Widening horizons or selling out?

Its pretty well known that Sri Krisna Pattabhi Jois, the guruji of ashtanga yoga believes that asana practice is fundamental to the 'higher' practices of yoga - pranayama, pratyahara etc and that as a result of that he doesn't teach his students anything beyond asana until they have achieved proficiency in yoga chikitsa (the primary series) , nadi shodana (the intermediate series) and some of sthira bhaga (the four advanced series). He believes that the asana practice is necessary for the body to withstand the influx of prana that comes with pranayama.

Most authorities on yoga agree that asana is a precursor to pranayama and that it is the foundation of preparing the body for 'real' yoga, however they don't tend to be as dogmatic as Guruji. In most forms of hatha yoga, for instance, pranayama and meditation are taught alongside asana. In India, the majority of yoga practitioners don't do asana at all after they reach adulthood. Their yoga practice is pranayama, karma yoga, bhakti and so on....

OK.
Enough rambling.... time to get to the point.

By sticking to ashtanga and the precept of "practice, practice and all is coming", am I missing out on some of the other stuff that's so integral to yoga?

If, for example, I were to take a jivamukti class alongside my ashtanga practice would I be selling out? I'd get to study yoga philosophy, do kirtan and other forms of bhakti, pranayama, meditation, go to satsang.....

Tempting isn't it....

Tedium and sore knees

Its been a while since I put anything on here and I was feeling under a bit of pressure to do so. Its kind of weird - almost as if you create a blog and then need to nurture it somehow.

I guess one of the things about yoga, especially a form like ashtanga where the mala (garland) of postures is set in stone, where the asana flow one from another, there's little variation in one's day-to-day practice. It kinda goes same...same....same...mini-breakthrough...one step back....same same...repeat mini-breakthrough...same...same etc.

Anyway. That's a really long-winded way of saying that in terms of my asana practice, I've not been having any breakthroughs, mini or otherwise. In fact, I've had a dose or two of the yoga-fevers and a couple of brushes with the yoga fairies (as David Swenson calls them) and they weren't happy! In addition I've felt compelled to move my mainly morning practice to a totally evening practice, and somewhere along the way I've managed to drop a session. I'm down to four days a week and feeling pretty guilty about it. I mooted the possibility of attending a sunday session over breakfast today, but it didn't go down well. I let it lie figuring that karma yoga is as important as yogasana. In addition to that, the way my knees are giving me gyp at the moment, four days might be enough.....

A plateau or a slippery slope?

It gets pretty hard not to be disheartened sometimes. You know those mornings when the yoga fairies have sprinkled you with lead the night before and sewn all your joints shut? When you're not sure you can bend over to tie your shoes, let alone get into the seated forward bends?

I had a morning like that this morning, much grunting, sweating and panting, fairly little yoga, absolutely zero serenity and flow. Its pretty tough to deal with, but at least you know that tomorrow might be a good day (or might have been a good day if it wasn't a moon day). Whats more difficult to deal with is the concern that you're not moving forward in your practice.

I've been stuck pretty much where I am for a few months now, and while I appreciate that this is not long in the grand scheme of things, I find it difficult from a wider yoga perspective. Its clear to me that I need to get away from any feelings of competition in the shala, that different people advance differently, that I have a price to pay for years of abusing my body with fags and booze and late night clubbing, and most importantly that the quality of ones yoga is not measured by the number of asana one knows.

In spite of 'cerebrally' knowing that, it still raises a little twitch of envy when people who only began yoga two or three months ago are suddenly racing ahead of you.....

I remember reading that a student visiting John Scott's shala asked him, "Should I show you my practice?", to which he replied, "Don't show me your practice. Do your practice."

Sri Siva, help me dissolve my ego and do my practice.

Om shanti

'The wrapper is the grabber'

At least thats what I'm told. In the marichyasanas, the hand that wraps around the bent leg is the one that grabs the wrist of the other arm to bind the asana. Makes perfect sense doesn't it (well it would if you were a yogin(ini).

I have just one thing to say.... Fat Chance!

On one level I know that I don't have 'short arms', that that's not the reason why the asana that require binding round my back (and therefore my everso slightly ample belly) are so difficult for me. Its probably my inflexible/unopen chest and shoulders, it might even have a little to do with the aforementioned middle-aged spread, but sometimes I just wonder.....

Are my arms a bit too short....

The eight limbs

You read in many places and hear from many people, many yogi and yogini included that 'yoga is not a religion'. I guess thats true to a point, however yoga is a spiritual path and is derived from a specific perspective on the universe. A practitioner may or may not subscribe to that perspective, or perhaps to parts of it, but frankly (as a well known yoga teacher once said) practising asana (yoga postures/positions) without attention to the 'eight limbs' of yoga is just gymnastics...

Ashtanga diaries???

A bit of an account of my introduction to ashtanga yoga and the way it became one of the focal points of my world.....

About 8 months ago, I had a bit of a life turnaround. No crisis, no crash, no breakdown, it was all much simpler and yet much more profound than that - I gave up smoking and found yoga. The two things were more or less simultaneous. The yoga introductory course was a welcome distraction from the misery of stopping smoking after nearly 25 years (I started at the age of 14). Little did I know that it would turn into an obsession of similar power and persuasion, albeit a much healthier one.

Its never too late to take up yoga, or so we're told, and while I agree 100% with that, I do think there are some peculiarities of being middle aged when you start. Some of these I hope to share via this page. Some may be too personal. I'm not sure yet. Lets see how it goes.

Namaste!