In the Ashram

For many years in the Ashram, I used to get up just before dawn, and sit with my thoughts.
It was my most challenging practice of Yoga, and that was at a time when my Scoliosis and back sensations was causing great discomfort.

My thoughts would jump from one to the next, a constant monologue, at times to the point where I felt afraid of my thoughts. Unaware, I could free myself from my mind.

During those many years of self study (well before teaching), living and with the guidance of some of the worlds greatest teachers, I found there was in fact another way.  It wasn’t about chasing those thoughts away at all.

In the early days, I read and studied many wonderful books such as the ‘The Power Of Now’. I remember one statement which really resonated with me, changing everything;

“I cannot live with myself any longer.” This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘Self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with”. “Maybe”, I thought, “only one of them is real”.