Sit on the edge of your chair,
breath in,
breathe out twice as slowly,
follow the breath with your mind.
That is surely all you ever REALLY need to teach/suggest, everything else follows from this, it's practice teaches itself.
After a time the breath will slow further, you will notice the breath more as you move about your day, movements align with the breath and you might try some other simple, more formal, movements... with the breath. You might find ways to sit more comfortably, for longer, practice for longer, you might try breathing through one nostril and out of the other.... or not. You might notice the natural pause between the inhalation and exhalation and attend to that as much as to the inhalation and the exhalation, you might sit and focus on that stillness, the infinite between inhalation and exhalation, or you might focus on one point that feels natural, comfortable to you, you might forget about the breath altogether and focus more on that one point. The feeling of peace and calm, of contentment perhaps, that comes from this, from just sitting, might allow you realise that this is perhaps sufficient, and as attachments drop away compassion might arise for those who are as wrapped up in their attachments as you were. Samadhi might arise within you, a profound contentment and experience of sufficiency. As your samadhi becomes stable, consistent, it might naturally direct itself at the objects of the senses, at the senses themselves, at the mind, all dropping away until all that remains is awareness itself.
It's Euclid, everything follows.
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| The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490 inspired by the architect Vitruvius A pretty a picture than the first page of Euclid |
On question from the comments on the previous post
Anonymous
"Grim, if you don't teach, why the meticulous syllabus above (the previous post on teaching Vinyasa krama to an Ashtangi)? Bit ironic. Is it just that you don't have the time to teach physically?"
*
My Reply (edited)
I'm not sure where sharing practice ends and teaching begins Anon. I don't teach yoga, not regularly, not currently. The blog has always been about sharing my own practice, experience(s).
My inclination is always towards solitary home practice. As a teacher I would be kicking everyone out of the shala after a couple of weeks and suggesting they check-in perhaps in a year or so, the shala would be bankrupt in a week.... or my thinking would change which perhaps worries me the most and perhaps why I resist teaching.
Money/livelihood and yoga don't/shouldn't mix, in my mind.
That said, I understand that not everyone can practice at home (circumstance, kids, space etc.), or that some may require the little extra motivation that the company of others can bring..., in the beginning.
The problem I feel is that many (most?) 'teachers', whether intending (realising? ) it or not, tend to try to hold on to their students, suppress the awareness that one could and perhaps should be practicing yoga alone and at home.
Even right at the 'top', the inclination/motivation is to preserve a system of asana.
Ashtanga Vinyasa, by accident perhaps, is almost designed to keep students coming back for asana practice...., deepen the asana, improve alignment, the next asana, the next series ( and the next for those whose bodies are flexible enough). Support the community, don't miss a practice, go to Mysore, go again... and again.
Then we have the 'international yoga teachers' who promote themselves and their workshops/merchandise, through asana, maintaining the focus on asana, the next asana, the next series.
And of course, if one IS interested in pranayama, feels ready for pranayama (despite being told more and more asana first), then the one pranayama is not enough for a teacher, you need pranayama workshops, intensives, books, dvds to teach all these other marketable Hatha pranayama's. To make it worthwhile, you need a pranayama series.
What did those Raja yogi's do/practice before Hatha came along.
Yoga?
It can take ten years to learn
that what we really need to do
is unlearn 99% of what we learned
in those ten years.
If the class was half a series worth of asana followed by twenty minutes of simple, straight forward, pranayama, forty minutes of Sitting..., and given that the asana are always the same in ashtanga, would students keep coming back six days a week or would the system collapse, would they just practice at home, come once a week say, once a month, would that support a shala, a teacher?
I would be/am tempted to teach such a class once a week, once a month and encourage home practice the rest of the time, success for me would be marked by a mostly empty class.
I've never understood the pride in having the BIGGEST Ashtanga program in...wherever.
I have great affection for those who merely provide a space, almost taking a vow of poverty to do so, for those who require one for practice.
The 'meticulous syllabus' you mention that I share above (on the previous post teaching Vinyasa krama to an Ashtangi) is so one can practice at home without me teaching because I don't believe you need a teacher, practicing this teaches itself, deepens itself.
Sit on the edge of your chair, breath in, breathe out twice as slowly, follow the breath with your mind.
That is surely all you ever REALLY need to teach/suggest, everything else follows from this, it's practice teaches itself.
