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 Namaste to all of you --

Beautiful essay and lovely circle as always. My experiences and experiments with pain can be summarized in the following expression:

Pain = Language of Life.

I shared that I like pain, because pain seems to be an evidence that I am alive. During the practice of Yoga, we often share with the participants to "let go and relax" especially in final deep relaxation in Shavasana, and measuring by the sign of those beautiful smiles, I know it works.

A short personal story - few years ago a bunch of my friends and I were on an adventurous trip to hike Yosemite Half dome (17+ miles, 8000+ elevation). It's one of the tough hikes I have done so far. The last few hundred yards of the hike is very steep, it has be done with the help of hanging steel cable. I could hike up all the way to the foot of the half dome and started ascending the dome via the steel cable. There were so many people lining up for their spot to go up the cable. I stood their patiently waiting for my turn. The sun was getting really hot,  we were quickly running low on our water reserves and strength in our legs. The prospect of reaching to the top in just few hundred yards really helped to refill my energy and enthusiasm which otherwise was pretty much drained through the sweat and millions of steps. I did mange to reach almost to the top holding the cables as tightly as my tired hands could. We were damn scared with the signs and warnings around that read "fall to death" zone. Right then, there was this sudden "thud thud thud" sound followed by an absolutely silence with only the gradually diminishing echoing of the "thud thud" sound. I was frozen. When my eyes looked frantically towards the source of sound, I felt the great relief when I figured out that the sound was in fact from a big water bottle that got accidentally dropped from someone's backpack. It's quite a nerve wrecking experience at the beginning as there were some incidents of hikers fatally slipping from the steep area of the hike especially during stormy days. Everyone were so deeply relieved that we were not witnessing one of those tragic incidents in front of our own eyes. 

I might be about 80% up through the cable, I tried to step forward to the next big rock, that's it, my both legs gave up, frozen with excruciating pain shooting up from toes to the hip, perhaps due to deep dehydration and running low on minerals due to profuse sweating. Both legs lost control at the exact same time, with absolutely no sensation and ability to even standup and rest a bit. I am there hanging on the cable only with the tired hands with the legs hanging in air, wow! -- what a way to strength test those poor hands. A thought flashed - what do I do now? trust the universe for help? -- it's matter of few minutes before my hands are going to give up as well, I am in deepest pain I ever experienced, I can barely speak and ask for help, everyone seems to be too occupied with their own physical agony to deal with, will anyone really be able to help at this steep elevation as they may risk their own safety. I was soon running really really low on my survival chances, my legs are senseless and hands are shaking, right then I decided to release one hand and stay up with just one hand, that allowed me to reach closer to the rock and slide the frozen legs so I can lie down and rest the legs a little bit more, I started to feel some support against one of the leg, I couldn't see what it is and if it can hold me from falling off the steep cliff I release the cable from the other hand as well. Again I trusted my leg and the rock underneath, I released the hand just in time before it gave up itself, oh ouch!, it hurts, what do I do now, I can't yell for my friends, who knows they might be fighting their own battle may be even worse than the one I am in. I open my eyes and see a pair of hands offering something and instructing to take it telling me how I can heal the leg cramps with that offering. I only remember putting those powder into my mouth and drinking few sips of water, something start to change in few minutes, I started to notice someone giving a muscle relaxing massgae to my legs, and the legs are starting to feel the life and not just the pain. It turns out, the person who helped was was one of the hikers behind me, she had some extra salt/sugar packs that she carried for her own hike. I couldn't thank her enough and told her jokingly that "if you were to have cramps on half dome, make sure you have someone with extra salt/sugar following you", we both had a hearty laughter. I would like to offer this writing as my gratitude to her, don't know where she came from and where she's gone, never seen her later. I did go to the top and the nature at the top completely wiped out all the pain of the journey. It was an extra special hike, the agonizing pain to me seemed like a gateway to the ultimate joy and freedom I experienced at the top of the dome. We bagan our descending journey after some powerful Yoga practice at the highest point of the dome. Yoga at the top of this part of the world was amazingly refreshing. I was reminded of this experience when Dinesh uncle shared his reflections in the circle that "pain in inevitable, but it's well worth it when you reach the top of the mountain" -- yes -- it indeed was well worth it! -- thank you all.

