Easter Monday 28th March 2005
Walking from my car to the shala at 5.45am this morning, my stomach grumbled its voice of empty discontent. The sound echoed through my lower regions like an oceanic swell pounding around in a coastal cave. I realised then that I’d forgotten to eat any dinner last night. I checked into my physical/mental pre-practice state and noticed I felt light and clear, but not particularly strong and energetic.
One of the things that fascinates me about the Ashtanga practice now is how we can come to the mat feeling a certain way (lethargic, energetic, fuzzy, emotional etc) and proceed to make presumptions about how the impending practice will be. More often than not those presumptions turn out wrong. After years of analysing why, I’ve come to the conclusion that usually there's no obvious explanation for the way a practice unfolds. I’ve given up trying to work it out at all. I come to the mat now more ready to meet myself and enjoy whatever comes up – no assumptions, no expectations.
So I climbed the four flights of stairs up to the shala instead of taking the slow, old lift (one of those where you have to open an old wooden sliding door yourself to enter the ancient contraption). The old door needs a really strong pull to slide it open, and on my one and only attempt when I started classes here, it wouldn’t budge. I still don’t know why but I’ve never worked up the courage to tackle it again and only go up the lift when I get lucky enough to slip in as someone else opens it.
So it was the stairs this morning, and a quick stop at the third floor female toilets to blow my nose on some toilet paper. A guy emerged from the cubicle, a 2nd series Ashtangi. It took me a moment to register that he’d just used the female toilets but I wasn’t surprised, and he made no excuse. He’d come down from the shala and ducked into the female loo instead of going down an extra flight to the male toilets.
Practice was pretty good this morning. There were about 9 people there and David was flying around to everyone quite efficiently. I’m finally starting to warm towards David. By the end of the practice, I was even thinking I’d be able to accept and respect him wholeheartedly as my teacher. But the universe has revealed other plans for me. There was a notice pinned up inside the shala door which I read as I was leaving today…it was to inform us all that David is going overseas, travelling and teaching from this coming Wednesday for the next 5 months. Simi is returning from overseas this Thursday and will take over the morning Mysore classes again.
This change coincides too neatly with some other practice changes: firstly I’ll be away for the last two weeks of April on a Vipassana retreat and when I return, there’ll be an exhibition of glass art in the Gallery space where we do our 6am self practice 3 mornings a week. The exhibition will be there for the entire month of May and we won’t be able to practice due to some insurance issues. So for the month of May, to keep up my practice, I might invest my meagre earnings in a block of Mysore classes, sort of a 4 week May intensive with Simi as my guiding light.The alternative would be to use the classrooms instead of the Art Gallery – charcoal and pastel dust, the smell of oil paint, easels, skeletons, still life set ups – I'll think about that one and see what eventuates.
Back to this morning’s practice, I got the standard adjustments in the usual poses like Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana; Marichyasana D; Supta Kurmasana (at last with David’s help I got my ankles crossed behind my head, lifted up to vertical with bum of the floor and held it tight enough to even stay for a few seconds before unwinding out of it like a spring uncoiling); David leaned his entire weight down on my back in Baddha Konasana while pushing my knees all the way to the floor, they just gave way; and the infamous Paschimottanasana squash.
In Garbha Pindasana, I slipped my arms through my Padmasana legs easily (having oiled them up with moisturizer before practice) then did my 9 rolls but couldn’t quite get the momentum to roll up into Kukkutasana. David came over and made me roll all the way around again before lifting me up into the delicate balance. I must ask about the correct exit from this pose. I don’t know the official count for dismantling out of Kukkutasana, though I probably wouldn’t be able to do it properly anyway as I have to unroll my pants back down my legs after this little performance. Bare thighs, yuk.
Got a few extra adjustments in some poses that under normal (bigger class) circumstances I wouldn’t get:
Parivritta Trikonasana – he rolled back my lower shoulder.
Parsvakonasana – the full torso rotation, which pulled me way off balance.
Supta Padangusthasana – illegal prop employed here. David rolled up a blanket and wedged it into the thigh crease of the raised leg to encourage me to make more space here. He explained how the sitting bone of the raised leg should be scooping away from me. That was a hard one to move for some reason, maybe because it was already at maximum extension, so I translated this into my own language and thought of pressing the top of the thighbone away instead – a slightly different action I guess.
Urdhva Dhanurasana – totally wicked adjustment here which I’ve never had before. Once I pressed up to the full pose, David stood at my feet, thrust a hand between my legs, and fully grabbed my sacrum in his palm, pulling it up and towards him. Very, very strong opening through the front hips and quite a provocative adjustment. Loved it.
