Twas the night before Halloween

Twas the night before Halloween, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even Shanti, our tabby cat.
The kirtan was finished as I drove my bike home through the cold after conversation and prasad
I walked in the house to discover an illumanted Jack O'Lantern Pumpkin decorated w/ Christmas lights
I purchased a "How to Learn Hindi book" via the internet
listened to some Alanis and Krishna Das
and went to sleep

Strange Days

"Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down" The Doors

So I'm a busy bee w/o much time to keep a blog, but will drop a quick line. I am taking two yoga workshops this week, working nearly 40 hours, in a relationship, and was going to sub 6 yoga classes this week, and my usual yoga class makes 7, so I send an email to the director and write down all the classes on a scrap piece of paper, she responds thank you for picking up these classes. I go to work, leave work to drop off some items at the Ginsberg library and the Main Library, come home eat some beans, rice, w/ Jack cheese, kale, and sprouted corn chips. Check my email before the yoga workshop, and she says the teacher will be doing the Fri. morning class, but says I will sub the rest of the classes. I look at my scrap sheet of paper and it turns out I didn't write down that Fri. morning class even though I agreed to it in the email. Strange indeed, or a tendrel moment. Enough blogging, time to hop on my bike to attend yoga workshop, then shiva bathing and kirtan at the ashram, and not sure how I'm going to fit my hour a day practice of learning Hindi, but Namaste and thanks for stopping by.
Peas
Gopala

Aghori dreams and Naga Yogis

The iconic three heads represent Shiva as Aghori, Ardhanarishvara (half male-half female God) and Mahayogi (great Yogi). The photo of me is taken at the Elephanta caves in island clusters off Bombay (Mumbai) city, India.

I had a great dharma dream last night about an Agorhi yogi in a charnel ground doing yoga asana on a dead body. It was a pretty far out dream, the yogi was smeared in ash and naked w/ dreadlocks. I wasn't too scared, but kind of awestruck like our cat Shanti seeing snow for the first time. The dream was probably a result of listening to Alan Watts give a talk on Hinduism on cd last night prior to going to sleep. He spoke of how in India everything is crumbling, falling apart, and yet still bursting with life, and how the Hindu sees life as a drama, nothing is permanent, but that is the beauty, because it gives special meaning to life and not holding on, but letting go, pretty cool and then I fell asleep to dreams of an Agorhi Naga Yogi!

dropping gold in the form of words from Laksmi's hands

Dropping gold in the form of words from Laksmi's hands

A 2 hour yoga class this morning, followed by teaching an hour class, followed by sauna and whirlpool and 6 hours or so of work, cooking up yummy organic gluten free cuisine in a hot kitchen to the tunes of John Frusciante, R.E.M., Paul McCartney's Band on the Run, Fugazi, and other selected certified classics as snow melts in sunny, but cool CO air and the coutdown to East Coast and East India travel ticks away, Spearhead show in Denver this Sat. and life is good, reading Baba: autobiography of a Blue Eyed Yogi by Rampuri, and heart is still in India perhaps, but loving the cold season for what it's forth.........

First snow

So the first snow has fallen in Boulder proper i.e. not up in the mountains, but in the town and our cat Shanti is stunned gazing out the window at the first snow she probably ever saw in her 12 months on our planet this lifetime, so good reason to be stunned.
I haven't the time to upload pics of N.M., but will soon as I finish reading "Baba: autobiography of a Blue Eyed Yogi by Rampuri", finish learning hindi via cd and book "Beginning Hindi: by Rupert Snell, and get myself in gear to do such a time consuming hobby. Taught 3 yoga classes at the Y in 5 days and have been cooking lots at the award winning veg cafe.
more later...............

Mediocrity and spawning a wallflower occurs at or near the Auspicious time of 11:08pm on the “lucky” day of Friday the 13th

Mediocrity and spawning a wallflower occurs at or near the Auspicious time of 11:08pm on the “lucky” day of Friday the 13^th

^{So my new friend came in tonight and I hooked him up and he was grateful. Afterwards came home after over 9 hour shift and ran into my neighbors who I hardly run into. They were having a “cocktail” party and invited me over. It’s not really my thing, but decided to go over. I threw on some nice threads and went over. Lots of college kids with polos and so forth were gathered around kegs, others were playing ping-pong, a few more grunting by a beer bong. In the other room they were pouring shots of hard liquor. It isn’t my thing, but these are “typical” college kids I guess. I poured myself a half glass of cranberry juice and don’t think anyone knew I was drinking a non-alcoholic beverage. My drinking career is shorter than the one hit wonder career of a rock star on VH1. I drank half a Busch beer and threw up when 16 after a Fourth of July party at the condo I was living at, when 18 drank a "sex on the beach" and glass of champagne at my cousin’s wedding, and lastly when 19 drank half a 40 ounce of St. Ides, ala Mobb Deep, beer flavored malt booze with my best friend and wound up taking off my clothes off dancing on a bed with two female friends over. That’s my drinking career. The party was a bit of culture shock because I missed out on parties like this and "Animal House" in college. Well I did sample Doritos and Lays potato chips, something I haven’t done since India when I would occasionally buy a bag, a really, really tiny bag for negative 20 U.S. cents, or 10 rupees.
I also sampled a cupcake and after finishing my cranberry juice or “beer”, I headed home to read a sloka of the Gita and finish watching “Naked in Ashes”, a film about sadhus in India. India: 1 billion people, 13 million holy men, probing the deepest mysteries of life. I would recommend the film, it is excellent. Jai Ma!!!}

Auspicious Coincidence occurs at or near the Auspicious time of 11:08am on the “lucky” day of Friday the 13th

Auspicious Coincidence occurs at or near the Auspicious time of 11:08am on the “lucky” day of Friday the 13^th

I just finished subbing a yoga class that I enjoyed teaching, with 9 students in attendance. I tried to bring mindfulness and Truth to the class, such as dedicating merit to a loved one, returning to the present moment and so on. I didn’t teach, for my teachers taught through me, passing on the lineage of Sivananda sprinkled with Ashtanga and Iyengar from all my teachers in these and other traditions that I have studied.

Anyways, afterwards I hit the showers followed by the whirlpool, and it was about 11:08am, 108 is auspicious number in Eastern traditions i.e. 108 beads on a mala, 108 Upanishads, etc. It was 11:08am give or take a few and into the whirpool walks a man born and from NYC like I was from and had moved to South Florida where my brother lives. I spent 9 to 19 in FL and 20 to 22 there. Anyways, he was a real genuine guy like most Nyers are with tough outside, warm/soft inside, and he told me that the Hurricane last Oct. destroyed his home and he didn’t have insurance, so he lost everything. His home was on Centennial; I think a really nice mobile home. I was in FL for bike week and a family reunion and just before heading to Kripalu in MA, my brother came for a surprise visit with his two kids. The hurricane hit Ft. Lauderdale and all of Fort Lauderdale lost power and water for two weeks. His wife went to N.J. to continue work and his house was fine, except for lost trees, and of course loss of water and power.

So he with a now newborn daughter and wife just arrived in Boulder 3 days ago and is living in his car with his family. He said a lawyer friend recommended the Buddhist community in Boulder. Anyways, I told him about how I lived in the Buddhist Community and went to the only Buddhist influenced University in N. America in town. I told him to come to the co-op tonight at 8:30pm and will hook him up with some food that I would otherwise toss at the end of the night. He was very grateful of meeting me and so forth. I can’t imagine having lost everything like that. He seems to keep a positive attitude, being present and working 100 percent.
Happy Friday the 13^th.