Friday 1st July 2004
Ashtanga practice has fallen apart a bit over the last couple of weeks, well a lot actually.
Last week I managed three Mysore practices in a row before my monthly female cycle started, but this week I did one practice on Wednesday and that was it! Thursday (yesterday) was Simi’s last day teaching before leaving for India so the morning Mysore students now have no teacher until David returns at the end of August, that’s 2 months!
So it’s time to re-evaluate, re-group and re-invent my practice again. I don’t really mind the change back to self practice for a while, especially since I haven’t been doing so good at getting to classes anyway. I’ll have to set up a commitment to three days in the Gallery space and try to get to at least one, maybe two early morning sessions at the shala with the other orphans. And now that my back’s on the mend I can go back to Darren’s led Iyengar class on Friday mornings which I haven’t been to since late April (pre-Vipassana retreat).
So lately I’ve been THINKING a lot about practice rather than DOING it, but I figure that’s a season unto itself, a hibernation. I’ve been more drawn to Buddhist practices since my last Vipassana retreat and avidly re-reading my eclectic collection of Buddhist texts. Although I’ve read them all before, and done the practices for years, it’s all suddenly becoming a lot more lucid. Descriptions of stream entry, states of meditative absorption, nirvana…they’re no longer concepts or lovely states just beyond the grasp of my understanding. They’re real for me now. I’ve tasted the mango and entered the stream that flows towards the final goal.
Now I need to fully accept it and stop swimming against the current…
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ashtanga practice has fallen apart a bit over the last couple of weeks, well a lot actually.
Last week I managed three Mysore practices in a row before my monthly female cycle started, but this week I did one practice on Wednesday and that was it! Thursday (yesterday) was Simi’s last day teaching before leaving for India so the morning Mysore students now have no teacher until David returns at the end of August, that’s 2 months!
So it’s time to re-evaluate, re-group and re-invent my practice again. I don’t really mind the change back to self practice for a while, especially since I haven’t been doing so good at getting to classes anyway. I’ll have to set up a commitment to three days in the Gallery space and try to get to at least one, maybe two early morning sessions at the shala with the other orphans. And now that my back’s on the mend I can go back to Darren’s led Iyengar class on Friday mornings which I haven’t been to since late April (pre-Vipassana retreat).
So lately I’ve been THINKING a lot about practice rather than DOING it, but I figure that’s a season unto itself, a hibernation. I’ve been more drawn to Buddhist practices since my last Vipassana retreat and avidly re-reading my eclectic collection of Buddhist texts. Although I’ve read them all before, and done the practices for years, it’s all suddenly becoming a lot more lucid. Descriptions of stream entry, states of meditative absorption, nirvana…they’re no longer concepts or lovely states just beyond the grasp of my understanding. They’re real for me now. I’ve tasted the mango and entered the stream that flows towards the final goal.
Now I need to fully accept it and stop swimming against the current…
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