Further Reflections on (International) Iyengar Yoga Assessment and Training, and Abhi on props

December 9, 2015
Pune, India

On Friday, I'll have been in India for two full weeks, and what full weeks they have been! We have a group of over 1200 who are now in the middle of learning from Geetaji at her second annual Yoga Anusasanam at Balewadi Sports Stadium. She is teaching asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana. She has been in extraordinarily good spirits and has already given some amazing classes. My favorite so far has been this afternoon's pranayama session which included digital work in Brahmari in seated and supine positions. What a brilliant way to quiet the mind. We are surely in for more of this excellence in the days to come. The venue works well; the support staff are VERY helpful, and everyone from the whole wide world is getting along famously in the glow of Iyengar yoga.

In the afternoons, we are having sessions on Guruji's writings, his invention of props, and even a music concert.  Abhijata's presentation on props yesterday was especially enlightening. The first story was of Guruji working with the principal of Fergusson College, a local Pune institution. He was in his eighties, and could barely walk. Guru noticed that when he had the principal lie down to do prone poses, his legs kept coming together. So he saw a nearby bar and used it between his heels to help keep the legs apart. Uday imitated the old man very well.

 She told of her grandfather having her stand like Charlie Chaplin (toes pointing completely outward), being placed at the end of a trestler with a stool pressing her hips and legs into the end of the trestler and being told to bend backwards and hold the long bar. When she asked Guruji why, he said that turning out the feet had a better effect on her sacrum.

She had Raya and Uday show different versions of ardha chandrasana, to show that a prop could be used both to help a stiff student bring the lifted leg higher, and to help the one who goes too far to come down to the right place. In the first instance, the long bar of the horse/trestler was used for the lifted leg, and in the second instance, a rope with a weight tied into it was used on the upper leg to provide resistance.

She wound up by telling of Guruji's use of the trestler in eka pada viparita dandasana. He was using the stump to hold his sacrum/tailbone area up, and had his forearms bent and down on the wooden platform of the stump. His lifted leg was near the trestler. Abi heard him say several times to move the trestler closer, but when she offered to move it yet again closer, he said NO. He was trying to keep his leg AWAY from the bar of the horse, and finally did not want it moved closer. So here, the prop was used as a guide to stay away from, not to lift from.

The whole story of props was told in a previous blog. You can read it below if you are interested. I was especially fond of the story of the invention of the eye bandage!

A quick summary of the meetings of worldwide Iyengar Yoga Assessors and teacher trainers.  First: people involved in assessing and in training teachers should be kind and have "the human touch." Second: there is no need to race through the different levels of the various syllabi. Guruji himself thought that mentorship is a better method than teacher training group classes, apparently, and Geetaji and Prashanti echoed this opinion. HOWEVER, the word, which I'm sure everyone has heard by now, is that assessments will proceed in the year to come. Greta and Prashant did not put a stop to it, but rather gave us much food for thought as we go forward.

More from Pune in the next few days.

Reflections on Assessment, from both sides now

Some Reflections on our Process of Assessment and Growth as a Democratic, Educational Nonprofit Organization

This year, for the first time in my ten years of serving as an assessor in the US and Mexico, I will be part of two assessment teams and chair of one. That makes three, and it is probably the first and last time I will be able to do so much.

It is certainly true that those who come to BE assessed have travelled a long road of practice, and eventually, teaching. It is absolutely true that B.K.S. Iyengar himself, and now his family, daughter and son Geeta and Prashant and granddaughter Abhijata, have given their lives to the practice and teaching of the 8 limbed yoga of Patanjali. The system we have developed over our 25 years of existence as a democratic, nonprofit, educational organization asks those of us who have been fortunate enough to visit Pune several times and put enough years into practice and teaching to serve as assessors.

Each time we do this we leave our home community, our beloved personal practice space, our dear families and students, and for three intense days observe the practice and teaching of a group of dedicated people who have come for the event because they have become committed to Iyengar Yoga. Before we are permitted to serve as bona fide assessors, we have to serve twice as assessors-in-training. Both groups, then, assessors (and assessors-in-training) and candidates make substantial sacrifices to participate

So the process involves years of preparation, countless miles of airplane (or at least automobile) trave, a considerable financial investment and eventually what can only be called sacrifice or selfless service. Why on earth would intelligent people go through such a process, indeed eagerly submit to it, even clamor to serve as assessors? Searching for an answer to this question, I can only surmise that we do it because we have, firsthand and at a profound level, witnessed both in ourselves and in our students, the strengthening transformation that the practice of Iyengar Yoga brings.  What are the distinguishing features of this approach to yoga?

Attention to the mind in the practice of yogasana, attention to alignment of the embodiment, study of the yoga literature, and study of anatomy, physiology and pedagogical techniques.

After all these years on the path, I can honestly say that I have witnessed dramatic improvement in the quality of the teachers who come for assessment, AND in the thoughtfulness, compassion, and good judgment of the assessors. It is clear that our process is working, because people come from large AND small communities of yoga practitioners. Even though, as my colleague Theresa Rowland has observed, when we began to assess, there was really no national agreement on what excellence in the teaching of Iyengar yoga meant. We did not have an agreed-upon pedagogy! Despite this slightly unmoored beginning, with all the concomitant difficulties it produced, we have made giant steps.

