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Published: January 27th 2014
November 27th - December 27th
It is hard to describe my month of yoga in all of its true essence. I chose to study traditional yoga, searching for something real and authentic, but not wanting it taught as a religion, and in my search found Wise Living Yoga Academy. In truth, I didn't know what all that would entail at first but after receiving a pre-arrival assignment, learned I was in for something a bit different than what we call yoga in the west. I lived and studied at Wise Living Yoga Academy with two amazing teachers, Daniel and Jeenal, explaining to us what yoga is. Daniel and Jeenal studied and received a blessing to teach what they have learned from The Yoga Institute in Mumbai India (the oldest school for yoga in the world). Our teachings followed the same roots of what they have learned, except we were in a more calming surrounding versus the airport and busy city of Mumbai. It has taken a month to learn the tip of the ice berg, but I'll do my best to try and describe the experience.
A quiet and beautiful little ashram up in the mountains outside
The vista we arrived at for our first Friday morning Walkof Doi Saket. The birds sang all day and at night the fish in the pond outside my room played. The days were beautiful; temperature reminded me of those perfectly beautiful fall days in Colorado with the sun warming on the skin in the refreshing cool and comfortable air. Butterflies fluttered around everywhere and flowers gave a sweet fragrance to the air. As the sun set little gnats appeared and hovered around, followed by good sized mosquitos, many of which were determined enough to get a snack despite copious amounts of bug spray. Geckos came to our rescue, appearing on the ceiling and walls to eat up the pesky biters. Once the sun was sleeping the temperature dropped dramatically, it got much colder than I had anticipated, and lead me to buying more warm clothes in town on the weekend. The crickets played their symphony as the frogs sang making it easy to feel as a part of nature in the quiet evenings. The moons path was a drastic journey across the sky compared to the one I watch at home, the crescents sat like the Cheshire cats grin to Charlie Chaplin’s rounded hat and the constellations hung at different
angles in the always wondrous night sky. As the sun would rise again to heat up the day, a picturesque dew hung thick and low in the air and the fields next to us glistened with drops of crystal-like gleaming water on every leaf and blade of tall grass. I couldn't help but be inspired by their strength on these morning as they reached up for a sun and sky they would never touch, yet stretched up with all their beautiful might anyways. Waking and living here it was easy to breathe in with a feeling of "I'm alive" and exhale pure gratitude.
Our rooms were simple, welcoming and clean. Ivory tile floors, white walls, lots of windows and a spectacular view of the sunset and the "neighbors" house out in the distance. Two simple beds, draped in white covers with a stand in between, and a small cupboard with plenty of extra room, as neither my roommate, Barbara, nor I arrived with much. It quickly became a comfortable home for the month. Our bungalow was along the back wall of the property, next to the only hammock and over the little pond. The morning sunlight shone
through the trees onto the deck (so many of us spent our morning studies sprawled out like lizards to heat up under the light of the sun). Each building has two rooms for two people in each and forms a semi-circle around the community areas. These areas are: The main outdoor class area, a white tile floor with no walls, and a roof tipped in dried grass hidden by a surrounding of luscious plants. The meditation room, also sometimes used for classes with a rich and worn wooden floor, cushions piled in the corner, and whiteboard. Our eating area was also outside and shaded by the main building, simple seating with the food set up to self-serve. The food was wonderful, vegan and organic, full of flavor, nutrition and cooked with love and all of us in mind. Once the temperatures dropped Jeenal began to make us vegan chai, and then spoiled us the rest of the course with it on cold mornings and nights "because it makes you all so happy" she said one day.
