Practicing at the Ashtanga Yoga "Mothership"...but, first, some background

This was originally supposed to be one blog post about what it has been like to practice at the main Ashtanga shala/school (the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute), but then I realized that not everyone reading my blog is familiar with the Ashtanga Yoga lineage or with how it is practiced.  So this first part is a brief introduction to all of those things.  For everyone who is already familiar with Ashtanga Yoga, feel free to skip this…or read it anyways and feel free to correct or clarify anything that I write ;-)

So, the guru of Ashtanga Yoga was Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (a.k.a “Guruji").  He learned the Ashtanga Yoga method from his guru Krishnamacharya (who was also the teacher of B.K.S. Iyengar and T.K.V. Desikachar, the heads of two other primary modern yoga systems; as such, Krishnamacharya is often referred to as the grandfather of the modern yoga movement).  Guruji first started teaching the Ashtanga Yoga method to westerners in the mid 1960's and early 1970's, but I believe that it wasn't until the 1990's that it really started to gain momentum, with many Westerners traveling to India to study directly with him.  There also just weren’t many peopl­­e teaching Ashtanga Yoga yet, so the only way to learn more of it was to travel to Mysore and study directly with Guruji.  As Guruji was the only guru of Ashtanga Yoga, he was also the only one who could officially authorize/certify anyone to teach it.  Of course one could do a regular yoga teacher training and then just teach the sequence, but Ashtanga Yoga is a method/tradition of yoga based on lineage—our teachers learned the method directly from Guruji (or from some of his first students), Guruji learned it from Krishnamacharya, Krishnamacharya from his teacher and so on and so forth.  So, when you receive an authorization/certification to teach it, there is more that you are receiving than just a piece of paper.  By receiving authorization/certification directly from the Jois family, you are receiving a blessing to teach this method, and are being entrusted with preserving the integrity of a lineage/tradition and with being a part of its continued growth.  Pattabhi Jois passed away in 2009 (I know, the KPJAYI website, says 2007, it's 2009) and left his grandson, Sharath, as the head of the lineage/director of the institute.  I say “head” and “director” because, as Sharath himself will tell you, he is not a guru; his grandfather was/is the guru of Ashtanga Yoga.  Sharath’s mother, Saraswati also teaches in Mysore.  She and Sharath used to assist Guruji when he was alive, and then she continued to assist Sharath until she started teaching her own classes at a second shala, just up the road from the main shala.  She used to go and assist Sharath after her classes were finished, but I think that both shalas have become so busy that she no longer assists Sharath (or at least she is not during my trip here--by the way, she is in her early 70s!  How cool is that?!).   

The system and practice of Ashtanga Yoga itself is quite unique.  It is a system of 6 series of specific sequences of asanas/poses (the 1st/Primary, 2nd/Intermediate, 3rd/Advanced A, 4th/Advanced B, 5th and 6th) with each asana being linked to another through a vinyasa, meaning each pose is connected to the next via the breath in a specific way.  Each pose also has a specific number of breaths that you take while in each posture.  So, with the focus being on keeping a smooth and steady breath, and with the movements all being linked together by the breath, when you practice the poses, the sequence becomes a kind of moving meditation.  Each sequence is also designed to achieve and work on different aspects of the body and mind.  Many other modern yoga classes follow this idea, of linking one pose to then next through the breath and of working around a theme or peak pose (shoulder opening, arm balances, back bending, etc), but in the Ashtanga system, the poses and sequence that you practice do not change (except for when you learn new poses or have to modify because of an injury or something else that affects your ability to do your regular practice). 

In the traditional method (called “Mysore style,” as this is how Guruji originally taught it in the city of Mysore in India) the student will learn the Ashtanga Yoga series from a teacher on a one-on-one basis.  Everyone starts with the Primary (1^st) series.  It does not matter if you have been practicing another style of yoga for 10 years or if you are capable of balancing in a handstand on one hand in the middle of the room—if you are new to the practice of Ashtanga Yoga, then you start with the Primary Series.  When the teacher sees that the student understands and remembers the postures and sequence, and feels that he/she is ready for more, then the teacher “gives” the student the next pose in the series (or two, depending on the student and what the poses are).  All of the students practice together during a certain time window (usually 6:00am-8:30am during the weekdays, a little later on Sundays) but each person is moving at their own pace and doing the practice up to whatever point/pose the teacher has taught them.  The teacher is not leading everyone through a sequence at the same time—except for when the class is specifically being taught as “led,” usually on Fridays.  During those led classes, the focus shifts from the students’ individual practices and from doing the postures to their fullest expression, to staying with and learning the correct counts and vinyasas of the series.  Ashtanga is traditionally taught in silence (no music here) so that you can really hear and focus on your breath.  Practicing in silence also gives you ample time to see exactly how your mind and emotions react to things and provides you with a unique opportunity to begin to control/change your reactions to things ;-).  The teacher is present in the room to, of course, teach new poses to students when it is time, but also to help students with whatever they are currently working on.  The teaching in Ashtanga is not usually done through a lot of talking, but more through physical adjustments (See pictures of practice in a Mysore room here).  I think this is largely because Guruji did not speak much English, so he literally moved students into the correct asana positions.  But this also helps keep the room relatively silent so that the students’ focus can be drawn inward.  Also, as I have learned, sometimes words are not really adequate for trying to describe how to move the body.

