The Best Place to Stay in Rincon, Puerto Rico

Tres Sirenas Beach Front Inn

This is all you need to know for your next Caribbean vacation!  The sound of the waves will defiantly slide you right into sleep and encourage you to stay in bed a little longer than usual.

I also have to call attention to Lisa and Harry the owners for keeping absolutely amazing grounds!  I tend to wake up early being the yogi around town, but Harry gives so much love to his space that hes awake before everyone personally preparing the grounds and watering the plants so the fresh smell of Puerto Rico is sent into ultimate morning freshness every day!

The breakfast will blow your mind... Its fresh made for the guest with dishes like banana french toast with fresh fruit and juice!  Just the right amount of sense stimulation to go with your ocean view breakfast.

There is a private pool and space to roll out your mat with a few friends for all you yogis, but the 1-2 mile strip of white sand beach to walk is of course the major attraction.  Goes well with the easy attitude of Rincon. 

Stand-up paddle boarding is good for the beach... much smaller waves in comparison to the other well know big wave sure beaches that are close by.

Hope to get to make it... .Tell Lisa and Harry that Elizabeth and David say "Hello"

Namaste

Yoga D

David's Introduction to Yoga!

I found this page I wrote for someone who wanted me to explain my introduction to yoga.  I always answer these a little different each time even though its always really the same.

What yoga means to me will always change as I become more comfortable with who I am, but how I was introduced to yoga will forever be the same.  This means its a good thing to think about as much as you can.  How did you get to the things you love.  What was the path and how are you going to continue to expand upon that original goal!

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Davids’ Introduction to Yoga

To really pin point the moment when the seed of yoga was planted into my consciousness almost seems impossible.  Over time the meaning and experience of yoga has been becoming larger and more expansive than I could have ever imagined.  As for right now I can not even see the horizon. 

We know yoga both as “Union” as well as “Separation”.  Union with what most of us could say is the unknown.  Union with the godhead, Atma and Brahma, or joining the lower self with the higher self.  In order for this to take place we must also separate or detach from our conditioned minds.  Turn off or remove the thinking mind.  This is yoga at its core, but not how yoga was introduced to most of us or myself.

Although since a very young age I became interested in philosophical writings and mystical experiences, the idea and term yoga did not present itself to me until I was already in my early 20’s.  I was lucky enough to be asked to join my girlfriend at the time to take a yoga class with her.  I had never really understood what happened in yoga rooms.  I figured it was a room of old people practicing headstands.  From an early age I had become fascinated with Break Dancing and the acrobatic skills they used in their style of dance.  Due to this my ego around physical activities like head standing was very large and I felt it was ridicules for me to join a class full of people who were learning how to stretch and balance.  Luckily my love for my girlfriend was greater than my ego and I happily joined a Yoga class that was called “The Rocket”.  I was told it would be exciting and challenge me.  The name seemed to follow this idea and made me curious to see what would happen next.  Long story short… My ego was broken on that first class as I melted onto my mat and dripped away all of my insecurities that were filling my life as I sweated and prayed with my first Ashtanga Yoga class! 

Addiction could be a term that follows the excitement that grips someone who has found yoga.  Also for me a sense of confirmation that I was not alone in the world of curiosity and wonder about this life we live.  I immediately immersed myself into the yoga world and signed up for the first intensive training I could find.  I not only wanted to learn this amazing practice…I wanted to share it with everyone I knew!!!  This practice has moved me through an experience of life that can only be viewed by me as yoga teaches everyone to follow their own paths and see the world through their own eyes.  This practice is a gift that has been given down from generation to generation.  I want to help continue this receiving and giving process as long as I can. 

Living a certain lifestyle is what yoga has given me in response to continuous practice and service to the self.  Enjoying the smells of nature as we walk through life.  Never spending more time going versus just being where you need to be.  Staying warm and full of vitality to keep yourself inspired and to keep inspiring those around you. 

Yoga has given me a strong base to bring a beautiful baby girl into this world and share with her all the wonderful things I have seen and done in my life.  So one day she can tell me what the meaning of life is.  My family is now my yoga.  Im sure the meaning of yoga will grow and change over time, but that first introduction of yoga will remain the same.  Yoga is not what you think it is…. Yoga is only what you feel. 

Enjoy your Day!

Yogi D

Meditation Vs. Hallucination Vs. Over Active Imagination...or Sleep

That's right...going for the battle of 'tion' words today.  I decided to write a little about my opinion on "meditation" and the vast misunderstanding that surrounds its definition as a practice versus a result or response to a practice.

First I would like to share my definition of meditation and its source. Mediation or Dhyana is the effortless and "continuous flow" of consciousness between the meditator and the object of meditation.       (the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali translated by Swami Satchidnanada)

For a little personal opinion this means there is no presence of mind in meditation.  Mind is a term we use for the action of the brain like thoughts, memory, emotion, will, and imagination.  The brain is the organ.. the mind is the idea of an individual information processing center that is exclusive to the person.  The brain is what takes in the information from the external world and the mind makes sense of it.  By saying it makes sense; we are saying that we can experience and agree upon something especially if we are talking about external experiences that can easily be shared.

All of this jazz about the mind is to show that the true experience of meditation goes against the normal definition of what the mind does.  We can not experience complete absorption with an object or idea when the mind is continuously engaged with what is going on around us and inside of us.  Most people need to focus on "Concentration" or Dharna.  For most of us this is the limb that is being practiced when people say they are meditating.  This is a good place to be for a long time and it will lead the individual towards the state of release of the mind and allow meditation to set in.

