“So,are you a guru?”I asked Mr.Iyengar.
I had been going to Iyengar yoga classes for three years, and BKS
Iyengar was visiting Australia for the first time.I was making a one-
hour radio program on yoga and interviewed the great master.
He replied, “Your guru is your practice.”The greatest thing a guru
could ever say. You learn to do it by doing it. Yoga is learned in the
practice of yoga ...”
Inez Baranay.From Iyengar:The Yoga Master,
5 comments:
"Your guru is your practice." -- Awesome. What a great mantra for the home practitioner.
Hi, Grimmly
I like it. ;-)
I have fully dedicated myself to learn "Iyengar-style-yoga" in the past, but I stopped because it was not my cup of tea.
I appreciated anyway another words from BKS Iyengar :
"The yogi's life is not measured by the number of his days but by the number of his breaths."
It is consistent with the teaching of Hatha Yoga Pradipika : "Constant practice is alone is the secret of success. Verily, there is no doubt of this."(HYP I, 64-66).
It seems that however Iyengar emphase a lot on the presence of Guru (like him).
With metta.
Yes, isn't it great.
In the end it just comes down to you and the mat, everything else, and most likely everyone else, just gets in the way of that. Practice IS a solitary thing.
For a meditator you could probably say a similar thing, that it comes down to you and the cushion.
Good fun and interesting to read around and explore the topic/culture/method,and it may help to get you to the mat or cushion in the first place and keep you there everyday, but in the end you still have to sit your butt down and/or step on the mat and let it do it's thing
I don't think Iyegar as a style of practice would suit me either Nataraja,too stuck in my ways, but i'm finding it interesting. Thanks for commenting and for the reminder of the Pradipka quote. Must fish out my copy when I get home and find it.
I hear another version of this when I did a couple of intensive weekend Iyengar courses a year ago: "Pain is your guru"
Looking at some of those Iyengar videos that doesn't surprise me so much, were those intensives really tough? There are a few asanas that we don't tend to do in Ashtanga, squat poses for instance, they come up in Vinyasa Krama, ruddy agony.
Nataraja, I love your avater
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.