The reasons for the difficulties surely was that senior teachers who had been with B.K.S. Iyengar for years had been with him often together, but sometimes at different occasions. There are many who knew Guruji infinitely better than I did. His genius, in my opinion, was largely based in his ability to teach to the people in front of him. He was passionate about bringing an understanding of how the physical body can be used as a vehicle to an experience of profound peace, balance, and eventually, spiritual enlightenment. Focussed yoga practice, he maintained, is a way to deepen your understanding of the sanctity of life no matter what god or no god you may believe in. Of course he taught differently to different people at different times. And of course, this would lead to some confusion in the attempt to construct rules or even guidelines for practitioners and new teachers.

This fall, two thirds of the way through my commitments in this process, I can say with joy that our system is bearing fruit. From both sides, the candidates' side and the assessors' side, we have made tangible, visible, durable progress. There is, of course, still work to be done, refinements to be made, improvements to ponder, yet in a democratically run organization, which listens to feedback from all sides, the way forward becomes clearer. With Geetaji's guidance at meetings in Pune later this fall, I'm sure we will be on very solid footing! Deep bows of thanks to all who are assessing and who are candidates for assessment!

Meditation on art, teaching, science and yoga

Meditation on art, teaching, science and yoga

This morning has dawned fresh and clear in Yonkers, NY, where we are staying with my old friend Susan Butterick, a physician assistant with Planned Parenthood here in New York and former law school colleague at UT. So many threads are weaving through my brain at the present moment, and being a big picture person, rather than a detail person, I have to pause to bring them into a fabric that will hold strong.

Last weekend with my colleagues Kristin Chirhart and James Murphy, we went through a process of assessing several candidates from the east coast at the junior intermediate two level. My thinking on the pedagogy in the Iyengar system has gone through much change in the past two decades since we started helping teachers prepare for Iyengar certification and in the past decade since I started working in Mexico. I think it will be helpful to write down some of the ideas that have been brewing inside me before chairing the introductory II assessment in Madison, New Jersey in two weeks time.

I used to think that we in the United States have the very best method of training teachers. We came to our system via a backwards route, since our national association began assessing teachers who wanted to become certified in the Iyengar method well before there was any agreement among our senior teachers about what the Iyengar method IS!  The first chairperson of our  certification committee, Ariane Hudson, was succeeded by Kristin, who has been followed by Joan White, Laurie Blakeney, Kathleen Pringle, Mary Reilly and now Leslie Bradley. A colleague has nominated me for the post, and though I would serve gladly, I have some reservations about taking on the position should I be elected and am not attached to the election results!

B.K.S. Iyengar himself ALWAYS emphasized the necessity of recognizing the modern practice of the third limb of yoga—asana— as part of the other seven limbs of classical ashtanga yoga. His method has grown into an empire of excellence-in-asana-seekers, varying in age from the twenties to the sixties. Geeta Iyengar has called for a meeting of people involved in training teachers worldwide for November of this year, I suspect because she recognizes that there are some significant differences among the international Iyengar communities in how people are “promoted” and trained. I’m also fairly certain that Geeta Iyengar is aware of the huge commercialization of yoga that has taken place in the last decades. This commercial aspect of yoga has, in my opinion, led to a strange but powerful  cult of yoga as a path to eternal youth and beauty. Witness the ad campaigns for Lulelemon and Lole.

In conversation with James and Kristin, my original spark for following the Iyengar method became clear in my mind. Guruji always emphasized that working on the path of yoga, in yoga, would lead us to the sight of the soul. After reading all of Iyengar’s books and in particular most recently his ideas about vinyasa in particular (arguably the most popular “style” in the world today) in the essay on the subject in Ashtadala Yogamala, I am convinced that he never stopped highlighting yoga as a physical practice that includes the spiritual/devotional. The vinyasa essay is part of an assignment I am sharing with Gail Ackerman to present at  Stephanie Quirk’s last workshop in Denver next month. Iyengar also speaks on the subject of vinyasa krama in the excellent film “Breath of the Gods”. From his writings and lectures in all the above sources, I am clear that he wanted us to come to the path of yoga with an understanding that our bodies are instruments on a journey to the soul. 

To do justice to that insight, our pedagogy, I think, needs to recognize that the seekers/sadhakas who come to us for deepening their studies of Iyengar Yoga might also be interested in a level of yoga study “beyond” the physical. Since we are involved in a discipline that combines art and science, we have a complex task at hand—how to give good instruction in basic technique and at the same time to communicate how our work leads to a spiritual dimension, whether or not one “believes” in spirit or soul.

In a nutshell, this is what I would like to see our community of educators communicate more directly about, not just about acceptable methods of teaching parsvaikapada sirsasana. Though I see the value of the details necessary for the understanding inversion variations, I would like to insure somehow that people are kept safe throughout their yoga life, and valued for their contribution to the community of practitioners no matter what their age or physical capabilities might be. Beginning with our home communities, working with each other in an egalitarian, honest and open way, we can be part of the larger world of yoga and maintain a practice that promises peace and health to all.

Guruji worked for many years on crafting a democratic constitution to govern the Iyengar communities worldwide. He called it “The Pune Constitution.”  It is a document that he obviously gave much thought to and wanted us to take very seriously. Each country is at a different stage of development in their community of Iyengar practitioners. A flexible document (and  it IS written in language that allows it to be flexible) will be a good starting point for all of us. The key is good communication among those who have been on the path for many years and who are involved in guiding teachers in their home communities. I am hopeful that Geetaji will be able to shed some light on the way forward for all of us in November.

