Coming Full Circle For the past three weeks I have lived in Mysore, India, studying yoga and comparing the philosophy and practice of Ashtanga Yoga to Zen meditation. While I had a wonderful time, I am quite happy to be back in my original study-abroad home of Bodh Gaya, Bihar—something I didn’t think that I would ever say. However, my time away from Bodh Gaya has allowed me to reflect upon the three months that I spent there. While it is a…
Battleground “One may conquer in battle A thousand times a thousand men, Yet he is the best of conquerors Who conquers himself.” ~Buddha, Dhammapada 103 I’ve noticed that I tend to identify with certain quotes at particular points in my life; the one above is a perfect summation of my first month in India. I handled the upbringing of my siblings after my parents’ divorce, worked my way to the top ten percent of my high school graduating class, and got…
Takeoff I honestly had not allowed myself to think about the fact that I would be a couple continents away from my family until the day before I actually got on my first plane to London on the way to India. I think that, deep down inside myself, I didn’t think I would actually go through with the trip. This mindset was reinforced throughout the duration of my twelve hour flight, during which I consistently cursed myself and underwent the inner…