Namaskar - Apr09

The Silence
Inge Santoso
O, Mother !
In your womb, I am Silence.
Neither young. Neither old.
Neither male. Neither female.
Neither. Neither.
Ageless. Timeless.
Formless. Faceless. The Nobody !
Without country. Without race.
Without religion. Without creed.
I am Silence ! Thus, I am.
Voiceless. Without songs. Without words.
I am That. In your womb – Silence !
Without ears. Without tongue. Without
mind. Without body.
I am free ! In your womb floating in the
Silence of Eternity…………
Thus, I am. Always free in Silence.
Neither here. Neither there. Neither
everywhere.
Without center. Without direction.
Without corner.
Therefore, I am ! The Silence.
Among the trees, the lakes and the
mountains.
Here I am on earth.
Where I walk, Where I sit. Where I lay.
Recollecting the memory called Silence !
At the time I wrote this poem, I was assisting
clients to obtain political asylum in the US. I
was overwhelmed by the facts of all kinds of
discrimination afflicted on my clients. To
quiet the disturbing thoughts, I meditated to
recollect the memory of silence returning to
the safety in the womb
of the Universal
Mother. © 2009 Inge
Santoso
the mat. This is the second part of this
sequence, Kukkutasana, the cock pose.
Again men, being flat-chested, have an
advantage here: they can straighten their
backs and look up easily. For women,
whose bust is between them and their arms,
straightening their body against their arms is
more difficult. Initially, I found slightly
bending one elbow and pushing the same
side of my chest forwards, and then
straightening my elbow, then repeating the
same sequence the other side allowed me to
straighten my back. Later, I found I could
do this as I rolled up in to Kukkutasana.
Hold for five breathes, again the drishti is the
nose. Exhale, place your sit-bones back on
the mat, and vinyasa.
We have all seen practitioners lift their hips
higher in Kukkutasana, which increases the
difficulty of the pose - again this is easier for
men as proportionately they have narrower,
lighter hips, and broader stronger
shoulders, but it is something to be tried
for fun.
Similarly, as most women practice wearing
long pants, rolling pants up makes it easier -
skin is much slipperier than polyester/Lycra
jersey - but again, this is the final challenge.
David Swenson’s book gives variations for
those who cannot sit in Padmasana, but to
me they look far more difficult than
practicing the above!
It is hard to fathom the purpose of this
pose apart from to make us all look silly,
but I remember how exhausting I found it
when I first started to practice in
comparison to now, and conclude it builds
stamina and strength. It has become one of
my favourite poses.
Valerie practices
Ashtanga yoga, Mysore
style, and leads Hath
yoga stretches for the
Siddha Meditation
Path.
VALERIE PREPARES TO ROLL BACK
AMY IN KUKKUTASANA
Inge is a lawyer
practicing in Jakarta.
inge_kunarsih@yahoo.com
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