Mid way through week three and I've come down with a head cold. Almost inevitable with the pollution and exposure to so many other people, especially all the yogi travellers who tend to be more vulnerable to germs and pass them around like school kids. So I am taking a rest day and using this opportunity to blog.
This week at RIMYI is officially back bending week. A week where we open our chests and hearts and lift ourselves up and up. A little manipura chakra, anahata chakra, vishudi chakra required. Monday evening Geeta Iyengar discussed the throat and the tongue in sirsasana/headstand. Surprising to find I was indeed thrusting my tongue forward rather than allowing it to release back into the throat. How did she know that? Wonderful subtle class. How does Geeta make back bending so soft and subtle? We spent a great deal of time on standing back bends, dividing the buttocks horizontally into three parts. The middle moves in, the lower draws down towards the back of the thighs. The skin over C-7 moves downwards. Once we moved on to Urdhva Dhanurasana/Upward bow pose we were already there, floating up. Well, for the first few... Geeta also spoke a great deal in this class about studying with her father guruji BKS Iyengar. How at eight years old she was merely doing the poses and by adolescence she had begun to "see", that she has a life long imprint of the study. Interesting karma, both burden and grace to have one's father be your guru...
Last night Prashant Iyengar taught us the difference between action and conduction. We learned to set our intention and conduct ourselves in asana. He also spoke of spinalyzing the poses. Saying he was teaching Spinology, Spinosophy and Spineics. He spinalyzed our minds in Trikonasana.
Last Sunday went to Laxmi Rd to the Gandhi Khadi shop to purchase homespun cotton for John's shirts. This is special cotton hand spun according to the economic and cultural philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Lovely stuff. Then to the spice market and purchased fresh coriander seeds, fresh mace husks, aromatic cinnamon bark and .dried figs. Promise pictures to follow of large baskets of dried tumeric, chilli's and herbs. I have been lazy about going some place that I can transfer my photos on-line.
John arrives late this Saturday and I look forward to our time together in Pune as well as our coming adventure. We will be travelling to Aurangabad to visit the Allora and Ajunta caves and then train to the holy city of Varanasi. From there we will visit Agra and the Taj Mahal followed by two nights in Vrindavan, city of temples. Then Delhi where John departs for home and I go on to Dehradun for three more weeks or fly home with John depending on whether or not I have straightened out my visa. Yup.
They say the British invented Bureaucracy and India perfected it.... I'll let you know as I take this unwanted journey into "the system". Going with the flow on this one. "The harder we grasp the more we suffer" Dalai Lama.
I am also making smaller posts on Face Book. For those who receive this by email if you follow me on FB you will receive more on day to day events.
Shanti, shanti, Leigh
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