ASHTANGA YOGA MOTHER EARTH

My Two Favorite Places to Eat In Mysore This Time Around

2012-01-31T03:46:00.000-08:00

Here are two restaurants that made my day this time around in Mysore, James and I kept on going back for more!

The OTHER Sri Durga, or "stand up caffe", which was recommended by Deborah (from the blog Bird in the Tree) has been an enormous revelation. No, it is not the one on the main Gokulam road, it is the one next door to the Nilgris on the side street.

The food comes out very quickly, everything is clean. The water (which I still do not drink) runs through a purifier. Things are not as spicey. The menu has quite a bit of variety and the chai... oh my goodness, the chai... seriously I've never had anything more tasty! One thing I will say though is that a cup of that chai (the large one) is almost worth a meal, I ended up not being hungry at all later on.

If you are walking from the shala, once you get to the Nilgris supermarket look left and you will see them, they are just steps away. A full meal like the one shown below can cost as much as 2 dollars with bottled water included.

Savige Bath, Chapatis and Rice Curd...
delicious and filling for the hungry yogi!

The menu in full...

The other surprise this trip has been the Austrian Cafe. I blogged about them last year but did not get a chance to try them, this year we did. The food is just perfect for when you feel like a western treat.

They wash everything with purified water and their salad was delicious, a great blend of finely cut vegetables. James had the Austrian pasta with eggs and loved it.

They also have things like burgers, fried chicken and fries with ketchup if you need some comfort food.

You can see some pictures of chicken and burgers in their
store front

They are a bit of a walk away from Gokulam, near Loyal world, walk one more block away from gokulam, then turn right (the first right) and walk about two blocks. The road forks so bear right.

I coul not get enough of their salads, they chop
everything so finely, I will try this at home too.

Egg Spaetzle, James' favorite, is a pasta with eggs

The little version of the salad, I am obsessed with it
need to go back to find out what is the very simple dressing they use
probably just a bit of olive oil and salt...

Please Don't Kill Your Baby

2012-01-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

Returning from Saraswathi's shala one day, James and I came across the Gokulam orphanage which has this black and white sign on the door. It reads: Do not kill your baby, -leave it here-

They currently have about 40 children, 3 are babies. Western students used to volunteer and spend time with the kids but now this has been disallowed.

They said they need food, in this order:

Cooking Oil
Rice
Dal
Sugar

There is a supermarket on the 9th Cross (the orphanage is on the 4th cross, so five blocks away) in which big bags of these supplies can be found for not a lot of money.

The administrator told us that each kid gets government support of 400 Rupiahs per year, which is probably not enough, so the food helps.

The women working in the establishment have been there for many years. The manager for 25, the floor manager, a woman in white robes who had a very sweet energy emanating from her, for about 20 years and so on. The children look happy, free to roam around, although we all know they are going through a difficult time, no doubt about it. The babies lie on big pads on the second floor with people attending to them at all times.

What happens to them when they grow up, we asked? The girls are presented with potential husbands and if they agree they get married. There is a picture on the wall of all the girls that have gotten married in the past.

Where do they go to school? School is 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away, and they walk.

To learn more about it here is their website.

SHARATH IN CONFERENCE: GENERATING POSITIVE ENERGY

2012-01-29T04:44:00.000-08:00

Finished talking? I can wait if you want to talk. Says Sharath at 4:05 PM -shala time, which is 15 minutes ahead of real time- as we begin the conference today. About 350 people in the room, some in the foyer, about three (or three hundred?) children can be heard in the audience. Feels like family.

Sharath: Many times I've told you that by doing asanas, yamas and niyamas are also very important to follow to bring meaning ot the practice. If we want the practice to be complete asana is not enough. Asana is the beginning not the end, asana is the begining of the spiritual practice.

The Yamas and Niyamas (observances and restraints) together with all other limbs are important. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika we are told that first we do asanas and we follow that with yamas and niyamas.

A discomfort in the audience, by the foyer, interrupts the conference. Can you move? There is more room here, he says, and points to the front of the stage on which he sits, on a chair which is half leaning on top of a cleaning rug. We all move a little, there is really not that much room. I get to be a bit farther apart from James and closer to the stage. Better for note taking I suppose.

He continues: So if you are able to do all asanas beautifully, if you do for example handstand which is the common thing everyone wants to show... I don't know where this habit comes from. What is this? After Surya Namaskar, dwi, trini, (two, three) and handstand. (He is refering to people who include handstand into the sun salutations as a way of showing off, but something that is clearly not supposed to be there in the salutations, see Pattabhi Jois' book Suryanamaskara). He continues I don't know why, it seems to attract people, but for a real yogi the transformation happens within.

Cannot find where to buy the book
these days, anyone knows?

The reason why we are doing asanas is to purify the body and the mind. It means that change will happen within us, in how we react to things, how we behave. It will change our attitude, if you show aggression (which sometimes can be brought about by asanas) if you go and be crazy outside, for example, by the coconut stand in front of everyone, and then you start doing headstand -laughter- that does not mean you are doing yoga, you are building your ego. That is against yoga.

So whatever you do outside matters. You may have a beautiful asana practice but outside if you do not understand how to calm and control your mind then you are just doing an aerobics class. A lot of people confuse ashtanga yoga with aerobics, that is because they do not know the real benefit, they only see the surface.

It is like the sea, you can only see the beauty of it once you dive inside, then you see a whole new world in the ocean. I have not been to the ocean, I am scared of it, I am from South India and there is no sea here. We do not learn to swim but I have dived in the spiritual practice and experienced beautiful things.

Like diving into the ocean

So many times people practice but do not understand the meaning of it, sometimes they are even practicing for 20 years but not understanding the reason behind. Then it is of no use. We keep chanting but if our mind and body are not there, if the chanting does not come from the heart then we are not generating positive energy.

When we involve ourselves completely then we can generate positive energy. Why do chanting? We do it to generate positive energy in us, and around us, just like with the asana practice, we put mind and body together, we bring everything together and then positive energy is generated.

In daily life, ahimsha, non-violence, means not to hurt anyone. Last night someone asked me if we are hurting ourselves when we practice asana. But we are not hurting ourselves we are getting rid of karma through our pains. Many times knowingly or unknowingly we hurts others by words or thoughts. Once we think bad of others mentally then negative energy is generated.

In India we are always careful with negative energy. So in new houses outside we put signals. We put pumpkins. You also call your boyfriend or girlfriend pumpkin -laughter-. We put the pumpkin in front so that the bad energy is taken away, people will look at it and smile and not have negative energy.

James tells me that they use of the pumpkin is a drishti pariharam, he searches for it on the internet as I type and here is the google explanation.

Hope it takes away the bad energies

Sometimes people have good or bad intentions. Mostly bad. In society there are hundreds of different people and jealous people cannot keep it inside, they have to show it to others: Oh that person has lots of money! Everywhere we go there are people with positive and people with negative energy.

So first I have to generate positive energy then ahimsha, satya, once we follow them in our daily life then we can be true to ourselves and others, then asteya (non stealing) then bramahcarya (celibacy), aparigraha (detachment from wanting).

Yogis in the past all followed a certain discipline which made them positive. Once you practice non violence and telling the truth then automatically nothing will bother you.

When you do something wrong it will bother your mind, karma will be generated. Karma is important, what we do sometimes can hurt someone, or if we do a sin knowingly or unknowingly, we have to pay for that . So I should not hurt others or I am hurting myself. If I lie, I am lying to myself. Then, when we practice this our energy becomes positive.

This is the change within us that we are looking for, Until when this change happens we are not spiritual. There is no "Oh I do yoga for 3 years"! That is not yoga, yoga happens wherever you go, the change happens within us.

Not stealing (asteya) including postures (laugher again). It is a strange thing, many people say "I am a yogi" but do not do what their teacher teaches them, they steal from other teachers, they take from Iyengar, Ashtanga, Sivananda. Now every day there is a new yoga...

Swami Sivananda

Bramacharya is very important. Be true to your partner.

And so in the spiritual practice by following these we create an energy within us. A positive energy.

Aparigraha (non attachment). There is greed. We want more. There are people who are so greedy, that would do anything to acquire more and more things, wealth, popularity.

If you get a yoga magazine you see people saying "yeah yeah yeah, I taught this and done this and done this for so many years", a real yogi would never say that. Our practice is a very private thing, we do not need to show it to others.

He quotes some scripture in Sanskrit that escapes my knowledge, he translates as: "by following the eight limbs we can get rid of the impurities and spiritual knowledge will glow from within, we become very wise" . We might do asana for 30 years and still not have a spiritual practice.

I was in an American tour once and a senior student, someone that has been practicing for over 25 years came to me and said that anyone that was coming to my workshop had come to visit him first. Fine, I said, so what? - I am a senior teacher, the student said. I felt sad. Instead of anger I felt sadness because after 25 years of practicing he still did not understand the meaning of yoga.

Nobody is great, there are many things that we do not know.

When you say you know everything it means you know nothing and when you admit you don't know anything then any real knowledge may start to come.

So you could be doing primary series or half of primary series and feel the energy of transformation within. Once we bring calmness into the practice many things start to happen.

Saucha or cleanliness is of two kinds: (1) internal, in mind, by keeping it pure and also in body which happens internally when we do asanas or poses, the body is cleansed, but also (2) external in the sense of taking a shower before practice . Some people come to practice and I cannot help because I would go unconscious -laughter- The skin accumulates dust, when you take a shower you take the dust and dirt away, and also when you take a hot shower your muscles relax. Also external cleanliness in the sense of keeping your house and environment clean.

Santosha or contentment is also important. Be happy, but not happy like this [he demonstrates a forced smile]. and then says that this is the kind that has a hidden agenda. Not like that.

Some people have everything and still are unhappy. A wise man told me once that the animal has one agenda, food, and once it is obtained then the animal is happy. For humans once food is obtained then 100% of the problems start.

To be happy if you go to parts of Africa or even India in Mumbai, even Mysore and see the slums, there are people who are hungry, people who have very little to eat, who struggle to feed their children, but they are happy. A rich person with meals for the whole week is unhappy.

A Mumbai Slum

Tapas or austerities means we follow a strict life, we wake up at 6 and do our practice, then we eat, not eat all the time, just when it is time. We do not party all the time. A strict life is important to any sadhana (spiritual practice) and involves leaving many things and being careful in what we do.

If you meet people with bad energy then that bad energy comes into you and you start acting like them.

Yogis used to go to the Himalayans because they wanted to keep the purity with them. It can be lost easily if the mind is not stable, if we do not think about what it is we are doing.

I have two children and a wife so I cannot go to the Himalayas. But we can still do it here in daily life, and the positive energy will build within us.

Svadhyaya or self study is often misunderstood as "I do my own yoga which I created myself". But Svadhyaya means we discover through the guide of a guru. For example your mother is the first teacher and she shows you how to eat, how to put food in your mouth, she can show you but that does not feed your stomach you need to put the food in your mouth. I teach asana and tell you it should be practice like this and you do it, you think about it, then you discover it.

I show you asana but you have to be on your mat, try to discover the spirituality in your practice. Self study, when taken to a certain level totally submerges us. We think about Ganesha or Krishna or Jesus or whoever you like, Ala, whoever you are connected to. Everyone has a Deity in their life. I like Krishna, which to me is the biggest yogi ever born so I connect to that deity.

Then once we connect Ishwara Pranidhana (the last Niyama or surrender) happens. This is very important, once you surrender you become God. When practiced properly Iswara Pranidama can lead to samadhi (liberation freedom).

For example in the Ramayama, Rama wanted to show what a real devotee is, what kind of devotion is showed by a real devotee so he fights with his number one devotee, the greatest devotee of all, Hanumanan. Can you imagine that? Fighting your own master? And Rama throws all his powers and weapons but Hanumanan keeps repeating: Rama Rama Rama and nothing happens to him, that is because he becomes Rama.

These things are very important. We can change not just ourselves but also our environment, our society. Yoga is a very powerful tool and we need to know how to use it. It is like an Apple computer if we don't know how to use it... disaster! But if we do we can create miracles. Yoga is like that, we need to know how to use it through the guide of our teacher.

It can generate miracles...

I chant the mantra to the guru with the intention of transformation to happen, to be led from ignorance to brightness. Knowledge should glow within us.

Once we have this knolwedge shining within us then if someone does something bad to us it means nothing, it is nonsense, we realize is childish, like the story of that student that came to me in America, we realize they are like a baby, crawling into yoga practice.

When spiritual knowledge grows stronger we should focus on that, not as I have said many times, on certification which is just something to put in the wall of our house. A real certificate is the glow within you and it is not physical. The more practice we do the more we understand.

---

He did not take questions this time, said we can have 7 days to think of questions.

He finished by saying: Bring your cards tomorrow so I know your name and when your end date is. And also I noticed Korean and Japanese and Russian students who are shy, or don't speak English, then pick a student and pass along sensible questions so they can ask for you, don't be shy. I only speak English but I try to do my best to teach yoga.

-
Notes from the Conference on January 29th 2012.

What Yoga in Mysore Means To Me

2012-01-27T03:03:00.000-08:00

Last year I wrote a post that I had to subsequently delete because it caused a stir in my family and even though it was "my story" I did not want to cause pain on others, so down it went and it is nowhere on the blog.

The post told the story of how my mother died, particularly how I experienced it. She fell from a 7th floor to her death. That is what we know as a fact. There is one argument that explains it as an accident and another one that says it was a suicide. She was alone when the falling occurred.

I was the last person to see her. She gave me an umbrella before I left for the first day of university. It was a clear and sunny day.

When you are 18 and go through something like that you tend to blame yourself. If only I noticed, if only I did something different, maybe if I washed the dishes every day, maybe if I got a job earlier and helped financially. It was too difficult to reconcile what had just happened.

Then the pain all around. Everyone in shock. Who would give me an umbrella tomorrow. Or the next day, when it really rains. The wishes for it not to be true. But then the stretcher, the crowd of people. Then the coffin. Then the ground. Never again her face.

Last night I dreamed that I saw my mother. She was my age, beautiful as ever (she won beauty contests in her youth). She had a red t-shirt on and was ordering me around to go and take care of this kid, her kid.

I told her She should tell her off, not me, it was her kid after all. She asked me to take her to the little girl. I did. And as I showed her the way she fell from a one story and broke her knee, her eye was black, she was in pain. It was my fault. Again!

Of course it was just a dream, but the pain I felt upon waking up is still the same I felt at 18, when the whole seven floor drama unfolded.

Damn this hurts. I even knew the number of the emergency service in India: 6063, which is probably not the real number it just manifested like that, out of thin air in my dream.

Why does this happen? Why does the ultimate hurt, the thing that touches me the deepest into the most hidden and remote fabrics of my pain surface here, and now, as I am practicing intensely in Mysore?

I tell James. It feels slightly better to get it out of my head, roll some tears, not keep it there brewing more guilt. I know by now that hurts need to be ventilated, aired out, shared in intimacy and safety.

Having so many people around who are going through the same practice as a community means we are all going through similar processes. It comes up in our talks, insecurities, feelings, fears, projections of what we might want the future to be or not be.

Mysore rips you from your familiar suroundings, from your habits, from your comfort food, heck even your body as it submits to intensive practice.

This year I am socializing a whole lot less than in any prior visit. I need the solitude, the practice to work through me. I find myself questioning everything. James and I talk about it, we read the Yoga Sutras, we wrestle with why is it so hard to do the number one thing that is required of us in the yoga path.

Why is so hard to be kind? From the big, obvious ways, to even the smallest. Why does being in close proximity with so many other practitioners bring up issues, and so on.

At home we hide behind our routines, our protective barriers, our "other things that we do on top of the practice", our jobs, our dealings.

Here we are in foreign land for a reason, and only one reason. Yoga. Some of us do not like that and then fill the day with activities, but eventually we face it. Issues do come up because we are outside the things we are used to and in a setting that more and more brings us closely into the whole practice.

It is probably a good thing that something as deep as this has come up for me. It is those old hurts that keep us in our place, scared to move, and we can only move forward whenever we have actually felt them and let them go.

But I tell you what I am learning from it. Just before I came here something happened to me that triggered issues of loss, pain, death and insecurity. The details are irrelevant. Then coming here brings up this dream, the ultimate issue of pain, loss, death and insecurity.

One thing I have been reminded of ever since my mother fell from that window is that we could all be gone in a matter of seconds after giving an umbrella to someone on a sunny day. I realized back then, hurt as I was, that NOT hurting anyone was the only important thing worth striving for.

So I am going to attempt to forgive myself. Just for today. For anything I think I did that may have been wrong. I know that I have always acted from whatever it was I believed to be the right thing at the moment and never really intended to hurt. I was just probably ignorant if I did.

Being kind is all I want to strive for. I believe it is the most important lesson in yoga, the first one and the hardest to master. And that starts with me. I love and respect me.

21 Things That Will Help If You're Over 40 And Starting Ashtanga Yoga

2012-01-25T04:37:00.000-08:00

I am over 40 and started to practice Ashtanga yoga not that long before that age mark. I can tell just by obvious gaze-browsing that there are differences in learning before and after the four-zero. I can see people in their 20s and early 30s getting to place their legs behind their necks with an ease and a speed I envy, in a good way, but envy still. "God bless them" I find myself saying.

