Patience, Oils, and Changing Ourselves - Sharath Conference 9/9/12

Found these notes taken by Megan, gratitude to her for taking them and sharing on the Jois Yoga page in Facebook.  Interesting things coming out of Msyore, below is the story:

UPDATE: Grimmly pointed out there were notes from the previous conference (9/2) as well, thanks G! - I posted them after the first one here.

For those of you not familiar with Ashtanga, Sharath is the current Director of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India, and once a week he offers a "conference" or, what we would call a "talk", followed by questions from students.  This one happened last Sunday:

“You can’t change this world but you can change yourself.” –Sharath Jois

There are millions of asanas and only God knows them all.  They are named for many living beings.  We know only a few but think we are masters. The asanas in our practice our divided into three different levels—primary series, intermediate series, and advanced series.  Sharath explained that a new student can’t just begin with advanced series.  Preliminary asanas are there first to gain good health and flexibility.  Changes come to prepare us for the next asana, the next series.  We should be patient.  Sometimes we seek out teachers who give many asanas quickly and think they will be very good teachers but it’s all just marketing.  Sharath referred to Abhyasa, a daily and consistent practice, as a reason we can develop stability in the body and mind. Some students come in flexible as noodles but have no strength.  Others need flexibility.  Guruji said if we did an asana 1,000 times we can perfect that asana.  Backbending drop backs are important first because they require much strength in the back and the legs.  This prepares us to do intermediate backbending like Kapotasana.  We should not rush these openings.  We should give it time because rushing will always cause injuries.  Sharath relayed that he was in one asana for two years.  Guruji would sit on a stool and do his prayers near Sharath while he practiced.  For two years he ended at the same posture.  One day Guruji looked up and said he should do the next one.  Being patient gives us time to get balanced.  If we begin doing handstands too soon, it makes the shoulders too tight for Kapotasana, for example.  Intermediate series, Nadi Shodhana, is more intense but gets easier because of the things learned in primary series.  Finally, addressing Sthira Bhaga, or advanced series, Sharath says we develop even more stability through arm balances, deep backbending, and the work of lifting the body.  By working the asanas, by putting forth effort, many of the inside poisons and toxins come out and the body is purified.  We should rub our sweat into the skin, not off of the body.  He said some asanas are slippery and we might have a towel but not to use a towel too often to wipe sweat.  The sweat created from practice is not “easy” sweat, meaning sweat created by heating the room like in hot yoga.  The sweat we create through our efforts is beneficial if rubbed back into the skin.  Ultimately, through this asana practice, we are working toward the point where this physical body doesn’t bother us.  When sitting for Pranayama, we can be in Padmasana for a long time without disturbing the mind with the body. 

One student asked if kriya techniques were for practitioners.  Sharath said that they are used only when a person has a particular problem.  We are doing asanas and cleansing is already happening.  There is no need to perform a kriya unless something is wrong.  For example, sutra neti, threading string through the nostril and mouth, may be beneficial for a particular allergy or infection.  If there is no sinus infection, jala neti, or the use of a neti pot, may provide relief of congestion.  Nali can be used for incorrect digestion but should be used carefully.  Women, especially, can find it hard on the reproductive organs.  These techniques were for sadhus with no family and before there were hospitals.  People had to treat themselves.   He stressed we should be educated about what we are doing.  The technique can affect us in a different way than intended if we do it and have no problem.  Trataka Kriya, gazing at one fixed point, usually a flame, can be done to improve our concentration in addition to helping certain eye problems.  It is safe to do regularly.  Referring back to sinus troubles and sickness, Sharath reminded us to not practice with fever or a very bad cold because we likely aren’t getting enough air during the practice or we get too heated.  He added with a chuckle that you’ll only make everyone in the shala sick, too. 

Answering a question about the occasional wandering mind, Sharath recommended japa, the repetition of a mantra, for after asana practice. He said something might be bothering you—it happens—and we have a distracted mind. We can’t change the world but we can change ourselves.  Done after practice or before bed for about 30 minutes, using a mantra that has been taught to us, the worry might not be 100% gone but it will be manageable.  Also, he noted, it is important to clean ourselves before we perform these kinds of rituals.  Saucha, or cleanliness, is important before japa just as it is important for asana.  We are trying to be calm individuals and manage ourselves and what comes up.  Mahatma Gandhi was the symbol of ahimsa because he submersed himself in ahimsa and then was, himself, ahimsa.  A yogi is someone who has cultivated all of these things in him or her.  It is a quality.  He asked how many of us can say we are a yogi or yogini.  We have to become sadhakas day by day. 

Next a student asked about teaching a cancer survivor who has undergone chemotherapy.  Even though the treatments are over, the student gets overheated quickly even now.  Sharath suggested that the student drink plenty of water and juice and to use oil to cool the body.  He suggested coconut or almond oil to cool her.  Treatments and medicines can stay in the body a long time.  He said asanas bring heat to the body anyway and we use oil baths to cool the body.  It used to be custom in India to put coconut oil in children’s hair to cool them.  Putting the oil on the head will draw heat out of the body.  For the head, amla oil is very good.  Also, he advised that she should talk to a doctor.  There are many herbs and ayurvedic treatments that can help with diseases and afflictions of the body. 

