Mumbai

India

India
a man rattles
or is it a woman?
India
A young man passes
and suddenly grabs my breast
I scream
He runs off
he has X-legs
India
the dog of the neighbours howls
a slap, another slap
the dog doesn`t howl anymore
India
a coconut
another one
another one
India
february 35 degrees
a boy with earwarmers
India
a cow with clothes on
India
a naked man on the railroad
men and their gaze
cleaning your buttocks with your hand
giving away personal space
loud oh such loud horns
gods, one for every day
dots on your forehead
monkeys while you`re doing yoga on the roof
vegetarian paradise
meditation at the ganga
guru`s ashram`s sadhu`s shri`s
offering cowdung at sunset
poor people
rich people
and love, a lot of love
India

bypassing the leaf

"Of all the people you meet, you take a little piece with you. Just a little one so they cannot feel it.
To all the people you meet you give a little piece of yourself. Just because you have enough, little pieces of yourself.
All the people who are far away and waiting, you send them some glimpses of pieces sometimes, you tell them about these pieces of people, you show them some other piece of you than they already know.
And that`s how we all become happy pieces. Bigger than we ever could`ve imagined. I think all this is called inspiration."

This is what I was writing in the train that would take me to Varanasi in a little less than 48 hours.
I didn`t even finish writing the `n` of inspiration and suddenly there was this boy.
Just like this.
He said bonjour but wasn`t a frenchman.
He asked me what I`ve been taking a picture of. Two men holding each other`s hands, I said. And that was the start of a conversation that skipped the normal questions. Because we didn`t have much time and apparently we had some things to talk about.
Seven hours we spent together.
We`ve discussed the end of the world, he assured me that Jupiter is in the fifth with me. The fifth what? The fifth house of course. Where? In the stars apparently. Because I am not really worried about material issues and still I always have enough to live.
We`ve also discussed the purpose of life.
About dying we talked and coming back after having died and then being more grateful that you live.
He told me about his plan in Chennai.
Apparently once there have been very powerful psychics, Rishi`s, who`ve written down in Sanskrit, on banana leaves (Nadi leaves), the past, present and future of about half of the current population in the world. Everything, who you are, what you do, when you`ll die, the names of your friends. Thousands of years ago they`ve `seen` that. Exactly because they don`t believe in `thousands of years` and `ago`, I assume.
Going to look for his leaf, that was what my temporary travelmate was going to do.
Because he was a bit confused he said. About how that works, fate and predestination.
When you learn something or you have an insight, he said, then it is already known that you will have that insight. Also the insight that that insight is predestined, appears already to be predestined. He wondered if there is really nothing beyond this predestination. A way to bypass the leaf.
Also religion was on our topiclist. About the devil we talked. And his friend. Who were watching the people from a mountain. One man found a piece of paper on the floor and started glowing, out of happiness, joy and peace. The friend of the devil asked the devil what that man had found. The devil said : the truth. The friend of the devil said that that was not such a good thing for their case. Now a lot of people would find the truth. No problem, answered the devil, I will go down and help them to institutionalize it. The friend laughed and said O. O yes, said the friend.

Then there was also a boy, an Indian boy who was suddenly sitting next to us, pretending to read a book.
There were transvestites who slapped our head (not mine actually, but that of all the men). Everybody seemed to be afraid of them and gave them some money so they would go.
The Indian boy joined our conversation and said that he was more into technics than philosophy. I didn`t find that a problem, not at all.
It came down to this that the three of us wondered what was good and bad and how you can live without control because that`s what Krishnamurti had written in a book.
Well, said my travelmate, you just try not to do the do`s and don`t`s that society wants you to do and you just do and don`t what you think is the best to do and don`t. But I started to be a little bit hungry and allowed my attention to wander away and let the boy continue asking my travelmate a lot of questions. The boy was of the Jainreligion but had left it, rebelling against the imposed norms and rites. And now he didn`t really know anymore who or what he was. Apparently he seeked a teacher and found him in my travelmate. I let them. The boy was a confused boy. But an intelligently confused boy.
I ate my rice and vegetables which I had prepared the previous night and fell asleep.
That was normal because I was tired, what was also normal because I only slept for two hours the night before because I got on the train in Mysore at 4.40am.
During my nap some Indian men had been watching me with big eyes, said my noble stranger. So he decided to stay near to me while I was sleeping. Having a brother for a few hours, that`s how it felt. Not unpleasant.
But that I will be sleeping here without him near me and that probably those men will still be having big eyes, is true and what can you do? I try to cover the body with my shawl as maidenly as I can. Much more I can`t do. I remain a woman. From the west.
My brother spoke about a place in India with a tree with monkeys and a river where the sea runs into and not the other way. And I could see that place.
What a very nice and powerful encounter. Maybe it is written on his leaf.
I read his hand while I can`t read hands. But he believed me and I myself.
Sometimes we didn`t speak for a while and then we did again, that was also normal. And what we do to earn our money, we didn`t tell. But I don`t care about money anyway because my Jupiter is in the fifth.
We came to the conclusion that coincidence is a nice word. Co and Incidence. That was this encounter.
Thank you.
Bye stranger.

little update

I am very sorry for the low message frequency but being in a country where it`s 38 degrees is very tiring you know.

