Parsvakonasana fried Trikonasana - remembering Mary Dunn in Pune

A week after the NY Institute spent the weekend celebrating the life of Mary Dunn, I reflect in Pune upon how lucky her students were. Taking wonderfully inspiring and challenging classes at R.I.M.Y.I. has reinforced these feelings of good fortune. Mary accurately transmitted the teachings coming from Pune. She helped us tap into what Prashant refers to as the body's innate "will to do", goaded us on to develop our "will to learn", and always allowed our "will to be" to surface and come to the fore. When useful, she translated the teachings for us so that they could resonate with our experience and cultural background. And of course there were the food metaphors... Prashant recently challenged us to not be overwhelmed by the combinations he offered us to work with. He supposed that we wouldn't be overwhelmed but instead very pleased by a lengthy restaurant menu, even one, perhaps, the size of a phone book... Two weeks ago we were asked to take trikonasana after first "frying" it in parsvakonasana. This parsvakonasana-fried trikonasana was meant to be altered indelibly in its preparation - not simply trikonasana with some Parsvakonasana on the side! My yoga practice and that of so many others around the world, has been, if I may so, unalterably fried in Mary Dunn and how wonderful is that!

Dmitri

Thank you Prashant. – From Light to Dark, and Back.

Think about having a teacher that can, whether you know it or not, make you question the very fabric of your being. To have you questioning the depths within yourself that you never knew were there…  That is what it is like to study with Prashant Iyengar.

 Prashant is continuously preaching, “you are only doing it physiocratically.”  “You are in a doing culture!”  “When are you going to learn?” 

You see…  I believe am a person, a teacher who lives, draws from, and basks in the light that is Yoga.  Hardly ever exploring the vast caverns of your mind where only a glimmer of light helps you to see the hand in front of your face.  But, what I learned today is that there is a very dark side to this Yoga, and that this darkness has just as much to teach us, and just as much for us to draw from.  The darkness is the unknown of what we think we know about ourselves.  The darkness of questioning what we know, and what we believe to be True.

And it takes a man like Prashant Iyengar to push you down that tunnel of the unknown.

In Prashant’s class this morning, he lectured that Yoga has become “big business,” and that all Yoga teachers today are trying to be “impressive” teachers who impress their students so that they continue to come to class, and that none of them are teaching the true meaning of Yoga…  This insulted me as a teacher because he is right.  It bruised my ego so badly that I left class insulted and angry – and remained that way all day. It was something I just couldn’t let go.  Then I realized what he was teaching, and I found it was something I shouldn’t let go…

I started thinking about the questions he was asking: “When are you going to get out of this gym psychosis?”  “When are you going to understand what you are supposed to learn here?”  “All you think about is what you are supposed to do,” he says.  “You never think about why you do, or how you do!”

And then, out of nowhere, I found myself asking myself these questions, and what emerged was something I already knew, but didn’t…

I realized that I AM a person that truly loves this practice and would not give up spreading that love for anything in the world.  But, you see, I never questioned what it meant to me to be on this path…  I never thought about what it meant to me to be traveling this path.  I was just happy to be where I was.  I was proud to be on this Yogic path, and felt righteous to be a Yoga teacher.

I now see that I as a practitioner it is my responsibility to do the searching.  It is my quest to figure it out for myself, so that I can teach from my place and my experience. 

This new mindfulness has taught me to be a more observant practitioner, and to listen to instructions as a student and absorb them in such a way that I have an experience that becomes my truth.  I realized that none of it matters…  Lifting your kneecaps, opening your chest, stretching your legs, they all can all be physical traps.  What matters is what we do with them.  How we pay attention to them.  How we pay attention to the way the mind, and the breath connect with the body and mingle to move us through our endeavors, so that we start practicing Yoga. 

Prashant helped me to see this truth.  To see what it truly meant to be a student of Yoga, and to understand that this teaching of Yoga is a tremendously special endeavor.  But, most of all he gave me the courage, the means, and the opportunity to search the depths of myself for the answers. 

Like a strong Ardha Chandrasana, there is a side that is open, and brightly shining, but there is also the backside – the dark side of the moon. The side that is beneath the surface where there are questions to ask and work to be done – shoulder blades engaged, buttocks firm, arms and legs communicating for support, and that work feeds continuously to the light of our open chests and our open hearts brightly shining out into the world.     

Prashant has a way of beating you down and asking you questions that you think you can just tune out.  But if you are open they get in, and they make you question the very fabric of who you are, as a practitioner, as a teacher, and as a person.  He has searched the depths of his own mind and has developed a way to teach self-inspiration. 

So, through the search of my insulted and angry ego came clarity about what he was trying to accomplish as a teacher.  And in his genius way, he sent me down this tunnel of the unknown only to emerge out of the other side stronger and standing in awe of his bright shining light. 

- Adam

When is Your Vehicle Going to Run?

Nothing wakes you up out of your habits and patterns of body mind and breath like class with Prashant Iyengar. Last night's class was no exception. He said (I'm paraphrasing) "The Iyengar students are always fixing, adjusting, repairing...it is like I have sold you a car which is always in the shop. You are always taking it to the garage for repair! You are always doing, doing, doing and it is never done. When is your vehicle going to run?"He went on to describe drinking a cup of tea when you are on an Indian train -- the skill it takes to sip your tea without spilling it! He said it was like we were always pulling the emergency brake in order to stop and sip our tea. Being like the conductor, he said we should not be surprised if we sensed a bit of irritation or admonishment in his tone because we keep interrupting his flow by pulling the chain! He led us through Sirsasana cycle (as opposed to variations) a term he used specifically for it's implication of continuity. He asked us not to "jerk and jolt" while we went through the cycle, not to create tremors in the body, mind or breath. We kept that up through the standing poses, Sarvangasana and then some forward extensions. I kept my vehicle running all the way home to dinner.

