outside the front wall of the shala, life is good here in Mysore. i started my second month the day after the full moon last week. it’s nice to have the moon as an indicator of the passing time.
i could really feel a building up of energy leading up the the full moon, and then it felt like the bottom dropped out the first day back to practice after the moon day. it’s impressive how Sharath keeps track of where everyone is at in their practice, especially as the number of students keeps rising. Thursday was exactly the first day of my second month, and even though i couldn’t start that day, he made a point of giving me the first pose of Intermediate. he came over while i was doing U.Hasta Padagangusta and told me to take Pasasana on Monday, (no new pose on the day before or after the moon day) so tomorrow i will begin the Intermediate series.
i must say the timing feels perfect. i knew coming here that everyone only does primary series their first month here. in the beginning i had my doubts if it would be satisfying, and i even thought that i might do a second practice in the afternoons to “keep up” my intermediate practice. i quickly gave up that idea, after experiencing the energy of practicing here. sometime during the last week or at least the last few days before the full moon, i’d discovered a new appreciation for the primary series and was feeling stronger than ever inside the doing of the practice.
i’d just said to someone the day before how content i now was to be doing only the primary series, and how i really had no expectations of doing Intermediate this time. then without anticipating it, i get moved along to start Intermediate. it’ll be interesting to see where the second month leads, perhaps into a third month? we’ll see what happens….
