Bitter Melon, Pepper Soup and other Recipes

After our Ayurveda class, Transitions to Winter on November 16, several students have asked about the recipe for Pepper Soup and more information about Bitter Melon (Gourd).

Here are recipes for both from Mysore, India, from the cookbook, Exotic Cuisine of Mysore, by Pratibha Kattemalavadi. Ingredients can be found at Patel Bros and ValuMarket.

Pepper Soup is often fed to us when we are not feeling well, cooked by Nagarathna Rao, our Mysore Mom. This recipe sounds similar to hers:

I cup Toor Dal (mung dal may also be used)
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 pinch asafoetida
1 lemon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2-3 curry leaves (available fresh at Patel Bros)
Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and fry 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds, pepper, coriander seeds, and curry leaves. Remove from heat and belnd in a blender without water. Coo the dal in 4 cups water . Add salt, sugar, the blended spice powder, and squeeze the lemon juice in. Boil for a few minutes and add this seasoning mixture:
Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and fry 1/2 tsp cumin and asafoetida for a few seconds.
Soup can be served with rice, but Nagarathna always served it by itself.

Bitter Gourd Spiced Curry
 5 medium sized bitter gourd
1/2 cup grated fresh coconut
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tblsp fried chana dal (split chickpeas)
1 tsp foenugreek
1/2 tsp tumeric
1-2 green chilies
1 tblsp white sesame seeds
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tblsp tamarind paste
1/2-1 tblsp salt
3-4 tblsp sugar

Cut bitter gourd into small cubes. Dry fry or roast sesame seeds until it stops popping. Remove from heat. Blend grated coconut, mustard seeds, fried chana, tumeric, green chilies, fried sesame seeds together with water to make a fine paste. 
Heat oil in a frying pan. Add mustard seeds and foenugreek, and when they are finished popping, add the bitter gourd cubes. Fry until golden brown. Add tamarind paste, salt, sugar and 1/3 cup water. Boil for 1 minute. Add the blended spice mixture, cook for 3 minutes.
Serve with hot rice.

More information about Bitter Melon and its sues and properties can be found extensively on the internet, eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momordica_charantia

Being on time and other topics....

Recently we posted a link to an article Why Can't I Come In Late to Yoga Class?  It generated quite a few Likes on our Facebook page, and responses thanking me for posting it. I didn't post it, though. We have several people who are admins for our Facebook page and can post things. I don't really have the time to do a lot of that, and I appreciate our social media maven, Angela Weisser, who handles that for us and also sends out our email newsletter.

I have a problem with lateness myself, so that's an area in which I am not able to cast the first stone. It's something I've been working on, though, as I said in a comment to that post.  Somewhere I read that chronically being late might indicate a belief that's one's own time is more valuable than others' time.  I've tried to work on that tendency ever since. 

Perhaps because I have this tendency myself, I more readily notice it in other people.  I see that the same people are always late to class, and are usually late by the same amount of time, every time.  I also read an article on another news magazine website (I don't remember which one) that said that researchers had done experiments that showed that chronically late people try to pack too many activities into their day, and under-estimate the time it takes to do something, like drive to the grocery store.  Most people give it "30 minutes", but chronically late people will estimate "23 minutes" and try to pack something else into that 7-minute period.

Being late to class is not such a big deal except for all the students who came on time and often have to wait for the latecomer to get it together so class can begin.  If class is full, often other students have ot shuffle their mats around so the late person can fit in.    

Chronic lateness is a samskara - an ingrained habitual behavior or way of thinking.  One of the reasons we practice yoga is to free us from the thinking and behavior patterns which limit our freedom.  The first step in changing our pattern is to recognize that we have it.

Now... how about the people who are chronically early?  I get to the studio early so I can set it up the way I want it with the flowers, lighting, candles, music, etc., so it presents the right atmosphere for my students. I also need quiet time before class begins to mentally prepare.  It's very distracting to arrive at the studio 30-45 minutes early and students are already waiting at the studio to get in and throw their mats down.  15-20 minutes early - that's okay. But 30-45 minutes early?  And then wanting to chat and ask questions?  Not cool.  If you come to my class early, please practice silence.  Time before class is my quiet time to set up the studio and get ready to teach.  

Mysore Teacher Training

How does one become a Mysore Ashtanga Teacher?  When I was in Mysore in 1999, Pattabhi Jois told us in conference that he wanted to have a teacher training class in which he would pass on the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, but it would be by invitation only to experienced teachers.  My heart fell at hearing those words because I was still an Ashtanga "baby"... I had only been practicing for five years and could barely make it through primary series.  Back then, I could not have ever imagined that I would be invited to that class! 

