Sasha the Wanderer

A moment in Amritapuri We've decided to extend our stay at Amritapuri. It is 6am. I am sitting on the beach drinking chai among other international spiritual aspirants fully engaged in their morning practice: folded into half-lotus, turtleing through tai chi or silent sun salutations, breathing through alternating nostrils, or journaling like me, all facing the waves of the Arabian Sea. The gentle pinks of sunrise highlight the buiding cumulonimbus (altocumulus castellanus, actually) emerging from the smeared blue horizon. Tonight we'll probably have lightning again - the kind so high up that the sky flashes soundlessly, and with rain that plummets down in short enthusiastic bursts. All us early morning beach bums (cheeks on yoga mats, bamboo mats, or the granite boulders that make up the wall that holds back the ocean) have ourselves just emerged ... read more

There's no worry, there's no stress, hanging out in Rishiskesh ~from a song, Anon December 20, 2009 Remember how the Beatles tripped out in India, getting their world all turned upside down and their music all spiced up? Well they came here, to Rishikesh, to an ashram about a ten minute walk from where I am sitting, in the so-called Yoga Capital of the World. The Ganges here is lined with ashrams and yoga halls and ghats (stairs or steps) where locals and tourists (mostly Indian ones) alike go down to the river to pray. Sunrise and sunset are heralded by devotional singing over loudspeaker (not to mention the umpteen hundred? thousand? of yogis and yoginis in scattered yoga halls bending over backwards in sun salutations). With all the showmanship, Daniel, Keely and I were expecting ... read more

Delhi Belly - Sam's version I'm dating this entry for our first day in MCleod Ganj, but come back with me to Delhi first. Perhaps you have had this reaction to a totally foreign situation: you look for the familiar. Delhi is a big stinky overcrowded dirty third world city with insane traffic and is where (to my ears) everyone speaks mumbo jumbo. All tourist hot spots are encircled by vulture-like characters, intent on tricking or scamming or stealing especially from those fresh-off-the-boat. I knew some of the counter-tricks from my experiences in Thailand, and was myself intent on using them! But this meant that my image of Delhi was overlaid with my memory of Bangkok (I only see the past, ya?). The road lanes in Bangkok are just as subjective, and the con(wo)men just as ... read more

What really happens when we open ourselves to our deepest guidance and surrender our doubt and rational analysis? Do we abandon ourselves to the fickle winds of shifting temptations and random opportunities, or is there a higher guidance we can choose to align to and follow? The path of spirit is the center of my life and it is my intention to align to just that guidance - simply the greatest, highest good for all beings, and nothing less. Of course I have some ideas of what that would look like. Preparation in Yasodhara ashram, a pilgrimage to India. Perhaps living in a monastery. Imagine my surprise when during deep healing and meditation, i discovered my path lead not to Yasodhara at all, but back to Sam, my currently ex-girlfriend - with a ring. If we ... read more