Inspirations: Archives

Lacuna, what a wonderful word!  It’s a particularly wonderful word at this time of year when we can be it, as well as see it.  It’s meaning is a hiatus, or blank space- possibly as in a vacation.  It can also be an intercellular space, and-or a small pit or depression, like those in the back hip bones.  What fun to say, “I’m in lacuna, or going on lacuna.” That could mean, “I’m outta here.”  Or “I am the blank page….life will write the day, not me.” There’s another wonderful word which resonates with lacuna, it’s the Sanskrit, ‘pratyahara,’ meaning “the conscious withdrawal of energy from the senses.”  Certainly one must try and do this if one is to become a blank space.  Pratyahara, as the fifth step, or limb, of Patanjali’s eight-limbed Ashtanga Yoga system, can be elusive because there is little consensus on how much withdrawal is appropriate.  Is it similar to Savasana?  Yes, but more.  Savasana is a first stage of relinquishing and letting go the body, allowing breath to take over. When working with pratyahara, is that an oxymoron?  Can you ‘work’ something of this nature?  Do we think we should, be able to disappear completely into the deepest subtle layers of the body, withdrawn from the outside world -just this side of death?  Since it is summer, and I’ve opted for profound quiet space, or more to the point, my body has demanded it, I’m interested in how far down this can go.  Lately, I’ve felt I’ve been at the bottom of a well.  It’s not a bad thing.  It’s not something I wished for, or worked for, it just is.  It’s as though the last year of going at a greyhound’s racing pace needs inner balancing. Some people might call my state a ‘walking… Read more »