Surrounded by beauty

“’We need beauty around us. Beauty is like a perfume impalpable yet so very strong. Beauty is the essence of life. Its feeling pushes the artist to create, opens the heart to love, leads the brain to clarify, invites the mind to comprehend and brings the body to participate. You find yourself in Beauty, unexpectedly absorbed by Beauty.’ (From: ‘Awakening the Spine’ by Vanda Scaravelli)
When I arrive in Basunti and the gate closes behind me, I take a few steps on the pebbled paths that run around the ponds. I enjoy the firmness they have acquired in the course of the year. I then inspect the tops of the trees and the new size of their shades on the ground. Last, but not least, the vegetable plots with lush salads and experimental greens.
   The eyes are trying to adjust to the vastness of the landscape, but can take in only the tips of the islands merging from the lake … birds crossing the sky.
   The students are dropping in at different times of the day. Each of us hooked to our little private world but with good intentions of a possible opening during the Yoga week.
   The practice in the morning, on the terrace is our first attempt to connect to earth and space. The movements are fragmented and awkward. The breath is shallow and lacks confidence. The vastness around and above us, somehow frightens the whole being which contracts, as though sensing a danger in this urgent request to expand.
   Slowly, slowly, day by day the gentleness of the practice induces and encourages the body to move from the centre towards the periphery. Unfolding and blossoming becomes a joyful and playful adventure. A possibility to explore over and over again.
   The immense beauty around is asking for more dialogue, more participation. It is a magic mantra that keeps whispering in our ears: ‘Be part of all this beauty. Be one with it.’
   There is something totally innocent and natural about the opening towards beauty. It feels endless and creates a state of ‘allegrezza’, a sparkling bliss...”

The article is written by Sandra Sabatini, Michal Havkin and Israela Butterworth, and outlines experiences at the Basunti Retreat Centre in India, www.basunti.com. Details of Sandra Sabatini’s classes and retreats from: www.sandrasyoga .com.