Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Lotus Flower Blooms in the Shit

(thanks Marina via Vince for the title idea)

So this was another hard week. the room was really hot and humid, with the air circulation not getting any better. but i feel like i'm getting sort of used to the heat. i also feel like my practice is absolute shit, because my ham strings are about 2" long now. i can feel that i have the strength to straighten both legs in standing bow, but my ham strings won't let me come down low enough. ugh.

this week was full on posture clinic. well, except for when John Burras came and told us about Facia. Facia is the interconnective tissue that holds all the biz in your body in place. he believes it is the most important thing in the universe, which was illustrated by him using the word easily over 200 times in his lecture. he had a lot of good things to say and used a lot of props to demonstrate metaphores, but he said some controversial things too - like that ALL disease is caused by cognitive dissonance. hmh, okay. Ron had some very funny things to say about him today as we studied. anyway, posture clinic. now, people don't jump up to go any more - we are all fighting each other to go last because we feel unprepared. we had to do tree pose and toe stand together, which is a big effing deal since we've only ever done one at a time. i did mine in front of Martha (owner of the Twin Cities' Studio) and Mike (owner of the downtown Chicago studio). i got it pretty okay, but all i got from them was "great." i felt cheated! i asked for more and they had no suggestions, but i know there was SOMETHING i could have done better. i'm not tooting my own horn here, but they just seemed bored and like they wanted to get out of there. oh well. and the following day, our posture clinic was lead by jakob, the director of a studio in san francisco, and a girl who is one of his teachers. they were extremely catty, gossippy and picked on quite a few people in what seemed like a mean spirited way. jakob was nice enough to end our posture clinic by saying "it doesn't matter, all of your first classes are going to be shit anyway" and then he dolled out make up classes to the people who were more than 30 seconds late coming back from the break.

Bikram returned this week as well. he arrived during the friday evening class, and i thoroughly enjoyed his lecture that night. but my lecture was slightly tainted by my roommate.

My roommate and i also got into a disagreement this week, and instead of talking to me about it she took the issue to the administration. awesome. so i got to have a nice, awkward conversation with the staff members and my roommate, where i was accused of doing things i haven't. but my roommate made up her mind otherwise, said what she said, some ground rules were set and now we're not talking. oh well.

But bikram said in his lecture that when we lose our temper, we lose our descency and begin to exaggerate. so hopefully she heard those things and took them to heart, because she exposed a not-so-good side of herself that evening. But the lotus flower grows in the shit, and i am learning a lot about myself and forgiveness from this shitty experience! shit!



so enough with the negative! i'm still smiling and loving every moment of training, because the fun parts are so awesome and the hard parts teach me so much about myself and others. and michael is here from portland! hooray! it's so nice to see a friendly face. he looked so stoked to be here, which in turn made me stoked. it's so easy to forget i'm in hawaii since i see the outside 1 day a week. also, when Bob (owner of the Beaverton studio) left last week, he insisted i be put on the schedule for july! yay! i can't believe that i'll be able to teach this stuff in just a few weeks. wtf?!

also, my tattoo healed in about 4 days from practicing. sorry mom & dad, it's staying forever :-)

Quotes:
training is like throwing seeds in the garden of your soul. it's up to you how you'll nurture it. - Craig

when we're done with training, everything is fun, even walking on hot coals and eating glass is great! - Craig

shannon: i keep waiting for my transformation to happen.
me: what do you want to transform into?
Shannon: a transformer!

Ask yourself how and when you learned to doubt yourself. - Craig

New students don't hear. New teachers don't see. - Joni

Our crutches become the crosses on which we crucify ourselves - Craig

There were 3 showers for for 160 women with the pressure of a guy with a prostate problem. - Craig

Hold a strong vision of others until they are able to hold it for themselves. - Craig

Bikram:
The smell isn't as bad as i thought. i was expecting old cat shit, now is like half calcutta, half paris.

before you can start your journey, you must know your destination.

guess what i did on the plane today? I read my own book! Believe it or not, i enjoyed it! i forgot what shit i wrote 5 years ago.

my way is to cut your balls off, make you eat them in public while i watch you digest it.

I got a new watch with Lord Krishna on it. I cannot see him through all the diamonds!

you can only enjoy 5% f your life if you are rich.

lonliness is the #1 pubishment in your life.

you lose your temper and you lose your descency.

faith in yourself means faith in God. If you believe God lives in sky with a grey beard and a hat like the pope, then you are a dumb fuck.

all your life you have to travel 6" - from your heart to your mind.

3 comments:

Chester Schambleton said...

I like the idea of the Lord Krishna diamond watch. I'm sure he would have approved of the explotation and murder of the people in the diamond mines. He'd proabably approve of the sweatshops that made the watch. I sound like a real wet blanket about Bikram's quotes. I wonder if he would consider this unyogilike?

We are just about adjusted to the heat. I feel good yoga weeks coming on, just you wait. Your practice is not shit. Don't be so hard on yourself about being completely sore and exhausted. I'm still trying to catch up to you on that backbend! One of these days maybe. Your toestand looked pretty damn good the other day, going down without hands and shit. It's going to be a good week!

Anonymous said...

I was shocked when my hamstrings shrunk to about two inches as well wasn't I suppost to be like gumby from yoga 2x a day? Six months later my practice is stronger than it's ever been just takes a bit of time. When I left for training I was so close to locking my kicking leg in stading bow as well I was convinced it would happen while I was there. Now six months later I'm closer, it's like watching your hair grow so so slow but then one day it's like wtf once I was there and now I'm here. Just remember it's not just about kicking your foot over your head as high as you possibly can when I forget about it relax into it and let my body wrap around it's strength and flexibility I get so much further than when my mind tries to muscle my body into it. I love reading your blog it cracks me up and I can't wait for you to come home!! Maybe we can ride to Beav. tgeather sometimes to teach and take class. I had one intresting roomate as well my salvation was two other great ones and one that was never there. There were so many of us we balanced eachother out the one advantage of having 5. Just another thing on the long list of things not to let get to you. See you soon have a great week next week!!

Anonymous said...

have you seriuously thought of the pillow-over-the-face-while-sleeping-manuver for charm?