This is strictly referring to the asana part of course, to the poses, or the third limb of ashtanga (Ashto =8 Anga=limb). All other limbs, for example the first two, or even just one of the subdivisions of the first one, that of being kind, is as hard for the younger as it is for the older. There is no age where being non-violent in mind, action and thought becomes easier.

Being a source of peace...That is graduate work! But since I was posed the question I thought I would start with the issue at hand, that of what could help someone over 40 specifically, when it comes to learning Ashtanga yoga.

Now of course, there are exceptions, some people are very flexible and some people have never moved much. You could argue these 21 would also help someone under 40, and that would be true, however when coming up with the ideas I thought about James and me in particular, two 44 year old people, and what has helped us. Or as James just reminds me, I am still 43. Hope it helps you too.

She goes slow...

1.- Going slow: This is the one area where the saying "infinite patience delivers immediate results" holds more than anywhere else. The primary series of Ashtanga (the starting point and yoga therapy, yoga of healing) is challenging and demanding. It is a daunting enterprise, but as we transition from the days of ambition to the days of meaning, as W.Dyer would say, it might be better to approach the work in the mat with an eye to exercising the minutia of patience, and see the miracles sprout. Because they will.

2.- No pain, no asana, no come: I wrote a whole post on that. It is what Pattabhi Jois used to say. If someone is over 40 and not very in touch with his or her body there will be lots of discoveries along the road.

For example, James (who started yoga in his early 40's) recently wrote a post on how yoga shamed him due to back pain. He then said that through that episode he learned that he had not been using his legs so much, he had relied on his upper body much more than it was needed and had not realized he could use his legs a whole lot more!

Insights like those which sometimes come due to pain, are worth gold. Imagine? Suddenly finding your legs?

3.- Regularity: Getting on the mat six times a week might be challenging for a person over 40 for whom it is very likely that routines are set, or it might be difficult to change due to family life, work etc. That is OK. However, doing the practice regularly and setting in on a routine of whatever it might be, say 3 times a week, and then respecting it, is critical. There is no way to see the changes or learn from the practice if there is no regularity.

I've noticed that Ashtanga yoga has the seeds for a daily practice built into it. As we begin to feel some of the benefits we just want to keep feeling them.

For example, as of today I cannot go more than 3 days without practicing and not getting mad. Yoga centers me, balances me, clears my head and makes my body feel healthy. This in turn brings peace and poise to all other areas of my life. Then I have a foundation from which to build into how to be peaceful towards others.

4.- Having a Teacher: Yes we can all open Swenson's book (which is fantastic) and go through it, or get a great DVD and start the practice from the privacy of our living rooms. It is difficult to face going to a yoga studio at first because all those youngsters look so much better than us. I know I had that fear and I was not even 40 yet.

I understand that, I actually started it that way, got the DVD, hit play and practiced along, lonely and at home. It might work to get the idea, but after a while it might prove profitable to get over the feeling of shame and just head to a studio.

If a good teacher is available in the area and you 'click' with the teacher then, gosh! That is lucky! A good teacher will make good recommendations, hear you out, do good modifications and give you the courage to tackle that next pose when he or she feels you are ready, and if you trust them.... you will simply continue on. Within a few months you will surprise yourself.

No more leaks!

5.-Plugging the leaks in life: The practice takes care of the beginnings of this because it is intense and hence priorities need to be arranged so that the limited energy we have can be used on the pursue of it.

But Ashtanga yoga is much bigger than just that, and hence it is important to be aware of the areas in life where we are in the red, where we leak energy. For example, we can begin by identifying who are our real friends and who are the energy drainers? Who are asking for advise or our time and energy then not follow through and come back for more. Who are the people who uplift us and who are those who leave us ready for sleep or rest.

Get rid of the drainers at once and at all cost.

6.-Accepting that life will change. The re-arranging of priorities and the noticing of where our energy goes followed by actions taken to improve that, will change life. At first in subtle ways (maybe we do not return a call to follow through with an argument knowing full way there is no way to win or to bring peace), but eventually in big ways.

Some people might drop out of our lives, others will not understand what we are doing and feel threatened. That is OK. Change that comes through the practice is positive change.

7.-Hydration and Nutrition. Keeping hydrated is something we need to work on. Having a job means many times we forget or postpone drinking water and even going to the bathroom, especially when in back-to-back meetings. We need to recognize the insanity behind this and respect our bodies.

Nutrition is another area that needs revision. Investigating what we put in our bodies and in what quantities has a tremendous effect in our level of energy and practice outcome, on how we feel, on how clear we are.

8.-Plenty of rest: Having a regular time for bed, with a ritual behind it to support it and a regular time for waking up trains the body to be ready for practice (and the day!)

9.-Skin Brushing: See the post on the benefits and how to do it. I now brush my skin daily, I can even see the particles of old, dusty dead skin coming out, making space for new, and for greater absorption of oils and air. Skin brushing also improves criculation of the blood.

10.-Rubbing back the sweat into the body and proper savasana. Pattabhi Jois says in his book Yoga Mala that it is important to rub the sweat into the body. He also advises not to expose the body to cold or heat right after practice. B.K.S. Iyengar, the master yoga teacher from Pune, has said that it is important to take 5 minutes of rest for every half hour of asana practice.

We must respect that, or be willing to pay the consequences which means having a day filled with nervous tensions due to the nervous system not having had enough time to cool off.

11.-Oil-ing the skin: There are several practices recommended in yoga circles. One is the Saturday Castor Oil Bath which was pointed out by Pattabhi Jois himself. I also use almond oil or sesame oil after bathing daily and after skin brushing.

Some practitioners mentioned to me that in the Ayurveda science of healing people use different oils depending on their type. You may want to give a gift to yourself and invest in an Ayurveda consultation, show some self-love and feel pampered by using the right oil for you.

12.-Acupuncture: This is not very expensive and it helps reconnect meridian points within the body that may have disconnected. Finding a good Chinese practitioner has done wonders for me and will do for you too. You can also see this post for ancient Chinese secrets I have found and use practically daily to keep the body sharp.

It has worked miracles for me!

13.-Massage: I find deep tissue massage to be a revelation. The pressure applied to knots (when done by someone who can do it well) releases tension and pain. It is to be experienced and it takes time to come across the right practitioner.

I recently also heard of the Theracane from Susan, a very knowledgeable yoga blogger and advanced yoga student/teacher, who showed it to me, and has promised to write a post (to which I will link when ready) on the benefits of using it.

She recommended to start to get booth the cane and the manual that goes with it (Amazon suggests you buy them together). I have placed the order after just playing with it for a few minutes. I can tell it is a good tool to have around already.

14.-Vegetarian meals or less red meat: Changing diet violently is unlikely to work, however opting for vegetarian meals when possible, and slowly moving towards a more grain and veggies diet helps as red meat tends to make the body bulky and harder.

Vegetarian meals are more conducive to flexibility and suppleness. I find that using ghee (clarified butter) helps me with flexibility, and I love the taste. It feels as if I am greasing of the engines.

But of course, every body is different and you will have to learn about your own body, more and more, and get more in touch with it to find out exactly what works for you.

15.-Mysore: James has been to Mysore, India (the headquarters of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute) twice now to study with Saraswathi, daughter of Pattabhi Jois, and he loves the "focused energy in the room, as well as the practicing among such "dedicated practitioners". I have come to Mysore three times now and studied both with Saraswathi and in the main studio with Sharath and can say the same thing.

Mysore may not be for everyone but if it calls you then you are lucky. There is a level of dedication here as well as the factor of being surrounded by so many very advanced students/teachers that inspires one to keep on going and to go deep.

There is not much else to do unless you chose to socialize heavily, which I would discourage. When the time is used wisely here in Mysore, then the practice can bring huge benefits.

16.-Mula bandha: The concept of Mula bandha is explained as tightening of the anus or perineum during practice (and afterwards when remembered as well). It is one to get into our heads and remember before practice so that we can start engaging it.

Personally I find that the concept of mula bandha extends way beyond the mat and into all of life. We engage this lock while on the mat to prevent leaks of energy, and we continue to notice leaks as we walk through life, and hopefully plug them.

17.-Deep breathing with sound: The deep, slow, loud breathing with sound (Darth Vader sounding breath), is a key component and it helps going deeper into a meditative state. Good to start focusing on it early on. I find that becoming very aware of this element of the practice is great especially when we start late in life as it will aid in the slowing down and letting go of the mind that tends to reach outwards into the perceived inmediate responsibilities and demands of daily life.

18.-Focusing: Each pose in the primary series (and all series) has an eye-focus point. It is critical to use this tool from the start. Of course it is not easy to remember all the focusing points (there are nine) but when in doubt you can always make sure to send the eye-gaze alongside the nose line.

This will send you within and bring you into connection with your own body during practice rather than following the hyper flow of the eyes that want to constantly go outside and look, judge, criticise etc. Remember we are looking to go within, to be in touch with the body to reach higher and higher levels of awareness and come to peace.

19.-Led classes: In the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, once a week (or twice in Mysore) there is a "led" class. One in which the instructor does the counting and students follow as opposed to the Mysore style where everyone arrives in their own time and go at their own rhythm. Led classes are fantastic tools to:

a) Surrender. Many people do not like to 'give the reins away'

b) Learn the proper vinyasas, or transitions in between each one of the poses.

c) Slow down (or speed up) the count. It acts as a reality check

d) Challenge us. In Mysore for example, the count for the last pose Utpluthi, in which you are in the lotus and lift yourself up with both hands and count to what seems to be a thousand counts is always exaggerated. I have come to the conclusion that I need to hold it for 25 of my counts to make what in Mysore would be 10.

20.-No cheating: Following up on the above point. There is a pose where it is easy to cheat, and that is in the transition between chaturanga and upward dog. When you go from the plank pose, as we call it in the west, to the pose where you arch your back right before going into downward dog.

In Mysore, Sharath is fond of having us wait, maybe for three counts in chaturanga and then say "Why you hurry? You Have somewhere to go? You hungry?" Which results in laughter.

But there is a point there to be respected. No need to rush in the pose just because it can become automatic and repetitive, great opportunity to notice how the mind wants to "get it done" or thinks it "already knows" something. It never does, the mind cannot know anything.

Of course on the other side of this it is good to respect our bodies and build at our own pace, just not get complacent and fall on the other side. Always strive for a healthy balance.

21.-Reading the Yoga Sutras: Reading the sutras helps put things in perspective and for us to understand why it is we do the asanas in the morning.

It helps us identify what is real and what is not, to follow the real purpose of yoga, that of bringing peace so we can get to happiness with strong discrimination. How it is a practice that can get us out of delusions.

It also has some really good advise, very practical, on how to deal with all sorts of people, including crappy people. And of course, it has an in-depth explanation of the goal of yoga and how it happens, how the higher and finer level of concentration bring peace into our lives. How it might feel to be in, or reach a state of yoga.

The book above is my favorite version to read. Others are either too scholarly or differ a bit too much to how it was taught by Kristnamacharya. I was fortunate to take a course with Ramaswami (a student of Krishnamacharya for 35 years) and I am grateful as it helped me distinguish among good versions of it for the interpretation.

---

You may also want to look at:
32 Suggestions on How to get Started with Ashtanga Yoga
My Book (free for prime members) 21 Things To Know Before Starting Ashtanga Yoga

The Yogi Breathing Exercise That Will Put You To Sleep

2012-01-24T03:04:00.000-08:00

"I am having trouble sleeping. In one of your posts you said Claudia showed you some yoga breathing exercises that helped you get to sleep right away. Could you do a post on that sometime?

That was in an e-mail for James today.

A year and a half ago there was one night when James could not sleep, he was pacing up and down the stairs, going to his computer and then returning to bed, then repeating the dance. Needless to say, it was disturbing me! I decided to take action and teach him this exercise. At that time it worked well for James, he fell asleep and so did I!

She looks peacefully asleep

I learned the exercise from an extraordinary dance teacher in New York City, Mary Anthony, in 1996.

Now that I think of it, Mary must have been in touch with yogic techniques, she had routines she did before and after each class that resembled relaxation (just for her) and many of the moves came from yoga. She emphasized focus and getting "out of our minds and into our bodies" and "being present". She was probably in her 70s at the time.

Much later I realized that what she showed us is also a pranayama which Iyengar mentions in his book [Light on Pranayama], but let us get to it.

Here is the thing about the exercise, if you do it consciously, slowly, paying attention for, say, 20 times, you are pretty much guaranteed to dose off.

Of course, it is good to have all other conditions leading to sleeping in order (no caffeine, have a sleepy time tea, have a ritual, clean bedroom, nice comfy sheets, brushed teeth, etc)

Preparations

The exercise has you breathing into three different parts of your torso. As a way of preparation and as you read this it might be a good idea to try and identify the parts (mentioned next) so you will be prepared when you are in bed. Remember to always breathe in and out through the nose.

The first area is the abdomen. Try it right now and see if you can breathe in sending air only to this area. Then let it go (meaning breathe out through the nose). Do not worry too much if you don't think it's perfect. It never is. It takes practice.

Next see if you can breathe in sending the air to the rib-cage. The ribcage is in the middle of your torso, as a hint think of your mid section expanding towards the back and front and also the sides. There is no way to get it perfect or wrong. Just try, it will come. Breathe out through the nose. Pad yourself in the back for identifying the area and trying.

Finally see if you can breathe in by sending air only to the ceiling of your chest. This will probably come in easy as most of the time people holding stress breathe only from here the top of the torso, the collarbone area.

Once you identify the three areas the exercise can be put together easily.

The Exercise

Lay down comfortably and bend your knees. Place your hands comfortably by your side. Some people like to put the hands in each part as the air flows through the torso, but that is not the point here, we are actually trying to go to sleep, so that may interfere.

By the time you start to doze off you will know because you will want to straighten the knees. Having them bent also serves the purpose of helping the back be evenly straight with proper distribution of weight on the bed.

You will breath in and send the air towards abdomen, then stop for one second, then breathe in again and send the air towards the side of the rib-cage, hold for a second, and then breathe in one last time and send the air towards the ceiling of the chest.

You will be filled with air by this time. Then you will say to yourself: "As you hold, let the mind go, let the mind go". These three sentences act as a count of three, and help you retain the air and let go of the mind (which is likely the obstruction, isnt' it always?).

Immediately afterwards you will breathe out in three parts as well. Meaning that you will breathe out with the chest area, hold for one second, breathe out with the ribcage, hold one second, and finally breathe out with the pelvis, then you will rest for one second. Then start again.

The Script: Each sentence is a count

Mary, our dance teacher had us go through it by using a drum to reinforce the count. One drum beat per sentence, and she had a hypnotic kind of voice, this is the actual speech she used, which was very effective, and put James to sleep.

If you can have someone read or say it to you, then all the better, otherwise practice it until you get the hang of it. Remember to always breathe in and out through the nose.

Breathe in with the abdomen
to the side of the ribcage
to the ceiling of the chest
as you hold
let the mind go!
let the mind go!
breathe out with the chest
rib-cage
abdomen
and you rest...

Breathe in with the abdomen

to the side of the ribcage

to the ceiling of the chest

as you hold

let the mind go!

breathe out with the chest

rib-cage

abdomen

and you rest

Find your rhythm with it, accommodate to suit your needs, let the breath lead rather than the mind. Do not over think it, just go with it.

Continue on for 18 more times, if you are still awake.

Walk Like This

2012-01-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

When I first moved to the little house in West Orange that was eventually sold in the tornado of the bank collapses of 2008 I used to ride the car to the train station through the back streets. It would take me about 25 stressful minutes to make the train. Then one day, quite serendipitously, I entered the freeway by "mistake" and realized I could cover the distance in 5 instead of 25 minutes.

The little house...

That day I wondered how many more areas of my life were like this, where I could take a shortcut I was not aware of, use a tool I did not know existed and incur in way less effort than I thought was needed.

One of those moments happened to me last week when I was dropping back and Sharath said "walk", meaning, as I was in the full backbend position after dropping back, to walk the hands closer to the heels.

What I normally do is lift the right hand and walk it, and then lift the left hand and do the same.

Walk! he said again. Grunting I did. Walk! he said for the third time, which was beyond any limit I ever imagined, and with difficulty, I walked about one more millimeter. At least so I want to believe.

As I came back he said: walk like this! and made a gesture of a hand crawling, sort of in a snake kind of fashion. It is easier, he concluded.

I have seen so many practitioners do that over the years and I wonder now how come I never thought to try? And, perhaps what is most important: In what other areas am I not noticing easier ways to go about life?

I can think of a few, like these three for example:

Not knowing where the thighs are in the backbends... Until I finally used a block which assisted me in making the connection
Not knowing that the best thing to come to peace is by first being kind to others... Until I made it a point to work on it

Or...

That I could have chai with the guys, all I had to do was ask...

I wish I could translate what they said after I asked them
to take a picture with them. They were laughing.

Those are big notices, huge shortcuts that lead to deepth of asana and of insight, to peace eventually.

I hope I can remain more open to absorving wisdom from all around.

