Angelique Boudet let me know she had self published a book of Ashtanga Interviews I bought the Ebook and have posted some quotes below.
The first friend I mentioned it too asked why would we want to buy a book of Ashtanga Interviews when we have Lu Duong going to all the trouble of interviewing Ashtanga teachers and posting the interviews for free on his site Ashtanga Parampara, there is an excellent interview with Tim Feldmann just uploaded today in fact. http://www.ashtangaparampara.org/Tim-Feldmann.html
And of course we also have Guruji, the book that probably started the Ashtanga teacher interviewee format, essential reading as it overcome once and for all the idea that there was only one 'correct' way of teaching or approaching this practice.
And of course podcast interviews
I myself was interviewed by Claudia for her Yoga Podcast
Peg has excellent interviews on Ashtanga Dispatch with the Podcast interviews
and Ryan Spieman has some Ashtanga interviews on his Lonely Guru podcast
... anyone else?
In his interviews Lu focusses on parampara of course ( although not exclusively and I tend to skip over those bits, it's not a concept I'm interested in personally, respect and gratitude towards my teachers feels sufficient), this new book focusses on nine questions, the same nine questions to each of the interviewees. It's a nice conceit in principle but I'm not sure it works in practice, it can become a little tedious, at times. I found myself almost shouting at the author to ask follow up questions, to pin down or push the interviewee a little but the only interviewers I know who are doing that effectively are our friends at Wildyogi.
There are still some good quotes to be found in the book, I read it on the long commute from my home beside Lake Biwa to Osaka. Interviews with Mark Darby, David Roche and Louise Ellis stood out for me and Chuck Miller of course, some of the other interviewees unfortunately seemed to see it as an opportunity to promote their shala.
Angelique is a photographer so much of the book is taken up with her photos.
Here are some quotes for each of the nine questions that stood out for me and below that my own attempt at the questions.
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| Available from here http://www.blurb.fr/b/6565494-om-the-world-of-ashtanga-yogis |
The nine questions
1 — How did you start practicing yoga ?
“Krishnamacharya was my very first guru then Patthabi Jois. Together we discussed every day, experiencing and practicing.
In this way, we studied for seventy years.
I actually started at the age of thirteen.” B.N.S. Iyengar
2 — Could you please tell us how the yoga
has changed your life ?
“Yoga has changed my life in every way conceivable and became a constant but evolving presence in my daily life” Louise Ellis
3 — What does it bring to you presently ?
Could you tell us what your actual practice is ?
“ Yoga continues to help me see myself as I am now. Still trying to re-
turn to my found mantra : Be Here Now ! Thank you Ram Das !” Chuck Miller
4 — Would you ever stop practicing ?
“Would you ever stop practicing ?” is a strange question to me and
I am not sure now what it means ! Some great person said when you
first find yoga you have to practice yoga. After you become a yogi everything you do is yoga. That resonates with me. Practice takes so many different forms for me now ! I still maintain a regular meditation practice, an asana practice and a pranayama practice because they help me feel more comfortable and help to keep my mind sharp. And, just realizing I am drifting out of the present moment and then returning with my breath back to the here and now is also my practice, as far as I am concerned !” Chuck Miller
5 — What do you think about the fact that Westerners are getting more and more interested in, and involved, with yoga ?
“Yoga is very young in the West and we approach it from a western psychology. We, in the West, are very extroverted, we are competitive. We need to be seen. It is about achievement, ambition. In the East, people are more introspective. They are more community minded. We are more individualistic, in that way needing to be seen, but also mainly people have the same basic needs, desires and challenges. I think it is maturing because yoga is so young in the West, people are ready and I’m seeing it. People want the psychology, they want The Yoga Sutras, they want to understand it. They feel how it works, they want to know how it works and to understand the psychology. In the East, Hatha Yoga is just a very little piece of it but it makes sense that in the West we are attracted to it because we are physical, we are in the body, we are in the world in a different way. ” Bhavani Maki
6 — What is your opinion about Westerners’ practice and of the practice of yoga in your country ?
“I do not have an opinion about ‘Westerners’ or ‘Not Westerners’. I am glad for anyone who has found a practice, whatever that
practice may be and however it supports them in their lives.” Lucy Scott
7 — According to you, how does yoga transform people and why does it help to change the world ?
“ I think yoga has the power to give you much more clarity, to become more and more aware, awake. And the main problem we have is that
the individual is deeply asleep, we are an irresponsible, unconscious and childish society, and most of our problems have to do with that.” Jose Carballal
8 — In which way is yoga important to you ?
How does it affect you ?
“One takes the Great Vow of yoga to observe the Yamas and Niyamas, then one has a pattern of how to conduct oneself as an individual and as a member of society. Practicing asana and pranayama brings not only physical and mental quiet ; they strengthen the bodymind complex to permit moving more fully disciplined into the areas of pratyahara - withdrawal of the senses, dharana - concentration, dhyana - meditation and samadhi. Being so involved in these pursuits makes one more conscious of his or her actions and their effects on their family, their community, and their world. ”
David Roche
9 — What is your dearest wish ?”
“I am pretty content as I am, I think that if you have a wish it becomes a desire and I don’t think desires are very good for spiritual practice.” Mark Darby
“My dearest wish is to hurt less the people I love,”Tim Feldman
*
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| view of the mountains from outside my house |
1 — How did you start practicing yoga ?
See my series of posts Developing a home practice. Basically I was burgled, had seven vintage saxophones stolen ( I'm also a repairer), was angry about it but more angry that I was angry. Decided to start meditating again, picked up the most manly book on yoga in the library (just happened to be Ashtanga) and started practicing on a towel in my pants in the hope it would help me sit more comfortably while meditating.
2 — Could you please tell us how the yoga has changed your life ?
It hasn't, I'm still attached to the world, perhaps a little more focussed... and there are moments in those short kumbhaka in asana when the world drops away and there is just perhaps *awareness of awareness. Occasionally that happens for little longer while sitting.
*Just enough of a hint, suggestion to make me think that Patanjali's project really is worth pursuing and that Krishnamacharya may have been on to something with hi kumbhaka in asana.
3 — What does it bring to you presently ?
Could you tell us what your actual practice is ?
When the above happens.... peace. In general my asana practice brings me more discipline, hopefully it helps keeps me healthier. My current approach to practice is outlined in this post Slow Ashtanga
4 — Would you ever stop practicing ?
I practice less asana, no longer stick the the series, see this post Slow Ashtanga, it's debatable whether I still practice Ashtanga, Krishnamacharya's early Ashtanga or Vinyasa Krama But I can't imagine not practicing some asana as preparation for and a support for my yoga practice
5 — What do you think about the fact that Westerners are getting more and more interested in, and involved, with yoga ?
Purusha doesn't have brown skin, nor a dialect, language, culture or history, so....
6 — What is your opinion about Westerners’ practice and of the practice of yoga in your country ?
As # 5
7 — According to you, how does yoga transform people and why does it help to change the world ?
It doesn't.....few if any of us are actually practicing yoga, mostly we're just playing at it.
8 — In which way is yoga important to you ?
How does it affect you ?
Hope
9 — What is your dearest wish ?”
To do
Update: I'm thinking I might revisit my, off the top of my head, response to these questions in a few days and flesh them out a bit.
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