See, to me as a kid, it wasn't that he was indestructible (except for the green rock- which I never believed could harm him anyway, merely a literary requirement ) or that he could fly, although that was pretty cool. It was that he was so damned noble, gentle, he had Gyges ring and yet trod softly amongst us. What is it to be a god among men, an angel, do they weep for us, raise us up when we fall, believe in us more than we in them....
God, has it been a month?
Picked up a viral infection in the throat around this time last month ( kind of started the day after that long 3 hour 40 min Full Vinyasa experiment- surely not to blame?), got a little nasty, even went to the doctors ( big deal for an Englishman) after spending a night hardly able to breathe.
Picture at bottom of post for anyone arriving searching for throat infections, but it down there so as not to put you off your breakfast.
Somebody slipped some kryptonite in my tea
A side note about this, they (?) say pranayama is good for Asthma in that it supposedly helps you not to panic during an Asthma attack. The idea seems to be that in pranayama you're constricting the air flow by breathing slowly, thinly yet smoothly ( like the pouring of oil) and then retaining the breath or holding it out for those long Kumbhakas, that you're kind of putting yourself in a stress situation re the breath yet staying relaxed and composed.
Does seem to work, my throat got so bad that night, felt I could hardly breathe at all. When I started to consider it as a pranayama exercise, long slow thin breaths the growing panic subsided and it got me through the night.
Note from Chiara When CO2 partial pressure increases, it not only prompts haemoglobin to release its oxygen load but has an important myorelaxing effect, including of course the respiratory muscles
The following morning I went to the Doctors who took one look ( 5 min Emergency appointment, 5 minutes!) and decided it was just a viral infection that would pass.
Taken a month to pass completely.
So that played havoc with my practice like nothing else, how does an Ashtangi practice without Ujjayi, you don't want to make the throat any worse so try not to constrict it any more than it is already.
No ujjayi, no rhythm
No rhythm, practice sucks.
Eventually the throat got better and thus the practice too.
Enough to explore David Garrigues' Vayu Siddhi, Pranayama DVD/book set
and try some of the ideas from Kino's The Power of Ashtanga Yoga
But just as the throat infection seemed to tail off I started coming out in this small bite like rash that spread all over, no really, ALL OVER. Horrible ( actually not so horrible, bad idea to google image search 'rash' - nothing like those thankfully. God, what some people have to put up with, the suffering to be endured). Anyway, back to the Doctor, he seemed to think it might be related, all part of the same viral infection. Sent me for bloods anyway (still awaiting results).
So now I'm trying to practice without raising a sweat...
Light practices, cold room and a mini savasana in place of every half vinyasa.
Quite a month.
And I've eaten like crap, comfort food, a LOT of ice cream (for my poorly throat you understand)
Thursday afternoon, just like that - like the turning on and off of a switch, I felt a change, suddenly I'm feeling like Superman. I remember having morphine once on drip, I'd been in pain from a dodgy Gall bladder for twelve hours( they whipped it out in Japan), finally they turned on the drip and this cool, clean sensation ran down my arm and spread throughout my body, beautiful.
It was like that, a feeling of good health flooding my body, Superman.
Friday practice? sensational, again.... Superman.
![]()
Why Superman?
Anyone else get that, when practice is going well you feel you could.... fly.... that you're indestructible...I 'm talking Sunday - the middle of the week obviously, end of the week it's more like this
![]()
![]()
------
Superman.... or Angel perhaps...., here's Rilke from the first elegy
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?
and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart:
I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Every angel is terrifying.
Rilke - Duino Elegies
yeah, yeah, I know ....it's not about the siddhis
but the Man of Steel has his yamas/niyamas down and everything
See, to me as a kid, it wasn't that he was indestructible (except for the green rock- which I never believed could harm him anyway, merely a literary requirement ) or that he could fly, although that was pretty cool. It was that he was so damned noble, gentle, he had Gyges ring and yet trod softly amongst us. What is it to be a god among men, an angel, do they weep for us, raise us up when we fall, believe in us more than we in them....
"...all angels are terrifying, we love them so because they serenely disdain to destroy us ( my favourite translation of the Rilke)".
Eight weeks to go till Manju's course, enough time to get my practice and discipline back on track...
--------------
Thank you again to Chiara for three guest posts now sitting up on my workshop review page, could take it easy.
![]()
by Chiara Ghiron www.theyogicat.com
 |
| Prometheus bound |
God, has it been a month?
Picked up a viral infection in the throat around this time last month ( kind of started the day after that long 3 hour 40 min Full Vinyasa experiment- surely not to blame?), got a little nasty, even went to the doctors ( big deal for an Englishman) after spending a night hardly able to breathe.
Picture at bottom of post for anyone arriving searching for throat infections, but it down there so as not to put you off your breakfast.
Somebody slipped some kryptonite in my tea
A side note about this, they (?) say pranayama is good for Asthma in that it supposedly helps you not to panic during an Asthma attack. The idea seems to be that in pranayama you're constricting the air flow by breathing slowly, thinly yet smoothly ( like the pouring of oil) and then retaining the breath or holding it out for those long Kumbhakas, that you're kind of putting yourself in a stress situation re the breath yet staying relaxed and composed.
