Well maybe I'm some super yoga-swami (no) but the level of most of the yoga around here is pretty basic. I have been to several Advanced classes and it was like the level I classes I did 10 years ago. Today I was asked if I had done yoga, and of course I've done plenty. Then he was surprised that I could do a shoulder stand. None of the people I meet here are serious about yoga, most are just trying it for the first time. Maybe there are ashrams with more serious people in them. But most of the ashrams look pretty run down on the outside. The gardens are nice though.

Mysore is the real yoga capital these days. There all the teachers are expensive and you pay by the month ($100-$400); but the quality is world class and the environment is more conducive to real work. Some would say though that Mysore is a westerner's yoga, primarily physical. From what I saw in Rishikesh, there wasn't a huge difference.



Lots of swamis and guys-dressed-in-saddhu-orange. Some of them look quite smart (walking quickly somewhere), but your average saddhu is hanging out on the beach begging for chai money.



Maybe its simply the end of the season, and all the good teachers have headed south. They go to Goa where all the people are. We were wondering what happens to all the lepers in Dharamsala once the tourists leave. I joked that they go to Goa. This turns out to be true. They are saving for the bus ride down.

Most photographers including myself tend to crop out the real india. Its fucking covered with trash. This is what it really looks like:


Anyway, time for me to head further (south-east) down the Holy trail towards Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. Lots of people I know from Dharmasala along the same path.

Predictably the inner calm of Vipassana got temporarily wiped out by the outer chaos of humans. But many of the social lessons learned from meditation got tested in action. Meditation has to be part of normal life, even though it is withdrawing completely from normal life (and the sensory world itself).



I'm trying to find a mac somewhere to plug in my iPod and burn off a master to a CD (its an AIFF file, not an mp3). Need to mail it to a label in Germany for a compilation. Thanks miho @ laboratory instinct for patience ! Also a friend of mine is down in Liberia and Sierra Leonne shooting a documentary for the UN. He wants music for the soundtrack! Such opportunities ! Kofi Annan would hear my tunes. I hear rumours he's a Buddhist. Maybe I can pull those songs off the iPod too. I have a lot of full AIFF files on there, and a back up of my entire home directory.

Sorry this post isn't funnier. I know you people need me for entertainment.

This guy has the greatest job in the world. He hangs out all day with Shiva at the top of a 13 floor temple.


see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi