Day 1: Sunday (25) - first practice with Lino and workshop on jump through
This morning I was woken up the sound of "Vande Gurunam" being chanted by the class on the rooftop. Lino had asked me to come at 7am or earlier. It was obviously around 6am, as this is when he starts with the first bunch of students, the ones who have been here for some time. It is interesting that both Lino and Nancy did not do lead class like in Mysore. I snoozed some more and then got ready and went upstairs to do my first practice with Lino. Lino and Desiree, his partner, who is from Denmark I found out, and another assistant, were busy adjusting students, of which there were probably just fewer than 20. Apparently they have up to 150 students practicing with them in December and January. But I was also told that Lino then has 5 assistants helping him. I have asked myself why students would come to India to practice with Lino for long periods of time rather than at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute (AYRI) in Mysore, especially since you can only be authorized as a teacher if you go to Mysore yearly for at least a month. Maybe it is because there is a little more personal attention with Lino, maybe because Mysore is very daunting and maybe because Lino is just such a respected teacher.
The shala is quite nice with a bluish greenish tiled floor and open sides, like a balcony. There are roll down bamboo blinds surrounding the sides and as you get up the stair case, about 4 floors, there is a little area where has his DVD's and posters for sale and they have a water filtration system where students can fill up their water bottles with filtered water. Kovalam has huge litter problem and the Indian people are just burying all the rubbish, in particular the plastic bottles, which is causing lots of pollution.
After I was practicing, there were more people that walked in and placed their mats in the back of the room and started practicing. This was a Mysore style class and people are asked to come in at staggered time intervals of 15 mins, with the beginners or new people coming in at the end. I was a little early, but Lino is very easy going and does not mind I am sure. My practice felt fine. Lino gave me one adjustment in Parsvakonasana, and then he came to me just before finishing series and said that I have just arrived and that I should take it easy, indicating that I was forcing my breath too much. I took that as a sign that I should definitely not start doing any second series poses. I had been feeling a little pain in my sacro illiac joint, so I took my back bends quite easy but completed on drop back. After a long rest (I do not say Savasana on purpose - see later) trying to still the mind, I spoke to Lino, who I think was getting ready to do his own practice. He mentioned that in Mysore the etiquette is to practice primary series for whole month before doing another series. I thought it was only a week. Anyway, tomorrow is full moon day, so in Mysore there will be no practice, but Lino does keep his shala open and we can come practice, but he said it should only be primary. He said on Wednesday I could start with some second series, being very aware that I am only spending one week with him.
Lino has his book that I already bought on my last trip to Mysore, but he also has 3 DVD's, one of which is him doing second and third with a woman who started Ashtanga when she was 60 and the video was done when she was 70, and a poster of third series, all of which I would like to buy. Desiree told me that the prices have been reduced because we are in India, but they are actually still quite expensive. The only bonus is that I would not have to pay shipping charges if I bought them here.
I had breakfast at Hotel California, which is a heavily advertising its Ayurvedic facilities, but the restaurant is a straw hut underneath palm trees behind the hotel. I then went back to my room, which I realised was a dingy dark place, so I was glad I had searched for room elsewhere. I took a walk to see if the people in the room I wanted had checked out, then I packed and moved my stuff. I am now on the second floor of the Hotel Sky Palace, just behind the beach, close to some good Indian vegetarian restaurants, which Bindu, an Indian woman from the UK showed me to in the evening. I could have gotten a room downstairs at Rs 350, but upstairs is a little more private. It took some bargaining to get the room at Rs 450, down from 500. The downstairs room was also offered to me at 500 to start with. The room has 2 beds, warm water, but there is no real shower. There is a western toilet and there is a showering handle, but this only has cold water... hot water comes from a separate tap and the pipe attached to the showering handle is not very long, so I basically have to practice chair pose while I am holding the shower handle over my head.