SUNDAY SHARATH'S CONFERENCE: MYSORE MAGIC FILM

2012-01-21T22:32:00.000-08:00

Everyone set? You come to this site! Those were Sharath words this morning as he was, once again, directing traffic within the shala at the most crowded conference I have ever seen, with possibly around 400 people in it.

That is early on, there was no room for a single more body
when it filled completely

I never take pictures in the shala because there is a sign that says it is forbidden, so imagine my surprise when the assistatn director of the documentary that was about to be shown, a project headed and directed by Alex Medin, told me that it was OK, that she needed a few, and liked my camera. I jumped at the opportunity. How exciting!

People kept coming in

The Movie

Sharath said that he wanted to show this film which was 'the fastest documentary in history' (referring to how fast it was put together) last week but there was a festival (harvesting) and today he wanted to show it in the evening but there is a gathering of Yoga authorities that have recognized him together with another 3 teachers as great teachers and want to honor him. So he wants to graciously accept the offer that is made with love.

The documentary is called Mysore Magic Yoga At The Source, and runs for about 25 minutes. It features students/teachers from around the world telling of why they come to Mysore and how the practice has changed/affected their lives. For example, Kino tells of how she reckons it takes more than a few years to actually witness the transformation that happens with the practice, her husband Tim talks about how you begin to observe what goes on within as you go along, and that it is not always beautiful. Some of the students in the film I recognized, others I did not.

Alex (the director) and Angie, who are two of the team of 3 behind the movie
Jimmy, the third memeber, has already gone back to North Dakota. Thank you guys!

Overall a beautiful collage of why people come to the source, how it helps them deal with anger, bring them peace into their lives, and how it is possible to trust once you come to a place with a teacher who is a very long term, soundly trained, dedicated practitioner, like Sharath or Saraswathi.

Sharath mentions in the film that he does not see himself as a guru. If people see him as a guru then he is for those students, if others do not, then he is not for those others. As per him, he is always a student. He said, and everyone laughed: "a guru never says he is a guru".

At the end of the movie Alex gave thanks to Angie and Jimmy who helped him put together the movie and explained how all proceeds from it (it is now streaming for about 5 dollars) will go both to benefit the Pattabhi Jois Charitable Trust and the making of a second documentary. He also said that people who promote them on their sites can get 10% of purchases.

Alex thanking everyone and telling us about the movie

Then Sharath takes the chair again and the after-movie conference begun.

The Conference:

In our lives, whenever we come into something that is good, and transforming, it is good to share it with many people. These are the opening words of Sharath. He goes on: It was both Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois' vision to share the message. P. Jois discovered this method from Krishnamacharya and he tried to pass it on to many people, we are one of them.

Whenever we receive something good it is also a tradition in India to give something back. He cites a Sanskrit word that I cannot place and says that the meaning of it is to give something back to the Guru.

In the west, Sharath continues, we tend to challenge the Guru rather than accept but not in India. The idea of parampara is to always treat the Guru with respect, because the Guru transmits what he has learned from his own Guru and the student should eventually be capable to pass it along as well. If there is confusion in the mind of the student then the knowledge will simply not pass on.

My own Guru, Pattabhi Jois, says Sharath, would sometimes be very silent for days. Gurus are human and sometimes work very hard for many hours teaching students. They are people. And so Guruji would sometimes be silent for days. I would come to him, like many students do, with so many doubts and he would say, "oh, I will tell you some other day", and remain silent. Yet one day he would come around and say so many things that would clear all the doubts.

My grandfather had so much knowledge, he was like a library, he was always reading books. You would have to experience it to see what it was like when he would talk to you, the things he would say. Even though his English was not good students understood and it was because he created a certain energy.

It is important for a teacher to create a certain energy.

Guruji would wake up at 3:30 and do his chanting and then teach for long hours, he created a lot of energy. Krishnamacharya placed the seeds in Mysore and Guruji continued the work and sowing the seeds of Ashtanga Yoga and now it has grown like a tree and spreaded all over the world. I hope it keeps growing.

As I said in the documentary, Yoga does not belong to any particular person, it can be practiced by anybody. But we need to develop discipline within us, and dedication towards yoga. Nobody can force you to do it, it has to come from within, you need to cultivate it yourself.

Many people talk about how Patanjali says this or Patanjali says that, but just reading does not explain anything, it is through the practice, the work put into asanas, yamas, and niyamas that we start the transformation. The mind changes, our attitudes change, the behavior starts to change. They happen when we practice yoga. What is the use of asana if we are then violent? What is the use if we are not disciplined in body and mind?

Everyone has purity within them. We do not realize this but the practice can get us out of the delusions and bring us purity.

We need to beautifully accept and practice the eight limbs, get rid of the impurities then knowledge grows within us and greatness comes. Keep practicing because things won't happen in 1 year or 10 years but little by little we keep going deeper and towards realizing true.

I taught three classes today so my voice is going. Enjoy the rest day and don't eat too much. See you on Tuesday (Monday is the moon day here)

You can preview, rent or buy the movie here. Enjoy!

The notes are from the Conference on Sunday January 22nd, 2012.

No Pain, No Asana, No Come, And A Few Pictures

2012-01-19T06:05:00.000-08:00

I discovered that the saying: "no pain, no asana, no come", Pattabhi Jois's way of saying "no pain no gain", is very true.

I prefer his command of English better than the popular saying because of the "asana" part in the middle, the implication that for an asana to come to us, especially those difficult ones, some pain has to be felt. True words.

No Pain, No Asana, No Come

Ever since recovering from being sick I have been grateful for the asnas I have, and been concentrating on where I am at, polishing what needs cleaning up, like supta kurmasana, garba pindasana and the dropping back business.

Interestingly enough that is where I am receiving the most adjustments, and twice now, have been getting into a lot of pain. Lower back pain. Thank God for the ancient Chinese ways of healing.

This is teaching me two things:

1- How true the saying is. The difficult asanas come to me while I go beyond where I "think" I can go, and then something hurts. The slight pain indicates perhaps I pushed too far. This is the "good" kind of pain, of course, I NEVER force. But the never forcing can fall into complacency too. It needs to be checked.

Whenever I return to the mat after feeling pain, there is a new awareness that goes into the body as I move every little inch, so that the pain will not return. And there is also a bit of fear that goes along with that too.

2.- Finding more of the spiritual side of asanas. Yoga is about separating what is real from what is not. Fear is one of those things that are not real but made by our minds, by our anxiety and expectations, by our human condition.

What better opportunity to get the mind to connect with actual reality that going beyond what we mentally hold dearly as "possible".

This morning I did not think I could do much backbending because of the back pain I have been experiencing. I knew I would attempt to drop back but I was weary of it. Affraid.

However, an excellent teacher will always help us get into that space, of "no mind". And true to the word, Sharath helped me drop-back and the bending got deeper than ever, as in the hands walking in 3 times, closer to the heels, when normally they barely move only once. For some reason his adjustments make my body do things that normaly it would not do.

There was no fear. There was no chatter. Five whole breaths of no mind. Hands closer to the heels than ever. Surrounded by a field of infinite possibilities, not even silence was heard.

---

Aaaaaannnnd on another front, Sharath's new home is coming along.

Yoga is Killing Me

2012-01-18T15:45:00.000-08:00

Came into the shala yesterday with a bad mood, my back was hurting badly, perhaps a combination of pushing it in the backbends and a couple of deep kurmasana adjustments that are very new to me. Something about my right leg going to new places and bothering my neck. Had to ask the assistants to not help me so much and thought about "hiding" if such a thing is possible. It is not.

Afterwards and to begin with I took a catatonic 3 hour nap after eating at RRR. Then, in the span of twenty four hours (James counted) I said that yoga is 'killing me' three times.

Let me tell you about that RRR place. I got a bit intimidated by it. It is in the "city" among the pollution of downtown and it is a real local place, barely three foreigners like us there which is fine, of course, it was my first culture shock moment. And the food... hm. Delicious. Each of us had a huge banana leaf in front of us, and after asking for the only vegetarian option, we had a line of different servers come along, one had the white rice, one had the three potions (masala, something with potato and something very spicy, like a curry), then came the server with the ghee, then the water boy (we said no to that), then the crispy bread, papa something? Then the rice again.

It being the first meal of the day at 1:40 PM I ate to my heart's content. Then after a short visit to the new mall (we went to see the new supermarket "Easy" which is just like a huge Wallmart but cleaner) we came home to the nap and to the killing situation.

What is yoga killing I wondered this morning?

For one I am afraid it was killing my flow with the blog. Feel like 'I got nothing' sometimes. I know blogging is a practice, it has cycles, comes and goes, but the actual yoga practice is so intense I barely have energy for reading sutras sometimes, or meditate, write morning pages, let alone post.

I find myself in need of rest from reading other news too. It is killing my desire for external world extravaganzas. All I have energy for is practice, chanting, resting and pondering about yoga. It helps to have a partner that encourages the conversation.

It is killing the desire to overdo it. It gave me some pain for that. Respect. I am slowing it. Still totally there, but not pushing as hard for now, and sort of looking forwards to those ladies holidays.

Not quite killing the sense of I, and what I think I am, all the story lines I have attached to what I think Claudia is. Although I do make it a point to remember that yoga really is SEPARATION, of what is real from what is not. What is eternal and indestructible from what my mind makes it up to be, what it wants to believe it is. It is a practice after all.

It helps to kill it in that sense, to remember there is no I, especially when waiting in line and the mind starts to chat and judge how this is unfair and this is so good. How the pain will make one look not so good or how that pose was excellent and obviously so great. Then remember, none of it is true, neti neti neti, only that which is pure potential is true. All the rest is show, just the senses being attracted to the outside world.

This killing business might not be such a bad thing after all.

Saraswathi's Shala, And How To Get There

2012-01-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

I have been curious to learn about Saraswathi's shala and today was the day to find out. James registered!

He is excited to join practice here at the source again, and don't worry he already knows he is not allowed to say -yet again- that he has been humiliated by yoga... he will have to come up with something different this time!

Saraswathi is teaching from 4:30 AM until around 9 AM at her own studio and then heads to the main shala to help Sharath with the endless line of students from all over the world. Her shala is doing well. James got a 6:30 AM starting time.

The KPJ website just announced that they will re-open this year in July and that the maximum staying time will be 3 months from now on. I understand, they are very full right now with starting times of up to 10:30 (compared to last year's latest of what? 8, 8:30AM? -for Sharath students-).

I am not sure how things will develop and if this split of shalas will continue or not, but just in case I thought I would add a photo direction of how to get to Saraswathi's place, following James along the walk. Good for the visually oriented?

The actuall address is: #55 3rd Cross, 3rd Stage, Gokulam, but if you've been around here you know that finding addresses is not exactly tadasana... So here is a picture coming out of the main shala, going right to the corner then turning left (as if you were going towards Santosha)

As if going towards Santosha (away from the main road)

Stay on that street when you come to the Mysore Lyon School

Continue alongside the school which will be on your left

All the way to the end of this street

At the end of that street you will see this colorful house, turn right

You will see this, continue to the end of this road

At the end of that road there is this house (now in constrction)
Make a left

Continue on this road...

Follow James pass the pink house

Even more

That is the sign of where to turn right

Turning right you will almost see Saraswathi's place

There it is !

Noticing Things...

2012-01-16T01:36:00.000-08:00

Starting the second week here I begin to have enough clarity to notice things. I slowly come out of the fog of adjusting to everything, from food, to washing teeth with bottled water, to masala taste, to temperature, cold showers if too early, intensity of practice, letting go of trip stresses.

And I notice a few things. For example: the chai they make on the main street is done completely, in its entirety, with milk. There is no water involved as I always thought.

I watched carefully as the chai master (as I call him) poured about 5 cups of milk and had it boil on a very strong fire, only to then, when boiling -I assume as my view was only partial- he added two and a half measures (ounces?) of black tea, then turned the fire low into a simmer where it would stay for a while before being poured into the container for from which the teenager boy serves the general public.

My main focus this afternoon

I had two glasses just now. I love it. It was hot and spicy. I don't know when the spices are added, will have to notice more.

I noticed that Tina, who is famous for her cooking and her strong, charismatic personality, does indeed have a place near the shala (where incidentally I rented a room in 2008 before it was her place) as well as her regular restaurant. I asked her about it today and she said it is her house, not a coffee shop, and she opens it 8 to 11 and only for students of the shala. Now I am curious.

But perhaps the greatest notice comes from the practice

I don't know what got into me. Maybe is the combination of being here, having made it after not even being sure if I would because of how I sick I was a few months ago.

I gave it my all today (and every day since arriving and since recovering really). And primary series is an intense practice, no matter how you look at it, or how long you have been going with it. It is a dance of breath, movement, focus, strength, grace, bandhas, quietness, hardness and softness, balance, floating, surrendering, and coordination that requires the intensity of an athlete.

Right around the marichasanas I noticed a huge low in energy. Down I went! This business of starting at 10:30, which gratefully has now been moved back to 10:15 (but still) makes me start practice at a time I normally eat and when I am the most hungry with my digestive system and body craving action.

I had to push hard to keep going at the rate that Mysore seems to draw out of me maybe due to, what? The room's history, the other practitioners collective energy, the watchful eyes of Sharath, Saraswathi, Pattabhi Jois and Krishnamcharya (hanging pictures on the wall), the heat, my eagerness and delightful attitude at having the opportunity to be here?

I am going to have to rethink eating habits, maybe an early wake up for nuts and tea, mostly some nuts, some solid energy boosters.

I could not even sing at chanting afterwards. I was wiped out. Was barely able to make sounds as Lakshimish patiently taught us the proper up and down tones of the Vedic chants.

And yet I've never been more happy.

SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: LET'S SELF PUBLISH YOGA BOOKS!

2012-01-15T00:04:00.000-08:00

Grimmly's free third edition of the Vinyasa Krama Practice book is ready! Next he will be working on the pranayama and meditation parts. I am thrilled to have this resource available. What a great job he has done.

And on that topic, let's have a double Grimmly today. See this fantastic article observing how the blogsphere has completely changed how we globally learn Ashtanga Yoga, especially those who may not have access to a good teacher... and Grimmly is the star of the part on yoga, a great read! Ursula is also mentioned in the article.

I do 50% of my Kinlde reading on the I-Pad. You?

What book should Nobel write? See his title ideas.

Lanka's book: Ashtanga Yoga, Stories From Beyond The Mat, is also out.

The Search for the Divine Mother by Gwenael Verez -of Sahaja Yoga Blog- is also out!

And since we are talking books, here is a great reality check on self-publishing and making big bucks (or not)

The amazing surge of energy that returning to led primary gives after splitting, (primary to second that is).

Co-activating gluts and abs in chaturanga dandasana, great pictures descriptions and talk.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Ryan sent me this video of Guruji and Richard Freeman's call-and-repeat of the Pranayama chant. Starts at 1:03. Before then it is just silence and meditation.

LAST SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: WHY GO TO MYSORE INDEED

Mysore Miracle

2012-01-13T03:21:00.000-08:00

I want to acknowledge a miracle for one has happened to me, and, it is in the pausing to notice one, that we see how yoga is working in our lives. No point if we just pass them by.

Only 75 days ago I was on the floor feeling like I was dying in the midst of Lyme disease. Then Dr H came along, then the practice came back, and now I am healed. It takes some people 4 years or more to recover from Lyme.

This morning I had the most incredible led class of my life. Everything worked, Primary Series flowing, Sharath adjusting me on a deep kurmasana full of sweat. And on that note, how does he do it? I mean, my back was akin to Niagara Falls and he touched me with bare hands! God bless.

Grimmly wrote and mentioned how not so long ago I was so sick, how I had such an awful year last year and he suggested I take it easy cause I am still recovering, then mentioned how blessed I am to be here. How lucky am I? Grimmly e-mails me and watches over.

And he is right, in a way it was an awful year that 2011! And yet, in another way it was not, because it taught me a huge amount of humility.

It taught me that the body may very well not be there at a moment's notice and that the important thing is how we handle what happens to the mind and that the only important thing is love, peace, and kindness.

I had to build back that primary series starting with only 20 minutes of practice from November 2nd on. And that was after having a horrible asana meltdown and three full blown failed attempts, one with a total collapse! It was NOT easy on the ego, not easy on the body, not easy on my family, not easy on anything. But it was done.

The primary series is called Yoga Chikitsa (therapy) for a reason. The blood circulates to all parts of the body while we go at it (something that Lyme messes up with). The deep breathing spreads the light force and so on. Primary series heals.

Yes it was a combination of things that helped me, but I believe it was the clarity of having done primary for such a long time that brought the openness to be ready to hear about Dr H and learn about Chinese ways of healing that so agreed with me.

And so I was dying but now I am alive, where there was darkness now there is light. I was blind but now I see. Amazing Grace.

I am now in Mysore, among amazing practitioners who are totally dedicated to the practice, who take turns to enter the room, who work together in a tacit agreement of kindness.

I am also surrounded by advanced practitioners who have dedicated their lives to Ashtanga for much longer than me. They help bring the energy of the room up.

I am meeting and finding old friends, excellent bloggers, enormous community of people in search for liberation, for truth, for the way to happiness so we can be of actual service to humanity, so we can achieve the most important alchemy there is to be achieved, that of turning ourselves into kind beings.

