Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Midnight's Children, a spontaneous lotus moment

"Reality is a Question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems--but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible. Suppose yourself in a large cinema, sitting at first in the back row, and gradually moving up, row by row, until your nose is almost pressed against the screen. Gradually the stars' faces dissolve into dancing grain; tiny details assume grotesque proportions; the illusion dissolves--or rather, it becomes clear that the illusion itself is reality..."

Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

I guess I seem to be blogging more now that it's summer; as you might have noticed, this is my second blog post today. I don't have any particular reason for quoting Rushdie here; it just so happens that I am reading Midnight's Children right now, and this particular passage jumps out at me. Midnight is the second Rushdie novel that I have read thus far, the first being The Satanic Verses. I have to say that although both novels are written in that distinctive self-referential voice that is Rushdie's, Midnight is very different in character from The Satanic Verses. I don't really know how to capture this difference in a couple of sentences, and I don't feel like writing a long post right now on what this difference really is, either, so I'll leave it at this. Maybe I'll write more about this when I finish Midnight. We'll see.

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In the meantime, let me tell you an interesting true yoga story that recently happened to me. I had a spontaneous lotus teaching moment yesterday afternoon. I was about to leave my office when I started chatting with a colleague who occupies the office across from mine. We started talking about possible summer plans, and what we each had been up to lately. He told me that he had recently taken up meditation, and had injured his ankle while meditating. This is roughly how the conversation unfolded from this point:

Colleague: "Yeah, you don't believe it is possible to injure yourself while meditating, do you?" [Chuckles]

Nobel: "Actually, I do. Were you trying to get into the lotus posture, by any chance?"

Colleague: [Nods his head, smiles sheepishly, and then was suddenly surprised] "How did you know that?" [Note to reader: Many people at work do not know that I practice yoga (I generally adhere to the doctrine of the separation of yoga and work).]  

I then explained to my colleague that I have been practicing yoga for a few years, and know of many incidents of people who have injured their knees and ankles trying to crank themselves into the lotus posture (I did not mention that I had also suffered a knee injury before; I figured that might be too much information at that moment.).

And then the teacher in me took over: I went on to explain to my colleague how, in order to do lotus productively and safely, one must first work on opening the external hip rotators, so that the work of the posture comes from the hips, and not from the knees or ankles. I also mentioned how it took me about six months from the time I first started yoga to get to the point where I was just able to barely do a loose lotus.

"You can do lotus?" My colleague asked (I think he sounded impressed, but I cannot be sure). I said yes, and then proceeded to show him (on the floor of his office, no less) a bunch of preparatory poses (pigeon, double pigeon, etc.) that he can work on in order to get his hips to open enough to be able to do lotus safely. And then, on the spur of the moment, I added, "And once you feel your hips open enough (which could take a few weeks or even months), you can then try half lotus." So saying, I brought my right foot into my left hip crease. "And then, " I continued, "you can work yourself into full lotus." So saying, I brought the left foot onto my right thigh. And I found myself sitting in lotus in jeans on the floor of his office. Which might already be rather unusual, in and of itself. What's even more interesting is that this is the first time since my knee injury a couple of years ago that I have spontaneously gotten into a full lotus outside of my yoga practice, while wearing street clothes. To be sure, my lotus wasn't very deep: I didn't feel that I was warm enough to attempt the usual deep lotus that I do during practice, so I kept the lotus loose. But even so, I am grateful for how much my knee has healed to permit me to do even this.

Anyway, I got out of lotus after a few breaths, and got back on my feet. My colleague thanked me for the hip-opening tips, and I went on my way.

Well.... I hope you like this little story. More later.

14 comments:

  1. Sounds awesome. You did this person a GREAT service. Regular humans have no idea about the dangers of lotus pose :D

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    1. Yes, this is true. I think it's because the only images of lotus posture that many "regular humans" see are those of Buddha looking all serene in lotus. So they assume lotus must be a peaceful meditative posture. Which it is, but there's more to it than meets the eye...

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  2. I agree with tanja..i have a friend that has a picture in a ski magazine doing lotus with ski boots on! http://www.jilllawsonyoga.com/SKI_YOGA_1_.pdf

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    1. It looks like the picture is in Yoga Magazine, not a ski magazine. Somebody doing lotus with ski boots on in a yoga magazine? Seriously? Oh gosh... what is the (yoga) world coming to?

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  3. You are SO right Nobel, a yoga magazine not ski magazine ;)

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  5. What a book... When I get near the end, I just go back to the beginning, and yes, completely different register from Satanic Verses, glad you are enjoying it! I think reading Midnight's Children is such a great experience that it is directly related to your lotus stuff. :)

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    1. Yes, "completely different register" is an apt way of describing how it is different from Satanic Verses. Maybe I'll have more to say when I finish it ;-)

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  6. I am reading Midnight's Children myself right now. Suffice it to say that I had to go to the library yesterday to renew it for the third time!! getting stuck in a work of fiction has not happened to me since high school reading assignments. I find his self referential narration show-offy and infuriating.
    I am taking this book to Maine this memorial day weekend and will tackle book three. If I don't finish it, I will return it as is. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times this has happened before. Thanks for the space to blow off some steam about this.

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    1. I think I hear you. For some reason, his self-referentiality (is this a word?) seems to be slowing down my reading too. Funny thing is, I don't remember that happening when I read The Satanic Verses. Have you read that?

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  7. No I haven't, this is my first Salman Rushdie book. I enjoy his banter when I've see him as a guest on Bill Maher's HBO show, But I'm with poor Padma (book character, not ex-wife)on his story telling: Too much fabricated suspense and unecesary turns and detours.

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  8. Hello, Nobel. Just so happens I'm reading this right now as well. I'm around 300 pages into the book. I wanted to start it while I was still in India. I did, but I didn't get very far before I left 2 weeks ago. I'm also finding it to be different in character than the other books I've read of his. I haven't read The Satanic Verses yet - it is next on my list. But I've read two other books of his recently and this one feels quite different.

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    1. I'm getting to a point where I am seriously starting to lose focus in my reading; I'm feeling tempted to "jump ship" and go read something else that is less... self-referential.

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