A Sunday morning on the Gold Coast and the air was quite cold for late May. Session number four in a six-session Yoga of Stillness program had arrived and participants in various attire, from fluffy house shoes and beanies to heavy winter jackets and active wear, gathered and prepared their personal spaces for the early session.
The previous one had been mid-afternoon the day before and the deepening and increased level of stillness that two consecutive sessions over less than 18 hours offer is always magic and a wonder to behold. The human body just loves and immediately responds when we are present with it and easily goes into deepening restfulness and to a deeper level of stillness.
The air conditioning was not working and the room temperature stayed at 15.5o C, but everybody was well prepared as they disappeared under their warm blankets, arranged them so the whole body was covered when in a supine position, with consideration of the lower body, including the feet, being snug and warm when seated.
The magic was about to begin, although in reality, it had already begun, as nothing occurs in isolation – the unfolding of the Esoteric Yoga sequence starts long before we ever get onto the mat. It starts with how we are when we gather what is needed at home, includes how we drive to the venue, how we set up our mat and personal space when we get there, and even whether or not we react to the physical environment or surrender in the knowing that we have done what is needed and that everything has been and will be taken care of.
We began and there were long stretches in the supine position that were asked for that morning. Longer than ‘usual’ but then, what is usual when we are ever evolving, ever deepening into more of what we in truth are?
At the pace we were going, the last part of the session, which brings attentiveness to the different parts of the body, starting with the shoulders and then going up the body from the feet to the top of the head, would most likely stop somewhere around the stomach area, maybe get as far as the jaw – what would it be?
Nothing of this sort was in store that morning. Time dissolved in the eternalness of the present and space came on the scene as the session made a mockery of the limitations of man-made time.
We easily got all the way through the body and to the top of the head, with plenty of ‘time’ to spare – being present had given birth to space, yet again and undeniably so. The construct and tyranny of time as displayed on the clock in the room had disappeared and made room for space and a session that felt far longer and deeper than the allotted earthly 60 minutes.
And this is available throughout the day, every day, when we are present with our body.
Who then needs time when space is always available?
By Gabriele Conrad, NSW, Australia
Further Reading:
A Relationship with Stillness
Stillness is Our Natural Quality of Being
Yoga – the gate way to Stillness and Space
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Space is what it is and the same in it’s offering for all – time shifts and changes and is determined by the many different complications one chooses to bring.
Crazy when you consider Gabrielle that for so long mankind has made it our single aim to explore space in a rocket ship, yet all along it’s been with us everyday, holding us just waiting for us to connect.
Who or what needs time is the question? For when we have space the day opens to the most magnificence Joy, that is eternal, and you have shared much of this in your blog Gabrielle.
“… being present had given birth to space, yet again and undeniably so.” How powerful Gabriele to feel this so clearly. I find it what supports me to be present is detachment, and then it is like space floods through my body and is all around me, and I move in it. When space is there all I can do is be in the wonder and awe of it, even as the illusion of time drops away (which is amazing in itself) the space itself feels so divine, and I feel a part of something that is of an immense magnitude, something universal and incredibly grand. Thank you Gabriele, I feel your blog has also offered me a deeper study into observing time, and where it intrudes to separate me from the grandness that space is.
Beautiful to hear how space was present, and how detachment supports you to be present Melinda, ”The construct and tyranny of time as displayed on the clock in the room had disappeared and made room for space and a session that felt far longer and deeper than the allotted earthly 60 minutes.’
Melinda Knights it feels to me that what you are describing is that humanity lives inside a bubble that has become our reality, step outside the bubble and we are back in the dimension of the divinity of space which we know so well because it is this space that we come from and we all return to as ‘time’ is a manmade construct that keeps us trapped in the unreal world we have made real.
Beautiful what you shared Gabrielle, I experienced space to day and not time when I did look at the clock it looked like it was going slow, time has no place when we are in the amazing -ness of space. I appreciate your words on preparing for yoga as we are gathering our belongings at home and driving to our venue things for me to be more aware of, thank you.
I agree with you Gabriele when you say
“The human body just loves and immediately responds when we are present with it and easily goes into deepening restfulness and to a deeper level of stillness.”
Esoteric yoga is completely different from any other yoga modality, it allows our bodies to reconnect back to the stillness within, I know that my body just loves to be still rather than in the raciness I have been running with all these years.
A beautiful offering Gabriele. As someone who has often gotten caught in the ‘time’ mechanisms of life and is now becoming more aware of living in space, I can say without doubt that living in space offers a freedom and lightness that is beyond compare with what time promises to deliver.
Agreed, space is literally divine and thus our true medium; time is man-made and clunky and, lest we forget, undeniably dictatorial.