Manju Jois interviews and Teacher Training videos

I came across a nice interview with Manju Jois last night on the Aspiring Yogi blog.
I particularly liked this question

KPJ: Describe your usual yoga practice/routine?
MJ: I practice yoga in the morning every day except Saturday. My routine is to get up at 4am, have a shower and practice for 1 hour, picking a few postures from the primary and intermediate series, then four or five postures from the advanced series. The asana practice is followed by chanting for ½ an hour.

This is pretty much my own approach to practice, so nice for me to see.

...and then this

KPJ: You have been teaching for 47 years. What changes have you noticed over that time, either in your own approach to teaching, or more generally in terms of Ashtanga yoga?
MJ: I teach in the traditional style that I learnt from my father. My aim is to keep the teaching pure and simple. Unfortunately the teaching is often not the same as when I learnt. I don’t know if it is because of a shortage of time, or they don’t know the traditional style or don’t want to teach it.

....and a couple on the breath (see my previous post) which is what I was looking for when hunting for his interviews

KPJ: What do you think is the most common mistake that people make when practicing yoga?
MJ: The biggest mistake that students make is overdoing their practice and not knowing when to stop. Yoga is supposed to be relaxing!  It is better to do fewer asanas perfectly with correct breathing, rather than lots of poses if you have forgotten about the breath and bandhas. Keep up your practice everyday. You don’t have to do 100 postures. Listen to your body, stop when it tells you it is stretched enough. People get hurt when they continue.

KPJ: In led classes, we hold each pose for five breaths. Is it appropriate to hold the pose for longer, especially if you have one side stiffer than another?
MJ: In Mysore style practice you can take as many breaths as you want. In fact, usually the body reacts after the fifth breath, so you need to stay longer to get the complete benefit. The Yoga Sutras say Sthira sukham asanam – meaning asana is a meditation and you have to stay in poses and breathe properly.

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An Interview with Manju that I hadn't seen before.

Bit short of time this morning but I'll go through this tonight and pick out some highlights and where to find them.

A couple more videos of Manju's Teacher training workshop videos from the same youtube channel

And another two with chanting over some adjustment demonstrations


While on the topic of Manju here's the excellent video from Warsaw that I posed last year, Hooked on Yoga


Hooked On Yoga: Manju Jois in Warsaw, July 2010 from Astanga Yoga Studio on Vimeo.

Hooked On Yoga: Manju Jois in Warsaw, July 2010 from Astanga Yoga Studio on Vimeo.

here's the link to where the video was posted http://vimeo.com/19598795

and a link to manju's own website http://www.manjujois.com/

On Manju's site you can see a preview of his Primary series workshop DVD.

Not much of a preview however, just the chant and we can't see if it differs from Sharath's in the speed of the count for example. Has anyone seen it and can tell us more? Here's a screenshot and a link to watch it. 

Seems it's only 90 minutes which probably tells us a lot

Link to DVD preview http://www.manjujois.com/videos/ManjuWorkshop.mov

I've also noticed that Ashtanga.com is offering a Manju bundle for $70 that contains a training manual, 89 pages, anyone seen this and can offer a couple of pictures of how it looks inside, similar layout to Lino's? 

http://www.ashtanga.com/html/p.lasso?p=10252

Here's what they have to say about it

Includes (descriptions below):
- Ashtanga Yoga Training Manual
- Ashtanga Yoga Workshop DVD (NTSC - see note below*)
- Shanthi Mantras CD

Ashtanga Yoga: Yoga Chikitsa & Nadi Shodhana, Mantra & Traditional Hatha Yoga Shloka
Author: Manju Jois and Greg Tebb
Spiral-bound Paperback: 89 pages
Publisher: Self-published (Greg Tebb)
ISBN: 978-0-615-46773-3

Five years ago, Manju called his longtime student Greg Tebb with the idea of putting together a book combining the Ashtanga yoga system and traditional "shlokas" (verses) from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Since that first idea, they have expanded the scope of the book (now in its 3rd edition) to also include shlokas from the Geranda Samhita and Yoga Rahasya. First introduced at Manju's teacher training workshops, this valuable resource is now available here.

Contents:
- Photographs and detailed listing of the Vinyasa Krama (breathing sequence) of Primary and Intermediate Series
- Shanthi Mantras, Vedic peace chants
- Gayatri Mantra
- Mangala (auspicious) closing chants
- Hatha Yoga Shlokas (verses) relevant to the techniques and benefits of the Ashtanga asanas
- Appendix with Vedic and classical Sanskrit chants (extra chants not included on Manju's CD)
- Lined note-taking sections on most pages


Ashtanga Yoga Workshop with Manju Jois DVD
Produced by: Manju Jois & Wolfington Productions
Region: All regions
Language: English
Number of Discs: 1
DVD Release Date: 2006
Run Time: 90 minutes

Manju Jois is the oldest son of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, recognized worldwide as the foremost authority on Ashtanga yoga. Manju started yoga at age 7 with his father and began teaching at age 15. He has taught continuously throughout the world for the last 50 years.

This workshop video presents the Ashtanga yoga Primary Series and traditions in their purest form, providing a rare and privileged opportunity for practitioners to learn from a genuine Indian master. Using the original Sanskrit so that students will benefit from the traditional system, Manju teaches the powerful healing elements and techniques that make up the Ashtanga system, including a series of asanas (postures) known as The Primary Series or Yoga Chikitsa (Yoga Healing), as well as Vedic peace chants (Shanthi Mantras).

Manju Jois's dedicated life-long mission is to provide training for students and teachers in the traditions of authentic Indian yoga. He is honored, therefore, to be able to offer guidance to all who wish to learn and benefit from Ashtanga yoga's ancient and time-honored practices.


Shanthi Mantras CD

This chanting CD includes English and Sanskrit translations that are accessible when you insert the disc into your computer.

Tracks
1: Invocation
2-11: Chants
12-21: Group Chants (Call and Response)
22: Closing Prayer

Translations by Rami Sivan. Produced by Jim Dugan. Recorded at Feiner Farm, Wycombe, PA USA.*Please note: In many countries, the standard DVD format is PAL, not NTSC. For customers in countries with PAL format as the standard, we will ship a PAL version of the Manju Jois DVD instead of the NTSC version.The DVD cover on the PAL version is different, but the contents of the PAL DVD are identical to the contents of the NTSC DVD.