Peggy's arrival

Well, there appears to be a Taiwanese avenue in Gokulum now. On Peggy's block there are 6 Taiwanese women all living and breathing some 30 meters from each other. She seems to be adjusting well now and I just thought I would show you a few snaps. The first photo is of our friends Elise and her boyfriend. She does the Living Mysore Magazine that you can find online. We're in a fabric shop close to the shala. The second photo is from Vivien's. She's Taiwanese and runs a little restaurant across from the shala that makes the good Tibetan bread. That's her daughter Rainbow with Peggy. I'm wearing a hat that Annie gave to Saz. The other two photos are a pair of musical events around town. The first is a special puja to Guruji from the most important drummer from Tamil Nadu. The family was very honoured by his presence. They were stunned actually. I think he's quite famous. The other photo is a kirtan run by my friend Mike from California. He's a sweet guy and we got a little outside of ourselves there for a while. Or inside maybe.

more pictures to come

This first photo is of the Ganepati festival. The second is a picture for an article the office is orgainsing for I Love Yoga. Sally and Gladys are behind me and the third photo is the view from our window.

Back to India!

Dear Friends,
We arrived in India about a week ago. We have a couple of old friends
in town who live here and understand how hard it can be just to put
your bags down and relax. They've made it much easier. One of your
fellow students Peggy just arrived today and illustrates just how hard
it can be. Her plane set down at 11:00 pm and she got out of the concourse
and looked around. However our driver whom we always use--Manohar could
not find her and she couldn't find him. So she proved to be very resourceful
and managed to rent a taxi to drive her 3 hours to Mysore then she rented
a rickshaw that overcharged her by ten times to get her to the Shala. Sharath
was there and she asked for me and he put her in the room we rented for
her across the street. Needless to say she was a little discombobulated.
She's sleeping now, but she lives just next to Vivien who is a Taiwanese
woman who runs a restaurant in Gokulum. Today she made Tsampa, which
is a lovely Tibetan fresh bread. I've got a few pictures here that I thought might
interest you. I will post again after I get a good photo of us with Peggy. : - )

the Austin saga

Dear Friends,

We've left New York now. We had a great time in the big city. Many of our friends are there and we were able to catch up and renew our camraderie.

The most flexible woman I have ever met owns a dachshund. She took us to a dachshund ralley and we raced her dappled dachshund. Unfortunately she came in third, but still ate my sandwich.

We later went to the Empire State building and it snowed fantasticaly. We have decided that we love the Chinese pug dog. This lady, without any sense of how unfair or materialistic she was, had three while we have none. I think it would be better if we all had one each, don't you?

This fellow here with the sash is our friend Greg Kinsey. He is on the board of Asian Art at the Smithsonian institute. He has a vast collection of Chinese and Japanese art and pottery. He was recently awarded by the Japanese Emporor for service to Japan. He is one of the only westerners licensed to teach the tea ceremony in Japan.

We've now moved on to Texas where our sole responsiblity is feeding these 12 golden retriever puppies twice a day. It takes about four hours.

Love to you all. Rusty and Sally

New York State of Mind

Hiya folks,

We're in New York still. We were very bemused to get an e-mail from Ethan. He sent us a photo of himself with Guruji. Very sweet. Sally and I seem comfortably over our cold and now are in the clear with the whole volcanic mucous eruption that overwhelmed our senses and sinuses.

We're having a really nice time now catching up with our friends. My best friend from Graduate school is here. She was also my best man at our wedding. A little strange, but I didn't have any male friends that were available. Her name is Jenny Maloney and her dad died last weekend. He had a very peaceful death. His wife told him that it was alright and that he could go. And he did. He just went a few minutes later.

Sally and I have been studying with Robert Thurman-- who was the very first westerner to take the Tibetan Buddhist vows and to receive the 126 precepts from Tenzen Gyatso the current Dalai Lama. He told us a story about how in the first Star Wars movie Obi Wan Kenobi can feel a disturbance in the force. That disturbance is the death of billions of people frightened of destruction as the Death Star blows them away. That kind of death where you shield yourself and hide is the kind of experience that causes us to be reborn hiding and protected. So we end up being reborn as a crab, or a rhino, or a cockroach scurrying around. Literally, we are choosing a rebirth to become a Sherman tank ready to fight back.

However, if we can receive death peacefully with joy and open arms then our next life will be one where we can search for the buddha with an open heart. And that death is one that calms the waters for other rebirths in every direction. It is a gift.

So I told Jenny's mom how pleased I was that Jimmy Maloney had a peaceful death. That it was important. She agreed and we had a little cry together and then went and got something to eat.

Dear Friends,

We've laned in NY. Bit of a rough landing actually. Both Sally and I inherited some kind of Flucold. I've included a picture here. We've started teaching at Guy's again as he is Mysore. In the meantime we made it down to Austin where we celebrated X-mas again with the Fam. I've included a picture of my brother and his daughter. Much love to you all. I am going back to my new best friend--my bottle of nyquil.

The last night in England

Hi everybody,

I'm on the phone with my mom as she talks to her neighbors. I'm sure we all have relatives like that. Tomorrow we fly to NY and see my old mentor Guy. Then we'll fly to Austin and do another workshop there at Yoga Yoga. The workshops seem to be going very well. People generally seem to be exhausted to the point of delerium. Though I do hope to teach them something about Tantra. Breathing with sensation in hatha yoga (not pain mind you.. pain teaches you to stop hurting yourself-- I mean stretching and working) can help us to accept discomfort in our life. Of course discomfort and dissatisfication with our daily life is a sure bet. If you can accept that you can really start to enjoy life. Just enjoy smiling... just enjoy the way your hands feel on the seat of the car.