Day 6 (Aug 26)

Morning practice was beautiful. Right after our meditation, we were "serenaded" by Jack with his version of Sarvesham Shanti Mantra. I was feeling rather tired and the music was just what I needed to soothe me. I slept past midnight uploading photos and finishing my entry last night. But I just love doing the things I love.

Still (and somewhat surprisingly), practice was very good. I was pleased with the quality of both breath and thought. We - me, my breath and my unusually cooperative thoughts, stuck together just working through the latter half of the series and really relishing the moments. I've become friends with Marichy D (as I did in Teacher Training). I hope this time it flies home with me to Manila and doesn't leave me when the teachers aren't around. Sirsasana seems to be more unfriendly (why do you stay with me for just 5 breaths? Don't you love me anymore?)

Oh, but I've been working on opening my heart more now so maybe I'll give my head a rest for a bit.

This afternoon was rather funny. I decided to take a catnap 10 minutes before the Sanskrit class and promptly fell asleep until I heard Mathias' voice ringing in my consciousness. I went to class and caught up very quickly (and without much of a choice). It was consonants with vowels. ka, kaah, ki, kiih, ku, kuuuu, kr, krrh, kl, ke, kai, ko, kau....(and they come with their own strokes). Ah, it just keeps getting better.

Now, the word I got for the day is Cuckoo. Yes, pikah. I attract these things, right? Others get crow or monkey but for me it's Cuckoo.

Dinner was very nice - summer rolls with shitake mushrooms (A. would love this!). Brown rice and pumpkin curry. Jack has been sitting with us during dinner time and  he asked me my first difficult question for the day. Or my second, if you count Prof. Rao's question (Him: Madam, can you read this? Me: uh, pika-ha. Him: good. do you know what it means?). So anyway, the question was: What's the latitude of the Philippines/Manila? The answer: Give me 1 minute then... 14'35 N and 121 E. Thank you, Wikipedia. Thank you, Steve Jobs. Thank you, intermittent but now okay WiFi. We all had a good laugh. A good reason to have gelato (and a veggie cupcake for me).

So then for kirtan/singing, we got to sing one of Jack's originals and ended with the Sarvesham Shanti Mantra. I have a thing for full circles. Beautiful.

As I was writing this, Ivana decided to ask my last difficult question for the day. She starts with "May I ask a question" which always makes me nervous. Here it goes - Why is the letter r a vowel in Sanskrit?

Oh dear Lord. Give me 1 minute...

* * *

My photo of the day:
On my way back to the room, the birds were eating the banana offered during the agni puja...

In the notebook:

Today, we are still hunters and gatherers - only more sophisticated.
We are at the threshold of the savage and the Divine
Yoga can be interpreted as the process or the state/result. Joining together is the process. The state of equanimity is the result.
Fear is the basis of aversion of choice.
Society has built safety factors coming from conditioning.
We need to know why we need what we need and truly understand what drives this.