When I was a kid I had trouble sleeping. And whenever I managed to sleep, weird stuff would happen, like I'd sleepwalk and scare the crap out of my big sister who'd think I'd turned into a zombie.
To cope with the ordeal of bedtime, I started reading. (Back then there were no laptops or iPads or devices to distract night-fearing children). So I read. I read all kinds of stuff, anything that I could get my hands on, all the books in my sister's bookshelf. Some stuff I couldn't even understand because it was written in Old English, but I read it anyway. And instead of worrying about the ghosts under our beds and the demons in our closets, I'd run through the prairies with Laura Ingalls Wilder, visit the trippiest enchanted kingdoms and my favorite...Oh! My very favorite were the Choose Your Own Adventure books. You see, the night was so long, and if you finished one adventure, you could always just turn back and choose another one and another one and so on, until one of two things inevitably came: sleep or daylight, and the ghosts would go home.
When we turn back to look at the things we've said and done throughout our lives, the decisions we've made, it's always tempting to consider, "Well, what if I'd chosen that other adventure? What would've happened then?" And sometimes we'd like to turn the pages and go back to find out. But unless you're proficient in time travel, you don't get that privilege. You author the linear plot of a novel called: Your Own Adventure.
When you're on the spiritual path you begin to understand that every twist on the road, every hair that falls out, every word that comes out of your mouth and every single thing that happens from the moment you open your eyes in the morning until you close them at night, is exactly what you need to happen for your own personal evolution.
It's during the stormy times when this is hardest to remember, when you desperately want to flip the page, but ironically, these moments accelerate our growth like nothing else.
This week, I officially turned down a six-month communications consultancy back home. And today I rented an apartment in Gokulam for one year. And I thought of the adventures that will follow from these choices. I'm smiling like a jack-o'-lantern as I write this.
Mysore is quiet these days, the Ashtanga schools are now closed, Saraswathi's in Malaysia and most of my friends have gone home.
The other day I told a certified teacher how much I was dreading self-practice and she said something along the lines of: "But Ashtanga is meant for self-practice!"
I mulled this over and decided to quit looking for authorized teachers all over the place and just unroll my mat where I am right now. So each morning I practice in the middle of my living room, which is airy and sunny and spacious.
And the strange thing is, I've realized that the Mysore magic is not exclusively contained inside the walls of KPJAYI. It appears to unfold all over Mysore, all over the world, in our own living rooms! I've understood that we carry it inside wherever we go. When we practice, we plug into the Source.
The stuff we learn from our teachers keeps us going, it fuels our self-practice. For however long is necessary until we can get back to them. Even if it takes a lifetime or two.
To cope with the ordeal of bedtime, I started reading. (Back then there were no laptops or iPads or devices to distract night-fearing children). So I read. I read all kinds of stuff, anything that I could get my hands on, all the books in my sister's bookshelf. Some stuff I couldn't even understand because it was written in Old English, but I read it anyway. And instead of worrying about the ghosts under our beds and the demons in our closets, I'd run through the prairies with Laura Ingalls Wilder, visit the trippiest enchanted kingdoms and my favorite...Oh! My very favorite were the Choose Your Own Adventure books. You see, the night was so long, and if you finished one adventure, you could always just turn back and choose another one and another one and so on, until one of two things inevitably came: sleep or daylight, and the ghosts would go home.
When we turn back to look at the things we've said and done throughout our lives, the decisions we've made, it's always tempting to consider, "Well, what if I'd chosen that other adventure? What would've happened then?" And sometimes we'd like to turn the pages and go back to find out. But unless you're proficient in time travel, you don't get that privilege. You author the linear plot of a novel called: Your Own Adventure.
When you're on the spiritual path you begin to understand that every twist on the road, every hair that falls out, every word that comes out of your mouth and every single thing that happens from the moment you open your eyes in the morning until you close them at night, is exactly what you need to happen for your own personal evolution.
It's during the stormy times when this is hardest to remember, when you desperately want to flip the page, but ironically, these moments accelerate our growth like nothing else.
This week, I officially turned down a six-month communications consultancy back home. And today I rented an apartment in Gokulam for one year. And I thought of the adventures that will follow from these choices. I'm smiling like a jack-o'-lantern as I write this.
Mysore is quiet these days, the Ashtanga schools are now closed, Saraswathi's in Malaysia and most of my friends have gone home.
The other day I told a certified teacher how much I was dreading self-practice and she said something along the lines of: "But Ashtanga is meant for self-practice!"
I mulled this over and decided to quit looking for authorized teachers all over the place and just unroll my mat where I am right now. So each morning I practice in the middle of my living room, which is airy and sunny and spacious.
And the strange thing is, I've realized that the Mysore magic is not exclusively contained inside the walls of KPJAYI. It appears to unfold all over Mysore, all over the world, in our own living rooms! I've understood that we carry it inside wherever we go. When we practice, we plug into the Source.
The stuff we learn from our teachers keeps us going, it fuels our self-practice. For however long is necessary until we can get back to them. Even if it takes a lifetime or two.
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"The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure." ~ Joseph Campbell |
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