The Mysterious World of The Guru’s GURU!
April 2nd, 2004
By Christopher Herz
The Health Guru / eCureMe.com
Your Guru was stressed out again my friends. The streets of Los Angeles had taken
their toll on me. I was looking to bring the underground health issues to you, but
I myself was not healthy enough to find them. So what’s a Guru to do when
he’s got the blues?
Why, call his Guru, of course.
Erin Dunning, AKA Rukmini, resides in Davis, California, which is no doubt one of the
fairy tale wonderlands of the United States. There, the oxygen is plentiful and the
green stretches wider than the horizon. Around those parts, the myth is already
spreading of the woman who can ease the minds of the weary travelers who bring
themselves to her doorstep.
This woman has dedicated her life to bringing unity to the world by hopefully, one by
one, showing these creatures that roam the third planet from the sun, that it’s
all about unity and peace. The only was to achieve such lofty goals is through
self-realization.
Rukmini had just gotten back from a retreat deep in the Yosemite woods, where neither
she nor her 20 fellow retreatees were to speak a single word. Before arriving at
their destination, they did away with their cell phones, laptops and all other
accessories that we have become attached to.
"By then end of it," Rukmini says she was "dreaming about the person I
was sharing a tent with. After we came back, I told her about this dream I kept
having that she was in Catholic school, you know, with the whole uniform and everything.
She told me that she was in Catholic school when she was a kid, and was thinking about
that a lot during the silent periods at night. We were reading each other’s
thoughts. Lack of communication often times allows for more clarity."
And so she went on, about her life, and how she had become so perfectly centered.
How she had stopped drinking, stopped smoking herb, and pretty much gave up the
things she once sought solace in.
Now understand that my Guru and I share a long history of speaking about meditation
and how to calm down the world that is spinning around you.
When I asked her how she had reached a new level of mellowness, Rukmini laid it down
for me.
"It’s all about Yoga."
"Each time, I feel like I’m getting run over and turned into a train wreck,
but in a really good way. Rainbow sparkles and all, but still, you’re sick."
Although Yoga is no longer an underground movement, I never fully understood what the
pay off is. All I knew now is that life in the city was extremely distracting.
I had been reading Paulo Cohelo’s "The Warrior of the Light," which
preached the importance of making a decision. However, getting to that point seemed
impossible to me, as everything was cluttered and out of focus. How can I make a
decision if I can’t even see what I am deciding between? This and much more
were some of my ramblings to her.
"Since moving into this world, my decision making-you know, your GUT feeling,
is much closer - GET TO THE POINT. Yeah."
Rukmini’s particular form is Bikram Yoga, where they turn up the heat to excess
of 100 degrees, and then engage in a 1 and a half hour Yoga throw-downs where your
body is put into 26 separate ASANAS. Asanas are the combinations of breaths and
movements that, if done in perfect form, can bring about a feeling of serenity, and
supposedly near orgasmic experiences.
Well, that’s pretty much why this is my Guru. A Guru is someone who will tell
you exactly what you should do to enjoy your life.
"This is the cleansing of toxins. The good stuff."
Rukmini teaches Yoga in Davis, California, is an Independent Film Queen (Star of the
upcoming Zaron Burnett III film Yona) and is a graduate of Bikram Yoga Academy in
Los Angeles.
"The purpose of life is to pass on positive energy to other people. I really
enjoy doing that," my Guru tells me in the middle of the week. "However,
in order to pass on that energy to other people, I must be centered myself."
So how did this spiritually electrified being take her first steps down the road of
Yogadom?
"To be honest, I really started to get in shape. I mean, I was partying a lot,
going out, clubbing, all of that good stuff. I was feeling out of whack, flabby and
out of balance. I felt gross. That’s really how it started."
"While my mind was expanding with all of my experiences, my body wasn’t in
balance. And balance, my friend, is the true key to happiness. Yoga gives me that
- much more than drugs did. It’s really not even close"
But before I could get any more from my Guru, she stopped.
