head vs heart

the head tells me it has true understanding. it offers up endless sequences of thoughts, seductive in their logic. they fit together, they sound good and neat, so they must be true. they cohere. they adhere, sticking to me through the years. through thick and thin. the characterisation they offer must be how things really are.... Continue Reading →

February 11, 2016 0

Elephants, god, and sex: lost in translation

I've been learning Sanskrit for a few slow months now. Progress is not as fast as I'd like. But then when is it? But actually I high-fived my rather staid class-mate yesterday -- we'd read a page together reasonably fluently during that lesson. OK, it's really simple stuff: stories my teacher has written with really basic grammatical constructions (strictly... Continue Reading →

January 20, 2016 5

Ostrich yoga

First yoga class after the Christmas hiatus was not on the face of it very much fun. My tricky hamstring is not at all happy right now and after a fraught Christmas I was in a very emotional place too. The opening chant lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu reduced me to tears before we'd even done a single... Continue Reading →

December 30, 2015 3

The Joy of Sanskrit

I hauled myself down to London last night (it's never my fave destination and my icky cold isn't going away so this was a big effort). I'd booked on to a Sanskrit seminar weeks and weeks ago and I didn't want to waste the opportunity. Actually it turned out to be great timing since my local... Continue Reading →

October 3, 2015 2

Back to school

My Facebook feed recently abounds with proud pictures of friends' kids in their new uniforms all ready for the start of the school year. It gives me the heeby-jeebies. School definitely wasn't the happiest days of my life. Hubby confesses that he still has anxiety dreams about school exams, and once I got through uni finals... Continue Reading →

October 1, 2015 6

Mantra calling

I'm feeling a bit physically wrecked this week (just a a cold, but oh! that little virus certainly packs a punch!) so I haven't been up to much asana practice. I've been weak and a bit feverish. It makes for 'hot yoga' but not in a nice way... So asana practice is clearly not what my body... Continue Reading →

September 30, 2015 7

Brahman and bacteria

Class started today with the teacher asking what came before Siri. His rhetorical line was to trace back a sequence of ‘what came befores’. What was before the internet, before reference books, spoken language, sound, breathing… "What was before breathing?" I volunteered "anaerobic respiration" which got a laugh at least (I am in a very... Continue Reading →

August 4, 2015 4

Simplicity

I've been struggling to write something about bhakti yoga, about devotional practice, about letting go of the small self and all one's quotidian concerns, the trivialities that make the world go round and make my head spin. I just let all that go for today at least. Instead I lit a candle, rolled out my... Continue Reading →

February 16, 2015 0

What’s the point? lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu

Around Christmas I spent some time reflecting on what the point of yoga is, or rather what is the point of my yoga. To be sure when I started asana practice I had very limited ambitions, and they were all about me. Nothing wrong with that. We all start somewhere. And something I'm realizing about... Continue Reading →