First, a few words about practice this morning. This morning's practice was a "good" practice, backbend-wise: In Chakrabandhasana, I succeeded in grabbing my ankles and holding them for five breaths before coming back up to standing. Over the last week or so, grabbing the ankles in this posture seems to be something that happens on a "good" day. On a "not-so-good" day, I might succeed in grabbing one ankle, and then pop back up to standing like a jack-in-the-box when I try to grab the second ankle. And it doesn't seem to make a difference which ankle I grab first: Whether I grab the right or left ankle first, the odds of popping back up to standing are about the same, statistically speaking.
What does seem to make a difference, though, is the quality of the breath. I have noticed that on days when I am successful in grabbing both ankles and holding them for five breaths (like today), the quality of the breath is different. Different in what way? Well, for the last couple of weeks, whenever I walk my hands to the feet to get into Chakrabandhasana after the third drop-back, I always try to imagine my breath being the anchor that anchors my hands to the ankles: The deeper and more steady the breath, the more stable it will be as the anchor that "roots" the hands to the ankles. Conversely, the more shallow and hurried the breath is, the more likely it is that the body will be "swept up" back to the surface (i.e. back into standing) by the "currents". I'm not sure if this image of anchoring the body in the backbend makes sense to you, but don't you think that backbending is a little bit like deep-sea diving; after all, we do speak of deep backbends, don't we? :-)
A couple of weeks ago, after reading about the pain-body issues that were so clearly manifested in my pity-party post about the prospect of going to Singapore (yeah, I really have issues), Claudia sent me a copy of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. It's been a very interesting and fascinating read so far (thank you, Claudia!). I would like to share the following passage from the book:
"Form means limitation. We are here not only to experience limitation, but also to grow in consciousness by going beyond limitation. Some limitations can be overcome on an external level. There may be other limitations in your life that you have to learn to live with. They can only be overcome internally. Everyone will encounter them sooner or later. Those limitations either keep you trapped in egoic reaction, which means intense unhappiness, or you rise above them internally by uncompromising surrender to what is. That is what they are here to teach. The surrendered state of consciousness opens up the vertical dimension in your life, the dimension of depth. Something will then come forth from that dimension into this world, something of infinite value that otherwise would have remained unmanifested. Some people who surrendered to severe limitation become healers or spiritual teachers. Others work selflessly to lessen human suffering or bring forth some creative gift into this world."
Citing an example of overcoming severe limitation through uncompromising surrender, Tolle relates his meeting with world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking is widely regarded to be the world's leading theoretical physicist; as you also probably know, he has motor neurone disease and is almost completely paralyzed, and can only speak with the help of a voice synthesizer. Tolle describes his meeting with Hawking thus:
"...when I held the door open for his electric wheelchair to come through, our eyes met. With surprise I saw that his eyes were clear. There was no trace of unhappiness. I knew immediately that he had relinquished resistance; he was living in surrender."
we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities
