Check it out!  The email newsletter called My Yoga Journal is featuring the Best of Cyndi Lee this week — all my writings and teachings and interviews and even some videos from the last many years.

http://shar.es/mUQ6Q

Had an awesome day yesterday at Rimpoche’s teachings. I love being with him and with my Jewel Heart buddies.

Here we all are at the NYC Jewel Heart Center in Tribeca.  Carole Corcoran asked a question of Rimpoche.  He took a lot of questions yesterday.  Not just from us but from our JH sanghas in Ann Arbor, Chicago and Lincoln, NE.  Jonas has figured out how to hook up all our sanghas via the internet and so people get together for Rimpoche’s teaching in their own town, no matter what town Rimpoche is in, and so it was like we were all together.  Very cool.

Here is Rimpoche answering a question from a JH member in Lincoln, NE.  We will all be together in “real life” in a few weeks.  If you have the chance, I highly recommend the Jewel Heart summer Joyful Retreat — it’s going to be especially good this summer.  www.jewelheart.org. —  I’ll see you there!

This weekend we New Yorkers have an abundance of great Tibetan Buddhist teachings offered.  I recommend:

Friday, June 11, OM yoga Center — Tenzin Wangyal Rimpoche will be at OM yoga Center.  I am so honored that he is coming back to OM yoga for a second time.  Tenzin Wangyal is a very special teacher.  His lineage is both Gelugpa, the lineage of HH the Dalai Lama, and Bon, the shamanic tradition of Tibet.  I have studied a little bit with Tenzin Wangyal and been very influenced by his teachings and from reading his books.  I have also studied with one of his main disciples, Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, who teaches Tsa Lung and Trul Khor.  Tsa Lung is Tibetan Buddhist pranayama and Trul Khor, which means Magic Wheel, is Tibetan Buddhist yoga.  

Friday night Tenzin Wangyal will teach Tsa Lung Yoga Movements at OM yoga Center.  He only comes to NYC every 2-3 years so don’t miss this special opportunity.  www.omyoga.com — for more information

*** Gelek Rimpoche in New York this weekend!!  Gelek Rimpoche is my root guru, my dear, precious teacher.  He will be giving one of his famous Sunday morning talks in New York this coming Sunday, June 13 from 10-11am at the Jewel Heart Center in Tribeca.  These talks are open to the public and are guaranteed to be inspiring, useful and fun!  This is a great chance for you to meet Rimpoche and receive his teachings with minimal commitment.   His Sunday morning talks in Ann Arbor, Michigan are legendary and attended by hundreds every week.  We are so lucky to have him here this weekend.

www.jewelheart.org — for more information

We took a long walk today through the center of Copenhagen.  We knew if we got lost we could just make our way back to the lakes, as they are called.  The ancient moat and from there we can get back.  So we wandered.  Aimless wandering, which is a form of walking meditation.  We discovered this beautiful church.

I sat in the first pew of this beautiful church and cried. I miss my dad so much, especially in churches.

Another kind of walking meditation.

Right behind these guys is the future palace of the Crown Prince and Princess which is currently open to the public.  The line to get in was over an hour so we skipped it, partly because it was very cold and windy.  

We saw lots of nooks and crannies like this. Behind the old exteriors are renovated office builidings, art galleries and even the wonderful Hamsa Yoga Studio.

Here is Dave teaching meditation last night. We have a sold out workshop and everyone is in for the whole weekend. Dave and I are thrilled with how smart, curious, and open these students are.

Today is the first day of spring.  The raging storm passed through and it is a beautiful sunny fresh day.  It is a national holiday.  My hotel is next to a TV station which pumps out canned music Every. Single. Morning.  It’s 6:30am and the music (which is more appropriate for Romper Room in my humble opinion) has been playing for an hour.  oy vey.   

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

 

The sink at the studio -- so fancy! I need glasses to read the control panels in the toilets. This sink has a spout for water on the right, a spout for soap on the left and then if you put your hands just inside the close rim of the sink hot air blows to dry your hands. Whoa..

The famous Sunday Tokyo Flea Market.

I always heard these flea markets were so great but since I work every day, including Sundays, I never could go to one…until yesterday.  This flea market, the biggest one in Tokyo, was just down the street from our studio so I went with Mayumi, Anu and Chigusa on our lunch break.  With their help — bargaining power and also helping me see what is special — I bought a Japanese cheerleader t-shirt that says Shark Girl on the back and Cheer on the front for 50 cents; and for $5 I bought a Kokeshi, a traditional Japanese doll.  It has big eyes and a teeny tiny mouth.