In Ashtanga Yoga, no teacher trainings are recognized (with the exception of those given by Sharath). One becomes a teacher by practicing in this tradition for a long period of time, and one day one is recognized to be ready to teach.  This is the traditional system of yoga.  You cannot declare yourself to be a teacher; you can only be made a teacher by your teacher.

My mother had taught me Padmasana when I very young (nine?). I taught myself headstand by practicing it in my bedroom after learning that it was a yoga pose.  I picked up a few poses here and there from various sources along the way, but I did not have a yoga book until I was about 19 or 20 years old.  I practiced a few poses with great difficulty (I was very stiff) from age 15 until I moved to Louisville and met Maja Trigg, founder of Yoga East in 1990.   When she retired in 1994, I studied Iyengar Yoga with Judi Rice for a while and then fell into Ashtanga Yoga by finding a video of Richard Freeman, then a book on Ashtanga by Lino Miele. In 1998 I met David Swenson. In 1999 I met Tim Miller and he told me to go to Mysore. When I arrived in Mysore in August 1999, I had practiced full primary series about 10 times. By the time I left Mysore I could finish primary series, but it was not easy for me.

I would have given up Ashtanga Yoga except that I saw Pattabhi Jois in New York in 2000 and 2001 and each time he encouraged me to return to Mysore to study with him.  It always astounded me because I was such a raw beginner.  From the time I began to steadily practice Ashtanga Yoga it took me ten years to complete primary series.  In those years I always felt uncomfortable taking students to Mysore who would introduce themselves to Pattabhi Jois as "Laura's student". I knew that I had not yet met the formal criteria for teaching, but Guruji would always smile at me so I knew it was somehow okay.  In 2004 Guruji gave me his authorization to teach.

In 2009, my ten year anniversary of studying in Mysore, I first stood up from a backbend - which qualified me to begin Intermediate series.  I was honored to be invited to the first Ashtanga Teacher Training class - the one in which Guruji envisioned that he would pass on the tradition.  Sadly, Guruji himself passed away one month before the class was to have begun, but Sharath taught the class and told us that he was passing on the tradition in just the way he had been given it by his grandfather. 

It was a powerful and empowering experience to teach Ashtanga with Sharath watching and critiquing us.  I felt so blessed during the entire experience, knowing that this was Guruji's intention for us.  Ten years ago, I never could have imagined myself as being in that class. 

To teach Ashtanga, one must imbibe Ashtanga - to drink it in. It has to become part of you.  For me, my morning practice is my offering to God, Lord Shiva, who has guided my steps along this path which has brought me so many blessings.

May I offer these blessings to you, the students.

The Metta Suttas

The Buddha's Words on Kindness (Metta Sutta)

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

　
And here is a slightly different version read by Thanissaro Bhikhu:

Here is an essay by Thannissaro Bhikkhu about bringing wisdom to the brahmaviharas: 

And Finally! An overview from Wikipedia on brahmaviharas and metta.

– with thanks to Jude Vanderhoff for suggesting the Metta Suttas, providing the text and compiling the resources.

Fear of Falling

In the last three months, three Yoga East students have fallen at home. Although their injuries were not enough to require hospitalization, they were severe enough to require treatment and caused them to pause their yoga practice. Recently Hilary Clinton fainted due to an infection, and fell and sustained a concussion with some serious complications. In October 2010, my eighty year-old mother who routinely walked every day and was in pretty decent shape, fell and broke her hip.  Her Alzheimer's, which was causing my sister and I some concern, dramatically worsened within days of her fall and hip replacement surgery.  Before the fall she was living independently with some supervision, but after the fall she went to a nursing home barely aware of her surroundings. 

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 million Americans sixty-five and older fall each year.  After age seventy-file, falling is the number one cause of death.  Even if you don't die, many people sustain severe injury and disability which lowers your quality of life and hastens death.

The reasons for falling are complicated. The National Safety Council lists several hazards which I will repeat here:
Spills on surfaces, such as bathroom and kitchen floors;
Clutter in hallways and on stairs;
Standing on unstable surfaces, such as tables or chairs instead of using ladders.

The rest can be reviewed their website, and I urge you to do so:
Falls - www.nsc.org

I turned sixty this year, and in spite of all my years of yoga practice, I see that my ability to balance has declined.  Things that I easily did when I was twenty are a little more precarious now.  I can do a much better Maricyasana D now than I could then, and now at age sixty I can stand up out of a backbend, but Utthita Hasta Padangushtasana has gotten a little shaky.  Just be aware that yoga doesn't protect you from everything. Be alert, cautious and realistic about your physical abilities.

All in all, I think I am much better off for my yoga practice than I would be without it.  Only time will tell if yoga will help me to avoid Alzheimer's disease which prematurely ended the life of my great-grandfather and grandmother, who were healthy in all other respects; and severely limited my mother's quality of life.

Keep practicing yoga, but be careful. It's a jungle out there in your kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and stairs.