I am awaiting my husband whom I love infintelly and who is now on his second trip to Mysore!

And only 75 days ago I was in bed for 20 hours a day.

I am being careful of course (thanks Grim), but I feel healed. Miracle. Right there.

Thank you! Dear God, or whatever energy you are that helps yogis on the path. Thank you for the miracle of healing, and thank you for bringing ashtanga yoga into my life! Very specifically the primary series of Ashtanga yoga. The Yoga Therapy, the yoga of healing.

Mysore Freak-Out, Again!

2012-01-12T05:21:00.000-08:00

Gosh I am so predictable! Last year I had what I have come to call the: "Mysore freak-out moment", TM, and by TM I mean that I could probably trade-mark it, being how good I am at it, make a business out of it, give advise or something. Grrr.

Last year it was over losing the shala card. I talked about how it happens no matter how good or bad the jet lag is. After 48 hours I just get the bug, the freak-out bug.

This year it happened again, exactly at the 48 hour mark, over.... losing the shala card. You guessed it right. Only this time it was not in my room.

People love messing with this quote

I was practicing in the shala with the card under the mat, half showing, as requested. By the time the rolling through garba pindasana came by the card was gone. Saraswathi helped me look, she even pointed to one that was almost under another student's mat, but no card. Not mine anyway.

Garba Pindasana

It is not a big deal! I hear you say. Of course it is not, but that is not how I felt. I freaked out.

For a moment the whole world went under. I heard a voice saying: "Can you trust"? But I couldn't. I am sure it will turn up, I have seen lost cards left behind in the changing room so that their owners will find them.

I told Sharath so if he asks me and I have not found it yet at least he will know, I hope, not sure it is possible to remember so many issues from so many students! He suggested what the voice said, that I look for it. That I trust [my wording].

I had a moment right there where I noticed my attachment to the card. Hello! The card. Seriously?

Took a while to go back to the flow of the tristasana (breath, asana and eye-focus), to go inside, which somewhat happens easier at the shala among so many serious, dedicated practitioners.

Everyone around me looked so advanced, so flexible, flowing so gracefully, doing miraculous things, I started to feel down again.

And so I asked: "please show me how asanas are spiritual", "please show me how it is not about the poses", "please take me within", "please show me the way".

Who did I ask? That energy that helps yogis on the path. It is not God, for we now know there is no such thing in yoga, but there is a universal energy that helps, if I ask. It does.

Little by little I made my way back into concentration, and by the end practice, the card was gone from my mind, and at certain moments, the room seemed completely empty.

Beautiful Addition to the Routine of the Shala: Chanting

2012-01-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

I slept till 7 AM (with only a one hour wake-up interruption) which means the trick to avoid jet-lag worked! AND that the 10:30 AM practice start was a blessing.

Nothing like a good night sleep

Being part of the last batch is interesting, the class starts thinning out towards the end. Got a fantastic adjustment in kurmasana, I think my whole torso finally went through and forwards in an impossible way, but it was real. Loved it. Sweated a ton too, but enough about me.

As I rested in savasana upstairs, the whole shala started vibrating with chanting and it felt so comforting, so devotional, elevating.

I cut the resting pose as much as I could (maybe only 10 minutes) and went downstairs. Lakshmish signaled me to get a copy of the chants we are all singing from. I was happy to know many of them (like the peace invocation I just wrote about, the Asatoma chant, the Vakratunda, the numbers in Sanskrit (to 30) which is great to go over to start learning the counting of the vinyasas for those that go onto teaching, and all the poses of the primary and intermediate series.

It brought me fond memories of Thailand where on Tuesday afternoons they had us sit on circles and we would go around singing all the poses of the series, nerve racking sometimes, I think in one occasion when my turn came around I totally blanked and said "don't-remember-asana". But that is not the case here, we have a piece of paper, and I am counting blessings. Beautiful to sing with everyone.

There is also the chant for Gurustotram, from which the first verse is included in "My Sweet Lord" from George Harrison, my favorite song even before I knew what it was about.

And so the chanting happens every noon, every day is seems (as today is Thursday and they had chanting yet again!) ~~on Monday Wednesday and Friday~~, and maybe Sunday (?) don't quote me on it if you are here, I am still a bit confused from the time difference. [UPDATE: Today finally Lakshimish clarified how the chanting works ... Mon, Wed and Friday is for people who do not have experience chanting and so they can slowly learn the chants. Once they learn them they can move over to Tuesdays Thursdays and Sundays, after a few weeks. It is possible to go straight to the second level but in that case Lakshimis wants to have a "little talk" as he says, hear you sing a few mantras, hear if your vedic chanting is up to part with the tones and Sanskrit pronounciation]

Lakshimish also has his usual courses in the afternoons. It's worth the time learning the basic Sanskrit pronunciation, I know it has helped me. For example knowing that the letter "a" with a dash - on top of it, means you chant it for double the time etc... It is good to take classes!

The video below is a shortened version so it does not have the actual gurur brahma part... but I found this one (which I can't share, dont know why You Tube won't let me) and from minute 3:29 you can hear George Harrison himself singing it. Warning, may cause dancing and devotion.

I really wanna see you, but it takes so long! Oh My sweet Lord

May it take a little less "long" for all of us!

How To Avoid Yoga Jet Lag

2012-01-10T03:57:00.000-08:00

Paul Dallaghan shared with us his technique for avoiding jet lag towards the end of Teacher Training circa March of 2009 in Thailand, and since I -like most other students- was about venture into a 20+ hour plane-ride, my ears perked up.

Graduation day, right before embarking on the 20+ hours of flying

I don't remember all the details, but what did stick with me was the part of not eating anything, at all, during the whole ride. The reasoning was that if your body guesses it is starving all energy will go towards conserving energy and any time references will become secondary and irrelevant. He explained it much better than me.

He also said that in the morning he normally would do some basic stretching and pranayama and invited us, if we were so inspired, to belch out loud "Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu.." or any other mantra of our liking.

I was rolling on the floor laughing picturing it. Still am. I can't stop imagining me singing and signaling people around to join me, as if it was cool, from a middle seat of a packed airplane. You had to be there. But I digress.

Before last year's trip to Mysore I told James about it and he decided to try it and be jet-lag free. I could not. I get too hungry. But he is stronger.

When He arrived in India he was 'disoriented'. For example, he did not know that the key was supposed to go in the key-hole to open the door, you know? confused, but not jet lagged.

His brain was not working at full capacity and I should probably have played a game of chess with him right then and WIN!... (darn!) but the actual time difference, it feeling like 3 AM when it is really 3 PM (and which normally takes me 4 to 6 days to adjust to), did not seem to affect him at all.

So this year... I tried it!

The not eating part was easy. I just slept the whole trip to Dubai and pretended not to smell anything. Whenever I got hungry I remembered Yoga Sutra 3.31 that says that by performing samyama (the last three limbs of yoga -concentration, meditation samadhi-) on the throat tip, hunger and thirst retire.

Notice I said "remembered" I am way too much of a beginner to brag about anything, however, somehow just putting my attention on it helped me. Call it beginners luck. I did drink plenty of fluids though.

The 380 from Emirates goes to Bangalore and has room for yoga
right near the staircase. I luuuuuuv that plane

The Dubai to Bangalore portion was easier, in a 3 hour flight not much is served. Then the 3 hour car-ride to Mysore, Gosh! Does it ever end?. I asked the driver if we could stop for chai, I wanted something warm. He did. Ahhh.

And so at 6 AM I arrived at my home in Gokulam and unpacked the bag I had left from last year. I put all clothes in the drawers, prepared some tea, got the big bottle of water, and decided to keep going because: the worst thing you can do is fall asleep (or so James tells me).

In all fairness, that is what I did in my past two trips and waking up at 3 PM to go register was not pretty.

So the first thing I did was breakfast! I was now allowed after all, only thing is, I did not remember what time Santosha opened, and since the interenet was not yet connected guess what helped me? My own book! There it was, in black and white, 8 AM. It was one of those moments...

Then I got busy. Cleaned up, unpacked, went to Loyal World for food and other supplies, cooked, took a walk, went for more chai, bought a notebook, wrote this, Skyped James awake, and finally... registration.

My starting time tomorrow morning will be 10:30 as is customary these days. Never done that before so good opportunity to practice yoga and more yoga, in this case the yoga of santosha (contentment) and adjustment to time.

Will the jet lag trick work? We shall see.... Can that even be considered a cliff hanger?

Buddha Boy

2012-01-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

Imagine saying: OK, I am off to sit and do nothing else for the next 6 years, no food, no clothing, no real shelter required, all the energy goes towards realization. This is Ram Bahadur's path. A boy from the Bara district of Nepal whose mother has the same first name as Buddha's mother, and who began meditating non-stop in the hollow of a tree in May of 2005, at the tender age of 15.

It was not long before crowds of people began gathering around him, some with the intention of protecting him, some coming for blessings, some out of curiosity, some to observe weather it is possible indeed to live without water or food and not move at all, without dying.

Some people assume he is the incarnation of the Buddha but he himself has denied this explaining that he does not have the energy of a Buddha and he is at the level of a Rimpoche.

The BBC did a 5 part documentary on their observation of Ram Bahadur, by the end of which the boy disappeared deeper into the jungle because "there was no peace".

Indeed committees of locals were forming and arguing over politics (should they let the media come close to him and for how long, etc), money was being gathered from donations, and, well the real world was coming too close to him I suppose. [If you cannot see the video below here is part one].

Part two, three, four and five.

He is now meditating in a bunker built for him as per his request, and there is a lama guarding the entrance.

It is interesting how he took onto the path with such determination, and that he meditated for years, but perhaps the highlight for someone far behind is his message, for he did emerge twice and spoke. Both speeches are on his wiki page, below is the second one from 2007:

Prayers of Kunchu Suma – message of peace for all living creatures and for the spiritual prosperity of humankind. Salutations to all spiritual seekers, saints, religions and all organizations. After I was commanded by the spirit to save and uplift humankind and the creatures of the world, I have abided by the promise to save the ephemeral world from the ocean of emotions and to free the world from the worldly sins.

I have been contemplating single-mindedly (Dhyana) to free humankind and all living creatures. All sentient beings want to get freed from worldly sorrows and pains. But by birth, they are not equipped as humankind to seek after spirituality and get freed. They are also praying to God (the source/spirit). They are happy to be in this world.

Humankind are creating traditions that will destroy the entire humanity and living creatures. In the name of religion, killings, violence, anger, jealousy and divisions are being promoted. There is only one source; the spirit has one form; the souls of all humans are the same, only the tradition and customs are different. Always embrace the path of mercy, compassion, non-violence, peace; this is the message I want to convey to our society and to all the citizens of the world. True spirituality, the true human spirit, will always search for truth. The search for truth is the only beneficial way of humans. Despite the existence of thousands of paths, chaos, greed, attachment, anger and jealousy have imprisoned our society and humankind. In this way the world is heading towards destruction.

So, it is high time that the citizens of the world must think about it. Humans should never forget their ultimate spiritual duty and their society. Refrain from killings, violence, greed, jealousy, attachments and evil character. Shed the tears of mercy and compassion; show to the world the way of salvation. After we die it is extremely difficult to get back a human life. Everyone thinks that we don't reincarnate after death. No, we receive a human life due to our virtuous work. We earn the fruits due to the merits of our work. Now the world is governed by three forms. The first form is greed; the second form is anger; third form is attachment and jealousy that are ruling this world. May all the religious traditions change. All the religious people need to first find the Truth, and by cultivating mercy, compassion, non-violence, and peace in their hearts, they need to beautify the world with the way of salvation. I will continue to contemplate and meditate for the salvation of living beings by being focused in my path of wisdom until I find the ultimate form of enlightenment, the Samyak Sambodhi. Salute to the ultimate form of enlightenment and may peace be with everyone.

---

And so those are good places to start working on, on my own anger, greed, and jealousy. I find reading the Yoga Sutras daily very inspiring, putting them to work in actual real world situations a bit more challenging. A work in progress.

SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: WHY GO TO MYSORE INDEED

2012-01-08T02:35:00.000-08:00

She is being split! -in a good way- and from today on... led intermediate series. Great news!

Sharath on how the body opens, castor oil baths, why padmasana? when to start pranayama, and more. Great conference recount by Suzy.

And since Sharath was talking about it, here is the Castor oil bath. The Ashtanga Yoga Saturday practice.

Grimmly wonders, why go to Mysore? Nobel does as well, and gets a direct answer from Kino. Interesting points of view from all over the world.

How it feels like to assist in that BIG room!

John Cambpell in Kapilasana

After the post on dry-brushing our skin I was one of many left with the question: how about the face? Although intuitively it felt wrong to dry brush I was grateful to Kiki for showing a good way to exfoliate this delicate area.

Been thinking a lot about words, their meaning, their power, aaaand their proper English pronounciation. On that I found a very funny post which I dare you to read out loud! Then you will understand what it feels like for a foreinger.

And for all of you out there whom, just like me, have English as a second language, I feel your pain, and offer you this. I found it through YogaChickie in Twitter. (Thank you)

Did you get sent THAT article from the Times, like, a million times this week? Read Kai for a good dose of common sense about it and a laugh.

LAST SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: WANNA HELP?

Krishnamacharya Singing A Peace Invocation

2012-01-07T03:38:00.000-08:00

Here is A.G. Mohan, a long-time direct student of Krishnamacharya welcoming 2012 with a peace invocation, Shanau Bhavatu.

You can click on the image to go to the video and hear Krishnamacharya himself singing the prayer in the 80s [starts at minute 1] and then A.G. Mohan going over the importance and meaning of the chant.

It has such calming effect to sing it. Enjoy, and may we all be at peace.

You can also see:
Krishnamacharya his life and teachings (by A.G.Mohan)

The Taste of Sweetness For An Aspiring Yogi

2012-01-06T04:35:00.000-08:00

Imagine having everything you could possibly want. A billion dollars to your name, the love of your life, few desires, a simple life, work that fulfills you (or no work at all), fill in the blank with what makes you tick. Now imagine that multiplied by 100, six times...

Happy at the beach

That is how the goal of yoga feels like, for the intensity of Samadhi is such, as Maehle describes in his wonderful book "Ashtanga Yoga The Intermediate Series":

"The great rishi (master) Yajnavalkya of the Upanishads explained the ecstasies of Samadhi thus: Imagine the highest joy a human being is capable of experiencing through wealth power and sexual pleasure... multiply by one hundred... you get to the ecstasy attained by our ancestors that obtained heavenly existence... multiply again by 100... arrive at the ecstasy of divine spirits... multiply by 100 again... arrive at the maximum ecstasy state of one who attained divinity by virtuous action... multiply by 100 again... ecstasy of one that attained divinity by birth or knowledge... yet times 100... ecstasy of that who has studied the scriptures and is free from desire... 100 times greater than that however, is the ecstasy of one who has realized the state of consciousness identified by Patanjali as "seedless samadhi"

Yajnavalkya

I don't have much experience on the three upper limbs of yoga which lead to it, I am only an "aspiring yogi", for, yes, the closeness to the goal of yoga happens on the last three limbs of the process. And there is a goal alright, a worthy one.

Up to the last three limbs we are just setting the ground rules, preparing the foundation, working towards center, sitting straight without moving, learning to breathe without disturbing the nervous system, finding the time and peace to sit, observing those reactions that pop out of nowhere and exalt us to go and grab the computer or a cup-cake, becoming kinder.

We are... well, 'aspiring' .

Aspiring yogi

Nevertheless the nectar can be tasted just in the aspiration. There are bits and pieces, little drops of honey that can be savored along the way, for example when we release pre-conceived notions or judgments and suddenly, a conversation that we were sure was to end in complete chaos turns around and ends up being not so bad.

When in the midst of an angry situation we remember that (Yoga Sutra 2.16) points that all future pain must be avoided, and so we do for ourselves and others, or remember that interpretation that says that thinking ill of another is sure to bring pain, so we stop.

We realize the futility of certain goals when we know that pleasure and pain are both painful (Yoga Sutra 2.15), and our priorities change.

We change behavior, we begin the alchemy process. We work on the hardest and only task there is, that of purifying ourselves in body and mind, that of changing ourselves, becoming kinder yet acting where is needed. We access wisdom, and yoga begins to work! Yielding real results.

And so the daily work is grueling and tiresome, for a while, until some of the taste of yoga becomes available which gives us new inspiration to keep going.

Lotus, used widely as a symbol of liberation, with roots in the mud
it still comes to the surface and flowers

The most clear sign that a yoga practice is working is that our lives become better, we feel better, the people around us have better dispositions, the situations we find ourselves in are more suited to our development, to our practice. There is a momentum that shows.

May we be here and now, may we be at peace, may we be happy. May the groundwork we do daily be successful.

---

Just got Maehle's book on the kindle, wish all books where already digital so as not to have to carry so much weight around!

Can We Attain Enlightenment (Yoga) Just By Asana?

2012-01-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I had just that question: is it possible that asana (yoga poses) alone could be the means to get to the higher limbs of yoga, to concentration meditation and that eternal peace with keen discrimination, that seeing what IS?

