All Posts Filed in ‘Asia

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Rishikesh, India

Back to the Swami Darmandanda lectures. Today I arrived early and Swami said he was pleased with the class, though there weren’t as many people there today. About 20, when usually there are 30, though nobody showed up late. On the way there the baba without a blanket who turned down my offer of 5 …

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Rishikesh, India

Having breakfast the fruit salad I ordered is taking ages to arrive. I’ve already had my coffee and cinnamon roll – would have preferred it if they’d come later, but you never get things in the order that you want them in India. I tell the waiter that if they haven’t done the fruit salad …

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Rishikesh, India

Sitting in the cafe overlooking the pedestrian suspension bridge across the Ganges. An Indian guy in a turban comes in and goes over the the corner table and whistles towards the bridge. He then takes out a mobile phone and looks at it but doesn’t make a call. He sits down at the table where …

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Rishikesh, India

More lecture notes coming up. Print them out and memorize them if you want to become enlightened. Hatha yoga – prana energy Raja yoga – mental energy Kundalini/Tantra yoga – primal energy Hatha yoga, in the west, is mainly for health, to make the body more active, but its higher purpose is to make the …

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Rishikesh, India

The Japanese woman sitting in front of me in the lotus position wears a Tintin in Tibet t-shirt. I arrived early to the lecture this morning so got myself a cushion to sit on. But as soon as I’d made myself comfortable we had to stand as Swami’s wife came in. Today is her birthday. …

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Rishikesh, India

Got up late, but just in time to get to the yoga lecture with the Swami. This time I took my notebook and wrote notes: Soak mangos overnight to get rid of the chemicals that are often used to ripen them.

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Rishikesh, India

The other morning when my alarm clock went off I kept turning it offf but it wouldn’t stop bleeping. For a while I couldn’t work out why, but then I realized I was turning it off in my dream but it was ringing in my reality.

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Rishikesh, India

Sometimes ceiling fans look like they’re in danger of falling of the ceiling. The yoga didn’t happen. I was the only one who showed up and the woman who offered to teach it has been ill so she’s rescheduled for 7am Sunday morning.

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Rishikesh, India

Sitting in a cafe this morning with one of the two American women I met on the flight from Bangkok I got chatting to an Australian woman here with her mother, who was from Darlington and still has an English accent though I guess she’s been in Australia for some time. The daughter is a …