Does seem to work, my throat got so bad that night, felt I could hardly breathe at all. When I started to consider it as a pranayama exercise, long slow thin breaths the growing panic subsided and it got me through the night.
Note from Chiara When CO2 partial pressure increases, it not only prompts haemoglobin to release its oxygen load but has an important myorelaxing effect, including of course the respiratory muscles
The following morning I went to the Doctors who took one look ( 5 min Emergency appointment, 5 minutes!) and decided it was just a viral infection that would pass.
Taken a month to pass completely.
So that played havoc with my practice like nothing else, how does an Ashtangi practice without Ujjayi, you don't want to make the throat any worse so try not to constrict it any more than it is already.
No ujjayi, no rhythm
No rhythm, practice sucks.
Eventually the throat got better and thus the practice too.
Enough to explore David Garrigues' Vayu Siddhi, Pranayama DVD/book set
and try some of the ideas from Kino's The Power of Ashtanga Yoga
But just as the throat infection seemed to tail off I started coming out in this small bite like rash that spread all over, no really, ALL OVER. Horrible ( actually not so horrible, bad idea to google image search 'rash' - nothing like those thankfully. God, what some people have to put up with, the suffering to be endured). Anyway, back to the Doctor, he seemed to think it might be related, all part of the same viral infection. Sent me for bloods anyway (still awaiting results).
So now I'm trying to practice without raising a sweat...
Light practices, cold room and a mini savasana in place of every half vinyasa.
Quite a month.
And I've eaten like crap, comfort food, a LOT of ice cream (for my poorly throat you understand)
 |
| Häagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche, my medicine of choice |
It was like that, a feeling of good health flooding my body, Superman.
Friday practice? sensational, again.... Superman.
Why Superman?
Anyone else get that, when practice is going well you feel you could.... fly.... that you're indestructible...I 'm talking Sunday - the middle of the week obviously, end of the week it's more like this
OK, got a soft spot for th Man of Steel, my Superhero of choice since I was a kid,
Growing up with an obsession for the Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece, along comes Superman, a god like hero without the failings of an Achilles or Theseus,
What's not to like.
Another Prometheus with a rock (a green one)
No surprise I went to Uni to study Classics then (switched to Philosophy in my 2nd year after a stunning Greek Philosophy lecture ..... twas a noble Greek too who taught me Heidegger come to think of it, Thank you Demetrius)
So finally perhaps, a Movie that does Superman justice? Let you know Tuesday ( no, not another review, enough of those for a bit).
-------------
Superman......think Holderlin rather than Nietzsche perhaps....
“Near and hard
to grasp
Is the God.
But where danger is
Deliverance also grows”
Hölderlin
----------------
“when i was a boy
a god often rescued me
from the shouts and the rods of men
and i played among trees and flowers
secure in their kindness
and the breezes of heaven
were playing there too.
and as you delight
the hearts of plants
when they stretch towards you
with little strength
so you delighted the heart in me
father Helios, and like Endymion
i was your favourite,
Moon. o all
you friendly
and faithful gods
i wish you could know
how my soul has loved you.
even though when i called to you then
it was not yet with names, and you
never named me as people do
as though they knew one another
i knew you better
than i have ever known them.
i understood the stillness above the sky
but never the words of men.
trees were my teachers
melodious trees
and i learned to love
among flowers.
Hölderlin
-----
i grew up in the arms of the gods.
Hölderlin
-----------
Once there were gods, on earth, with people, the heavenly muses
And Apollo, the youth, healing, inspiring, like you.
And you are like them to me, as though one of the blessed
Hölderlin
------
Superman.... or Angel perhaps...., here's Rilke from the first elegy
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?
and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart:
I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Every angel is terrifying.
Rilke - Duino Elegies
 |
| If you have to have a narrative.... |
yeah, yeah, I know ....it's not about the siddhis
but the Man of Steel has his yamas/niyamas down and everything
See, to me as a kid, it wasn't that he was indestructible (except for the green rock- which I never believed could harm him anyway, merely a literary requirement ) or that he could fly, although that was pretty cool. It was that he was so damned noble, gentle, he had Gyges ring and yet trod softly amongst us. What is it to be a god among men, an angel, do they weep for us, raise us up when we fall, believe in us more than we in them....
 |
| http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/epstein-jacob-and-the-angel-t07139 |
"...all angels are terrifying, we love them so because they serenely disdain to destroy us ( my favourite translation of the Rilke)".
---------------
Eight weeks to go till Manju's course, enough time to get my practice and discipline back on track...
--------------
Thank you again to Chiara for three guest posts now sitting up on my workshop review page, could take it easy.
by Chiara Ghiron www.theyogicat.com
Gregor Maehle's Workshop Hamburg, June 7-9 2013 Day 1 (Pranayama)
Gregor Maehle's Workshop Hamburg, June 7-9 2013 Day 2 (asana + meditation)
Gregor Maehle's Workshop Hamburg, June 7-9 2013 Day 3 (nauli kriya + led class)
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/day-3-guest-post-workshop-report-gregor.html
---------------------
Picture of throat infection for anyone arriving searching for info on this.
![]()
---------------------
Picture of throat infection for anyone arriving searching for info on this.
