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Hot Nude Yoga founder Aaron Star took a recent trip to India, where he discovered a new kind of courage on the side of a mountain. Pictured at right, an X-ray of Star’s broken leg.
(Photos courtesy of Aaron Star)
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HOME > ENTERTAINMENT > FEATURE
AARON STAR COMMENTS
 
continued...
this fire and, with whom, I have shared moments of deep and exquisite bliss. In those moments, no words need to be exchanged and no thoughts need even to be uttered. The fire consumes all ego and time.
Many residents of the Himalayas live a simple life that hasn't been touched by the outside world. Most villagers don't have locks on their doors and stealing is a foreign concept. In actual fact, many of the villagers we have met would be happy and willing to bring you into their home to take care of you. They own nothing and yet have everything to offer you. The warmth in their eyes and the beautiful smiles that live on their lips are treasures a pilgrim can store in the chamber of his heart.
As a leader with the privilege of bringing groups to India and on into the Himalayas as often as I can, I present an opportunity to individual pilgrims to come to India without any of their preconceived notions, ideas and belief systems and experience life in the moment. Some of my students make a choice to let go of their baggage, knowing or sensing that there is a kingdom of rewards which await them while others hold desperately onto their identities as if their very lives depended on it and, in fear that if they let go, somehow they become something less.
From the journals of Brian Gorman, one of the participants in the Sept. 2007 trip:
“We stop at Darwa Pass where we eat lunch at approximately 13,000 feet. The descent is steep, muddy. We encounter a family herding water buffalo. As I observe them, their smiles, I understand that they have so much less than I do, and so much more. I begin to think about the importance of letting go. Tonight at Dodital, I journal on how so much unhappiness is the result of 'need' and expectation, both of which are artificial creations of our culture. I begin to record what I have been letting go of: dry shoes, dry feet and dry clothes. Letting go of all the scents we put on our bodies in various guises. Letting go of hot showers or any showers. Letting go of being in control. It is small, it is temporary and it is experimental. Yet it is important.
I sleep with a smile on my face.”
Why do I practice yoga and what brought me to India?
The reasons why I began practicing yoga were personal and quite selfish. In the beginning, I was actually afraid of physically aging because I observed that people who “were older” showed signs of limited movement and poor posture.
However, when I witnessed those rare individuals who “were older” and yet appeared youthful with mobility and freedom in their movements, I began to see that it was their willingness to move and stretch their bodies that enabled them to appear to spring through life. At an early age I adopted the mantra, “Use it or loose it.”
Basically, I was a lazy man back then. Yes, I worked out but I had absolutely no motivation to stretch before or after my workouts. My body seemed to be getting tighter with each passing moment and I began to realize how much I really needed to stretch, so I began to practice yoga.
Over time, my reasons for practicing yoga have changed as a result of my practice,<
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