Day 1 — OM yoga at Blue Spirit
February 8th, 2010
Setting up the mats for our morning asana class.
The Blue Spirit Yoga Hall is on the top floor of the building, on a cliff overlooking the sea. The walls are actually windows on 3.5 sides of the room. We saw a rainbow out of one window.
And we practiced pranayama as the sun set.
Monkey Body, Monkey Mind
February 8th, 2010
Monkey body, monkey mind.
Watching the monkeys outside our window. The howler monkeys. Yesterday we saw a family. The baby was so tiny that I was afraid it would fall out of the tree. The mom climbs ahead and up, up, up. Then she sits and waits. The little baby slowly, bravely found her way up and when she was almost to the mom, the mom would take off again. I finally figured out that how the mom teaches the baby to climb. ”Follow me!” At one point the mom was up really high, the very top of the branches, and the baby got stuck. The baby just could only go so far and then couldn’t figure it out or was afraid. So the mom came back down almost to the baby and sat there and waited. That seemed to encourage the baby and she got going again. I could’ve watched for hours. The monkeys move and fly from branch to branch and then they stay still for long periods. Is that like your mind?
OM yoga has arrived at Blue Spirit
February 8th, 2010
Edward is here. Upbeat and happy, despite the arduous journey.
Our first breakfast -- don't tell but I am actually wearing my PJs!
After a 7am stretch class led by Edward, and breakfast, we met again in the beautiful Yoga Hall. David gave an inspiring dharma talk about the relationship between mindfulness and awareness.
Then we meditated together. After a short break, we had a fun yoga class with Edward.
mayan chocolate and OM yoga
February 8th, 2010These are two things that don’t exactly go together as far as the feeling in one’s stomach but as far as pleasure they are equally matched.
This is Dave feeling so happy he is almost catatonic. He is at Robin's Ice Cream.
The town of Guiones is dusty and hot, hot, hot. By me, Robin is pretty smart because an organic ice cream shop here is a no brainer. We had Mayan Chocolate, Caramel Oatmeal Cookie, Pineapple Ginger, Coconut, and Mango. Why not?
Our friend, Steven, had a resurrection shake -- espresso and mayan chocolate. He needed a pickup.
After the sugar rush, we had to rest.
Then we strolled down the dirt road which the main street. We popped into Don and Amba Stapleton’s Yoga Studio and were so happy to see David’s album, Drala, being sold there. Then we went to visit Granca and her awesome family at the Bazaar. Chilled out a bit at The Harmony Hotel and came back to Blue Spirit with clean laundry. That is why we went to the ice cream place. Because it is next door to the Laundrymat. That is the only reason we went there and ate ice cream……(maybe I’m lying…)
Sunset in Nosara
February 5th, 2010We went to the beach in the town. Or the dusty strip of a few shops and restaurants that some think of as a town. People gather there for the beautiful sunsets.
The setting sun was a huge fireball hovering over the ocean and then whoomp, it was almost gone and then gone. It gets dark early here. It also get light early here.
Then we decided to go for a beach walk.
Then we decided to take pictures of each other. This is Nudgie, me, Tara and Danny Goleman.
The dudes: Dave, Michael, Dan.
Dave and Cyndi aka Buddha Mind and Yoga Body.
Then we went to Michael's house and changed clothes to go out to dinner for Tara's birthday.
We went to a beautiful Italian restaurant called La Dolce Vita which was up a hill and felt like being in a tree house. We had a wonderful party for Tara but I forgot to take pictures. Sorry about that.
100 degrees in the shade =
February 5th, 2010Nudgie in the pool! It’s a gorgeous eternity — I mean, infinity pool.
Ahhh....
I took a water color class
February 4th, 2010..for about an hour. Ann Lindsay is a wonderful watercolor teacher sharing this Omega week in Costa Rica with us. Here are some pictures of her demonstrating how to do a watercolor of the view we were all looking at.
The first thing she taught us was how to look. Make a frame with your fingers and look through and you can even squint a little bit. That is how you use your picture.
She showed how to make many colors from just yellow, red and two shades of blue. She likes to always draw a little frame around the edge of the page. I liked that, too.
Here is her painting. That was our lovely view from the balcony by the cafe. I thought that was all very interesting and I enjoyed it. But then I got nervous and left and did not paint a thing. Silly me.
First Noble Truth: Suffering
February 2nd, 2010Here is the link to Gelek Rimpoche’s teaching on line on this subject.
http://www.tricycle.com/online-retreats/four-noble-truths/first-noble-truth-suffering
Gelek Rimpoche retreat
January 31st, 2010My teacher, Gelek Rimpoche, is giving an online retreat through Tricycle Magazine. It is an 8 week course about the Four Noble Truths. I am going to take it and I highly recommend it. Go to tricycle.com and join as a sustaining member ($30) and then you can take the retreat which starts tomorrow. I have heard Rimpoche teach on this subject before and it is not to be missed!