Thank you Ashvin for writing this beautiful piece, thank you Wed extended family for sharing the space and reflections.  

With fresh experiences of our first 10-day sitting, I am deeply inspired to share my experiences relating the topic of space, before that, I would like to start off noting that there were so many moments in the circle that deeply touched my "inner space" -- thank you all :-), three in particular that I can remember now are Pavi's idea of  "Love creating space", Dinesh uncle's idea of  "going-with-the-flow creates space" with his witty yet practical example of Mumbai's local trains seemingly having space for constant flow of commuters, and Smitha's reflection on "the act of listening opening up the space, where as the act of talking shrinking the space for her."

The idea of space to me is about Community, Universal Reality, Simplicity, Emptiness, Freedom and Innovation, 

The enriching experiences from our Community Yoga each week in our little home space, open unconditionally to all seems to have created a space of inner-connection in the community.  The many stories of people who were total strangers before coming to the community Yoga stepping up to help each other in small ways, support each other's passions in community like community garden project and neighborhood safety-walk team and such grassroots initiatives has been truly transforming experience. So a space -- big or small can be a avenue to bring communities/families together to do something beautiful (borrowing from Dr. V's wisdom on KarmaTube).

From the Vedic wisdom, this idea that everything in the universe is a manifestation of five fundamental elements -- riching experiences from our Community Yoga each week in our little home space, open unconditionally to all seems to have created a space of inner-connection in the community.  The many stories of people who were total strangers before coming to the community Yoga stepping up to help each other in small ways, support each other's passions in community like community garden project and neighborhood safety-walk team and such grassroots initiatives has been truly transforming experience. So a space -- big or small can be a avenue to bring communities/families together to do something beautiful (borrowing fromDr. V's wisdom on KarmaTube).

From the Vedic wisdom, this idea that everything in the universe is a manifestation of five fundamental elements -- bhu (prithvi - earth), aapa (water), agni (fire/light) and aakasha (space) quite nicely connected the core the message to me. The passage was special; it touched the roots of the Universal Reality.

From our own journey of many years simplifying inside (purifying the mind 'n heart) and outside (worldly things that are absolute necessary for a living), it's the clarity of awareness in the inner-space and the cleanliness (and orderliness) in the physical space that shows that there's progress in this journey. Journey itself becomes the> bhu (prithvi - earth), aapa (water), agni (fire/light) and aakasha (space) quite nicely connected the core the message to me. The passage was special; it touched the roots of the Universal Reality.

From our own journey of many years simplifying inside (purifying the mind 'n heart) and outside (worldly things that are absolute necessary for a living), it's the clarity of awareness in the inner-space and the cleanliness (and orderliness) in the physical space that shows that there's progress in this journey. Journey itself becomes the fruit.

As a spiritual seeker, to me, the idea of space also means emptiness. Perhaps, being empty inside and out feels so light and ready to receive the universal reality when the time is ripe.

On the physical front, in fact the lack of space created space for innovation in so many areas of our everyday lives -- computers, microprocessors, mobile devices, medical scopes and such ever shrinking in size yet improving the performance.

Lastly, space means freedom to me, the freedom to be one. A short poem flowed as I wrote in my journal this morning, in the spirit of sharing, here it's for you: 

Space -- everyone likes to have more

Take only so much you need -- Nature will be happy

Remember Nature gives only so much to each one that one deserves

Space --

less or more

big or small

closed or open

dark or lighted

dirty or clean

just know that ultimately follow the Nature to know your inner-space

make the best use of every gift of space in life to live-free.