Sharath Jois, the grandson of Pattabhi Jois and the lineage holder for Ashtanga yoga, has written a new book called Ashtanga Yoga Anusthana.
It is a simple, well put together, handbook for Primary Series and includes a succinct summary of the 8 limbs. It is a great reference book for anyone looking to understand correct vinyasa counts and a beginner exploration of the 8 limbs of yoga.
Important points from the book
Ashtanga Yoga does include the 8 limbs and is not just a physical practice-Sharath has spoken many times against people who put Ashtanga Yoga into a physical yoga category by calling it "Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga". The proliferation of this untruth has always baffled me because Asthanga literally means 8 limbs. Why would Pattabhi Jois have used the name if he didn't feel that the 8 limbs were important? It shows a lack of svadyaya, self study. It is particularly scary when so called Ashtanga teachers say this. It is an immediate sign to me that the person does not know what they are doing and I should steer clear of their classes. I feel very sorry for their students.
Break Down on Bramacharya-Bramacharya has always been broken down to mean "celibacy" but Sharath breaks it down into life stages that shed a new light on the meaning of the word.
Gives Students Permission To Not Be Perfect-Sharath shows compassion for those learning the practice understands that things like breathing with the Vinyasa count can be difficult
Sharath is the grandson of the late Pattabhi Jois, the Guru of Ashtanga yoga. Sharath is now the lineage holder and is carrying on the legacy. Sharath rarely does demos so these rare videos are amazing to watch.
Everyone will experience the dreaded plateau at some point. If it happens for a few months, than it is natural and okay. If it goes on for 6 months to a year, than something is wrong. Below are some tips to help.
GET OR ADD A NEW TEACHER TO YOUR LINE UP
A new teacher can see you with different eyes-It is a part of human nature and biology to get desensitized to things and people that are apart of our every day environment. A new yoga teacher can see things that your current yoga teacher may be over looking or may be making assumptions about.
If you want to get over a plateau and take your practice to the next level, you need a teacher who:
-You can trust: If you don't trust them, the next few lines of this article won't matter because you won't do what they tell you.
-Will force you out of your comfort zone: the steady and comfortable seat talked about in the Yoga Sutras is really about seated meditation and lotus, however, even when applied to yoga poses, the steadiness comes with hard work and time. To get out of a plateau, you need a teacher who is going to push you to do things you normally would not do on your own.
-Who will not baby you or allow you to be lazy
-Who will not tolerate sloppiness- A sloppy transition is often a sign of a student who is trying to bypass strength and or flexibility in order to get into a pose or to quickly bypass a transition they cannot do. This strength and flexibility is often what is needed to get out of the plateau.
-Who understands alignment-This doesn't mean that they have a degree in exercise physiology or can name every muscle and bone in your body. This means they have an understanding of how the body works and how placement of bones and use of muscles effect poses. Many times, we experience plateaus because we are not using the right muscles to do the job or our bones are out of alignment.
-Who practices yoga themselves-I, like many others, assumed that yoga teachers practiced yoga. When I actually entered the industry and started teaching myself, I found out that was far from the truth. Yoga teachers can learn the basics of teaching from teacher training but those little tweaks and insights that will get you out of a plateau, are learned from actually practicing.
-Who will tell you the truth...even when it is ugly
-Who will give assists or adjustments-People learn in different ways. Touch,as seen in massage and physical therapy, are recognized as highly effective therapies. Assists and adjustments, done properly, will rewire your brain and body and help you overcome plateaus.
-Who practices what they preach-this doesn't mean that their practice looks like Cirque Du Soliel or they are perfect. It means that that they apply the things they are telling you to themselves.
GET OUT OF THE CROWD..... SOMETIMES
The energy of a packed yoga class is amazing, fun and can be highly transformative. However, if you are getting lost in the class than you will not get the individual attention you need to get out of the plateau.
GET INTO THE CROWD...SOMETIMES
On the flip side, the energy and support of a crowd can also inspire you to do things you would not by yourself.
ADD A DIFFERENT STYLE OF YOGA TO YOUR LINEUP
Different styles of yoga approach things differently and this may be what you need to get out of the plateau. Good ones to try and why:
-Ashtanga(For plateus resulting from strength, stamina, muscle weakness, excess weight and technique): Ashtanga, in the style of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois,takes some of easiest poses in existence and mixes them with some of the most difficult poses in existence in a way that constantly keeps you on your toes. Just when you think you have it mastered, the teacher adds another sequence, pose, or technique that blows your mind and has you feeling like a novice all over again. If you really want to kick up your practice, do it Mysore style. Mysore style Ashtanga is taught one on one in a group setting. It is the closest thing to a private you can get without the private price.
Power Yoga/Vinyasa Yoga(for plateaus resulting from stamina, coordination,excess weight and muscle weakness)- The poses by themselves may not be super hard but they are linked together in a way that gets your heart pumping and your muscles firing resulting in a yoga based workout.
