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MM squats down next to me after kapotasana. “What do you think about half-primary before second?”

He was listening during the Swenson session. DS said multiple times (I think this is the concept he returned to most frequently) that the way to learn second is to add poses to primary.

This turn of events totally cracks me up, because when MM first told me to just do intermediate all the time, I was very perplexed and kind of reluctant. Not traditional! Not traditional! LOL!

But now that I’ve gone through the experience of capitulating to his whims trusting him, and practiced just second for 10 weeks, I am interested in seeing what it feels like to put half-primary in there. Instead of it being a head game about “tradition” and “not-tradition,” or between “listening to the teacher” or “not-listening to the teacher,” it can be an experiment. I can just try it and see how it feels.

Yes, there is a little voice inside me that says, “Hot damn! Now I can dispense with the second half of second and really learn the FIRST half — maybe even cut back and learn them over time, pose by pose!”

But instead of buttoning down a decision about this, I am simply going to try out MM’s suggestion and see how it feels.

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Vatayanasana. Yes, I think it’s a free pose for me. My heel has always touched my knee, and I made sure to turn the down foot way out this morning. Yes, that’s harder than when the foot is facing forward, but not enough to make me lose it.

I am still trying to sort out the vinyasa between sides: one source says go through the one-legged vinyasa with the right foot folded, then switch to left foot half-lotus, jump up and go into second side. Another says to do the one-legged vinyasa with right half-lotus, then switch to left half-lotus and do another vinyasa, and THEN jump up and into second side.

I’d be happy to hear what other people have been taught.