Know what ananda is? Know how to get it? You can with yoga, although Willi Unsoeld favored mountaineering:
The reason that solitude seems so beneficial is that moving off into this remote mountain range you are able to simplify your life. You reduce stimuli until finally you are faced only with your own ego, and then it is a relatively simple step to jettison that awareness of self, fading out under the overpowering awe of this greatest of mountain ranges, and then you are not in the picture. What is left? The answer is ananda, or bliss, the peace that surpasses all understanding and cannot be reduced to words.
(Quoted from page 96 of The Vast Unknown: America’s First Ascent of Everest, by Broughton Coburn. Crown Publishers, 2013.)
For a brief biography of Willi Unsoeld, click here. For images of or relating to Willi Unsoeld, click here.
For a brief biography of Broughton Coburn, click here. For images of or relating to Broughton Coburn, click here.
Having gone on solo backpack trips, I have experienced what Unoeld described. I may add, however, that having your dog with you on a solo trip in the mountains makes it even better.
Posted by: Nrsys | July 15, 2015 at 02:10 PM