Our day began at 5:00AM, the alarm would go off, we would get up for self-study, pranayama, homework, shower, etc. Meditation
started at 6:30am beginning with fifteen minutes and adding a little bit of time each day. Asana practice followed immediately after meditation, Daniel would guide us through a full practice without naming postures or explaining anything about them, this was purely to do the asana practice and would go till breakfast. Breakfast started around 8:30am, after which we had a break till 10:15am to study, do laundry, go for walks, get toilet paper from the little market down the road, clean our rooms etc. From 10:15am - 12:30pm we had two classes and then lunch till 1:30pm. From 1:30-2pm we had a guided relaxation class, which after the first week all us students took turns teaching. I went on the 3rd day of student teachings, I was nervous but after I got started I relaxed into guiding the class and by the end of it felt so wonderful and realized it was not as scary as I thought it would be! 2pm-3pm was more class time, 3-3:30 we had a tea break, 3:30pm-4:30pm classes again and 4:30pm-6:30pm was asana study (the postures, technique, benefits, limitations, intentions behind them, etc.) Then we would have dinner and lights out by 9pm. Time
moved so quickly, it’s indescribable... On Fridays our schedule was switched up a bit and we would go for long walks instead of the morning asana practice and watch a movie instead of the asana study in the evenings. The first week we watched What the Bleep Do We Know (which was my personal introduction into "thoughts become things" or law of attraction, many years ago), the second week we watched The Peaceful Warrior. Beautiful movie, it shows what the tradition of yoga is about, in a storyline involving a gymnast and an old supernatural seeming man. Basically, coming into control of ones senses, mind and body, to reach enlightenment. The third week we watched two lectures, one on nutrition and scientific facts behind the top leading causes of death and how a vegan lifestyle can cure and prevent ALL of them, except one: accidental death. It was comically presented by Dr. Michael Greger called Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, it is on YouTube, and I highly suggest watching it! The other lecture by an animal rights activist, Gary Yourofsky, emotional and at points difficult to watch, but the way he questions societal beliefs of morality, non-violence, where lines
are drawn as to what beings are ok to eat or not, etc., will have your wheels turning. Again I would suggest watching his speech called, Best Speech You Will Ever Hear by Gary Yourofsky, on YouTube. After seeing these two lectures many of the people in our group came to the conclusion that they will try to continue a vegan lifestyle after leaving the program. I was the only one already vegan prior to arriving for the course, though a couple of the ladies were vegetarian. Saturdays the timing and classes were similar to that of the rest of the week but for our asana practice we got to write our own routine. The classes before lunch were fun, usually involving games that can be used to teach classes for kids, corporates or the elderly and talks by Hansaji, one of the Gurus (teachers) of Daniel and Jeenal, and the leading lady at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai India. We would finish the day after lunch together and were free for the afternoon. Sundays were our day off and while I still woke up early so as not to upset my internal clock too much I did take advantage
of the time by going into Chiang Mai, around 40 min away, usually staying the night in town Saturday evenings.
The first weekend out to Chiang Mai I decided to stick with two of the girls from the program, Leanne from Wales and Zara from New Zealand. We checked into a cute little guesthouse, Zara showed us around some of her favorite places as she had been to Chiang Mai a few times before, we bought some warmer cloths for the cold mornings and evenings at the ashram and then met everyone who went into town for dinner at what turned out to be our routine group dinner place. Blue Diamond on Doi Saket 9 was not only vegan friendly food options but also vegan sweets/baked goods as well and because we could have a sweet treat, we ended up back there every weekend! Zara, Leanne and I had such a good time together that we decided to go to Pai together for New Year’s Eve, and by the end of the program 3 of the other ladies decided to join us up there! The following weekends were much the same as the first, wondering the streets
mostly with no plan in particular besides meeting everyone for dinner. I spent one of the weekends with Arooba (Pakistan) and Alex (U.S), we wondered around laughing and splashing in the pouring rain that no one else wanted to go out in, drenched to the bone, with big grins and laughing locals as we floated by. Another weekend with Sabina (Sweden) and Zara having foot massages ($3 for half hour) the most divine massage ever! I had my first Thai massage(best way to describe it would be asana someone else does to you, $6 for 1hr), I got my teeth cleaned and 2 cavities filled($30), wondered the streets and markets, took tuk tuks, studied, fell in love with the friendliness of the people, a hippie clothing heaven(as I described it to my family, I loved much of the cloths and fabrics), tasty curries and many other things made it easy to get relaxed into the bustling energy of the city. I loved Chiang Mai and found myself often thinking, "I could live here."
