Ocean uYoga: Why and How To
(From ‘Incremental Yoga’ book)
Where else can you balance on your big toe for a minute without pain (unless you’re a ballerina)?
How can you be weightless like an astronaut.
It makes Hatha Yoga much easier especially for older citizens or overweight people. Easy on your spine.
Now you can go pretend to be in the womb again.
Seriously, why hasn’t ocean/water yoga been a national phenomenon before? I sat in the Ganges in Rishikesh but it’s freezing cold and lower down in Varanasi, completely polluted. People go kayaking and think it’s adventurous or fitness but never realize it’s potential as a tool of enlightenment. People have fitness aquatics classes but don’t get into tantra or don’t do it in the right place, the ocean.
My teaching, which came down to me naturally after many years studying yoga, meditation, work karma and kayaking recently seemed so obvious. The main point is the ‘ocean’, not anything else. The embodiment of the universe. We are the water! Swimming pools are good for hatha yoga and lakes and rivers can utilize kayaking but nothing compares to the oceans. Can you find whales in lakes and reservoirs or rivers? The greatest time I had was kayaking every year with the whales in Maui. There is nothing quite so spectacular as having a whale come out of the water right next to your kayak and not collide with you. Or seeing pods of whales in the distance just on a parade or a newborn whale calf near shore or being born. People see this out there daily in the winter. We would just bob around and wait for them to come to us (it’s illegal to go after them up close). I think I will be a whale in my next life. It’s a shame what has happened to them over the past centuries. Humankind, if it moves kill it.
They come to Maui in the winter. The rest of the year was boring without them. Now I had to move to Thailand so no more whales but plenty of ocean and islands and smiling people. I thought I would never kayak again. How could there be kayaks in Pattaya except those cheap plastic ones for beach vendors. So one day I went to a long-awaited boat show because I thought I saw a picture of a kayak exhibitor, but after three days, there were no kayaks. Pattaya has a giant yacht and sailing marina. Anyway, someone finally told me that there was a kayak store up the street. I went up there and found Blue Seas, a Hobie dealer of all things, with an English-speaking owner. Turned out he had the exact same Mirage Adventure kayak I had in Maui and it was discounted and unsold for a long time. Hmmn. At that point I still had money in the bank, I had not bought a car yet. And the icing on the cake was that as he knew I complained about my age and stamina, unlike Maui where I could paddle/peddle for 4 hours, he offered to put a customized outboard engine on the back. At first I was skeptical but then I said ‘whatever, let’s give it a try’. I got a little discount at Suzuki next door and bought a 2.5hp engine and he was underway. Two weeks late after he made the parts cheaply my first ocean test, no problems. I have been using it and paddling as well for the past 6 months off Pattaya. Especially for a week in Koh Chang in both calm and wavy waters. Even my lady came out and sat on the front of the kayak through some pretty unstable seas every day. I thought I was in trouble but we got back to the hotel and she didn’t even wince. Very remarkable for a Thai girl. They don’t even like the sun or beach or swimming.
So this is what my retreat would be like in Koh Phagnan:
Hatha yoga in the swimming pool (if available) or preferably nearby clear beach waters (easy to float in salt water). Chalooklaam
Meditation in the water, at least up to your neck. Sometimes meditation in the hotel or during satsangs together. (I don’t sit on thrones.)
2 hours of Thai massages each day to loosen you up. That’s $200-300 in Hawaii.
Hours of ocean kayaking, lots of bays though. Safety assured. Silent kayaking, meditating and reflecting. Stopping frequently for a coffee. Brand new SUP/kayak or Mirage Adventures with pedal drives and rudders. You will get fit.
Sometimes fishing if you like. Snorkeling available. SUP available. SUP is a beneficial, low-impact way of getting exercise for all age levels and fun.
Talks in evening or during beach stops when kayaking.
Why the ocean?
Around 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans. The world's oceans contain enough water to fill a cube with edges over 621 miles in length. An estimated 50-80% of all life on earth is found under the ocean surface and the oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet.
