MahaMondo

The Dedicated Yoga Room

I woke up extremely fluish this morning , a result of my being to close in proximity to my associate Audrey yesterday , who was hacking seriously. There is nothing like a MAHA experience to act as a positive mood shifter. Meeting Texans / Citizens of the World Barbara & Micheal H. today proved the charm. They were referred to me by their architect  , Wilson F., the go-to-guy in Dallas for those who like their lifestyle "low key, quiet but comfortable", i.e. non-bling bling.

Barbara & Michael are building their second Dallas area home in Preston Hollow , on the same street as the mega-mansion of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. They were extremely calm & cool as they discussed their plans,which included a dedicated in-home yoga room.

And as I saw how passionate they were about the practice, it occurred to me that "The Dedicated Yoga Room" is now one of the ultimate LUXURIES. To be able to practice under the mentorship of your favorite teacher/s without the BAD MANNERS ( & yogic tests ) that are now becoming prevalent in burgeoning group classes.

I mentioned that we were supplying Antique French Oak flooring for another billionaire's yoga room in Malibu. They laughed & retorted  "They must be "Nouveau". D'accord & point made.

Image via USA Today.

Yogi John :Stew Richlin

Via Stew Richlin is this  excellent comment on a previous post I had done onYogi John Franzoni .

"I was one of Yogi John's private students; in about 1992 after 8 months of private lessons with my family .Yogi honored me by asking me to teach in his studio on Wednesday nights as there was a teacher who had left.  I had been a full time lawyer and about 40 lbs overweight...after the 8 months I was a completely different person, felt amazing, looked completely different.  Before you knew it the teaching bug bit and I opened YOGA ON MELROSE where I taught for about 7 years full time.  Yogi and I team taught a special class there for about 18 months, for seniors and pre-natal moms.

You could always count on seeing a light on at Yogi's studio late at nite, and a drop in would find an all night puja or deep reading into Manly P Hall or others.  Yogi maintained an esoteric library unequaled. 

Having evolved through the judeo-christian culture, from Scientology to the Shumash native american teachers to Indian Chinese and Tibetan, Yogi maintained at least 4 or 5 traditions of enlightenment practice.

I joined ONE HAND CLAPPING, Rain Grey, John Franzoni, Scoobie Sorkin and we played our meditative Tibetan Bell Bowl improvisaitons for high lamas and meditators around the southland.  We played at Narnia in about 1994, Ommming with at least ten thousand partying youth from a giant stage.  We were interviewed by Roy in the Morning on KPFK, and we were as dry as a martini, and as funny as the early Beatles by far.

Yogi is a great inspiration; he had a great sense of humor and he made his own way in the world as a spiritual teacher in the midst of LA, which was the task he set himself in 1968.  In a spirit walk we shared 30 years later in 1998 Yogi reflected on his choices and how he had done just what he set out to do during a spirit walk he had thirty years ago.

Om mani padme hung!   "

Thanks for this honor, Stew & much love for the inspiration  from back in the days when LA was groovy -

YogiMilan Kirtan : March 8 , Electric Lodge Venice

YogiMilan , as part of its ongoing mission to foster SATSANG & BHAKTI among yogis & yoginis , is presenting kirtan walla Joey Lugassy & band @ the Electric Lodge in Venice on March 8th.

Tickets are available for purchase online @ www.yogimilan.com : $ 15.00. YogiMilan's objective is to provide a single platform where yogis can be aware of various tools & techniques to practice yoga, meet other yogis and share their experiences on the yogic path.

I understand the Electric Lodge parking lot has space for 40 cars. Another blessing as it is right by grid-locked Abbott Kinney.

* * While on the topic of yogic experiences , I had a new yogic test at class this afternoon via a neighboring yogi with an extreme & festering case of B.O. What to do : Utilise Ujjayii or go into full Kapalabhati Pranayam in an effort to expel the odor that was wafting & sticking to my nostrils. No perfume or cologne in class for sure , but a deodorant ?

To paraphrase yogi STING : "Don't stand so close to me...."

