Tag Archives: Mysore

Take Space and Practice

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Take Space and Practice

I entered into the yoga shala (Ashtanga Yoga Cairo) this evening to find all the early starters taking a moment, all of them sitting and breathing. Ok, it’s that kind of day then…

It made me smile to watch them. It’s beautiful to see yoga in action. Most of the time, we think of yoga as making postures, with ashtanga particularly as movement in space. But this, this is the real thing. The collective, intuitively breathing, knowing that this is what is needed.

This is not a prelude to practice but a part of the great wide open expanse that is practice.

Balancing Act

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Balancing Act

Like in every big city, life in Cairo has its challenges. Tension bubbles up to the surface in a myriad of forms: through levity or manic behavior, traffic or self-imposed isolation. What to do? How to act?

In our yogasana practice, we put ourselves in positions/postures where we are on that edge. And in that place, we find our footing, what grounds us, and from there we find our center. We breathe into it so that we can find that precious balance.

Photo: Monday night Mysore in Ashtanga Yoga Cairo in Zamalek. Mom-to-be Sarah modifies ardha baddha padmotanasana to find a beautiful balance between her practice and her pregnancy.

Teaching in Cairo

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Fully taking over Mysore Evenings at Ashtanga Yoga Cairo in Zamalek staring this evening.

Classes are 6:30-9:00pm; Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. Call 012 2275 8625 or 012 2371 7729 for address and directions.

Regular class schedule in La Zone, Maadi will start this Friday. Morning mysore class is Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday are 7:00-10:00am. Guided led class every Friday, 4pm. La Zone is located at 23A road 206, Degla Maadi, phone no: 0114 111 1949.

Photo: First Workshop in Ashtanga Yoga Cairo, Zamalek.

The Practice Continuum

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The Practice Continuum

The practice does not stop, not really.

It is continuous–and yet is never the same.

It is constant–and yet always changing.

It is complete–and yet is always expanding.

We each experience it so differently and yet it connects us all.

Photo: Veronique Tan continuing the mysore program at Spirit Yoga in Osaka. A great teacher for great students, who I miss much-ly!

Yoga Chikitsa, Yoga Therapy

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I’ve had a good reminder recently why Primary Series is called Yoga Chikitsa. Pattabhi Jois used it as such, individualizing the practice as a tool for helping people through their ailments.

As ashtanga becomes more and more popular and as the shala in Mysore, India fills with more and more people, the teaching can’t be the same as when Pattabhi Jois was working with12 students at a time in his Lakshmipuram home.

Sometimes, we get the impression that even Ashtanga is becoming more and more a cookie-cutter practice–and perhaps this is true with led classes emphasizing pace and count and with just a few emphasized adjustments to work with the large numbers shuffling in and out of the KPJAYI shala.

But look carefully at the mysore space and you’ll see the spirit of self practice is still alive, still strikingly independent, still very personal. Peek into the afternoon classes with just a handful of people. Or observe the individuals working through specific issues.

But during my visit to Barcelona, this spirit, I recognize, comes to life in the more intimate satellite spaces around the world where the practice is taught–where teachers have time and space to get to know their students, to take into consideration their personalities and lifestyles, injuries, physical, mental and emotional states. It’s exciting to see. It’s inspiring. And, for a teacher, incredibly instructional.

Photo: Pazzifica Ashtanga Yoga (Gracia, Barcelona), a space where the tenets of yoga therapy are in practice. Honored and excited to sub for Paz in January.

Every Space Is Different

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IMG_5414One of the many gifts of traveling the last couple of years has been the chance to visit different mysore programs in different parts of the world.

The architecture of the place, the culture, the rhythm on the city or town, the culture, the students, and most especially the teacher are all variables that make each mysore program unique.

Again, one of the things that continue to thrill me about practice: how it adapts to all places, to all cultures, it is whatever it needs to be for whoever seeks it. A little like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement, the mysore space transforms itself so that it can fulfill the needs of those who whole-heartedly seek it.

Photo: The altar at Pazzifica Yoga in Gracia, Barcelona where Paz Muñoz teachers, and where I will be heading back to in January.

Last Look

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Last Look

This is the Spirit Yoga mysore space last Sunday evening. I had just finished my last offering at the studio.

How empty it looks. And YET how full it feels–to me, at least, after two months and one week of teaching.

It dawns on me that life is made up of empty rooms and that our job is to fill these spaces with our light, with our energy.

Next time you enter an empty space, ask yourself: how can I fill this space? What subtle gift can I fill/feel this space with? What special part of me can I leave here to grow and prosper?

Or before you leave such a space, ask: what have I left here? What will grow on without me?

Self Practice is ON! Spirit Yoga

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Self Practice is ON! Spirit Yoga

This week, Spirit Yoga Mysore is on self practice mode. Students are helping each other. Cheering each other on. Practicing as usual, with their whole hearts, bodies and minds. With or without a teacher.

By next Sunday, authorized Level II teacher Veronique Tan will lead the program on. Just one week after my departure.

Before I arrived in Osaka two months ago, I asked my friend Ursula Scott, who was the first mysore teacher in Spirit Yoga, for her advice. She told me this: share everything you know!

And so it ended last Sunday, later that planned, as I poured as much as I could of myself, of what I knew into a preparation workshop class for Self Practice, knowing that for a week, students would be directing their own energy, exploring the joys and difficulties of self practice without a teacher.

It was an odd end. I felt empty. But now, after a few days rest, I feel so full from that last class, and from the two months of sharing with such amazing, attentive, and loving students. I’m excited for them, for the opportunity to learn with Veronique.

But also for the chance for them to explore the depths of practice on their own–this is where so many jewels and treasures lie, in the solitary depths of self practice.

Breathing with Sound

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Breathing with Sound

Ashtanga, Guruji used to say, is a breathing practice.

Yesterday, the sound of the breath just drew me into the practice, the pulsation of the inhale and the exhale, the sacred moment of silence as the gap in between is naturally observed.

It was not even my own practice, but those of the students around me. It was not even my own breath, not in the beginning.

But it tugged at me until I, too, was breathing that barely audible sound of air slowly passing through the throat.

Together we were a chorus of sound made up of different paces, different qualities, different syncopations. Some were fast, while others were slow. Some had heavy billowing breaths, while others had soft or shallow breaths.

For me, as I kept my watch over mysore class, I felt the room. For others, they felt their bodies, the postures, or even more subtle internal energies.

Call it ujaii, breathing with sound, Darth Vader’s softer cousin… What it’s called doesn’t matter as much as what it does, this sound track of practice.

Light Changes

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Light Changes

The mornings are starting to get darker in Osaka and the natural light usually streaming into the room at this hour was most definitely dim.

The practice, however, has its own light. It draws from a different source of power. Like the sun, yes. But also, unlike it.

It is life giving. Subtle. Illuminating. Warming. Powerful. It can be overpowering too if we’re not careful. It helps us see. And, at times, it can blind us. It deserves our utmost attention and respect.

As we practice, we generate the light of our hearts. When we practice skillfully, we can direct this light. With practice, we are never in the dark.