This entry and the next are the last thoughts from the end of our Spring 2011 session. When classes ended in June we whisked ourselves up to our little island in Canada and I wrote them out while sitting on the little front porch of our cabin, watching the water, wind and sun. There is no electricity there so no internet connection. The few times I went into town the connection was too slow to allow for this kind of up load as well as email download and answering in the amount of time we had. Of course there has been amble time since we got back. But here they are, finally.
Raga: attachment
“I am grateful for the table I am writing on. It makes this book possible. Whether or not it is ‘my’ table is irrelevant.” B.K.S. Iyengar, “Light on Life,” p196
“Do not allow past experiences to be imprinted on your mind. Perform asanas each time with a fresh mind and a fresh approach.” B.K.S. Iyengar, “Iyengar: His Life and Work,” p 499
How often do we settle onto our mats and begin a practice with those poses that bring satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment? Even unwittingly I think that is often the case. It is so easy to be taken into a sequence that feeds our self esteem or toward a feeling of having gotten through a good practice so that we can get on with the day instead of being and staying on the mat to explore each pose for itself.
When I meet up with yogi friends one of the first questions often we ask each other is “How is your practice going?” as if our practice is something that belongs to us, that we own. And I think that is how we sometimes come to view that time we set aside each day, as a possession and we fall into an unthinking routine of doing, performing and finishing. It is almost as if it becomes an entity, a pleasurable necessity.
We were watching our grandson one afternoon on the deck recently while he continued he experiments with gravity. Almost as soon as he learned to hold something he became delighted with the idea of gravity, as most babies are. When he lets go, whatever he is holding drops. At 10 months he is mobile now and very skilled at picking things up and moving them intentionally. That afternoon he was combining the picking up with learning to pull himself up from squat to stand using the arm rest on a deck chair. He delighted in seeing that if he moved his arm just so then when he let go of his sippy cup it would drop to the deck, or if he moved it would land on the seat of the chair. And eventually he learned he could either go over or under the arm rest. The point was he repeated these actions over and over, including the skills necessary to grab the cup in the right way in order to be able to lift it while still holding the chair with his other hand so that he could pull himself back up right. Each time the movement was basically the same, but required minor adjustments. He was perfectly delighted with each attempt, as if each was the first.
Each of his attempts was fresh. When I put my mat on the floor now I pause a moment and let his sweet face come to mind with its look of delight and joy of discovery in repetition and learning. Can I be as delighted and surprised and pleased each time I repeat that I have learned something more?
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