Yoga and the allegory of the cave

When I first studied the allegory of the cave in high school, I thought it was silly story; I didn’t understand it.  Humans are chained in a cave with a fire behind them.  They face away from the fire towards a wall.  Between them and the fire is a walkway.  People march back and forth [...]

A different set of commandments

Before teacher training I had never heard of Osho.  But he came up several times in our philosophy discussions so I decided to look him up.  I wasn’t aware of Osho when he was alive so it struck me to learn: “Osho is generally considered one of the most controversial spiritual leaders to have emerged [...]

Reincarnation: One soul, many lives

After writing my piece on koshas, I got to thinking about reincarnation.  On the first day of teacher training, Paalu said that we had all known each other in prior lives and that we had found ourselves in Ho Chi Minh City for a reason.  I am naturally a skeptical person so I found this [...]

A deeper look at Koshas

There were a few concepts in yoga philosophy that I overlooked when we first discussed them.  Now that I look back, I realized that the five sheaths, or koshas, of the three bodies (physical, astral and causal) are worth some further review.  It took me some time to look up these koshas and digest the [...]

Sirsasana: Don’t Stop Believing

I’ve been practicing yoga for a while and my headstand practice has been less than awesome.  I know that I am strong enough that I should be able to rise into sirsasana with control and ease.  Once I am up, I can hold it up to 50 breaths, depending the day.  My problem is in [...]

Personal Practice: Using Music

Some of us got together for dinner several days after training ended. A common theme was the difficulty of staying energized through personal practice. During teacher training we had 8 other bodies in a hot room (plus Paalu and Satya) to encourage us to push through the pain, exhaustion, sweat, fatigued muscles, and sleepiness. Now, [...]