The Yoga Bridge

” Hey, what are you doing???” I held out a yoga prop for someone behind me. ” Stop handing out props. Yoga is about you. Don’t worry about the person. That is my job! “, sternly spoke the yoga instructor.

Everyone could easily get their own props. The yoga instructor wanted to make a point. Yoga was one of the few things you could be selfish about under the right conditions.

If the hour was free from current responsibility, why waste time thinking about them? If possible, try to make time where you would be free.

Once you have the free time, walking through the yoga studio door could be like a magic portal. Before going in, try to clear the mind by being mindful.  Leave the problems outside. This is a way to detach for a little while.

” The first sign that you are becoming religious is when you start behaving cheerful. To the yogi everything is bliss. Every face they see brings cheerfulness to them. That is the sign of a virtuous person.

Misery is caused by sin and by no other cause. What business do you have of a clouded face? It is terrible. If you have a clouded face, do not go out that day. Shut your self in your room.

What right do you have to carry this disease out into the world? When your mind has control, it has control over the whole body; instead of being a slave to the machine, the machine becomes your slave. Instead of this machine being able to drag you down, the machine becomes the greatest helpmate.”

Swami Vivekananda

So, are the chakaras a detailed description of the soul?

Is Patanjali’s sutras a detailed explanation of how to enter into Nirvana?

This week, we were in a town near Sleepy Hollow, NY, for a visit with family.  It seemed that every meal had a dead animal.  I ate what was served, of course.  Becoming a vegetarian from a meat eater was a slow process in a society that thought vegetarians unusual.  I suggested to the family that they try eating one day a week vegetarian for good health, just one day.  The weird look I got was enough.

Early on in the visit, one of the family members had a stroke.   It was terrible, no doubt. Luckily, she didn’t die nor had long term damage. She would require some physical therapy. Apparently, she had high blood pressure.

After the stroke, I was required to drive to New York, Langone Hospital from Sleepy Hollow on three occations.  I was glad I could help the family.  My perspective of New York has changed.  While driving in NYC, I saw an aging city in constant decay and rebirth.  There were factories with smoke stacks, abandoned buildings, old buildings in bad condition, and modern buildings that lined the freeway and streets. I did spend time sitting in traffic jams. Many times, I was cut off by aggressive drivers, grey hound tourist bus,  trailers from seaport, and cabs. It was a zoo.  I crossed many bridges. On the way to the hospital, I didn’t recall ever seeing an H sign anywhere. H meant hospital.  The roads were in terrible condition due to the harsh winter.  I would say half the roads were under road construction. Some roads didn’t have any lines, it was a rugby scrum of cars. I remembered getting lost in bad neighborhoods and driving around in circles. Thanks gps.  Amazingly, I didn’t have a paper map but an electronic map with voice commands telling me where to turn and where to move over.  I had trust issues and now I had to blindly follow a computer voice to a destination unknown and in a very expensive car that I didn’t want to damage kinda of like Kit in Knight Rider and David Hasslehoff. yeah right! Not!   It was nerve-racking.

Some fun things we did. We did a few hiking trails at Rockerfeller Preserve, as per the photo. Another day, we did indoor wall climbing which was fun. Bucket list, I would like to try real mountain climbing as well as sky diving.

The true refugee was yoga asanas and meditation on a beautiful patio overlooking the Hudson River.  We talked about going to NYC to take a yoga class,  but because of the family crisis, it just wasn’t possible.  Also, I was hoping to memorize more verses of Samadhi Pada but didn’t get around to doing it.