After a time the breath will slow further, you will notice the breath more as you move about your day, movements align with the breath and you might try some other simple, more formal, movements... with the breath. You might find ways to sit more comfortably, for longer, practice for longer, you might try breathing through one nostril and out of the other.... or not. You might notice the natural pause between the inhalation and exhalation and attend to that as much as to the inhalation and the exhalation, you might sit and focus on that stillness, the infinite between inhalation and exhalation, or you might focus on one point that feels natural, comfortable to you, you might forget about the breath altogether and focus more on that one point. The feeling of peace and calm, of contentment perhaps, that comes from this, from just sitting, might allow you realise that this is perhaps sufficient, and as attachments drop away compassion might arise for those who are as wrapped up in their attachments as you were. Samadhi might arise within you, a profound contentment and experience of sufficiency. As your samadhi becomes stable, consistent, it might naturally direct itself at the objects of the senses, at the senses themselves, at the mind, all dropping away until all that remains is awareness itself.
It's Euclid, everything follows.
That said, I know there are wonderful Ashtanga vinyasa teachers out there who aren't really teachers at all perhaps but service providers, maintaining a space, giving a little guidance where necessary and letting the practice teach itself, deepen itself.
Some wonderful teachers in Yoga therapy, who have studied the body deeply and can give relief. Yoga culture teachers, chanting teacher, sanskrit teachers.
There are 'teachers' (enablers, facilitators?) who encourage, give guidance and support in meditation, who make moving on to meditation as natural an option as the next asana/series.
Teachers who preserve the the system of practice they love, just as they learned it themselves, passing it along to others in the belief it might benefit others as they feel it has benefitted them.
And I'm grateful to the teachers who did and do the above, that I was able to encounter a practice in the way that I did, through a book in a library... and later through DVDs and Youtube, through other practitioners, occasionally teachers and teachers of teachers, grateful to all who have done and continue to inspire me to practice and reflect on my practice.
"He (Krishnamacharya) divided the practice of yoga into three parts.When one wants to develop muscular power, power to concentrate, power to do more difficult postures etc, it was called sakti krama in the sense of power. The second type of practice that he taught was called adhyatmika krama, that is, to go beyond the physical and to understand, say god or oneself. The third type was called cikitsa krama, yoga for therapy. For this he would modify the asana and the breathing so the problem was reduced." The Purnacarya.
Each morning before practice I say..
Thank you to all teachers and practitioners, past and present,
for bringing me to and maintaining me in this practice.
We can learn asana from teachers, hundreds of asana, asana systems, asana tricks and flourishes, ever more alignment in asana, visualisation in asana, safer practice in asana. We can learn pranayama from a teacher, lots of different pranayamas, all kinds of ratios. Some teach yoga history, yoga philosophy, yoga therapy, chanting, sacred texts. We can learn to chant the yoga sutras from a teacher, the meaning of the yoga sutras.... teachers seem to teach everything about yoga, around yoga, everything EXCEPT yoga...., perhaps because yoga isn't taught, isn't learned, it's just experienced.
Sit and focus your attention, don't be distracted by all these teaching ABOUT yoga, on the whole they are likely yet more hindrances to pass through, just sit and watch the breath, do yoga rather than learn about yoga.
Trying to stretch the above sentence into a class, a program, workshop, intensive, teacher training, book and DVD would be one more hinderance.
I remember thinking, during the few workshops I presented, that everybody would be better off staying home and doing their own practice. Rather than attend a workshop for the day or weekend, stay home and practice, at dawn, at midday, at dusk and at midnight.
If I ever do offer a retreat again it will be this, a slow, Krishnamacharya ashtanga practice followed by pranayama and a Sit at dawn, a little asana, pranayama and a sit at midday and again at dusk and at midnight.
Don't read about yoga, blog about yoga (myself included obviously), just get on and do yoga.
That said I feel an obligation to pass along the approach to practice that Ramaswami generously shared with me from his teacher Krishnamacharya, as well as my own research into Krishnamacharya's life (that continues to fascinate me) and of my practice of his Yoga Makaranda instruction. I hope I fulfil that obligation here on the blog to some degree.
I also see people around me, the elderly especially, who might benefit from what little I do know about moving the body and am considering sharing some of that knowledge, teaching some movements.... if I can learn enough not to do more harm than good.