A ladies drumming team practicing in the park.

Back to Restorative Yoga. Here is Yukiko watching over her partner in Supta Virasana. Today they learned how to meditate so that they can pay close attention to their students. The students are their dots of awareness and the teachers won't try to "fix" things before seeing what is actually happening first.

Here is RedPants doing a great job placing Chigusa in a variation of Setu Bandhasana at the wall.

 

Then, it was time for dinner...and yes! yes! yes!....

Ramen! This is salt ramen, which Chama says is from Hokkaido. Oishi!

This is how it works.  You go into the ramen shop which is quite small and only has counter seating.  You make your selection at a vending machine which has many pictures.  Put in your coins, push the buttons for what you want and out comes a little ticket.  You give the ticket to the waiter and have a seat at the counter.  In a few minutes, piping hot ramen!  The nori in the bowl tells what is in your personal ramen that day.  And, of course, then you stir that nori in and eat it.  I got Salt Ramen without the pork and even though it was very unusual, Chama talked them into giving me some bok choy instead. 

Kazumi making TKG.

Kazumi had a different kind of ramen which they said is very trendy right now.  The noodles and the broth come in separately and you mix them together.  But after she ate that she also ordered TKG.  It is a bowl of rice, a raw egg and a package of seasoning.  You crack the egg over the rice, pour in the seasoning and mix it all up.  That is what she is doing here.  TKG stands for Egg Over Rice.

She loves it!

Our ramen chef -- Arrigato, gazimasta!

David sent me this picture from the end of the last weekend’s first meditation intensive at OM yoga.  I was already on a plane to Japan so he sent it to me today via ichat.  Yes — it is scary to meditate for a whole weekend but here they all are — just fine and still standing.  This is step one toward our upcoming OM yoga Meditation Instructor Training which will be announced shortly.   Stay tuned.

Thank you, David, for leading this wonderful weekend.

It was the very first meditation intensive that we’ve had at OM that is no yoga, all meditation, all weekend.  Intense, yes!  It was also the inaugural OM300 teacher training event, so, all in all, an exciting development for OM yoga.  Here is David on Friday night with a packed house of eager meditators. At the end of the weekend, they were all still fine.  I introduced the evening and then finished my intro by saying, “Good luck meeting your mind!”  One person saw me on Sunday and said, “Wow – you weren’t kidding!”  For those of you who couldn’t attend this one, we will do another full Meditation Weekend Intensive it the fall and probably a 3 hour meditation sit in the spring.  Stay tuned.

Just got home today from a 10 day retreat with Gelek Rimpoche in Michigan.  It snowed almost every day.  I am sleep deprived and deeply moved by the entire retreat.  Rimpoche was so inspiring.  His stamina is incredible — way beyond any of his younger, more fit, students….like me.  I am looking forward to sleeping some this week because my dreams have been filled with mantras lately.  Which isn’t a bad thing…

My precious guru.

…about the awesome, smart, fun and inspiring Neil Theise coming to OM yoga tomorrow night to give a talk on STEM CELLS AND THE SCIENCE OF BEING.

It’s Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 7-8:30.  Click this link for more info:

http://www.omyoga.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=181:feb-17-stem-cells-a-the-science-of-being&catid=96&Itemid=93

http://www.omyoga.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=181:feb-17-stem-cells-a-the-science-of-being&catid=96&Itemid=93

Here are some pictures from our last day of the retreat.  Don’t be jealous — it was such a great success that we will definitely have an OM yoga at Blue Spirit retreat again in winter 2011.

After a stretch class with Edward from 7-7:30 and another totally delicious breakfast, Dave gave a dharma talk from 9-10:30.

Enraptured yogis/dharma students.

MIndfully meditating Edward.

Then right into yoga from 10:30-12ish. Palms were up today, in the position of both giving and receiving.

I taught a warm-up vinyasa that included side bending on both sides, and twists -- both open and closed. Do you know the difference and what they prepare you for?

There's always something to work on in Downward Dog, isn't there?

Baby cobra and lion had a baby.

The reminder of a light touch.

More coming but now I have to go to Lululemon and teach a free class 10-11.  Come on down!