Joy and I have been running around like crazy this week trying to get Ashtanga Yoga School of Philadelphia opened by July 3rd and on top of it all Joy had a screening of her short film The Medicine Wheel in the big Apple this past Wednesday so we made a mad dash to the city!! In between all of the craziness we managed to film a three part Ashtanga Discussion Room title Ashtanga is Bhakti. I have posted the first two parts below and will post the final part on Wednesday.
One extra note: please watch, ponder, and absorb the themes in these video’s! Personally I feel that the content of these discussions is of vital importance for us continuing to mature and really enjoy the fruits of practice. The play of the universe that we are all part of has reached such critical proportions that there is an urgency to bring forth what is sacred within of each us. Even our tiny contribution is vital and essential. What we choose to focus our energies on makes a huge difference in giving ourselves and the coming generations a fair chance to play the beautiful game at a higher, highere levels. I’m calling out to all of us to bring more intentional Bhakti into our practices, more devotion that goes to to the root of us, to the heart of us, where we know what is really important and sacred. Enjoy! Om Namah Shivaya! David
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Yoga is Youthfulness Interview
Over June 24th-26th I will be teaching a workshop in Mountainview, California and the Yoga center, Yoga is Youthfulness, interviewed me for their newsletter. I think it came out really well and I would like to share it with all of you.
I have also decided to teach a month long Mysore style intensive in Kovalam, India this February. The intensive will entail a six day a week Mysore class with extra classes of pranayama, chanting, and other yoga studies. You can apply or find more info on davidgarrigues.com. I hope you can join me in India~~ its going to be a great way to go deeper into your practice!
Hari Om,
David
Yoga is Youthfulness Interviews Certified Ashtanga teacher David Garrigues
When did you first go to india and what took you there?
I first went in 94′. In 93′ I saw a video tape of Guruji teaching Richard Freeman, Tim Miller, and Chuck Miller. A couple weeks later I saw an ad in the Yoga Journal saying Guruji was going to be teaching in LA so I went there and studied with him for the month. After that month he went and taught in Maui so I followed him there and studied with him more. On Maui he and Chuck Miller encouraged me to travel to Mysore and to take practice in India. I didn’t hesitate. I knew Ashtanga was for me so I bought a plane ticket, waited tables to save money, and went to India.
What happened and how long were you there that time and over the years?
When I first arrived I was completely blown away and overwhelmed. I can distinctly remember being woken up by prayers blasting out of mosques and temples, the smells, riding my bike to Guruji’s house early in the morning and how small the room we practiced in was (Old Shala). There were so few of us in the space. If there were 20 of us there that was a lot of people.
Often in the evenings Guruji and Amma would sit outside their porch. We would all walk by and talk with them and hope Amma would offer us coffee. Going to India was something I never imagined or even day dreamed about so I had no preparation or expectations. In my life I never thought I would be doing this or thought I would be searching for someone, a guru, to study with.
Sometimes India was so intense I would walk outside and then go back inside. At that time India was not used to foreigners so the Indians were extremely curious. As a westerner I was paid attention to all the time. It was hard for me to be so conspicuous. Sometimes too hard. I also meet a dear dear Indian friend of mine, Ravi. He was playing a flute on the street and he took me in to his house. We would hang out and listen to Indian music. I became hooked on Indian culture from my first visit. Ravi introduced me to my future singing teacher, Virabhadraya. At this time I wanted to learn how to play tablas so I started taking lessons from Virabhadraya’s friend.
But mostly, I remember loving the practice.
My first visit I was there for four months. Since then I have been there over 15 times. My longest stay being a year.
What was meeting Guruji like and when did you first know he was your teacher?
I first meet Guruji in LA and I was very scared. I was so scared that I fasted on fruit the entire month. I thought if I ate fruit I would get less stiff. I was in a big cleanse. I practiced in the morning and then I would practice again during the afternoon. I was completely unaware this was too much tapas for my body. I was unaware of the whole scene. I never touched Guruji’s feet. I just had no idea what to do. I was in awe of the whole thing. I didn’t know what the counting was or what it meant. I had no idea that the Sanskirt was in numbers. I attached esoteric significance to it. When he would bellow out “cetwari” I thought it was something sacred, “Woah, what does that mean?”
What was scary to you?
I had only seen Tim, Richard and Chuck practice from the videos and I saw how Guruji adjusted them and this was scary for me. In the class there was this guy who every day got the adjustment in Baddhakonasana and every day he would cry and everyday Guruji would put him through it. And Guruji would say, ‘Why crying?” and the whole class would laugh, It was good natured but intense. I was terrified it would happen to me and of course he finally adjusted me in it. At that time my knees did not come to the floor in Baddhakonasana so he put one hand on one knee and one foot on the other and one hand on my head. He pushed down on my knees and then he started to push my head outwards. It felt like I was looking down from above on to the ground and it all felt big, like a wide expanse for me. My orientation was shifted and there was this opening! I got terrified. Guruji pulled me back up and he said, “no fearing you go.” It’s one of two adjustments I can vividly remember.