Guelaguetza, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, 20 y 27 julio, 2015

Thanks to Emilie and Jim Rogers, we brought a group from Texas down to Oaxaca City 10 days ago to practice Iyengar yoga, learn a bit about ayurveda and Indian dance (thanks to Sreedhara Abhikebbalu), AND attend the Guelaguetza.
The state of Oaxaca has a greater Indian population than any other, and more Indian languages are spoken here than anywhere else in Mexico. The Guelaguetza, or the "Dos Lunes del Cerro" (the two Mondays on the Hill) is a great gathering of villagers from pueblos of Oaxaca who sing, play music and dance their hearts out. The word "guelaguetza" is from the Zapotec language and means "offering". It reminds me of nothing more than the potlatch of the Northwest coast Indians, an annual summer gathering where the bounty of fish, berries, and crafts was shared throughout the community. Here in Mexico, too, we are in the rainy season, fruits are plentiful, the weather is temperate and pleasant--rains usually miss the El Fortin hill where the open air theatre is located, home of the performances on two Mondays each July.

Often the dancers would dance separately, the men in one line or circle and the women in another, and sometimes they would dance as couples. Many times a couple would walk in a stately manner to the front of the stage to welcome the crowd and to  recite a poem in Zapotec, or another indigenous language, and, thankfully for us, also translate the poem into Spanish. One that stood out for me was recited by a supremely energetic and bold-voiced woman who translated the Spanish (I'm paraphrasing): "We are from the clouds and the winds, we have come from far away, our hands are now empty, but we are the root, we are the root, we are the roots."

One village dance is called "La Danza de las Ananas", the pineapple dance, because the women dancers come out in their colourful costumes balancing a real pineapple on their shoulders. What was most remarkable about the end of EACH dance was that baskets were brought onstage from the wings and fruits, baskets, hats, tortillas, and some things that I am obviously forgetting, were thrown out into the audience with great gusto and received BY the audience with great eagerness.

Our row caught nanches (a fruit that can be fermented), a bandana, a basket, a toy broom, and a hat. People near us caught apples, pineapples, bananas and more baskets. It was quite a haul, overall, in our section of the audience. Though I heard that some indigenous groups harbor ill feelings about the festival, considering it too "touristic", the audience seemed to consist of a majority of Mexicans. Perhaps they were from other parts of Mexico and therefore also tourists, I could not tell. But it seemed that when the announcer introduced the dancing groups from the various parts of Oaxaca, there was loud applause from a section of the audience, so it appeared that each village had a fan base in attendance from their hometown.

In any case, touristic or not, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously, and I was carried back to a time I can only imagine. A time of simpler living, collaboration and mutual support rather than competition and back-stabbing, and a time of great exuberance, color, handiwork, music and dancing. Viva la Guelaguetza, Viva Oaxaca!

Blessing the Seeds

Community has become a trendy word these days. There are civic communities, online communities, even yoga studio communities. There are communities of online reviewers and bloggers, communities of like minded foodies (the "vegan community" for example) and communities of sports and pop idol fans. What boggles my mind is that members of some of these communities never see each other face to face or even meet voice to voice. Communication can occur via visual image labelled with a minimum of words. "Awesome veggie burger" with a photo of your favorite one about to be eaten by you, "perfect pedicure" with a photo of your toenails, or less commonly "spectacular sunrise", also illustrated by a photo.

In many ways our new ability to share our whereabouts opinions and purchases with family, friends, and an unknown online community has an appeal and a power that I for one am only just beginning to appreciate, and somewhat mistrust.

Here's why: ever since I owned a computer (probably 1996, and for many years used mostly for word processing) and a "smart" phone (ca. 2013) my communication and collaboration skills have deteriorated. My opinion about this is confirmed by my friends and family, who have to now compete with these devices for my attention. The devices provide me instant information about world events, a window to the tiniest bit of trivia I might want to know (what IS the etymology of the word "community" anyway?) as well as a means to keep in touch with home when I am on the road. The last mentioned use was the initial rationale for having a cell phone, which soon morphed into the smart phone, so now I am never without the means to access calls or emails or text messages or world events.

As a matter of fact the word community shares the same Latin root with commune and communion, which, as a member of "communities of spiritual practices"--yoga and meditation--I  find highly intriguing. After teaching at Sama Yoga in Queretaro all weekend, I was taken by my friend Lorenia Trueba to San Ildefonso where the second annual Festival of Traditional Corn was taking place. Mario, Loreñia's friend, had worked for weeks with the local communities there to put together a newspaper, a photographic exhibit and a place in the plaza for villagers to come and display their handicrafts and amazingly beautiful ears of red, blue, white and yellow corn. The special newspaper proclaimed "Somos hombres y mujeres de maiz" --"we are men and women made of corn," and "sin maiz no hay pais"--"Without corn there is no country." Seeds were on display, bean and squash as well as corn. Many people were wearing traditional dress-- the women in long pleated bright white skirts and blouses trimmed in strong colors. A blue corn quesadilla filled the empty space in my stomach, and the beautiful woman who reached her hands full of corn seeds across her display table to fill my hands with red, blue-black and yellow/white kernels won my heart. Her words were "es un regalo--its a gift"--she wanted no money, just for me to plant them. They will be contraband in my suitcase of course, but with luck they will make it. Also with luck my crop will yield more seeds.

