Monday, January 11, 2010

end of part one - GYT days 3 & 4

The first stage of the tour is officially over. And what a great weekend it was with all the Couchies in Köln! Both master classes were full of amazing, curious seekers. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I do, and to be able to feel apart of this growing global community of yogis.


The kundalini practice (Wake the Snake) was powerful for all of us. So powerful for me that I hardly slept the night after. Some folks had intense dreams, and others just had deep sleep.


It seems kirtan is still a very new thing here. I had a similar experience in San Francisco; people want to chant but they're not sure how to really let go into this practice. I do think that everyone who came had a good time but there was a lot of thinking about how to get right. That, like everything else in yoga, only changes with time and repetition. I got to play with Janko Hunshevsky who is a great jazz bassist and a really lovely person. It was all very accidental but it worked out really well. I know that he’ll be a first call next time I’m here.


Sunday was Happy Hips. It was great to offer a real flow and get some serious fire going in the body. There has been unusual winter weather here in Germany, and I have clearly become less accustomed to real cold. Needless to say, the opportunity to get lost in the movement in my own practice was a tremendous gift. Getting the Couchies to move is always easy, and move they did! For a good hour and a half we played through a crouching yogi vinyasa to work up a real shakti shine. From there we got to go deep into the hip desserts of akarna-dhanurasana, compass pose variations, ardhapadmapascimottanasana and yoginidrasana. Sri Nicole was able to make her way into the final pose for the first time ever. So sweet to see them going so deep with such joy.


Sabine was gracious enough to let me teach one more time on Monday night. Straight up vinyasa class. Um-um good. I got to talk about discipline and non-attachment, as inspired by all my Osho reading lately. It was full and it was fun. I love coming here to teach. Thank you to all the familiar Couch family – Nicole, ULLA!!! and Paul, Ute, Uta, Bea, Andreas, Helena, Jasmine, Beate, Britta, and so many more, as well as all the new love-bugs – Roland, Dani, Amy, Annett, Steffi, Thomas, Sabine, Janko and Mike. Thanks to Susie for the great Ayurvdedic massage. Thanks to the city of Köln for being so great. There are names that I might not have mentioned but know that the entire community of Lord Vishnu’s Couch has a very special place in the center of my heart.

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