'shram schoolin'

Wow! Being at the ashram is really a lesson in overcoming your psychological attachments. How else would a person be able to go without coffee, chocolate, sleep or toilet paper? Not to mention all those other vices, sex, drugs and rock and roll.* And yes, to clarify that does say no toilet paper. Well they have it but they suggest that you don't use it. It took me a while to get comfortable with the idea, but then one of the guru's explained it to me in a way that it made sense. If you get shit on your face or in your hair are you going to rub it with paper? No you are going to wash your face and hair. Pretty sound logic. Anyway I'll let that sink in a moment ...

Now then, other ashram(ities). You can't talk during meal time. I know! You must be wondering how I am coping since I very much need to talk every five minutes or I will die. But, actually it is not as hard as I thought it would be. And when you don't talk while eating you actually eat slower, chew more - you know so that you aren't swallowing huge pieces of food whole, it really helps with digestion, and surprise surprise you eat less! Not talking while you eat should be a new diet trend. It is also so nice and peaceful and food actually tastes better, well before you chew it to a pulp it does.

We have also been learning lots of other interesting cleansing techniques. Jali neti, which I actually already do at home, because I am a super evolved yogie. In neti you pour warm salted water into your nostrils one at a time and watch the water trickle out the other side. It is very cleansing, especially for people like me who suffer from allergies and over active nasal passages. We also learned Vamandhouti which is a cleansing practice for the stomach where you drink 8 glasses of warm salted water and then vomit it all up. I know yogic bulimia. But actually it is very different for vomiting after food because you do vaman on an empty stomach; so you don't have harmful stomach acids and chemicals at work while practicing. Once you get over the mental blockade i.e. voluntary vomiting it is actually really nice.

This morning we learned another cleansing technique known as a partial cleanse. I can't remember the Sanskrit name because it is so long, wait I'll google it... Ok can't find it; anyway the partial cleanse involves drinking 6-8 glasses of salty lemon water two glasses at a time, and then doing a series of specific asanas or postures to stimulate digestion. This helps to detoxify the digestive system and purifies the body. It also usually makes you go poop a whole lot. Since it is called a partial cleanse I bet you can guess that there is a final step known at the full or master cleanse.

The master cleanse is quite intense and generally has to be followed by strict adherence to a very specific diet. In the master cleanse you follow the same steps as the partial cleanse except you drink at least twice as much of the prescribed water, and do innumerable sets of the exhausting asana series until you shit clear water. Lovely I know. The master cleanse actually strips your entire digestive tract of everything including the mucus lining which protects your organs from being destroyed by your own digestive juices. That is why it is so important to follow the diet.

Four hours after finishing the cleanse you have to fill your stomach, whether you want to or not with ghee, very important and similar to clarified butter, and equal parts mung lentils and rice, known as kichiri. You have to eat two filling meals of the kichiri during the day of the cleanse and for the next three days. The ghee is particularly important because like butter, ghee has lots of bacterial elements which help to line the digestive tract and stimulates the regeneration of the protective mucus. For the next two to three weeks you have to maintain a simple, basic, vegetarian diet devoid of milk, pungent, spicy and rich food. Alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes, narcotics etc are to be avoided for 30-40 days. Your stomach is very sensitive and so it is important to follow the dietary rules to prevent ulcering and to reap the benefits of the master cleanse. Unfortunately I was advised not to partake in the full cleanse because of my past hernia surgeries. The master cleanse puts a lot of pressure on the intestines and although my surgeries were over three years ago hernias represent an anatomical weakness which will always put me at risk for the full cleanse. I was bummed about it, but at least now Justin and I can party like rock stars in Bangkok in two weeks.

So yea, that what Ashram camp is like. I am really into it. Which might seem odd given the above activities. But it has really been a great way to decompress from all of the traveling around, and similarly will help to revitalize us for the next leg of our journey. We have also be doing twice daily asana classes, as well as chanting, pranayama or breathing techniques, and we have four lectures a day on various aspects of yoga therapy. I am finding a lot of the information very useful on a personal level, and I am becoming much more aware of my bodies functions and the connection between the mind and the body. It is amazing to realize how little awareness most people have about their body. Not only do most of us not know how the body functions or where certain functions are happening, people are often not even able to articulate when things in the body are malfunctioning. "Where are you feeling the sensation? And what does it feel like?" It is amazing how few people can answer these kinds of basic diagnostic questions. Anyway it is a trip. But I wont mind getting to sleep in past 5am when we leave. Ha!

*rock and roll is allowed, but that sentence just didn't read right without it. And it's definitely not a blaring sort of rock and roll. More like a headphone murmur before 10pm.