Thursday, May 16, 2013

Rishikish snaps

Here are some odd pics of the stay in Rishikesh
camping trip group
camping on the river Ganga


sunset arti puja
street vendors

holy man giving holding prayer ceremony


Chotiwalla resturant greeter

The guy in the picture above greets the customers to his resturant, Chotiwalla. Every day he sit there in full make up and people take his photos all day long. The resturants is nothing special just good Indian fare  but  he is the main attraction.  http://www.chotiwalarestaurant.com/reach.html


The yoga experience.
sun salutation by mother ganga


It has been an all consuming 6 weeks and I have to apology for being a slacker on the updates. I have to say that while the kitchen and reception staff at Yog Peeth were wonderful; kind, helpful, just sweethearts. The Indian asana teacher was absolutely fantastic and we all just loved him, the director gave great teachings on anatomy and philosphy however even for all those good things  I cannot say that these past weeks have been a wonderful experience. It has been more of a practice in tolerance and dealing with my own and others anger, frustration, disappointment and overall feelings off being ripped off, unappreciated, disregarded and even ignored. “What”! I hear you say, “That’s not very yogic.” Anyway, you could say, just like the teacher at the Yog Peeth does, that this is all my perception and that I have to use my yogi mind to transform the situation and only then will I be a ‘real yogi’ like him, is of course is implied. hmmmmmmm?  
In Buddhist teachings the Tibetans give a great analogy for this idea. They say instead of trying to cover the surface of the earth with leather so that you protect your feet from stones and thrones, it is better just to cover the soles of your feet with leather. This is a wonderful way to portray the mind training practices which can be used in difficult situation where you have little or no control over people’s dramas or dysfunctional relations. By employing mind training in this way you can keep a calm mind and not be dragged down by a situation. Mind training is the basis for all religious and spiritual practice; geeze, even if you just wanna be a good person you have to employ some form of restraining your  own mind and not just reaction to difficult and bad situations/people. Let me also add here that another part of mind training is find courage to speak out for justice and not turn a blind eye Anyway, back to the Yog Peeth.
icy cold  

