You may have no problems at all up to the age of fifty or sixty. After that, the real problem arises when the tissues of the body do not bear the load. What I practise now is more difficult than what I did when I was young or struggled to learn. Though today, I don’t consider those practices as very hard although I practised ten hours a day then. Today, it is a big fight between the body and the mind. The body says, “I can’t do it.” The mind says, “Do not force me.” BKS Iyengar
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"Most people want to take joy without suffering, I'll take both.
See how far suffering takes me" BKS Iyengar Light on Life.
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We may not attain samadhi but perhaps the work we do in exploring the limbs of Ashtanga practice may prepare us somewhat for the suffering and hardship that awaits us. Few if any manage to avoid suffering completely. We do not seek pain or suffering but when it can not be avoided, reduced , deflected, we must be prepared perhaps to face it unflinchingly with dignity and forbearance and learn too from this pervasive aspect of life what it can teach us.
Below is perhaps the most affecting article I've read on yoga, I'm tempted to print it out, frame it, and put it on the wall of the home shala. I've also included some notes on Iyengar's passing and a couple more articles, titled 'Seeing is believing' on BKS Iyengar practicing in his 80s.
At 92 years of age BKS Iyengar continued to practise yoga for several hours each day. Here he describes how his practice changed with age and offers advice to students on yoga in later life.
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You may have no problems at all up to the age of fifty or sixty. After that, the real problem arises when the tissues of the body do not bear the load. What I practise now is more difficult than what I did when I was young or struggled to learn. Though today, I don’t consider those practices as very hard although I practised ten hours a day then. Today, it is a big fight between the body and the mind. The body says, “I can’t do it.” The mind says, “Do not force me.”
Will over matter
Believe me, after a certain age, to practise āsana and prānāyāma is going to be very hard. I am doing it because of this reason only. The body ages. It descends towards deterioration. The rate of catabolism increases more than anabolism. The bones become brittle. The blood vessels get hardened. All these are known facts. I do not want to fall prey to these. If I surrender to the will of the body, then I am no more a yogic practitioner. When I practise, I watch how to stop this deteriorating process. That is the will over matter.
Then you say, “Iyengar doesn’t need anything because he has practised earlier”. But that is not the right way of thinking. In fact, I see how at this age I need to practise. I have to avoid the constriction of the sternum. I have to see how the diaphragm remains free. If I look at the possible deteriorations and maintain my practice of āsana, then people say that I am a physical yogi.
Increased timings
Often people think that at the old age they should do dhyāna (meditation) or japa (repetition of mantras) instead of āsana and prānāyāma practice. I am not that type of a sādhaka (practioner) to take shelter under the garb of old age. I will not run away from my practice because of the fear complex of old age. I do meditation in each āsana as in each āsana I see God who is infinite and beyond measure. Because of age I have increased timings in my practices. Mind and body want to give way. I daily charge my body and mind to stand with will power so that I do not surrender to the weakness of my body and mind.
Having a good background of philosophy, practising yoga, I now continue life without depending on anyone. I have to stick to the philosophy of the body as I am already ingrained in the spiritual knowledge.
The steadiness of intelligence
The only difference between now and the early days is that in the early days I was like all other youngsters. I was tempted to do the āsana one after the other. Today, I stay in Dwi Pāda Viparīta Dandāsana or in Kapotāsana for quite a length of time. At this age I clearly understand the sūtra (Yoga Sutras, II.46), sthira (stable, firm) sukham (sweet, easy) āsanam (posture) in its total sense. Now, I see in each āsana, the perfect freshness and firmness of body, the alert, steadiness of intelligence and the sweet, benevolence of the self. I see whether I can enjoy sthira and sukha in a long stay in Kapotāsana. Can I be sthira and sukha in Dwi Pāda Viparīta Dandāsana?
Sometimes I do ten minutes Pārsva Śīrșāsana, on each side. These are difficult āsanas. Nobody does the advanced or complicated āsana at this age. Nobody takes the risk of doing and staying in these āsana as it requires courage. To do and maintain an āsana when the muscles and nerves tremor and the loose joints shake, heart beats faster, it is not an easy thing. I am not that type of a person to sit in Padmāsana and say, “I am comfortable.” If you are doing yoga, you realise the difficulties as one ages. So, my advice to all of you is that as yoga frees one from the afflictions of actions, afflictions come in chains in old age. Therefore maintain and sustain what you have learnt and do to keep it up then.
