Heart Full

This week’s NYC Yogini Focus, Tsam. I met Tsam over 10 years ago, at Grad school. Back then neither of us did Yoga. What I remembered about her most was her smile, and her great clothes. Years later, we saw each other in class again! This time at at Jivamukti. She still had the great smile, even BETTER clothes, and could bind like nobody’s business.

NYC Yogini: How long have you been practicing yoga?

Tsam: Let’s see … ah 3 years on and off (insert authentic Australian lilt.)

NYC Yogini: Do you have a favorite studio?

Tsam: Jivamukti (meaningful look) … when I can afford it.

NYC Yogini: I hear that. How did you start doing yoga?

Tsam: I was first introduced in highschool and we did … shoulder stand. I really enjoyed the calm. It was a more hatha practice. I rediscovered it again years later after a stressful time in my life.

NYC Yogini: Me too! So .. do you have pose you’re working on?

Tsam: Headstand. *sigh* I feel like I should do another one.

NYCYogini: No, no … not on the bus.

It was someone’s birthday, our instructor seemed excited that the birthdayee was spending it in her class. She smiled, “it’s wonderful … it fits perfectly with my dharma talk”. I assumed this meant she was going to talk about the wonder and the miracle of life, always an inspiring topic, but nothing new. I closed my eyes, ready to meditate on the beauty of life. Instead, she spoke about Halloween, or ‘All Hallows Eve’, as it was formerly called. All Hallows Eve and All Saint’s Day, is a time, when we as a culture turn our attention to the other side, the spirits. The spirits during these holidays, wander perhaps a little longer and a little more freely than they do on other nights of the year. Interesting … but still not quite getting it.

Some of these spirits are what various eastern cultures call “hungry ghosts”. I’d heard of hungry ghosts growing up, I had always just assumed these ghosts were noisy, not too friendly, and ‘hungry’ in a sense for our soul. Not so, she explained that these spirits had a head as small as the top of a needle, and mouths even smaller than that, but with stomachs unimaginably large, gigantic. These were hungry ghosts, ghosts who could not satisfy their hunger, because their mouths were too small to nourish them. These people had been greedy in life, and this was the form to work out that karma.
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Jivamukti, the near legendary yoga studio that practically started it all. Some people might point to California as the birth place of Vinyasa, the yoga syle that would come to dominate the American yoga-scape, even still its influence is undeniable.

On top of all that reputation, Kristin my teacher is an alum from this studio, so in my mind, EVERYONE here would be just-like-her. This was almost true. Yet, I remained curious, and so was willing to swallow my pride, and be the worst one in class just to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn’t disappointed. The class was so vigorous I perspired like I was in hot yoga. I hadn’t expected that and had come sans-towel. I persevered and ignored the fact that I became the sweatiest person in the fairly filled room, but eventually gave in, and became that yogi, the one that steps on everyone’s mat to get to the door, because the sweat is blinding her.

I had expected a humbling experience, but instead it was uplifting. The dharma was inspiring, the kirtan (chanting) a little hard to follow, but I appreciated her encouraging description of our “shining souls” as we chanted. Most of all, I admired how she gave each student in the class a meaningful adjustment, no easy feat given that there were over 30 students in the room.

The room was set up so the students were facing each , but not so close together that eye contact was inevitable, there was a roomy aisle in the corridor of sun-saluting bodies. The set up was disorienting at first, my “reflection”  was … a man. But as the class continued and the postures became progressively more challenging, I found that not only by breath, but my reflective partner were acting as my anchor, and I can’t say I minded.

I felt invigorated after my class at Jivamukti, and I liked it enough to try it again. The second time, was even more challenging then the first, the kirtan if possible was even more lovely, and yet I found it wasn’t nearly as centering. The students seemed noisier, more restless, and the teacher at times was just…loud.

Overall, my experience at Jivamukti was what i hoped it would be, and I see why it’s reputation proceeds it. If it were priced about a hundred dollars less a month, I would probably sign up. But it seems the price tag includes the celebrity hang out portion of its reputation which I could really do without.