I changed the title of the blog to 'Recovering Ashtangi...at home'. I like the play on words, is it a recovering from Ashtanga or a regaining of Ashtanga. Last month it felt like the former, this month perhaps the latter.
I still get mail, there is clearly a lot of disillusionment in Ashtanga of late, from students and teachers alike. For some the spell has been broken somewhat and there is the temptation to let the practice lapse, to give it up altogether, but then what, what comes after Ashtanga. When a practice has dominated your life for months, years, decades even, what happens if and when you stop, there is some fear there, grief even for something lost, a practice, a lifestyle, a community perhaps.
"I still love the practice but....".
I've been hearing that a lot.
'I love the practice but I don't want anything to do with Pattabhi Jois, with Sharath, with those, friends and teachers I'd looked up to who criticised and vilified the victims of those who came forward to talk about Jois' abuse, as well as any who spoke up in support'.
I'm not sure I'm the right person to comment, I've been moving further and further away from straight, by the book, Ashtanga for years. And yet I always tended to feel that what I was practicing was somehow still Ashtanga, a couple of months ago, it did feel like a final clean break.
I practiced Qigong for three months, I learned Tai chi, I practiced Simon Borg-Olivier's Spinal movements, asana virtually disappeared from my practice..... but then it came back. At first I would just include Krishnamacharya/Ramaswami's key asana, Paschimottanasana, Janu Sirsasana/Maha mudra, Sarvangasana, Sirsasana, baddha konasana but then I would move from Simon's spinal movements into some Standing postures and soon realised that I was basically practicing half Primary.
I've always felt half Primary makes a lovely practice ( half second perhaps every couple of days), being short it allows plenty of time for pranayama and a Sit just as Krishnamacharya intended. It's modifiable, you can practice it slowly, long slow breathing perhaps with kumbhaka following Krishnamacharya's instruction in his early Mysore text,Yoga Makaranda. Or you could practice it with natural breathing as Simon Borg-Olivier might suggest. You could add in a couple of preparatory postures or more advanced developments of a posture or both as we see in Ramaswami's Vinyasa Krama, also clearly present in Krishnamacharya's early teaching. Practiced this way we are perhaps recovering Krishnamachary's original Mysore teaching, we are in the Realm of Pre-Jois, pre-Ashtanga.
What is most important is that we do still practice... something, maintain a daily discipline to give focus to our lives in seeking to reduce our attachments. Yoga Philosophy is very simple, as ever it's the scholars bless 'em that make it complicated. I remember Ramaswami saying that he always found Patanjali's Yoga Sutras approachable, immediate (my words), it's the commentaries that confuse matters.
Pattabhi Jois lifted his Primary and Second series from Krishnamacharya's table of asana (that we can see in his second Mysore book, Yogasanagalu). Jois' Primary series is barely changed from the list, minor tweaks, second series contains a little more of a shuffle, a rearrangement of some of the asana groups, his Advanced series, while containing the same asana as Krishnamacharya's table, is completely different following the requirements of the course Jois was asked to teach. If the asana are the same, the way they have become practiced is not.
Fixed series perhaps helped make Ashtanga popular (and those early practitioners were attracted to the physicality of the practice as much as any spiritual suggestion), popular not necessarily better. It also caused problems. Remember, a fixed series led to faster breathing, a hot, faster sweaty practice. A long fixed series meant that pranayama was basically discarded along the way. Meditation, the whole point of the practice for Krishnamacharya and indeed for Patanjali barely made it into the picture.
And the money rolled in.... to Mysore, piles of it. Has anyone ever taken a look at the shala books I wonder, at the taxes paid or indeed not paid. Don't care about taxes, think about them again next time you walk past Mysore's slum. Don't be fooled by trumpeted charities, you pay your taxes and use the influence you have to make sure the money goes where it should.
We became asana obsessed, fixated, our attachments grew rather than lessened. Youtube and Instagram came at just the right time, look at me look at me.
Sharath of course, however well intentioned may be or been, sought to preserve his grandfather's legacy despite being well aware of the sexual abuse, he virtually deifies him every Guru Purnima but then Sharath's legitimacy is tied to his grandfather. Sharath took care of the family business before looking out for his own families future. Becoming ever more authoritarian and dogmatic the practice became, as it were, preserved in amber.