AcroYoga with I Love Yoga : Part 3

Flying high with ILY. Let your head hang & BREATHE like in SAVASANA : Mosi -

Top of the World : Ananda

This is what materializes when there is a convergence of top flight architects , designers , contractors & most importantly , investors.  The "dream team" comes up with an amazing sanctuary/ Mediterranean custom retreat on 5  hilltop acres in Montecito. What  a sight for sore eyes after being subjected to many an overpriced & cheesed out "McMansion Royale" in Orange County & Dallas the past couple of months. My personal taste is contemporary , but this place is timeless.

I was thinking about the disconnect between the OC & Santa Barbara as I drove up  via the 101 to the site in the rain this morning. SB, & Montecito most especially has SOUL & RASA. The OC reeks of new drywall, botox & "BUMMERS" aka HUMMERS.

The image above via RE Luxury Retreats is of the Western facing elevation , by the open  loggia; perfect for sunset URDHVA HASTASANA or meditating when the cloud cover rolls in. As with most estates in Montecito, this one is tagged "Top of the World"  en Espanol. In my book, it should be called  'ANANDA".

Ananda @ $ 25MM !

President's Day : The Shala

A shala has traditionally been described as a place to study yoga , a space to inspire balance.

I use the term TRADITION as it is quite evident that there is a growing shift back towards emphasizing the practice's spiritual roots  of union & balance. My meeting with Arvind Chittamula yesterday confirmed that I am not the only one thinking about this. The recent co-branding of PURE YOGA HK & EQUINOX is another signifier. Why didn't Equinox just roll out their own yoga brand , right ?

So Jerome M.'s early morning classes are the closest approximation of what a historical class would have been conducted like. His core goup of students today generated a sonic wall of UJAYII pranayam which elicited his eagle eyed approval : " I like that sound." No second guessing this guy. It was a good sized group with enough advanced yogis to FLOW through these sequences: Prasarita Padottanasana to Salamba Sirsasana then Mukta Hasta Sirsasana (new one for me ; couldn't manage  full expression the 1st round).

Bhujapidasana to Kurmasana ( Got a VERY NICE  on that one thanks to David Swenson's "Practice Manual", heh heh ) then Upavishta Konasana. I always leave his classes feeling AMAZING & EDUCATED .  Merci Monsieur M. - (Kurmasana via www.wenasanyoga.com )

* GOOD JOB & as my grandmother would sign off to us "Besos Y Abrazos" to my mom MK, for winning the Bea Zobel Cup this week in Manila. The silver trophies were custom made in Madrid. That's top drawer.

Teresa Herrera : Sacred Water Retreat

"T" sent this flyer in via email a couple of weeks back . She is conducting a Yoga / Dive retreat  off  the Palawan Reefs in the Philippines this May.

It was around this time last year that she had mentioned this as one of her plans for 2008 ; and it has come to fruition.

Growing up in the Philippines, my best  memories have been of weekend & holiday trips to the beaches. The most amazing ones though involved stays on islands owned by friends ,  memorably one flying by private jet into FUGA ISLAND , on the more northern & remote reaches of the archipelago . Giant manta rays casting shadows over you in the water , and coconut crabs shoved into the bedding as a practical joke. What a trip that was -

The  beaches of the outer islands of the Philippines make Bali & Hawaii look second rate. Tubbataha , where Teresa is hosting her retreat, is one of the last southern frontiers.

*** And here's a TO THE POINT explanation as to why newbies should lose the WATER BOTTLE during class:

"Yoga is about building PRANA, the energy of fire and vitality," says Kripalu's Jeff Migdow. "If you stop to drink water during yoga, you dampen prana," he explains.

Parsva Bakasana : Vytas Baskauskas

This vid of Vytas B. takes me back to last year when he had more time to practice at his teachers' classes with me , hah. His fluid feeling of the Parsva Bakasana Vinyasa always elicited a "very nice" from Jerome M. , which was inspiration enough to "capture the feeling" as well. I'm going to quote from David Swenson's "The Practice Manual" as it has become my weekday guide to asana. "Vinyasa is the unique linking of one asana to the next in a SERPENTINE flow. It is a dynamic marriage of our internal & external worlds. It is a manifestation of PRANA. Through vinyasa one may know the manifestation of life." He goes on further to differentiate "making an ASANA of oneself" (good one David) -"It is not the external appearance of an asana that matters, but rather the internal level of BALANCE achieved on both a physical & mental plane."