Sharath ended conference by inviting us to visit a local hospital with him.  A Mysore pediatrician has opened a hospital devoted to children with HIV and AIDS, and Sharath extended an invitation to us to accompany him and see what we can do to help out the hospital and the young patients.  He said he’d provide the date and details soon.  (I will include information as we get it.)

By Megan Riley

Conference 9/2/2012

Sunday conferences begin with Sharath taking a seat on the stage area and chanting quietly.  During a recent conference a student asked what the chant was for and today we found out.  As Sharath explained, this specific chant thanks all of his gurus in this lineage—Brahmachari, Krishnamacharya, and Pattabhi Jois.  It is important to thank these people because many students, once they learn, they forget their guru.  He reminded us that we represent our guru in this lineage.  Without them it would be impossible to practice and relish this system of yoga.  Sharath said that few people knew the system of yoga from theYoga Korunta, and Pattabhi Jois kept it alive by teaching it to others and spreading its message.  Yoga is a science and a spiritual development.  The purpose of the sadhaka is to totally submerse himself in the yoga and learn it.

To explain how to be a good student to our guru, Sharath quoted the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali  2.1 tapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyāyogaḥ, which means discipline, self-study, and devotion or surrender to the divine constitutes kriya yoga.  He said it is important to become disciplined so that we do not get distracted and unstable.  This discipline does not come all at once—it is a process that happens year by year.  He reiterated that he wasn’t speaking only of asana but the whole yoga practice.  Everyone wants to rush now, get authorization quickly, but our aim should be to learn first, and this is why self-study becomes important.  Now we may see someone do handstands on a DVD and think they know what they are doing.  He pointed out that even his young son can do handstands.  We should get connected to whichever god or belief we like.  It can be a belief in something without shape.  We have created all of these shapes but there is no one shape for any god.  Once we get connected and surrender to our self and to the divine, we can be very calm.  A sadhaka should always surrender to his teacher.  If that thirst does not exist, what you learn will only be physical.  These three things—devotion, development, and dedication—are important to our practice because it gives meaning to what we are doing.  Otherwise, why spend time doing it?

Questions started with an issue from a previous conference when Sharath referenced Rama shooting arrows at Hanuman, his most devoted disciple.  Hanuman was so devoted that he became Rama.  Student and teacher are one.  Another student asked if we should chant something like “Om Namah Shivaya” during our asana practice instead of counting.  Sharath said when doing asana we should devote ourselves to doing that only.  Our concentration should be in one place, on the breathing.  If we want to chant, that should happen at home before asana practice.  When doing chanting, we should concentrate only on the chant.  When discussing the breath in our practice, Sharath was careful, through the questioning of a student, to differentiate between Ujjayi breathing and “free breathing.”    Ujjayi Pranayama is a breathing technique and not what we should do.  In our practice we are not forcing the breath.  We should inhale and exhale smoothly as this will help to activate our digestive fire.  We should not hold our breath in asana and instead try to have a flowing breath to help our circulation and nervous system.   Someone followed up by asking when a student could learn Pranayama, the fourth limb.  He said he would show us when we are ready but there is one technique we could do on our own.  He demonstrated and explained that he was inhaling through his left nostril and exhaling through his right nostril three times before switching to inhale through the right and exhale through the left.  This was controlled using his right hand with his thumb on his right nostril and two fingers on his left nostril.  Here there is no breath retention.  This can be done after practice, after rest.  A Pranayama practice can get rid of diseases but, done improperly, it can invite diseases into the body and make us crazy.  We should learn properly and follow a system.  It, too, is a science.  Also, there are cosmic reasons for certain actions such as which side of the bed to get up on (right) or which direction your front door should face (East).  When a baby is born, the parents take the baby outside at sunrise so the sun’s rays bring the baby good health.  Just as the sun can bring us positive energy like solar heat and solar powered cars, it can be used incorrectly or negatively, too.  Yoga is like the sun.  It can be healing if used the right way but it also can be used to burn ourselves or someone else.  A teacher has to know what asana is good for students who have imbalances in the physical body.  A teacher should study the student and can’t push everybody.  When questioned about whether we should take time off from practice or push through practice when injured, Sharath cautioned us to be careful.  He said sometimes the body is only changing.  Due to the things we’ve done to the body before our asana practice, we might be working through a lot of stiffness.  Asana makes us free from all of this but during the transition there may be aches and pains in the body. We should practice but we should be careful.  Do not push too much until we feel better.  We don’t respect asana sometimes.  Using himself as an example, he recounted his earlier days in Eka Pada Rajakapotasana.  He thought he could do deeper and deeper until he injured his shoulder.  He demoed for Guruji the next day even though he was injured.  After that day he practiced slowly and was very careful.  It healed and he became more flexible.  He cautioned that we should go slowly, let the body change, and don’t rush it.  Flexibility will come.  When doing this practice, exercises and sports can make us more stiff and susceptible to injury.  He joked that there is no need for other activity unless we really like it and, then, we can do that once in awhile.  He said, in his experience, injuries or pains that we get by asana, asana can heal.  To wrap up he said yoga is bigger than us.  Nobody can copyright it or brand it.  It is our duty to uphold the system and educate people about what proper yoga means.  When we protect dharma, when we protect truth, the truth will protect us.  He sent us off by saying we should keep practicing—it doesn’t happen all at once.  It takes a long time. 

By Megan Riley