Every day when it doesn’t rain I go to the forest to collect pinecones, twigs and branches to start the fire. Here it rains a lot so on clear and dry days one has to dedicate some time to this; it is very difficult to start a fire without good kindling and it runs out faster than one wants. So one needs dedication to start their fires, go to the forest, pick up the right stuff, bring it home in a backpack and go back for more. Then I wake up at 6.10 am to start the fire so that the room is warm when the first students come at 7.30am for yoga class. Starting a fire is one job and keeping it going is a different one. To keep your fire going so that it keeps you warm you have to feed it with the right stuff and you have to tend to it. Any fire that is not tended to almost invariably dies out: no fuel no fire. Within each one of us there is a precious fire burning that needs good fuel and good tending. Yoga and meditation are a way of feeding this fire so that it keeps you warm and serves as a light in the centre of your chest that illuminates the path. Today we meditated for the entire session next to the fire. The fuel you need to feed the fire within is just silence and intention. I am not talking about the silence in the room or in your environment, I am talking about you diving deep into your breath and finding the silence that lies at the deepest of your being beneath layers of mental activity and bodily pain. That almost forgotten silence is the stuff the entire Universe is made of, it’s the divine within. There are several ways of tapping into this silence, yoga, meditation, swimming, sex, riding a motorbike, you name it: what connects you to the divine within is your intention to do so, your commitment to consciously relate to yourself and others from the light of your silence. Then, as if by magic, no words are needed.