tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804Sun, 20 Oct 2024 05:26:06 +0000IndiaYogaBuddhismChennaiDharamkotIyengarSri LankaTravelUnawatunadepartureinner journeymeditationspiritual questAccidentAlleppeyAmberArambolArunachalaAsanaAyurvedaBackwatersBangaloreBodhgayaBuddhaBusinessClosureDestructionDharamsalaDurgaExileFallFestivalsGaneshGoaHIYCHealingHigh techHimalaya Iyengar Yoga CentreHuman ResourcesIndia. leavingJaipurKandyKeralaKochiKolkataKottakkalKrishnamacharyaLabyrinthMcleodganjMiracleMovingMughalMusicNetworkingODPalacePondicherryPranayamaProcessPurkalPushkarRajasthanRajpurRefugeeRetreatRock and RollStressSurrenderTaj MahalThaliThanksgivingThiruvannamalaiTibetTibetanTourismTsunamiVaranasiVipassanaVishnuchange of lifecleansecleansingfastfastinggrass rootjourneylayoffpovertyprofessionalrural developmentsoul searchingthailandThe experience of a corporate Vice President of Human Resources as he leaves the United States and the business world of Silicon Valley for a one year sabbatical in India, undertaking a spiritual quest exploring yoga and the Indian culture.http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)Blogger19125en-usnoCopyright Richard Major 2008India,spiritual,quest,seeker,asia,travel,sabbatical,human,resources,high,techSnippets of the experience of a corporate Vice President of Human Resources as he leaves the United States and the business world of Silicon Valley for a sabbatical of spiritual quest to India.Inner Journey to Indianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-8853919929379721948Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:32:00 +00002013-06-03T15:33:26.950-07:00BangaloreBusinessHigh techHuman ResourcesNetworkingODprofessional After 6 weeks of intensive yoga practice in Goa, on March 16th a 24 hour train ride took us to Bangalore for a few weeks of high tech business networking. It proved to be a stimulating shift from our yoga journey, reconnecting me to my professional life and the high tech business. From Goa yoga..................................................to Bangalore business blast!For years I had beenhttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2009/07/bangalore-business.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-6383306658230394803Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:20:00 +00002013-06-03T15:39:49.202-07:00AmberIndiaJaipurMughalPalacePushkarRajasthanTaj Mahal After two and a half weeks of high tech business networking in Bangalore, we left on a 44 hour train ride for Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, where we spent a week visiting textile stores, clothes shops and historical sites. We made some block print cloth purchases and added a new facet to our trip: sourcing, negotiating, making and shipping wholesale clothes to my son Kevin, who started http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/from-rajasthan-to-kathmandu.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-488686828956804301Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:48:00 +00002013-06-03T15:40:43.479-07:00ArambolAsanaGoaHimalaya Iyengar Yoga CentreHIYCIyengarmeditationPranayamaYoga We reached the beaches of Arambol in northern Goa on January 31st, just 24 hours after leaving Chennai, four days after returning from Sri Lanka and one year after leaving California. Kamala enjoying the open door train ride ~~~ Indian passengers in Chennai station Ever since friends in France had been visiting India in the 70’s, I had thought that Goa was a town. Little did I know it was a http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/yoga-in-goa.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-1007107290793315622Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:36:00 +00002013-06-03T15:44:17.927-07:00DestructionSri LankaTourismTsunamiUnawatuna As the train took us down the western coast of Sri Lanka from Colombo to Galle, we were shocked by the disastrous effects of the Tsunami that had hit four years earlier. Entire lots of ruined houses, others with only building foundations left; stacks of bricks, piles of shredded cement walls, shack-towns where people have been surviving ever since their belongings and past lives were washed awayhttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2009/01/four-stories-of-tsunami.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-7481673332683209157Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:07:00 +00002013-06-03T15:47:08.539-07:00AlleppeyBackwatersKandyKeralaKochiSri LankaUnawatuna We’re now in Unawatuna, a beach town near Galle, on the South Western tip of Sri Lanka, on a few days of “vacation”, celebrating our one year of traveling through Thailand and India! Since my fall in the stairwell eight weeks ago, I’ve been progressively, albeit slowly, recovering. It’s taken me this time to feel anything close to “normal”, and energy is still in limited supply. Recovering http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2009/01/just-travel-update-from-southern-sri.