Almost two decades ago, when I was studying yoga with a teacher; as she watched me perform the requested Asana, I will never forget her tone as she commanded me to “Pay attention”. Coincidentally this also led to her comment or koan of “five bodies, not one” which led to many years of deciphering before I finally began to viscerally understand what she was pointing towards.
This short video, shot in my back garden is the beginning of me offering some of my insights into simple subjects like attention, and how to cultivate it being both whole (as in un-fractured) whilst also being receptive, leaving you able to hear what is actually trying to happen without losing yourself.
The flavours are an excellent way to cultivate this, as they require you to create a coherent structure which can hold your shape. This structure not only has to hold your shape during the active doing phase, but also during the oppositely active phase letting go. (Which can feel just like how we experience our lungs, being able to both hold a structure whilst expressing out, but then changing shape to allow air in). This naturally brings about an increase in the ‘flexibility’ and adaptation of your nervous system, something essential if you are to create a feeling of ‘easy presence’, which seems to come across as someone who can ‘pay attention’.
I am more and more drawn towards these aspects of attention and wonder-filled discovery within this practice, especially now as more of our attention is vacuumed into the black hole of technology and AI. Life IS within us, and even if it is so easy to overlook, the flavours is one of many ways we can actually begin to grow it within us. All you need is a structure (the bowl) and a key (the spine) to unlock it. This is the master key!
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