I then went in search of an ATM as I had run out of cash and this took me on an excursion of the area. I ended up at the Leela Hotel on the top of the hill, which is absolutely beautiful, but room rates go all the way to Rs 110 000 for the presidential suite during high season. I then had a swim in the ocean which was really nice. The bay does create some nice waves you can body surf on and the water is really warm. As I was swimming a wooden boat with 6 rowers in the back came past me with a long rope attached to the back. At the beach it just turned around and left. Soon I saw a group of men hauling on the rope, which went on for at least an hour. They were pulling in a net. I had to leave before the whole spectacle was over, to get ready for the workshop with Lino at five.
Before the workshop I paid for the week, € 160, but as I did not have Euro, he allowed me to pay in US. Waiting for the workshop to start, I finally met some of the other students. I found it interesting that there were 2 girls who were from Russia. There were people from Brazil, obviously Scandinavia, Scotland, the US of course and some Italians of course.
Lino is very charismatic and funny. He came in, leant against a pole and began by saying that he is a teacher but he feels that his brain is empty and that we should help him come up with his own questions so that we can answer these questions together. Nobody quite knew what to do with that, but eventually someone asked him how to deal with injuries. He said there are 2 types of injuries, one which we feel only during our practice and then we are fine and another, which we feel all the time... "Mamma Mia!" He told us that he had knee problems for 3 years when he started yoga and he showed us how he used to limp. He acts and role plays all the time. He acted as his friends asking him if he does yoga and he says yes, and then the friend asks, "aren't yogis supposed to be flexible?" and he limps on like a geriatric and says "Yes"... quite funny when you see him to it. His friends used to tell him to stop yoga. He says doctors just tell you to go have an operation, but he says if you go have an operation then you are a dead man. He says, all it takes is time!!! showing us how his knee's move now. When his leg is broken, then he'll go to a surgeon.
He then discussed becoming a teacher. He says who cares how many certificates you have, rather than go spend thousands going on teacher training, give the money to him and he will say, "ok, now you are a teacher". He said, you must know the system and when somebody comes to you and says show me, you say "No" and then eventually you will begin to teach. The students make you a teacher. He says you must become the system, you must swallow the pill and then you are the system. It is a scientific system. He asks "scientific, what is scientific about yoga?" He said he asked guruji, who said the breath, working with the energy in your body through your breath. Every movement is a breath, there are no poses in the vinyasa... you never hold your posture. He says there is not warrior pose in Surya Namaskar B. It is 7 and 11. He imitated a student taking forever to get into Trikonasana, making sure every bone is aligned and says "No!" You move in exhale, hold for 5 breaths and move out on the inhale. He then asked us questions like how many vinyasas (counts) for Paschimottanasana (15), and we all did it together and he then showed us that when moving from A to B, you exhale come out of A on count 10, then 11 would be to lift up and then kick back, but if you count 8 now, everybody knows you are going to B, inhale engage bandhas and 9 move into B. So he asked us to do Surya Namaskar with Desiree counting in Danish. He said we all understand because we know the system. He then went on to say that some students stay in led class for 3 years. Then he uses his leg imitating a pushing action and says, "No, you go Mysore style". He says we need to take responsibility in life and so it is with Yoga, we need to learn the system and then practice by ourselves. That is the beauty of Ashtanga and he imitated students just doing what a teacher says blindly following. He then went on to say that we need to experience the yoga for ourselves.
Since last week already, I have been thinking a lot about my classes, and am becoming more and more decided that I should use Mysore style from now on when I teach. It just means the beginners get so much more personal attention, which they need, and since there are too few classes currently so that they can be separated into beginner or intermediate lead class, beginners come out of lead, completely exhausted, saying it is far too hard for them. Mysore will work much better and advancing students will begin to feel the wonder of having their own practice.