Guruji was always a strategist. If he wasn’t helping you it was part of his plan for working with you, it was not because he wasn’t noticing. For example, on my first trip he didn’t help me much, but he was nice. I figure he knew I needed to take practice so he left me mostly alone. On my second trip he didn’t help me and was not really very nice either. I was expecting and wanting more help but still he just left me to practice and work things out on my own. Occasionally when I would break out of my old patterns he would be there all of sudden to help me, which meant to me that he was highly observant of my practice and waiting for some things to shift inside me. But it was a source of pain that he wouldn’t help me and I got really frustrated. I thought about quitting. You had to earn help from him. By my third trip when I started working on third series, he began helping me a lot.
Though there was no specific moment when I knew Guruji was my teacher, it was an almost unnoticed evolution; one day sort of all of sudden it dawned on me how much I had learned from him and how significant he was/is to me. It was a profound and happy realization but also a little bit sad because I felt that I hadn’t properly appreciated him before that time.
How does music relate to your yoga practice?
In some ways music conflicts with my yoga practice and what I’ve discovered is that music has to take a small role in things and proportionately it has to be small compared to my asana and pranayama practice and my teaching. If music takes too big of a role in my life it doesn’t serve my Yoga practice. But if music is in the right proportion it helps me to be more devotional, prayerful, and it opens me up to a part of my soul that is very deep and sacred. Music also soothing for me. At times the asana practice has a crushing kind of quality, it can really challenging and feel full of failure. It can even be hard to feel good about my self when practice is so hard; playing music, just enjoying a little song or melody can be a healing salve for me. It helps remind me of the soul and sacredness of my efforts.
To me yoga can and ought to be used for personal expression and personal transformation but also since we are all in it together yoga can to be about collective and social transformation too. As a yoga teacher I feel that music and chanting helps me share something different with my students, sharing a little song brings a more universal dimension, something campfire like that brings you to a primal place of sacredness that we can all find a kinship with.
How has yoga changed your music and how has the Indian musical/yogic experience you have had affected your music?
I would like to talk about how I switched from the tablas to singing. My singing teacher Virabhadraya had me start singing because I have a damaged finger and couldn’t strike the tabla properly. It’s funny to me, he literally made me sing. At first I resisted it, but it was the best thing that ever happened to my music. I love singing and I needed that vocal work to really become less introverted and to open up to the power of my voice as speaker and as a singer. Its been a very important part of my psychological and emotional growth.
Do you still study music in India now?
Yes, though as I balance it with my Yoga practice, I don’t have as much time as I would like. I have less time to study Indian music. To study indian music requires total commitment and dedication and I’m not on that path. I do my best to keep up a practice Indian scales and I work with the slow, ‘alap’ phase of raga development. I try to practice the things that are relevant to what I share with people in my yoga classes.
Do you see your musical practice and your yoga practice as related? How?
Yoga and music share rhythm, they come from the same great source and use them both go back to that source. Since music, breathing, and asana are all based on the elemental, primal life rhythms, I feel they all support each other. To be musical helps your asana practice to become more melodic and to have rhythmic vibrancy and intelligence.
Has your practice changed as you have aged?
For one, I’ve slowed down some and the physical practice is harder. As I’ve aged its been challenging to consistently keep the asana practice at its top level. Partly thats due to aging but it’s also due to losing focus mentally. There are so many responsibilities and things that seem to call for one’s attention. Its all cyclical, but consistency of focus is really challenging. It’s a marvel to see how challenging it is to put the asana practice first with a consistency that spans over decades. This commitment effects all of your choices. Also as I’ve gotten older the focus and intention behind the work is much more genuine and smarter. I’m able to utilize the asana and pranayama to open up within myself in much more powerful ways even though I can’t necessarily bend as swiftly or even though I don’t consistently have quite as much ready energy. Now I have to listen to my self and my body more attentively and be willing to go into what is there today. Sometimes that means being satisfied with less and being more subtle in my awareness.
Also, I used to need a lot of asana practice, a lot of sweat and rhythm as a catharsis, as a way to wrestle with demons and overcome things within myself. I needed to exhaust myself through that kind of battle. Now that isn’t as necessary or relevant and so I don’t need that same kind of intense rhythm every day that I needed in the past. Through my practice I’ve worked through a lot and understand what constitutes a deep asana for me. Its such a curious paradox because I understand what a deep asana is and I can go there much faster now even though there’s a sometimes more physical unwillingness. Sometimes I feel a tinge of regret, I wish I had figured out some of what I know now sooner.
As I age I have more appreciation for Guruji and his method and the sequences of asana’s. For example I see this incredible depth in the second series. Consider Krounchasana, it is more of a forward bend then all of the forward bends in the primary series. When you strike Krounchasana you are expected to be ready immediately, you are expected to bend forward deeply without the preparation and repetition that exists in the primary series. There’s an immediate depth that is asked of you in the second series. All the series have these deepening layers that continue to be revealed as you practice year after year.
Or take Dristi, as I’ve gotten older I orient myself differently with regard to basic gazing. Now I’m more centered, steady and clear. I also have more clarity about different sets of variables that go into each posture and have more skill to work with those variables in a more immediate and balanced way.
What made Guruji special to you? Did he permanently change your life and how?
