By the way, my first yoga teacher, Andrea Franchini, had an appendectomy last Friday, the same day that the NPR radio feature came out with her giving instructions to my class -- setting the context, as they say in the radio biz -- I guess. Convalescing, she's probably had plenty of time to listen to the story. I've heard that she's doing fine and is itching to get back to her classes.
Kaminoff's e-mail list has always had fascinating contributions from many big -- and not so big -- names in yoga since 1999. He is reposting a lot of material from then so the blog will be an intriguing online resource on yoga.
He will also be starting a site on yoga anatomy since he is writing a book on the topic.
I heard the story as I was about to get on the Metro, my wife sighing beside me, "And you told them about living in your parents' basement, too?" Teresa does not believe in wearing your neuroses -- or their consequences -- on your sleeve. I could quibble with some phrasing, but it's really hard to condense 30 years of life into a sentence or two. As much as possible, Allison tried to let Stephanie and me do the talking in the report. Of course, I am used to having 100% control over content in this medium.
When I was a journalist in Peru, I used to do radio news reporting and hated it. I was self-conscious about how my voice sounded, about the spontaneity and quick reactions to news stories, about the inability to correct wording a story once it was phoned in. And I never did it enough to get a handle on it, meaning my angst meter was moving into red whenever I had to do a story. This latest experience reminded me of those days with a tape record and alligator clips.
Last Wednesday, I spent four hours with an NPR reporter, Allison Aubrey who covers the consumer health front, talking about how I got involved in yoga, how it's helped me deal with my depression, how I share my yoga experience with my daughter, Stephanie, and wife, Teresa. She recorded my Wednesday class, talked to my instructor, then we chatted until 10 at night. Well, Stephanie and I said lots of stuff during 4 hours of recording so I have no idea what the final product will be like. Allison was originally looking to do something on "male babyboomers who belatedly get into yoga" (that's me), and my yoga studio put us in contact.
Allison came by on Monday to record me doing my breathwork routine, and ask a few more questions. She said that the story looks firm, being pegged to Father's Day, June 19. I have more information about the exact time, which can probably vary because NPR is broadcast by local stations. I will try to post a link here so that those who can't listen to NPR can get the story on the Web. Since the story does not fit into a neat news niche, I don't know if it will appear on the Health and Science page. I will post the link once it become available. Last Friday, there was an interesting piece on cutting, called The History and Mentality of Self-Mutilation, which might give an idea of the style for laid-back end-of-week features.
The other amusing thing in the video was to see the variety of ways that Birkam comes his hair. And what this about him being a national yoga champion in India? I didn't know that yoga was a competitive sport.
For a more knowledgable and perceptive read of this guru, check out Yoga's Bad Boy: Bikram Choudhury, an article that appeared in March/April 2000.
Kabat-Zinn tells us that Buddha was not a Buddhist and that Buddhism is not really a religion, but a highly sophisticated psychological technique for relieving human suffering. That 17th and 18th century Westerners ("ethnologists, philogoists and religious scholars") put the religion tag on the Buddha's followers because that's the way Westerners' brains worked, they needed to classify them with Christians, Muslims and pagans.
"... so we could say that the historical figure of the Buddha, and those who have followed his lead, gave the world a well-defined algorithm, a path of inquiry, which he himself pursued in search of what was amost fundamental to the nature of humanity: the possibility of being fully conscious, fully awake, and free from the fetters of our own conditioning, including our unexamined habits of thought and perception and the afflictive emotions that so intimately and frequidently accompany them unbidden." [page 129]
So "Buddhism" and Zen are not doctrines of faith, but systems of methodologies to explore the human condition. Just as yoga is not a religion -- and you can practice it while remaining a Christian, Jew or atheist. This realization intrigues me because I now have another tool set to add to my survival kit and explains why I have felt drawn to understanding more about the Buddha and his teachings.
Cool, I feel more empowered already. Of course, I now have enough knowledge to be dangerous. Excuse my overgeneralization.
I have yet to take the step of converting to vegetarianism, something that some yoga practictioners see as a natural consequences of their beliefs. But I have been trying to change my eating habits, sharply cut back on my consumption of red meats, and generally improve my diet. Today I chanced across this website and newsletter with good references. Amira Elgan gave some sensible advice so I will check it out in more depth. By the way, the newsletter is free.
I should note that an issue of the newsletter have not appeared since July last year. Amira is a very busy lady. But there is plenty of information and advice to process.
Thrive Yoga now has a new design thanks to Dan Trachtman who has lots of experience at creating appealing web sites.
It is not physical solitude that actually separates one from others; not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the people you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others. How often in a large city, shaking hands with my friends, I have felt the wilderness stretching between us. Both of us were wandering in arid wastes, having lost the springs that nourished us - or having found them dry. Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.
This excerpt comes from Gift from the Sea, written in 1955. I came across it in the Daily Dig sent out by Bruderhof Communities.
Curiously, over the past few weeks of semi-silence, my hatha practice has really blossomed to the point that I feel I can graduate to Yoga II at Flow Yoga
For the past five years, I've been an active blogger, both here and on my other sites, like Peruvian Graffiti and BackdoorTech.com. The web has become my preferred medium of expression. When I am not actively engaged in my blogs, I start feeling guilty, somehow flawed.
