Adventures with Engrish

That U is upside down

Get to Fukun this way....

A Fukun spa...

Adventures with Food

Taiwan is such an incredible spot for eating veggies. Unlike most places in NY and other cities I have visited most of the food prepared is not in the form of fake meat (which is a fav of mine) but soooo many different vegetable dishes. The picture below is from a buffet inside a mall??? All vegan and a plate filled to the brim cost about $2.75 crazy town.

The same evening was market vegetables with truffle oil...the tater tots is actually what put me over the top when I was trying to decide which dish.

The next day we went to a spot that sells only Baozi or steamed buns. It looked shady but the food was great.

The last one was a kicker. A garden that had only water lilies and a restaurant in the middle of a pond. Much of the food and the tea was also made from water lilies. 8 Course meal. Some pics i included but I got sick of taking pictures of food. 

Vegan on the road is not hard in Taipei mostly because of the influence of Buddhism and Taoism. 

Asian Adventures

Yesterday I started a month long adventure in Asia. The first teaching location is in Taipei but there are no direct flights from NY. So began with a 14 hour flight to Narita in Tokyo.

Narita is a "fun" airport as far as airports go. They have a whole cultural section where you dress up like a samurai or do some classic Japanese style printing or painting. 

There was a pharmacy that played only Beatles music and had this sign in front... 

I got my connection to Taiwan and after a total of about 21 hours of travel closer to 24 actually door to door, I made it. 

The hotel I staying in looks really nice in pictures and is very comfortable but there is no manual control for the air conditioner so it is freezing.....

This weekend begins the classes and workshops all sponsored by Agoy.

Hip Hop Asana @ Yoga Journal

It begins by putting a face on the other and asking "Who are you, who am I, who are we? What are we doing and why?" Those are powerful questions. 

            The above lines are from Sharon Gannon's focus of the month entitled Yoga and Sexuality. For the past 5 or 6 years maybe a bit more, I have been growing my hair. I was presented with a great teaching opportunity as both a facilitator of the Jivamukti Teacher Training at Omega and as Lead Mentor is Costa Rica at Blue Spirit. I truly enjoy to study and it was great to prepare for these upcoming experiences. For a few months I stopped teaching and immersed myself in practice and study and practice. After a while I started to notice a few things and one of them was my appearance. So much of a teaching experience can revolve around the way someone looks. What someone wears or what their physical appearance is, is often a clue into an aspect of their sexuality. Red and orange robes often mean one who has taken vows of chastity whereas one who is scantily clad may be of another mind. Not only our clothes or jewelry but our finger nails, skin and our hair express aspects of our sexuality. We cannot control what everyone will say or think so of course some have worn robes and been promiscuous and others have barley enough cloth to cover their genitals and live an austere life filled with only God on their mind. I have always put a large importance on my hair. I often make sure my hair is looking a certain before I go out and if I cannot get my hair to agree with me I have many fitted hats to cover it all up.   

       Teaching yoga I always felt my hair played a large role. Long hair said something to me. Just as if you see a religious aspirant with long hair you wil probably assume the practice has been going on a while. I felt it was time for my hair to go. Not just my beard or my mustache but also the hair on my head and eyebrows. I drew the line at my eyelashes... I knew it would be best if I did not show up bald to Omega TT and surprise everyone and not have it feel strange at least to me. Costa Rica I ran the risk of getting a sunburned head and having to come back through US immigration. So I waited until yesterday and below is the appearance pre and post hair. Would taking a yoga class be different with either hair. Would you expect something different from a person who came to teach with half his head shaved. I would definitely be interested. Is the only reason you do something to your hair in the morning because of what other people will think. How much of our appearance depends on the other person. To what extent are the choices we make rooted in the desires of our sexuality of lack thereof. To what extent are you conscious of any of it and what could you do to allow a fuller or fully expanded   understanding of who you really are.

         

Que RIca

The coast of delicious goodness is another way of saying Costa Rica. The teacher training has been incredible but words cannot describe it so I figured some pictures would suffice.

Begin Again

One of the greatest teaching of the most simple sound of Om is that each moment is new. It is Pranavah, that which is always renewed. It is giving us an idea on how we might want to live, in a state of fresh, vibrant, creative and renewing energy. I find that in order for that to happen in my own life I have to be willing to question some of the most fundamental aspects of my being, my habits, desires, goals etc. This can be very difficult because it often means that I have to find the things I see so often, I cannot see them any more. I have to confront what has become "me". Some things serve me and some do not. Some allow me to grow as a person and some cause stagnation. Halasana is usually translated as plough pose. However hala can also be poison. Halasana can be called poison releasing pose. For the yogi the poison is stagnation. Just as the plough removes the stagnation from the soil so that new growth can come, the yogi focuses on removing the stagnation from their ways of being. This can be tricky, even the practices of yoga can reinforce the same tendencies we are trying to move past. There are a few things that can help with this removal of stagnation that we will get into over the next few months such as integration of practices into daily life, being with a teacher, veganism, being a spiritual activist and more.

Peace Love and Vegetables...