Summer salutations from Italy
Here are the reflections on the sutras I brought with me to a wonderful yoga-retreat I went to for three weeks. Maybe I post the reflections on the retreat itself later...
But most important first!:
Sutra 3. 44 “Samyama on the origin of matter in all forms, appearances and uses can develop into mastery of the elements” (Desikachar translation)
Again I felt like this journey was supporting to me reading exactly this sutra. We were told about how all matter origins from the four elements and how their characteristics can change. This was the first time I ever wanted to listen to ayurveda wisdom. My masters wife spotted my true nature at once, and just because my heart knew she saw my energy and not talked about some “woman-magazine-quiz” I was open, at once, to recognize my truth. Well I know my right element and I have opened up and welcomed a few suggestions. Well You can’t expect me to give up my opinion –that all categorizing of the world into boxes are futile- to fast. I still don’t believe in it ...except for me myself. I know she spotted me and I know all her yogic- and my herbalist friends food- suggestions are true!
I know why I have craving for some asanas and what asanas can help me. I have a starting point – not bad for a vague, unclear person – yes! happyjenni
Sutra 3.43 “By examining these phenomena (how mind influences our perception) and developing conditions when the mind does not confuse perception, there arises an extraordinary faculty with which one can probe other minds. In addition, the clouds that obscure right perception are minimized.” (Desikachar translation)
I found that all my three weeks was about this – to become less obscure (stepping into the sun). More connected to the truth, to reality. My master talked about this (and I soo dearly love when what I read and what I hear support and connects to each other) and he called yoga posture practice a “house cleaning process” to be rid of what’s blocking us from perceiving truthfully.
I also got it – why it has to be yoga to the extreme, not only just nice and safe, for me. I get to meet the parts of me that are unavailable when I’m not at the “edge of reality”.
To be at the edge of reality, for me – is to be close to God (=reality) and very close to the most true in me – and it doesn’t matter that I don’t like it. It doesn’t matter that I don’t want to be that way. It just is, because when at the edge, my egos opinion have no power and egos hiding mechanisms are out of order.
I surely met some stuff in me I don’t want to see, but I also got to see things that had been transformed and healed. Yes we cry, laugh and sometimes both in this cleaning process, but it sets me free ...even though some of my crocketies most certainly traveled back to Denmark with me :-)
Sutra 3.42 “By doing samyama on the relationship between the body and space, and examining the properties of objects that can float, such as cotton fluff, the knowledge to move about in space can be achieved.” (Desikachar translation) Desikachar mentions that the cottonseed has a character that prevents it from floating, but when changed into cotton-fluff it floats easily. This is a promise to me that all my potentials might not be outlived right now, but (yoga-) transformation might make me free and light like the cotton-fluff so that I can unfold the possibilities in me that I hardly believe I contain at this moment.
I relate to this practice from my summer retreat in 2009 where I suddenly felt so thin, like paper in utthita trikonasana. I had this possibility in me all the time, but suddenly I could access it and –well the sensation was different. (wish I could have hold on to this experience, but I couldn’t, probably for my best)
In my three weeks in Italy this became a game, to collect “floating experiences” to stop up and take in every floating seed-fluff, butterfly, clouds, rose-pedals, blanket fluff and thin garment (see through shadow). I got to see the resemblance with the movement of things and people in water. I somehow know this is the easy part for me. The floating possibility is not a stranger to me.
Oh, and a personal favorite was when my master talked about being light and achieving a floating quality – I almost said out load “Yes! Like cotton fluff!” hihihi
Namasté
Jenni Saunte
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