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-8512516691627720664Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:32:00 +00002009-01-21T05:41:09.546-08:00ChennaiIndiaKrishnamacharyaspiritual questYogaKrishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM) is the one and only thing that brought us to Chennai early September 2008 to attend a one month, holistic yoga course called “Universal yet Personal, the Yoga of Krishnamacharya” followed by a 2 week class focused on Vedic chanting, named “Pilgrimage of Sound”, that covered Vedic chants, methods and ancient texts.KYM has the unique value of being an establishedhttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2009/01/krishnamacharya-yoga-mandiram.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-7395154455531311083Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:08:00 +00002008-12-02T21:12:35.491-08:00ChennaiDurgaFestivalsGaneshThaliThe 36 hour train ride from Delhi to ChennaiWe arrived in Chennai late August 2008 after a 36 hour non-stop train trip from Delhi. The plan to take that long a ride was bold, though our only option to get to Chennai, as we wanted to avoid spending hundreds of dollars on air travel. When we reserved our bunkers two months ahead of time, we knew what to expect. We had already traveled in 2/AC, the http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/12/chennai-small-town-of-45-million.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-2460090285695018874Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:53:00 +00002008-12-02T20:57:23.005-08:00AccidentAyurvedaFallHealingKottakkalMiracleSurrenderThanksgivingVishnuIn the USA, “giving thanks” goes back to when the European pilgrims arrived in what was a wild and untamed land. They created the celebration at Harvest season, symbol of abundance, to express gratefulness for surviving through the first harsh winter that decimated many of them. I feel very grateful for my parents, for my ancestors, and for those pilgrims who gave us the example of overcoming http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/11/thanksgiving-vishnus-unseen-hand.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-599049657815796747Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:31:00 +00002008-11-08T08:53:05.119-08:00ArunachalaIndiainner journeyPondicherryProcessRetreatThiruvannamalaiTowards the end of October, as we were preparing to leave Chennai after 2 months of studying yoga, a sense of open, undefined space surfaced. It was the first time in 9 months that we were without any plans or definite destinations. We were heading south and wanted to experience ashram life during the winter. I knew above anything else that we needed a place to settle down and just have time to http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/11/at-foot-of-arunachala-red-mountain.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-4226304313377746903Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:59:00 +00002008-08-31T03:10:25.562-07:00BuddhismDharamkotDharamsalaExileIndiaMusicRefugeeRock and RollTibetTibetanThe first I heard about JJI Exile Brothers was from my son Kevin, who had spent some time in McLeodganj, the town above Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives. By the way, in Hindi, Dharamsala means “abode of people in pursuit of the Divine”. Dharamsalas are hostels on pilgrim routes, where pilgrims or sadhus (wandering holy men) can find refuge for the night.Kevin told us about the best http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/08/tibetan-exile-brothers-connection.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-828326774337195597Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:01:00 +00002008-08-20T20:21:59.478-07:00grass rootIndiapovertyPurkalRajpurrural developmentThe day before yesterday we visited a small, local NGO called Purkal Youth Development Society (for editing purposes I'm taking the freedom to use an acronym PYDS) www.purkal.org, strongly endorsed by our yoga teachers. The Swami couple created the first program 10 years ago when they started to help a few local children with their studying. Since then they have made it their full time occupationhttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/08/purkal-youth-development-society.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-7397715619528348188Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:22:00 +00002008-08-20T20:29:33.871-07:00BuddhaBuddhismIndiainner journeymeditationVipassanaI practiced different forms of meditation for some years in the ‘80s in France, as member of a traditional spiritual school. In the past 15 years, I only practiced occasionally, to rediscover meditation in 2003 while going through a major life crisis. Since then I felt the need to resume a regular, intentional practice.I first heard of Vipassana a couple of years ago from Kamala. She had done a http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/08/monastic-experience-of-vipassana.