Quote from Like a Flower

Like a Flower: My Years of Yoga with Vanda Scaravelli

by Sandra Sabatini, with photographs by Dr. David Darom, translated from the Italian by Ann Colcord

Pinter and Martin, Ltd, London, England     © 2011       109 pp.


This is a beautiful and short practice journal, illustrated with color flower photographs.

It seemed astonishing to discover that the positions and certain practices with the breath brought me to different places every time. Vanda's insights brought a release not only from muscular tension but also from habitual patterns of thought. For example I had previously learned that alignment demanded a precise symmetry, but Vanda never suggested that. She recommended finding a solid base through the feet that was neither rigid nor fixed so that when the force of gravity became more active, the body could free itself in an undulating movement which created its own alignment, and all from within.  (p. 40)

Another concept I was holding onto which melted like snow in the sun's rays concerned maintaining the positions: staying in a position for a certain amount of time. What happened to me before was that instead of listening to the breath and favoring the state of deep peace, I had been shifting my attention into staying in the position, bringing in an element of force which had disrupted the harmony and simplicity.  (p. 41)

Vanda was capable of making concrete instructions to bring about what Krishnamurti proposed in his talks. It was as if Krishnamurti had prepared the road and Vanda had paved it with her intuitions -- gravity, the spine, the breath. Both had found the way towards an inner silence, because only inner silence lets one regain innocence and freshness to live life in its entirety. Without ambitions, without great effort.  (p. 83)

-- submitted by Jennifer Knight

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