He was large enough and grounded enough to see and understand some important things about me and about many people. In this significant way he let me know that what I was doing was alright. This ‘alright’ feeling gave me permission to let my energy flow freely and in directions that were right for me. It took somebody really grounded to do that because I had so much raw energy and so much inner conflict and fear. To have somebody be so grounded and to see my fear and understand it somehow gave me permission to see it too and thus move through it and let it go. Guruji had this knowledge of Yoga and that’s what gave him this largeness and this ability to embrace so many people. He showed me the how big Yoga is; he showed me yoga’s breadth and what it can encompass and how I can find belonging and expression in it. Yes he changed me permanently. He helped wipe out my self hatred, inner turmoil, anger, lack of confidence, in a fundamental way forever. Now I have those things but they can never go as deep as they were because he helped me find that deeper place of love. Practice keeps renewing it but Guruji gave it to me in such a way that even if I never practiced again, I will still have it.
I have also decided to teach a month long Mysore style intensive in Kovalam, India this February. The intensive will entail a six day a week Mysore class with extra classes of pranayama, chanting, and other yoga studies. You can apply or find more info on davidgarrigues.com. I hope you can join me in India~~ its going to be a great way to go deeper into your practice!
Hari Om,
David
Yoga is Youthfulness Interviews Certified Ashtanga teacher David Garrigues
When did you first go to india and what took you there?
I first went in 94′. In 93′ I saw a video tape of Guruji teaching Richard Freeman, Tim Miller, and Chuck Miller. A couple weeks later I saw an ad in the Yoga Journal saying Guruji was going to be teaching in LA so I went there and studied with him for the month. After that month he went and taught in Maui so I followed him there and studied with him more. On Maui he and Chuck Miller encouraged me to travel to Mysore and to take practice in India. I didn’t hesitate. I knew Ashtanga was for me so I bought a plane ticket, waited tables to save money, and went to India.
What happened and how long were you there that time and over the years?
When I first arrived I was completely blown away and overwhelmed. I can distinctly remember being woken up by prayers blasting out of mosques and temples, the smells, riding my bike to Guruji’s house early in the morning and how small the room we practiced in was (Old Shala). There were so few of us in the space. If there were 20 of us there that was a lot of people.
Often in the evenings Guruji and Amma would sit outside their porch. We would all walk by and talk with them and hope Amma would offer us coffee. Going to India was something I never imagined or even day dreamed about so I had no preparation or expectations. In my life I never thought I would be doing this or thought I would be searching for someone, a guru, to study with.
Sometimes India was so intense I would walk outside and then go back inside. At that time India was not used to foreigners so the Indians were extremely curious. As a westerner I was paid attention to all the time. It was hard for me to be so conspicuous. Sometimes too hard. I also meet a dear dear Indian friend of mine, Ravi. He was playing a flute on the street and he took me in to his house. We would hang out and listen to Indian music. I became hooked on Indian culture from my first visit. Ravi introduced me to my future singing teacher, Virabhadraya. At this time I wanted to learn how to play tablas so I started taking lessons from Virabhadraya’s friend.
But mostly, I remember loving the practice.
My first visit I was there for four months. Since then I have been there over 15 times. My longest stay being a year.
What was meeting Guruji like and when did you first know he was your teacher?
I first meet Guruji in LA and I was very scared. I was so scared that I fasted on fruit the entire month. I thought if I ate fruit I would get less stiff. I was in a big cleanse. I practiced in the morning and then I would practice again during the afternoon. I was completely unaware this was too much tapas for my body. I was unaware of the whole scene. I never touched Guruji’s feet. I just had no idea what to do. I was in awe of the whole thing. I didn’t know what the counting was or what it meant. I had no idea that the Sanskirt was in numbers. I attached esoteric significance to it. When he would bellow out “cetwari” I thought it was something sacred, “Woah, what does that mean?”
What was scary to you?
I had only seen Tim, Richard and Chuck practice from the videos and I saw how Guruji adjusted them and this was scary for me. In the class there was this guy who every day got the adjustment in Baddhakonasana and every day he would cry and everyday Guruji would put him through it. And Guruji would say, ‘Why crying?” and the whole class would laugh, It was good natured but intense. I was terrified it would happen to me and of course he finally adjusted me in it. At that time my knees did not come to the floor in Baddhakonasana so he put one hand on one knee and one foot on the other and one hand on my head. He pushed down on my knees and then he started to push my head outwards. It felt like I was looking down from above on to the ground and it all felt big, like a wide expanse for me. My orientation was shifted and there was this opening! I got terrified. Guruji pulled me back up and he said, “no fearing you go.” It’s one of two adjustments I can vividly remember.
Guruji was always a strategist. If he wasn’t helping you it was part of his plan for working with you, it was not because he wasn’t noticing. For example, on my first trip he didn’t help me much, but he was nice. I figure he knew I needed to take practice so he left me mostly alone. On my second trip he didn’t help me and was not really very nice either. I was expecting and wanting more help but still he just left me to practice and work things out on my own. Occasionally when I would break out of my old patterns he would be there all of sudden to help me, which meant to me that he was highly observant of my practice and waiting for some things to shift inside me. But it was a source of pain that he wouldn’t help me and I got really frustrated. I thought about quitting. You had to earn help from him. By my third trip when I started working on third series, he began helping me a lot.
Though there was no specific moment when I knew Guruji was my teacher, it was an almost unnoticed evolution; one day sort of all of sudden it dawned on me how much I had learned from him and how significant he was/is to me. It was a profound and happy realization but also a little bit sad because I felt that I hadn’t properly appreciated him before that time.
How does music relate to your yoga practice?