Mario explained that the villagers were not exclusively protesting Monstanto and its Frankenstein-like invention of "roundup ready" (meaning the pesticide is already IN the seed) corn, but also against the global monopoly that four big-ag corporations have on the world seed supply. He recognized Percy Schmeiser's name when I brought it up and said that he knew about Percy's lawsuit against Monsanto that went all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court. Percy lost, by the way, since the court legally had to protect Monsanto's patent, but the corporation was awarded no damages. Percy was in Austin several years ago for a convention, and I consider myself lucky to have met him. He is a man of principle, a rarity these days.

As the 8-man rock band was warming up to entertain us at the festival, I had a chance to read the exhibit hanging under the tent cover. It described the 10,000, yes ten thousand!-year history of corn in the new world. As I read through the information I was completely emotionally blind-sided by the fact that the village has re-instituted the annual "Bendición de las Semillas" in early February. Tears actually welled up in my eyes as I recognized how far I have lived from anyplace on earth where people bless seeds before planting.

The band began to play Bob Marley songs--I shot the sheriff, one about Babylon, complete with trombone and trumpet. Young people looking very much like the counter culture kids of my youth began dancing in the afternoon sun, a man with his sleeping daughter on his shoulder in front of the stage, two women at the back. Older people were rocking in their plastic chairs, and everyone seemed holy beyond belief. I'm going to let that typo stand, though I meant to type "jolly". This old woman, though she was completely out of place, felt "no obstante" (nevertheless) completely at home.

B.K.S. Iyengar on his Invention of Props

Happy almost Groundhog Day. I've missed my "lifeline", the ekadashi after the last new moon, but have been doing taxes, ugh...
BUT, I have completed editing Iyengar's comments on props and will post it here. His inventiveness has benefitted us all so very much, and I, for one, am eternally grateful. As far as learning "actions" in asanas, the props can be an amazing learning tool.

What follows is a transcription of the text of "Iyengar on Props, the 2013 Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute Calendar: 'Body Is My First Prop’. B.K.S. Iyengar himself wrote the comments on each prop.  Eternal thanks to you, Guruji!

My thanks also to Gillian Barksdale, whose comments on the calendar at our memorial class for Guruji inspired the transcription and sharing the result. With time the graphics from the calendar will be scanned and added in to the text. For now, folks may enjoy the history, especially of the bandage!

"For me, prop is not only for the asana. It should contribute to the position of the body which in turn can let the mind be calm and state of 'chitta vritti nirodha' be experienced. Body is my first prop. The body is a prop to the soul."--B.K.S. Iyengar

Chumbal, the strange firm doughnut shaped circular prop, perhaps Guruji's last prop innovation:

Science is ever-evolving. New hypotheses and observations are continuously added,

discarding the previously accepted one. There is no stagnation; it is a flowing process. Same is the case with the props. It is not frozen in time. Intricate observations can contribute to and enrich the usage of props.

We all know the concept of sitting on some height in Baddha Konasana to get freedom in the groins by lifting the spine up. I have only advised that technique of taking something like brick or bolster below the buttocks. But when I was doing Baddha Konasana around a year and a half ago, it suddenly occurred to me that the buttocks are rounded structures and the heights we use are flat like bolsters, pillows or bricks. How can the round buttocks fit into the flat supports? Ware getting height with this, but not the necessary configuration. Are we gaining freedom in the groins at the cost of the buttocks?

So, I rolled two of my dhotis, one for each buttock. It looked something like a chumbal, a vernacular expression for a doughnut-like structure, made by rolling a long cotton cloth, ends of which are fixed by tucking inside. This is used routinely by females to hold and support a vessel of water on their heads. It protects their heads from the sharp contact of metal and provides a gentle cushion too. It is very soft and comfortable.

I attempted Baddha Konasana on them and the pose manifested beautifully.

This is the most recent prop developed. It is called "chumbal" in Marathi and the name has stuck.

Horse

Initially, as a yoga teacher I made students do standing poses, like Trikonasana near the wall. I observed then, that the lumbar area remained far away from the wall. This was creating an evident discordance between the legs and the trunk. So the wall was not providing adequate support. I started reasoning this inadequacy out.

In those days, I had to visit many offices for various reasons. There the managers never had a separate room, but their area was cordoned off with a metal or wooden rod. One day I thought this rod was good for Mayurasana and I did it with my hands on the rod. Then I tried Trikonasana with my back towards it. It supported my back, which created movement in my spine..., plus I could use my hands skillfully with that rod. It was possible to change the height and breadth of the bar as per requirements to offer a precise support. The only disadvantage was that the feet were slipping away. For that I decided to create a support laterally.

Wall, bar and lateral support were the three components I orchestrated together. Combine them together and you can see the horse. I called it "horse" because one could sit on it the way one sat on a horse.

Weights

The story of weights dates back to sometime in the 1940's. Everyday I used to cycle more than 25 miles to reach out to students from one corner of the city to another. At the end of the day, I used to get fatigued. My legs used to shiver and my entire body used to be restless with shakiness in my nerves.

In order to have some relief I used to keep 3-4 rolled mattresses on my legs and a drum filled with water on top of them. Sometimes, I used to tell my wife to sit on my legs to give them an auto-massage. I encouraged my children to sit and play on my legs. I tried and experimented with so many things.

While teaching, I observed some students experienced restlessness and uncontrollable shaking in the legs. This led to anxiety with poor confidence.

I kept on thinking what help can I offer and how? I integrated my personal experience with the students' problems. I tied their legs together with a piece of cloth and kept some weight on them. The shaking stopped and the students experienced tremendous relief.

I realized then that weights will help people whose nervous system has to be quietened.