He then told us that he went to a bookstore the other day and picked up an Ashtanga book and got really angry when he saw that they were teaching jump through by lifting the hips up and then going down and through. He demonstrated how it should be done. I was amazed how high he lifted his body of the floor and the ease with which he did it... he is about fifty I think. He kept his legs parallel. There was some confusion after the class as to whether he meant straight legs and after I asked him he explained that he did not mean straight legs, but he did not want us to cross the legs. I have been doing it with crossed legs from the very time I started Ashtanga and Nancy last week had said that Sharath does not allow straight legs anymore because people jump through with momentum, rather we should jump through with crossed legs and get control with the bandhas. I will need to ask Sharath exactly what he wants. Anyway, I tried to go through with parallel legs and Lino explained that I must not lift the hips, but go straight through. These are actually two different methods that I had researched when doing my jump through workshop at home - I think Matthew Sweeney says we must lift and lower, whereas ??? says we should go straight through. Nancy had not commented to me about my jump through and I don't know if Lino would have said anything to me if it was not for the workshop. I guess that it is fine if you can do it, but someone did say to me that lifting up caused her some shoulder pain and when she stopped jumping through by lifting up the hips, the shoulder pain went away. So Lino's stance is not to lift, but jump straight through. I practiced this a few times and for the first time in my life I actually got my legs through, although I was practicing without my mat so that my feet could slide through easily.
In the evening Bindu showed me the Indian vegetarian restaurants which were a little way behind the beach, but were more authentic and cheaper to all the restaurants on the beach.
Day 2: Monday (26) - sweaty stuff
It is Republic Day in India. I remember that this is the day I arrived in Mumbai 2 years ago. Today is also full moon day and there was going to be an annular eclipse of the sun. I woke up feeling like a train had hit me, even though I had had six hours sleep. I dozed until 6:50 and then quickly got ready and walked to the Hotel Peacock. I did not feel like practicing at all. It was extremely warm and humid and I perspired like a pig. By the end of my practice there were literally puddles on the floor around my mat so I felt quite bad for the adjusters. When I stood up to do drop backs I was amazed to see about 2 to 3 drops falling off me almost every second. Lino had actually talked about people drinking water during practice at the workshop the day before and mentioned Stefano sweating a lot. He made a joke that Stefano will bless the rest of us with his sweat when he wipes the sweat off his forehead and then shakes his hand. He did not mean that there was anything wrong with sweating, it is good to cleanse the body and we are all different, some people don't sweat at all, but we should not drink water just before or during practice, just to sweat more.
Today, Lino asked me to change my hands to the other position in Prasarita Padotanasana C, which I found extremely difficult, especially with sweaty fingers. I need to be adjusted in this position in future. He also showed me that I am doing too many movements moving from one side to the other in Parsvotanasana. I am probably doing the same in the other standing poses too.
The weather was not fantastic and I spent the day working on my laptop in a restaurant overlooking the beach and the ocean.
Day 3: Tuesday (27) - visiting Trivandrum
My practice today was absolutely fantastic, and I went into the second series. Lino adjusted me into Paschasana and it was the first time I had ever been able to get to my wrist on the left side. Right side I could not get as deep, but I am aware that that side is not as good. I carried on by myself and was helped in Kapotasana by Roxanna. My shin slipped on the wet mat, so I was not happy with it but carried on. I was wondering when Lino would stop me. Roxanna, the assistant, assisted me again in Supta Laguvajrasana (sitting in lotus and crossing the arms behind your back grabbing hold of your toes and then leaning back and placing your head on the floor) and then I made a mistake and started with the twists instead of going into Bakasana A (Crow Pose). Roxanna corrected me, and then Lino came over and asked if I had bound my hands in Supta Laguvajrasana. I cannot keep the bind when dropping my head back onto the floor, so in other words that meant I had to stop there... pity :-)
I did not carry my cotton mat to India and am intending to purchase another one here, but have not found one yet, so my mat is extremely slippery as it is so wet and Lino remarked that it is quite dangerous doing drop backs on the wet mat, which is totally true.
During breakfast Lea from Denmark mentioned she wanted to go to Trivandrum to see the town before she leaves on Wednesday night to go back home. I decided that I'd go with her, partly because I wanted to see the town and partly because she did not seem too comfortable going by herself and nobody else was keen to go. I found out later that it was her first time to India, the hotel had arranged transport from the airport to Kovalam for her, so she had never even been in a Rickshaw before and she was very conscious about walking around in town and being looked, because of not following the Indian customs. We took the bus from Kovalam to Trivandrum (half an hour), which was dirt cheap at Rs 9 each (less than 2 Rand, for the international reader, 1 USD = 49 INR). In the buses, it is custom for the women to sit in front and the men to sit in the back, so we sat near the middle with her in front of me.
