25 June 2011
Recapping week 2
Let's start with the kriyas. These are yogic "cleansing" methods. We learned and tested some of these today. The first one (pouring salt water in one nostril and having it pour out the other) was easy. #2 was sticking a tube up the nose and out the mouth to clean your nasal passages. And by "clean" I mean disrupt your nerves so they sneeze and puke out a load of mucus all over yourself. As you can see in the video in my previous blog post, I was not quite successful in meeting these objectives. Continuing on the forced vomiting, #3 was to slowly chew and swallow a strip of gauze into your esophagus. We only had 2 feet to play with while you are supposed to work up to 15 feet. You then pull it out, which I'm sure would have been a nice feeling had I been able to swallow a millimeter in the first place. Again Trevor fail. I dint even bother trying #4 because I knew it would be a wasted effort. You were supposed to quickly imbibe a bunch of salt water and then stick your fingers to the back of your throat to puke it all up. As someone who has survived the master cleanse an the gallon of milk challenge without puking, I knew this 4th kriya would not work for me so I just ignored it.
At the end of all 4 kriyas, only a few people were successful in de-phlegming themselves an they felt pretty good afterwards. I'm sure that the feeling is great to remove all your mucus, but I'm not quite sold on the theory. Although I'd highly recommend it to anybody looking to exercise their gag reflex.
Moving on,
We started our own teaching this week. Divided into groups of 4, 1 student is the teacher and leads the other 3 through a class. I was chosen to go first and put on a decent class. As predicted, my class went 10 minutes long because I talk too much, but I will say that I'm a pretty confident and effective teacher despite the mistakes I made. So far half the students have put on a full class and it's impressive to hear the reviews. Of course some are obviously better than others, but even some of the students who you would guess would be poor teachers actually do a pretty solid job.
Yesterday, Diya, a 12 year old girl who is here with her 14 year old brother and their mom, put on my class, and she was pretty damn good. I was trying to remember what I was doing when I was 12 years old. She and her bro are rockstars in this class. They're far more mature than the 18-25 year old crowd. I'm very impressed with that family.
Last night during our bhagavad Gita class, the discussion went haywire an somehow turned into a debate on the merits and religious questions surrounding mother theresa and other aid organizations that being in helpless children and "give them religion". Every woman in the class had something to say and it turned into this exhibition of high horses. I just zoned out an actually read thru the bhagavad Gita book while the drama took place an wasted an hour of my life.
Meditation is hard. Twice a day we are supposed to meditate for 30 minutes but the longest I've been able to keepy mind from wandering has been about 90 seconds. I try to bring it back by using various techniques such as focusing on my breath o repeating mantras or visualizing some symbols, but it doesn't work. I tend to just give in and try to focus my straying thoughts on one particular subject. One day I went through memories of papa, another day I tried to recollect and visualize every girl I've had sex with. I need to get better at this.
I'm pretty good at the chanting at this point, and I also understand most of the symbolism behind all the Hindi gods, as well as their theories. I'm impressed that I've been able to learn all this information so quickly. I like that their teachings (primarily thei concept of 1 supreme consciousness) are able to align with all the other religions of the world, and even in the chanting, we mention Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.) so that been a positive part of the experience. Many of the Indians are impressed with my ability to pronounce the Sanskrit. I credit my brief study of mandarin with this skill. Many of the weird non-English sounds are similar to the weir Chinese sounds so I am able to grasp it all whilst than most westerners.
On Wednesday morning, the distant clouds finally cleared and we had our first glimpse of the snow capped Himalayas. They were massive. It was an amazing sight to behold, and it only lasted for that day before disappearing again on Thursday. This made mr super excited for the upcoming trek which will start on July 16. Viewing a 7800meter peak from a distance is incredible so I can only imagine what it will be like to summit 2 6200meter peaks. I've been studying altitude sickness and actually found that oh pranayama breathing which we practice every day is actually the bed prevention one can have against getting sick. These intense breathing techniques put extra oxygen in your bloodstream and help remove extra impurities, so I'm definitely goin to try to begin every day on the mountains with an abbreviated 20 minute yoga session.
Regarding health and the body, we started out anatomy classes this week as well and so far we've covered the skeletal, muscular, and cardiovascular systems. I had never rally had a proper anatomy class I my life prior to this so I find it quite useful, and it's critical to have a good base understanding of the human body to be a proper instructor if this is a path that I choose to go down in the future.
About that future path, there's still a lot to figure out, but thus far I couldn't be happier with my decision to come on this trip. I still can't get over the fact that we're not even halfway done yet. It feels like it's been a year.
23 June 2011
You do WHAT with your hands?
Now in India, silverware is nonexistent. Sure they give you a spoon but they look at you like your a lesser being if you use it. You eat with your hands here. And by hand, I mean right hand. Because your left hand is for cleaning your asshole.
I'm not very good at either of these endeavors. Let's first start analyzing the eating cuz that's a bit prettier. As you can see in the pic, it's a huge mess. Sometimes you get some roti, which is like a tortilla, which you can use to help pick up the loose food. I have a tendency to turn this into a soft taco bar, which is also frowned upon. Proper eating is in bite sized portions, delivered to your mouth with the fingers. It's like we are all 2 years old again. Of course I always lick my fingers and this is also frowned upon. Everything is frowned upon. At least the food is all delicious.
Regarding issue #2 (no pun intended), I simply choose to avoid this altogether. Basically, they give you 2 options: 1: use toilet paper to wipe an then leave it in a bin next to the toilet, or 2: just use your left hand with a bucket of water. I choose option 3: wipe using toilet paper and then flush it down the toilet (like a civilized person). I haven't seen my roommates using any toilet paper so I'm pretty sir they go with option 2. I simply maintain peace of mind by assuming they do a fantastic job of washing their hands afterwards. Plus I'm happy I don't have a bin of shit-stained paper looking up at me every time I go to the bathroom.
Of course, this toilet paper conundrum is not unique to India, nor is it new to me. I have experienced all forms and processes of ass cleaning from all over the world. Simply wanted to share the most recent observations as I'm sure many of you were curious.
22 June 2011
21 June 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)