Bricks

Nowadays bricks are an integral part of standing poses, but they were first used for Shirshana to reduce pain in the neck and heaviness in the head. Many people could not do shirshasana so I used to give them one horizontal and one vertical brick. The vertical one was for the back near the wall and the horizontal one offered exact support to the shoulder blades. It proved to be very effective.

Brick is helpful in other postures too.

For standing poses, I advised the round brick for people with a flat foot.

In Supta Virasana, the back does not touch the ground completely, especially in the region of lumbar spine. To support this area and to make the asana comfortable, I was trying different materials like blankets, pillows, rolls of mattresses, etc., but they were not helping. I expected something firm and circular at the top, which every material failed to deliver. A soft support only provides a cushion. This style is needed for people who have soreness or tenderness in the muscles. Otherwise dense props like the ones I designed made of wood are better.

I thought of converting the Shirsasana brick and made it suitable for Supta Virasana. A design for semicircular brick was made and it provided what I wanted. Once the semicircular brick came into action, other versions developed rapidly.

Belt

In 1960s, when I was in France, I saw people were using belts to carry or tie their luggage. They were holding their bags together with them. My bag was also tied with it and I returned home. They I thought, 'this luggage belt is good for yoga also. If the bags are tied so firmly, I can use it for my legs too.' I immediately tried it. With that grip, it held my legs and I could hit them out in a confined space. That is action with resistance.

The next year, when I went back to France to buy those belts, I learnt that those particular belts were 'out of fashion' and taken off the market. Thankfully, since I had that one belt, after I returned home, I got belts with those buckles manufactured here in Pune.

Later, I began using the belt to give my muscles a sense of direction.

Everything can contribute to yoga is my ardent conviction. It is not the size of the object or the complexity of its arrangement or the content which is important, but the intention and attitude which convert a simple gadget into a prop.

Viparita Dandasana Bench

Yoga is for all. Nobody should be denied the opportunity to experience its benevolence. It is this thought that impelled me to think of all these props.

Back problem is not just a modern-era story. In those days, many people came to me with back problems. How to make them do back-bending without any injury to the spine?

When I saw road rollers parked on roads, I used to lie down on their wheels. This led to the idea of doing Viparita Dandasana on a drum, which was meant to hold water. However the drum was made of steel, so not all could endure that. Then came the idea of doing the pose on circular stools with blankets on them. The students liked it. They felt extension and relaxation at the same time.

So I thought, if they can enjoy this pose, why not introduce the drum? This led to the prop-drum.

But it had its shortcomings--it was not congruent with the anatomical curvatures of the spine, secondly on the drum, the legs are down, not all can do that. Then came the design of the Viparita Dandasana bench where the anatomical curvatures are taken care of, and the students could come up or go down depending on their elasticity.

Halasana Box

When one intends to learn yoga, it cannot be expected that he or she will have a perfect body,cultured mind and sharpened intellect. These are the eventual fruits of the journey of yogasadhana. A student, who is in the initial phase of his sadhana may be unable to bend forward, backward or laterally. In that situation help should be offered. With help in the form of props, a student is encouraged in the path of yoga, confidence is created and love is naturally developed for the subject of yoga.

Same in the case of old people who are unable to do physical sadhana, props offer an excellent aid physically as well as mentally. Physical and mental security is given to them with props and their fear complex is removed. One can do yoga sadhana till the last breath.

Consider the example of Halasana. It is difficult for students with rigid back, injuries, etc. Should they be deprived of the calming effect of Halasana? This query led to development of the Halasana box.

Half Halasana on the chair was also difficult for some students with injuries or other problems even though their toes touched the support. External appearance of the asana was decent, but internally it created exactly the opposite effect to the desired one. Rather than attaining a tranquil and peaceful state of the mind, they experienced agitation and discomfort. When their thighs were rested comfortably, they tell the benefit of Halasana without any pain in the back or neck.

Thus came the design of the Halasana box. Many usages came out of that box.

Stump

'Is the prop useful only for people who cannot do a particular asana?' The answer is 'no'. Props are helpful for the adept too. When one thinks he has attained 'perfection' in an asana, he should use the prop to attain sense of direction and a higher level of sensitivity.

In back bends the centre of gravity is in the lumbosacral area for it to curve.

When students started performing back bends on the chair with ease, in order to increase the intensity, I created the stump. This stump is to be positioned at the lumbosacral area. But there existed a probability of injury to the back due to its intensity.

How could that be avoided?

The problem was the hard and sharp projection of the stump. So the second stump was devised with a depression in the centre. This helped the outer buttocks to rest comfortably. When students could use it with ease, came the idea of a curved stump to lift, curve and arch the tailbone. The props also motivate one to stay longer in an asana so that one evolves the asana and matures in one's practice.

The props can thus contribute to deeper observation and understanding of the intricacies of the posture as well as the mind.

Chair

Viparita Dandasana is one of the asanas, which prompted me to think about various alternatives to develop different props.

The chair was also first used for Viparita Dandasana. After doing it on the drum I thought of this asana on two chairs for people who found the drum difficult because of the position of the legs. Only later did I realize that even one chair is sufficient for Viparita Dandasana. It offered firm support and also created a sense of security and stability.

This can very well be seen in Kapotasana on chair.

