the first practice session

Well, one practice session at the Institute and I already feel it was well worth the trip over. We arrived for the first practice session, a little apprehensive, but everyone else, at least all the first timers and there are quite a few of us were in the same boat. It really helps just to introduce myself to people and break the ice. Anyway, we were milling about figuring out where everything was and we were all getting ready to go up in the practice hall and then were told to turn around and go back. Christina and I tried to go to the back and be unobtrusive because it really wasn't clear to us what was going on. It turns out it is Prashant's birthday today and everyone gathered around the desk where he was sitting and Christina and I ended up right in the front row!!! several people gave short speeches in his honor and talked about the privilege of being "PRASHANTIFIED." he insisted that he was after making us "SELFIFIED." He gave a short talk on the importance of learning the subject of yoga. He is a teacher of yoga, not a guru. He teaches the subject learning the subject of yoga prepares us to be worthy of a guru-sisha relationship. His humility was really remarkable. (Christina is writing a long blog about the speech, so I won't go into a lot of detail), but it was such an auspicious beginning for our study here. We are here to learn. It really helped me let go of some of the nervous worry about whether I would put my stuff on the right shelf or not!

After the celebration, we we went up into the practice hall. Guruji was there practicing, Stephanie Quirk, Dean Lerner, Everyone was just there, doing their poses. My overwhelming feeling about being there was one of serenity, peace, calmness. It was nice to be able to take it all in without being in a class. It was also very grounding after all the travel.

anyway, it was wonderful. we had a great tandoori lunch and I'm going to sign off because the power keeps flickering in and out.