During the trip, Lea told me that she had done the trip to the tip of India, which I was interested in, but it is a whole day trip and would be quite expensive for me to do by myself. I also found out that Lino allows her to carry on past Supta Laguvajrasana, but she get stuck in Eka Pada Sirsasana (One foot behind the head), which is something I can do, so it seems Lino is pushing me a little to concentrate more on this pose :-). Some schoolboys got onto the bus and the one sitting next to me was quite helpful, telling me about the Attakul temple and showing us where to get off. In one of the restaurants I had heard some nice music and found out it was a CD of music from the Attakul temple in Trivandrum, which is supposed to be very famous. The mantra is not in Sanskrit, but in the local Malayalam language, but I thought the music would be really nice to do yoga to.
In Trivandrum we went to the Chalai Market, the Big Bazaar store and then took a taxi to see the oldest Zoo in India, established in 1857. The state we are in is called Kerala and has a socialist government style, which is very successful. The state has almost 99% literacy and a very good health care system according to the Lonely Planet guidebook. I found the Zoo very sad though. The enclosures were not as big as the Lonely Planet made them out to be. Lots of the enclosures did not have signboards explaining what animals were inside and the signboard that were there looked like they had not been maintained since the British left. However, many enclosures did have a big marble stone put into the wall of the enclosure inscribed with which town official had opened the enclosure and these were all dated between 2001 and 2003.
We saw two Indian elephants chained to posts, not being able to move more than a meter away from the post, and in one of the bear enclosures, a bear had fallen into the 5 meter deep trench behind the wall of the enclosure meant to safeguard the visitors from the bears. I don't know how long he had been stuck there, but he definitely did not seem that healthy anymore.
We then had to head back so we could make the 5:30 Pranayama session in the afternoon. The rickshaw driver took us to the wrong bus station, so it took us ages to walk to the KSRTC bus station and my feet were quite sore. We finally got onto the bus which was quite crowded and the bus driver was driving like a bat out of hell. Quite an experience when you're not sitting down!
Day 4: Wednesday (28) - where is my hair?
I guess my body is starting to get tired or I am not sleeping enough. I had been working again last night and I woke up with a slight headache. I had tried to wake up early so that I could watch the first half hour of the practice. Diego from Brazil is practicing third series and the thought had crossed my mind that I should just skip second series and just do third... just kidding... but it looks so beautiful, and like a lot of fun... I know I will enjoy if I ever get there :-).
I started off slowly, but by the time I had finished my third Surya Namaskar B (Sun Salutation), I realised my headache was gone. The beauty of doing yoga! My back felt great, I had no Sacro Illiac joint pain, not even a hint, for the first time in many months. My upward dogs, arching and extending the upper back, were feeling very good. My twists were really deep, holding on to my shins almost in Marichyasana D and being able to straighten my spine and sit up tall.
My shoulders had been getting tired yesterday and today from doing the jump through's with legs parallel. When I jump through with my legs crossed, I have a lot more control using my bandhas (core strength) and so I jump slower and so in my opinion, jumping through with legs parallel is a little harder on the shoulders. However, maybe I will develop even more core strength in time and be able to jump through slowly with parallel legs...
I had no adjustments today until I got to Bekasana (Frog pose). Roxanna helped me again in Kapotasana and I got really deep, being able to touch just beyond the balls of my big toes. In Supta Laguvajrasana, I was able to keep hold with my right big toe with my right hand. Not good enough for Lino :-). He assisted me with my drop backs again. He said again, "Ai ai ai, Andreas, why no mat?" He suggested I wait to buy a mat in Mysore as they are cheaper there and there will be more variety. This is what I had been planning.
