This was an instagram post grimmly2016, I seem to be posting more there than here of late.
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Typically, the critics look in the wrong place in their search for easy ammunition, they miss the big picture. Ashtanga was never about the stupid selfies ( and few more stupid than the one above). It was always all about the practice..., wasn’t it? The practice of the practice, not what it was we were actually practicing, or indeed how we went about it. Home or shala, adjustments/assists or not. It was about turning up on the mat, building a discipline.
We’d get a little lost occasionally but mostly only on a couple of asana in a practice that we were giving special attention to. The rest of the practice, 90% of the practice, was about passing through the asana, calm, steady and focused, that moving meditation. For ninety minutes or more we do the work, not on the asana so much as on the discipline. No, It’s not the same as sitting on a cushion but both involve will, dedication, devotion. Not devotion to another but to the choice, the decision to begin work on the self.
Ashtanga was/is hard/challenging enough to make it a matter of will to step on the mat each morning. There was always joy in the practice but make it too joyful, too easy and we lose some aspect of the discipline, it takes less will. Sitting on the cushion for a long sit also takes will, sit for just ten minutes and while pleasant, it’s not perhaps an exercise of the muscle of the Will.
I never encountered Jois, Sharath is irrelevant to me personally, I rarely practiced in Shala or Studio, rarely received adjustments but, as a home practitioner, have turned up on my mat each morning for over a decade. The practice of the practice sufficient in itself to develop discipline and always there to turn back to if we feel that discipline slip out of our lives.
A softer practice suits me more now perhaps, none of the fancy asana seem as necessary, simple postures, variations, simple movements, feel more than sufficient. It’s barely recognisable as Ashtanga perhaps (see Appendix below) but I’m grateful for the self-discipline that work on those asana gave me.
I don’t feel it matters much what we practice, if discipline feels like a place to start then it needs to be something we will often prefer to skip and stay in bed, yet get up for anyway.
There was actually some logic behind the leg behind head photos. I’d started taking up the flute again but couldn’t find the time to practice my Long tones as well as my two hour Ashtanga practice. Why not put them together. It was a joke that I thought would make an amusing post. What I found though was the ability to play a smooth long tone was an indication of how calm and stable I was in a posture. It was a reminder of the breath as an indicator of ‘steadyness’. So I tried other postures, anything where I could have my arms free enough to hold a flute. You can find the post by searching ‘grimmly2007 playing the flute in asana’.
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Look out too perhaps for ‘grimmly2007 convince me Krishnamacharya is there any benefit to putting my leg behind my head’.
Appendix
And below, how I tend to approach my practice now.
Mostly along the lines of the second video although the first part of standing has changed a little (the first video is from yesterday) and I've reintroduced five to ten sun salutations before moving on to the seated section.
Typically, the critics look in the wrong place in their search for easy ammunition, they miss the big picture. Ashtanga was never about the stupid selfies ( and few more stupid than the one above). It was always all about the practice..., wasn’t it? The practice of the practice, not what it was we were actually practicing, or indeed how we went about it. Home or shala, adjustments/assists or not. It was about turning up on the mat, building a discipline.
We’d get a little lost occasionally but mostly only on a couple of asana in a practice that we were giving special attention to. The rest of the practice, 90% of the practice, was about passing through the asana, calm, steady and focused, that moving meditation. For ninety minutes or more we do the work, not on the asana so much as on the discipline. No, It’s not the same as sitting on a cushion but both involve will, dedication, devotion. Not devotion to another but to the choice, the decision to begin work on the self.
Ashtanga was/is hard/challenging enough to make it a matter of will to step on the mat each morning. There was always joy in the practice but make it too joyful, too easy and we lose some aspect of the discipline, it takes less will. Sitting on the cushion for a long sit also takes will, sit for just ten minutes and while pleasant, it’s not perhaps an exercise of the muscle of the Will.
I never encountered Jois, Sharath is irrelevant to me personally, I rarely practiced in Shala or Studio, rarely received adjustments but, as a home practitioner, have turned up on my mat each morning for over a decade. The practice of the practice sufficient in itself to develop discipline and always there to turn back to if we feel that discipline slip out of our lives.
A softer practice suits me more now perhaps, none of the fancy asana seem as necessary, simple postures, variations, simple movements, feel more than sufficient. It’s barely recognisable as Ashtanga perhaps (see Appendix below) but I’m grateful for the self-discipline that work on those asana gave me.
I don’t feel it matters much what we practice, if discipline feels like a place to start then it needs to be something we will often prefer to skip and stay in bed, yet get up for anyway.
 |
| https://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2013/04/chanting-or-playing-flute-in-asana.html |
There was actually some logic behind the leg behind head photos. I’d started taking up the flute again but couldn’t find the time to practice my Long tones as well as my two hour Ashtanga practice. Why not put them together. It was a joke that I thought would make an amusing post. What I found though was the ability to play a smooth long tone was an indication of how calm and stable I was in a posture. It was a reminder of the breath as an indicator of ‘steadyness’. So I tried other postures, anything where I could have my arms free enough to hold a flute. You can find the post by searching ‘grimmly2007 playing the flute in asana’.
Look out too perhaps for ‘grimmly2007 convince me Krishnamacharya is there any benefit to putting my leg behind my head’.
 |
| https://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2015/09/convince-me-krishnamacharya-are-there.html |
Appendix
And below, how I tend to approach my practice now.
Mostly along the lines of the second video although the first part of standing has changed a little (the first video is from yesterday) and I've reintroduced five to ten sun salutations before moving on to the seated section.
Instagram/YouTube notes to the above - Some Spinal movements and variations from Simon Borg-Olivier and YogaSynergy that I work on/practice each morning. Bit embarrassed to post this stuff as even after two years I find it so hard to get this Spinal movement quite right ( see Simon Borg-Olivier’s videos and also Tangkao Tan videos here on Instagram and YouTube for much better examples). Sometimes, mostly in fact, with more foot position variations than here, usually leading in to some Sun Salutations, a short seated practice and some shoulder stand and Headstand vinyasas.
This is a seven minute version at natural speed to make a change from all the speeded up versions I’ve posted.
Coming from Ashtanga I’ve tended to frown at practicing with music but have recently tended to enjoy practicing along with some Bach, his Cello Suites work well with the pace I practice but here I picked up on something Nicki Silverman (solar_yogi) mentioned, ‘The Light of the Seven’ from a Game of Thrones soundtrack - it’s on YouTube ( I butchered it to make a one hour loop of just the piano section without the dramatic choral part).