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....
3 comments:
I don't believe you'd be selling out by taking other types of classes, just as I don't believe that one sells out for testing out new things.
The end result of dipping your toes in other waters, at worst, is you'll have tried new things that will invariably influence your outlook. But you never know what new thing may result in either helping your Ashtanga practice or your life in general. Things sometimes have ways of influencing our lives in surprising ways.
Edward
Yoga London
This is a question I take on every week... on one hand I want to believe in a practice that contains it all, do your practice, all is coming, or I remember Trungpa Rinpoche talking about "spiritual materialism", on the other hand, sometimes I feel like the practice is being internalized within me, and I am being "guided" to try things.
I just read Maehle's last book on Ashtanga and it was very good to shine some clarity... then again, that is this week...
I don't think you'll be selling out.
B. K. S. Iyengar says that the healthy body is the foundation of a healthy mind. I think yoga asana practice should be fun, and thereby give the motivation for training. If you see progression in taking both ashtanga and JivaMukti (which comes out of ashtanga) classes, then i can only see that's the way for you to go :)
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