I was particularly curious after reading of a conference report in which Sharath had mentioned how we should put less focus on socializing and more on practice and how through asana we get into a state of dharana (focus or the six limb of yoga).

In the comments of that post I concluded that perhaps I should ask myself if presented the opportunity: Is asana really enough?

Seems my very question was already answered in last Sunday's Conference which Kino compiled in detail, and from which I am drawing a few paragraphs below in red. Thank you Kino! And of course, thank you Sharath.

Asana as stabilizer

First you stabilize the mind because if the mind is not in your control it will be like a monkey, a drunken monkey, that is jumping everywhere. First you need to control your mind and for that you need discipline and this comes from the practice of asana. Once we do asanas then mind will also come into your control. It doesn’t come all at once, you have to do for a long time

If the body is not stabilized, relatively healthy, disciplined, how can one hope to sit for hours attempting concentration, which is only the six limb on the way to freedom? And of course...

"Over a long period of time"Yoga Sutra I-14: The practice becomes firmly grounded by being continued for a long time with reverence, without interruption.

Asanas are Spiritual

Asana is the foundation for all spiritual building, if the foundation is strong then the building will be strong. Mind transformation will happen when you do asanas. For others it looks like physical, it is only when you go inside and practice asana for many years then only can you realize how spiritual it really is

I think of Asanas as how we get started on a long journey

I particularly liked this part the reinforcement of the important of asana. They are important because "when you go inside", and by that I understand when you feel the silence and completely draw your attention into sensations of the body, proper alignment, flowing, the breath, the bandhas, then you are going within. You are focusing, and hence accessing, brushing with the higher limbs of yoga. Almost flirting with liberation.

There is Meditation Within Asana

The tristana method develops your concentration so that when you go to pranayama, dhyana and the more subtle limbs, you are more focused. There is dhyana during asana and while it is not strong it is still present.

So there is the answer, yes there is dhyana-meditation. I was just modesty hoping for dhyana-focus (6th limb) but he goes as far as to name the 7th limb of yoga or meditation, although maybe not as strong.

The tristasana method (combining the poses with the eye focus indicated for each of them and the breathing with sound) helps bring us into concentration AND meditation.

Bandha is not a part of Tristasana because
Bandha needs to be engaged all day (as per another conference)

This is in agreement with Patanjali's sutras, and even Vipassana meditation. We still will find the proper focus and fall into meditation while sited in a steady pose, but during asana, as we prepare the ground for spiritual work, we get glimpses of it, we strengthen it, we begin to work with it.

And even though it might not be as strong as in a sitted completely withdrawn practice, the ability to go within and to experience it, the promise of it, is there.

Asana as Foundation

Asana is the foundation to reach higher levels in your practice. Then think about yama, niyama and try to follow that. It is a process that happens day by day, year by year. Only if you do it for a long time will you understand. In this instant world no one has patience, their focus is only on authorization or certification. A real yogi doesn’t need a certificate saying that he is a yogi, that he is enlightened. For enlightenment you cannot get a certificate.”

I have experienced in my own practice that thoughts, glimpses, and work on the yamas and niyamas (do's and dont's) re-appeared and were better observed through the practice of asana. Even as soon as we get on the mat, when the mind wants to rush to get the next pose at the risk of hurting the body. The a glimpse ahimsha, the first yama, the non-harming component appears (see below for the yamas and niyamas).

The closing line is one that touches all of us, whatever the "certificate" part may be in our lives. Whatever we think we may want, or think we may not want. It is not about that, it is really about using the tools of yoga to go within and find freedom. To be happy, but not in the general understanding we have of happiness but rather in the level of ultimate happiness.

---

Yamas: the DON'Ts of yoga.

Don't cause harm. (Ahimsa)

Don't lie. (Satya)

Stay Away from things that are not offered to you. (Asteya...or "a-stay-a-way" from what does not belong to you)

Use Sexual Energy Efficiently (Bramacharya)

Use only what you need. Don't be greedy. (Aparigraha)

Niyamas, the DOs of Yoga

Keep clean, in body, mind, teeth, tongue, nostrils, armpits, language, choice of words, gestures. (Shaucha)

Maintain an attitude of contentment whatever life may bring (Santosha)

Be modest and keep your practice, (Tapas/Austerity)

Read scriptures, and use them in your life, study yourself, your reactions, how you interact. (Svadhyaya)

Surrender (Ishvarapranidhana).

---

Kino's article (linked above as well)

I Am Grateful for My Gunas

2012-01-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

All this thinking about Samkhya philosophy and Patanjali and the Gita got me thinking about how I am grateful for my gunas, for my own psychological dispositions and how they interplay. Granted, sometimes they play me in a bad way, like that day I stuffed myself with chocolate and then just had to draw a cartoon about it. What else would you do?

They can interrupt the reading of good yoga books!

As I understand it, we are part of nature, and as such we are at the mercy of three forces: that of being quiet and balanced (which is the guna known as Satvic), agitated (Rajasic), or sleepy and lethargic (Tamasic). Those are the three basic energies that permeate and interplay in everything in the real world inlcuding ourselves (Prakriti), while the observer (Purusha) simply watches from behind the scenes.

You can see these three energies at play, for example, in a river, rajasic would be the time it floods a town or it flows fast and furious, satvict could be observed on the days in which it flows quietly, beautifully reflecting sparkles of light as it moves with tenderness, and tamasic would be the days in which it is barely there, maybe the current withdrew, and you can even walk its sandy edges.

During one of the rajasic floodings of the river near me
The kitchen that now lays in the basement was totally buried...
in a landslide (30 years ago)

The three energies (gunas) are all around nature and they matter because they weave their threads on us. There is no point in trying to be nice and satvic all the time, we know where that ends (in excess), and it is no good. We must let them weave their colorful threads, and aim by practice to balance them, not feed the rajasic or altered, not dwell in the tamasic, aim towards but not push for a satvic life.

We use the tools provided by yoga, so if we are too exalted all the time we check our nutrition (and by that I mean how many cups of coffee we may be drinking or if we are overdoing it on the spices or red meat), or we use pranayama exercises to bring our mind out of a lethargic state. Yoga has a deep toolbox to help us.

In the end is the satvic state that is most conducive to one-pointedness [ekagarta], the state that hopefully will lead us to the higher branches of yoga, that is through the state of one-pointed concentration without memory, identification and distractions is possible (6 limb), we may find ourselves in meditation (7 limb) and eventually samadhi (8th limb)

I am grateful because of the way the gunas weave themselves in me, through my nervous system. Although they have played all sorts of combinations, overall, in the all encompasing arc of my life, at least they have weaved me towards a life of contemplation, rather than that of pursuing other things.

So far they have helped me identify how to bring a level of basic peace in my life. So not only I am grateful to have discovered or learned about them through yogas but also for how they have interplayed.

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient

Mysore: When To Register, When To Go

2012-01-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

I received some inquiries into Mysorepedia.com -the site I put together with information about Mysore and practicing at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute- . For example: When to go? and also when to register?

The shortest answer is of course to keep a close watch on the website: kpjayi.org as things change and nothing is set in stone. There is a "News" section that keeps updating with information.

The website

For example, as of today, the four last bits of news inform us that a) The official list of teachers is to be found here and all teachers appearing in other lists will be removed b) Applications to study in Mysore are no longer accepted through mail and must be done online c) a note to teachers: they are updating their lists and d) there should be a 2 month lapse between visits to India on tourist visa.

When I checked the website back in August'11 they had information pertaining to when Saraswathi and Sharath were to start teaching, or traveling, etc.

When to Register:
Early. The best idea is to check the website and see what is happening at the particular time. I would start looking from March (or from when the shala closes) and on. You will see announcements of Sharath and Saraswathi on tour (maybe you can make it to one of their international trips).

As soon as the announcement of them both teaching appears it is a good moment to send the online registration form.

One Way to Prepare:
In the meantime, consider that to register online you will need a scan of your passport, the page that has your name. While at it also scan the visa part, take four photocopies of both pages and take 4 passport pictures. You will need them for the trip.

Copies of passports are required for physical
registration once there AND for landlords - phone buying etc

When to Go:
For the past two years (2010-11 and 2011-12) the trend seems to be that the Mysore shala is open from Mid-October / November to the end of March. Saraswathi sometimes starts a bit early (again based on what happened in the past two seasons).

The first couple of months are the easiest when it comes to the fact that the shala is not yet so crowded. The biggest crowd appears to come in January/February escaping the northern hemisphere's cruel winters to enjoy Mysore providing delicious: 80-degrees-and-sunny-days. The first couple of months are also easier on the "finding a place to live" situation.

This year seems to be particularly busy. I read in a blog that Sharath said: "too many people this year" to a registrant, and also that the starting time is nowadays 10 AM for newcomers. I also read that Saraswathi has a new shala with starting time at 5 AM which would mean that all those students that last year started after Sharath's finished are now in a different space, which also means a LOT of students! Does anyone know more about it?

So When to go: best time is early or October/November. The most crowded time is likely January February. In March that temperatures get increasingly hotter and hotter in Mysore, but more people are leaving and towards the end it gets not so crowded again.

A collage of Mysore

So, keeping an eye on the announcements on the website while being prepared and arranging affairs at home might be the best course. Any other suggestions, or questions or comments? Pray say.

Ancient Chinese Secrets To Heal Common Yoga Injuries

2012-01-02T04:09:00.000-08:00

At the height of my lyme disease I could not move, would sleep for 20 hours of the day, my heart was paliptating fast, arthritis pains overwhelmed me, hallucinations were the order of each day, I was crying, a doctor was suggesting a heart transplant...

Then I got cured.

"If common sense is so common, how come few people have it"? Said a famous martial arts teacher to Tom Bisio, -the author of "A Tooth From A Tiger's Mouth"- a book that goes beyond previous work published on the subject of treating injuries and offers a complete, yet simple, almost encyclopedia on how to treat our potential injuries while at home, cooking herbs (sometimes with vodka!), and other exotic sounding treatments like: cupping and moxibustion.

Needless to say, I am fascinated by the book. Ever since coming across Dr. H and seeing how Chinese medicine restored all my organs back to balance, I have fallen in love with their far east approach to healing.

I am a believer because I have seen it work on me, and have tried at least 70% of the treatments mentioned in the book at one point or another, through Dr H of course. But now, after reading the book and having a basic understanding I can see how all these remedies can be used and experimented with, except -perhaps- acupuncture.

I grew up watching my Italian heritage family in the north of Argentina using cupping and moxibustion (of some kind). It was natural and common. Why are we losing this?

WHAT IS OUTSTANDING ABOUT THE BOOK

The most interesting thing to me is the complete and free sharing of information, no detail is spared!

The Chinese treatment of injury works mostly with reducing inflammation and restoring the circulation around areas of injury. The book has a wealth of indications and contraindications so you can try the procedures safely.

He also warns that if you are to build your own mix to not replace eastern herbs that sound like the ones he mentions because Chinese herbs are very specifically chosen depending on where they come from and what time of the year they were planted, harvested, etc. There is a lot of intelligence behind them.

Some of the treatments that stand out are:

1.- SAN HUANG SAN, the HERBAL ICE:

The West has always treated inflammation happening due to sprains or strains -even fractures- following what is known as RICE (Rest Ice Compression Elevation). Chinese medicine maintains that this is not the way because "ice is for dead people" (as the author was once told by a wise medicine practitioner). when you think about it, it makes sense, ice maintains dead substances longer, but does not help a living organism with flowing Qi (blood, life energy, prana).

PAIN= LACK OF FREE FLOW OR QI (STAGNATION)

And so Chinese medicine uses SAN HUANG SAN, the "Herbal Ice". San Huang San (or three yellow powder) : "is composed of three cooling herbs that reduce inflammation while dispersing congealed blood and fluids... it is the single most useful herbal formula for the first aid treatments of sprains, strains, muscles pills or severe contusions". [My underline]

LINEMENTS:

I had never heard of linements and was surprised to see how easy to use they are for bruises, muscle pulls, sprains and strains etc. You would just rub them. Some of them have intriguing names like Black Ghost oil.

One of them, U-I Oil contains cinnamon, peppermint and lilac oil as well as dragon blood (tree resin), an herb noted for its ability to relieve pain and dispel congealed blood... penetrate obstructions, activate local circulation and drive out cold.

CUPPING

Last week I felt a strain in my back which stopped me from practice, that is how much it hurt. DR H applied both moxibustion (see next point) and cupping for about 20 minutes. Alas! my back was new.

Bisio says that when he tells patients they need cupping they tell him it sounds "medieval", and, "in a sense they are right". He points out how cupping has been around for centuries and it is still used in Eastern Europe, and Northern Argentina, if I may add.

Gwynette Paltrow after cupping

What cupping does is "pull stagnant qi, blood, and fluids out of or away from an injured area". I have just ordered a small cupping set to try it for back pain both on me and on James who has been sitting at the computer way too long.

MOXIBUSTION

The first time Dr H. used Moxibustion on me I loved the smell of whatever it was he was doing. The fragrance was akin to sage, and I would feel the heat near my skin. When it got too hot I would say: Stop! and Dr H. would count five more so that the heat and the oils would further penetrate my skin in certain acupressure points around my skin (mostly just the places where it hurt).

It worked very well in relieving blockages, tiredness and pain for me. Page 246 explains what Dr. H. was doing it in detail:

"After the moxa pole is lit, blow on it softly until the tip forms a round shape.... the idea is to create warm, spreading heat that builds over 5-10 minutes. Continue until the area is pink.... can be used in conjunction with U-I oil increasing their effect..."

I also bought myself a box of them and started using for points alongside my arm that still sometimes bother me (after the Lyme disease).

BUT WHAT POINTS DO WE APPLY THIS TO?

While cupping is obviously for large areas (like the back), the moxibustion and accupressure can be applied to areas where it hurts or, to the points that Bisio goes over which are the most common.

Two of them can be useful to you right now, without even reading a lot: one is a point called ST 36 ("located about four fingers width below the lower edge of the kneecap in the muscles outside the tibia"). This point is known in Chinese as zu san li which points to why it is used. Zu san li translates as "leg three-lit point" "because of the ability to energize the legs so one could walk three more li, a distance of about three miles."

The Point That Energizes You Into Walking 3 More Miles

The other one is LI 10, located two fingers width below the elbow crease, which energizes the upper limb and relieves pain, etc. There are quite a bit more of the common ones explained, including a great explanation on how to massage all body points through the ear.

HERBAL FORMULAS FOR ACUTE INJURY

There are recipes for "Trauma Pills", which you can cook with honey and that are "the all purpose remedy for falls, contusions, sprains and fractures. Most kung fu schools keep a jar of them for injuries that accompany training... [the trauma pills] clear blockages of qi blood, and fluids that have accumulated at the site of injury preventing blood from congealing in the tissues of the injured area".

He says that although many Kung Fu schools pride themselves on having an "exclusive" formula, most of them end up using the general version. There are plenty of cooking recipes in the book and an appendix on where to find the herbs or premade bags with the mixes.
---

Why is the book called A tooth from the Tigers Mouth? because it contains:

"knowledge difficult and even dangerous to obtain"

Other topics from the Table of Contents include:

Fasting, Liver Detoxification and Colon Cleansing
Sex, Health and Athletic Performance
Cuts and Lacerations
Strength Training
Massage for Sports Injury
Poultices and Plasters
And Part IV with treatments for specific ailments like: ankle sprain, dislocations, jammed finger, foot pain, groin muscle, hip pain, knee, muscle cramps, etc. etc. etc.

DR H The Chinese Doctor That Blew My Mind and Healed Me

SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: HAPPY NEW YEAR: WANNA HELP?

2012-01-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

How do we use words in yoga class?

She was practicing along in Mysore when suddenly Sharath asked her to help adjust. Out of the blue. What a great opportunity!

Wanna help?

Ramaswami's first newsletter of 2012 tells the only story worth hearing -how to find freedom-, and in the way it was told to him by his grandmother.

Why are you here? [Mysore]

Saraswati has a new shala? and her starting time is 5 AM? Is that so?

Leaping Lanka has written a book! Ashtanga Yoga Stories From Beyond the Mat. Will be available soon.

How to be a good yoga student.

First arrow is inevitable. The second arrow is your reaction.

LAST SUNDAY'S BLOG TIMES: NO XMAS! JUST PRACTICE

OH, AND WELCOME 2012!

Uh Oh, There May Not Be A God

2011-12-30T04:53:00.000-08:00

There comes a time in the life of an adult where one questions what it is that we think about the "God" business.

I used to think God was this beneficial energy that looked after me, protected me, guided me. I guess I was projecting a paternal/maternal vision into it.

But I thought...

Then I noticed how the yogis of old times, the sages and rishis, went about trying different things to find the bliss of liberation, the extasis that is more than you could ever imagine, the type that makes someone like Ramana Maharshi sit outdoors among snakes, be bitten, and not even notice, only these masters went about trying to find this trasncendental (for lack of a better word) experience, leaving any idea of God out of the equation.