In meditation everything you view as the world both external and internal become null and void.  Neti Neti.  Not this not that.  Because of this definition I ask why would someone even pretend to be able to describe this experience within the context and language of the ego and mind.  Some are poetic interpretations of what they experienced, but this leads the individual more towards either Hallucination or Over Active Imagination.  Unless there are other substances present I would lean towards OAI (over active imagination).  Most people would be very direct if there was a substance based hallucination going on, but it is possible to have hallucinations with out the influence of substance.  In fact we call this a dream :)  So is this color description we have all be told by our friends or teachers a reality that is accessible to all or is it just like a dream that is exclusive the ego who inhabits that particular mind?

The truth is that most of us practice concentration and meditation becomes a response to the practice meditation.  If someone says they practice meditation and begins to describe a list of visualization, breathing, or asana techniques then I have to argue that they are not doing or practicing meditation, but only doing the practice (concentration) that will help them find this meditation.  Include the Buddhists who sit in silence as well...if they are only practicing the concentration techniques.  Meditation is the result not the practice and the goal is to accomplish the absorption experience.  Not one practice is better or worse.  They all have their science with yoga asana, silent concentration, mantra repetition, breath control, serious dancing, psychedelic drugs, or even athletes or warriors where the individual  is completely mentally invested in a specific action or goal.  We all will understand and feel the lose of time and space.

 If people want to really educate individuals then all the steps should be discussed.  It seems to me that people are trying to describe their action by their intended result.  The practice of yoga should not be described by the experience of yoga and the experience of yoga should not be described as the practice.  The are directly related but easily confused as the same but distinctly different.  Students should start with the practice so the experience is more easily assimilated into their lives. Practice allows the student to experience these things.  We are moving directly towards the experience with no practice is similar to simple minded faith. 

What would be the best route for people to begin this journey... Are the students not suppose to climb the mountain to get answers to there questions or would it be ok to take a helicopter tour up to the top for $9.99?

What is meditation to you friends?  Is it nothing or deep revelation?  Is it Hallucination or Over Active Imagination.. or are we all just asleep... like walking zombies dreaming whatever we want?

Namaste

Yogi D

Going Home: What this means for the external world and internal world.

As a traveler..small scale, but I did clear the platinum status with American Airlines last year;  I find that no matter how much I love the place that im in... Im ready to go home after a few weeks.  Some people are able to travel for months on end with their lives on their backs and in their bags, but I prefer to have a home to store my things.  A quiet place that is only for me and my closest family and friends.   When I return home there is a calm that washes over me as I reside in the one place that is truly my domain.  Soon to be a place that I can come home to a full family.

Often times we refer to our bodies in the yoga practice as a temple.  The asana is a cleansing practice to keep our bodies pure. Pure enough to be attractive to the gods themselves.  Strong, supple, and capable.

Meditation is the process of coming back to the original home.  Moving deeper into the same calm and quite space that is always inside us.  This is a space where you are truly a master of your domain.  Like a mobile home your mind is a place that you can use as refuge from the chaos that surrounds us.  Yoga will make you mind orderly and set a tone to keep yourself steady and easy at all time.

We can use the practice to get us into our bodies, then we have to deal with the body.  Once the body is prepared... once the body and mind have been made a hospitable place, then your true self can move in!  We can let the ego be a roommate for a little while, but eventually he will have to move out with the rest of the toxins!



Home sweet Home


namaste

Yogi D

Are we celebrating the beginning or the end? Happy New Years Post 2011

Does it really matter?

One of the most beautiful memory I have is my wedding day.  As I stood poised with a glow of success and the sun shining in my face there was definitely a glare that caused my eyes to tear.  The glare was from the beauty of my soon to be wife, Elizabeth.  The sun was truly pale in the background to her.  I remember the priest speaking of the symbolize of the ring that was being used to secure our vows.  The ring was made of pure metals that were forged from human will and shaped into the form of a circle. After the ring has been caste there is no beginning and no end.  It becomes absolute and perfect in form.  What better way to begin a journey together.  We see ourselves as two forged into one through our will and commitment.  Purity is found through the release of all the bad qualities we don't need to be closer together in this relationship that is longer than time itself.  It is beyond all and part of a perfect folding and unfolding of lifes cycles.  This new year will bring my first child!  Lua will be my baby girl.  Yoga has been kind to me.   My life is full of love.

Lets look at the new year in this way.  We can acknowledge this repetitious nature of life and become aware of its predictability and prepare ourselves for everything that is going to come.  "Know your history or be doomed to repeat it"  Not sure who was 1st quoted with that phrase, but it speaks supreme truth.  We find ourselves every year saying good bye to the end on one piece of time and hello to new possibilities and opportunities.  We make resolutions that promise change for the better.  This is the beauty of our human nature to evolve and become more than we are.  Take a firm grip this year and move into the drivers seat!

As we move into this new year, think of the feeling that was present during your most cherished experiences throughout your life and let them continue to happen again.  Instead of driving blindly into the unknown, let the known be felt over and over again with their natural cycle of life.  Revisit places the places that stimulate you the most.  No need to find new places...they will find you.

You are everything at this present moment.  There is no beginning or end.  This is the yogic perspective.  To quote Terrence McKenna " You are the center of the Mandala."  We can access this power of happiness at any moment... or chose to put it to the side. 


Be good to your family and friends.  Support those around you in any way that you can.

Namaste


Yogi D