Time on your side

As a drummer I am kinda obsessed with time keeping. 183 beats per minute with a slight drag. Threes in fours. Swinging fives in straight eights. All that jazz. And when you are really in the middle of stuff like that something strange happens: time actually almost comes to a standstill.

That becomes extra funny when you are counting/focusing on the gaps rather than the notes (like many good drummers do). And it becomes really interesting when on top of experiencing all that you are also a meditator. Because if you truly are in the present moment, by default time stops completely. 'Just now' is just gone and 'in a split second' is still a split second away.

When I meditate, though, I still get swept away by thoughts about tomorrow or yesterday or even some event in imaginary time. (If you want to read about time and mass and energy and imaginary time I can wholeheartedly recommend 'The Hole in the Universe: how scientists peered over the edge of emptiness and found everything' by the way).

Anyway: I keep on having to pull myself back into the now. One reason why is of course that I'm as scatterbrained as the next guy. That takes time to fix. But the other reason why I kept thinking stray thoughts like 'are we done yet' or 'I hope I still have 20 minutes' was actually very easy to fix: I got rid of my meditation timer.

Sure, if I really have limited time I still set my mindful clock. But lately all my evening meditations have been untimed, timeless and because of that very tranquil. It didn't make any sense before to wonder what time it was or how many minutes were left. But now that you're not waiting for a bell to ring it becomes utterly rediculous and is not on your mind at all.

I can recommend it to enyone. Just sit how long you sit. And especially don't try to sit longer that ever. If it turns out to be 11 minutes: so be it. And if it's one hour: just as good.

Okay, now stretch your piriformis

Every now and then I come across a yoga position so good that I feel the need to put it online just in case our civilization is lost and all that remains are a couple servers in what used to be the Google HQ. So for all you interstellar visitors and every body still around, here's my new favorite pose: the one legged royal pigeon pose, or eke pada rajakapotasana.

In it's normal upright form it is classified as an advanced kneeling back bend. But I'm not so advanced, so I do the easier forward fold variation. (Brought to you courtesy of a great book with great pictures: Yoga Anatomy Incidentally, the upright pigeon pose is on the cover).



The reason why this is my new fav: it is very intense and very relaxing at the same time. A wonderful combination that stems from stretching your piriformis muscle apparently. The piriformis is a hip stabilizer that crosses the sciatic nerve, which is the largest nerve in the body. Feeling is believing. Especially if you happen to have sciatic pain.



As you can probably see from this angle you are actually stretching the piriformis more or less indirectly. That's why it takes at least a minute for the piriformis to stop resisting and for the stretch to deepen. Three more pointers:

*If you are really tight in the hips it might me more comfortable to put a blanket or a pillow under the hip attached to the leg that is folded forward.

*If you don't use a blanket, be sure to stay level and to avoid sinking onto the floor.

*Don't forget to energize the upper body and the arms at least somewhat: this is not a nap :)

In a handbag

I struggle yet again to explain something Thai to people abroad. This time it's the protests and clashes, why they are different and why nobody knows what's going to happen, really.

First things first: why are they protesting? Well, let's narrow 'they' down. There are three groups. One: the Democratic party members and followers who have stormed Government House and refuse to leave the lawn because they want the current PM Mr. Samak to leave because he is a vote buying puppet of Mr. Taksin who used to be PM and left for the UK because he didn't want to face the corruption charges in Thailand.

Two: there are the people that would like Mr. Samak to stay in office because he has vowed to help the poor like Mr. Taksin did, mainly by literally giving them cash (and according to the opposition taking it right back out of their pockets because they use the money to buy and use mobile phones on Mr. Taksin AIS network).

Three: a variety of often overlooked people that think neither of the two main groups are going to make a difference and want something else to happen. The reason why all these groups clash is obvious. They don't agree. But what makes these protests the most violent in decades is that this has all been festering for at least three years. But that's not the only thing that makes this time around special.

For the first time in Thai history the government has lost control over the media. Suddenly there are articles like this one in a normally loyal newspaper and what was worse: for an hour or two there was live coverage of heavy clashes between the riot police, protesters, bystanders and the press broadcast to the entire nation. People were outraged. And as a result even in rural Khon Kaen more and more people have started to clearly voice their opinion. Another first.

While everybody was expecting this thing to turn very bloody very fast unless Mr. Samak would step down, nothing like that has really happened (yet). How long cab a stalemate like that last? Suddenly there is even talk of a referendum. But the question is if that could really fix a society that seems to be torn between traditional values and market value. We can only wait and see.