All of this is very different from the way that most yoga classes are held these days.  It is unique because the student quickly becomes a bit like their own teacher and, by doing the practice from memory and at their own pace, he/she becomes more responsible for their practice than they might in a regular yoga class.  It is also unique because it really builds a strong relationship between student and teacher, as the teacher is the one who decides when the student is ready to learn a new posture, and, with the practice being done in this specific way (a self-practice in a group setting), it gives the teacher a good opportunity to really see each student—to work with them individually (instead of having to try and keep the rest of the class going while trying to help a student with something) and to really see where each students’ strengths are and where they need to work more (or not work more in some cases).

Ok, I think that will give you a pretty good basic understanding so that you can better follow along when I talk about my practice here on the blog, if not, I'll describe it as I go ;-)

Getting Re-acquainted with India, part 1

Hello All!

Yes, I know, it has been a week since I last posted something…bad blogger lady!  So, what have I been up to?  And why the absence?

Well, there are a few reasons for not posting something sooner.  The first of which is not always reliable internet connection where I was staying.  During the first 6 days of being in Mysore, I lived in 3 different places.  The first was with a friend of a friend at a place called Rashinkar’s Mansion.  I crashed on her couch from Saturday through Monday evening.  It was a very nice place, close to the KPJAYI shala, in a relatively quiet neighborhood (except for when the neighboring school’s marching band was out practicing in the morning, lol) and the internet was good, which is where the first two blogs were posted from.   But, I could stay with her past Monday evening and, in typical Indian fashion, I did not know where I was going to be staying that night until just a few hours before I moved.  Just about everything here happens on a much more casual and relaxed time frame—which is why the time at the shala is 15 minutes fast (“shala time”).  Anyways, I ran into a teacher who used to teach in Boston on Sunday and she was able to talk with her landlord and he let me stay there for the remaining 3 nights before I could move into my housing for the rest of the time that I am here.  I liked the set-up of that apartment, having my own room and my own key, so I could come and go on my own schedule instead of having to maneuver around another person’s, and getting to stay with someone that I already knew.  One of my favorite things about that apartment was that the back of the building faced east, so when I went outside to use the bathroom in the morning, I got to see the sun come up (see new blog cover picture).  Yes, you read that correctly, the bathrooms were outside (only one of the bedrooms in the apartment had a bathroom attached to it).  They were not porter-potties, just bathroom stalls (toilet, shower, and sink) separate from the individual apartment.  But, the internet connection was touch and go.  In the morning and early afternoon, no internet connection, same for at night sometimes.  During the day time, internet worked fine.  So, why no blogging during that time?  Well, there are a couple of reasons, the first of which I am hesitant to admit because I don’t want people to worry, but no posting about my experience here thus far would be complete without it, because it is affecting everything right now; and that is that I am already sick.

