I have been intending to post something about the Inner Silence Meditation workshop that I ran on May 31 (exactly one week ago) but for some reason or another I haven’t found the time to write. Blogging is one of those activities that require quality time, more so when you write in a second language (please bear with me 🙂 ).

During the Inner Silence workshop we were blessed with resolutely summery weather and we used the Salisbury Center’s beautiful garden to practice neti. For those of you who have not heard about Jala Neti, here’s a brief explanation: hatha yoga practice that clears the sinuses, stimulates ajna chakra (associated with the third eye of intuition) and makes you feel more awake. Being the day-dreamer type, neti is a practice that I enjoy because it immediately brings me to the here and now and it is very easy. Everyone should practice it from time to time (notice what a proselyte I am) if not to prevent colds, to breathe more freely and enjoy the summery scents.

I started practicing neti when I was living in London; to be geographically precise in super edgy (and perhaps equally super polluted) Columbia Road (it was not that trendy then), the street where there is a  flower market on Sundays. During the winter I was constantly suffering from colds, insomnia and all sorts of bad-vibe ailments so my flatmate Ingrid suggested I try neti. Man, was I lucky! Ingrid had Swami Janakananda’s Book Yoga and Tantra as well as the book, I mean that ever inspiring orange book that seemed endless. I read and read and read until I built a home practice; not because I was a disciplined yogini but because I was dead broke and couldn’t really afford that many yoga sessions; plus I lived in East London and my teacher lived in the South.

As I am writing this I am recalling that the first time I tried neti Ingrid was coaching me in the kitchen, with a tea pot, half a litre of lukewarm water and 1 teaspoon of salt and it worked well. I am such a neti enthusiast that I had to -at some point- teach people how to do it so on Saturday 31 May I had the pleasure to finally share it. Pranayama after neti is a totally different experience and I noticed that during the workshop people were more focused. Although jala neti is a tangible, physical cleansing experience, it is a great way to prepare the ground for the cultivation of more subtle and expansive experiences such as Inner Silence.

On 19 July I will be running the Yoga Meditation workshop Nurturing the self, which focuses on cultivating willpower and intention. If you would like to learn how to practice neti come along and prepare the ground for seeding intention with a clearer mind.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

e.e.cummings

The present moment intrigues me. Does it really exist? When we try to grasp it it’s already gone. It eludes us moment by moment and yet we only live in it. The present moment is a riddle. This poem has been in my head for the last couple of days and I’ve arbitrarily decided that the poem is about the present moment. Anyway, what a beautiful combination of uncapitalised words, and I also love the fact that e. e. cummings doesn’t use capital letters when he writes his name. 

A very dear family friend, Annegret Widman, passed away last year. It still feels unreal. She was a quiet person, she always spoke the essential. Funnily enough, she had an excellent command of all bad words (believe me, Mexican bad words are really difficult to use because most of them derive from the same root) and she used them selectively with brio and the characteristic charm of those whose first language is German and their second Spanish Mexican. She had a deeply compassionate personality when it came to animals. She loved horses, parrots and had a soft spot for cats and great danes. 

During the summer of 2004 she taught her daughter Elena and myself some of the practices she had learnt in India during the 60’s in her own garden in Cholula. I remember those days were really hot and the yoga poses really challenging and invigorating. I now realise that I never asked her who her teachers were or where in India did she learn those practices, but as I said before she was very reserved and she never really spoke much about her life and her travels around the world.

Although Annie had strong German roots, she loved Mexico and she truly enjoyed Mexican food. No Sunday would go by without her visiting the street food memelas stands in front of the Pyramid of Cholula. I don’t think I ever tasted any German dishes in her house. However, twice a year, she would bake a scrumptious plum or apple tart for each of her daughters’ birthdays. She accompanied the tarts either with vanilla ice or whipped cream. Her daughter Luvi gave me the recipe and I’d like to share it with you. I have added some extras that I found really useful in Lakshmi’s blog Pure Veg, but the recipe that I am sharing with you  is essentially based on Annie’s recipe.

CRUST & CRUMBLE

250 gr plain flour

150 gr salted butter

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 /5 cups of brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoon of milk

ON TOP

12 deseeded plums cut in fine slices

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

1/2 dl oranges juice

¼ tsp nutmeg powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven for 20 or 30 minutes. To prepare the crust and crumble mix all dry ingredients. Make small cubes with the butter and begin to mix it with all dry ingredients with your fingers. Keep your hands on the surface and from time to time, combine the crumbs with the rest of the mix underneath. Take aside half of the mix for the crumble. Add an egg to the half that you will use for the crust. If it feels a bit dry add 2 tablespoons of milk. Place it in the fridge, cover and let it rest for half an hour. Roll out the dough and place it on a tart form. To prepare the filling and top, place the plums with the skin facing toward the crust. Start placing the plums around the edge of the form and continue until you cover the whole surface. Mix the orange juice, spices and sugar, and pour it as evenly as possible over the plums. For the crumble mix you can decide whether you would like to add more sugar or more butter so that the crumbs are bigger or smaller depending on how you like it. Sprinkle the crumble over the plums and bake at 200 C for 1/2 hour or until the crumble looks golden. You can accompany with vanilla ice or whipped cream.

Foolishness is a great teacher. If only we are open to learn.