Note on practicing along with the Pattabhi Jois/Sharath demonstration (Sydney 1997), alignment, prana etc.

Ok this post got a little 'ranty' but hey, it's just  blog

In my previous post I embedded a video from 1997 of Pattabhi Jois leading Sharath through a demonstration of the Ashtanga Primary Series. The demonstration was split over two videos and Pattabhi Jois had included only one Surynamaskara A and one B. I felt the urge to practice along to Pattabhi Jois' count, thought I might not be alone in this, so edited in a few more Sury's to make a full practice. I added my own 'home practice' version of the video in an appendix to the post.

In this post I thought I would share a few reflections of practicing along with the video as well as respond to questions regarding Sharath's alignment. 

Note on Sharath's Practice, alignment, prana etc.

Following my posting of the 1997 demonstration this weekend, I was asked what I thought of Sharath's alignment, even the 'flow of his prana' came up (whatever that means). 

This I think ties in nicely with my current obnoxious view of the state of play in yoga today and indeed Ashtanga.... , from my limited perspective as a home practitioner who rarely ventures out to shalas and certainly not to Mysore.

*Side note on visiting Mysore..... or not

Yesterday I posted a photo of Kennin-ji, Rinzai Zen temple near Gion, Kyoto. It's supposedly the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. Dogen (founder of Soto Zen) trained here. I live about half an hour north of Kyoto, in a small village beside Lake Biwa. I rarely visit Kyoto these days, to be honest I really can't be bothered, these temples try to capture a serenity that I have right outside my door. Besides Kyoto is full of tourists, try capturing the mood of the Golden Pavilion when you are being herded along by the crowd. 

Just as I have all I could ever wish for here by the lake and no need to visit the old imperial capital, I've always tended to feel I had all I need on my 180cm piece of black rubber that I practice on each morning. 

Dogen said it best back in the thirteenth century.

“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Kennin-ji, Rinzai Zen temple near Gion, Kyoto.
Oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. Dogen trained here.

My short walk along the beach to the station this morning.

So what about Sharath's alignment?

I really don't care about Sharaths alignment... or lack of it... or whether his prana is flowing this way or that, hell I don't even care about my own alignment, let alone anyone else's. As long as I have enough anatomical awareness not to injure myself I'm more than happy to let the breath take care of the alignment. Of course if you stay in a posture longer with the breath then the breath has a fighting chance to do something about one's alignment but that's a different post ( or Page). 

My take on the current yoga scene is that everyone is so desperate to be yoga teachers that more often than not they probably end end up teaching long before they should. That by the way probably went for Sharath too and no doubt his grandfather also who was basically still a kid when he started teaching. 

The difference we see between Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga vinyasa and what we find in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934) is that Pattabhi Jois arguably passed along 'kids yoga', the yoga that Krishnamacharya was no doubt knocking out in his hour long classes for the boys of the Mysore palace. It was perhaps in the side rooms of the palace and to individual students as well as perhaps in Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934) that we perhaps find a more mature, subtle and sophisticated practice.

Does this mean that Ashtanga vinyasa is only for young boys, not at all, it's possible to reintroduce all the elements that Pattabhi Jois left out from his Guru's teaching or perhaps, at his young age, wasn't taught at all (although Pattabhi Jois does talk of long stays in Kapotasana). See my Proficient Primary page for an approach to practice closely based on Krishnamacharya's early Mysore texts.

BTW I'm still getting invited to teach workshops but to be perfectly honest I don't see the point, it's right there in Krishnamacharya's text, download it from my Free Download page. 

Just breathe more slowly, allow the natural pause between the stages of the breath, focus on one point, stay longer in a posture and carry that focus through your whole practice. Follow asana practice with a straight forward, modest nadhi shodhana, then Sit, calmly abiding. Support you practice by simplifying your life (yama/niyama). Do all this daily.... and for a long time.

That's it in a couple of lines, there really is no need for me to leave my lake.

So, more often than not, we end up teaching too soon, before we have settled in our practice and realised less is more ( Ashtanga can distract us from realising this sooner by dangling the carrot of ever more asana and series). Once we become 'yoga teachers' we start thinking we actually need to teach something rather than merely provide a space for other's to practice (sending love to those who've realised that), or we start wanting to promote ourselves, sell ourselves, come up with a new angle to distinguish ourselves from the other teacher down the street.

Note: Yoga Therapy is something different but if you are serious about becoming a yoga therapist I would suggest actually studying anatomy and physiology in depth and over a number years, become an occupational therapist say AND then think about introducing some yoga into your therapy.