In Light on Yoga, I have used only one prop--bench for Sarvangasana, which I saw in the photo studio where the photo session for the book was on. It supported the back and the hands rested underneath. Then I started using the chair for people to do Sarvangasana. In the initial period, shoulders used to go to the ground and the weight of the student was directed wrongly. To overcome this, came the bolster under the shoulders, which helped in achieving neck flexion too. The seat of the chair offered an excellent lumbosacral support and stopped that area from sagging down. Students could adjust the posture by gripping the seat of the chair with shoulders rolled back actively. Many people could not do Halasana then also. So I used to give another chair for the feet.

The idea of sliding down from the chair came much later.

With the help of a prop one can go beyond the body. That is why I say health is that state in which one can be free from the body.

Ceiling Ropes

Shirshasana is the 'king' of all asanas, but not all can do it easily. In the process of learning it, many students develop fear and are reluctant to even give it a try. In order to solve this difficulty, I used to hold people in Shirshasana by the legs, supporting their backs. As and when they could attempt Shirshasana independently, I used to make them do at the corners of the wall, which gave them a sense of direction as well as confidence that they were not going to fall.

Still many people complained of heaviness in the heads, pain in the neck and BP also increased with shortness of breath as they hardened the diaphragm.

So I tried the pose with the support of bricks for my shoulders. I felt smoothness in my neck. But there was a problem with bricks--not all could do on the bricks either. One day while practicing, I put a rope between two wall-ropes and did Shirshasana on that. The brain was relaxed, neck was free and back of head, spine and buttocks were supported with the wall.

In those days, Mangalore tiles were used for the roof and flooring. At the roof, there used to be a log of wood, which projected beyond the wall. On seeing that, it struck me that if I could tie a rope on to it and do Shirshasana, it would be a better support as on the wall ropes, the wall put a brake. I thought students should do Shirshasana in a space where there is no brake, no stress. In order to attain this, I climbed up a ladder, used the rope that is tied to a bucket to draw water from wells to do Shirshasana. This was the solution.

I had decided that whenever an institute comes into existence, I would put rings on the ceiling during the construction itself to hang the ropes for Shirshasana, which I did when this institute came up.

Viparita Karani box

Appearance of the asana may be perfect, every criterion fulfilled, every point addressed to, but internal communication, circulation and awareness need more careful attention. Most of the times, when the so-called 'correct asana' is achieved students tend to become complacent and start ignoring the essence of the asana thinking they can voluntarily 'perform the pose'.

Complacency and ignorance are silent killers of sadhana. One has to be extremely aware of both of them.

Setubandha Sarvangasana is a very beneficial asana. I could stay in this asana for 10 to 15minutes. However, others could not stay in the independent pose for even 2 or 3 minutes. On the bench, the intensity was lacking. So I started to ponder over how the pose could be done with support, yet be effective, true to the inherent value of the pose. On my body I understood that, when the kidney area is supported with my hands and arched, the pose showed effectiveness. Therefore, I designed the Viparita Karani box, first for Setubandha Sarvangasana wherein the kidneys have to be arched on the box.

A new thought or an idea may be vague in the beginning. One has to be patient and observant to develop it into something. I refined props at every step, at times discarding the product completely and starting afresh.

Perception, sensation, observation and wisdom should be reflected in anything one creates.

Bandage

A great philosopher and thinker, J. Krishnamurti in his lectures used to speak of 'alert passive mind'. In shanmukhi mudra, I felt this state of alert passivity in the brain and mind. Kirshnamurti came to me for learning yoga. He used to say that attaining that state is very difficult and would take years to cultivate. While discussing the 'alert passive mind', I demonstrated Shanmukhi mudra on him. He too felt that this was the same condition and was happy to experience it.

I told him the story of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Some hatha yogis crossed a river and came to meet him. They told him that after years of sadhana, they attained a siddhi by which they could walk on water and that is how they came to meet him. Ramakrishna told them nonchalantly, 'Oh why did you take all the trouble for so many years, when, if you had given a boatman a few paisas (unit of Indian currency that was formerly in use), he would have brought you across!'

I also tied a necktie around his eyes creating the same feeling and told him that, using a tie or a handkerchief can give one the same effect immediately, so why struggle for years? We both had a good laugh!

Shanmukhi mudra is the commencing point for the development of bandage as a prop. Not all can do it, as it is painful and difficult to keep the fingers on the eyes and face for a long timewithout any strain. In a class, it used to be difficult to offer Shanmukhi mudra to everybody due to time constraint. 'How can everybody experience Shanmukhi mudra simultaneously?' was the question lingering in my mind.

Those days, men used to wear 'hanuman langot' (a three to four feet long and four to five finger-breadth piece of cloth with a triangular extension at one end, worn as an inner wear to support genitals.) I found it to be a very versatile appliance. I wrapped it around my eyes trying a range of pressures. With some adjustments, I felt the same condition of 'alert passive mind' when the temples were relaxed.

I tried different materials as the Hanuman langot would not have been accepted by the society. Finally, the elastic bandage offered me the desired result.

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"Whenever I thought of making a new prop, I would call home a carpenter I knew. I would ask him to measure the dimensions of my pose. For example, for Setubandha Sarvangasana, I told him to measure the height of my buttocks and chest from the floor. I would tell him the design and he would make a rough structure with wood. I would go visit his workshop, test the sample and suggest any improvisations. Since the product was a rough sample, there used to be chips of wood or nails projecting. However, I had to endure all the hardship back then because money was scarce. I did not have the leisure of trying as many samples as I wanted. Then the final piece would be made, which I would test again. I always followed this method on my body alone, because I knew the movements. That is how the props came into existence."