Rishis trying their things to find bliss

Take for example Mr. Sinha, who in the book "The Gita as It Was", says that Patanjali never mentioned anything about Ishvara (God) in the Yoga Sutras. He says the concept was not even around at that time! and concludes it was "interpolated" (loving that new word) centuries after in order to what? Suit the temperament of the devotion-ally inclined?

Of the authors that think that Patanjali did mentioned Ishvara, one of them, Mircea Eliade (Yoga Immortality and Freedom) gives me a more reassuring way of looking at it. Reassuring that is as I step into the territory of not-knowing and letting go of my own, childish perhaps, ideas of what God was:

"God does not submit to being summoned by rituals of devotion or faith in his mercy, but his essence instinctively "collaborates" as it were, with the Self that seeks emancipation through Yoga." [my bold]

Aha! so maybe there is a energy that is protective, perhaps I don't quite have to let go of that cozy feeling after all. I want to believe there is an energetic pattern that collaborates in helping us yogis find our way towards eternal peace and discrimination, to be Ramana Maharshis, Patanjalis, Buddhas.

Ramana Maharshi

Swamiji (commenting on Yoga Sutra 2.45) says that God has been personified and put on a pedestal due to our lack of direct experience [my bold again]. But all it takes is for us to expand our consciousness to realize the universal self. What I used to think of as God.

So we just projected into this God idea whatever we may have out of not being able to directly experience the bliss that is already within us. Hm.

I first had this terrifying glimpse that God was just like Santa Clause while reading Goenka's 1992 very long speech (which was pointed to me by Tom, thank you). [Goenka is the man behind free meditation Vipassana retreats around the world today]

It took place at the Kayvalya institute out of all places, and I say out of all places because in the speech he refutes and criticizes yoga systems for turning Patanjali into a "clown" and making people do asanas and breathing retention that he [Patnajali] never talked about. He said this while at the institute that probably has the most research on pranayama in the globe and a world authority in residency, O.P. Tiwariji. But I digress.

He also makes fun of any God inclusion in the Yoga Sutras and emphasizes how the system of Patanjali, which in his eyes is exactly what Vipassana is, there is none of it! Just sitting, just watching. Nothing else.

Just sit!

He is right. Patanjali and Vipassana (which means seeing things as they are) do propose the exact same thing.

I have my theory about it, as usual, I do not think one can shockingly just go ahead and sit 10 hours expecting the mind to be quiet if one is sick. I have been to retreats and seen the people in the back unable to sit straight, propped with so many pillows, sometimes with two chairs, you can barely see them. When it comes to sited meditation, if there is not proper preparation things can get ugly.

And so I prefer Patanjali's approach as developed by lineages coming after him (Krishnamacharya Kuvalyananda and all the rest of them) which do include asana and pranayama. Although I confess that I love the quiet and focused time of Vipassana retreats, but that is because I go prepared, with a body that actually CAN sit steady and comfortably and breathe relatively well. At least some of the time.

Anyways. All of this had me thinking about the no-God business. Just practice.

Strange note to end 2011 on. Or, maybe that is what the Mayans meant? Finally realizing that Santa isn't Santa, it was ourselves all along, all we have to do is inquire within.

We must just focus and keep trying to focus (six limb) till we fall into meditation (seventh limb) and our attention flows into just one object like oil pouring from a pipe, intensely and steadily.

Then bliss. (Eight limb)

Wish you bliss for 2012

RELATED:
Shocking! The Gita Is Not What We Thought It Was!

32 BEST ASHTANGA YOGA BLOG-POSTS OF 2011

2011-12-29T04:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted this post to be special and to include only those entries I read throughout the year that added value for all, and of course, relate to Ashtanga Yoga in the tradition of Bramacharia, Krishnamacharya, Jois, Ramaswami et all.

I am SURE there are other valuable posts I may have missed. Feel free to share links in the comments if you found something that taught you, left you thinking, helped you along the path and relates to ashtanga. As long as it adds value it belongs on the list. Together with the link let us know why it is relevant, what it taught you and how it relates to the practice.

Here is my 32 best posts of 2011 pertaining to Ashtanga Yoga. You know me and my 32 thing! Perhaps there is a few more than 32, but who is counting? And the more value the better, right?

Student and Teacher

Sharath, during an early December conference, says that ifsomeone asks him his occupation he says yogastudent because thereis still too much to learn. (In the questions and answers portion)

I am a student and always will be, says Paul Dallaghan in his article: ThePath of The Student. He is not only a certified Ashtanga yoga teacherand student but also a senior teacher/student of pranayama under O.P.Tiwariji.

Howto get started with Ashtanga Yoga 32 suggestions. Now you know who wrote that one.

Sharath Jois

Asana

Fear in Back-bend -by Kino MacGregor- is what I a going through, the post hit home for me, especially the part of not rushing at the expense of technique.

On another front I also appreciated the tentips for dropbacks of Ashtangi Angel as she finally got to doingit.

Also from Kino, this post explaining how to jump back (with video and in five stages) hasbeen the most useful thing I saw in 2011. The holding of the legstogether mid-flight is something I attempt daily these days thanks to it, andit is helping me build stamina and sometimes, sort-of, jump back.

This is the best explanation I have found on pasasana (the first pose of the intermediate series). Just listening to David Garrigues made me aware of things I did not even fathom before. A post to savor.

Pasasana

Richard Freeman explores the impact that smoking marihuana has on practice, and it is not that productive.

Nobel considers howuseful are DVDs for learning a yoga asana practice? I have to say forme they are very much so, that is how I started!

How does one go about doing a headstand? Grimmly was posed the question early this year and came up with these suggestions.

Practicing while injured is always an inspiration to non-injured practitioners watching. the sorting of the obstacles makes us grateful for what we have.

Taking Care of Our Bodies

Kiki Flynn made my day, or rather, my fourth quarter, with her explanation of how daily dry brushing helps the skin detoxify, shed the old, open pores, and glow. I now do it every day.

On that note I had a very popular post on how to do a castor oil bath, or the Ashtanga Yoga Saturday Practice, and I have gotten e-mails from people that started going for it after reading.

Don't squander life force. Remember what Iyengar says, for every 30 minutes of asana practice, 5 of savasana (rest) are indicated to let the nervous system have a chance to come back to neutral.

Anatomy

Early this year I asked out loud what does"nutation" mean? (which I now understand as tilting the pelvis backwards and forward). I never expected that Senior Ashtanga YogaStudent/Teacher DavidKeil himself would take the time to answer, and his answer became the3rd most read post of all times at the blog.

Mysore

James came with me to Mysore for the first time in his life inJanuary, a place where he never dreamed he would go and of course he practiced at AYRI. In his own words, which are very funny, he was completely humiliatedby yoga.

James coming out of the shala in Mysore last January.
"Brutal" is all he could say

[If you cannot see pictures go to ClaudiaYoga.com]

A few months later he came with me to Sharath's tour of NYC in April, where he was humiliatedagain. He cannot use that line on hisnext trip on January.

What does it mean to be authorized to teach by the AshtangaYoga Research Institute? Hereis a post that explores the question ina balanced and interesting way and by someone who is authorized.

Sharath's conferences are always interesting to me. Two that stand out are one from January where students asked about all kinds of 'problems' and how to deal with them, and he kept coming back with one and only one answer.

The second conference to stand out is one that Suzzy recounted from a few weeks ago where Sharath goes over how the transformation happens, what the goal of asana is and answers very interesting questions.

Picture from a recent conference taken by Kino

MysorePedia is one of my most read posts and it has lots of information on how to get around, where to go, where to eat etc while visiting Ashtanga Central. If you want to add a place or wrote a post about a place let me know, I will link!

Teaching

If you find yourself ready to teach, here is an eye-opening post on how to start a Mysore program. It's in two parts, here is the second one. It takes quite a bit of energy to go ahead with this endeavour and it does not always work as Nobel explains. But it is worth pursuing if the calling strikes.

Philosophy

Ashtanga is guaranteed transformation, if you want it, says David Robson.

What is the point of putting your ankle behind your head?

Bramacharya is more than sex energy. Great read on the way to harness energy for all of us, also from Paul Dallaghan.

Is there such a thing as quality vs. quantity in Mysore practice? wonders the un-ashtangi

Richard Freeman on how to save the world

Money

There was that article in Bloomberg Business Week that made many of us cringe because of the lack of frugality and, may I say, common sense. I was prompted to post how much I spend on yoga (coming from real experience rather than fantasy) and a bunch of other ashtangis did the same thing, like, for example: SereneFlavour and Kai, among others, many others.

New in 2011

This year Grimmly put together a practice book on Vinyasa Krama sequences, which is something many ashtangis use. It is a work in progress and a very useful resrouce because of the detail that is going into it. He is offering it for free as well.

Anew (old) student of Krishnamacharya was found this year, in NYC. And he has a notebook!

OK, this may not be news to you but it was to me, I am still a bit shocked that the Bagavad Gita is NOT really what we thought it was

Rose compiled an Ashtanga Social Network page.

Workshop Recounts

Wonder what it is like to take a few days of practice with LinoMiele? hereis a taste.

Flying Floating and Handstanding, a story from a David Swenson workshop

Ashtanga Yoga WOW Video

Watching this is surreal, you hear her talk as if she isdiscussing if you want milk with your coffee? or maybe just black? You feel you can totallydo it. It just, I don't know, feels easy. She is a wonder.

Ashtanga Yoga And Becoming Super Efficient

2011-12-28T05:11:00.000-08:00

Anyone who submits him or herself to 1.5 to 2 hours of the rigorous routine of any of the series of Ashtanga knows a thing or two about efficiency. It comes with the territory. It is very practical.

Not only do habits change, but also our own awareness of how far reaching our energy is. As we save energy we have more of it available for important pursues, like that of finding what is real and what is not.

The Yoga Sutras advise we work towards a more peaceful mind and environment, we become happy for those who are successful, friendly towards the good people in our lives, compassionate for those who suffer and indifferent towards the wicked [1.33].

A path to mental peace must be forged first

Becoming indifferent towards the wicked is another way of saying that we need to learn how to deal with crappy people, or, those people in our lives who steal our energy and good disposition, that is of course, if we let them.

Not long ago James and I sat down to answer a burst of questions that came up for him at his blog when he brought up the subject of Patanjali's sutra 1.33. The questions asked how to deal with specific situations, where energy-stealing-people may pop into our lives, here is the Q&A.

The most interesting question I have seen most people ask at James' talks, even after reading the Q&A is: What if the crappy person is your boss, co-worker, mom, dad, brother, cousin? You know? Someone close. The answer is that it is always one of these people, for it is those closest to you that probably know very well where your "dormant seeds of psychosis," "samskaras", or "buttons" are. And they push them alright. Unless trained that doing so yields no results. See the post for more.

Warning, saying that may result in even more
button pushing. Indifference works better
Panajali knew his stuff!

[If you cannot see pictures go to ClaudiaYoga.com]

The tightening of the anus (engaging mula bandha) in every practice has deep repercussions as we go throughout our business during the day.

We notice that perhaps it is not so important to fight with that co-worker, that it is OK to let him or her think they are right, at least in this or that occasion, we pick our battles, sharpen our intuition and dedicate our time and precious energy only on that which is of value.

And so we fight less and focus more. We get more done. For example it is impressive to me that these days all I have to do is put in writing what I need to do. Then the list gets done. No matter how full the day, how little time.

Intending and detaching gets things done! One way in which this was proven to me was when at the end of 2010 (and knowing well by now that new year resolutions do not work) I set the intention to go deeper into the Yoga Sutras, and alas! It happened in 2011, in spite of many odds being against me.

I trust now that intentions when released, combined with energy used in a focused way will bring fruits. Then is just a matter of being present and open to opportunities as they arise.

It is the message of the Gita as I understand it now: First INTEND for things that benefit the overall well being of all, and Patanjali knows me being in a good mood -applying the knowledge from the Yoga Sutras- benefits at least those close to me, then DETACH from the results, be present and trust that the opportunities will arise, take advantage of them when they do!

Maybe nowhere is this energy saving more important than in the sexual area. Sex is the most important energy for our species as it carries with it the promise of reproduction and evolution, but with so many distractions like, for example, shows putting an emphasis on the thrill of cheating (Mad Men, Episodes, Californication et all), we may have run a bit off course. The thrill of sex sometimes compensates for emptiness inside. The rush of the adventure accounting for countless relationships ruined. Perhaps relationships that were not right to begin with, granted. It is an area that needs exploring.

Reading Pattabhi Jois' Yoga Mala recently I was reminded of how the lineage of Ashtanga thinks of Bramacharya (one of the five observances on the first limb of yoga), or efficient use of sexual energy. He, just like Krishnamacharya observed and respected married life. And it is in this, in finding a relationship if we so desire, that is real and committing to it that we save this powerful energy. Or, if single, by using it intelligently and not dispersing it around.

"By the strength gained through the practice, we can come to know a method for bringing the mind and sense organs under control" says Pattabji Jois in Yoga Mala.

We gain strength by using energy in a controlled, focused way indeed. And for the lesson in efficiency I am grateful.

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient

8.- Gunas

The Uggly, Bad, Good and Great of 2011, And What They Taught Me About Yoga

2011-12-27T04:21:00.000-08:00

The UGGLY was Being Sick

Definitely unexpected, and with a malady that is so mischievous in its workings as Lyme disease is. I was lucky to meet a Chinese Doctor that helped me with the most important thing of all which was knowing, trusting that I could heal. Hearing him go "don't tell me about bacteria, there is bacteria everywhere!" was just what I needed to hear at that moment of despair.

He healed me by restoring all organs to health, and taught me a very important lesson that applies to yoga, a strong immune system will be resistant to any bacteria. We must keep our bodies in balance and treat them well!

A Chinese medicine practitioner (not Dr H) at work

Another lesson came when I really thought I was dying (before I met Dr H). It put me in touch with that feeling, with letting go of everything, surrendering, and praying, preparing for passing. I was scared, but in the midst of drugs and spurs of clarity here and there it showed me that the moment of passing will come, at some point it will, and what is important then is to be clear about passing peacefully.

I started practicing the Divine Light invocation, something that would only work for aspiring yogis who are inclined towards devotion rather than only rational thought (90% of the people say many books). Swami Radha, a direct disciple of Sivananda promises that 40 days of reciting the prayer will bring about a miracle. For me it brought peace, and considering the circumstances that was pretty timely.

I also remembered the work I had started way back in 2003 with dreams, and to see them as subconscious messages (and potential samskaras?) that are better brought into the light. Here are the five steps I used to interpret them.

The BAD was Trying to Return from Lyme With NO SuccessThe biggest lesson was gratitude. Nothing like being sick to appreciate in full the love of James, of my family, of my readers, of all the people who wanted to help. To see how much good there is. It humbled me and taught me about compassion.
I tried once while still in antibiotics and it did not work, then again while on Chinese medicine, and it did not stick. Then after somewhat recovery only one thing worked, taking it very slowly, as slow as 20 minutes only.

This taught me patience and surrendering in a brand new way. I did NOT want to practice for only 20 minutes, I hated it. But, I knew -on third try- that it might be the only thing that would work, and it did.
I credit James for sticking to a plan and asking me every day "how long today?" and then making sure it was no more than 5 or 10 more minutes than the day before, or asking me to wait until I had a week of no symptoms to move forward. He was a strong pillar in focusing my weak energy towards strength. That was pure love. Thank you James!

The GOOD Was Rediscovering the Practice, When It Came Back
Finally, on November 2nd I started on a journey of returning on which I am still working. Little by little I recovered primary series. 20 minutes at the time at first, then 25 and so on. It took a while but it did come back. So much so that John suggested I continue onto intermediate, but then thought it was wise that I would only practice primary for a while -what I am still doing- until I feel strong and completely healthy again.

What this taught me was surprising. I was getting lazy! Had forgotten all about going a little beyond the physicial limits (within reason), I was just paying lip service to it! Great notice because it now has me working hard at those back bends (where I am currently AT) and even using a block to engage those psoas, as well as working very hard at the jump backs and troughs. I am determined to clean up primary now.
The GREAT Was Learning more about the Yoga Sutras, Going to Mysore and Publishing my First Book
The good and the great are easy to remember, the happy memories tend to stick!

Going to Mysore in early January/February was a highlight (See here for posts from the second trip early this year). I find that the journey to command central (as is known) focused the practice, as it always does. It is difficult not to try harder at everything while surrounded with practitioners who are very dedicated, focused on their breath, chanting a unique melody with their ujjaji breath. There is a special power in that full room, in the humidity of the sweat of what? at least 80 practitioners going at it at once, making the effort.

Learning about the Yoga Sutras directly from Ramaswami in a 20 hour course opened a door somewhere in the basement and towards a deeper understanding of yoga. Yoga for what it really is, sitting straight with a healthy body that breathes well to concentrate and aim for samadhi! I am eternally grateful to him and hope to study further under his tutelage in 2012. What a teacher! All in all I do understand, the more I read, that practice is what makes yoga yoga, no amount of reading would ever teach us anything, it will just direct us.

Here is Ramaswami Schedule for 2012

Finally, publishing my book in May was a work of love. Ever since 2008 on my first trip to Mysore I felt I wanted to share what I gathered along the path, I wished I had a book exactly like the one I wrote. That is what they say, if you know there is a book you want to read then you must write it, so I did. It is a highlight of my day when I hear that someone got a bit that helped, a tip, an opening or a desire to go deeper or start the practice. What a blessing to be able to share!