There were 17 of us in the course from all over the world, various parts of Europe and the US, to Australia & New
Zealand, South Korea, Pakistan, Canada and Thailand, all but 1 were female. We quickly connected and became very open about our bodily functions and everything else, often laughing and discussing anything and everything it was rarely silent through meals and breaks. By the end of the course we became a family.
As time flew by our little spiritual family grew tremendously and before we knew it we were receiving our certifications.
We had a lot to learn in a short amount of time. Starting from the basics to the in-comprehendible; history, Sanskrit, Asana(postures) including the proper technique, benefits, limitations, Sanskrit and English names, Yogendra breathing used for dynamic movement, philosophy, metaphysics/quantum physics, Sutras of Patanjali(again in Sanskrit and English) which we studied 17 of, may not sound like many but was quite difficult to learn the language, pronunciation, meaning, and really go into depth of the deeper meaning of them(the Sutras of Patanjali are used as guides for the pursuit of yoga), food and nutrition(lucky for me I had already switched to the vegan lifestyle, so this part was easy), Ethics, Bhagava Gita, Hinduism, Jesus, Buddhism, the purpose of life, Indian culture, how to
teach, how to set a routine, meditation, Kryias(personal hygiene/auto immune development), time management, disease, Pranayama(Breath control = Bio-energy control),Relaxation, Bhava (attitudes, focuses), how to concentrate the mind, anatomy, lifestyle choices, personal and social responsibilities and so much more...
This does not even explain the amount of information we were shown. Yoga teacher training... Turned into life training. What started as a want to learn for a career change has turned into an expanding on a philosophy of life. Yoga is not just a physical exercise as many of us believe it to be in Western culture. It is much more, not a religion, but a way of being, a philosophy, a guide for a path of life to lead to awakening of "that knowledge, with which, all other knowledge can be known."
Christmas was a really special experience. I had secretly been happy to be in a place that I thought I would not be celebrating Christmas in. It didn’t feel at all like Christmas and was not till a couple days before that Jeenal told us that we would finish classes an hour early on Christmas Eve so we could walk to the
neighbors which was also a little restaurant. They said we could get dressed up, and if anyone had instruments or wanted to write poetry or anything that we could contribute to the evening, to bring it. I had wanted to write a poem but nothing came to me till the hour break we had to get ready before dinner. Daniel brought his guitar, Alex brought her ukulele and Arooba talked me into singing with her. Dinner was spring rolls, a really exciting treat, veggie fried rice, and coconut ice cream (vegan of course). After dinner Daniel played some songs as we sang along to the ones we knew. Alex, Arooba and I sang, Jeenal read a poem, and then for the first time in my life, I stood up and read my poem I had just written to everyone. It was scary and invigorating and felt so good to break past some walls of fear! The music continued and then we played a game that was a cross between the freeze game and charades. It was one of the most magical Christmases I have had and was such an unexpected blessing to be celebrating together.
The training
was beautifully done, Daniel and Jeenal put their all into it and we all left packed full of knowledge, confidence, teaching experience, and with connection to a new spiritual family.
Our last night in Chiang Mai we all had dinner and then took Aruba out for her first time ever. We spent the night and early morning hours dancing to terrible music but had such a blast doing so we couldn’t leave till just a couple hours before sunrise.
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Lorie
non-member comment
Love and Peace
Thank you Ness for sharing all of your life with us. We are so lucky to see your journey and I am so proud of you in so many ways many that cannot be described in words but in feelings. I love you and cannot wait for your return!