When Guruji was asked why he does not apply a patent for the design of props, he said, "I designed props so people can benefit. Thousands are benefitting and will continue to benefit from them. Does God ever file a patent for his creation? Then what right do I, a mortal, have to do so?"

 

Learning to Graft Fruit Trees

On schedule! Today marks Ekadashi (11 days) after the full moon and a record number of cold rainy days here in Austin, Texas. People were beginning to act edgy, sometimes downright grumpy. The normally cheerful checker at the grocery store asked me "Does the weather think I'm Scandinavian?" We are spoiled with sunlight here! And too much can make plant growth difficult.
In fact, more than one person has mentioned that the cool, wet weather actually bodes well for the peaches and other fruits that people like to grow around these parts. Bill Christensen was telling me last night after yoga class that he will be teaching a workshop on grafting fruit trees on March 8, a Sunday. More details on this later. He has a half acre southwest of town with 28 fruit trees on it.

We're inspired and on our way out to cut some oak and cedar on the little plot near the Pedernales River that we have. We'll also be sizing up the fairly level clearing there for possible fruit tree planting. Although it's cedar season, my guess is that shedding pollen-laden clothes and taking a shower on returning will keep us from suffering too much. RJ heats his studio with a wood stove. This method has worked for him for years, though the cedar resin will coat the inside of the stove pipe, so needs to be cleaned out regularly to avoid fire hazard. The oak burns longer, but the cedar burns hotter, so he uses both.

This yoga activist, then, is on a mission to get more active with nature today. After speaking with my friend Cheryl Kirschner last week (she mentioned how vital hiking in the Cascades is for her and her husband from their home in Snohomish), I'm looking forward to being outside. The events in France, Ayotzinapa and Pakistan are haunting me, and being outdoors seems like a good antidote.

After writing my initial post on this blog, I was amazed that I had forgotten to mention the massacres at the military school in Pakistan and in Guerrero, Mexico. In Texas, we tend to ignore what happens closest to us, so although there were huge marches all over Mexico after the disappearance of 43
young students from a teachers' college in Ayotzinapa, we did not hear much about them here. It is profoundly tragic and disturbing to read about the murder of young people. To think that soldiers, terrorists, gunmen, whatever they may be called, would open fire on the young can cause the mind to shut down, at least my mind.

So I've been wondering--are we seeing these events because of population pressures? poverty? ideology? pure evil? All of the aforementioned? Again, my question remains: what can we as a spiritual community of practicing yogis DO? Iyengar was famouns for saying "Before we can have peace among nations, we need to find peace in our own hearts." So getting on our yoga mats might be a start--DAILY practice. When rival drug gangs battle over territory (apparently newly cultivated earth in Guerrero is being planted with opium poppies, operning up a new product for the gangs of Mexico), it seems that leaders will stop at nothing to secure what they have.

Pakistan, Mexico, France, Ferguson, New York, Austin, may all beings be at peace. May we learn to practice and live in peace. More next Ekadashi.

OneBlissBody, A Womanifesto

The Yoga Activist

A womanifesto--OneBlissBody

New moon energy bubbles up everywhere around us. The days are now getting longer, nights shorter. Our main lights gain strength and it’s time to take life by the horns and stop pretending to be alive. Yoga philosophy includes a principle that at the level of the innermost sheath or kosha of our body/minds, we are one, OneBlissBody. With this principle in mind, here are some thoughts on the new year on the yoga path.

The last year has been one of many changes and challenges; globally many nations, beginning with Ukraine in February, experienced deep unrest and turmoil, even to the brink of armed conflict. The regime in Syria has continued to do battle with rebel armies, and the refugee situation there is unparalleled. Ebola has haunted West Africa, and begun to terrify the rest of the world. Armed police have broken up pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. The earth experienced its hottest year on record, and debates still rage about how or if to extract known reserves of oil from below the ground or from the ocean. Finally, police in the United States have killed unarmed citizens, and deranged citizens have assassinated armed police. These human tragedies scar each human’s bliss body, no matter how far from the actual events.

In the US we are daily bombarded with the message that a people’s democracy serves the people best. Yet we have allowed our political campaigns to be overtaken by big money.  When we send our troops overseas to topple dictators we believe are harming their population or support armies in nations where we believe they are on the side of democracy, we are broadcasting to the world that we want a government by the people to prevail everywhere. What kind of message does this obvious disconnect send to other nations? Furthermore             questions have arisen, about whether a democracy based on late-industrial, debt-based capitalism can co-exist with an earth that has limited resources, an earth that is suffering from the extraction of fuels and the burning of those fuels.

Where are we? What do we stand for? How can spiritual practice serve us? What direction are we to take now that civil society and culture are breaking down so completely around us? How are we to live when the earth reacts so dramatically and sometimes violently with our pillaging of her?

At no point in the past during my lifetime that I can remember has there been such a keen interest in yoga and meditation practice. The year was l968 when I began to attend yoga classes—so I feel and appear like the yoga grandmother I actually am! Media reports daily sing the health praises of both disciplines—reduced stress markers in the body, increased strength, flexibility and clarity of mind. Many large corporations have not been content simply to build out gymnasiums on their “campuses” but have also created quiet zones, yoga rooms, and meditation sanctuaries. Heck, even some airports have yoga and/or meditation spaces available to travelers.

 Of course, we can only become practitioners or activists according to our temperament and resources, both personal and financial.  We are in a situation not dissimilar to that of Arjuna, the famed conflicted warrior of the Bhagavad Gita, who complains to his charioteer  (who is the god Krishna disguised as a charioteer) that he cannot possibly go to battle to right the wrong done by his kinsmen in swindling his part of the family out of a piece of land. If he goes to battle, he realizes that he will have to kill his kinsmen.