In some ways music conflicts with my yoga practice and what I’ve discovered is that music has to take a small role in things and proportionately it has to be small compared to my asana and pranayama practice and my teaching. If music takes too big of a role in my life it doesn’t serve my Yoga practice. But if music is in the right proportion it helps me to be more devotional, prayerful, and it opens me up to a part of my soul that is very deep and sacred. Music also soothing for me. At times the asana practice has a crushing kind of quality, it can really challenging and feel full of failure. It can even be hard to feel good about my self when practice is so hard; playing music, just enjoying a little song or melody can be a healing salve for me. It helps remind me of the soul and sacredness of my efforts.
To me yoga can and ought to be used for personal expression and personal transformation but also since we are all in it together yoga can to be about collective and social transformation too. As a yoga teacher I feel that music and chanting helps me share something different with my students, sharing a little song brings a more universal dimension, something campfire like that brings you to a primal place of sacredness that we can all find a kinship with.
How has yoga changed your music and how has the Indian musical/yogic experience you have had affected your music?
I would like to talk about how I switched from the tablas to singing. My singing teacher Virabhadraya had me start singing because I have a damaged finger and couldn’t strike the tabla properly. It’s funny to me, he literally made me sing. At first I resisted it, but it was the best thing that ever happened to my music. I love singing and I needed that vocal work to really become less introverted and to open up to the power of my voice as speaker and as a singer. Its been a very important part of my psychological and emotional growth.
Do you still study music in India now?
Yes, though as I balance it with my Yoga practice, I don’t have as much time as I would like. I have less time to study Indian music. To study indian music requires total commitment and dedication and I’m not on that path. I do my best to keep up a practice Indian scales and I work with the slow, ‘alap’ phase of raga development. I try to practice the things that are relevant to what I share with people in my yoga classes.
Do you see your musical practice and your yoga practice as related? How?
Yoga and music share rhythm, they come from the same great source and use them both go back to that source. Since music, breathing, and asana are all based on the elemental, primal life rhythms, I feel they all support each other. To be musical helps your asana practice to become more melodic and to have rhythmic vibrancy and intelligence.
Has your practice changed as you have aged?
For one, I’ve slowed down some and the physical practice is harder. As I’ve aged its been challenging to consistently keep the asana practice at its top level. Partly thats due to aging but it’s also due to losing focus mentally. There are so many responsibilities and things that seem to call for one’s attention. Its all cyclical, but consistency of focus is really challenging. It’s a marvel to see how challenging it is to put the asana practice first with a consistency that spans over decades. This commitment effects all of your choices. Also as I’ve gotten older the focus and intention behind the work is much more genuine and smarter. I’m able to utilize the asana and pranayama to open up within myself in much more powerful ways even though I can’t necessarily bend as swiftly or even though I don’t consistently have quite as much ready energy. Now I have to listen to my self and my body more attentively and be willing to go into what is there today. Sometimes that means being satisfied with less and being more subtle in my awareness.
Also, I used to need a lot of asana practice, a lot of sweat and rhythm as a catharsis, as a way to wrestle with demons and overcome things within myself. I needed to exhaust myself through that kind of battle. Now that isn’t as necessary or relevant and so I don’t need that same kind of intense rhythm every day that I needed in the past. Through my practice I’ve worked through a lot and understand what constitutes a deep asana for me. Its such a curious paradox because I understand what a deep asana is and I can go there much faster now even though there’s a sometimes more physical unwillingness. Sometimes I feel a tinge of regret, I wish I had figured out some of what I know now sooner.
As I age I have more appreciation for Guruji and his method and the sequences of asana’s. For example I see this incredible depth in the second series. Consider Krounchasana, it is more of a forward bend then all of the forward bends in the primary series. When you strike Krounchasana you are expected to be ready immediately, you are expected to bend forward deeply without the preparation and repetition that exists in the primary series. There’s an immediate depth that is asked of you in the second series. All the series have these deepening layers that continue to be revealed as you practice year after year.
Or take Dristi, as I’ve gotten older I orient myself differently with regard to basic gazing. Now I’m more centered, steady and clear. I also have more clarity about different sets of variables that go into each posture and have more skill to work with those variables in a more immediate and balanced way.
What made Guruji special to you? Did he permanently change your life and how?
He was large enough and grounded enough to see and understand some important things about me and about many people. In this significant way he let me know that what I was doing was alright. This ‘alright’ feeling gave me permission to let my energy flow freely and in directions that were right for me. It took somebody really grounded to do that because I had so much raw energy and so much inner conflict and fear. To have somebody be so grounded and to see my fear and understand it somehow gave me permission to see it too and thus move through it and let it go. Guruji had this knowledge of Yoga and that’s what gave him this largeness and this ability to embrace so many people. He showed me the how big Yoga is; he showed me yoga’s breadth and what it can encompass and how I can find belonging and expression in it. Yes he changed me permanently. He helped wipe out my self hatred, inner turmoil, anger, lack of confidence, in a fundamental way forever. Now I have those things but they can never go as deep as they were because he helped me find that deeper place of love. Practice keeps renewing it but Guruji gave it to me in such a way that even if I never practiced again, I will still have it.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
6 Days a week since 93'
The category "From David's Ashtanga Journals" describes excerpts from David's ongoing book journal. The excerpts are minimally edited.