It started Tuesday morning with the ominous sore throat.  The prelude to this was a night of almost no sleep due to where the second apartment that I stayed at was located.  It was located on a main road of Mysore and my room happened to be on the street side.  I swear the motors from all the cars, scooters, auto-rickshaws, motorcycles and trucks are either designed to be twice as loud as the vehicles back in the States, or that Indian vehicles lack mufflers.  Or maybe it is just that all sounds seem amplified here, as though they seem to just carry further on the air?  Whatever it is, I barely slept at all that night and when I did, it was fitful, full of tossing and turning from one side of my body to the other.  That first morning after moving in, I woke up with a sore throat.  No sleep + air pollution + sensory overload = perfect recipe for getting sick.  The second night, still not much sleep and the sore throat progressed to general sinus pressure that quickly focused to mostly near my ears.  Fatigue was also setting in along with an increasingly wimpy digestion and the hint of a cough and increased mucus.  I started recognizing the pattern—this was almost exactly the same way I got sick the first time that I was here.  And not just the pattern of symptoms, but also the things leading up to it: poor sleep, increased air pollution and an increase of “noise pollution.”  I started using Echinacea and the nasal spray as soon as I felt the sore throat, but this seemed to be progressing too quickly to rely solely on homeopathic remedies.  So I have also been taking the Mucinex and Sudafed that I brought with me from home.  I also have some cough medicine and cough drops that I picked up the Ayurvedic chemist (that’s “pharmacy” back in the States).  All of those help to mitigate the worst of the symptoms, but we all know that it does not treat the thing causing them.  By my own diagnosis, I am pretty sure that I have a sinus infection.  So how I am I treating it?  I have acquired a neti pot and have cleaned out the nasal cavity (don’t worry, I use bottled water and boil it first—of course I let it cool down before I use it, lol) and am steaming with tea tree oil (a strong natural antibacterial) and eucalyptus oil (because it helps me breathe easier).  I am also drinking a lot of fluids including ginger, lemon and honey tea.  I have noticed some small improvements during the last couple of days, so hopefully this direction continues.  If not, rest assured that there is help here if I need it, both of the modern and homeopathic variety.  It has been almost a full week since the first sign of all this and I barely have a voice at this point, courtesy of all the coughing (don’t worry, it does not seem to be coming from my lungs, it seems to be just my body’s attempt to clear the gunk out from my throat).  My back muscles are also very tired and sore from all the coughing and there is a general sense of fatigue.  So, with all that going on, I have not really felt like blogging, though there is definitely much to talk about, almost too much…which leads me to point number 2 regarding the absence in posting.

As many people know, India is a place where all the senses are almost instantly assaulted with large amounts of information, all at once.  The air (as I mentioned) tends to be polluted even in the best of cities (Mysore is supposed to be on the lower end)—exhaust from diesel-powered vehicles, dust, smoke from trash fires (a lot of people here use small, controlled fires as a trash disposal method), new plant allergens all mixed with the smells of spices, animals and poorly disposed of trash (that was not burned).  That is a lot of information just in one sense!  Then there are the sounds—the loud vehicle motors, people calling out to each other in languages that are foreign to the ears, ringing bells from temples, barking dogs, new bird sounds, and the never-ending honking of horns.  For those of you who do not know, people use their horns here as a general form of communication when driving: “Hello!  I’m coming up behind you and am going to pass you!” “Hello!  I am coming out from this side street!” “Hello!  I am making a turn across traffic!” “Hi there!  I know you!” “Hello!  I’m coming out from this blind spot!” and, of course, “Hey!  Watch where you are going!”  It takes a while to recognize that not every honk of the horn is meant to be aggressive.  But, until that settles in, it still makes me tense up against the sound.  The sight also has a plethora of information coming at it: new buildings, bright colors, new trees, new fruits and vegetables, street traffic that seems to have no sense of order—with motor vehicles sharing roads with bicycles, pedestrians, cows and dogs plus human and animal-drawn carts.  I read in one of the guidebooks that my dad got me that there are only 2 rules to driving in India: “fill/use every possible space and the largest vehicle has the right of way.”  I would amend that last portion to, “the fastest vehicle has the right of way.”  You know who doesn’t have the right of way?  Pedestrians.  This is not Boston—the cars here will not stop for you to cross the street.  It is more like a game of Frogger, you jump/hurry across the street as soon as you see an opening.  And even when you see an opening, you have to look in all 4 directions (ahead of you, behind you and to both sides) as you cross to make sure that no one is going to run you over.  Sometimes it feels like vehicles materialize out of nowhere!  Then there is the paradox of modern technology and living mixed with still rural ways of life.  There are “internet cafes,” new cars, big beautiful houses, American junk food, such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Lays Potato chips (with flavor varieties never seen in the States!) and there are also people who still walk barefoot, carry packages on their head, construct buildings using bamboo scaffolding, use the bush on the side of the road as a toilet, dig a ditch in a street using nothing but a large hoe (and most of the people I have seen doing this work are women—working in their sarees or skirts, wearing no shoes or gloves.  It is sad to see but I also marvel at their strength), cows walking freely through the streets (which I actually love to see), vendors and stalls for specific items (such as the stainless steel vendor who calculated the price of my new cooking pot using an old-fashioned scale and weights), holy men walking the street asking for alms (offerings), temples that seem to come straight out of “old world,” and that you have probably only seen in movies or documentaries…there is so much to take in that it often feels impossible to try and describe it without having spent a significant amount of time just absorbing it—even though this is my second trip to India!

