I do not really know the audience of this blog but I guess that most of you practice Adho Mukha Svanasana at least a couple of times a week....meaning to say that it does not matter to hear similarities in stories about the life in Pune from me. Each experience is unique and beholds the promise of renewed inspiration.
I am here almost 4 weeks now, long enough to have passed the abdominal and nasal stress test. Passed yes, meaning that my immune system is up for the battle. However the little guys (germs) are lurking everywhere and constant vigilance is in place. I am convinced that my "icanbreathe" mask and the GSE extract are of major importance to the survival in Pune. It is my 3rd time here and the pollution is oppressive to say the least. More cars than ever fill the streets and even the relative peace at Guruji's school is disturbed since FC road has been turned into a one way road. Last night's restorative class was a sound sculpture of sneezes, scrapings and nose blows. So be prepared you blog readers!
Studying In Pune with the family is a huge treat, privilege and indeed also a deep experience of belonging. All the practice, all the teachings from back home, from past years and years to follow, have their root here. So no matter what our cultural background is,here we meet at the mula, the root and we form a community, a group of people sharing the common language of yoga under the auspices of the Iyengar family. We are already yoked simply by walking through the gate of the school.....I know that you, stranger from the other side of the world, practice and love the same art as I do. Therefore: "Namaskar!"
Entering the school (it feels more like a school than an institute to me) almost each day is a special experience: material life stands still here and there is something of a 'higher' atmosphere as if the air molecules inside here are ever containing the essence of years of hard work, sweat, spiritual break- through moments and yogic vibrations.
Rooms are bare, minimally outfitted and the bathrooms are from the first day of earth's existence. The architecture of the building is interesting, slightly disorienting with hidden rooms and wings. Shri Hanuman presides over the top. Everything you touch has a function, there is nothing superfluous. Upstairs is the great yoga room and this room gets filled to the max with students or as we know in good Iyengar style: sometimes there are more props than students, sometimes more students than props. However: this is our school. Guruji practices with us most mornings and Geetaji comes in late morning. This again illustrates the sense of community that I find deeply moving: we are all in the same room, we are all one in yoga.
During practice times Guruji is practicing with us; sometimes he retreats into his own poses, sometimes he teaches to whomever is in front of him and many times he is simply teaching while leaning against the horse. Always sharp, seeing everything. He also instructs senior teachers to perform in front of him or for them to correct another student, while he observes. He does not hesitate to ask the confrontational question: 'so if you don't know the pose yourself, how can you teach it?'. He is investigating how your mind works. How often do we think that we know certain asanas? How often do we assume that a senior teacher knows more than a junior teacher? To Guruji we are all the same. He kicks all pillars away that one has built their own yoga institution on and consequently your ideas and beliefs are under direct scrutiny and exposure.
In order to practice yoga we have to come level with humility and innocence as they bring about respect for the subject as well as purity and curiosity.
Knowing all the points that create a perfect asana or having the technical ability to perform a perfect asana........this knowing still consists of the three gunas and is therefore fluctuating knowledge. Guruji wants us to be humble and innocent in order to closely observe how the intelligence penetrates the body.
He asks us: what is heavy? what is light? where is thickness? where is thinness? where is the skin white or red? how does the skin move? did any change happen? did you observe it? why did you not do it? how is it moving? which is the direction? when you press the big toe...what is the change all over, do you see it?
This very questioning brings the alertness and curiosity into the practice. It means also that we have to try things to see if they work, that we have to repeat and refine in order to have that intelligence moving everywhere.
Similarly, Geeta has asked us this month to use the right tools to enable the deepening of the asana. We have been working with the tools of movement and repetition during many classes this month. Pumping, Pushing, Rolling, Swinging and Throwing (as in throwing the trunk sideways in Parivtitta Janu Sirsasana). These tools take us out of the classic way of entering and exiting a poses and give new information. Only if we ask ourselves afterwards: did something happen, is there a difference, does the pose come better? Otherwise it is mindless doing, or as Prashantji would say: 'Okay if you can't help it , go ahead and do your exercises!'
He said it very well too: frequency and repetition within asana is very important for the advanced practitioner.....otherwise there can be no exploration.

So here I am. Navigating and tending to the mind behind the practice. Puna itself serving as a huge metaphor for cittavritti. All the dust, the sweeping, the honking, the crowds, the fumes.......and then suddenly, a smile of a girl in a bright pink dress, the sight of beautiful red apples perfectly arranged on an old cart, orange flowers falling from a tree, the scent of agarbattis and the sound of a prayer bell........ Gems are here to be caught.

Thank you dear Iyengar family for your tremendous hospitality.
Lucienne

a moment from Pune

dear Everyone Namaskar!

It has been a delightfully dense learning in the embrace of the Iyengars; so much is packed in each ray of guidance they shine upon us, Geetaji and Prashantji in formal class, Guruji Iyengar in wonderful moments that you chance upon in your goings and comings in the Institute. One such moment was a late afternoon that I came to the Institue, and happened upon a gathering of Russian visitors, students of Iyengar yoga who were interviewing Mr. Iyengar. I promptly sat down amongst them and listened. I share with you some of these gems that I was able to note down...:

"art is infinite; it is like an ocean. Our minds are limited. .. As you go on doing, new gates open, reach that level as far as possible.

On the future and the past:
"I never look at the past nor the future. Only the present. The moment is stable, so I am stable. I will not get caught in the cycle of movement. Do you call the river, past, present, future? The river flows to the sea. . death is the culmination of the river going to the sea..

"If you get in frame of mind 'I want this', what is coming, you don't see. You make a frame and you don't know the content. Don't have a frame! That is called as without mind... the mind's dual role: the soul and the senses of perception - it [the mind] doesn't take you here and there, you don't sink nor swim. Yoga makes the dual mind into a single mind through asanas."

On the role of the teacher:
"A teacher should be a student, learn from students the mistakes; be a learner; practice at home why mistakes are made; correct them experientially; how students go wrong, correct, play with your body - take the shape and then correct it - learn how to shift the intelligence there - then guide. Be a learner like the raw student who does innocently - mind is innocent, you do calculatedly!"

On practice:
"Anatomy of the asana and anatomy of the human body - learn to synchronise the two. Don't disturb the anatomy of the body".

"Steps to clean the mind: experiential state that cannot be explained; experience = look!

"Make the intelligence to feel each and every part.

"Trace the avenues in the body so that the intelligence can move through; trace the intelligence in par with the body - evenly : 'sthira shukham asanam'".

You will find it delightful to know that Mr. Iyengar corrected the alignment of one of his students right there and then, the gentleman was in full street clothes, long pants and button down shirt: but Mr. Iyengar corrected the direction of the lift of the skin of his thighs and calfs to correct his Tadasana! Later he corrected the shape of his knees in Virasana, without ever looking at him straight on = the student was sitting on the floor in virasana right next to him (Guruji's left); not once did he look at the student, but saw all misalignments and by correcting the positioning of the buttuck bones, the direction of the calf muscle, he corrected this man's virasana! A delight was this to witness!

I wish everyone an opportunity to visit Pune too.

with blessings and love
naghmeh

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