April 4th, 2011
Recently, I told this story about myself in a workshop.
In September my partner and I went to India, it was my first trip there after the death of Guruji. I had emailed Sharath to tell him we were coming and all was set but I had this resistance to Mysore. I'd made more than a dozen pilgrimages to India and never once 'traveled' or seen the other parts of the country. Guruji was in Mysore, why would I want or need to go anywhere else? I was sad to have to directly face that Guruji wasn't there anymore and surfing had been on the back of my mind for more than a decade. As a skateboarder, I would pretend to surf the concrete like a wave. I'd always wanted to set aside some time to have a surf vacation, preferably in or near India so that I could still do some Yoga. But my practice and studying with Guruji always took precedence. But this time I decided to go with the surf yearning...sort of.
Somehow my partner and I ended up on these remote islands off the east coast of India called the Andamman islands. I had a twin objective: to spend some much needed time focusing on my asana practice and surf. We found an idyllic setting on a pristine island. The color of the ocean was dreamy and inspiring. We found a resort with a largely unused Yoga room located up above the lodging area with a panoramic view spanning towards the ocean above the jungle foliage and tree tops.
So the surfing and Yoga combo started well enough. But it didn't take long for the battering of the waves to take its toll on my body. Practice became more like trying to stretch out and 'recover' from surfing. But I was still determined to do both. So I kept pushing for intensity in my practice. Then IT happened. I was in Parivrtta Parsvakonasana-twisting side angle. I felt this little, but distinct lightning bolt streak of strong sensations run directly across my sacrum. I immediately stood up and lost my Yogic powers of detachment and content. I limped around uttering plenty of expletives. I knew almost instantly that my month of intense practice and surfing was finished. I was very disappointed and also angry with myself for pushing just beyond my edge and allowing myself to play so close to it. I regretted the energy I had put into surfing. As the afternoon and next few days unfolded I realized my nightmare was true I could not really bend in any direction forward or backwards in any capacity. I made a decision to work with my Yoga practice in whatever capacity that was available to me no matter how limited. For the next month I did several hours a day of Pranayama alternating between supine positions and dandasana with my feet at the wall.
I thought I had reflected on what happened there and perhaps even extracted lessons out of it but it wasn't until I told this story to the people in the workshop that I realized I hadn't fully processed the event. When I told the story there wasn't really a point, whereas usually when I tell such a story there is some inspiration or message behind it. For me something was still dangling. And then an 'aha' moment came soon after. I'd always had two nagging dreams in my life; The Surfing Dream and The Yoga Dream. I'd had the surfing dream since I was a boy. It was also a fall back idea for me if the Yoga relationship didn't work out. I'd just become a surfer, spend my time in the ocean, riding waves. Then I had the Yoga dream. The Yoga dream was to continue to maintain and develop the art, grace and beauty of my Ashtanga practice. Since that time on the islands I realize there has been a shift in me.
As we all age we see how challenging it is to continue to practice in such a way that our bodies and minds stay truly strong, fit and supple. Other priorites come along to replace the fire, zeal, and devotion we have for practice. It is tempting to let ourselves off the hook thinking that asana is for youth. That somehow being intensely physical has a cut off point-perhaps it does for some of us. But for many of us, the discoveries we make as we flow though our sequences continue to feed our body's, minds, and souls. And we continue to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to really go into our asana practices. We also realize more and more the extent to which we have to give up other things. This is the key if you want to have a fruitful serious asana practice, you must know it and fashion your life and choices to ensure it. There really is limited time and thus limited things you have available to put your energy into. The reality is that Ashtanga Yoga asks much of you; it gives you much but also asks much. The surfing dream has lost its power over me. Stuck on the Andamman Islands unable to really practice well, unable to surf--but able to sit there with lots of time for incubation and musing--it felt like the universe was saying: ' IF YOU WANT BOTH YOU'LL HAVE NEITHER' ... whoah!
Do you see it? What is holding you back, from going further, I'm talking about things that truly don't belong there. Not things in your life that do belong, like a great job, relationship, children, art and such, ultimately, those things feed you and your soul in just as necessary ways as your practice does. I'm talking about the things only you'll know what they are. The expendable parts of your life that you are choosing to divert your energy into. The reality is that Ashtanga might help a person be better at nearly any physical activity, but nearly any other physical activity will compromise your Ashtanga practice in some way. For me, even how much I admire the soul of true surfing, I still choose my Yoga practice. There's a subtlety to it that is not found elsewhere. Even dreaming about being a surfer diverts my attention, even the possibility that I might drop my serious practice and go surf takes away from my practice.
I now feel more grounded, lighter, and more excited about Yoga practice. I wish I could just touch your feet and you'd feel what I feel and then you would drop those lesser dreams you are harboring that aren't worth it. Funnel your energy towards the real heart of what you want to share, create, and become-- unswerving, able to keep the target in your sights. You'll see a major shift in your experience, new found energy for what you want will arrive to help you. I'm no longer dreaming of surf vacations, I'm dreaming of dropping into my body, into my center, finding that flow, finding the depths, the athleticism, presence, power, finding that ability to illuminate the entire inner field. I prefer sensing, feeling, intuiting and thinking my way into the pure enjoyment, pure consciousness, and the profound experience of now, that Ashtanga Yoga offers.