The best parts of the year had me learning about giving, thinking about what it means to teach, and understanding how it is vital to have a personal and deep practice of our own in order to be able to help.
---
So all in all in 2011 I re-learned:

Letting Go and Surrendering
The importance of a strong Immune System
Chinese Medicine works!
Preparations for passing
Gratitude
Devotion
Dream Work
Patience
Love
Trying harder at the practice
Specifically jump-back and through and drop-back/back-bending
Enjoying the practice among deeply invested practitioners
Writing a book and self-publishing
Sharing
Giving and Receiving
Noticing blessings
The Yoga Sutras and the importance of practice

And so, for 2012 I am looking forward to cleaning up primary series, practicing practicing practicing and for every experience that may pop up, try to come from center, wisdom and peace.

I wonder what did you learn? And what do you wish for 2012?

A Real, Clear Way To Happiness

2011-12-26T06:06:00.000-08:00

I knew so little when I started on the path of yoga, I really thought yoga was just about getting into poses and feeling good. Come to think of it, it IS actually about that. I was not wrong, the direction was correct, it is the depth of the journey, and how far that simple act of stepping on the mat would reach, that I had, well, a bit "off".

Last year, knowing full well that new year resolutions don't work I set an 'intention' instead: that of learning about the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. I had been introduced to them years ago but I wanted to get deeper into them. Intentions have a funny way of working.

This year brought me in contact with Ramaswami's 20-hour course on them -which I highly recommend, although it does not seem to be available for 2012- However, do not despair there is this book which is a great substitute as it is notes taken from a student and revised by Ramaswami. [If you cannot see pictures go to ClaudiaYoga.com]

You could say that by setting that intention I fell deeper down the rabbit hole!

Aaaandd.. as intentions have a way of working themselves up, only last week I also read the Gita as It Was (Thanks Grimmly), and through it I became even more convinced that sandwiched between the system of Smakhya (oldest compilation of yoga philosophy), Buddhism -which work but do not put emphasis on the body- and the yoga system as portraid by the Gita, which has been highly 'adapted'? 'manipulated'?, right in the middle of them, The Yoga Sutras are it.

What I mean by "IT" is that they are the most sophisticated material, written in exquisitely chosen words, describing not just the science of yoga and clear way to happiness but also a whole system of psychoanalysis in 196 sutras. Where the shrink fails to help the sutras have an answer.

Patanjali noted in his 9 Ways to Fail at Yoga (my title) that an un-healthy body is indeed an obstacle. I should know. My practice of meditation is only vaguely now coming back.

Practice becomes impossible when sick or with a body
that cannot sit straight

I find that Patanjali saw something, perhaps in his time, that has been magnified a million times with the advent of I-tunes, 3d movies with toilette size Cokes and popcorn, Internet surfing, 9-5 sedentary jobs. If we neglect the body there is little hope for the mind to be clear, to reach freedom, to be happy.

Chapter one presumes we have tried all forms of existence and got disillusioned by it, so we are now ready to hear Patanjali define the goal of yoga and how to attain it. Chapter one is pretty advanced.

Patanjali

For those of us committed to the practice of yoga but not ready to attain liberation just from chapter one there is chapter two, and portions of three on the eight limbs, the clear way to happiness, the "ashtanga" yoga (ashto = eight anga=limb) that leads to freedom, to liberation.

More and more these days what I want is more practice, more silence, more of the science of yoga. And by that I mean more of Patanjali's sutras. It seems that once we fall into the rabbit hole, once we study with someone who helps us sort through the Yoga Sutras, at least once, there is no turning back.

I am grateful that more and more scholars keep on discovering what is real about Patanjali and pass it along. More interpretations come along. Here is an excellent reading recommendation, the chapter on Patanjali. I felt as if I was listening to Ramaswami again.

I am also reading this version called The Four Chapters of Freedom from Swamy Satyananda, who comes more from the point of view of a hard-core practitioner (under the watch of no less than Sivananda himself), instead of a scholar. a great read.

And so I am grateful for Patanjali's Yoga Sutras!

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient

8.- Gunas

SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: NO CHRISTMAS JUST PRACTICE!

2011-12-25T04:04:00.000-08:00

Yeap! He is on Twitter

Sharath asks students if they want a day off for Christmas -while practicing in Mysore-. The answer? People want more practice!

We keep tearing pages out of Yoga Mala, there will be nothing left!

Turns out JESUS is on Twitter . Funny!

The True Purpose of Asana and a 3 hour Headstand! Great notes from Sharath's conference of Dec 4th by Suzy.

Videos of 'floaty' exits from utkatasana and warrior II as well as jump backs and through.

Visiting David Garrigues at Ashtanga Yoga Philadelphia anytime soon? Here are 20 things to do while in that city

"I am strong enough to jump back not because it was easy for me, but because I worked tirelessly for it every day for five years". Says Kino. Note to self: Try harder. With love, but harder.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Thank you C.K. for posting on how Dharma Mitra comes alive in the YouTube pose collages! (It's the post of Dec 20) you can see all of them at C.K.'s

Isn't that beautiful! Click play for a sec and you will be hooked

Following up on the conversation from the shocking truth revealed about the Gita in the book: "The Gita As It Was"...

Would like some more? Here is LAST SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: MATTHEW SWEENEY's APP FOR THE IPAD?

Shocking: The Gita is NOT What We Thought It Was

2011-12-22T04:04:00.000-08:00

Why is it that India, having such vast resources of land and intelligence, still sinks into poverty and lack of education? I must do something to help it! -

Imagine saying that out loud?

Author Phulgenda Sinha did, and he is not just affecting those people of Indian nationality that may be reading his book, he is affecting ME.

Sinha assumes that a people come to be and act in a way that is in accordance to the brightest thinkers of its time and radius of influence. And of those India has had a few. For example in Kapila (author/compiler of the Samkhya philosophy), Patanjali (compiler of the Yoga Sutras) and Vyasa (the writer of the Gita).

The brightest people define the thinking mechanism and the people follow. The most influential book in India is, the Gita. But what if the Gita was not what we thought it was?

In his search for truth, the author does an extraordinary work at weaving the thoughts of these influential thinkers (and others like Buddha, and Mahavira).

He notes how because of their particular circumstances, they were truly free-thinkers, how their philosophies were conceived without any restriction by religious inclinations and in their more pure and rational form while pursuing the biggest quest of all.

Kapila, the mind behind Samkhya

What is the biggest quest of all? That of coming out of suffering and being happy, of course, The eternal golden grail we all want, but in a rational way, in a thoughtful yet free of touchy-feel connotations, in a real way.

We hear how in the system of Kapila (Samkhya) God played no part. And in the system of Patanjali, well, perhaps you heard all the controversy around the sutras that include isvara (God), well, the book refutes it:

"It should be noted that the concept of God entered into Indian literature at the time of the revival of Bahmanism around 800 A.D. In our present study it has been shown that from the earliest time to the time of Patanjali, there is no mention of isvara as god in any Indian Literature. How then could Ptanjali talk of isvara, when the concept was unknown?" [my bold]

Patanjali, compiler of the Yoga Sutras

Something Missing

The Gita, you see, was brought forth (following the book recollection) by a sage called Vyasa, who thought that it was all nice and good with Samkhya and its encouragement that we should seek right knowledge, and it was all nice and good with Patanjali who added a healthy body and mind to the mix, but he believed that there was still something missing.

What was missing was that in every day life sometimes we come across situations that are very difficult to resolve. The type where we are doomed if we do and doomed if we don't. What then?

He then set a stage in a Kingdom of North India where two cousins who had been brought up as brothers came into conflict with each other. Due to jealousy, one of the cousins was deprived of its land (for him and his people) after being promised such a thing if we went on exile for 11 years. Which he did. He then came back. And no land. So there was no way out, battle had to ensue.

What Krishna told Arjuna before the battle
has been manipulated by lobbyist interests
since the year 800

Krishna, as you know, sides with the conflicted Arjuna who is confronted with the very ugly reality of having to kill those he grew up with, and the Gita starts.

But it is a VERY different Gita when the verses we read relate only to Samkhya and The Yoga Sutras. For starters it only has 86 verses which can be found within only the first three chapters.

It becomes very clear what verses are real Gita and which ones are not. Because those that do not relate at all to Samkhya or Patanjali's (like "Chapter VII... talks about God, faith, Maya (illusion), Brahman and spirituality...") are, well, 'added'.

He provides an impressive list of verses that have been "interpolated", meaning adding verses that are not so far off as to not seem authentic, yet with the intent to control the thinking and lead it towards a particular point of view, example:

"Chapter IV is entitled ...Yoga of Knowledge Action, and Renunciation. The title suggests that one can expect to find some philosophical deliberations, but there is not a single verse which ... containing any rational or philosophical thought. The whole chapter is concerned with the idea of incarnation, maya (illusion)... fourfold caste system, yajna (sacrifices), sin, faith..."

How did the caste system or the idea of sacrifices (related to Vedic ceremonies) come into play through Samkhya and Patanjali? There is no mention of either in them.

What Went Wrong

India has a caste system, four of them. I met a woman in my last trip to Mysore that belonged to the lowest of them. She did not know how old she was, she never looked me in the eye or accepted my thanks. She came, cleaned the floor and went back to her two sons and the depth of her poverty.

Brahmans in their quest for domination and maintaining their cast superiority added verses to the Gita to introduce Vedantic notes. According to the book this happened around the year 800 and on.

The only religious connotation in any of the major yoga philosophies, according to the book, was added then by a power struggle from the caste that rules India, the first, that of the Brahmins. It was done to maintain the lower castes in their own status quo, without letting them raise. You just continue doing what you do and leave all fruits to God, never question, lower your head, keep going.

This is how the author describes the national thought pattern of India today (book was first published in 1986):

Work without caring for the results
Act, but do not look for the fruits of action
Desires cause sorrow therefore do not have them
You only get what fate dictates
Material wealth is inferior, spiritual life is superior
You should strive to achieve unity with God for a happy life, to go to heaven and not be reincarnated
Man is predestined and cannot do anything unless it is willed by God
Sorrow, pain and misery can be removed only by God, not by human effort

The book provides a deep exploration at the issue of letting go of desires, and points out how desires are not bad, and actually striving for happiness IS part of the Samkhya philosophy and the Yoga Sutras, and even the Gita, when seen in the right light and read without modifications. Action for the betterment of society must happen. But for the betterment, not just for action without having any say. In this light action does include looking towards a result, not being totally hopeless and reduced to whatever some external preconceived destiny dictates.

Consider the last line of the Gita As It Was

"... Arjuna!, Mighty-armed, destroy this enemy which, like passion, is difficult to conquer"

Which the author concludes means:

"...Krishna advises Arjuna to fight the war and conquer the enemy who, like passion, is obscuring his knowledge and deceiving his wisdom" [my bold]

Just like the newest (post year 800) version of the Gita seems to do!

--- Fascinating read. Why does Amazon sell it for over one hundred and ninety dollars? I would not know. Good thing there are used copies available for fifteen!

How Ashtanga Changes You: Commitment

2011-12-21T04:45:00.000-08:00

Any style of yoga is likely to invite the practitioner to commit to a practice, but Ashtanga burns it into the blue-print of the very core of your experience. There is no way out.

In response to Kino's recent article on the logic behind a 6 times a week practice, Nobel points out how his own teacher says that there is 'no dabble into Ashtanga' either you get in and commit to it or you are out. Which is not to say it is prohibitive, but in order to fully feel the benefits you need to make it stick.

The commitment starts with a daily asana or poses practice because there is no substitute for sweat to get us to focus, to become more effective so that we will not hurt ourselves, to save our energy so it will not be all spent by the time we finish the standing part of our series of asanas for the day, be it primary series, or intermediate or any of the advanced ones.

That deceivingly 'simple' act of committing to a practice changes our lives dramatically and instantly.

At first, of course, we only notice the most notorious colors in the palate of transformation. We can't really eat that late if we will attempt to get into Marichasana A...nything the next morning. Our socializing rituals change, drinking becomes something we either stop completely or at least put a lot more thought into before attempting. Waking up early brings up new mind states, ones we perhaps did not know we had before we tried waking before the light came out. There is a new wander sense in the air.

If we still continue to progress the pastel colors of the transformation blend into new colors and we notice new depths on the painting. New shades, new brightness. Now people who are negative around us suddenly become highlighted. We cannot spend that much energy in them, we have to let them go in order to have enough stamina, mental strength and clarity to continue with the challenge of submitting the body into a meditative yet strong physical daily practice. New, more positive people flourish into our lives, new friendships are forged.

We find new opportunities. Being more grounded in our own bodies we are also more open to them, perhaps we take a chance, our lives change.

There is truth to the "Do Your Practice And All Is Coming" that Pattabhi Jois is famous for saying again and again. The "All" behind the coming, is whatever you want it to be, but your desires may change just by virtue of getting on the mat daily.

Whereas in the past you may have wanted security and a structured way of knowing where you were going, the possibilities awakened by what you can do with your body give way to a more open way of life and what you can do (or, shhh, NOT do) with it. One where trust is invited and we can go confidently along knowing that what we need is coming.

The alchemy of yoga manifests in front of our eyes slowly, and if we pay attention, very close attention, we might even notice it.

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient

8.- Gunas

Revelation Back-Bend Moment

2011-12-20T03:59:00.000-08:00

I always knew I had to engage the inner thighs in back-bends. What I didn't know is that my mind did not register where in the body the inner thighs actually are. I had no clue. No mind/body connection. I could have kept going for the rest of my life 'pretending' I had inner thighs.

Enter: The Block!

Sometimes we resist things because we just resist. I did not have a block at home so I never tried the suggestion that countless yogis (including probably you who are reading) left in comments throughout the years.

The Un-ashtangi reminded me of it last Tuesday and the next day, at PureYoga, they happened to have one of them (or 40).

Only last Tuesday pre-revelation day

I garbed the orange thing (everything at Pure is orange) with that distasteful look in my eyes that many of us ashtangis pretend to have when it comes to props, and thought about what to do with it. I sat and looked at it as if it was the most foreign object, something I had not touched since, like 2003.

I asked John (who never had a need for one at all -he is a master back-bender-). He said "we will probably have to experiment". At first I put it between my knees. No good. Then John suggested between the thighs. I did, and... Wow!

REVELATION!

This [picture below] is the next opportunity I had at home after asking Amazon for a one day delivery of a block. Now I have one, well, actually two, cause they came as an offer.

Notice the Friday practice with the block [picture]: feet are aligned and not splaying, legs are MUCH straighter. Arms, well, arms are a different story.

The most amazing insight is how far I can push back straightening the legs because the block is there AND that I actually can make the mind-thigh connection. I feel them. Never had. Thank you Un-ashtangi, and all of you who told me again and again.

Huston: We have inner-thighs

A Very Personal Practice - Why I Am Grateful For Ashtanga Yoga (#4)

2011-12-19T03:53:00.000-08:00

The silence that happens in a personal practice, in a Mysore room, where each practitioner goes through the series they may be at (first, second, third) in silence, and the teacher adjusts each one individually meeting them where they are, is precious.

It is something to be experienced at least once.

Centred Yoga Mysore Room - Silence

There is magic in the promise of the quiet time ahead, for 1.5/2 hours, in the commitment to being present with the body, finding where it hurts, noticing the places where we stop (for example before three back bends in a row because we are scared). In that space we learn about our mental processes, we learn about not just how we do our asana practice but how we conduct our lives.

This personal dedication to being with our own bodies is our final teacher. They say we don't really learn something until we have thought it, until we have let it run through our nervous system enough times that we understand it and have verbalized it for others to understand.

This is the beauty of self-practice. We learn by doing, no directions involved. Rather we experiment in our inner lab, we play with the only instrument we have to access the divine behind everything.

To give you an example, this is how my understanding of a seemingly simple pose like Tadasana evolved:

Pattabhi Jois in Tadasana

Mountain pose

In the first couple of years of practice Tadasana was, for me, an embarrassing pose. I did not like how my inner thighs touched while other beautiful yogis had space between them, and in my mind, looked 'better than me'. This is not a reflection of the pose but of my mental state at the time. It was not a good one, it was leading to eating disorders.

Eventually through visiting many teachers, taking many more silent classes, and practicing on my own, I came to understand how the balance on the four corners of the feet was of tremendous importance not only to how I would balance throughout the rest of the practice, which was a revelation in itself, but also throughout the rest of the day.

Noticing that, Samastitihi (Tadasana) became a more important pose, and not any longer one that I dismissed as if it was just a painful thing to 'get over and done with as quickly as possible'.

B.K.S. in Tadasana

These days my understanding of Tadasana is deeper, I am in complete awe at seeing the prana and apana (upward and downward forces) within he body at play as I balance in the four corners of the feet, engage the quads, tighten the perineum (mula bandha), lift up my sternum, pull my belly in and up (uddyana bandha), lift the chin up, look peacefully along the sides of my nose, relax the muscles of the shoulders and face, find balance, chest buoyant.

