I mentioned last week that the AYA2 (Ashtanga) House Recommendations were being turned into a small booklet designed by Laura Shaw Feit of Small Blue pearls and http://lshawdesign.com. Well, here it is available free to download to your iPad (you just have to register) or it's a couple of quid for the printed copy.
Downloaded the pdf but kind of want a printed copy, have to check about International postage. Just did, ordered a copy, postage about a quid to the UK. $5.20 including postage, bargain.
So then I thought, how about a House Recommendations for the HOME Ashtangi, for the Home shala........
SAME book.
and highly recommended, will provoke thought and reflection for the home and shala ashtangi, beginner and more experienced alike, which is always good right ( off the mat obviously).
Here's What Small Blue pearls has to say about it.
"Designed and produced by yours truly, this incredibly helpful resource is now available as a free digital download (there are choices on format here) as well as a lovely printed version to keep mat-side. The printed version costs under five bucks and covers the printing and shipping only. Let's all thank Angela Jamison for crowdsourcing and curating this awesome pamphlet!"
I like the cover so much that I thought it deserved a larger shot all of it's own along with the contents and the introduction (double page spread here to give an idea of the design. Love the layout, marries well with the tone.
Downloaded the pdf but kind of want a printed copy, have to check about International postage. Just did, ordered a copy, postage about a quid to the UK. $5.20 including postage, bargain.
------
So then I thought, how about a House Recommendations for the HOME Ashtangi, for the Home shala........
SAME book.
and highly recommended, will provoke thought and reflection for the home and shala ashtangi, beginner and more experienced alike, which is always good right ( off the mat obviously).
Here's What Small Blue pearls has to say about it.
"Designed and produced by yours truly, this incredibly helpful resource is now available as a free digital download (there are choices on format here) as well as a lovely printed version to keep mat-side. The printed version costs under five bucks and covers the printing and shipping only. Let's all thank Angela Jamison for crowdsourcing and curating this awesome pamphlet!"
 |
| LINK TO BUY PRINTED COPY OR DOWNLOAD FOR FREE |
I like the cover so much that I thought it deserved a larger shot all of it's own along with the contents and the introduction (double page spread here to give an idea of the design. Love the layout, marries well with the tone.
 |
| http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/585165 |
No doubt the main area the Home Ashtangi and the Shala Ashtangi part ways is in the question of relationship, we practice at home, solo, we have no relationships. This chapter (see below) perhaps provoked the most reflection for me, sometimes painful or at least uncomfortable, it's the area in which I'm most stubborn.
Are we missing out? Hard perhaps not to feel that you are on reading this section. No doubt we gain/develop something too, an independence and self reliance.... I'm reminded of the suggestion that Ashtanga focuses on the breath therefore Ashtanga includes pranayama, that Ashtanga encourages a highly focused drishti therefore Ashtanga is meditative. And yet if you actually practice pranayama and if you practice meditation then it's pretty obvious that it's not the same thing. Ashtanga is excellent preparation for pranayama and seated meditation but it's no substitute for either. In pranayama you're just focused on the breath, nothing else is going on, same with your seated meditation. Likewise perhaps with Shala practice. We might argue that the Mysore shala is a room is filled with eighty solo practices or a smaller Shala being a room with ten solo practices but that's not the case, not really. Home practice is solo practice, the only energy in the room is your own, the motivation, encouragement, the discipline.... the will is yours and yours alone. If there's any surrender, going on it's directly to the practice, your 121 is with the divine.
That's the stubborn bit, there's truth there and yet....
I think my practice has been developing nicely thus far. I've stuck with it for six years plus, managed to get on the mat everyday for practice. I've progressed through to Advanced B, realised the error in racing ahead and gone back to basics, to foundations... first principles, developing a practice with a stronger focus on the breath. I've moved into the other limbs, studied shastras somewhat.... it seems to be moving in a healthy direction but have I really done that solo?
Haven't I built relationships through blogging about my practice,? It's not the same perhaps as sharing a shala and yet there are nodding acquaintances, regular readers who never comment but I recognise their flag and less commonly noticed city come up on the Feedjit gadget, I know they come, that we share a practice. There are others who comment regularly as I do on their blogs and then some who have become dear friends, there's love here. And trust, not afraid to be critical at times to question each other strongly, there's also support and encouragement.
How can I say this is a solo practice.
And then there are the online teachers, some we learn the odd tip or trick from others we become attached too, Richard Freeman for one. I've read his book, his articles, practiced along with his DVDs over and over, listened to all his dharama talks and when I eventually took a workshop with him his voice and mannerisms were so familiar that I felt I'd known him for years.
It's one way (although isn't he speaking to us), not the same but there is relationship there...of sorts, isn't there?
It's not the same because I eventually studied with Ramaswami and developed a relationship with a teacher, I know the difference now, but even here despite the support and the encouragement over the last few years I only actually spent one month with him....he spent thirty years with his teacher Krishnamacharya, much of that time visiting him daily. Pattabhi Jois similarly spent twenty years plus studying with Krishnamacharya, Manju and Sharath spent similar lengths of time practicing and studying with their father and grandfather.
Is such practice and study, a relationship with one teacher still possible in this day and age and in the West.