May 2011 Research for my new Pranayama dvd began on the Andamman Islands.
April 4th, 2011
Recently, I told this story about myself in a workshop.
In September my partner and I went to India, it was my first trip there after the death of Guruji. I had emailed Sharath to tell him we were coming and all was set but I had this resistance to Mysore. I'd made more than a dozen pilgrimages to India and never once 'traveled' or seen the other parts of the country. Guruji was in Mysore, why would I want or need to go anywhere else? I was sad to have to directly face that Guruji wasn't there anymore and surfing had been on the back of my mind for more than a decade. As a skateboarder, I would pretend to surf the concrete like a wave. I'd always wanted to set aside some time to have a surf vacation, preferably in or near India so that I could still do some Yoga. But my practice and studying with Guruji always took precedence. But this time I decided to go with the surf yearning...sort of.
Somehow my partner and I ended up on these remote islands off the east coast of India called the Andamman islands. I had a twin objective: to spend some much needed time focusing on my asana practice and surf. We found an idyllic setting on a pristine island. The color of the ocean was dreamy and inspiring. We found a resort with a largely unused Yoga room located up above the lodging area with a panoramic view spanning towards the ocean above the jungle foliage and tree tops.
So the surfing and Yoga combo started well enough. But it didn't take long for the battering of the waves to take its toll on my body. Practice became more like trying to stretch out and 'recover' from surfing. But I was still determined to do both. So I kept pushing for intensity in my practice. Then IT happened. I was in Parivrtta Parsvakonasana-twisting side angle. I felt this little, but distinct lightning bolt streak of strong sensations run directly across my sacrum. I immediately stood up and lost my Yogic powers of detachment and content. I limped around uttering plenty of expletives. I knew almost instantly that my month of intense practice and surfing was finished. I was very disappointed and also angry with myself for pushing just beyond my edge and allowing myself to play so close to it. I regretted the energy I had put into surfing. As the afternoon and next few days unfolded I realized my nightmare was true I could not really bend in any direction forward or backwards in any capacity. I made a decision to work with my Yoga practice in whatever capacity that was available to me no matter how limited. For the next month I did several hours a day of Pranayama alternating between supine positions and dandasana with my feet at the wall.
I thought I had reflected on what happened there and perhaps even extracted lessons out of it but it wasn't until I told this story to the people in the workshop that I realized I hadn't fully processed the event. When I told the story there wasn't really a point, whereas usually when I tell such a story there is some inspiration or message behind it. For me something was still dangling. And then an 'aha' moment came soon after. I'd always had two nagging dreams in my life; The Surfing Dream and The Yoga Dream. I'd had the surfing dream since I was a boy. It was also a fall back idea for me if the Yoga relationship didn't work out. I'd just become a surfer, spend my time in the ocean, riding waves. Then I had the Yoga dream. The Yoga dream was to continue to maintain and develop the art, grace and beauty of my Ashtanga practice. Since that time on the islands I realize there has been a shift in me.
As we all age we see how challenging it is to continue to practice in such a way that our bodies and minds stay truly strong, fit and supple. Other priorites come along to replace the fire, zeal, and devotion we have for practice. It is tempting to let ourselves off the hook thinking that asana is for youth. That somehow being intensely physical has a cut off point-perhaps it does for some of us. But for many of us, the discoveries we make as we flow though our sequences continue to feed our body's, minds, and souls. And we continue to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to really go into our asana practices. We also realize more and more the extent to which we have to give up other things. This is the key if you want to have a fruitful serious asana practice, you must know it and fashion your life and choices to ensure it. There really is limited time and thus limited things you have available to put your energy into. The reality is that Ashtanga Yoga asks much of you; it gives you much but also asks much. The surfing dream has lost its power over me. Stuck on the Andamman Islands unable to really practice well, unable to surf--but able to sit there with lots of time for incubation and musing--it felt like the universe was saying: ' IF YOU WANT BOTH YOU'LL HAVE NEITHER' ... whoah!
Do you see it? What is holding you back, from going further, I'm talking about things that truly don't belong there. Not things in your life that do belong, like a great job, relationship, children, art and such, ultimately, those things feed you and your soul in just as necessary ways as your practice does. I'm talking about the things only you'll know what they are. The expendable parts of your life that you are choosing to divert your energy into. The reality is that Ashtanga might help a person be better at nearly any physical activity, but nearly any other physical activity will compromise your Ashtanga practice in some way. For me, even how much I admire the soul of true surfing, I still choose my Yoga practice. There's a subtlety to it that is not found elsewhere. Even dreaming about being a surfer diverts my attention, even the possibility that I might drop my serious practice and go surf takes away from my practice.
I now feel more grounded, lighter, and more excited about Yoga practice. I wish I could just touch your feet and you'd feel what I feel and then you would drop those lesser dreams you are harboring that aren't worth it. Funnel your energy towards the real heart of what you want to share, create, and become-- unswerving, able to keep the target in your sights. You'll see a major shift in your experience, new found energy for what you want will arrive to help you. I'm no longer dreaming of surf vacations, I'm dreaming of dropping into my body, into my center, finding that flow, finding the depths, the athleticism, presence, power, finding that ability to illuminate the entire inner field. I prefer sensing, feeling, intuiting and thinking my way into the pure enjoyment, pure consciousness, and the profound experience of now, that Ashtanga Yoga offers.
