From West to East
The past 6 and half or so weeks have been relentless. 1 month of Ashtanga followed by 2 weeks at a Sivananda ashram. Of course, such consistency brings with certain rewards in the form of physical upgrades. For sure, I’ve smashed through barriers and taken myself to new heights. I feel I’m at a peak.
I’ve carried out what I intended to do over the last 8 months. This was to give fair trial and sample all the major asana practices including Hatha, Iyengar, Vinyasa, Yin, Tantric Hatha, Ashtanga and Sivananda. There are dozens more but I’m content with what I’ve learnt so far and will no longer be learning any further asana practices. It’s a rather pivotal time as my focus will now be purely on learning various meditation techniques. All of what I have experienced so far has been a form of preparation for meditation. This was always the end game. I actually sat my first 10 day course back when I was 22 and have remained drawn to it ever since. I can’t wait to dive deep into the mind and see what lurks at the depths. First though, I’ve been at sea level and took a half time chill out break.
Westside- Goa
Straight after the Sivananda ashram, I hopped over to Goa for some downtime with my Mum aka Queen Hina. Now, my Mum really is a bit of a Queen, she is allergic to basic accommodation. Symptoms include a scrounged face, angry eyebrows and uncontrolled speech in the form of “no-no-no-no-no”. So by the will of my Mum, I went from being in a power cut ridden ashram with finite hot water to nothing short of pure indulgence. During the transition, my brain was very confused, eating with shiny cutlery took some re adjusting. I pulled through in the end though ;).
I’m not really into the classic lounge around holidays, I prefer activity-based holidays and so does the rest of my family. Our thing is to go on golfing holidays together as it’s something we all have in common. Better yet, all 4 of us can play together in one group. This trip was no different, me and my mum had some quality time over a lush green golf course. Our styles could not be more different. My Mum tends to plod the ball steadily along the fairway where as I just try to hammer the ball into smithereens. No surprise that I donated quite a few balls to the surrounding neighbourhood then. This is my style as I know if I just cream that one ball, it will make up for all the bad shots. Scorecards are so outdated, golf is the new surfing, we really just want that one killer shot. My Mum was also keen to learn some Yoga so I showed her a basic routine to help treat her chronic back issues. It was an experience to say the least. We’ve never practised together and it was perhaps the highlight of my trip.
Eastside- Arunachal Pradesh
After 1 week in Goa, me and my mum emotionally parted ways where she jetted off to Mumbai to visit a friend. I flipped the script and headed to the third limb of India that is Arunachal Pradesh. I didn’t even know this part was connected to India until a couple of months ago when I looked closely at the map. It is the most westerly state in India and shares a border with the eco friendly, Beautan. It’s also the least visited state. This was a plus as I like getting off the beaten path. After a 7-hour ride on some rather treacherous roads, I reached the capital, Itanagar.
I was put in contact with a family friend by the name of Stephen. He is a bit of a celebrity in Itanagar and took me around to see the place. Arunachal Pradesh has had a rather troubled past due to conflict between the 26 major tribes. This has long changed as most of the animistic religion are now Christians. Faith is certainly at the heart of Itanagar, which now unites the tribes. No more spears and daggers, just love. It was a fascinating story and also interesting to observe spiritual practices of different faith to my own.
That’s all from me, probably the most random post I’ve written on. Hope you enjoyed it. Next week the second half resumes, time to meditate and start harnessing some hadoukens. Let’s do this.