On The Seventh Day ...
Sunday is a rest day at RIMYI, and I’m very thankful.
The ‘Pune Model’, as it’s often referred to back home, follows a programme emphasising standing poses in its first week. We engage in two-hour classes each day, mainly taught by the Iyengar family. On top of this, we’re provided access to the main hall for up to a three-hour personal practice. This daily personal practice time is alongside local and foreign students.
It’s more practice than I’ve enjoyed in ages and the sole reason I’m here.
“Intensity is a mental attitude more than a physical attitude. Many people misunderstand what intensity means. They think it means straining and sweating. No! That is a wrong meaning of the word! Intensity is to get totally involved, fully immersed and absorbed in what one is doing. Intense practice means a fast and keen mode in adjusting, correcting, and progressively proceeding.”
Can you see how NPYR’s timetable reflects this?
A sketch of Wednesday’s class with Abhijata
Hips, knees and listening for subjective experience have appeared in many moments this week. Classes are uncompromising and inject a vitality that leaves me wondering why I don’t generate a practice like this at home. Many reasons come to mind; however, staying with the question is enough for now.
Think of self-competition as a quest for evolution. The object is not to beat our other work. It’s to move things forward and create a sense of progression. Growth over superiority.
Our ability and taste may evolve, yielding different works over time, but none can be evaluated as more or less than another. They are different snapshots of who we are, and who we were. They are all our best work in the moment they were created … In this spirit, task yourself to go further and push into the unexpected.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin
When attending RIMYI, splitting accommodation costs with other ‘foreigners’ is standard practice. I’ve found myself sharing an apartment with two good men. Yup, there are the makings of a perfect joke within it all; an Australian, an Englishman, and a Pole walk into RIMYI, and the Indians collectively shake their …
Can you tell I love India? Its organised chaos and differentiated streetside vendors thrill me. The fruit seller only sells fruit; the vegetable cart only does veggies; the chai stalls only steep tea, and the cobbler, well, he mends just about anything! It’s a vast array of human endeavours.
I hope you enjoy your practice and being kind to the excellent relief teachers taking classes while I’m away. Without their support and enthusiasm, I couldn’t be at RIYMI.
Thank you, Team NPYPR, for being all kinds of wonderful.
Till next week, venture beyond x