Every so often, a very english yogi comes screeching to a halt to avoid hitting a stone wall. He never crashes into the stone wall; just stops in front of it and pauses for thought. There are a lot very english dry stone walls around the place. They provide margins and borders to the scattered fields, woodlands and valleys around the ‘yogi’s home.
Actually, the ‘yogi isn’t talking about stone walls outside his house; he’s talking about inner walls – mind walls if you like. And they are no different to the dry stone walls outside. The ‘yogi still screeches to a halt in his mind when he comes up against one and still stops to pause and think things through.
Recently, a very english yogi was asked to consider developing a posture profile on the asana Dwi Pada Pitham. This posture is also known as the two legged table pose. It’s a precursor to the Setu Bandhasana (bridge pose). It’s sort of a baby version of bridge.
The ‘yogi really struggled mentally with this posture profile. I think that this was because I regarded it as an insignificant asana, in that for me (who loves strong postures which are rich in symbolism and gesture) it wasn’t powerful, strong or rich in symbolism and gesture. For example I typically love working in asanas such as trikonasana, virabhasana, natarajasana, matsyendrasana – all expansive, symbolic, and richly gestural asanasa, involving all the body and encouraging for me, deep meditation and awareness. Because I am drawn to wildness of posture and real bodily movement and because kinaesthetically I love the physicality of the postures – Dwi Pada Pitham seemed so insignificant and as a result I wasn’t drawn to it.
When I searched for references in classical literature as much as modern texts, the lack of references suggested to me that others think similarly; and as a result I think I became biased against it. As a result I really had to push myself to explore it both theoretically and practically.
My bias and resistance against a seemingly simple posture was my “dry stone wall”.
When you come up against such barriers – the important thing is to work with the edge of your resistance, and use your energy to transform the feeling and the moment. Ironically by pushing myself and really getting to grips with the posture in theory and practice, I begun to see the value of this seemingly insignificant and rather gentle asana. The vinyasa of the moment - you can see it here - encouraged me to focus on breathing in movement and posture, and for me although I am considered a quiet, reflective and quite a slow person – I tend towards wildness and activity – people are fooled: a very english yogi is as mad as Milarepa (ok not so mad!). So it was interesting to be slowed down and grounded by this posture and this movement.
I tend to find the quieter poses a challenge because I think I need to be energised to feel alive. Dwi Pada Pitham was a good compromise – it was posture and movement (the vinyasa) but at the same time it was calming and grounding. Perhaps the vinyasa worked to calm and ground me more than, say, savasana (corpse pose) as when my body is so still, the mind kicks off on its monkey like swinging from tree to tree.
For this very english yogi the lesson was – don’t be fooled or dismiss the seemingly “easy” postures – their gentle easiness can powerfully help you in ways that can sometimes take you by surprise. Easy does it…..