Yoga & Trail Tail III

Tales from the trail, and its overlaps with yoga, part three….

This is the story of two worlds..

The first world is that of the urban environment in which much of the space is regulated: traffic lights tell you when to stop and go, a hospital awaits down the street, and you can get a ticket for parking on street sweeping days.

We navigate this world with social customs, laws, etc.

The second world is that of Wilderness, in which all of those “safety-nets” drop away and there is an expeditious consequence to one’s actions. The margin for error is much thinner.

The margin for error is much thinner.

Stepping into this world–the world of the trail–asks that I optimize the few things that are within my domain of influence. Namely: the few possessions carried and more essentially, breath body and mind; to hone the vessel.

It asks that I synchronize breath with strides and pace my strides with the sound of mantra; channeling these vital-forces, rather dispersing them. Held in a continual cadence of breath, movement and focus; a different world appears, one marked by the palpable force of  immediacy.

Immediacy: time takes on a different shape as does identity–like a drum beat sounding somewhere between an instinctual animal and a floating node of consciousness.

Through hiking, as with yoga, is an exercise in getting down to the essential, the infrastructure and circumstances of the outer world take a back seat to one’s primal identity.

Hari Om Tat Sat.