Amniotic fluid is mainly water, which is what you live in as baby for 9 months. Going back to the ocean is one of the objects of my tantra. As well as cuddling with your girlfriend’s breasts. You can be a baby and she can be the divine mother. Why do you think Jesus let Mary stay around? Maharaji was not a celibate.
You are not dirt. Mountains and forests are nice but they just don’t do it. Maybe sitting in a cave is like a womb but none of you can do it, and it’s not soft and cuddly. Years ago there was not much to life so a cave was somewhat similar and people would bring you food. Try that now. And you can look at mountains and forests from your kayak. Koh Phangan is a mountain with jungles.
You can’t wash yourself with dirt but water, water everywhere is more like it. You can’t eat trees and rocks but you can dine on seafood and seaweed all you like, buy it or catch it.
The problem with normal teacher taught meditation is the enormous focus on corralling your thoughts, which is impossible. It’s as if you can direct your own dreams. People literally sit for decades fighting with their thoughts to no avail. Maybe love your thoughts. The ocean makes putting your thoughts aside easier, especially when you are kayaking (with headphones playing Snatam Kaur) or sitting up to your neck in the water. The thoughts just glide away. Maharaji’s temple in Kainchi in the Himalayas was right on a rushing cold clear river. I guess he knew what it brought. A nice noise and kept the area clean.
Maharaji never made any big deal about meditation. He talked more about feeding everyone, service, telling the truth, he liked singing and that will get you to God or peace. He said when asked, ‘meditate like Christ’ and closed his eyes and had tears. He means think about the good things saints do and that will open your heart. That could be a meditation, a visualization if you like that kind of session. But for some reason later, the students led by Ram Dass, thought they needed formal meditation practice to keep up with the Buddhists and American Buddhists getting into ‘mindfulness’ with Goenka or Burmese teachers. Now they are running after all the Tibetan teachers including the Dalai Lama. Ram Dass had a run-in with Trungpa for a while as usual. All of his retreats focus on ‘mindfulness’ and kirtan. Sometimes it’s just too Hindu for me these days. I had enough Hinduism in the 60’s to 70’s. I used to bow down to every idol in every temple. The last time I went to India a few years ago, I couldn’t see any point to the idols. Even Thailand is filled with Buddha statues everywhere (as well as monks who have died, but no women) and he is not the same as Krishna or Kali. Well to each his own. If it doesn’t hurt anybody let it be.
My retreats bring you sublime vibrations from Maharaji and Shivapuri Baba and Jesus/Maria to help in your transformation and meditation. How is that possible? It was not for no reason that I spent over 50 years studying spirituality and mysticism, especially as a student of Maharaji and Shivapuri Baba in India. And as a student of life, a very important teacher...reality...suffering, marriage, child raising, divorce, work, sickness and death of my parents. You will have total immersion in the yoga of the ocean. And hopefully you will take it back with you. In this book I will tell you what to do. You can kayak near any water body, cold or warm. The Eskimo do it. And there are lots of swimming pools everywhere, even heated.
Hatha Yoga
You can literally these days go to YouTube and watch all sorts of Hatha Yoga videos. Just pick what you like but do what you can in water unless it’s impossible. You might like pranayama exercises. We had nothing like this in the early days. We had live teachers in India. You should combine hatha yoga and aerobics moves and dancing in the water. Get a head set and listen to relaxing music or disco. Don’t get too much sun, you’ll get skin cancer like me (especially careful when you kayak in tropical climates like Maui or Thailand).
Try an hour a day or 2 half-hour sessions. Don’t get upset if you miss some time. Focus on the exercises not your take-home work. You can study some videos that show how some exercises benefit certain parts or organs of the body, that’s good. In the ‘Inside Out’ book, I even made a hatha yoga section, which is basic but functional. Don’t get too crazy about taking drugs like pot to help in yoga or meditation, it will become a crutch. And in kayaking it could have disastrous effects when you need your brain.