Then there is the deep play of the lower body gathering energy from what seems to be the center of the earth and flowing upwards while the head levels the cosmic energy and brings it downward. Both meeting in the center of my solar plexus. I feel the energy moving. I feel the breath beginning to warm my body. I feel concentration happening.

There is SO MUCH within this very first, seemingly non-important pose, that I find myself in gratitude that I can practice it. I wonder what practitioners who have done it even longer than me discover.

And so, over long periods of time of repeating the poses, of directing the will to go within, of observing how the body changes with the day, the temperature, the emotions, the fluctuations of our mind, we learn about ourselves.

And if we are lucky we might at some point be able to navigate our deep fall into a state of silence without waking up any of the talking monsters that live in our minds, and experience a state of "at-one-ment". We just might.

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient

8.- Gunas

SUNDAY YOGA BLOG TIMES: SWEENEYS' APP FOR THE IPAD? PLEASE!

2011-12-18T04:20:00.000-08:00

Thank you Mysore bloggers! Thank you indeed. You can see a list -on the right column of this blog- of blogs streaming from Mysore today. Don't see yours? Let me know and I will add it!

Not that anyone blogs from an elephant

Click on Image for Matthew's
Book review

YoginiCory comes up with a great idea! What if we could have an App from Matthew Sweeney? We must ask... So I did!, went right ahead and e-mailed him.

Matthew responded he has owned an Ipad every since the first model came out and wants to do it! He is just too busy filming and producing a number of DVDs, and traveling and teaching. He needs tech help. God bless. The good news is that it is on his list!

Neti Neti! Big No-No Louisianna! At least not with tap water... Deaths linked to using the neti pot! (Thanks Anonymous for sending the link)

No Excuses!

B.K.S. Iyengar turned 93 this week!, Here are 9 selected quotes from him, my favorite: "Penetration of our mind is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat"

Ursula confirms my secret suspicious that you need a certain weight for the leg to go behind the neck or for Pasasana. The actual weight may be different between her and me, and I may do it in pounds rather than kilos, but there it is! in blog form

The psychology of injury, within the context of Ashtanga. Nobel does a great compilation of his learnings through speaking with Ashtanga yoga teachers in his quest to open up and heal.

Beautiful video of a self-practice in the style of Tripsichore yoga, I like the water sound and the flow of the poses, very enchanting.

Last Sunday's Yoga Blog Times: It Means Nothing To Be Authorized, or Does It? And a 75 year old looks like he is 35

Sometimes I Sit on a Mine Field

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I sit on a mine field, and the cushion is not really a soft spot but the hard, rough territory of anger, and the body vibrates in electric shots just by noticing the thoughts that explode as the moment-by-moment "at-one-ment" attempt begins.

I am SO angry at this! And this other thing! And how dare he! And why am I here? In this oh-so-familiar place. Yet again?

Staying here, not moving, alert, in that place that scares me lifeless, is a proposition I dread. Of course. Nevertheless I stay in the huffing and puffing of the erratic, disproportionate mental fluctuations, and then, just like that, the underneath current of what is deeper is revealed.

Under all of that there is a pain at having lost someone dear, pain because a dream last night revealed what it feels like to lose someone I love, and in the way that dreams go, you feel what you think you see, even though in reality you are covered by the sheets a thousand miles away.

It is this pain I cannot face and perhaps the fabric of my subconscious throws a tantrum so I won't see it, so I will be distracted, won't have to observe, or, much, much worse, feel.

And so I stay. I feel that pain, take a yet deeper breath and open the nervous system to let that emotion flow freely, and a big fat tear falls down the right side of my face making its way through the freckles, travelling by the white sweater and all the way to my half crossed legs. Something softens.

Nothing pretty about being here, but what in life is? Or isn't? And so something gives, eases, invites me to stay with it, with exactly how it feels. Terrifying, frightening, dark, hopeless.

No hope for meditation today, no hope for focusing, but that is OK. Just by sitting and being willing to open to what really is I surrender, I feel the connection with spirit, and then it is not better, that would be too happy an ending, too unrealistic, but at least, it just is what it is.

Generating Internal Heat. Why I am Grateful For Ashtanga Yoga Reason #3

2011-12-16T04:08:00.000-08:00

A famous Teacher/Guru once landed in a cold German winter dressed only in a piece of cloth. Dignitaries who were there to receive him offered a coat, but he answered he did not need it because he generated his own internal heat.

Mount Kailash in Tibet, where Shiva is said to be
sited at the top, constantly meditating

I cannot remember where I read that or who the Guru in question was, but the story has been powerful enough to stick with me. Can you imagine? Landing in Kennedy Airport in February and going: nah! I don't need a coat, thank you.

GENERATING INTERNAL HEAT

This was one of the most mind-blowing things I came across while taking up Asthanga yoga: the instruction that by using proper breathing (ujjaji breath), I would actually help my body generate enough heat to not only sweat, but by the time the core poses came around (Bujapidasana, Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana, Garba Pindasana and Badokonasana), have enough liquid pooring from my pores that I would be able to, say, slide my hands easily into garba pindasana.

Sliding hands in while attempting Garba Pindasana

I am amazed by how long it took me to surrender my pre-conceptions of what I thought proper breathing was, and actually take on the technique. Even though it was offered from day one:

Breathe slowly, and in a controlled way,
Count 5 for inhale and 5 for exhale -this helped me in the beginning, while trying to "get it"-
Close the glottis gland so you will make the Darth Vader sound
Engage bandhas
Don't make it so loud that it can be heard from the street, if you can hear it that is enough

The good old mind! Oh! It loves to resist, to think it knows better.

Since it took me so long to surrender to the technique, it also took a while to learn to generate internal heat, but eventually, as it is the case with all practices over a long dedicated period of time, it all came together. These days I find myself sweating right away. It does happen!

Of course winter does not help, and sometimes, when the weather is very cold and the heaters don't quite work as hard a practice may come and go with no sweat, but this is more the exception.

A great way to notice how much internal heat is generated, at least for me, it is when I am trying really hard and working on the practice in the cold winter of New York's December and then suddenly the find myself in the drenched humid and extra hot Mysore room of, well, Mysore, South India at the Asthanga Yoga Research Institute.

Sweating the intermediate series in Mysore.

As the temperatures change so abruptly, and the Mysore shala is so incredibly hot, one can find oneself sweating in places like the skin around the tibia (front of the lower leg below the knee), yes that area can sweat!

Yoga turns the practitioner into a scientist of its own body. It makes us go within and explore our inner landscape and how it is deeply connected to our mind. It shows us clearly and in every practice: the places that scare it [mind], the places where it refuses to go, the places where it throws tantrums.

Then, through proper technique we learn to go further into the laboratory while keeping an equanimity attitude towards whatever the mind comes up with.

Learning that heat is generated internally is one of the ways we turn the laboratory in fire and work with these new, sometimes extreme conditions. It is practice for what comes afterwards, when we step out of the mat and the fires fee; more real, and even hotter in the world outside the Mysore room.

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super EfficientA Real and Clear Way to Happiness

Why I am Grateful for Ashtanga Yoga. Reason #2: Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in EVERY Practice

2011-12-15T04:10:00.000-08:00

During the last days of this peculiar year I have been thinking about the reasons why I am grateful for Ashtanga yoga in my life, here is reason #2:

Incorporation of Bandha, Breath and Dristi in EVERY Practice

I remember taking several classes at a Major NYC Studio (4 floors of yoga) back in 2000, when I was looking for a path that resonated with me. I was impressed with their level III classes, we always ended up doing some strong forced breathing for 125 counts with such force that when we ended I could sometimes see a string of golden light flowing through my breath.

As much as I liked it, I realize now I was just hyperventilating. There was no mula bandha (perineum tightening) involved, no control, no explanation from the teacher. It was just forceful exhaling.

Perhaps I should not have been on the level III class to begin with since I had not had the proper technique training on how to do kapalabhati, granted, but then again I am exploring and noticing why it is that I am grateful for what happens in every class of Ashtanga.

Practicing Kapalbhati after leraning the right method
No idea why everything in the room went yellow

I mention this because during that class, as well as many other classes I took around the city there was never one style that included the three elements that ashtanga introduces from day one, and in every practice, those of:

The breathing (Ujajji or Dark Vader sounding breath),
The focus point for each and every single move, and
The incorporation of bandhas.

Clearly an Ashtangi

Of course there ARE a few styles that include these components as taught in the tradition of Krishnamacharya. Vinyasa Krama is one of them and Grimmly is one of its most notorious proponents and followers I have found in the blog-sphere.

Eye focus on the palm of the hand

The only issue with Vinyasa Krama is that there are no studios that teach it (at least not many, for example I have not seen anything at Pure Yoga in NYC or other local studios). Also, for home practice it has several routines and subroutines (see this free downloadable book also from Grimmly), which leave one at the mercy of the mind on the "pick and choose" department. I found that Ashtanga saved me the trouble of that by being a pre-set repetition and a routine as well as a discipline. I needed that because I have a flickering westerner mind and having to chose would have made it harder for me. I know it!

Learning to breathe with the ujjaji technique, while placing the fiery eyes on a steady point in each pose, and adding the tightening of the perineum (mula bandha) and uplifting of the abdomen (udyana bandha) in all poses does NOT happen right away.

Of course not, it takes years to make the whole of the asana experience come together and alive, and get to a meditative state of connecting intimately with the body and going within, reaping all benefits, nevertheless, the instruction is provided from day one.

As soon as we step into the mat we are invited to play with the whole technique, to start experiencing it, learning it. We are treated to advanced techniques of yoga from the very moment we begin, and for that I am very grateful.

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat

3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient
8.- Gunas

Why I am Grateful for Ashtanga Yoga #1 Discipline Repetition and Routine

2011-12-14T04:20:00.000-08:00

It's in the longing that love grows fondest...

Nothing like being sick and unable to practice for two entire months as I was at the end of this summer (with Lyme disease) to suddenly find new awe and gratitude for the practice. Nothing stops me these days, I feel a shower of abundant blessings at being able to stand up in front of the mat every day and go through primary series. [If you cannot see the pictures go to Claudia Yoga.com]

Primary Series poster by Matthew Sweeney
Click on the image if you would like one

Thoughts of it "being too long" are still there but I get to chuckle at them now. "If you only knew" I tell them, because those thoughts seem to forget what it was like to be in bed 22 hours a day.

And so I began writing the reasons why I am grateful that Ashtanga Yoga, in particular, has found me, or I found it, or we found each other. Turns out there were ideas of manifesto proportions in it, so I am offering it in small increments.

This is the first reason why I am in a state of eternal thanks towards this practice:

#1 Discipline, Repetition, Habit

There are a few exceptions, but in most cases people who start practicing yoga, if it is not Ashtanga, have a bigger incentive NOT to practice daily. I have seen this again and again with other styles. People who say they practice "on and off" or people who say they practice when schedule permits.

This is because there is no specific format or structure. Any other style of yoga may have the invitation to practice daily, but from the invitation to the actual fact of a a practitioner getting on the mat daily, without having to find a studio heated at the right temperature, then having to make it to the place come rain or snow, or having to find a teacher that will come up with asana routines to show in front of the class, the getting-on-the-mat-daily part may fade into dark.

Ashtanga has built into it a mantra. It goes: "6 times a week, no Saturdays, no moon days". While practicing Ashtanga you KNOW where you are going to be for one hour and half to two each day, possibly in the morning but for some in the afternoon.

When I started practicing I went to a Mysore room when I could and practiced at home with DVDs when I could not, and when the DVDs got "old" I practiced by myself, got immersed in the silence. I remember that THAT was something!

Marichasana C did not look like that in those early days
But the promise that it would get better with practice kept me going

The repetition part of the practice that comes with Ashtanga works in creating a good habit, like brushing your teeth. The new is challenging. Things have to give way, the time for practice HAS to be made, life re-arranged, priorities set, social life thought-again.

The repetition also works with our head. At least mine. I tend to get bored, I want to jump around, to try new things, play. Maintaining a daily practice within the confines of "perfecting the poses that you already have" as Sharath puts it, before proceeding to new poses, is an insult to the ego that likes to take everything very personally and in a dramatic fashion, it is a threat to the one that wants to be in control all the time. It takes surrendering, it teaches me about yoga.

This is how Ashtanga has built in not only the habit-creation but also the firsts hints at life transformation, and mind transformation, and from day one.

Old relationships (i.e.: those who may have liked to hang out until late night drinking) will probably have to be let go of, or 'restructured'. Food habits change to accommodate an early morning marichasana D, or a Kurmasana, or a Kapotasana. Awareness of the body becomes a very present and clear priority daily. Not to mention awareness of the mind, as in for example no more watching waste television, and going to bed early (I do not have a television anymore, have not had one exactly since I started practicing)

Last meal of the day happens in the afternoon these days
never later than 6 PM

In the end, I suppose it is the quick benefits that manifest in mlife due to the discipline, repetition and habit creation that I am grateful for. I am a happy gal. And in this world that is no small matter!

REASONS WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR ASHTANGA YOGA:

1- Eye-Focus, Breath and Bandha in Every Practice
2- Generating Our Own Internal Heat
3- A Very Personal Practice

4- Commitment

5- A Real and Clear Way to Happiness

6- A Real, Clear Way to Happiness

7- Becoming Super Efficient

Feeling the Luv in the Drop Backs - Kisses And All

2011-12-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

First time James grabbed me for a dropback he went straight for the buttocks, which of course caused quite a bit of laughter. He is new at it!

Lucky girl I am that he has agreed to give dropping back a go anyway. It is amazing to me how easy he goes about it, when I would think three or sixty three times before offering.

He is not too worried about it at all, even believes I can go much further than I think and has the exact mix of confidence and luv I seem to be craving in this pose.

So, after trying about 30 backbends, OK I am exaggerating, more like 6 backbends and 6 hang-back attempts he dropped me, and at the end said: 'very good' and gave me a kiss. What is there not to like?

Needless to say, home practice now gets interrupted at the end if he is not practicing with me. I call him up for help. God bless!

Here is one of the previous Back Bend attempts (after the original 3), where I am working on walking the hands towards the heels. It looks SO easy for others, but for me it gets to a point where it just hurts, the body refuses and the heels lift up. Grr.

Patience and more practice I suppose is the best course of action.

For inspiration, here is Guruji himself, dropping Olaf back in 1999...

Ashtanga May OR May Not Be The Best Practice for A New/Seasoned Teacher

2011-12-12T04:41:00.000-08:00

Gandhi-ji please tell my son not to eat sugar. Please! OK, said Gandhi (and I am paraphrasing), come next week. And so the woman did, and Gandhi told the boy not to eat any more sugar, which the child obliged. The woman scratching her head asked: Why now? Why not last week? Why did I have to come back 7 days later? and Gandhi said: Because I cannot tell anyone to do something I am not doing myself.

He stopped eating sugar first

It is not true the person that teaches what does not practice, it is unreal, delusional. Practice is the foundation of a teacher of yoga, it has to be because the science is too vast. The limbs grow too deep. The philosophy is over 5000 years old. The right identification with the one behind the curtain takes time, and effort. The number of asanas was last placed at, what? 8.4 million? Seeing things as they are without our projections is hard. Realizations come by grace and after putting in the work, if they come at all.

Teaching yoga is a journey of colossal, almost epic, proportions.

During the years of observing the yoga world I have noticed that most teachers have a dedicated practice, and that is good, I have also -and perhaps with a touch of bias since I practice ashtanga- identified why this particular form of practice is the best for a teacher, especially a new teacher, someone just sprouting out of a 200 hour course, for example, or someone who feels the call to step in front of a class. Then (and hopefully even before) is when a steady, rich and full personal practice becomes key.

AND THEN... I changed my mind.

I suppose Ashtanga yoga does provide a solid foundation in a world so filled with conflicting interests, or vessel (as Lanka calls it) from which we can learn enough to teach, it gives:

The routine and repetition fixed (6x/week no moon no Sat),
The unification found through tristasana,
The incorporation of bandhas (which need to be used at all times, hence reminding us of yoga practice during each moment of the day)
The possibility of going so deep within the silence of a Mysore room that we actually have time and space to understand at the visceral level and notice how it is that the energetics of a pose are put together.
The boredom factor that eventually leads us to find meaning in the other limbs.
The vast literature.
Krishnamacharya, et all.

Normally I would not show the process of thinking behind how a blog post comes to be generated, but in this case the impulse of creation compiled with the radical change in mind was so strong that I had to.

In the end, I thought, it matters not so much what practice a new teacher (or seasoned teacher) has, but rather that his or her commitment to a personal practice is a real one, because I still agree with Gandhi up above.

What really matters is both the fierce determination in the quest for truth and the showing up at the mat, daily. Ashtanga has that pre-built, which is great for our westerner flickering minds, and it probably helps, but then, not everyone is like that, or like me, maybe people can stick with daily practice even if it means having to find a studio every time to have a teacher lead a class or have to come up with sequences on their own if at home. Who am I to know.

So there you have it, I suppose deep inside I still feel Ashtanga Yoga is, hm, how to put it? what I would recommend for a teacher for personal practice, but weather it is the best or not the best, that is between the person and spirit.