John Scott workshop videos ( Tel Aviv 2012) plus "The Vinyasa Count, how did the Vinyasa Count come to mainstream Ashtanga?"

This is looking like being John Scott week.

Assisting nakrasana in Hong Kong, counting the vinyasa in and out of the state of the Asana.

A friend just sent me her Guest post review of a workshop John Scott conducted/presented in Oxford a few months ago. I remember my friend being very undecided as to whether to go or not as at the time as she hadn't been given the full Primary series, check back tomorrow to see how she found it in her review.

Until then here are some workshop video's from Tel Aviv 2012 that should give you a taste of John's workshops, I think  he starts one in Hong Kong tomorrow ( Monday).

I'm trying to decide if I can squeeze one in before I move back to Japan in May, there's one in Brighton in March and another in Oxford in April. Perhaps if my Sax sells and depending whether I decide to ship stuff back to Japan or just turn up with  my copy of Aranya's Patanjali, a manduka and change of shorts,  "Hi honey I'm home".

New house in Osaka, Japan, thank you to Satori and her Mum

M. was there with Okasan yesterday dusting and cleaning and getting it ready to move in, thank you to them too

Hmmmm, what to do with the big space downstair......

My job for the next three months.

John Scott is also going to be at  Stillpointyoga in London as part of their 'Spring gathering event
http://www.stillpointyogalondon.com/spring-gathering/

I'm a big fan of Scott Johnson and Stillpointyoga by the way, you might remember I caught a Manju Jois led there last year. See this post.
Manju's Led Primary at Stillpoint Yoga Yesterday

So I posted on John's new ashtanga App last week and I've just unlocked a couple of extras IE. In App purchases ( as if there isn't enough in the App already) and come across a fifteen page article, a transcript actually, of one of his classes at Stillpointyoga, London called 'Windows on a practice' . It's fascinating stuff, had to check that this was all one class. More on that latter in the week as I need to type out some quotes, said it was going to be John Scott week.

here's the link to info on John's Ashtanga App
http://johnscottyogaapps.com/home/

It has this great quote on the vinyasa method ( more on this later in the week).

"The Vinyasa Count, how did the Vinyasa Count come to mainstream Ashtanga?"

"So what happened...  In the early days of practice at the Lakshmipuram Shala (the original Mysore Self-Practice), we didn't know what Guruji was saying or meaning when he directed to us "Catvari!". We thought "Catvari" meant 'jump back', because Guruji would say "catvari - jump back". So we took that translation as 'jump back'. We took 'Panca' as upward facing dog. We took 'Sat' as downward facing dog, 'sapta' as jump through - We thought 'Sapta' meant jump through! 

It took us to Wake UP! To begin listening! To realise Guruji was actually counting in Sanskrit -4,5,6,7.
So it took a little student research to start the enquiry into Vinyasa. What did vinyasa actually mean.

Guruji called vinyasa "Counted Method" .

When my good friend Lino Miele was in France and witnessed Guruji counting the whole class through as One, he saw it all come together, and he took this counting on as a research project to document the Vinyasa.  Lucy and I became involved with Lino's project and became very much part of Lino's book. From that point onwards I made it my focus to learn Guruji's Vinyasa Count.

In Guruji's own book 'Yoga Mala' referring to the practice as a mala, a garland of postures, he refers to every posture having a 'State' and every state or 'Asana' has a specific number of counted vinyasa to enter and exit all choreographed to the Breath.
"The Vinyasa are all like beads, Choreographed breath/body movements, all to be counted and meditated on and it is the students requirement to learn this Counted method as a mantra for their own personal practice"
John Scott, Winter, 2013 Stillpointyoga London

Oh and while your clicking around, visit John's Facebook page ( think this is new too) there's a video posted that goes well with the quote above on vinyasa. It's of a previous Hong Kong workshop a mysore class where John is assisting some 2nd and 3rd series postures but also counting (this is Mysore not led), so not just assisting in the state of the asana but counting the vinyasa in and out of the asana, Interesting stuff. this link might take you straight to the video
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4548193716070&set=vb.1628134792&type=2&theater

Chikitsa, or the Primary Series as it is commonly known, is the beginning series of yoga asana. The intention of this series is to restore health to the 'BodyMind' and it is therefore the 'Grounding Series Introducing Tristana' (the three stabilising techniques/focuses of Astanga Vinyasa Yoga). In this introductory workshop John will present an 'overview' of Astanga Vinyasa Yoga, a 'specific view' of Tristana, and maybe in the process the group will be able to adjust their own 'points of view' or 'view points' and thus arrive in 'Embodied Mindfulness'.

Through the practice of Vinyasa and Asana, Tamas (darkness, indifference) and Rajas (passion, activity) are balanced and reduced bringing about the conditions for Satva (purity, goodness) to increase. In this class John will present a Counted Primary Series, bringing together the whole group as One Breath Body Mind, synchronously flowing as One Consciousness...A Movement Meditation.

Through the vinyasa series one learns that no one asana or sequence is better or worse, easy or difficult. Once again, John will present a counted class - at the point of practice when the 'class mind' is clear (depending on the level of students) John will introduce elements of the Second Series.

As health and balance returns and the student of yoga progresses, the purpose of asana shifts to preparing 'BodyMind' for the practice of Pranayama and Meditation. In the final session of the weekend John will present the basics and initial steps to Pranaayama, Pratyahara, Dhrana and Dhyana.