Desikachar basically admitted in an interview with a Doctor, that all yoga therapy was really good for was reducing stress. That's Desikachar saying that, Krishnamacharya's late son, not me.

See https://youtu.be/8jcRxzIzFzI I think it's in the second half, around 26:00 I've simplified of course. Desikachar is basically talking about the people who come to KYM and the problems they are suffering from. 

I wrote in the previous post (see also below) that I considered Sharath's practice 'unaffected' I.E. completely lacking in affectation.  I suspect that looking at the synonyms for 'affectation' may give us clues into much that is perhaps questionable in the presentation of Ashtanga and perhaps yoga in general today. Next time we see a demonstration video, promotional asana or even just some of our own asana photos posted to social media we might take a moment and see how many of these synonyms they tick ( sharing the odd photo amongst friends for encouragement and/or support and perhaps the occasional bit of fun is one thing, when it becomes obsessive it's surely something else. We shouldn't kid ourselves that we are promoting yoga, we are promoting ourselves, our own self-obsession, our ego.. THROUGH yoga.

Affectation - Synonyms

air,   

airs,   

appearance,   

artificiality, 

facade,   

frount,   

imitation,   

insincerity, 

mannerism, 

pose,  

pretence, 

pretentious, 

put-on,   

sham,   

show,   

showing off,   

simulation,   

false frount, 

going hollywood,   

putting on airs.

The above is all I think is wrong with Yoga today in the world of social media. Below what I think Sharath's practice demonstrates.

Affectation - Antonyms

guileless

sincere

straighforward

artless

candid

direct

unspoilt

unstudied

up frount

forthright

frank 

genuine

ingenuous

modest

naive

natural

plain

simple

single

spontaneous

true

unartificial

unassuming

unpretentious

unschooled

Does that mean I want to go to Mysore to practice with Sharath if he is still teaching there, no not really, it just makes me think I want to practice that way more myself.

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from the appendix to the previous post.

Home practice version of Pattabhi Jois leading Sharath through the Ashtanga primary Series 

(Sydney 1997)

Home Practice Version. The original version of this demonstration of Led Primary above is split over two parts and includes only one each of suryanamaska A and B. I've pasted in an extra four of each and spliced together the two parts of the video to make a full primary to practice along with at home. 

The full practice (with the additional sury's A and B) comes out at 57 minutes, much faster than I usually like to take my own practice but we shouldn't forget this is a demonstration. Practicing along with this video I'll tend to take two or perhaps three breaths to Pattabhi Jois' count of five. Occasionally Pattabhi Jois only counts three quick breaths in an asana, in other places a quick five. Sarvangasana only gets a count of five but padmasana gets a much slower count of ten, Sirsasana gets a count of ten and another ten in an inverted dandasana. This being 1997, a savasana (note that hands held flat against the hips -savasana rather than 'taking rest'?) is taken before sarvangasana and again at the end of the practice.

1997

Sharath's Ashtanga Booklet
Ashtanga yoga Anusthana (2013)

Why go to led classes, workshops or practice along to Led videos?

This question came up in a chat with a friend this morning, we were talking about Sharath's led tour but no doubt it also goes for occasionally practicing along to videos of a led practice, especially taken at this pace.

I guess our practice, this discipline, needs different kinds of support at different times. A week of Led with Sharath, a workshop with Manju or somebody else can perhaps give us that extra bit of support that we may feel we require occasionally (in a similar but different way perhaps to practicing with others in a shala). 

It's an exceptional thing we do each morning. Here in Japan, Yoga is becoming more popular but people tend practice once or possibly twice a week, few (except for the Ashtangi's) seem to practice everyday.

How many outside of a seminary pray for ninety minutes each morning, or outside of a temple Sit for sixty minutes. This discipline we construct and feed in our different ways is quite remarkable, it's a support but we also need to support it, in turn. I've written before how the discipline of practice supports us in our daily lives, supports whatever form our yama/niyamas take, prepares us for dealing with the curve balls to come but the yama/niyamas (again - whatever they are perhaps that we inherit from our culture or choose) also support our practice, prop it up at times and Svadhyaya, can take many forms. It could be silent practice alone, a turning inwards but can no doubt also be a turning outwards reflecting ourselves through suitable texts and contact with others.

While I currently prefer a slower take on practice ( see my Proficient Primary page) I ldo ove Sharath's practice as demonstrated above, just as I loved his own Primary video that I practiced along with for a couple of months back when I first started Ashtanga. It's so unaffected, lacking in flourish or artifice, it may be lacking in alignment too for many but for me it's lacking in ego and an excellent reminder in this glossy age of self promotion that this is a simple practice that we so often over think.

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