Last week was a week from hell situation.  Not only did my mom fall and cut her eyebrow, requiring stitches and a long visit to the emergency room, but little Leroy Brown has a complete body rash.  His little eyes and nose and ears and tummy and everything is red.  So I’ve been to the vet and the hospital and the nurse and somehow that wasn’t all but its enough to discuss in these pages.  And now that that week is over I can remember that there were some good parts, too.  Here they are:

 

The next day I had to get up early and catch a train up to Garrison Institute.  I dragged Christie Clark along with me because we were invited to be part of a panel of experts who are creating a Wellness Program for Garrison.  The program will provide yoga and meditation nationally for Social Workers in the area of Domestic Violence who get Vicarious Trauma from their work.  Internationally we are building a similar program that will be for humanitarian and human rights workers who are both front line traumatized and have vicarious trauma.  So it was an amazing group of people, including Deborah Rozelle and Sharon Salzburg and others and an intense day.  Christie and I were honored to be part of this important work.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday David and I taught Yoga Body Buddha Mind at OM yoga.  

The workshop was part of the OM yoga Teacher Training Weekend Warrior Program and we had teacher trainees from all around the world here.

 

 

These were some of the happy highlights of an otherwise tough week.  One  of those weeks where the obstacles just kept coming and I thought to myself, “I am in over my head.  I do not have the skills to deal with this.”  But, in the midst of it all, I kept doing my yoga and meditation practice.  And that makes a HUGE difference.  It shifts things.  It reminds me of impermanence.  As Margi would say, Sandcastles.  My whole hearted resolve to remain committed to my practice has kept me in good stead.

We are so honored.  An excerpt of a piece Dave and I wrote for The Shambhala Sun has been included in the current issue.  The section is called For 30 Years the Best of Buddhism in America: Meditation and our bit is called “Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose.”  Check it out, page 67.  Some of others included are Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, Tulku Tondup, Sharon Salburg, and Thich Nhat Hanh.  As I said, we are so honored.

Flat back, flat back, flat back….There is confusion floating around regarding this asana.  We stopped calling it flat back for a while and called it the pose formerly known as flat back but, for obvious reasons in the category of cumbersome, we reverted back to FB.  It is great that so many people have learned to use props and to place their hands on blocks for this pose, but these days I’m feeling like people are using props too much, often as a crutch or a comfort zone, rather than a needed support.  It’s a fine line, for sure.  But it is okay to feel in yoga, to feel an opening, lengthening, movement of energy.  And FB does not mean spine parallel to the floor. THIS IS A KEY POINT!  It means spine lengthened in two diretions — out through the crown of the head and back through the tailbone — so that there is space between the ribs and hips.  That is one of the reasons it is a set up for Chadarunga but that’s another lesson.  

 

Any questions?  Let me know.

Last weekend at Blue Point Yoga in Durham, NC — what fun!  It is third annual OM yoga teacher training program and each year the students get better and better.  I have to think it has something to do with the fact that many of the Blue Point teachers are now OM yoga trained and are teaching OM yoga classes right there at Blue Point.  Anyway, the southerners really know how to host people and we had a lovely time.

 

As of yesterday I am signed with Amy Hertz at Dutton for my next book.  My great agent, Stephanie Tade, worked hard to get me a good deal with the right person and I was very fortunate to have several excellent offers.  I am happy to be back with Amy, who was also the editor for Yoga Body Buddha Mind.  The new book is not about yoga, stay tuned for more details. 

In the meantime, I was invited to be on a panel discussion at a very well attended book signing at Barnes and Noble on Monday.  It was a new book called Be the Change by Ed and Deb Shapiro.  I was a contributor to the book and sat on the panel between Robert Thurman and Andrew Cohen, along with Ellen Burstyn, Linus from Law & Order and Mark Matousek.  And Ed and Deb, of course.  It was quite a lively evening!

