Bikram fixes it all: Today’s excerpt ….
“Hey Francis, that was great! Did everyone see Francis? He got his foot all the way around his calf that time. Perfect Eagle Pose.
“How long you been doing Yoga now, Francis? Nine months? When Francis start, Terry Two, (there’s two Terrys in the class, Terry Two is a new student) his knee was totally immobile, solid like a rock. He had an operation. His doctor told him he would never bend it again, that it was medically impossible to bend it. But luckily he trusted me when I told him I could make it flexible. “
“I know all about these things, Terry Two, cause when I was still in my teens, hundreds of pounds fell on my knee and shattered it. As with Francis, the doctors were never sure I would walk normally. So I turned again to my yoga. In two months I was good as new.
“That’s what yoga is about, Terry Two. Yoga makes things that seem impossible possible. You do magic without being magician. Right now you are watching your classmates and thinking it is impossible that you will ever do the poses like they do them. But you have only to listen to me and make pact to really try. Two months of yoga everyday and you will be as good as the best student here. What I mean by that is you will be in the most tip top health YOU can be in. Anything chronic wrong with you – overweight, arthritis, bad back, old age, dandruff – yoga will fix it. If you want to pray to your God so he help too, that’s okay. But better you save him for some really big problem. You don’t need him for any of these little things, all you need is me and yourself and yoga. Besides, there is a twelve and a half hour time difference, so he doesn’t always hear.
“Do you know what yoga means? Yoga is union of body and mind. It is discipline that brings together physical with mental, spiritual and even sexual. Yoga is totally positive thing. With yoga you add to yourself and thus to the world. And so, when you do this Hatha Yoga, all the screws loose in your brain – which is always human beings worst chronic problem – get fixed too. Because brain is just another physical system of the body.
“You see, Terry Two, while you do yoga is the one time, Terry Two, maybe first time in your life, when you absolutely and totally forget everything else: what you have to do at home, the pain in your toe, the fight you had with the boss, the test you have to take, the bills, the anything. Whatever problem or pain you come here with, in 5 minutes I give you so much else to think about you forget you even got it.
“You see how I never stop talking? That is so I keep your mind right here in this room. And I make you keep your eyes open all the time so your mind cannot wander off. All you come in with – pain, anxiety, sadness, trouble – you leave it at the door. And for the time you do yoga you escape into yourself where there is peace and rest.
“Right now you got perspiration rolling off you, your muscles are stretched farther than they ever thought they could, your shoulders are drooping cause you think you are tired – and you think I’m crazy to sit here and tell you that you are enjoying peace and rest inside yourself. Answer me one thing, how many of your daily problems or anxieties have you thought about since we started our class?
“You don’t have to answer. I know. And Soon you will begin to understand why there are eight kinds of yoga and why I say you cannot begin to know spiritual until you can control the physical. You will know why I say these so-called gurus, who start beginners right off in meditation, do not know what they are doing, or don’t care. Minds cannot meditate when they are filled with bats and cobwebs and screws loose, and housed in junk bodies. Anyone who tries to meditate before all the body and mind are swept out and shining and oiled and no screws rattling, that person is just kidding himself and getting battier.
“It takes courage and intelligence, you know, to do the stages of yoga right, and to start with this Hatha Yoga. Yoga takes more courage than any physical activity in the world. You are not kicking, throwing, or clubbing some little ball, or bird or puck or whatever. You are not locomoting headlong through water, or over ice, or turf, or a stage. You’re not swinging, climbing, leaping, hopping, hanging, spinning, diving, or pedaling – or anything extraneous of yourself or with an outward direction. It’s just you and nothing but you, standing in one spot frozen like statue with no place to go for help or excuse or scapegoat except inward.
“Maybe it’s a little bit frightening at first to have no help except what’s inside you, Terry Two. But don’t frighten, don’t scare. It is so peaceful in there, so good for your mind and your body to forget the outside world for this time you do yoga.
“You hear my words now, but I know you don’t understand them yet. That’s okay. You got to feel the understanding happening in yourself, like a flower unfolding, to understand.
“The first thing you will probably notice is, you begin to look forward to each day’s yoga like it is a cool oasis ending hard ride over the desert, not some terrible task. Your problems won’t seem so bad, because you know you will be able to forget them for awhile during yoga. And at the end of yoga you won’t be half so angry or depressed or anxious or tired as when you started. Solutions to problems will suddenly be there, and you’ll be seeing things in a beautiful perspective. You’ll start smiling at people instead of biting their heads off, and new problems won’t scare you. And you will begin to sleep good. Then pretty soon you’ll start waking earlier- wide awake, your mind purring like a happy cat, your body full of strength and energy. You will accomplish all sorts of things before the sun is up and continue through the day working more efficiently with body and mind than ever before.
“Then you will begin to understand what I meant when I tell you that this Hatha Yoga will tighten the screws loose in your brain and give you new life. It all happens inside of you, and you do it to yourself, Terry Two. You don’t need me in front of you barking instructions. All you need are the words I give you here and your own honest effort.”
*Bikram Beginning Yoga Class, Bikram Choudhury
Well – there you have it. The secret to a healthy body and mind, the fountain of youth, and the cure for insomnia, all in 90 minutes a day. And….I found all of this to be true after only three weeks, and BEFORE reading this book! I said weeks ago I felt like my mind takes a 90 minute vacation everyday. I get up at 6 naturally instead of dragging myself out of bed at 8 am. I stay up til midnight writing (it’s 12:06 now) and accomplishing things. And I sleep straight through the night – no more waking at 3am to watch HGTV! Today I was faced with a new, big problem and handled it MUCH better than I would’ve a month ago. Physically I have NO more aches n pains in joints AND my hairdresser wanted to know what I was doing cause I looked so good yesterday when I went for a haircut! What can I say – magic without being a magician!
So as another day goes by, life as a yogi looks and feels pretty good so far, and Bikram and I have once again, written…
PS- Is he not hilarious? Haha!
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