Tori

My Day Off

When you get a time estimate in India, you should at least double it! We took a sunrise hike to the top of a hill overlooking Pune and were expecting the trip to take and hour and a half. We (Nancy Roberts, Kathy Horak, Dale from UK, and Manu Shahani) agreed to meet around 6am for our adventure. Four hours later we were getting home! That was after some good calf-tightening inclines, climbing to the top of a rickety observation tower, encountering packs of wild dogs and people, conversing with an environmental group who had us take a tour of the 2,000 trees they planted (which they water by hand!!!), taking photographs of the group, called the Green Hills Group and finally being invited to tak part in their traditional "laughing" circle to wrap up the experience! Once our hilltop excursion was finished and we were down on the road, Manu's car brakes failed and we had to leave it and take rickshaws to Vaishali - a very popular restaurant. We scraped together enough rupees for dosas and coffee, which we devoured after a long wait. Finally home after the big dusty trip, I decided to do a load of laundry, which somehow flooded the entire bedroom of my roommate/landlord. Having a taste of water covering my feet as I cleaned up the mess, my yoga roommates and I decided to go lounge by a pool out past Koregan Park. It was lovely and freezing! We stayed for several hours....! After coming home and re-organizing my room, my friend Athena Pappas dropped by and invited me out to ice cream. We enjoyed reading the menu with all of it's endearing misspellings - "pinappie suprim" (pineapple supreme). After we licked our choco-almond cones, we strolled home amidst endless traffic, honking, unexpected large toads on the sidewalk and the magic that India always delivers under the light of a waning moon. More adventures to come!

Love,
Tori

Setu Bandha Obama!

The Americans were very excited this morning. We began the ladies class knowing Obama was in the lead but his victory was still unconfirmed. As many of you know, though it is a "ladies" class, male teachers often observe from the steps, and in some cases assist, to expand their knowledge. Halfway through class, our friend Aaron showed up on the steps and started mouthing something to us... Geeta was yelling at us to get into Bridge Pose and we thought he was trying to be helpful by saying "Setu Bandha!" Well, we eventually figured out what he was saying ("Obama!") and suffice it to say, there was much glee around the coconut cart after class. We are all looking forward to a celebatory potluck tonight.

As wonderful as it is to be here celebrating with my compadres and our Israeli, German, Japanese, Brazilian, British, Kiwi, Ausie, South Afrikan, Italian, and last but not least, Dutch friends, in my heart of hearts I am really missing you, struck by an unexpected desire to stand on American soil, exchange hugs, and share this great moment with you.

Cheers and hugs and love,

Eve

Patanjali Jayanti Day - October 26, 2008 - by Tori

It is a new month here in Pune with quite a few of us continuing and a lot of new faces too, including three from IYAGNY – Leslie Mannes, Susan Turis and Cynthia Worby. I ran into them in the lobby of The Ambiance Hotel down the road and as Susan’s eyes focused on me she said “Tori! A familiar face!!” Since then, we have, of course run into each other on the sidewalk several times.

Last week, I took a few days to travel by overnight train with six others to Goa’s coast and had a lovely time while the Institute was closed for Diwali. The morning of the 26th was Patanjali Jayanti Day and those of us going on the trip made sure we stayed for that celebration before we went to the beach! I’m so glad we did.

The three hour program began with Geetaji reciting Patanjali’s 108 names, which she did quite quickly. We tried to follow as best we could without a handout, and she very patiently broke the words down into manageable pieces as we went. It was very energizing and great preparation for reciting the Yoga Sutras as well. Since reciting all of the Sutras was going to take too long for the program, Geeta explained, Guruji recommended that we first do Sadhana Pada (Chapter 2), the first 13 sutras of Vibhuiti Pada (Chapter 3) followed by Samadhi Pada (Chapter 1). After the recitation, there was a yoga demonstration put on by the Indian teachers performing asanas of various types with detailed explanations of sequencing, organic effects and more. After the asana demonstrations, two teachers did a pranayama demonstration/lecture. Geeta praised the teachers for doing such a fine job with their last-minute organization.

Then, Geeta asked Guruji to speak. The room turned away from the marble platform toward Guruji, who was seated against a pillar in the middle of the room, on the floor with the rest of us. He gave a short talk connoting how the kosas, which he condensed into the three bodies – the gross body, the subtle body and the causal body relate to Kriya Yoga, the first sutra of Sadhana Pada. 11.1 tapah svadhyaya Isvarapranidhanani kriyayogah. He explained how the gross body (anotomical) needs tapas, the subtle body ( physiological, intellectual, mental) needs svadyaya and the causal body (blissful, spiritual) needs Isvara Pranidhana. After Guruji’s incredibly intelligent words on such a vast subject, we were invited down to the courtyard for prasad, Indian sweets, including a special ladu made for Diwali, as that day was Diwali’s official beginning. Geeta and Guruji welcomed us all into this extension of their humble home as many swarmed like paparazzi for a photo opportunity. The mood was light and warm, and each was good-natured as the shutterbugs clicked away.

As I walked out of the driveway, I paid homage to Patanjali, lavishly dressed in a garland of flowers. Then I took all my kosas to the train and spent the next several days enjoying a rest by the Arabian Sea, including the common sighting of cows on the beach, dolphin spotting from my sea kayak and a great motorbike ride with my friend Larry Lopez from San Francisco. With no pollution and ample time, I reflected on the profundity of my first month in Pune. Here’s to another one!