In addition to the Cyndisphere, which journals my travels and offers some yoga teaching, I have started another new blog called Yoga Body Buddha Mind. It is sponsored by the excellent Beliefnet.com. It will offer tips for how to find yoga (integration) and Buddha (wakefulness) in every day life. Today was my first entry. Check it out at

http://blog.beliefnet.com/yogabodybuddhamind/

After the puja Philip Glass rode with me to the Detroit Metro airport because we were on the same flight back to NYC and we even live on the same street! He entertained me the whole time with great stories of how he used to take yoga lessons with Swami Satchidananda but then he found himself stranded in Delhi with no guru since Swami had gone to the US at the invitation of his benefactor, Peter Max. So Phil headed north and ended up meeting Domo Geshe Rimpoche, the lama who was also the teacher of the seeker in the great book, The Way of the White Cloud. (I love that book sooo much — check it out if you haven’t read it.)

Anyway, Domo Geshe Rimpoche gave Philip refuge and he became his long time student until he passed away, after which Philip began studying with Gelek Rimpoche, who was friends with Domo Geshe Rimpoche. Did you follow that? Anyway, Phil was also telling me about the amazing Theos Bernard, an american yoga teacher who cured his tuberculosis through yoga and then ended up traveling and living in the Himalayas. I love these stories and was just completely happy hearing them.

Then we got to the gate of our plane and Phil just went on to the plane. I had to wait for my row and I noticed that there were about 8 TSA security people surrounding our gate. Then they started frisking people before they went on and I freaked out. I got so scared and when I asked the TSA guy what was going on they said, Oh, just routine procedure. But I fly all the time and that is not routine procedure. So my mind went wild!

Even though I did get on the plane I thought, oh my gosh, someone has a bomb. I could not control my mind very well. I did pranayama which always calms me but after we took off — and nothing bad happened at all — I asked for a glass of red wine. I was desperate and succumbed to self-medicating. It was $7 and I gave the flight attendant a $20 and she said she would bring me change later. Well, that worked and I started to chill out. I closed my eyes and rested.

A little while later, the flight attendant came back with my change. But first she said, “Are you Cyndi Lee” I said, hesitantly, yes, wondering…hmmm…but then she said, “Oh, I am so happy to meet you. I practice yoga and I love your articles and books!” Well, that was so sweet and of course, really made me feel good. My mind totally shifted away from all that stupid panic thing and we had such a lovely chat. Her name is Ann and she takes class a lot from OM yoga teacher trained Megan Walsh. How great is that!

Anyway, Ann totally pampered me and offered to let me go up into first class and gave me more wine. After we finished our conversation, she went back to work and the lady next to me, who was holding her grandbaby on her lap, told me that she also does yoga. She does it at the hospital where she is in treatment for her third recurrence of liver cancer. Then she started to cry a little bit. It was so sad because she has cancer but she wants to be alive for her little grandbabies. So we hugged and my heart was broken. Then the flight was over and Ann came back and gave me a present — a bottle of nice red wine to take home. I was so touched by her kindness and generosity and her excitement for yoga. What a day! I laughed at myself for how my mind was like a roller coaster and then I fell into bed at 10:30 and slept like a log.

As you know, I am all the time writing magazine articles and next year, I’ll even be doing a monthly beginner’s column for YJ. But the piece called Gray Pride that came out in the September issue of YJ has gotten more feedback than anything else I’ve ever written. All positive! I really wanted to do a longer piece but YJ only gave me a little space and I guess it was enough to touch a chord. This letter to the editor was published in YJ recently:

“Cyndi Lee’s words in Gray Pride really rang true, as my peers, students friends and I are all going gray. Thank you for your honesty and support. I pray that this gives more women and girls the courage to explore themselves more naturally and authentically.”

Thanks! Anybody else have a comment about this topic?

Here are some pictures from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s talk.

[caption id="attachment_566" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption= "][/caption]“HH gave us some practice suggestions to help us feel more connected to each other, to let go of self-cherishing and develop more compassion. He also said, "It's about time. Don't expect results in a week. Years, decades, then maybe." That was so inspiring.”