Just a little update.
The 6 weeks in Mysore are over.
Tomorrow I will take a train and two days and more than 2000 kms later I will get out of that train in Varanasi, North India.
There I will see Laura again and then we will talk for a long time with each other because we will have missed each other. And I will teach her some yoga of course, whether she wants that or not.
Soon more news about these six weeks & about Laura`s six weeks.

We are planning to go to Rishikesh after Varanasi and maybe Dharamsala, because we heard that the Dalai Lama will be there talking to many people on the 28th of february.

I`ll send some sun in the direction of Belgium and be happy all.

the teachers

camilla from australia



gabriella from australia


roland from germany


karol from slovakia


nellie from canada


angel from china


daniel from germany



rhiannon from wales and maaike


kaisa and sirpa from finland


shiva from china


bharat from india

new pictures new pictures

look on the right side of the site
at the end of the trip I will have managed to get them all online probably
for now, enjoy italy, tehran, esfahan, yazd, the desert, persepolis, shiraz

Yes, I can fail!

First there was the pain in the neck. I tried the `dolphin stretch` at home. The lesson was not to be impatient. Not to do anything but lying on your back or eating or both after a day of 10 hours of yoga and other courses.
Then there was the shoulderache. Because of sirsasana. The headstand. I could do step 5 so why not step 6, both legs up. My shoulder revolted and didn`t let me do any headstand for four days. Again, the lesson was not to hurry.
Then, in the third week the left hipmuscle wouldn`t co-operate anymore with the surrounding parts. Now I couldn`t do anything anymore. Never again. My left leg would be stiff for the rest of my life, my right leg pointlessly flexible. No Nepal or Himalaya for me. Physically burnt out before the age of thirty...Tears, despair, anger. The drama increases in a course like this.
And then Bharat, our teacher, tells me that physical pain is a sign of progress and with one sentence he does what I thought would take at least three years : he almost immediately cures the hipmuscle and my mood.
Like the teacher in the vipassanacenter who asked me if I was maybe afraid when I told him I have been walking around with numb legs for two days. And almost immediately there was life in them again.
It`s all in the mind. That`s a sentence. But I finally discovered it`s a true sentence.
What`s happening with me? As if there are all kinds of deeprooted fears in the form of burning feet, numb legs or teared hipmuscles coming to the surface and so running away because they`re not welcome in my body anymore.
Stress takes revenge on the body. That`s also a sentence. But that it can come from such unconscious depths, I didn`t know.
"It means you`re progressing", he tells me.
"First the neck, then the shoulder, now the leg. But the neckpain is gone, no?" Yes.
"And the shoulder, gone, no?" Yes
And the leg will also be gone, since I know the cause.
My body is only asking me friendly but firmly to listen to it. Otherwise there will be a strike again. Somewhere. In one part or another.
As soon as I`m trying to show off what this body of mine has learned the past few weeks, or when it wants to become as good as Shiva`s, the 23-year old chinese superhuman being who can fold herself in two, who is on the mat next to me, there`s the strike again.
Stay on your own mat seems to be the moral of the story.

The only thing left to learn is to fail.
Those moments when I found myself in rabbitpose (it`s a real asana, you can look it up)on my mat, while the rest of the class was standing on his head, those were the most satisfying. Yes I can. I can fail and I don`t mind.

Not wanting everything, that`s what I want.

yoga, teachers, trainings and courses

the four weeks are over
there are twelve more yogateachers in the world
we are tired, happy, sad, melancholic, more flexible in body and mind, more co-ordinated than ever
we are grateful and some of us are sick
we are never going to forget
we are ready for whatever comes

thank you yoga-india, thank you barath, diananda, kirstie, peyman, thank you camilla, rhiannon, karol, sipe, kaisa, nellie, daniel, roland, shiva, angel and gabriella

more pictures of these amazing people will follow soon
now back to work again
yes, I decided to stay two weeks more
After that the travel will continue, promised

namaste all