Chainsaw Meditation

Sofia rang around 2pm to ask if I wanted to go to "the concert" tonight. I assumed she meant the concert of our mutual friend, Tincho, who has a "Jack Johnson cover band." Apparently I misunderstood (one of those things of speaking another language), as this was the other concert, "this Indian thing" she had told me about a week before. In any case, it was a far stretch to label it a concert, even in Spanish.

As we took off our shoes and arranged yoga mats on what appeared to be a new age dance floor, it became apparent that I was about to embark on a spiritual journey of Indian mantras interpreted by an Argentinian guru. We began with relaxation and breathing exercises before laying down flat with our eyes closed in a sun formation. The guru started by playing long, drawn out notes on an accordion while singing in a similar fashion in a minor key (harmonic minor for all you music cats). She then followed with Tibetan Singing Bowls and various bells.

Then came "the chainsaw," a non-motorized instrument with a pull-cord and an attitude. The noise was supposed to represent the ocean, but sounded more like a tsunami. Sofia later remarked that this broke her concentration, which the guru replied was the objective of learning to move back to a meditative state from those noises that we aren't too fond of. We also had a participatory harmonizing session of singing the Ganesha Mantra that my old music teacher Mark Hoover (or anyone from Vocal Ens.) would have loved. It was a rewarding and worthwhile experience and I may return next week for some yoga by the same Guru.

To nourish our newly awakened spiritual selves, we grabbed some surprisingly tasty vegetarian food at Sana Sana which is a must-do if you're ever in Rosario. Any Argentine place that can take veggies and make them taste better than meat as well as spice up a stir fry is top notch in my book, now on to read more about mantras...