I came across this quote recently, and it's stuck in my mind:
Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. -- Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)
Tip of the hat to WordSmith -- no relation.
I went to the weekly Art of Living group kriya at Chris Smythe's home near the New York Ave. Metro station on the Red Line. I had not done the group kriya in three or four month so it was a welcome re-energizing experience. About 10 people were there. Afer the kriya, we watched some AoL videos and Chris served up his tofu dinner. I had not seen Chris in over a year. He was my instructor in the introductory course that I took in March 2004.
Normaly on Wednesday evenings, I am doing yoga with Stephanie at Flow Yoga but she was feeling bad yesterday and backed out so I decided to try something different. I did not get home until 10:30 so I don't know if this is something that I can do every week.
Over the long holiday weekend, I took in a lot of yoga at Thrive Yoga, two classes with Susan Bowen and one Tuesday evening with Rachel Levine. These were all full-bore 90-minute classes with no break to learn new positions or prepare for getting into harder positions as happens in my more learning-oriented classes in Flow Yoga. Last night I went to my weekly encounter with Stephanie and yoga at Flow Yoga, but there was a new teacher because Andrea is visiting family. It was more a flow practice than before.
It's intriguing how frequency and intensity of classes increases the quality of the experience. I needed a towel to mop up the sweat and I still ended up soaked. I lost control of my breathing at several points but it was because I was going deeper into poses, not chasing to keep up with the flow. These occasions helped me realize how far I had come in strength and stamina and how much I still had to learn and gain in flexibility and knowledge.One thing is for sure -- I think I finally feel comfortable in the standard vinyasa sequence (chatarunga to cobra or up-dog to downdog). I got lots of reps in the past few days. I came to regard this sequence as a kind of rest period within the routine. But the new ease with which I approach this sequence also opens the possibility of experiencing them more intimately, observing how my body and its parts integrate in each pose and how I go deeper.
By sheer coincidence, Alan Little went to a yoga workshop in Berlin at the same time as I was sweating my practice. As usual, his blog entries are thought-provoking because they help me understand where my body is taking me. Alan explains about Pratyahara: "Normally translated into English as 'sense withdrawal,' pratyahara is about transferring one's attention from what is going on in the outside world, to whatever the yogi's chosen object of attention might be."
Alan provides some notes from the David Williams workshop, but the core of the teachings can be found at Williams's website in three articles written by people who had attended his classes. Williams also provides a good summary in a Letter to Students. Some really grounded advice.
Of course, the most discouraging comment was that a Hindu yogi once said that the first ten years of yoga practice were really pre-yoga. In other words, it takes that long to train your body to keep out of the way of meditation. That means I'll be ready for retirement (65 years old) when I get up to speed with yoga.
