More on Savasnana




When I first started to practice ashtanga I used to spend most of my savasana planning breakfast.

My breakfast meditations were quite detailed. I would run through options from eggs and haloumi (which is the closest vegetarians get to bacon) to porridge, maybe with honey and banana. I would work out possibile breakfasts using complex formulas that included the contents of the fridge, desired extra items in nearby shop, cost of shop items versus personal budget and distance to shop times effort of putting on clothes and current weather conditions.

It was a while before savasana became something more like sinking into dark, warm water. Or even experiencing radiant light, but that has only happened once. Its hard to recall the contents of all my savasanas, early and recent, but I am aware that when I first started to practice I didn't really know how to approach savasana. But I think a handful of teachers have pointed me in the right direction. So a big thank you and many blessings to...

Danny Paradise who said savasana is when you should lie back and let your practice soak into your body (but not in those exact words, I paraphrase). And if you fall asleep - well fine. I love the word 'soak' in this context because ashtanga, for me anyway, especially if I practice in an overheated studio, is tres sweaty - so at the end of the practice, when I reach a stillnesss, my body is wet and then I can feel the moisture evaporate from my skin as the yoga, somehow, sinks in.

Anna Ashby (who teaches at tri-yoga, London)- during her extremely subtle, careful guided meditations at the end of her regular Restorative class, has talked about finding the space inbetween thoughts. I love her guided meditations - and this can be a really difficult area, I imagine, but she is very careful with her words, nothing flowery or Edenic, her words are always quite hard, cold, simple. I am sure they are coming from experience. And I love that phrase of 'finding the space between thoughts'. I find that really helpful in terms of not listening to my thoughts, of looking for a vacuum or darkness between sentences and individual words. And entering or embracing that space.

Reading Sri Swami Satchidanada's commentary on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. I've probably misread or misinterpreted his teachings but reading this book on the bus to yoga every morning has continually hammered into my head the possibility that I don't have to (and perhaps shouldn't) listen to the 'I' voice in my head. What I used to think of as being 'me' is just mad babble, an appalling radio station and I really don't have to pay attention. Or at least just listen to it and sigh, as if I was overhearing someone else's conversation, rather than let it dominate and drive 'me'.



Jules Paxton (a great American teacher) who teaches an alignment technique and has told me, repeatedly, that I am not in alignment (or centred or fully alive) most of the time because (and not only for this reason) but because 'you think you are who you think you are'. And apologies to Jules for my usual distillaton and probable misreading of everyone's teachings - especially as I'm just extracting a line from his way more sophisticated body of teaching but its still a line that works for me (if we must use 'me'). I don't know if I can refer to myself as 'it' yet. Although its tempting.

A quick detour. This breakfast vs meditation dilemma has reminded me of reading Homer (which I did after seeing 'Troy'). For most of 'The Odyssey' both Homer and Ulysses curse the 'bellies' of men, the real and metaphorical appetites that take our eyes off the real goals in life (or the spiritual ball) and bring about hubris, pride, ego and ruin. The 'cursed belly of man' is a strong and consistent theme in 'The Odyssey'.

I can't imagine anyone is still reading this ('How I learned to fall into nothingness and stop thinking about Eggs and Cheese') but again I want to thank these teachers - Anna Ashby, Sri Swami, Danny Paradise and Jules Paxton - all of whom at least prodded me in what I hope is the right direction.





and again can't praise the private yoga teachers i've been getting from YOGAsimple they are a really great agency supplying world class teachers for private classes in london.