heat

As autumn makes its presence felt the body also starts to turn within. As a yoga teacher this is a time when the student population starts to wane. This month of April with all the holidays is particularly bad because the breaks add to the rate of loss. After settling into warm and comforting rhythms at home students don’t usually return until the stirring of nature outside- the longer days, the fresh green shoots and the chirping of returned bird-life. The nature of yoga is to bring balance to the inner and outer worlds and in this spirit the yogi aims to maintain a strong inner fire as the outer one recedes to northern climes.

Heat. Sanskrit is one of those dense languages with words that are crystallised concepts viewed from an infinity of facets. The word that translates to heat in simple terms is tapas. It can also figuratively describe the austerity, discipline, inner fire, determination and commitment that is required to persevere on the path of Yoga.

tapas- the inner flame

When applied to an asana class tapas is simply the physical heat generated from your practice. In some schools this heat is applied externally to heat up the room, or is encouraged by breathing practices that heat up the body. In the Iyengar system the heat must be generated from within as the fruit of your practice. In cool times it is easiest to appreciate this heat.

My morning practice requires that heat to begin to loosen my muscles, to  permeate those muscles with awareness. It’s as if I unlock my muscles and by so doing release my mind to wander in the field of my body. I was having such lofty thoughts during my own practice and when I taught class last week I noticed something… My winter classes are more aerobic and I was intrigued to see that same heating happen to the class. It felt like more than people warming up. To a practitioner of a group activity like Tai Chi it might make more sense when I say that it was as if there was a release or expression of a group energy.

On those very cold winters days a morning practice seems to permeate my body with that heat. Like a slow burning coal I carry that warmth throughout the day. I realise that this heat translates to that bubbling happiness at the end of a good practice. Those feelings describe a  further definition of tapas: self-purification. How else could you describe the lightness and clarity? In warmer weather I have never made the association of heat with the expression of my body and the calmness of my mind. Isn’t it interesting how the practice of Yoga seems to have the capacity for endless revelation?

metro cops

Metro cops: thank you TimesLive

Dear Metro cop,
I’m tired of you waiting outside my house.
The rain is enough!! It pores as you snore.
After struggling to get out of bed and wind my way to work, you are the last straw.
Metro cop, get up and do something!!
All I hear is kaching, kaching, kaching.
Metro cop, what more can I say, when all you care about is your pay.
I’m tired Metro cop, not mouse but louse of my day.
My failed poetry. Besides, I know no Metro cop will be reading my blog. I’m just so tired. Everyday I drive down the road on the way to work and there they are. Trying to catch you out in a 60 zone, on a downhill, straight road. I know that besides this straight trajectory this happens to be a site of numerous crashes into the fencing that demarcates the koppies but this is night activity. Drunken night activity. When you get close to R500+ of ‘speeding’ fines on such a stretch of road it will be your turn to vent.
So just in case you are reading my blog, Metro cop, go away!!

women doing it for themselves

One of the legacies of Apartheid is the decay of the African family.

The separation of men from their families seems to have created a culture of imbalance between the sexes that is only exacerbated by its patriachial heritage. It is a shocking reality of the country that women and children are in danger from the male figures most often in their immediate environment, the home. In such a context it is reassuring that the constitution is a very progressive one that enshrines the rights of all irrespective of race, religion or sex. Arguably the implementation of the constitution is still very lacking but the principles are aspirational and hopefully with the necessary promotion of those rights society can begin to assimilate those grand ideas into a way of life.

Maya Angelou. Source Getty Images

In the meantime we are confronted with the present social dynamics. One facet of these is the absentee father. It is not surprising to go to a party and end up in a group conversation that turns to the lack of father-figures or male role models. Many children grow up in female dominated households where men are absent or ineffectual presences. I have often heard as a result the great fallacy that men are not required at all in a family! The fact that many women are increasingly economically independent coupled with advances in science such as artificial insemination or even the progressive adoption policies in the country, lead many to speak of creating families without the requirement of men.

I can completely understand the scenarios that lead to such thinking but when I read an article in a mainstream newspaper the other day saying just such a thing I was terribly disappointed. My first impression was that this writer must be a very young person, probably without a child of her own. Upon reflection I realise that she may not be, haven’t I heard my own girlfriends saying such things?

In the chicken family there is usually one male and several wives/children. It has been noted that in families without a male, one of the females will often take on the characteristics of a rooster such as crowing or even sometimes actually manifesting physical characteristics such as a crown. Why have I gone off on such a tangent you may be wondering? Well it is because I believe that the problems in South Africa are not going to be remedied by the perpetuation of the absent father model, but by the greater role of positive male role models. There is an inherent need for a balance of male and female energies in society and to believe that one can totally provide for the lack of the other is absolutely delusional.

It may be idyllic to always have a husband-and-wife based family, or not even possible in gay couples but I believe the only way to remedy this tradition of separation is by reintroducing the male role model. This problem by the way is also found in the African-American population and was recently addressed in a Father’s Day speech by President Obama. I would hazard a guess that it’s not just a “black” problem but shared by all people who have had the same generation of artificial separation. To all who disagree, I leave you with a quote from a favourite author of mine, Maya Angelou, who says “We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders”.