June 8, 2015

It is already day 3 of the yoga retreat at Alam Indha. Hard to imagine! Time is such an unusual entity. I remember as a child, how endless summers were and how slowly time passed when doing chores on the family farm. That slowness doesn’t seem to exist so much any more.

The days here on retreat are spacious, with several unstructured hours, and yet time still passes quickly. Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher, said that in our lifetime with have to make peace with time and death and I often consider that as I contemplate the paradox of time passing. Even with the rapidly passing days, I deeply appreciate the balance of structure (sessions are scheduled and run on time) and space. I have time to take in the class teachings, write and rest. I have my practice times built into the day and I just have to show up ready. This is the gift of retreat.

Our daily schedule looks like this. Mornings start early with pranayama (breath work) and meditation at 6:45am. I am not sure if it is jet lag, the retreat phenomenon or a combination of both, but I am getting to bed early enough that waking up is not so painful. Mornings are silent until after practice so that helps. Pranayama and meditation ends at 7:30 and then there is a short break. We have an asana practice from 7:45-10:15am and our morning practices have been strong with standing poses, inversions and some backbends.

Brunch immediately follows then we have some free time.

There is an optional philosophy talk at 3:15-4:15pm and then the afternoon session is from 4:30-6pm. This session has been restorative poses and forward bends / twists so far. Meditation, which is also optional, follows dinner for 20 minutes and then we head into our rooms for the rest of the evening.

The hotel where we are is beautiful but simple. The grounds are lush all kinds of plants and frangipani flowers fall from the trees to decorate the paths. Every morning, the Balinese make offerings of flowers, incense and rice to the various deities placed throughout the grounds and they bless each room and the people in it in the same way. It is one young woman’s job to place the offerings throughout the grounds. Walking through the gardens  and even along the streets in Ubud, one has to carefully watch and step over these small baskets of offerings. These symbols of devotion are in recognition of the ancestors, the gods and goddesses that bring abundance and remove obstacles and in gratitude for the gifts received. These signs are present through the day and serve as reminders to be in the moment (watch where you walk) and the grace through which we are here. It is a lovely environment for our yoga practice.

In the classes, we are working with the theme of what is yoga and a T.S. Eliot quote, “… Hell is where nothing connects:” We are connecting our mind to our body and our breath, ourselves to the environment and to the forces that mould the world around and inside us. Of course, this is nothing new for us yogis, since it is a fundamental precept to the yoga practice. However, it is a rich investigation to do this without the distractions of daily life, with the creativity of the natural world so abundantly present and with reminders of devotion in each corner and on each path. Each time I step around the offering on my way up the stairs to the room, I am promoted to acknowledge with gratitude the room, the people who clean and care for it and the circumstances that allow be to be here in it.