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I went to Maui to work on second series of ashtanga yoga. Nancy Gilgoff was the first Western woman to study with Guruji (Sri K Patthabi Jois), my teacher in India. I met her during a week-long workshop in Vermont in early November, although I had known of her and her connection to the practice for many years.

I went in part because our plans to go to India had fallen through; in part because she was a woman and a senior ashtanga teacher; and in part for reasons that I wasn't quite sure of at the time. Also, an old friend of mine was living on the island and had a room for rent the month I wanted to be there. It all seemed to fall into place, especially when I got there.

I hadn't reserved a car before I went, which in Maui around Christmas time isn't a very good idea. The majority of travel on Maui is done on back two lane roads, and locals don't take too kindly to bicycles. Being told locals had the occasional tendency toward running them off the road halted my dreams of conquering Maui by bicycle. So I settled for a car AND and job at the local health food store in Makawao, center of alternative culture traffic upcountry.

Finding Nancy's studio was an adventure. The first place we asked sent us to a yoga studio, but it wasn't Nancy's. The people at the studio gave us the real directions, so we dutifully drove towards Haiku from Makawao, and turned at the driveway next to the sign that said Òrganic Tomatoes.

We finally found the studiot. There was a green carpet, and where Sai Baba, Baba Hari Dass, and Tibetan Buddhist paintings adorned the walls at the house of Yoga and Zen. And the crowning testament: a collage of a younger Guruji adjusting a crowd of senior teachers in their younger days. Tim Miller, Nancy, Brian Kest's father, to name a few.

I came to find that this House of Yoga and Zen is not a formal affair. No front desk, just a small brown table, and no credit cards accepted. If you come every day you pay ten dollars per class, and there is no advertising, which is a term of their tenancy on the property they've occupied for at least 20 years. The landlord is Harry, and they say that Patthabi calls him Larry when he comes to teach on the island. Harry practices every day in the far right corner. Practice is at 7:30 a.m. except Sundays, when it's at 8:15, and Saturdays and moon days, which are holidays.

I had a few practice days off in the beginning, the product of the juxtaposition of a moon day, a Saturday, and a few other holidays. My first practice day was with Edward Clarke, who was visiting Nancy's for a workshop from London, where he directs the Tripsichore Yoga Theatre. Tripsichore is an incredible form of yoga that takes vinyasa to a new universe. In a single day, Edward Clarke showed us things that I think I will begin to understand in a decade.

So there isn't a lot to say about practice at Nancy's. That in itself says a lot, at least for me. I went to class every day. It was cold most mornings. I struggled not to be late. I breathed. Nancy says that our breath is what takes the practice of yoga into all of your life.

I met people and we talked about yoga and India and Patthabi and about life. I learned more people's life stories and intricacies. I learned more of my own.

Einar (my husband) came for a week at Christmas and we saw a bit of the Island together. Nancy said nice things to Einar.
We had Christmas Eve at Nancy's, and we all went to see the Tibetan Monks perform to support their monastery. We saw Bhagavan Das give Kirtan (Indian Devotional Chanting) and I cried through most of it.

Everyone hugged you on Maui, especially Merritt, who's actually from Texas. Some days we went to the beach before I had to go to work. Some days we meant to hike, but went to the beach because we were too tired from practicing to do anything else. One day I went with Betsy around the island to the seven sacred pools, and we saw an enormous steer running down the road toward our car. Several Sunday mornings we ate at Pauwela's in the the sun. That was my favorite.

A girl named Kate began her preparations for third series. We watched from the corner of our eyes. Nancy gave Christine Hoar new postures from third to work on, and we all tried not to watch. Drishti, drishti, drishti (gaze). Most days I simply did first series and what I could of second before I was too tired to go on. I was where I was. And I breathed. And with Nancy's help I surrendered. You couldn't help it really. Nancy's way isn't really about the verbal, although her verbal cues can plant seeds.
What I really felt was that Nancy's teaching, like Patthabi's, is through touch. I doubted that I could go through what I watched her help people do, but when she touched me, I instinctively trusted her completely, and found willingness to go there. She has healer's hands, and like Patthabi, she teaches with her hands.

After 35 days I found myself put on a plane for Oakland, in awe, as usual, that it went so quickly. 35 days had made Maui almost home and Mountain View almost a foreign place. Luckily it was warm when I came home. And I was thrilled as much as my new husband to be home.

Like my trip to India I felt changed. A little more processed; a little more lived in and through. And once again it was in a way verbally inexpressible, except to those who share this practice.

I could not tell you exactly what was different in me, studying with Nancy for a while. A lot of what Nancy imparted came in seeds sown when I saw her in Vermont. They were watered by rains of practice on Maui, day in and day out; unfastening of shoes outside the door of the house of Yoga and Zen.

Recently I went to the city one morning to practice. I could feel the differences from my practice a month before. They weren't obvious or outward. Inside I was just a little stronger, just a little quieter, and just a little more beyond.

I think that's what makes Nancy's gifts as a teacher easy to miss and priceless just the same. For her this is a spiritual practice, as much or more than a physical one. Where you put your foot in this posture is in terms not just of your body but where this practice is meant to take your soul. And Nancy's been there. She teaches from a consciousness of that place. Llike Patthabi she teaches from that place.

Anne Finstad