The teachers in the vichara training with me have shared their experiences of discovering the burned-out building. I thought it would help you understand the event and feel like you are included. I recognize it is almost harder to be at a distance and trying to absorb the information than if you were here. Your fellow Svaroopis can help.
We will have photos for you in another day or two. We will be posting everything on our website, and updating it with information as quickly as we have it - probably every 2-3 days. You can stay up to date on www.masteryoga.org.
We have begun getting emails from all of you, and appreciate your concern and support. SAT members can also post messages on the teacher's E-group, so you have a way of "talking" with each other. Yes, this will be expensive. The Board and staff are currently assessing the cost and our next steps, as well as how we set ourselves up over the long haul. Because, yoga is for the long haul!
Here are the first-hand reports for you -
Elizabeth McKenty - As we drove up Phoenixville Pike, we saw a smoldering building. It took a few moments for it to compute that the building had burnt down. The marshals were looking for Rama who was not due to arrive until 8:15a, so we called her. Rama called back without a hint of distress in her voice saying = "Gather whatever blankets and pillows you have in your cars and hotel rooms. we'll continue the training at my house." Wow! This lifted my entire perspective. Rama never missed a beat. Yes, we have to deal with things, but I really see how she truly embodies everything she teachers us. We were able to set up for the day in the neighboring building. As the day progressed and we kept walking past the burnt remains of the building, I realized Master Yoga is not a building. It is inside us all - Rama has taught as how to dissolve our limitations with the help of Yoga - and the burning of Master Yoga is not limiting for Rama and is not limiting to any of us either. I feel lucky to have been here and have been able to process the event with Rama and the other Vichara students.
Deborah Shapiro - The last day of the Vichara Training in August, Master Yoga studio burned down. I was one of the people who closed the studio the last night and came to open it in the morning. When we arrived it was burned to the ground. A sense of disbelief washed over me. I couldn't believe how something could be here for one minute and gone the next. As all of us gathered we shared our shock, talked to the fire marshal and gathered what we had in our cars and moved to another building, creating another space to finish our work. Rama led us back to our Vichara session. Clair Oaks arrived with a puja. The reality set in - no one got hurt, we lost things, but Master Yoga is alive and well. We will rebuild as we have so many times. This incredible style of yoga helps us all open to a new reality - a new site.
Addie Alex - When we arrived and saw that the building had burned down to the ground I was incredulous. This is unbelievable. In a way it stopped my thinking. Wow! After talking with some of the inspectors and other yogis, I walked around to where the front door was, by myself. Immediately and inner calling out to Nityananda arose in me. It was like I was asking, "Nityananda - What is this? What is going on? Help me to understand." Through the morning vichara session, I looked at "What is the foundation that is holding me up?" Do I lean into Master Yoga, the building? What do I lean into really? What is my foundation? It is not this physical building. When I saw Rama and could feel she was OK I took that as permission to not be the one holding things together. I could let go and allow this event to have an impact. I could experience the smoke, the burn down, caved in building and the power that could make something be here yesterday and not today - in a different way. I could let it in. My body trembled and shook and quivered on the inside and I knew my inner circuitry was being scrambled. My sense of foundation is shifting. It certainly is not this building where Master Yoga has been housed. Even calling out to Nityananda is not the foundation - it is something much deeper in myself. This event has free me from some limiting beliefs and invited me to find and feel the texture of my own inner foundation - THE SELF. Namaste and with gratitude to be a part of this Community.
Dorothy Barbara - We left the house that morning after three days of torrential rain. I turned and said to Sandy, "It looks like we're going to clear things up today." I couldn't believe my ears when right before we turned into the parking lot when Sandy said, "OH my God, Master Yoga has burnt down." She said I stopped the car at that point. I don't remember. I crept into the parking lot hoping that was just a bad joke or mistake. It was like the death of a friend. A building that was like a security blanket. I thought about my notebook and all the vichara work along with my cell phone buried under the rubble, melted along with Nityananda and Ganesh and felt a sense of relief. Taking this course was helping me to clear a way the stuff and changing my perspective on old beliefs. I felt so glad to be here when this happened. To see Tarlika in her trench coat looking like a detective taking pictures as the rest of us stood talking to the fire marshal and the owner of the building, trying to piece together what could have caused this. Elizabeth was on the phone talking to Rama. It was as though she was right there with us. We all got the message and were back on track. Gather all the blankets you can, go have breakfast; we'll be starting at 7:30am!! And we did. Our first question - what are you aware of? Thank you Rama for holding this space for us. The rest of the day went on as if nothing happened. It was only a building!!
Leslie Johnson - When I arrived at the training site and saw that the building had burned down, I was in a place of - it's all gone. I was a little sad and there was some beauty and amazement and wonderment. It wasn't the building anymore; it was what remained that was worth experiencing. I looked at the ash structure of what remained and where there was space. I looked for objects and described to the authorities where things used to be as much as I could remember. And hugged a few of us in recognition that we had shared a loss and that it was really all right. We all engaged in comments about how this mirrors our Vichara Training. We have gone on with the final day of our training using another facility. Rama sits with us supporting us in our process of "experiencing what we are experiencing." There is a special intimacy about this experience that we are all here together supporting one another in another opportunity to look into ourselves. How beautiful.
