There is a yoga studio near 27th Street and 6th Avenue.

I thought I would settle in and get a job right away when I arrived in New York, but in reality, there was nothing I could do other than go to an English academy.
When I complained that I had too much time but no money and didn't know what to do, my friend suggested that I go to a yoga studio that only costs 5 dollars.
This is the story of how I started practicing yoga in New York and gradually became more serious about it.
Ultimately, it was a story of experiencing a level of selflessness that is difficult for ordinary people to experience, and being confused as to whether there was some cosmic purpose behind this experience or whether it was a supernatural power.
Anyway, the twenty-first story in the series is about a yogi living in New York.

When I actually arrived in New York, I realized that my English was at a level where I couldn't even properly order a coffee at Starbucks, let alone have a daily conversation. I also realized that it would be difficult to get a job at the company I wanted if I didn't graduate from a U.S. university or graduate school, and even if I did get a job, it would be difficult to get a work visa.
There was nothing I could do other than go to English school.
New York was too expensive and costly for me to afford.
I was complaining to a friend who had arrived in New York before me and was already settled, saying that I had too much time and no money to know what to do. My friend suggested that I go to a yoga studio that only costs $5.
That's how I ended up going to a yoga studio.
--- p.13

That was the first time I realized that there was such passion in the world.
The passion to focus on and accept myself as I am, not for showing off or showing off to someone else.
I'm wearing nothing but a stretched-out t-shirt and sweatpants with my knees sticking out, not even yoga pants, but it's okay, no one cares.
I realized this as I watched them push the mats together so tightly that they kept bumping into the people in front, behind, and on either side of them, but no one showed any sign of displeasure, and they compromised with each other's movements while focusing solely on themselves.
That it is possible, and that it is the real world we live in.

--- p.17

The first part of Bikram Yoga is a series of poses where you stand on one leg and maintain balance, but I kept falling or losing my balance and staggering.
Then, one day, six months later, he suddenly started to develop a habit of standing on one leg. When he was trying to stand on one leg, he would crouch down, spread his toes like a duck's foot with his fingers, and try to keep his balance by standing up.
As I spent a year trying to imitate it, however clumsily, I gradually became more familiar with the yoga poses and started hearing compliments from time to time (“Good, Ivory!”), and as I began to feel more relaxed, I began to see things I hadn’t seen before.

--- p.27

The two-minute shower, which used to make me anxious just thinking about it, actually gave me a sense of relaxation.
And it made me rethink the standards of cleanliness that I had taken for granted.
It's okay to sweat a little, it's okay to put your bag on the floor, it's okay to sit on the bare floor.
It's okay if you don't show off.
As more and more things started to get better, I started to think about why I had thought they weren't okay all along, and how many things I had just assumed were not okay without even thinking about them.
--- p.30

What we do every moment of every day without being conscious of it, what without it life itself cannot survive, what is both unconscious and conscious, what makes us quick when we are surprised and calm when we are at ease, what is always the first to respond to all emotions, what guides us on the journey to concentration, meditation and non-self, and what stops when life is over, that is pranayama, or breathing.
In Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga, pranayama comes after asana.
It is difficult and important enough to come after asana.
At that time, the pranayama I learned was a very basic breathing technique, but after five or six years, my pranayama practice had become a practice that led to dharana (high concentration), dhyana (meditation), and anatta (no-self).

--- p.39

Westerners sometimes call kundalini energy ecstasy.
It makes you feel good, your body feels lighter, you feel more confident, and all kinds of ideas come to mind, and it is also highly addictive.
When I encountered that energy, no one explained to me what it was.
It took me a year to stop wandering and finally figure out how to harness that energy.
The late Yogi Bhajan said this while he was still alive:
“Kundalini Yoga can never be realized without love for the Guru.” Jared’s boundless trust completely broke down my doubts and defensive walls, awakening the infinite energy latent within me.
--- p.123

It was supposed to be dawn, but it was midwinter, so at 5:30 in the morning it was still dark like midnight, and the lights weren't on at all.
However, thanks to the red light produced by the heater, I could make out the figure of a man drinking tea in the distance, who I somehow assumed was Mr. Han Joo-hoon, and the figures of people sitting in three or four rows side by side on the soft floor without yoga mats.
I squeezed my way into the space between the people and sat down, and after a while I started to hear voices.
“Bhujangasana.”
--- p.136

Although I can't remember his name or face, he clearly had a huge influence on my yoga life.
I now tell my students and everyone around me what he said.
Today, I speak to those who give up before even trying something, saying it won't work, or who give up after trying a little and saying it won't work.
How much potential you have.
“You never know!”

--- p.149