Note on practicing along with the Pattabhi Jois/Sharath demonstration (Sydney 1997), alignment, prana etc.

Yesterday I posted a photo of Kennin-ji, Rinzai Zen temple near Gion, Kyoto. It's supposedly the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. Dogen (founder of Soto Zen) trained here. I live about half an hour north of Kyoto, in a small village beside Lake Biwa. I rarely visit Kyoto these days, to be honest I really can't be bothered, these temples try to capture a serenity that I have right outside my door. Besides Kyoto is full of tourists, try capturing the mood of the Golden Pavilion when you are being herded along by the crowd. 

Just as I have all I could ever wish for here by the lake and no need to visit the old imperial capital, I've always tended to feel I had all I need on my 180cm piece of black rubber that I practice on each morning. 

Dogen said it best back in the thirteenth century.

I really don't care about Sharaths alignment... or lack of it... or whether his prana is flowing this way or that, hell I don't even care about my own alignment, let alone anyone else's. As long as I have enough anatomical awareness not to injure myself I'm more than happy to let the breath take care of the alignment. Of course if you stay in a posture longer with the breath then the breath has a fighting chance to do something about one's alignment but that's a different post ( or Page). 

My take on the current yoga scene is that everyone is so desperate to be yoga teachers that more often than not they probably end end up teaching long before they should. That by the way probably went for Sharath too and no doubt his grandfather also who was basically still a kid when he started teaching. 

The difference we see between Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga vinyasa and what we find in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934) is that Pattabhi Jois arguably passed along 'kids yoga', the yoga that Krishnamacharya was no doubt knocking out in his hour long classes for the boys of the Mysore palace. It was perhaps in the side rooms of the palace and to individual students as well as perhaps in Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934) that we perhaps find a more mature, subtle and sophisticated practice.

Does this mean that Ashtanga vinyasa is only for young boys, not at all, it's possible to reintroduce all the elements that Pattabhi Jois left out from his Guru's teaching or perhaps, at his young age, wasn't taught at all (although Pattabhi Jois does talk of long stays in Kapotasana). See my Proficient Primary page for an approach to practice closely based on Krishnamacharya's early Mysore texts.

BTW I'm still getting invited to teach workshops but to be perfectly honest I don't see the point, it's right there in Krishnamacharya's text, download it from my Free Download page. 

Just breathe more slowly, allow the natural pause between the stages of the breath, focus on one point, stay longer in a posture and carry that focus through your whole practice. Follow asana practice with a straight forward, modest nadhi shodhana, then Sit, calmly abiding. Support you practice by simplifying your life (yama/niyama). Do all this daily.... and for a long time.

That's it in a couple of lines, there really is no need for me to leave my lake.

So, more often than not, we end up teaching too soon, before we have settled in our practice and realised less is more ( Ashtanga can distract us from realising this sooner by dangling the carrot of ever more asana and series). Once we become 'yoga teachers' we start thinking we actually need to teach something rather than merely provide a space for other's to practice (sending love to those who've realised that), or we start wanting to promote ourselves, sell ourselves, come up with a new angle to distinguish ourselves from the other teacher down the street.

Note: Yoga Therapy is something different but if you are serious about becoming a yoga therapist I would suggest actually studying anatomy and physiology in depth and over a number years, become an occupational therapist say AND then think about introducing some yoga into your therapy.

Desikachar basically admitted in an interview with a Doctor, that all yoga therapy was really good for was reducing stress. That's Desikachar saying that, Krishnamacharya's late son, not me.

See https://youtu.be/8jcRxzIzFzI I think it's in the second half, around 26:00 I've simplified of course. Desikachar is basically talking about the people who come to KYM and the problems they are suffering from. 

I wrote in the previous post (see also below) that I considered Sharath's practice 'unaffected' I.E. completely lacking in affectation.  I suspect that looking at the synonyms for 'affectation' may give us clues into much that is perhaps questionable in the presentation of Ashtanga and perhaps yoga in general today. Next time we see a demonstration video, promotional asana or even just some of our own asana photos posted to social media we might take a moment and see how many of these synonyms they tick ( sharing the odd photo amongst friends for encouragement and/or support and perhaps the occasional bit of fun is one thing, when it becomes obsessive it's surely something else. We shouldn't kid ourselves that we are promoting yoga, we are promoting ourselves, our own self-obsession, our ego.. THROUGH yoga.