Encinitas With Manju - Paradise

As I entered the room one student was receiving an adjustment by David Miliotis. It's  krounchasana (second pose of intermediate series).  I  felt a bit jealous at the level of detail and dedication, maybe I need to practice at a studio more often.  David teaches until 8 AM and then Manju [Jois], (son of legend Pattabhi Jois) comes in to continue, still with help from David.

The entrance to the Mysore room

The energy in the room is serious yet light, and chanting of the Vedas can be heard most of the time. It is a sunny and warm Mysore room on the main road of Encinitas.

After practice

Nobody wears anything but sporty, comfy clothes here, and there is at least three coffee shops, three yoga/pilates studios and three taco shops per street.  Not to mention the surfing stores.

As we walked

People are nice here, says C, a practitioner I met at the opening of the Greenwich location last year when Sharath and Saraswati were visiting.   She is moving in.  I don't blame her.

David tells me that since I am more advanced that James, perhaps due to my telling him that I've been to Mysore in the introduction,  I can sign the waiver on the floor.  I laugh.  James signs on the floor as well,  he's been to Mysore too, and I am pretty sure there is no advanced level floor signing. We start with the sun salutations.

Manju, whom I had met only once in 2008 at a weekend workshop, appears at 8 AM on the dot.  He turns out to be very friendly and funny.

By the ocean

There we were, all of 9 people to one Jois, which is an amazing student/ratio when you realize that Sharath and Saraswati are usually one to at least 30 in tours, or hundreds when in Mysore,  and he is talking about the weather, asking how do we like it here, working the room and chanting the Vedas.

Then come the adjustments.

It probably has something to do with his 60+ years of experience teaching yoga.  He knew exactly, to the dot, how much he had to help me on coming back from back bends so that I would do the maximum effort and really send the message to those legs to ground me and bring me back up.

I had one of those mid-air moments where I did not know if I was going back to the floor or coming up, and received just enough of a pull to actually do it by myself (as much as possible) and by using my legs.  No words were exchanged.  Gratitude.

It's A Well Kept Secret

Today Sunday at the height of the Mysore time (9 AM) there were 15 of us.  Fifteen!  I suspect this is one of those Ashtanga very well kept secrets.   I know there is Tim Miller in the area as well, what a town! Teachers of this caliber all around.  What a blessing!

Have not gotten around much in Encinitas yet because I got a virus on me, perhaps through the sudden change in temperature, I don't know, but I did see from the road the Self-Realization Fellowship building, the one that came first to Yogananda in a vision, and that now is standing right here, by the ocean, in all its glory.  You can read about that in Autobiography of a Yogi if you are interested.

Loving it.