Subtle bodies and other flutters:

I have been reflecting more on the Mysore experience over the last few days, I’m not sure what it is that has prompted it, maybe the news that Guruji is sick and the meditation on this, not really clear.
I’ve been thinking about how my yoga practice didn’t really change while I was there I don’t know why I should have had this magic expectation that it should but it appears that underneath it all I did and felt a little disappointed that I was still stick at Mari C as ever. The things that happened that felt like more of a change for me seemed to be more around the spiritual side of life than the physical practice.
The two most dramatic being the experiences of meditation and the totally mind-blowing experience of what I guess must have been kundalini rising in me, which was totally extraordinary and I am not sure that I can fully put in to words. The other was the experience of having a vision/day dream that I would meet the Dalai Lama and then just a week later meeting him in a way that left me totally glowing about it to others.
I certainly didn’t at the time see the connection between this and yoga and rather felt that in a funny way what India was offering was not quite the yoga breakthrough I had a vision of, I think the vision was all asana if I am truthful here.

Over the last few weeks I have been drawn to reading Yoga and the Urban Mystic by Darren Main that I was recommended years ago by Norman a teacher who I used to go to in the local YMCA back when I was a once a week yoga attendee back in 2003/2004. I think at the time I wasn’t quite in the space for the book as I remember reading about half of it and then putting it down and forgetting it, listening to a few of Darren’s pod casts to return to it a few times for reference. This time however I am hooked, it suddenly seems totally relevant and vital and really makes me appreciate the energetic level that yoga reaches. It has made me reflect that although I didn’t make a huge heap of asana progress in India that there was lots of progress with the subtle body and energetic opening which I am sure was needed and has opened things in different ways. Also I think that the daily yoga practice and the dedication was an essential platform for this and not just the add on to the progress that it felt for some of the time I was there.
On a more grounded note in practice today I felt like I might have the beginning of solving the mari C problem, as I twisted much more before trying to bind on the first and difficult side and this let my fingers touch for a tip bind which felt much better than the other binds I have wriggled myself in to here, I have a a limited ability to bind in this pose for about a year but it feels minimal improvement in to a firm one with twist that I can hold. Here’s to eternal hope!