After practice I asked Lino what would be the easiest way to get to Mysore (Colonial name - new name is Mysuru), as he had obviously done the trip many times and I have not been able to find a direct train. He suggested that there is a train via Bangalore (new name Bangaluru) that takes 18 hours, but the easiest is to fly to Bangalore.
After breakfast with everybody at the Hotel California, I went and got my head shaved... yes, I did it again :-) The guy did not use a machine, did not cut my hair first and did not use any shaving cream.... he just wet my hair, and used a wet shaving blade. Afterwards I went to the beach to get a tan on my white scalp... I met Stuart and Leena at the beach and they were very concerned about me burning and offered hats and suntan lotion :-)
My thoracic spine and back did feel a little tight all day, I think it is just the muscles being stiff from all the deep upward dog back extension and back extensions and back bending in second series, which it is not used to yet, but no lower back issues anymore.
For dinner I went to the Fusion restaurant, a very expensive place at the beachfront, because it was Lea's last evening. The menu looked great, with Indian food on the left hand side, western food on the right and fusion dishes in the middle, but the food was not that great and I was still hungry after my meal, so afterwards, I went back to one of the cheap Indian vegetarian restaurants behind the beach and got some more food. Then I went onto the net and finally I purchased my plane ticket to Bangalore for Saturday. I had heard that the trains from Trivandrum to Bangalore were booked out until the middle of February. I have found out that there are many buses travelling to Mysore daily from Bangalore, which I will do rather than going by train, which was my original plan. I also sent out some mails requesting help with accommodation in Mysore, and the response was that there is nothing available.
Day 5: Thursday (29) - Mysore or Lino?
This morning I got up early to watch the beginning of class at 6. When I got there, students had already begun practicing and Lino and Desiree were not there yet. These are all students who know what they are doing and you don't want to be adjusted in your first few sun salutations anyway. Lino did not remark about my haircut when he arrived, but greeted me with a smile and asked if I wanted to take photos. After another 15 mins or so, he stopped the class and did the opening chant. This is the same procedure that was done at the Miami Life Centre, Kino McGregor's studio, when I was there in December 2007.
I then started my practice. In the two weeks I have been in India so far, my practice has already changed immensely and I have learnt a great deal. I enjoyed my primary series and even began working on jumping directly into Titibasana (Firefly pose) without touching the feet onto the floor from down dog, which I had never had the courage to try before.
Lino came to me during Paschasana (noose pose - first pose in second) and said I should use a towel rolled up under my heels when I practice at home, to give me more balance. When I got to Kapotasana, I think Lino and Desiree were busy (Roxanna had left yesterday) so I did Kapotasana twice by myself and then Lino came and assisted me. Today I touched the arches of my feet, and then he said to me... "Come Andreas, you have to make a plan" referring to Supta Laguvajrasana. He really wanted me to succeed in this posture today. I had brought an extra towel for him to sit on while he adjusted me, because the floor is always so sweaty around me... and I used a towel around my toes so I would not slip off. He took hold of my arms really strongly and I went into the full posture without slipping off... I had imagined this taking me another year to achieve so I was pleasantly surprised, happy and thankful for Lino's help. I then asked Lino if I could do Bakasana, which he was happy with. I knew that I could do these quite well and then I think I should have waited for him, but since I knew the postures I carried on doing the two twists and then did Eka Pada Sirschasana and then Yoga Nidrasana (both legs behind the head). I did not know if I should be sitting upright or lying down getting into the pose, so I don't know if I did it incorrectly, but he came to me and said, "You have no teacher, you learn from book, from video. Basta, Basta!". I need to mention here that the reason I was pushing so hard was because it was my last Mysore style class with Lino, Friday is lead class, in which I cannot practice second series and I am not expecting to get to practice much of second series if any at all with Sharath in Mysore, as he has so many students that he cannot give much individual attention. I do not know how long it will be before I can learn from a certified Ashtanga teacher again.