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-1017472776399390152Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:38:00 +00002008-08-10T09:02:59.814-07:00DharamkotIndiaIyengarMcleodganjYogaWow! The last entry I posted was way back in Varanasi, early April… Could that actually have been 4 months ago? Believe it or not, I have recomposed these first lines of this blog entry probably 100 times in my head, over and over… Sometimes while doing yoga, sometimes when going to sleep, on hikes, while eating or meditating. I was thinking of the silence created over time, the potential loss ofhttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/08/back-to-blogging-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-2554538303251193849Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:28:00 +00002008-04-13T05:21:55.600-07:00BodhgayaIndiajourneyKolkataVaranasiKolkataGoing through immigration, customs, money exchange and taxi reservation was surprisingly seamless coming into Kolkata from Bangkok at 1:30pm. Granted, we waited half an hour to get our last bag... It was around 2:30 when the security X-ray officer told me his story about the customs department holding-back the unloading of the third and last luggage container; that he had been working http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-first-two-weeks-in-india.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-8909859703149922894Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:57:00 +00002008-03-16T10:51:18.198-07:00We have now been in Thailand for almost two months. We’ve taken almost every transportation mode and visited some atypical places. The clothing wholesale market in Bangkok with our friend Moshe from the fashion industry, or registering at Bumrungrad, a state of the art Thai hospital for our vaccination boosters, walking through back road hamlets on Koh Samui island, or riding through Karen hill http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/03/impressions-of-thai-people-and-country.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-9150682688039346619Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:10:00 +00002008-12-10T12:38:26.824-08:00Day 1: We drew a rune from Ralph Blum’s Book of Runes www.amazon.com/book-runes-handbook-ancient-anniversary/dp/0312097581 to harvest some food for thought on this first experience of our journey. The Book of Runes is a reflection tool that develops self-awareness and sensitivity to subtle patterns of our personalities and our life events. The rune we drew, Spiritual Warrior, focuses on funding ahttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/03/empty-space-of-fasting-details-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-2407816596303838785Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:34:00 +00002008-12-10T12:38:31.527-08:00cleansecleansingfastfastingsoul searchingspiritual questthailandTravelOur first step in Asia Check in at SFO - Very tired in Tokyo-NaritaLeaving Manhattan the morning of January 28th, we spent 22 hours on planes and 10 hours in airports, as well as a night layover in California, before arriving at the Atlanta hotel in Bangkok at 1:30 am on the 30th. We had made it! And our adventure was starting with no travel reservations whatsoever beyond the 2 nights in Bangkok…http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/03/creating-empty-space-of-fasting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-759969273427405118Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:11:00 +00002008-12-10T12:38:33.486-08:00ClosuredepartureLabyrinthMovingStressTravelAs I start blackening the pages of my blog, I acknowledge that we are now really set on our journey.Over the past two months, we transitioned from a crazy decision one evening in November to actually leaving the country for a year.Since then we have had a family reconciliation Thanksgiving, we have sorted, packed and moved two houses into a 9’ x 19’ storage unit, gone to LA for family Christmas, http://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/02/through-long-curves-of-labyrinth.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6842387959962274804.post-5848498365291680087Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:22:00 +00002008-12-10T12:38:34.255-08:00change of lifedepartureIndia. leavinglayoff After setting out in '74 at age 16 to go to India and never making it, my desire was intact 33 years later to have an authentic life experience in this mystical and magical country. Despite intensive personal and professional world-travel, I had yet to make it to this long-cherished destination. For years I had maintained a firm goal to some day be relocated to Asia and live there a few years tohttp://innerjourneytoindia.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-did-i-get-here-from-there-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard Major)2