Jim Tarran, tell us..........

1. How do you like to start your day?

I shower, practice nauli (haṭha yoga tummy churning), drink a hot lemon with apple cider vinegar and do a jala neti (salt water nasal cleanse) . That first part of the routine is  pretty much set in stone. After that ideally it’s  meditation. I have a little shed (I mean really little!) and it’s all set up with cushions, iconography and candles ready for me to go. I am currently practicing “kasiṇa” a word that means ‘entire’ or “whole”. There are ten different types but I have been doing the kasiṇa on the colour blue for the last couple of years. I have a blue party plate nailed to the shed wall at eye height as my “external object”. I also have some yantras on the window of the shed, also at eye height that I also use (mostly the kālī one). After that āsana. It doesn’t always pan out in this order, often times there’s domestic chores or admin to do, but one way or another I usually get those practices in - if I am very lucky I might even get in some prāṇāyāma!

2. Top tip on including self care into your day?
I don’t really have ‘tips’ or quick fixes and don’t even see myself as being someone to offer advice.  I see myself more as an encourager and less of an advisor.  Meditation is a game changer (for me) and regular practice has a profound effect.

I have recently stopped listening to the news as much in the mornings and often swap it for music (I have found Bach’s cello suite no.1 does something particularly pleasing to my brain frequencies.

3. Who is one of your key inspirations and why?
There are lots and lots; people around me, close friends who are kind, generous and pay attention to the details in their lives. I won’t embarrass them but lots of my friends really inspire me. I find creatives very inspiring generally.  Ajahn Sumedho has probably been my biggest  influence over the years - I have loved his teachings since I discovered him in in 1991  - I totally trust him! Thich Nat Hahn really moved me when I was starting out with his beautiful writing, in particular ‘The Moon Bamboo’. It’s a sad loss that he is no longer with us but I am so grateful to have been in the world at the time of so many great teachers. My encounter with “Dood Baba” or “Milk Baba” left a big impression on me when I first went to India/Nepal and I have been blessed to be inspired by many beautiful Buddhist friends that I have.
I love papa-ji,  Bob Thurman, Swami Laksmanjoo the list goes on and on - I am very grateful!  The list of ancient sages is even longer; Hukuin in the zen tradition, Nāgārjuna, Keyūravatī, the early Buddhist nuns and the Buddha himself. Sorry I have to quickly add Bowie (too much to say about him).

4. Name a yoga teaching you love and why?

Wow that’s an interesting question it’s a bit desert island discs of the yoga world! Lol! I love the concept of anekāntavāda often interpreted as “pluralism” .  It’s a lynch-pin in the Jain tradition but it’s also central in Buddhism. It’s most commonly illustrated by the by the ‘blind men and the elephant parable’ first found in the Buddhist text Tittha sutta, Udāna 6.4, Khuddaka Nikaya. It is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who  ascertain what an elephant is by touching it. Each man feels a different part of the elephant's body and they bicker over which one is right. Anekāntavāda “not one way” suggest that each are right but only partially and that the truth is all of the truths together.

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