We read eighteen verses a week on the terrace. Nobody is asked to believe anything, and that is precisely why people come.
On Wednesday evenings we read. Whoever wants to sit, sits — usually eight or nine people, occasionally two.
What the session is
A short passage in Sanskrit, a plain translation, and then a genuinely open conversation about whether it is useful. Guests disagree with the text often and nobody minds.
What it is not
It is not instruction, it is not initiation, and there is no lineage being claimed. We are a hotel with a library and a terrace.
The most common thing guests take home is not a belief. It is the habit of sitting down with a difficult page.
Why the terrace
Because the light goes at about the time the argument gets interesting, and having to stop is good for a discussion.
Reading, silence, temple mornings and Himalayan practice — for seekers and sceptics on the same terrace.
Twelve years of Hatha and pranayama, trained in Rishikesh, teaches at 5:50 am without complaint.
1 comment
I came expecting to be preached at and instead had the best argument of my week.