Ironically, often the power yoga classes, the vinyasa flow classes the modified ashtanga in gym classes may likely be closer to Pre-Jois Krishnamacharya Ashtanga, more authentic, more traditional in this sense than the dogmatic fixed Jois Ashtanga Sharath seeks to dictate and preserve. Jois, Sharath preserved but one simplified aspect of Krishnamacharya's Mysore teaching, that as it was taught to the young boys of the palace (yep, it's true, what Jois passed along was that which was originally designed for young boys). But in the same period, often at the same time in a side room as Jois or another assistent took the boys class, Krishnamacharya taught to men of different ages in the same way that he continued to teach when he taught Ramaswami just after leaving Mysore. Krishnamacharya also taught his wife and daughters as well as Indra Devi. Krishnamacharya practice was consistent throughout his life.
Most however, the shalas and the gyms, have abandoned the essence of the practice, discarded the pranayama and the meditative activity, some though have rediscovered it, teach it quietly, somewhat under the radar. For Krishnamacharya the asana and pranayama clean the room, we don't then leave, we sit. He suggested that the meditative activity be twice as long as the pranayama, the pranayama twice as long as the asana, try selling that in a forty minute gym class or to Sharath next time you practice in Mysore, mention that you would like to do half the series and practice your pranayama and Sit...
"NEXT"!
Note: Manju Jois, Pattabhi Jois' son includes pranayama and a meditative activity (chanting) after every practice.
The growing disillusionment with Ashtanga is perhaps an opportunity to recover the Pre-Jois practice of Krishnamacharya. It is a simple practice, what we might think of as half an Ashtanga series, a handful of basic postures practiced mindfully, with or without transitions followed by a simple breathing practice and a meditative activity. It's as fixed as we want it to be, as modifiable as we wish it to be. It perhaps recovers much that was lost along the way as Ashtanga was made more popular, more marketable.
Many practice their Ashtanga this way already, as Richard Freeman has said, those who are less flexible are somewhat blessed. Home practitioners are equally blessed. A different approach to our practice suits us at different times, I myself may have needed the full on dynamic, sweaty asana/series chase for a time but perhaps I became somewhat lost in that. Most who stay in Ashtanga will no doubt end up adapting their practice eventually anyway, as they let go of the asana chase, the series chase, perhaps the fame chase.
How do we respond to the Ashtanga crisis? Reduce our attachments.
Make shapes mindfully, breathe, sit and follow our yama/niyamas as best we can, enjoy our practice.
We are so often seeking legitimacy for our practice, authority. The authority for our practice, the legitimacy of however we practice comes from our Sitting, from how well our practice prepares us to Sit or to go through our lives mindfully, treading lightly.
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I still get mail, there is clearly a lot of disillusionment in Ashtanga of late, from students and teachers alike. For some the spell has been broken somewhat and there is the temptation to let the practice lapse, to give it up altogether, but then what, what comes after Ashtanga. When a practice has dominated your life for months, years, decades even, what happens if and when you stop, there is some fear there, grief even for something lost, a practice, a lifestyle, a community perhaps.
"I still love the practice but....".
I've been hearing that a lot.
'I love the practice but I don't want anything to do with Pattabhi Jois, with Sharath, with those, friends and teachers I'd looked up to who criticised and vilified the victims of those who came forward to talk about Jois' abuse, as well as any who spoke up in support'.
I'm not sure I'm the right person to comment, I've been moving further and further away from straight, by the book, Ashtanga for years. And yet I always tended to feel that what I was practicing was somehow still Ashtanga, a couple of months ago, it did feel like a final clean break.
I practiced Qigong for three months, I learned Tai chi, I practiced Simon Borg-Olivier's Spinal movements, asana virtually disappeared from my practice..... but then it came back. At first I would just include Krishnamacharya/Ramaswami's key asana, Paschimottanasana, Janu Sirsasana/Maha mudra, Sarvangasana, Sirsasana, baddha konasana but then I would move from Simon's spinal movements into some Standing postures and soon realised that I was basically practicing half Primary.
I've always felt half Primary makes a lovely practice ( half second perhaps every couple of days), being short it allows plenty of time for pranayama and a Sit just as Krishnamacharya intended. It's modifiable, you can practice it slowly, long slow breathing perhaps with kumbhaka following Krishnamacharya's instruction in his early Mysore text,Yoga Makaranda. Or you could practice it with natural breathing as Simon Borg-Olivier might suggest. You could add in a couple of preparatory postures or more advanced developments of a posture or both as we see in Ramaswami's Vinyasa Krama, also clearly present in Krishnamacharya's early teaching. Practiced this way we are perhaps recovering Krishnamachary's original Mysore teaching, we are in the Realm of Pre-Jois, pre-Ashtanga.
