At the end of 2015 we moved to Shiga prefecture in Japan, two minutes from Lake Biwa (the largest lake in Japan and four million years old give or take). This rural life at the lake, has been an exploration of.... serenity (from the latin serenus - 'clear'), the word that most comes to mind. When the lake is calm, which is most of the time, and in the late afternoon especially I experience a feeling of completeness, fulfilment. The question arises, how to maintain this state away from the lake, on to the mat and cushion and throughout the day in general, in my dealings with others. The Yama/niyamas can help, they too are a practice of course, whether those of the Yoga sutras or of our own tradition(s), seeking to live in accordance to them can help simplify our lives and allow us to see more clearly. Ramaswami suggested once that each night, before we sleep, we reflect for a moment on the day, not in judgement of ourselves so much but merely noticing, in the morning we begin our practice once again.
Lake Biwa |
Below then some photo's from here along with some highlighted posts from each month.
A year in posts 2016
The highlight of the year for me, as far as the blog is concerned, has been the completion of the Krishnamacharya Yogasanagalu project (Available for Free Download here ). In 2010 I was sent photos of every page of a copy of Krishnamacharya's, long out of print, second book Yogasanagalu (Mysore 1941) in the original Kannada. At the time I was on Ramaswami TT course in LA. I showed the book to Ramaswami and he mentioned that Krishnamacharya had given him a set of the photos contained in the later editions of the book but that he had never been able to read the text as it was written in the Kannada language. A reader of the blog and Kannada native speaker, Satya Murthy, came forward and offered to translate the text, a few pages at a time. Satya translated the final chapter in October and I was able to format it and send over to my friends in Spain who printed out a copy as a thank you present to Ramaswami at the end of his 100 hour Vinyasa Krama intensive in Madrid that month.
▼ 2016
(89 posts - which I've just noticed is the same number of posts for 2008 although I didn't start posting until July of that year)
(89 posts - which I've just noticed is the same number of posts for 2008 although I didn't start posting until July of that year)
Note: The first couple of words of each post title below should contain a link to the post.
From our beach, the first sunrise of 2016, a tradition in Japan |
The cherry tree by the lake on the way to our bakers |
Swimming in Lake Biwa, pretty much everyday through summer |
- Guna Physiology - Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami.
- Book Review. Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor The Art of Vinyasa. Awakening the Body and Mind through the practice of Ashtanga Yoga
- YogaGlo 15 day Free trial - Exploring Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor's Internal form of the practice'
- Ashtanga for (relative) beginners: Joey Miles: learning the sanskrit names
- Richard Freeman's Vicarious Yoga, being stopped at a posture and the hidden postures between postures.
Snow on our mountains ( from our balcony). |