Lost (and stoned) In Translation

Okay, since I'm still trying VERY hard to wrap my brain around this yoga 'stuff' (and therefore can't really speak articulately about the richness and depth of it all)...I'm going to tell of an experience I had as a youth that I consider to be relative to opening up and receiving a great "AHA!"

As an eighth-grader, I was very sick with pneumonia and home from school for several weeks. In my abundance of downtime, I became fascinated with cryptic puzzles. Now, first, it's important to state the obvious, that I was heavily medicated...with antibiotics and pain killers (my pneumonia was accompanied by a case of bronchitis, so I was very uncomfortable...) One evening, I was puzzling over the intricacies of a particular cryptogram...struggling with the possibilities of translation. Ages and ages of frustration and contraction. At least, it had felt like ages. Hours really. Eventually, I became too tired (or perhaps, too stoned) and just sat staring at the puzzle with absolutely no effort. And, wouldn't you know it. It came to me. Just like that. Seemingly out of nowhere...."FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE." I was SO thrilled. Udyamo Bhairavah. But, the revelation only came to me when I finally let go of effort and contraction. And, of course, only AFTER hours of studying and staring at the same lines over and over and over and over and over (...so, not without Sakti-cakra-samdhane visva-samharah) did the puzzle finally open up to me. This is why we study. Eventually, my mind WILL begin to wrap itself around this stuff called 'Yoga'...but not without ages and ages of dedicated study (and practice) over an extended period of time.

Tat Sat.