The Internal Litany: Samadhi Is In the Details
This moring I woke up a bit sad--or at least pensive--knowing that our few days in the presence of Yogacharya sri B.K.S. Iyengar are coming to an end.
As I lay in bed, thinking back over yesterday's asana and pranayama sessions, I realized how much I've missed the Iyengar community, the part of the greater yoga sangha that still feels most like home to me. (In the past few years, geography, work, and other commitments have often made it hard to get to classes with my primary Iyengar teachers.)
I realized what I'd been missing because here at the Iyengar intensive it has already begun returning. Inside me, an internalized litany is forming; as soon as I start to practice (or even think about) a pose, detailed instructions from Mr. Iyengar and his senior teachers begin to guide me through my practice.
Just running my mind over yesterday's classes, I remember how the cue to keep the elbows pointing straight back toward the back of the legs in Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) helped me lift higher into the pose than I have in months--yet my spine still felt as though it were resting in Savasana (Corpse Pose).
As I lay in bed, thinking back over yesterday's asana and pranayama sessions, I realized how much I've missed the Iyengar community, the part of the greater yoga sangha that still feels most like home to me. (In the past few years, geography, work, and other commitments have often made it hard to get to classes with my primary Iyengar teachers.)
I realized what I'd been missing because here at the Iyengar intensive it has already begun returning. Inside me, an internalized litany is forming; as soon as I start to practice (or even think about) a pose, detailed instructions from Mr. Iyengar and his senior teachers begin to guide me through my practice.
Just running my mind over yesterday's classes, I remember how the cue to keep the elbows pointing straight back toward the back of the legs in Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) helped me lift higher into the pose than I have in months--yet my spine still felt as though it were resting in Savasana (Corpse Pose).
Another cue that helped me immensely was the reminder to soften the groin of the bending leg as I took it into Marichyasana III (Twist Dedicated to the Sage Marichi.) That small detail allowed me to bring keep my pelvis and spine much more erect than I often do, and to turn deeper into the pose with more ease.
That internalized litany of instruction is, for me, one of the great joys of studying yoga with Guruji and his students.
It's a joy because it constantly provides cues for improving my poses, for finding more length and breadth--more freedom--in parts of me that are stuck, dull, unaware, unconscious. Even more, it's a joy because of the effect of that freedom: more moments of deeper and deeper clarity and peace.