Tarlika Anderson - We'd been having problems all day with fluctuating electrical current, the phones, broken water pump, no water and going out for lunch and bathroom breaks. Then this morning, Nansi and I arrived and saw all these cars parked in the driveway and thought, "Oh, they're working on the electrical problem." (She's smarter than I am). Just another foot into the driveway we saw - no building! The stone wall at the end was there; the rest was sagging charred beams, the roof almost completely collapsed. I think I said, "WOW!" It was pretty impressive. Something totally there was not totally gone. No more electrical problems! Something about it being so gone made it clear and complete - like a clean cut rather than a jagged laceration. In some ways, in terms of the training, it was not much more inconvenient than the problems of the past few days. The landlord gave us a space in the building next door (mercifully undamaged) to finish our training, and we continue to go out to neighboring stores to pee. We had a wonderful opportunity to use the vichara technique to digest the experience. The fires marshals and inspectors were very nice, very thorough. The firemen who put out the fire were long gone to their day jobs or back to the firehouse. The insurance inspector came, too, and soon there will be a clean up. And the landlord says he may rebuild and, of course, we will have to find a new space. Rama and Master Yoga will need money. Please send what you can. Some things are irreplaceable, but we all know what blankets, stereos, and computers, etc cost. Boxes of the CD's Rama sells are gone, the puja is gone, the two filing cabinets full of printed out pink sheets are gone. The phone is gone; the coffeemaker is one. Send what you can, once we have somewhere to put it.
Nansi Colley - On Tuesday afternoon we heard a pop and the lights flickered momentarily. The pump for the well went out. No water for afternoon tea and coffee. Oh! No toilets. Oops! We had breaks for trips to Home Depot and the nearby Hampton hotel. The plumber arrived on Wednesday AM. He said it was not a pump problem, but electrical. The electrician came in the afternoon and thought the problem might have been at the pole in the transformer/state power lines. All day the lights were dimming on and off, a weird "browning out". We did vichara until 9:30 PM on Wednesday evening and went home. The next morning at 6:30 AM as we drove in, Tarlika and I saw the lots of cars and trucks. I said, how great! They are here fixing our electricity already, and so early in the AM! Then we got closer and saw a stream of smoke. Why is there smoke coming out of our building? I muttered. Then we got closer. The skeleton of the building was charred, destroyed. The Fire Marshall was there, along with many other men. Everyone was so nice to us. There was a sweetness, a surrender, as we all stood there . looking . absorbing.
One of the State Police men said that they had gotten the call at approximately 11:56 PM. (We thought that is was amusing that it was an approximate time). Flames were bursting forth, horizontally out the windows. That meant that the fire was already ablaze not too long after we left, and very intense. We were all relieved that no one was in the building at the time. The Fire Marshall was like Colombo as he inquired about events, candles, any unusual people around. He was so gentle with us. He said, "I will need to ask you questions throughout the day, is that OK? I may need to ask you the same question more than once, since each time, there may be a different understanding". We laughed, since we were in the Vichara course, he had the perfect group. The heat must have been enormous. Everything was burned, melted. We were told that the heat kept building up as long as the tile roof was intact. It was not until the roof collapsed that the heat could disperse. All that was left were the skeletons of the refrigerator, chairs and filing cabinets. In the filing cabinets, charred remains of the pink pose sheets, in the rubble, a square of blanket, a portion of Ganesh. I was in awe of the power of the fire. The smell of charcoal pervaded the air. There was a sweet surrender I felt, as we all stood there. There was so much love, with us and also with the work crews - police and fire department. Rama directed us to have breakfast, gather up blankets and pillows meet back in 1 hour in a large room in the other building. Rama was such a role model; such strength. We did vichara. Rama skillfully led us through vichara as we sorted out our feelings and reactions to the fire. Rama was so poised, so clear, so calm, so focused. The vichara sessions were highly effective at processing in a very deep and effective way, my reactions and feelings. Clair arrived with a puja, which was so sweet. The day went on, we completed the course, and we were able to focus on the work ahead of us for the day. The vichara in the AM allowed us to let go and to focus. In the afternoon, I thought about the tragic loss of all the books and the puja. Hopefully we can replace some books from used bookstores, or on Ebay or Amazon. It would be wonderful to have a list, and all of us could keep an eye out. Master Yoga is so much more than a building, blankets, blocks and knee-pads. We will get new blankets, new blocks, a new puja, a kitchen. We have each other, the grace and love abounds.
Thank you for your love and concern, and for your prayers and blessings.
Namaste,
Rama
For schedule information, click here. For more information, contact Caroline Kennedy at 619-718-9642, ext. 5 or myti@masteryoga.org. If you would like our full course catalog, click here.