-Hot Yoga(for plateaus resulting from muscle tightness, stamina and excess weight): the heat opens up the muscles quickly and is a great challenge for endurance
-Deep Stretch/Yin/Long Slow Deep(for plateaus resulting from muscles tightness):these classes open the muscles and connective tissues using long holds
-Iyengar/Anusara(for plateaus resulting from technique): These highly technical classes will result in increased body awareness that will help you to pinpoint the exact error in muscle activation and bone placement that may be causing the plateau.
ATTEND WORKSHOPS: In a workshop, the teacher focuses on a few poses or a major technique and breaks them down. Workshops help you to see little small details that may be holding you back.
ADDRESS ANY MENTAL ISSUES THAT MAY BE GETTING IN YOUR WAY
Stories we tell ourselves about what we can or cannot do is the number one barrier to getting over a plateau. It doesn't matter what class we try or what teacher we take on, if the mind is not right, we will not change and transform.
Recently, one of my favorite yoga teachers, Kino MacGregor,has come under fire due to her non- traditonal way of spreading the word about Ashtanga and she wrote a rebuttal here.
In the article, she poses the question:
“If you knew you could reach a billion people with the message of yoga and half would hate you and half would love you, would you still do it?”
I would like to pose this in a different way:
If you knew that you could reach a billion people with the message of yoga (8 limbs not just asanas and working out) but you had to commercialize the practice a bit to do it, would you?
Or
Is it better to reach half that and remain a purist?
I know, many of you are thinking, a billion,that is not even possible. However, I have been teaching consistently for about 4 years and when I look through the student database for the studios I work for, my own records and do some general calculations, I have already reached thousands teaching in Charlotte alone. Imagine if you taught virtually on the internet through sites like Yoga Glo and through You Tube, wrote books on yoga and traveled the world teaching. Everyone who comes across your work is considered to be people who have been reached. Does it sound doable now?
They don't tell you this in teacher training, but this is a question that all yoga teachers will come up against at some point. Somewhere in your career, someone will ask you to cross a line that could possibly result in a larger student base but may require you to teach in a way that questions your beliefs on what yoga is and how it should be presented.
If reaching students in the short term through image,sequencing, music, heavy advertising, sexy videos, etc will result in a larger audience for the pure message of yoga in the long term, does the ends justify the means?
Over the last year or so, I have ran across a few well meaning teachers who feel the need to discourage students from doing anything but basic asana. Reasons being given:
It is all ego
It is just showing off
Not needed for basic range of motion or day to day activities
Not needed for health
Not needed to prepare the body for meditation which is what yoga is for
But I ask, what the hell is wrong with sometimes doing the the asana for asana's sake? The human body is a beautiful and amazing vehicle that we are only leasing for a short time. Not having fun with it and testing its limits is like owning a Bugatti (one of the world's fastest cars), and never driving it past 50 mph because going from A to B does not require it.
The point of yoga is not to perfect asana however, if one can remain unattached from results and enjoy the process of arm balancing, leg behind the head and just straight up contortionism, while staying safe, and still practice the other deeper limbs of yoga, what is the problem?
If you really want to get in the weeds, there are alot of things we do in our lives that are totally unnecessary. If we are going to cut out "unnecessary poses", lets cut out all the other unnecessary stuff too. Get rid of your computer,tablets,TVs, I-phones, & other technology gadgets. Narrow your clothing down to two or 3 outfits and a pair of shoes. Get rid of your yoga mats, blocks, & straps because really you can practice yoga without them. Cut your diet down to Kale(it has protein, calcium, omega 3 &6) and water because that is about all you need to live. When you have sex, only do it doggy style or missionary because that is all is really necessary to procreate. Only have one child because that is really all you need to continue your line. This ridiculous list can go on and on. The point is, there are alot of unnecessary things we do in life just because it is harmless, fun, exhilarating and we love it.
The reality is, in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is the foremost text on yoga, it states that a yogi eventually gets rid of all tools. They no longer need poses, meditation, breathing exercises or any of the other holy grail rules and techniques associated with yoga because they are free of the ego and it is no longer needed. So really, everything is unnecessary, eventually...
You Might Be A Long Term Practitioner If You Remember When:
Classes were just called "yoga"
Yoga studios were 20 miles away from each other
You showed up not knowing what to expect
Yoga classes were not heated anywhere above 85 degrees...and that was only during Winter
If you were not warm enough, it was seen as a failure in your use of breathing and bandhas and not the temperture of the studio
The teacher controlled the temperature and touching the heaters or thermostat was a sacrilege
All classes started with a chant or a sutra
Ashtanga was the only "Power" Yoga
When an injury was called "an opening"
When assists were brutal
When the Yoga Alliance didn't exist
There was no such thing as teacher training
You were given your teacher's blessing to teach
How long someone had been teaching mattered
Teachers were paid according to their experience
LuluLemon was not a household name
You did not talk back to your teacher
If you rolled your eyes are acted "cray" to your teacher, you were told off and possibly kicked out
A class over 30 was crowded
When the class got "too full", not when the room got to capacity, they would turn people away or spread classes out to prevent this phenom
Your teacher knew your name
If you did not show for class, your teacher would hunt you down because of either worry or to shame you back
Your teacher knew everything about your body, your practice, your past 3 marriages, drug abuse and all other personal information they found pertinent to helping you in yoga
Breathing was important
Holding a pose less then 5 breaths was sacrilege
Using the words "work out" to describe a yoga class was sacrilege
Music other then yoga chants, bells, gongs and nature sounds was a sacrilege...if your teacher allowed music at all...