I am barely just beginning to practice second series, yet I was surprised to see some of the other students who had finished, some also practicing second, were watching me practice. I was actually a bit self conscious and wondering about all the things I might be doing wrong. Anyway, I enjoy doing yoga and that is what yoga is about, not which postures you are doing or which series you are doing... I am actually considering doing primary series with full vinyasa (coming back to Samasthithih (standing) after every pose) for a while, so I get a better understanding of the vinyasa count, but I am also quite keen to continue practicing second series.
Anyway, Lino came back to me after I had done my 3 Urdhva Dhanurasana (upward facing wheel - backbends) and my 3 drop backs and said I should do "boom - boom". We had all been laughing about his expressions the day before... by boom - boom, he meant going into handstand, dropping the legs over into urdhva dhanurasana and then standing up. After he understood that I had never done them before, he told me how he wanted me to start and helped me through 3 repetitions and then we did one more drop back, leaning back 5 times and going all the way back on the 5th rep. He said in future I should do 5 urdhva dhanurasana, 3 drop backs, 3 boom-booms and then the 5 rep drop back. The boom - boom is actually a preparation to the tic-tac's, which is going from standing with hands on the floor to hand stand to urdhva dhanurasana, back up to handstand, back to standing with hands on the floor and repeating this.
Nancy had told me that she would get people to start practicing the "boom - boom" (not her expression) after second series and then tic-tac's when doing third series. I think I will be happy practicing just boom - boom for a long time to come. Coming back to hand stand from Urdhva Dhanurasana is extremely difficult.
I spent the day walking around in the sun and for lunch I had a thali (Indian traditional meal consisting of rice and some vegetables served on a rectangular plate that has got separate sections for the sauces and vegetables and the main are for the rice), which one of the very poor women prepares from her home for a mere Rs 50. Some of the yogi's decided to eat there to support her. Bindu and Rebecca were asking me why I was going to Mysore and that I should rather stay and practice with Lino, because I will learn so much more from Lino. Mysore is also much more expensive than Lino. Lino has just begun to know me, and there are such few students in the shala, that it definitely a very good question that I needed to address for myself. Am I going to Mysore just to be authorised or certified to teach? That is not what yoga is about for me... I am passionate about the practice and the experience of yoga. I could learn so much more from Lino during my time here in India. Am I after the certificate or the knowledge? This is exactly what Lino talked about on Monday... who cares if you have the certificates... have you got the knowledge... have you experienced it yourself?
It is sad that Mysore is not what it used to be. The Ashtanga sequence of postures is even being reduced in order to make the practice shorter, so that Sharath can handle the number of people coming to Mysore. Later in the evening, after the pranayama session, I talked to Desiree about it and for the following reasons, I have decided to carry on with my original plan to go to Mysore, I have the plane ticket, Lino's workshop is finished in two weeks time (although I could then travel to Mysore and practice with Sheshadri or BNS Iyengar), it will be interesting for me to see the changes since I my last visit, I am hoping that Sharath will give returning students more attention (I will try to have more interaction with him), I will be able to ask Sharath questions about some of the conflicting things I have learnt, and I will go with no expectations and an open heart, and the energy of the shala will be a great experience again I am sure. In future, I might decide to rather practice for a few weeks with Lino Miele or Paul Dallaghan in Thailand, Nancy Gilgoff in Berlin or Maui, Richard Freeman in Colorado, Matthew Sweeney in Byron Bay, Tim Miller in California, Danny Paradise, Eddie Stern or many others.
In the afternoon I lay on the beach with Ilona, a tall beautiful girl who I thought was Russian. I found out that she is from the Ukraine, had emigrated to Canada and now teaches yoga in Moscow. There are about four other Russian yogis here and all of my neighbours at my hotel are Russian or east European, which I found quite interesting because in all my travels I don't think I have ever met any Russian travellers. Ilona is the only one of them who can really speak English with ease, although not absolutely perfect. She told me a little about the Ukraine and the people and also talked about Andre Lappa , a very well known Yoga Instructor from Kiev, who did not like Ashtanga. Apparently he went to Mysore and was not allowed to go past primary series and did not like it and has now created his own style of yoga called universal freestyle yoga.
