Me

India. As a monk he had traveled to Nepal and Tibet, and he later spent many years in the mountains of Thailand. But one day he fell in love with a Chinese woman and decided to stop being a monk so that he could get married and start a family. Now he worked at the hotel.
    “Monkeys are born monkeys because they are meant to live up in the trees,” he said, “and human beings are born to reproduce. So I stopped being a monk, and now I am married and have two beautiful daughters. Even though I am no longer a monk, the experience helped me find my way.”
    His words touched my soul. His story intrigued me as well as his wisdom, but most of all I felt something special in the presence of this man and I didn’t want him to leave so fast. I wanted to keep asking him questions, and to hear the rest of his story. I don’t know if it was because he was Puerto Rican like me, or if it was because he had such a special aura, but I felt that we had a very powerful connection. Maybe it was just intuition, but the fact is I wasn’t wrong.
    “Wait a minute!” I said to him. “You and I have to talk. Do you have a moment to come with me? I would love to speak with you some more.”
    He answered with a great big smile and came up in the elevator with me, to my room. Once there, we continued our conversation.
    Recently I had begun to realize that there was a whole world of spiritual disciplines that until now I had ignored. A friend of mine, who was then one of my backup singers, was very immersed in the subject of esotericism, and he was slowly introducing me to this world. At that point it was enough for someone to say the word “yoga” or “karma” or “meditation,” and I was fascinated.
    “This is so amazing. Right now, I am interested in these very subjects, and you show up in my world at this exact moment,” I said to the ex-monk.
    After sitting there together for a while, I called my friend the backup singer to come and join us. And the three of us began to talk about life. We talked about so many things that I no longer remember any of the details, but I know they had a huge impact on me. By the time we were called for the sound check, my head was spinning. I asked my new friend to stay with us while we did the sound check, and once again, he accepted.
    I was so fascinated with the conversation I was having with my friend and the ex-monk that I tried to absorb each word they said and every concept they explained. Even though I knew a bit about the philosophy they were discussing, the depths of what they were talking about were completely new to me. As they were talking, it became time for dinner and some food was brought up from the kitchen. I asked the ex-monk: “You’re not going to eat?”
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said to me. “This is nourishment for me. I feel satisfaction just from sitting here talking and sharing with you.”
    I mention this as one of the many wise reflections this man gave me that day. He is an extraordinary man who opened my eyes to a whole new world I had no previous knowledge of, and he taught me what I needed to do in order to learn more.
    As we got to know one another even better, the spiritual connection I felt with him from the beginning turned out to be very real. I felt as though we had known each other all of our lives. Just as it is said that there is love at first sight, our friendship was like friendship at first sight. Today I refer to him as the little yogi, not because he holds the official title of “yogi” within the yoga practice, but simply to give him the name of some kind of teacher, considering how much he has taught me. He became a spiritual guide for me.
    I feel that for most of my life I have been on a spiritual journey. I have always sought to find tranquillity, serenity, inner peace, God—regardless of the name that is given to Him/Her. So when I encountered this man who emanated so much wisdom and such a deep understanding of these subjects, it did not take long to convince me that the three of us (myself, my backup singer, and our new friend) would need to go on a journey to the source of his knowledge.

OPENING MY WESTERN EYES
    EIGHT DAYS AFTER meeting the little yogi in Bangkok, I flew back home to Miami for the opening of a restaurant. But we didn’t say good-bye for too long, as the decision had already been made: We planned to travel to India together; all I had to do was take care of some pending matters before we would embark on our