Beloved savasana

My teacher sometimes refers to śavāsana as a 'little death' and I have to fight an immature giggle at what can only sound like a sexual metaphor to my ears. Funny in contrast that his referring to the breath as 'the beloved' simply sounds esoteric and rather pure! Because 'bhakti' isn't from my native language... Continue Reading →

February 21, 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

Yoga by moonlight

I was chatting a friend over coffee today and conversation turned as often to yoga. We're both busy with relationships, work, family, keeping well/feeling ill... the usual flow of life stuff. And for myself I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by work right now (I'm covering the essentials of my boss's workload while he's on extended leave).... Continue Reading →

January 13, 2016 7

Final Sanskrit class of the term

I just had my final Sanskrit class of term. In truth I'm ready for a break. I've been packing all sorts of extras into my time during the last few months and it'll be nice to have less on my plate (festive obligations permitting, ha!). But what a joy Sanskrit has been so far! We raced... Continue Reading →

December 9, 2015 2

Lamp Posts and Bus Stops

I gave a mini-English lesson this evening as I waited for the bus home. I always have interesting moments at this bus stop after yoga class. Is it the bus stop? Maybe it's like the lamppost in Narnia -- where meetings happen! No, it's probably more likely another curious side-effect of yoga. Maybe somehow I give... Continue Reading →

December 1, 2015 2

Being and laughing — good in any language

In the next thrilling instalment following my farewell to the Sanskrit professor and his super-fast class, I'm happy to report I've already found myself a new teacher! He teaches an adult group for just one hour a week, and it slots in perfectly right before my favourite yoga class of the week. Wow! Now Sanskrit feels like... Continue Reading →

November 10, 2015 6

Getting back to basics — it’s in my hands

After being rocketed into reading Sanskrit and finding the pace of my class too much, I've gone back to basics. Something my āsana practice has taught me: when in doubt go back to the simplest thing. Find stability before you move on; seek joy in the small details and linger there a while before your ego speeds... Continue Reading →

October 26, 2015 5

In which I bid farewell to the Sanskrit professor…

Regular readers will have copped a little of my frantic first week of UG level Sanskrit classes. Workload was heavy and the pace was frenetic. I had occasional joyous moments where I could keep up with what was happening, but mostly it was a lot of hard yards at home going back through classwork as well as preparing... Continue Reading →

October 20, 2015 4

What yoga teaches me about learning Sanskrit

I still have nightmares of learning Latin as a child. One year my teacher had me reading Caesar with him ‘for fun’ once a week. We read at speed as a bit of a warm up for the real work. One class was particularly punishing: he was impatient and pushing faster, I lost my place... Continue Reading →

October 17, 2015 1

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 →