We then rushed to the pranayama session at 5:30. Lino spent the first half an hour again answering our questions. The first discussion was whether we should feel guilty when we cannot do our daily practice. Lino says, yoga must not become a religion to us and we should not feel guilty if we did not practice for a day or two, but we should not go past 3 days without a practice because firstly your practice goes downhill and secondly your mind will get affected and then he related it to his experience in 1991 when he was working so hard (theatre director) he did not sleep for 1 and a half months, so no practice. Eventually they went out in Germany after everything was finished and he asked for a beer and a cigarette, both of which he does not normally do.
Being sick is also not an excuse not to do practice. Of course if you have Delhi Belly, you won't practice for two or3 days, but flu for 2 or 3 weeks is not an excuse... then you have to research your own body... something is wrong... you are not supposed to get sick :-) and he referred to the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute with emphasis on the word "research".
He said the only excuses for not practicing though are 1. travelling, 2. travelling and 3... travelling. He told us that a student had once told him that he was doing headstand on the toilets in the aeroplane. If we do this, then we are sick! (in the head).
He went on to explain that even if we are pregnant, have a slipped disk etc, we can do the yoga, with modification of the poses and he gave examples and explained that we must practice with patience and never push, because that is when injuries re-occur and then people say Ashtanga is not for them. And he said all we need is primary series talking about the fact that primary is called yoga chikitsa, yoga therapy. He asked guruji how this healing sequence came about and guruji said his guru told him, but Lino did not believe him and eventually Lino realised that guruji was referring to the guru being his own insight and understanding that comes with many years of practicing and as one becomes wiser. He said guruji is extremely intelligent. Lino also made the point that in the west we want to always progress to the next series, but this is not what Ashtanga is about.
Then Dimitri from Russia brought the discussion back to jump through's, asking if beginners do not find jumping through with crossed legs easier rather than parallel. Lino said that he thinks it will create a habit that will be difficult to break and in his opinion, parallel legs is easier. Use the breath, not muscle strength. Diego from Brazil, who practices third series, made the point that you are more likely to injure hands and knees with crossed legs.
Day 6: Friday (30) - Auroville
I woke up to an overcast sky. The air was very humid, so much so that when I placed my mat down in the shala, there were water droplets on the floor, which I could not explain, but as I was practicing, water droplets were dropping from the roof onto me. It was lead class today and Lino did it the pure traditional way, just counting in Sanskrit and articulating the breath. His count was very even, so the class was not that hard, but I struggled through the practice because I was getting sick. I thought it was just a reaction from the smoking of my new neighbours who had moved in yesterday, but by Saturday I realised that it was a cold, probably because I had left the fan on the night before to try and keep the mosquitoes away. I ended up also straining a muscle inside of my left shoulder blade.
Afterwards I said goodbye to Lino and asked him about learning from books and video's because I was about to buy some of his DVD's of his. He said I should move away from South Africa... haha... or that I should go to an instructor at least twice a year for a week or two. When we took a picture together, he was quite funny because he said only if he can stand on his toes and I bend my knees. Hi is quite a small chap :-)
I spent the day on the beach and again, thoughts of postponing my trip to Mysore came up. Could I change my plane ticket and spend an extra week with Lino? A number of people were leaving this week, but I found out that at least four other people decided to stay another unplanned week. In the evening though, I received an email from one of the people I had contacted in Mysore stating that they had a room available for me, so I did feel better (accommodation was a huge worry) and I took it as a sign that I should go.
Rebecca mentioned that there had been a hijacking in Mumbai, but nobody had heard anything about it.
At dinner I met Anneke, a French girl who told me she had been living in Auroville, close to Pondicherry on the east coast of India. Auroville is an international community, a project in 'human unity' apparently started in the 60's by some hippies and now encompasses more than 80 rural settlements spread over 20 km with about 1700 residents, two thirds of which are foreigners from about 35 different countries. She said that you can stay there for a minimum of a week and you can help out with the work there, but she ended up spending six months there because it was so nice, referring to the atmosphere and attitude of the people.
I also met Kristine from Norway, and we spent the rest of the evening chatting, as I was putting off having to pack!