What is most important is that we do still practice... something, maintain a daily discipline to give focus to our lives in seeking to reduce our attachments. Yoga Philosophy is very simple, as ever it's the scholars bless 'em that make it complicated. I remember Ramaswami saying that he always found Patanjali's Yoga Sutras approachable, immediate (my words), it's the commentaries that confuse matters.
Pattabhi Jois lifted his Primary and Second series from Krishnamacharya's table of asana (that we can see in his second Mysore book, Yogasanagalu). Jois' Primary series is barely changed from the list, minor tweaks, second series contains a little more of a shuffle, a rearrangement of some of the asana groups, his Advanced series, while containing the same asana as Krishnamacharya's table, is completely different following the requirements of the course Jois was asked to teach. If the asana are the same, the way they have become practiced is not.
Fixed series perhaps helped make Ashtanga popular (and those early practitioners were attracted to the physicality of the practice as much as any spiritual suggestion), popular not necessarily better. It also caused problems. Remember, a fixed series led to faster breathing, a hot, faster sweaty practice. A long fixed series meant that pranayama was basically discarded along the way. Meditation, the whole point of the practice for Krishnamacharya and indeed for Patanjali barely made it into the picture.
And the money rolled in.... to Mysore, piles of it. Has anyone ever taken a look at the shala books I wonder, at the taxes paid or indeed not paid. Don't care about taxes, think about them again next time you walk past Mysore's slum. Don't be fooled by trumpeted charities, you pay your taxes and use the influence you have to make sure the money goes where it should.
We became asana obsessed, fixated, our attachments grew rather than lessened. Youtube and Instagram came at just the right time, look at me look at me.
Sharath of course, however well intentioned may be or been, sought to preserve his grandfather's legacy despite being well aware of the sexual abuse, he virtually deifies him every Guru Purnima but then Sharath's legitimacy is tied to his grandfather. Sharath took care of the family business before looking out for his own families future. Becoming ever more authoritarian and dogmatic the practice became, as it were, preserved in amber.
Ironically, often the power yoga classes, the vinyasa flow classes the modified ashtanga in gym classes may likely be closer to Pre-Jois Krishnamacharya Ashtanga, more authentic, more traditional in this sense than the dogmatic fixed Jois Ashtanga Sharath seeks to dictate and preserve. Jois, Sharath preserved but one simplified aspect of Krishnamacharya's Mysore teaching, that as it was taught to the young boys of the palace (yep, it's true, what Jois passed along was that which was originally designed for young boys). But in the same period, often at the same time in a side room as Jois or another assistent took the boys class, Krishnamacharya taught to men of different ages in the same way that he continued to teach when he taught Ramaswami just after leaving Mysore. Krishnamacharya also taught his wife and daughters as well as Indra Devi. Krishnamacharya practice was consistent throughout his life.
Most however, the shalas and the gyms, have abandoned the essence of the practice, discarded the pranayama and the meditative activity, some though have rediscovered it, teach it quietly, somewhat under the radar. For Krishnamacharya the asana and pranayama clean the room, we don't then leave, we sit. He suggested that the meditative activity be twice as long as the pranayama, the pranayama twice as long as the asana, try selling that in a forty minute gym class or to Sharath next time you practice in Mysore, mention that you would like to do half the series and practice your pranayama and Sit...
"NEXT"!
Note: Manju Jois, Pattabhi Jois' son includes pranayama and a meditative activity (chanting) after every practice.
The growing disillusionment with Ashtanga is perhaps an opportunity to recover the Pre-Jois practice of Krishnamacharya. It is a simple practice, what we might think of as half an Ashtanga series, a handful of basic postures practiced mindfully, with or without transitions followed by a simple breathing practice and a meditative activity. It's as fixed as we want it to be, as modifiable as we wish it to be. It perhaps recovers much that was lost along the way as Ashtanga was made more popular, more marketable.
Many practice their Ashtanga this way already, as Richard Freeman has said, those who are less flexible are somewhat blessed. Home practitioners are equally blessed. A different approach to our practice suits us at different times, I myself may have needed the full on dynamic, sweaty asana/series chase for a time but perhaps I became somewhat lost in that. Most who stay in Ashtanga will no doubt end up adapting their practice eventually anyway, as they let go of the asana chase, the series chase, perhaps the fame chase.
How do we respond to the Ashtanga crisis? Reduce our attachments.
Make shapes mindfully, breathe, sit and follow our yama/niyamas as best we can, enjoy our practice.
We are so often seeking legitimacy for our practice, authority. The authority for our practice, the legitimacy of however we practice comes from our Sitting, from how well our practice prepares us to Sit or to go through our lives mindfully, treading lightly.