May 2011 Research for my new Pranayama dvd began on the Andamman Islands.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Asana Kitchen: Working Towards Viparita Chakrasana (PT 3)
To View on my new blog!
Greetings! Here's the final installment of this Viparita Chakrasana series; I could easily have made this an 8 part Asana Kitchen or more! There is so much to explore about this complex, dynamic, and amazing posture. However, by reviewing pts 1-3 you should be able to make a decent start. Or if you are practicing tics tacs, I hope you can get new ideas for how to develop it and refine it and eventually nail it! Enjoy!
I would also like to mention that the application for my 2011 and 2012 Indepth Studies are now posted on my website. I will also be teaching a Mysore Intensive in India (Kovalam, Kerala) for the month of February, 2012. You can apply for that on my website as well.
Hari Om,
David
P.S I will be back with a new post in two weeks!
Greetings! Here's the final installment of this Viparita Chakrasana series; I could easily have made this an 8 part Asana Kitchen or more! There is so much to explore about this complex, dynamic, and amazing posture. However, by reviewing pts 1-3 you should be able to make a decent start. Or if you are practicing tics tacs, I hope you can get new ideas for how to develop it and refine it and eventually nail it! Enjoy!
I would also like to mention that the application for my 2011 and 2012 Indepth Studies are now posted on my website. I will also be teaching a Mysore Intensive in India (Kovalam, Kerala) for the month of February, 2012. You can apply for that on my website as well.
Hari Om,
David
P.S I will be back with a new post in two weeks!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Asana Kitchen: Working Towards Viparita Chakrasana
You can read this on my new blog!
Greetings!
Part two of this series deals with rhythm in the tic tacs. It is the shortest video of the three because I want you to work with the 1, 2, 3, rhythm for a week before you move on to Part three. It is crucial that your body understands how much momentum and rhythmic motion is needed to successfully come back over. So this week your job is to integrate the 1, 2, 3 into your backbend!
Check back next week for part three!
David
Greetings!
Part two of this series deals with rhythm in the tic tacs. It is the shortest video of the three because I want you to work with the 1, 2, 3, rhythm for a week before you move on to Part three. It is crucial that your body understands how much momentum and rhythmic motion is needed to successfully come back over. So this week your job is to integrate the 1, 2, 3 into your backbend!
Check back next week for part three!
David
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Asana Kitchen: Working Towards Viparita Chakrasana or Tic Tac's Part One
You can view this post on my new blog!
I am pleased to announce a new installment of the Asana Kitchen. For the next three weeks I will be posting parts 1-3 of the challenging and beautiful Viparita Chakarasana, otherwise known as Tic Tac’s. I would like to thank all of my students who participated in the filming, Joy for editing the epic post, and Claudia who not only asked the question but also filmed herself doing the posture. Sending in a video was a great way for me to directly see what she needed to work on.
I hope you find the instruction helpful!
Hari Om,
David
I am pleased to announce a new installment of the Asana Kitchen. For the next three weeks I will be posting parts 1-3 of the challenging and beautiful Viparita Chakarasana, otherwise known as Tic Tac’s. I would like to thank all of my students who participated in the filming, Joy for editing the epic post, and Claudia who not only asked the question but also filmed herself doing the posture. Sending in a video was a great way for me to directly see what she needed to work on.
I hope you find the instruction helpful!
Hari Om,
David
Friday, April 22, 2011
Ashtanga Yoga and the Secret of Mula Bandha
Greetings,
I have been working on this piece in my head for months and finally I have completed the article!! I am happy to share it with you and I feel like it is an important and crucial aspect to the practice.
I would also like mention that I have opened up the Ashtanga Yoga School in Philadelphia. If you are ever in the area I invite you to practice with me and the amazing Philadelphia students. You can also read this post on my new blog!!
Hari Om,
David
Part I
Ashtanga Yoga (as in the 8 limbs) begins with Ahimsa, non-harming. Yama is the first limb of the eight limbs and ahimsa is the first Yama. Thus ahimsa can be considered the base, the very foundation and support of the 8 eight limbs. Consider the use of the word ahimsa, the main root himsa, means violence, harm, aggression. When you add the “A” in front of it it becomes ahimsa, the opposite of himsa. The use of the word Ahimsa in this ‘negative’ manner is intentional. For example the first yama could have been ‘peace’ or ‘care’ but instead it is stated as the opposite of non peace. That is because himsa is simply inherent, part of you and me, an automatic, survival response to fear and/or perceived threat.
Often emotionally we start from himsa, we are born with a bent, a tendency to express aggression and violence under certain circumstances. In order to get to peace or empathy, we need to find our way through our aggression by cultivating its opposite. You must adopt a conscious stance or intention that helps you turn your energy around and go ‘against the grain’; to find a different choice, as was practiced by both Gandhi and MLK.
Stated positively Ahimsa means care, extraordinarily high level, genuine, deep, sustained care; the kind of care that begins within your body when you take up a serious, soulful asana practice. Curiously both mula bandha and ahimsa are found together there. They are both foundational, core practices that involve harnessing the powerful energy that exists in the form of deep drives within us. Mula bandha and ahimsa involve redirection of this energy, a causing of this energy to move out of mundane channels, to flow along spiritual channels to draw forth what is real and what has truth within us.