So, in addition to not really having the energy to blog because I am not feeling well (half the time it doesn't even feel like my brain is working enough to form sentences, lol), I just have not really been able to put words to my experiences just yet.  Each day feels so very different from the last, and the things that I wanted to blog about one day no longer feel relevant or important the next (or even at different parts of the same day).  Whatever this cold/sinus infection is that I am fighting is definitely affecting how I am feeling about being in India right now--being sick is hard, being sick in a foreign country is even harder and there are many times that I miss home right now.  But, with all that being said, there are still so many things here that I marvel at and love seeing.  I have spent a few hours hours each day (before I started feeling too drained from fighting this cold) going outside and just wandering around the streets for a while, exploring my surroundings, and taking some pictures, but that gets its own blog post ;-)  For now, I am tired and need to give my eyes a rest from the computer.  So, I will talk with you all later; to tide you over, here are a few pictures:

My current practice home: the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (shala is on first floor, Sharath and family live in upper levels)

Me sitting in what has become my post-practice perch outside the shala in the mornings...with, of course, a coconut in hand ;-)

Building under construction with old-school style scaffolding

"Spanish Tomato Tango!" "India's Magic Masala!" "American Cream & Onion!" and, on the second shelf, "Naughty Tomato" snack sticks

Gorgeous hand-painted elephant on the wall of the Krishna Temple in Gokulam

Cows enjoy coconuts too :-)

Strong ladies

One of the all-important coconut stands...18 rupees/coconut here (about 30 cents)

The palm trees here are not solely for decoration, watch out for falling coconuts ;-)

What are these odd-looking fruits you ask?  These are jack fruits!  And they are HUGE--picture 2 human heads next to each other and you'll get an idea of how big they are.  Can you imagine the explosion they make when they fall?!

Registered

Here it is, I'm all official now:

It was an extremely busy time at the shala when I went to register.  On Sundays, the time for registration is between 3:30 and 4:30, but the Sunday conference (the time set aside for students to ask Sharath questions in a group setting about the practice) also started at 4:00pm.  I got in to see him about 5 minutes before 4:00 (the rest of the people had to wait until after conference).  It was really quick: he asked me who my teacher in Boston was and how long I planned on staying and then told me how much the shala fees were (47,100 rupees, between $750-$800).  I handed him my giant stack of rupees and he ran it through his cash machine and then complimented me on my "good counting," lol.  As he was filling out my card he asked how to pronounce my name and I told him it was pronounced "t/air-a" (not "t/ar-a") but that so many people pronounce it differently that it doesn't matter as long as it is close.  He also said, "Tara means 'star.'" (in Hindi).  I smiled and told him that I loved the stars, and, also, that in Irish, my name means earth (well, technically "rock," but I didn't feel like getting too specific).  He handed me my registration card and then I thanked him and went to sit outside in the practice room for the conference, with at least 200 other people (everyone who is currently practicing at the shala comes to conference on Sunday)!  It was literally standing room only.  There were many good things that he said (and some I have heard other people talk about in their blogs) but I have not really had time to reflect on them yet.

So, tomorrow will be my first day of practice in the shala...at 10:30am.  I normally start practice around 5:45/5:50 in the morning, so this is a much later start time for me--for those of you unfamiliar with how the practice times at the shala work, there are so many people that come here now that there are different time slots that people have to practice in.  When you first register (especially during the later months) you start in a later time slot.  Then, as more people leave, you get moved to an earlier start time (the earliest one is 4:30am).  So, it's 10:30am for now, but it will eventually change.  

I'm still feeling quite tired, so, as the girl I am staying with right now said, it will probably be good to start later right now.  Though I am feeling a little less like a zombie now, especially after having a chance to do some wandering around the neighborhood on my own (don't worry, I have a map and I'm not venturing too far right now).  I've always preferred to explore on my own because it gives me time to move at my own pace, explore the things that I catch my interest and gives me a chance to practice listening to my own intuition.  So, I'm starting to feel more acquainted with my surroundings here and getting a little more grounded.

And now, it is time to disconnect from the electronics and let the mind wind down before going to sleep.  This was one thing that Sharath mentioned during conference today, and that I have heard from many sources: have time before going to sleep where you do not watch TV, go on the Internet, talk on the phone, etc, because it gives your mind a break from all that stimulation and can help you have a more restful sleep.  So, on that note, I will talk to you all later :-)