Psalm Isadora : India Chronicles & Moderation

I spent most of the day doing "due diligence " on several  in-the-works luxury condo hi-rise developments in Beverly Hills & Century City . INCROYABLE! & DIOS MIO! , heh heh came to mind , and is this the NY-ification of the Westside ? At US $ 2,000.00 to $ 3,000.00 a square foot , a penthouse in the most desirable building tops out at     $ 25MM. And one building that broke ground last Thanksgiving has already pre-sold 14 units ! Who are buying? Empty nesters moving out of the Hills west of Doheny Drive and wealthy foreigners who still think LVMH & other brands on Rodeo Drive are "prestige" ( slightly less ubiquitous than ZARA, but yes, prevalent & AVAILABLE in all the same global cities).

And on the other side of the world,Psalm Isadora, has this chronicle from India:

jan 25

the question of suffering

"yesterday afternoon was very difficult for me. Pune is a pretty small city in India compared to Mumbai, Delhi or Calcutta. but every time you get into the city, there is the noise, the traffic and the most extreme poverty. THE MOST EXTREME POVERTY. it breaks my heart, but i am here for a reason and if i take it all in i will drown and not get anything done. women come up to me in the dusty streets, covered in dirt with their babies slung to their hips. they do a silent pantomime of holding out their hand to me and then bringing to their mouths to show they need my money to buy food. and their eyes, their eyes are big haunting black discs that convey so much SORROW. are they really so sad? are they really so HUNGRY? i don't know, but coming from america it is a terrible thing to see a mother and child asking for money and food like this and to say no. there are so many of them that even if i emptied my wallet, i wouldn't even begin to make a change. and then i would be left with nothing, and wouldn't be able to do the work i came here to do. it seems to me that people who need help usually need more help than you can comfortably give. so i will work on myself, i will let the change in myself grow until it can't help but bring change for others. this is how i usually think of things, people need help, i want to help, but how do i want to help? how can i use my special talents creatively in a way that will bring me the most happiness and contentment? i have made it a rule for myself not to hand money to people on the street. the first time i came to india, a little boy came begging when i was sitting in a rickshaw stopped in traffic. rickshaws are basically motorcylces with metal shells on top. they are much cheaper than taxi cars, but they also leave you open to the streets. in a real car, your windows would be rolled up and you would have some distance between yourself and the rest of the world. i gave the boy a rupee note, and then 5-6 more boys came running up, climbing on and into the rickshaw, grabbing me. traffic began to move and they were almost getting run over, holding on and running along with the rickshaw. the driver began beating them off with a bat. i sat in the back terrified and sickened, i have learned that things escalate quickly here. "

The Buddha as Sidharttha encountered the same paradox thousands of years ago , living as a sheltered prince and then encountering human misery & suffering. Hence the formulation of the "Middle Path" of DHAMMA. And as my teacher counseled me this week, "Moderation, my extreme friend". ( but it's no fun if it's not off the richter, hah -)

& MAHA SAT NAM to Marisa Y. who called me excitedly after the 14th day of her teacher training with GURMUKH to share ( or finally catch up) that she finally had a "Kundalini Rising ". Awesome. What was even more ELECTRONIC was the fact that it was an "E-Shaktipat", heh heh . It occurred while their group was chanting along to a DVD of the long passed on YOGI BHAJAN conducting Gong Meditation -

MahaMondo Ts : Karma Yoga

Here's a peep at one of the 1st productions runs of the MahaMondo Collab T from the amazing posse of I Love Yoga Miami. It will soon be available online in Long Sleeve & Short Sleeve versions plus by major request from yoginis, a practice Tank Top.

I am still blown away as to how this project came to fruition , but INTENTION is "THE SECRET" ( every pun intended) to this manifestation of the "CORE IDEOLOGY" of MahaMondo as a "conscious brand".

With that thought foremost in mind, my  last conversation with Mosi of ILY prior to his Costa Rica trip centered around donating any royalties generated from the sales of the Ts as SEVA; which will be written up on their site as a Karma Yoga feature. Jai Ma!