Final note from today, it seems I can roll up to Urdhva Muka Paschimottanasana on most attempts now but I still have to consciously visualise it happening before I do it, so I’m still using my secret magic formula to get there until it becomes automatic.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Walking from my car to the shala at 5.45am this morning, my stomach grumbled its voice of empty discontent. The sound echoed through my lower regions like an oceanic swell pounding around in a coastal cave. I realised then that I’d forgotten to eat any dinner last night. I checked into my physical/mental pre-practice state and noticed I felt light and clear, but not particularly strong and energetic.
One of the things that fascinates me about the Ashtanga practice now is how we can come to the mat feeling a certain way (lethargic, energetic, fuzzy, emotional etc) and proceed to make presumptions about how the impending practice will be. More often than not those presumptions turn out wrong. After years of analysing why, I’ve come to the conclusion that usually there's no obvious explanation for the way a practice unfolds. I’ve given up trying to work it out at all. I come to the mat now more ready to meet myself and enjoy whatever comes up – no assumptions, no expectations.
So I climbed the four flights of stairs up to the shala instead of taking the slow, old lift (one of those where you have to open an old wooden sliding door yourself to enter the ancient contraption). The old door needs a really strong pull to slide it open, and on my one and only attempt when I started classes here, it wouldn’t budge. I still don’t know why but I’ve never worked up the courage to tackle it again and only go up the lift when I get lucky enough to slip in as someone else opens it.
So it was the stairs this morning, and a quick stop at the third floor female toilets to blow my nose on some toilet paper. A guy emerged from the cubicle, a 2nd series Ashtangi. It took me a moment to register that he’d just used the female toilets but I wasn’t surprised, and he made no excuse. He’d come down from the shala and ducked into the female loo instead of going down an extra flight to the male toilets.
Practice was pretty good this morning. There were about 9 people there and David was flying around to everyone quite efficiently. I’m finally starting to warm towards David. By the end of the practice, I was even thinking I’d be able to accept and respect him wholeheartedly as my teacher. But the universe has revealed other plans for me. There was a notice pinned up inside the shala door which I read as I was leaving today…it was to inform us all that David is going overseas, travelling and teaching from this coming Wednesday for the next 5 months. Simi is returning from overseas this Thursday and will take over the morning Mysore classes again.
This change coincides too neatly with some other practice changes: firstly I’ll be away for the last two weeks of April on a Vipassana retreat and when I return, there’ll be an exhibition of glass art in the Gallery space where we do our 6am self practice 3 mornings a week. The exhibition will be there for the entire month of May and we won’t be able to practice due to some insurance issues. So for the month of May, to keep up my practice, I might invest my meagre earnings in a block of Mysore classes, sort of a 4 week May intensive with Simi as my guiding light.The alternative would be to use the classrooms instead of the Art Gallery – charcoal and pastel dust, the smell of oil paint, easels, skeletons, still life set ups – I'll think about that one and see what eventuates.
Back to this morning’s practice, I got the standard adjustments in the usual poses like Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana; Marichyasana D; Supta Kurmasana (at last with David’s help I got my ankles crossed behind my head, lifted up to vertical with bum of the floor and held it tight enough to even stay for a few seconds before unwinding out of it like a spring uncoiling); David leaned his entire weight down on my back in Baddha Konasana while pushing my knees all the way to the floor, they just gave way; and the infamous Paschimottanasana squash.
In Garbha Pindasana, I slipped my arms through my Padmasana legs easily (having oiled them up with moisturizer before practice) then did my 9 rolls but couldn’t quite get the momentum to roll up into Kukkutasana. David came over and made me roll all the way around again before lifting me up into the delicate balance. I must ask about the correct exit from this pose. I don’t know the official count for dismantling out of Kukkutasana, though I probably wouldn’t be able to do it properly anyway as I have to unroll my pants back down my legs after this little performance. Bare thighs, yuk.
Got a few extra adjustments in some poses that under normal (bigger class) circumstances I wouldn’t get:
Parivritta Trikonasana – he rolled back my lower shoulder.
Parsvakonasana – the full torso rotation, which pulled me way off balance.
Supta Padangusthasana – illegal prop employed here. David rolled up a blanket and wedged it into the thigh crease of the raised leg to encourage me to make more space here. He explained how the sitting bone of the raised leg should be scooping away from me. That was a hard one to move for some reason, maybe because it was already at maximum extension, so I translated this into my own language and thought of pressing the top of the thighbone away instead – a slightly different action I guess.
Urdhva Dhanurasana – totally wicked adjustment here which I’ve never had before. Once I pressed up to the full pose, David stood at my feet, thrust a hand between my legs, and fully grabbed my sacrum in his palm, pulling it up and towards him. Very, very strong opening through the front hips and quite a provocative adjustment. Loved it.
Final note from today, it seems I can roll up to Urdhva Muka Paschimottanasana on most attempts now but I still have to consciously visualise it happening before I do it, so I’m still using my secret magic formula to get there until it becomes automatic.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
