I love that Jill Manning refers to her time practicing with her teachers as "refueling". My time is coming...my teacher arrives in just a few more weeks.
This has been a longish span of time (6 months or so this time) to be on my own for practice. There is the occasional morning where I'm approaching a tantrum *I-want-my-teacher-now!*
Lone practicing has gotten easier with time and I have found a lot of sweetness in the quiet, early mornings, but it is definitely time for a refueling!
In the meantime, a summer reading of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika for some 1% theory.
Conversation is in "notes" on this page.
Some of my favorite bits from the Asana chapter:
I like the image described in the commentary of asana moving prana to avoid stagnation. As someone who has been working at wetland sites in Florida over the past few years, stagnant water is something very familiar:
“When you practice asana, steadiness develops. Prana moves freely, and there is less chance of disease occurring. Just as stagnant water is the breeding ground for all sorts of creatures, when prana stagnates anywhere in the body, conditions are perfect for bacteria to flourish; prana should move like swift flowing water.”
I especially liked this from the commentary for the translation that I'm reading:
"Mind is not static; it is a vibrating mass of conscious energy and is moulded into whatever shape you give it. When a person lives for material pleasure, the mind becomes absorbed in the material reality. If it is absorbed in negative and debauched things, then it becomes that way. If it is absorbed in the subtler experiences then it can come closer to the atma. This is a process which involves the total restructuring of the entire organism right down to the minutest cell.”