Floor work lasted longer then 15 minutes
Leaving before or during Svasana was a sacrilege and you would be shamed or told off
Coming late was a sacrilege and you would be shamed or told off
Svasana was longer then 3 minutes
Your teacher cut out other poses to make sure that Svasana was longer then 3 minutes
All poses were said in Sanskrit & you just had to figure "ish" out
Many people go out of their way to berate and put down the hometown unauthorized, uncertified Ashtanga teacher. How dare they teach without the Jois family blessing? What a sacrilege. I get it. Technically, you are not supposed to teach without the blessing of the Jois family. There are many good reasons for that which I will not go into for this blog. However, Have you seen the authorized/certified teacher list? None of those people live in Nutbush Tennessee,Elba Alabama or Charlotte North Carolina. If you are fortunate enough to have the money, time and babysitters available to travel, that is awesome. However, the average person does not.
This brings us to the old argument that got many people kicked out of Sunday School . Is it possible for a person to be a Christian & know Jesus if they are never exposed to Christianity & can these people get into heaven? I am not saying that Ashtanga is the way to heaven, but if it is, & we all sit around and wait for a certified/authorized teacher to bless us with their presence, most of the world would wind up in the fiery pit.
How are people to learn about Ashtanga and experience its benefits if they don't have access to it? Unauthorized teachers exist because there is a hole. There are areas where people want it and there is no one to teach it. It is not about fame, glory and money. Those who come in it for that quickly drop off because the dedication needed to practice Ashtanga doesn't appeal to the average yoga student. Those teachers who venture out to teach traditional Ashtanga are in it for love.
I am a hometown yogi teaching without the Jois family blessing. Like many, I fell in love with the practice & it changed me. People came to me wanting to know what I was doing different in my life. When I told them Ashtanga,they wanted to learn it so I taught them thus lighting the fire for many. Without the hometown Ashtanga teacher, Ashtanga would not have spread the way it did & many people would never have realized its benefits.
It is always funny to see the Ashtanga snobs come out of their caves when the authorized/certified teachers come into town. What they don't realize is that without the hometown teachers, these people wouldn't be here. There wouldn't be a demand. The hometown teachers created the buzz and lit the candle that drew the workshop attendees to the light. These are the creators and change makers.
But what impact does the Ashtanga snob have on the world? The person who refuses to share their practices or energy with others because of righteousness and superiority? They say they make this choice because they are true to the tradition, but how does their behavior actually help the tradition? There is a quote by Margaret Mead that says,
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
There is also a great quote from the Bible Matthew 18:20,
" For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
There is power in a group. Power for change and power for growth. The tradition stays alive only if their is someone to practice it. The energy of our gurus, vande gurunam charanarvinde, stays in the world through us and our actions. When we gather, they are with us. That is the energy that will change the world and the face of yoga. The hometown yoga teacher is a keeper of tejas, which is the divine light that lights up all hearts & I am thankful to you all.
I took a wonderful class yesterday with Grace at Charlotte Yoga. She always speaks on the other 7 limbs of yoga, not just asana, and I really appreciate her for that. She spoke about how our injuries show us what aspects of yoga we are actually fighting against. I believe she got the info from Seane Corn. I am paraphrasing here through my own filter so if Grace or Seane reads this, correct me in the comments below!
When I thought about the injuries that I have had, the descriptions below really hit the nail on the head. All of them occurred when I was going through things in my life that match up with the energetics of that area. If you are suffering from these injuries, take a moment to look at your own life and see if you recognize yourself below.
Injuries to the Neck and Shoulders-
Yoga shows us a path to live a happy and meaningful life. When we fight this and refuse to see the path and take the steps towards changing our lives, we find ourselves with injuries in the neck and shoulders.
Injuries to Lower Back-
To learn yoga, we seek out a teacher, studio, spiritual text or community of people who can point us in the right direction, help us to understand the teachings and help us to be safe in the process. We start to slowly surround ourselves with like minded people and build a community that supports us on our path. When we feel that we are not being supported, we get injuries in our lower back.
Injuries to the Knees-
Yoga teaches us to be present and aware. It gives us the tools to overcome the ego and step out of the world of illusion. We stop pushing against what is and learn to move with the flow. As we continue to practice, we begin the process of seeing the world as it really is instead of as a reflection of our dirty cluttered mind. If we fight this, we end up with injuries to the knees.
