Flying Like a Yogi

I have been away from the blogging world for a while now because of opportunities of travel. Upon returning from Joshua Tree for Bhakti Fest I received a call from the NYC Dharma Center asking me to  be on staff for the Life of  A Yogi Teacher Training in Israel. I have had the honor of being a part of the Life of a Yogi Teacher Trainings and assisting Dharma for the past few years now. I still wonder how did I get here?
         I was packed ready to go leaving out of Syracuse flying to JFK and  had a five hour layover there. The five hour layover turned out to be seven than nine and then as I was standing in front of the screen the word canceled appeared. No one saw it yet,I made it to the counter first calm and with relief. Then all the people of Spain surrounded me . I was flying out on Iberia airlines a Spanish airline. All of a sudden I felt like vultures were upon me people were yelling and screaming and no one was listening. I must admit I was laughing not at them but the human mind. It is funny at times like these how the mind feels entitled or if it makes a loud enough of a fuss karma will change. This is how we loose a lot of our energy and feel so depleted  through resistance of what is. So as I was being squished into the counter at this point feeling like I was at a Earth Crisis show I got out quickly. I found my way upstairs in a different line waiting to rebook my flight. That line took two hours but in that time I made friends and shared some parsley .

Well I finally got taken care of and they told me I wouldn't arrive till October 4th. We then decided to cancel the flight and my cosmic brother re booked a nice flight out the next day on Turkish Airlines.So I arrive in Israel a  day late but Iberia airlines put me up in the Marriott for the night. When I walked into my room finally past Midnight I must say I was like the kid in Home Alone jumping up and down on my hotel bed. Well not quite but just as happy to have a nice bed to sleep in and some alone time with no distractions just solitude. I even started my next morning with a trip to the sauna. So off to JFK again. This time I made it in the air. As we are getting on the air plane I noticed more amped up security than usual and a young Muslim man was picked out of line for questioning. As I got on the plane and was seated I realized I was next to him. As the plane was taking off he started to look nervous and say some Islamic prayers ,I'm guessing I didn't understand. So this is pretty much the minds worst nightmare when flying right? The mind was like ,"Oh Shit ,I am going to have to tackle him and stop him from blowing up the plane. Are you kidding me how am I suppose to practice Ahimsa if I have to physically stop this guy." This went on for a couple of minutes. I remembered someone asking Dharma once what he would do if someone walked into the center and started shooting people. Dharma answered that he would stop them but without physically harming them just by blocking them or taking the bullets. Finally I stopped the insanity of the mind and turned to the man and asked him "do you like flying?" He answered , "yes I don't like taking off though." You see it was just fear of dying for both of us that caused suffering in the same moment. One of the five obstacles  or Kleshas  is fear of death. We proceeded to talk for hours about Yoga,and Vegetarianism.
I landed in Istanbul and had a nice 5 hour layover. I was for sure in the East. Beautifully veiled women ,Turkish delight,Saudi Arabians and Starbucks (lol). There is nothing for a vegan in Istanbul airport btw so you better eat lots of the free samples of Turkish delight and drink a soy latte. I did both!

As I was ready to board the next plane and meeting up with Guruji and Eva I knew I was on my way home. I already had many valuable lessons in the past two days and was looking forward to the next lesson.

       So this is the Life of a Yogi it has taken me around the world and back this past year. It means sometimes I have to practice in the airport and my mat is rolled out in some little private corner. It has given me the capacity to get rid of even more things I don't really need so I can travel with less although I did over pack for Israel! Most importantly it has magnified the importance of living the Life of a Yogi so that I may be an example of all that is possible in this modern time.