donutszenmom.com

Nice. Just what I needed. Slept in until 5:15 AM, when Maxine stood by the bed and put her head on my pillow.

Moon days are nice: I can drink my coffee at a leisurely pace, surf the web, read some blogs. Today I also decided to have an early breakfast and watch Richard Freeman’s intermediate DVD, from pasasana to eka pada sirsasana — I wanted to get a look at his transitions, particularly those from ustrasana to supta vajrasana. It seems like lots of people do a knees-bent half-handstand (kind of like this) that pauses at the top. RF does a straight-legged hop up and immediate fall (if RF can be said to “fall”) into chaturanga. So more a hop than a press. Needless to say, I consider this good news.

Also worth noting was that he did not stretch his hands down his feet in ustrasana (like Arjuna is doing here); instead, he cupped his heels with his hands, keeping thumbs on the inside.

Also, his knees were not together in parsva dhanurasana. Close, but not touching. I’ve been killing myself trying to glue my knees together in that pose, and it’s a structural challenge: I have wide hips and short thighs (yes, all relatively speaking). So I have to remember to feel my way toward more closeness, rather than force my knees together. (Force is so much easier!)

So those were just a couple random tidbits.

Oh, wait! There’s more:

If you look at still photos of the Yoga Journal variety, you see very dramatic dhanurasanas — all chests and legs pretty much perpendicular to the floor. One thing I love about watching RF (and Sharath, for that matter) on DVD is that they are economical with their movements. There is no peacock business. No Yoga Journal poses. Would a still of RF’s dhanurasana be deemed suitable for the cover of Yoga Journal? Nope. The power is in the vinyasas — in the movement. In the economy of the movement.

I think we sometimes forget that, and have the peculiar illusion that our practices should look like a bunch of Yoga Journal cover shots all strung together. That illusion, of course, is pretty much dispelled as soon as you start working your way through the actual practice using flesh, bones and oxygen — but still, I think there’s a miniscule, lingering, glossy expectation that lives somewhere in the back of my mind.

***

No practice, due to Moon day. But perhaps a cold dropback or two later in the afternoon…

***

A thought to Guruji. I’m grateful for this practice.