International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 49 | Page 50

WORDS: THE BAREFO OT D O CTOR
“BREATHE! BREATHE!” shouted my yoga teacher standing with one foot on the inside of each of my knees, me sitting in ‘tailor pose’, back against the wall, my legs bent at the knees, soles pressed together like a humble tailor, except I was a fairly arrogant teenager in deep resistance to the idea as well as the weight of his body forcing my knees to the ground in a bid to release pelvic tension . This was the early 70s, and yoga in the West was still a rare, exotic, edgy, esoteric art, the exclusive province of hippies, bohemians and maverick psycho-naughts. Such extreme yoga practice wouldn’t happen now, not because we’ve come to our senses, but because of the poisonous effect of our litigious society causing everyone to go lightweight to avoid being sued. In fact there was great sense in using extreme training methods, for provided they were implemented expertly and intelligently enough and didn’t actually snap you in two, they snapped you out of your ego and into the transcendent state in a trice.

TRANSCENDENCE

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