
Yoga Stories and Essays
by Charles MacInerney

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Master
of Body and Mind
Expanding
Paradigms - Spring 2005
A
young man challenged a Zen Master to an archery contest. With his
first arrow he hit the bull's-eye, and with his second, he split
the first. Triumphantly, he turned to the Zen Master.
The
Master said nothing, but led the young man up a mountain to a deep
gorge.
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Walking
out on a rotten log spanning the chasm, the Master stopped in the
middle.
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drew his bow, and released an arrow, which flew straight and true,
embedding itself in a distant tree-trunk.
Returning to the young man’s side, the Zen Master gestured
towards the log. The young man stared into the abyss, but made no
move towards the rotten log. The Zen master then dismissed the young
archer saying “You have much skill with the bow - but little
control of the mind that wields it.“
-- Zen Story |
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Twelve years ago, Kumar Pallana, a yoga teacher from Dallas, drove
down to Austin to offer a three day yoga workshop. I was a little
embarrassed to arrive and discover that I was the only student to
register. Rather than cancel, Kumar insisted on proceeding with
the workshop, and seemed as happy to teach one student as ten.
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At
the end of the workshop, Kumar invited me to dinner. I learned that
he was born in India in 1918 and for many years made a living demonstrating
yoga and feats of strength and balance. This man, who earlier in
the day had been doing one-armed push-ups, was in his mid 70's!
After
dinner, Kumar talked about his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show,
Captain Kangaroo, and the Mickey Mouse Club. For a while, he had
been Hollywood's on-call yogi for stunts, like lying on a bed of
nails. He pulled out an album with photographs of him with stars
like Bob Hope and John Wayne. |
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black & white photo especially caught my attention. It was taken
from the street, looking up at the roof of a 3-story building, where
Kumar was in a hand-stand on the ledge, high above the sidewalk,
with no net. When I asked him about the photograph he grinned with
delight, as if sharing one of his most treasured secrets. "When
I first moved to America I did not have any money. I discovered
that if you do a hand-stand on the sidewalk, no one cares, but if
you do a hand-stand on the edge of a tall building, people give
you money!" He was obviously pleased with himself.
Whether
done on the ground or on the edge of a precipice, to Kumar, a hand-stand
is still just a hand-stand. Obviously, Kumar was a yoga teacher
who truly was master of both body and mind.
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Postscript:
After writing this essay, I wondered what had happened
to Kumar in the twelve-plus years since our meeting. I did a search
on the internet and was delighted to find that Kumar is not only
alive, but at age 86 has been rediscovered by Hollywood, where he
now lives. You can catch Kumar in “Bottle Rocket,” "Rushmore,"
"The Royal Tenenbaums," and most recently, "Terminal,"
with Tom Hanks, in which he garnered critical acclaim for his role
as Gupta, the janitor. Namaste'
http://www.theterminal-themovie.com |
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