that somehow WE ARE ALL LACKING. IF we do THIS, we will get THAT. That’s probably why I’ve never seen the movie “The Secret” although everyone raves about it….because to me the premise seems to be that we are inherently lacking in abundance so we must “manifest” it. That’s nice, but how about first living your life with an attitude of abundance instead of living like you’re missing out on something?
As for myself, yes, I’d like to live in Northern California instead of Northern Illinois (for the most part because I love the ocean), but when I look out onto my gardens, I feel absolutely blessed for what I have and where I am in life. Grace is not something we’re going to get unless we realize that we are already surrounded by it.
I’ve begun studying the Buddhadharma one-on-one with a Theravadan Buddhist monk, in the traditional way. Our next meeting will be about the First Noble Truth and the teaching about dukkha. Bhante said that although dukkha is often translated as “suffering”, the actual translation of the word is “unsatisfaction.” He said that people have a hard time being told that they “suffer”, especially people who think they have a “good life.” Sometimes a “good life” for people means having lots of stuff and the ability to get the next best thing. But how many people are satisfied? I always throw this question out to my students: why is it in a country that has so much food, so many opportunities to stay fit and healthy, so many things that can make us “happy” (do you really think any other country has so many choices in toilet paper?), why is it that so many are so sick and unhappy? I saw a headline today about the increase in antidepressant use among Americans.
Yes I know that horrible things happen to many people like sexual assault, abuse, the death of a child or another loved one. I am a survivor myself. But still…we do not have to suffer. What is the difference between two concentration camp survivors who both suffered the same tortures and who both lost their families in front of their eyes…what kills the heart of one and makes the other become a Nazi hunter?
A wise-ass Buddhist (not me) said that life sucks but suffering is optional. I say, life is suffering but pain is optional.
Bhante said that people don’t like to be told that they suffer because “suffering” is a dirty word in America. When we think of suffering we think of someone lying in bed dying from AIDS or a half-dead dog in an Indian street or a homeless person. That certainly is suffering.
But all of us suffer on a daily basis from our own dissatisfaction, wishing that our reality was something different from what it is, with the idea that there is always something “out there” that will make us happy or at least happier. Even yogis. Always searching for the next best thing instead of being still and knowing that it is already perfect.
“Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.” –Sri Ramana Maharshi
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The deaths of two people I never met inspired this post.
Yesterday a man and his dog were killed by a drunk driver one block away from my house. Not even one block away. I wasn’t home when it happened but I am sure I would have heard the crash and the neighbors’ screams and the police because this is a very quiet neighborhood. The truth is that it could have just as easily been me because I also walk in the morning on the street where he was killed. Yesterday morning I did not.
A 57 year old man was walking his dog around 6:30 AM. A drunk driver was speeding, left the road, struck mailboxes, and then hit the man and his dog. He then went back on the street and hit an SUV, pushing it into a front yard. He got out and tried to run away. He was charged with aggravated driving under the influence, reckless homicide, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, driving on a revoked license, and failure to give information or aid.
Today my husband attended the wake of the husband of one of his employees. The man was undergoing chemotherapy after a cancer operation and after leaving the hospital after his treatment, he was walking across the parking lot to his car and literally dropped dead. He was 41 years old. My husband stood in line for 90 minutes at the funeral home because there were so many people waiting to pay their respects.
Incidents such as these always make me question how people live their lives. I always tell my husband to live each day as if it will be his last. I try to follow my own advice and after being on this yogic and spiritual path for quite some time, the little things just don’t bother me anymore. The clothes get folded when they get folded, the dishes get done when they get done. Sometimes even the bigger things just don’t phase me anymore.
People come to my classes totally stressed about one thing or the other and sometimes I throw the question out there: how would you live if you knew you only had one more hour to live? What good does all that attachment to the past and fear of the future do for you now? If you knew you only had one more hour to live I guarantee you that you would start cherishing each moment and each breath. I challenge you: visualize it, really feel it in your bones — what would it be like to know you will be dead at the end of an hour?
Contemplating death is an important aspect of Buddhism, yet fear of death is a major fear for most people. It is said that all our fears in life stem from our fear of death. Buddha said that death is certain but the time of death is uncertain. When we allow this reality to become conscious, it jolts us awake to life’s juiciness and heightens our awareness of the beauty and uniqueness of everything.
So why can’t you live as if you were dying? Our delusion is that we live as if we will never die.
It’s a physics fact that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. As a Buddhist I believe that it follows from that fact that what is never born can never die. I heard the Dalai Lama say that “what is never born can never die” in a teaching on dependent origination.
My body will die, but what makes me me will never die — my life energy, my prana, my chi, my soul, my spirit, or whatever you want to call it, will continue on. Fully realizing that was liberation. I no longer fear death or dying. That realization helps me to truly enjoy life, every living, breathing present moment, the good AND the bad. I am as equally grateful for the bad as I am for the good.
It has made me fear-less.
How will you remember to live?
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http://stuff.freeflashtoys.com/swf/cd_custom.swf?maturity=1262584800000:16777215:16777215:16777215:source.pyzam.com/app_res/mdp_cd/300×180/0/b/ahthailand.jpg:return032to032Ma032India
While this blog has been shut down until further notice, I am slowly moving my posts about India that I’ve written since 2005 to my all-India blog, MA INDIA, MY INDIA.
Please visit to read my past India stories and those in the future — I know you can’t wait to read about those dead goats and naked Shiva babas….
shanti.
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Linda's Yoga Journey 
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