ESZTER

By profession, I am a linguist, literary scholar, and aesthetics scholar, but I like to describe myself as an adventurer. The changes that occurred in the various stages of my life were always, without exception, prompted by a pulsating, inner curiosity, and this was also the case with yoga.

Between 2013 and 2016, I practiced Hatha yoga 3 times a week, and then in 2016, I traveled to India, where the resolve was born in me to understand the events happening within and around me more deeply, so I looked for a system that could best assist with this. Previously, languages (Spanish, English), literature, and philosophy provided this for me, but at the cremation ghats of Varanasi, which I got to know during the days of Diwali, a visceral feeling told me that the language of true experience is hidden in the body-mind—and its unveiling can only be realized through regular yoga practice. Following this, I enrolled in the beginner Astanga course at Bandha Works.

I clearly remember my first chaturanga (low plank posture) experience, where I said to myself: "I hope this is not in it very often." That hope quickly faded. I was equally sure of disaster when we all attempted śīrṣāsana (headstand) together during the course. I was sure that I’d fall over, turning our carefully balanced group into a pile of pretzels. Towards the end of the course, István mentioned that after this, it was possible to start Mysore-style practice, three times a week, starting at 6 in the morning, preferably on an empty stomach. I postponed this decision for a year because all three conditions seemed absurd.

In 2017, I "accidentally" saw that Saraswati Jois was holding an Astanga workshop at Magnet House—I took this as a sign and went. Those 6 times a week (starting at 7 am and with a 100% survival rate) finally prompted me to return to Bandha Works. My Mysore-style practice has been unbroken ever since. In the following years, I practiced alternately at Bandha (when I was in Budapest) and alone (during Covid and my travels). During this period, I also had the opportunity to practice with several excellent gurus, such as: Santina Giardina-Chard, Hamish Hendry, Harmony Slater, Réka Molnár, Ross Stambaugh, Vedanta, and SarathJi.

According to GuruJi Pattabhi Jois: "Practice and all is coming"—and I fully agree with this.

For me, Astanga yoga is dedication, commitment, inner strength, and discipline. In addition, it is also an unreal present time: a mirror in which I see myself where I simultaneously exist and do not exist—the reflection of the sub-surface self that enables true sight. And at the same time, it is the reinterpretation of "the space of a quarter of an inch," a place that is both consumed and created, which breaks down into particles, quarter of an inch by quarter of an inch, to open up new, inner channels and lead along a constantly vibrating, upward-moving spiral path into the unknown.

This is the adventure that I want to pursue until the end of my (current) life.