AHYMSIN-Americas Newsletter Articles

  What is the Yoga Secret Most People Don’t Know About PREPARATION by Randall Krause   It was in the early 1990s, and I was attending a workshop taught by Swami Rama. I walked into one of the public rooms in the Himalayan Institute and encountered the huge figure of Swami Rama, clothed in a maroon robe, surrounded by students. I gathered my courage, walked up to him, and said, “Will you teach me to meditate?” He turned his face to me and, in his forceful way, bellowed, “Yes!” I relaxed and felt a smile spread across my inner being. But then, with a look of concern, he added, “Are you prepared?” I didn’t know what he meant. So, I said, “I don’t know if I’m prepared, Swamiji.” A moment passed. “Get prepared, and I will teach you!” he said energetically. I backed away, turned, and began walking out of the room, with a feeling of confusion spreading through me. As I walked, another man in the room stopped me and said, “You should have told h...

  Looking for a Rope to the Sky by Rob Diggins   When I was first approached about writing another article for the AHYMSIN-Americas newsletter, I reached out to my mentor for guidance, offering a few preliminary prompts I had been considering—many of them the result of gentle editorial nudging. As usual, my mentor responded quickly, if not instantly, with this advice: “Dearest, use your intuition and consider what is most needed.” And with that, I was off to the races. Or was I?   What is needed? A Rope to the Sky?! Allow me to approach this question—a kind of Zen koan—by offering a little of my backstory.   I’ll begin by describing an activity I know intimately, in the hopes that this description will allow us to draw out a particular, essential element: focused listening and cultivated awareness . These, in turn, give rise to what the Parampara refers to—alongside other attributes—as skill in action . In a word: enlightenment . ...