Courage and faith
This needs not only will power but also courage and faith. By the proper chemistry of will power and courage along with discrimination, the yogic practices generate the energy in the nerve cells as you stay in those difficult āsanas for a long time with comfort. At this age I learn lots of things. It is the wisdom that comes at this age. I have not lost this freshness of intelligence.
When you do Pārsva Śīrșāsana, sometimes you may not know where the legs are, where the shoulders are, where the load is. For an aging person like me, it is more difficult to have the sensitivity; yet, I have not lost it. Every now and then I come back to the right position in case I deviate from my limbs or mind. I educate the cells that they have to remain where I want them. I try for sthira sukham āsanam in these difficult āsanas. It is easy to be sthira and have sukham in the simple āsana.
I regularly practise prānāyāma and dhyāna in Padmāsana. You do not see me early in the mornings to know what I do. You only see me practising āsana in the hall, but my approach is the same in prānāyāma, dhārāna and dhyāna. To be honest, this is ethics.
Tatah klesha karma nivrttih (YogaSutras, IV.30). With the end of afflicted oriented actions, see that the afflictions do not enter the system or you in old age.
Dipika, 2011
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Do follow the link (click the article title) and check out the website, the excellent BLOG (http://iyi.org.uk/category/blog/) and the Resource page (https://iyengaryoga.org.uk/resources/articles/) that has amongst much else all the Iyengar Yoga News Magazine mentioned above to view and download
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Two years ago I woke up to hear that BKS Iyengar had passed away. I was in Rethymno, Crete at the time, practicing Ashtanga at Kristina Karitinou's shala for three months. I mentioned to Kristina that the great man had passed and she informed the rest of the class and dedicated the mornings practice to his memory. At the end of my practice I quietly went out into the courtyard behind the shala and dropped back a 108 times just as I had once seen Iyengar do on perhaps his 80th birthday. It was only the second time I had attempted so many dropbacks (see this post) and I had to split it into four groups with a brief pause between each. At the time I wasn't exactly sure why I was doing it, wished after the first batch I hadn't started, and wondered why I was so moved by his passing, I was an 'Ashtangi 'after all, I'd never been to an Iyengar class, still haven't..... reading this article now I wish now I had done that 108 twice.
Iyengar dropping back again and again and again 42 seconds into the movie below
On a workshop I was presenting at Stillpoint Yoga in London a few months later an Iyengar teacher who reads my blog occasionally sent me, via his student who was attending my workshop, some pages on Iyengar's late practice (from Iyengar Yoga News. Some sample pages below, the magazines are now available to view and download at the links).
The practice was stunning, bemusing even, long long stays one after another, five minutes here, ten, fifteen minutes there, asana after asana, what possessed the man...... the article above goes someway perhaps to explaining but only someway. I held off posting those pages at the time but now I see they are readily available online.
The practice was stunning, bemusing even, long long stays one after another, five minutes here, ten, fifteen minutes there, asana after asana, what possessed the man...... the article above goes someway perhaps to explaining but only someway. I held off posting those pages at the time but now I see they are readily available online.
See Part one of Inyengar's practice on p36 of issue 3
Part two on p 33 of issue 4
Asana practice often gets a bad wrap these days, "That's not yoga", they say. 'They' see the play perhaps, the promotional asana that can, at times, distract us too from our work, we can allow ourselves some distraction perhaps if we then rejoin the struggle with ever more commitment.
It is work, that daily discipline that characterises practice as we understand it.Lineage is of no importance other than to cling to an illusion of authority, another distraction, a support perhaps in the beginning, at some point it may become a hinderance to enquiry and what else is yoga. Sincere, committed practice, ideally daily, in whatever form it takes, moving or static, a mix of the two. Practiced with resolve it forges the will, the discipline required of the other limbs it leads us towards.
There is a line from Iyengar's Light on Life that came back to me looking at these pictures...,
"Most people want to take joy without suffering, I'll take both.
See how far suffering takes me"
Was Svātmārāma thus, Matsyendrasana, in their uncompromising enquiry?
(When) will we see his like again?
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Note. The approach to Ashtanga I personally take now, at 53, is outlined in my Proficient Primary page http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/proficient-primary-project.html
Links
Do follow the link (click the article title) and check out the website, the excellent BLOG (http://iyi.org.uk/category/blog/) and the Resource page (https://iyengaryoga.org.uk/resources/articles/) that has amongst much else all the Iyengar Yoga News Magazine mentioned above to view and download.
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| https://www.amazon.com/Light-Life-Journey-Wholeness-Ultimate/dp/1594865248 |
Iyengar yoga Institute UK