The Breath Walk

Today was a great day.  We did a “breath walk” through the hills of Rishikesh overlooking the Ganges.  I can’t wait to teach this to all of you.  Basically, you simply walk and do “SA TA NA MA” on your fingers as you walk.  Many of you who have worked with me know this mantra.  It’s basically a break down of Sat Nam which means “truth is my identity.”  It was absolutely lovely and very interesting to walk down into Rishikesh and get to see how people who live here actually live.

Most of the houses are quite small.  They make them out of a red brick that doesn’t appear very sturdy.  The houses are never quite finished.  It would appear that they intend to add floors to the small structures only it is hit or miss.  Most of the homes are open to the elements.  People sleep on low wooden beds that they move in and out of the house.  They use a very thin mattress.  Cows, dogs, cats, and of course the monkeys seem to come and go.  Everyone loves the cows very much.  They have feeding troughs and it does appear that people do take the time and effort to feed them and care for them.  Now that I’ve gotten to walk past the cows and the babies all week, a part of me can’t imagine that I ever ate one of them.  They are sweet animals.

Monkeys…not so sweet.  The dining tent is up and running again after mostly being torn down by the storms.  The monkeys find holes in the seams of the fabric and are constantly poking heads, arms, and legs through.  When the coast is clear they run in really quick and grab fruit for the most part, although I watched one of them this evening casually walk up to another yogi and take her bread out of her hand. 

The practices today weren’t so tough…Wahe Guru! (that means thank you God it’s awesome).  (( I’m learning Gurmukhe…it’s a language and I’m probably spelling it wrong).  I’m sore everywhere and of course still sick with this cold that is now a runny drippy mess accompanied by a dull thead in the head.  I’ve been wondering why the physical practices have to be so hard.  I got my answer from Nirvair Kaur.  She said that in Kundalini, you build the body up to withstand the stresses of life and to be able to accommodate the frequency of the Kundalini energy as it awakens.  Very cool. 

Well, It’s 7:39.  I need to do my homework and get to sleep for my 3:30 am alarm. 

Missing all of you at home.  Missing Ohio.  Missing America and feeling very blessed to live in such a beautiful and rich country.  Everyone always has told me that I don’t know how good we got it in America.  I know what they are talking about now.  Om, Pamela