Ahimsa and mula bandha meet as two complimentary allies in your daily practice, in fact with practice you discover they are one and the same practice. In yoga when you enter into the body, you enter into your center, the realm of mula bandha, the root support at the base of the spine. Breathing, moving, and creating your stance, or posture from center gives you a kind of empathy and willingness to be open to your self, leads you to relate to and work to understand anything and everything that occurs within you. This is the basis of ahimsa and the foundation of yoga practice. You find that in order to get a grip on the practice of ahimsa, you must also work on mula bandha and vice versa.
Guruji insisted on the importance of practicing and performing Mula Bandha. He said that mula bandha is a contraction of the anus, gives mind control and must be practiced 24/7. In a recent conference with Sharath Jois (Guruji’s grandson), Sharath related a story about how he asked Guruji about the difficulties he was having with a challenging section of an advanced series postures. This set of postures requires you to alternate between opposing postural patterns (ie extreme extension to flexion etc) without a warm up, without the hand holding type of continuity of first or second or even third series offers. Guruji told Sharath it was only possible to master this sequence by achieving a strong Mula Bandha. This story lit up the point that you practice Mula Bandha to strengthen your base, your center so as to be able to choose more freely both physically and psychologically, and thus not get caught in one kind of pattern or groove. You become oriented and strong in the middle, in your core, and become capable of switching between patterns, even extreme opposites with relative ease. Mula bandha could be defined as ‘the ability to stay rooted and centered with ease and thus to stop and redirect your self as is desired and necessary. Ahimsa requires this same ability, you must learn how to respond creatively to the strong drives within you, neither blindly following their dictates, nor rejecting their power and the directions they may be indicating that you need to explore.
Part II
The need to be able to redirect your energy is true in an asana sense, but more important, it’s true in a psychological sense. When Guruji spoke of Mula Bandha giving ‘mind control’ he meant precisely this, that to apply mula bandha, you have to have enough mental strength to ‘stop’ the patterns of mind that take you away from where you want to go. You have be able to do this as immediately as you are able; with sharp, razor like control that is coupled with receptive, insightful care. Without mula bandha, without inhabiting your center, you won’t have the immovable stance, nor the mental maturity that you need, and so you will frequently and even helplessly watch your self think and behave in ways that are against your innards.
Anger often bursts upon you with a swiftness when it comes, as do other strong emotions. Before you know it you’ve said or done something harmful to your self and/or others. Working with your base, mula bandha allows you to match the energy of those emotions and thus to diffuse or re channel that energy and transform it into something else, something more right, more appropriate to the situation, more creative and personally empowering to you. In part the trick is in the timing; can you catch your self, reflect, let go of the grudge, make a different choice. Can you do it now, or in 10 minutes, or an hour, or a day, (or years later in your head)?
The reasons we waste our energy in harmful and small ways is at least in part based on a fundamental unwillingness to face our pain and fears in timely, sustained ways and with enough commitment and emotional engagement to change ourselves. And we also waste our energy simply because we’ve forgotten how to just be happy, how to celebrate life with ease, and how to be truly joyous as happens when we are involved creatively in our lives or when we just simply stop and breathe and tune in what is here exactly now.
But frequently, rather than really see ourselves moment to moment with our contradiction, weakness, vulnerability, insecurity, and emotional nakedness, we’ll pass up the thrills and joys of now, and instead, we’ll dissipate energy, let our power go down and out of the body somehow. We’ll indulge in something in one way or another whether it’s anger, envy or something that promises immediate happiness. And we’ll convince ourselves that it’s alright this time, and fail to remember how many times and for how many years we’ve let it be ok ‘this time’.
Maya (ignorance, or the veil) lulls us into drowsiness and steals our sense of the passage of time. We can become bafflingly unreflective, meanwhile the life we want floats by, mirage like, our dreams shimmering up ahead hazily out of reach but tantalizing close, close enough and distinct enough to feel real. And yet the years pass and we’re still eating when not hungry, drinking or smoking or shopping or watching tv or computering to forget our pain or how hard it all seems. We’re still pushing away the intimacy we so long for, and finding ourselves caught in our personal round of ‘life drama’s’ ‘that seem to come up one after the other and effectively sap our energies and prevent growth.
Mula bandha’s relationship to ahimsa provides a vital link between the physical practice and the emotional, mental aspects of practice. I don’t only do mula bandha so that I can perfect my ’float’ in jump backs. Those jump backs need to be connected to a greater awakening within myself. Can I bring that same grace and power to my emotional life, to my hidden attitudes about myself, to my behavior in relationships and even to such basic things as my eating patterns. Practicing mula bandha as ahimsa gives you the ability to close the gap between the little you and the you as your unique expression of the Divine Self, the Cosmic Magician, The Trickster, The Beloved, the Secret one, the one with a Thunderous Voice, the one you really wish and yearn to be.
Some examples of redirection of Prana to be able to switch back and forth between these as the need dictates, without ‘stickiness’ and immediately as possible:
anger to forgiveness
envy to appreciation
fear to faith
shouting to listening
craving to contentment
aversion to indifference
superficial to deep
gross to subtle
judgement to empaathy
blue to red, red to blue
scarcity to abundance
taking to giving
peripheral to central
inherent sadness, depression to inherent joy,
will and effort to receptivity, being
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