Silly me but I always thought that when a business advertises their product, takes people’s precious time and money with a smile or in this case a Namaste, that an unspoken contract has been formed and that the customer would he happy with the good he/she receives. If however the business does not deliver the goods then this is not only false advertising but bad business and an insult to the customer. In this case, injury was added to insult by using teachings of mind training to not only not take responsibility for an inability do good business but also put blame on the customer/student for having complaints; now this is simply abusive! And this is my take on putting it all nicely.
Anyway I have endured six weeks of looking at my mind to check and see where and if I am to blame; which is just a mind ****** and a complete drain of energy. The situation stirred up so much confusion and discomfort in me as well as in other students and among students. So;  me being me, after 16 days, on behalf of myself and all the other students, who did not want to make waves, I felt compelled to speak the truth and give constructive, business like suggestions rather than a list of bitchy complaints.
The blatantly obvious problem causing all this friction was one of the main teachers. He was not only unfit to teach, due to the projection of his own insecurities, depression and mental baggage onto students but he also had no experience teaching. He’s in young, America, barely out of Uni and just finished the previous 200 hour teacher training course! He did not even have enough knowledge of the asanas and some students who knew more that he did, had to help him out so that new students would not injure themselves. This poor guy has no professional ethics or respect for yoga practice, the students, the Peeth, the director, or himself. With such low self esteem he had to spend most of his time gathering a clique or posy of impressionable youngsters around him in the canteen so that he could hear himself spout his personal philosophies. It was similar to a high school lunch hall complete with, disapproving looks, searing, giggles and gossip. Hilarious in so many ways as it would have been major hit on the realty TV world and this poor guy would be a super star; however, in real life it was just an overall nasty and pity-full situation, that may I add, I paid to endure! 
This uninspiring atmosphere divided the group, stinted people getting to know each other and working together and over all completely halted the fostering of a positive, yogic vibe. So what to do? I should have packed my bags after the first day because I saw it all coming but I chose to stay in the hope that my perceptions were wrong and that it would get better, but it only got worse.
Anyway back to my speaking my truth to the director. Turns out I was not the only one who had spoken out about this ‘teacher.’ My complaints and suggestions echoed others feeling and were received well and even agreed with by him. Wonderful thought I, “there is hope to salvage this bad situation, maybe I will not run away after all.” I was taken into the director’s confidence, commended for my professional way of addressing the issue and promised that the ‘teacher’ would be “replaced the following week.” Now this is where it hurts and where I lost confidence in the school. Of course, nothing was done; my suggestions along with the complaints of others were ignored.  Promises of change were reneged on and it was implied that, as the analogy suggests, I put leather on the soles of my feet, or in cruder terms; learn to suck it up. Wow ! Ok! Again, what to do?
Each day the atmosphere at the Peeth continued to deteriorate it was still filled with complaints/ frustrations/ gossip/ group division/ lack of enthusiasm and frustration. By the middle of week 4 it all came to a head when the ‘teacher’ tried to tighten his control of the classes, completely demeaned and tried to impose his imagined ‘power’ over some students. In a last bid attempt to solve the problem, (which could have been done in week 1 by removing the ‘teacher’) in a true professional manner, (NOT!) the director decide to openly bring up the subject to 50 students. OMG!! This turned into a completely disrespectful yelling fest, which was then quickly turned into a kumbayah hugging fest. Some of the teacher’s closest disciples and the peacemakers in the group tried to grab control of the situation. However some were also now turning mind training on its head, by guilt tripping people into shutting up. The by spouting the cooling balm of a few cute face book quotes, some heartless hugs, the odd tear and many superficial apologies the situation was ‘solved’. The director smiled as he stood and watched the display of people wanting to be seen to be ‘good yogis.’  For me this was too little too late. I sat in the back of the room, emotionless, numb to it all and thinking that I was watching a real live reality show!!  I have never seen such a display of utter denial, disfunctionality and twisting of a spiritual teaching in a group of so called adults. I also at this point had absolutely no respect left for the school and completely saddened by the whole situation. Could people not see how their strings were being pulled and that they had paid for a training which they never received!
The amazing thing is that all the students are great people and so unique. All of the people I interacted with have had amazing experience, are honestly seeking a yogi/spiritual path, questioning the state of the world and so want to do good things with their lives. Many want to teach and inspire others to not only do asana but follow the yogic perspective. I have been very inspired by many of the students at the Peeth and have formed some wonderful friendship which I hope will only deepen and grow over the years.
week 5; 6 am field trip for some fun
Anyway, week 5 was a lot better, but by no means perfect. The ‘teacher’ was removed and with the director now teaching and another teacher giving workshops and pointing out all the bad habits in postures, the new students realized just how much they had not learned in the past 4 weeks. Morale was low and people also took the odd class or day off just to de-stress and attempt to relax and mend bruised relationships. Some people just stopped interacting with each other while others got closer. It was like watching people clean up a car wreck and different people heal in different ways; some talk, some shop, some smoke or drink, some work out, ignored it all, some hook up, some sing, some laugh and attempt to make others laugh, some cry, some isolate and some take longer than others to heal and make sense of weird situations and move on. a week we also had a dress up in traditional India clothes evening where a lot of the girls wore a sari and that really did help to boost moral. So I  hung in there and tried to learn what I could and got closer to many of my fellow students.

Week 6 was the best week of all and we kicked it off with a talent show. This was to break people’s stage fright for teaching but it also seemed to really bring us all together. Students were paired up and had to present a 2 hour yoga class. It was fun to design a yoga class and teach but working with a partner and being supportive of class mates was even better and just what we all needed. People got creative with sequences and posture but also with themes employing music, stories, colours, philosophy, visualizations, essential oils, etc. Really the best week of the whole program and for this week alone I am so glad that I stayed. (Then again, it always a feels better walking on grass after you kick off a pair of tight high heels). So a huge thanks you to all the students and I truly wish you all the best on your journey in life and as yoga teachers.
Anyway this whole experience has just re-shown me some things. 1st One bad apple does ruin it for the majority; 2nd Group dynamics in a negative situation can bring out the worst and the best in people, including myself; 3rd a business focused on cutting corners, projecting a grand image and growing, rather on delivering the goods does not work in the short term and will probably not make it to the long term; 4th Careful how you mix business with spirituality. 5th and maybe the most import; trust your gut. If you think the wool is being pulled over your eyes, well it probably is. So speak you truth and quietly leave.
sand and flower Zhiva Lingam

Some people will have great memories of this yoga school and some only bad; me, bitter-sweet I would say. I am sad to leave such great students, fun staff and wonderful Indian yoga teacher and  am regretful that I did not have the energy to make more of an effort to get to know everyone a bit better. I also leave knowing I have to do a lot more practice and more practice of teaching yoga before I am really  ready to teach. However, I am so relieved to be out of a very trying and confusing situation. I have to wish the Peeth every success, but ask them to measure that success in quality not quantity. I also wondered if I would post this or not but I would not want anyone to go through what I just did. So all yi budding yoga teachers be aware and check out your yoga school and if you have high standards of what a school is, then maybe try another of the many schools in Rishikesh