My Blog
Kagyu Samye Ling
I spent Christmas and New Year at Kagyu Samye Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on the west coast of Scotland near Lockerbie. It was very laid-back for a monastery. No six o'clock roll calls, compulsory meditation or lights out at 10. There weren't even that many...
Mala
I have two malas: one clear quartz, the other green jade. The crystal one I bought at the Sivananda ashram in Austria. I chose crystal because this is traditionally used for devi (goddess) worship, and I was initiated into a goddess mantra (saraswati). An Indian...
Yoga and Outdoor Swimming
I live a couple of miles from the Jurassic coast, which features some of the most spectacular beaches in the UK, and from about the beginning of June to the end of September I go wild swimming. I really love doing this — it's peaceful, invigorating and spiritual — you...
Pancha Karma
Pancha karma means 'five works'. It's basically an ayurvedic detoxification treatment. The five works or cleansing treatments are as follows: 1. Vamana. Therapeutic vomiting. 2. Virechana. Therapeutic purgation. 3. Basti. Medicated enemas. 4. Nasya. Nasal elimination....
Sivananda yoga
My first experience of Sivananda yoga was a husband and wife team who taught it in south London. They were pretty good; the husband was into military workouts as well, getting people to do press-ups and sit-ups in the damp grass on Greenwich Park, so the classes were...
My yoga practice: astanga mysore
My yoga practice up to now has been very classical. When I seriously started practising yoga over 10 years ago, I did astanga yoga, mysore style. This basically means you learn the set number of moves in a sequence (called the primary series) and when you come to...