I'm so smug!

Looks like I'll have to move to san Francisco after this is over.

Day 3 pic

View from our balcony...will post better later

Day 2 thoughts

It's only been 30 hours since we got started here and holy crap we've done so much.

We've done 3 physical yoga classes (asana practice), a few meditation and chanting classes, and 2 ceremonial things, along with amazing meals.

The entire day is a learning experience and while some things may be a bit farfetched and tough to wrap my head around (ceremonial deities & chanting, etc.), there is a reasonably legit science behind them that is being explained and it's quite interesting.

There's a great camaraderie between all the students. There are 29 total. I am the only white guy. There are actually 4 other guys, all younger than me, a few other white girls, and the rest Indian girls. Like I said before, they are all very outspoken and impressive.

I've got to head out for the final chanting of the night. Not much time to sit and rest at all but I will do my beat to continue to post updates.

Day 2 pic

4:30am wakeup call

Day 1 recap

Yesterday was theoretically our "intro" day but was still super packed.

After training all night then a 3 hour jeep ride, finally arrived at this beautiful himalaya ashram to meet the other 28 folks an 10 staffers who are leading this ttc.

I have to say I am blown away by the quality of every single person here. Slowly meeting everyone throughout the day was very enjoyable, and when we had our initiation in the evening, it was incredible to find out the stories behind everyone's reason for being here.

The day itself was a bit rough because I was so tired from getting about 7 cumulative hours of poor sleep over the previous 3 nights due to various circumstances (Mosquitos, late night drinking, sleeper train).

I just woke up from a very deep sleep, and it's 4:50 am and I still need to shower with a bucket and get down to a ceremony by 5. I have 2 cool roommates...a 27 year old engineer from Delhi named Venki and a 19 year old named Kalki, but they need to hustle it up!

More later...gotta go now.

Day 1

I will be documenting my body's (hopeful) transformation throughout this class. This is the official "before"

Now things get serious

While this blog will of course comment on all my negative (and positive) Indian observations, it will also make a conscious attempt at figuring out what the hell is going on inside my head.

All in all I'm a pretty damn confident guy. An I'd say I've been damn successful at making awesome things happen over the past 3 years since I quit my job with Raytheon. Everytime i look through my facebook albums, I feel pretty good about myself, but that's not sustainable.

As far as the concept of future is concerned, I've been lost for a while. It's just too easy to skate by in china and have a great time and get complacent without even trying. Living in the moment, doing whatever i want, carefree, no responsibility. This is awesome, and I love it. But depleting my IRA is not so awesome.

There are so many major endeavors (entrevors?) happening in the next 3 months that I'm using to reset myself. It starts today with 1 month in a yoga ashram. I've been doing yoga on and off for the past 6 years, but I never thought I'd find myself in a situation like this.

It will be an insanely intense mental challenge. There are 3 hours of chanting and meditation every day which I have never done before. There will be 28 days of seclusion which I have never come close to before. There will be a full vegetarian diet which I have never come close to before. I will go a month without boozing or jerking off, which I have never come close to before.

So point is, I'll very likely be a different person when I come out. I'll do my best to post updates and daily pics throughout the days.

Stay tuned!