This dialogue between god and man took place at a time when the culture of the Indian subcontinent was severely stratified. The caste system in place meant that your birth parents and their station in life would be yours. If you were born to the warrior caste, as Arjuna was, your duty, your dharma, was to be a fighter. If you were born to the priestly caste, your dharma was to lead the rituals that the people expected of priests, if you were born to a merchant, you became a merchant, and if you were born to an untouchable, your dharma was to perform menial labor to earn your bread. There was simply no way out of this predicament for a human being in this society.

I realize that this is a reductive reading of the Gita. It is, of course, a key text for Bhakti Yogis, for it has much to say about the yoga of devotion. Our democracy is based in freedom of religion, so we ARE free to worship whatever god or gods we choose, or none at all. This is a freedom that I firmly believe is worth defending.  We also live now in a country that claims to value education and freedom of choice, but we do not choose our parents, and many of them had no access to quality education and live in poverty. This will mostly likely be our fate as their children, despite the small advances “affirmative action” and federal and state aid to early education have made.

My younger yoga colleagues most likely had an experience of a slightly more racially balanced education than I did. Beginning school in Boston and finishing in Dallas, then going onto university in Canada to finish at UT Austin, all before 1984, I did not experience much racial diversity in my classes. I know that my children did to an extent, in schools in Austin, Dallas, Denton and Chicago. Before deciding to attend law school, I studied education both in British Columbia and in Austin, and apprenticed in schools in both countries. By the 80’s there was much more diversity in the public classroom than I had known as a child growing up.

But where has this diversity brought us? To a place where we can elect a mixed race president AND to a place where we can watch helpless as police profile, arrest and sometimes kill people of color, to a place where finally a dialogue about reparations to African American people for our country’s legacy of slavery can begin. Indeed, we have arrived at a place of huge contradictions.

Two spiritual teachers have given me light, and I will share their ideas now. The Dalai Lama has expressed surprise at the high incidence of depression among people of our nation. His response has been: “But we all have Buddha nature.” This Buddha nature gives us all reason to respect and love our very selves, for we are capable of enlightenment along with every other human being on the planet.

 Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar made a distinction between action and motion in his world-famous teaching on using the practice of yoga poses to realize all the eight limbs of yoga. These eight limbs include moral and ethical living as well as yoga poses, pranayama, meditation and enlightenment. This very body, this “mortal coil” is capable of moving into a pose, experiencing stability in a pose, and moving out of a pose with a clear intention. When the practice combines these factors--clear mind, focused motion and stable abiding, we have a connection to the health-and enlightenment-giving powers that yoga offers. Iyengar, after all his years of teaching and world travels, would say that he saw “much movement, little real action” and chided his students, sometimes harshly, sometimes with a sense of humor, about our failure to measure up to the potential of the practice.

Thank goodness we HAVE a practice. As yogis, we are gifted with an amazing ancient tool. Rather than eternally seeking the perfect pose and perfect clothes and the perfect yoga retreat, my proposal is that we, according to our temperament, ALSO find a place to put our focused energies on taking this clarity and good health out into our communities so that more may experience the benefits of it. This may involve simply volunteering at a soup kitchen, after-school program, literacy project, drug rehab center, old folks home. Here’s a partial list:

Working with the homeless—www.frontsteps.org

Working with the dying—www.hospiceaustin.org

Working with families experiencing violence—www.safeplace.org

Working with animals—www.austinpetsalive.org

Working with the poor on shelter--www.austinhabitat.org

Volunteering with any of these organizations might involve offering asana/pranayama/meditation to staff or to the people they serve, or it might NOT involve such activities. Sometimes simply sharing a cheerful disposition on a soup kitchen serving line or home construction site would be most useful and appreciated. I volunteered for ten years and taught a yoga class for folks involved in a voluntary drug program. I have colleagues who work with older adults, veterans, and young people who like to ride bikes, offering yoga asana practice after the “yoga ride.” The possibilities are many-faceted; I’m sure that something could suit almost any kind of yoga temperament. It’s clear, however, that some don’t have the call to this kind of work, so of course in that case, the yoga will work its power in individual lives.

Actually, I’ve seen many people take on the practice of yoga and/or meditation with the result that their commitment to their own visions deepens. Songwriters make time to write more songs, artists dive deep into their work, musicians get in the practice room more often. On many levels, I see this as work coming from soul or spirit, and hope that those who don’t do this kind of work will support those who do. In fact, as yoga grows it seems that the awareness of local art and local food are growing too. These phenomena, I believe, are interconnected—over time we could envision a world with more art, music, drama and dance, and healthier, organic, pesticide-free, cruelty-free delicious food that we could cook for each other! More on these themes as the “ekadashi” days of 2015 roll out. This twice a month writing, 11 days after the new moon, then again 11 days after the full moon, I thought would be sustainable. Future posts will be shorter. I’ve been thinking about this first post for some time now.

Bottom line, after teaching yoga for going on four decades and teaching teachers for two decades, I’m proposing that we first give ourselves credit for being willing to slow down and welcome a non-competitive practice that includes the body, mind AND spirit into our lives. At this point we can take our self-respect into our yoga classes and communities and practice rooms. Finally we might begin a dialogue about how our increased health, strength and clarity might be of service in sustaining and beautifying the world.