"You know, you need to go try it. Meditation really doesn’t do it. You
need to be active. Go down to Bikram himself. He’s down by you."
Now, like most of you out there, between hustling for a dollar and looking around
the corner for the shadow that reminds you of your dreams, there is no time to go
and chill out in a yoga session. Saturday was the only time when there was a break
from work to do anything about it. She told me to watch my breathing and to live
right now.
Then she hung up.
And so, I went through the week. As I did, I began noticing things I normally
wouldn’t. Not letting my thoughts drift as much. I kid you not people, I
saw four monks in three days on public transportation in Los Angeles the week leading
up to my Yoga class.
Saturday the day broke at 9:00 A.M. I didn’t eat a thing (this is advised if
you are about to embark on yoga expedition) and went to the bus stop in the blazing
Los Angeles sunshine. The bus was running late and I was about to turn home. There
was no way I would make it on time. Then, no joke, ’cause your Guru never lies
to you, a guy steps up and says "Why don’t you catch the short one coming
up behind it. It’ll get you there quicker."
I looked behind the approaching bus, and sure enough, there was a tiny bus known as
THE DASH, an express bus that runs independent form the major bus lines.
Figuring he was put on my spiritual path for a reason, I jumped on the short DASH bus,
and it rocketed down Sunset, flew around LaCienega and dropped me off for a quick
switch to the 102, which left me in front of the Bikram Yoga College of India.
Running in, I was given the last spot available in the room?
Fate?
Not really. It was the spot under the blower that had heat blasting at 100 degrees
that nobody, except for the new guy, ever goes under. Such is the way on the path to
enlightenment.
For the better part of the next two hours, I stretched, bent and fell in ways I never
had before. Along with me were over 300 people doing the same, although most have
had some prior experience. Leading the class was Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury, the creator
of this form of Yoga.
"There is no knee," he said, as he asked everyone to straighten out one leg
while keeping the other on the floor, creating a 90 degrees angle. 299 of the 300
people there could do it.
"Perfect Camels! Let me see 300 perfect CAMELS!"
This refers to the Asana where you sit on your knees with the rest of your legs
straight behind you, and you bend backwards while clutching your heel. My camel,
although less then perfect, was a camel nonetheless.
I went on, drinking a gallon of water (which was hot from being under the blower) and
working like crazy. With each move, I felt as if something horrible was happening to
my body. I felt sick and smashed up, but then I realized, this was all inside of me.
Deep inside, lurking in fat and waste that had yet to be released.
Later that day, I didn’t want to drink or do anything else. I had worked my
body in so many new ways, I felt like a new being. There was neither good nor bad,
just new. I later realized that the feeling was clarity. Much of the stress and
confusion inside my mind had been let out.
In the days following my Yoga class, when things started to get crazy, I was able to
find the center easier and act quickly.
When I talked with Rukmini about my pain, she explained that it was not pain, but a
shedding of the ego.
"This is not suffering, this is transcendence. We must identify with the ego so
we can get beyond it. Don’t get me wrong. I’m totally not New Age.
I’m old school. This has been around for thousands of years."
"This is one of the steps to the final destination of enlightenment. It’s
so easy to get caught up in everyone’s negative energy. If you create balance
within, there is a chance the world will achieve that balance."
"I am working more on a grass roots level, just trying to spread the good word
of yoga thru my teaching here and in Sacramento. I want to get people, The Peeps, to
practice Yoga everyday. Have a regular practice, live yoga, be yoga, do yoga, make it
available and not so elitist or esoteric. Yoga is after all Union. Union of the
individual with the divine, the infinite, the eternal...yoga is about belonging and
balance, being One with all- finding Real Peace, Love, ultimate a full
enlightenment, self/god realization. It’s a huge subject, really. Yoga
doesn’t happen over night or by taking a class, it is Life work, practice."
So there you are people. Here is a road map to enlightenment.
All you have to do is unroll it.
Peace.
H.G.
The Health Guru - Christopher Herz
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