Well yes, it seems it is and it's something Angela is touching on here. It's an available aspect of Ashtanga practice, that six day a week practice with one teacher, year in year out....it does give me pause.
Is it too late?
And what of the relationship we have with ourselves. Angela suggests at some point that we look for a teacher who know something we don't. For me that would be my common sense self, that side of ourselves that we listen to when we're tempted to get all gung-ho in our practice. How many other aspects of self do we have to listen to. How far can we equate the idea of the inner guru idea with the external teacher. Argument goes that we're already Ishvara, already Buddha, already divine, we just have to chip away the marble.
If this is the only teacher available to us in our solo practice, how do we listen....
Here's Angela's 'Relationship' section in full because this began as an Ashtanga at Home blog and us Home Ashtangi's perhaps we have a lot to hear from it. Besides, I want to give more of a feel for the marriage of tone and design of this big/little booklet
If you Like Laura's design of the book you might like to wander over to her website and have a look at her portfolio, we all have a book in us....or two
Book covers
(bit embarrassed now with my own)
(bit embarrassed now with my own)
 |
| http://lshawdesign.com |
Page designs
 |
| http://lshawdesign.com |
Self publishing?
 |
| http://lshawdesign.com |
17 comments:
Woah. Awesome post.
I share your questions, and don't have any ideas about the answers. Though honestly, having known you from close to the start of your practice and seeing the depth of the effect it has had on you (and, as I have matured a little bit, on our relationship), I have to take your experience into account as a significant data point when it comes to my understanding of student-teacher relationships.
Much love and respect,
Angela
Thanks so much Grim for the kind words about the design. I volunteered to do this project because I found the wisdom, from Angela and from the Collective, to be so spot on. It was an honor to work to bring into a form that is easy to use and hopefully pleasing to the eye.
As for the relationship part: who knows what's yet to come? I agree you are in relationship with the Collective and life is long with interesting twists and who can tell that you might just not have met your ashtanga teacher yet? Amusing thought at least. It is also not presented as an a 'must' in this book: the book is, as stated, just suggestions.
Great stuff, Grimmly, thanks for posting this! I might think about reposting some of this (especially the part about home practitioners) on my blog. This makes me feel that I might want to think about making a bigger investment of time (and money) to go to one of Kino's and Tim's weeklong intensives at their home shala in Miami. Or better yet, go to Mysore.
But anyway... I hope your back gets better. I don't want to try diagnosing stuff over the internet, but I have a hunch that taking it slow (aka Granny style) while paying attention to the bandhas especially in the Suryas will be helpful and therapeutic. And maybe eating some high alkali, "cooling" foods (milk, yogurt, etc.) would help too. After all, many injuries have a psychic component as well. Maybe your central nervous system is a bit overheated...
Thank you Angela, for sharing the HR and for the questions it elicits, no answers here either but good to chew over, I'm all for the cud. L&R back at you.
Yes Laura, did I stress thanks to Angelas students as much as to you too, know such things are a two way process, know I came out a better teacher than I went in back in the day and have my students to thank for it. Loved our discussion on fb re the design process as 'translation'.
Yes, re not a 'must' book, loved that interview with Angela re the bandhas, not so much what they were but the possibilities to explore, must listen to it again, think I link to it in the post.
Glad to have dragged you away from the online chess for ten minutes Noble, repost away. re the home practitioners bit, still making sense of it, work in progress, be interested to see how you take it on
The back will no doubt sort it out, 'Granny style', do you mean VK : ) And anyway these injuries, once you let go of the aspirations to greatness : ) then finding out what you can and can't do on the mat is always interesting. Of course if this had happened a week before Manju I would be decidedly less chilled about it, but I've still time to let it heal and build the practice back up.
Do wish i could sit though, bit of a bugger that. Look forward to a post form you.
Hi Anthony
I'd offer that what you may be missing out is the long-term relationship with a teacher.
My long-term training teacher is very traditional, I felt for a long time that he was not welcoming me, now I know he was testing me, that he needed me to sort of 'bend' a bit, to leave my asmita outside the room, and things have become easier since I accepted that this was what was required.
I have been tempted to leave, even did so at one point and then felt that it had been such a terrible idea, I went back and have grown a lot since.
I do not think you are alone, as you pointed out you have friends, virtual teachers and people to honestly share opinions with on your blog or other ones.
But perhaps for as much trust and openness we may build through a blog, a regular teacher is more of a mirror for yourself than the monitor of a computer. So perhaps this is the only thing you are missing out, the regular interactions on the days when you do not feel like seeing your teacher, when things do not work as well as you would like.
Having gone through an intensive TT and now moving along my long-term one, I'd say the intensive training is like a holiday with a boyfriend, things sort of work out by themselves.
A longer training is like a marriage of sorts, you need to build the relationship with constant effort.
Does this make sense?
Such a wonderful post Grimmly. You always are able to get to the heart of the matter.
I would like to echo Chiara. I have been struggling with the appropriate balance between a home practice and regular practice with a teacher. My teacher is also quite traditional and I left for a while too because I felt the demands for my attendance was too much. I did not understand why I could not practice there on my terms. Then I also went back because something was missing.
That being said, I am not and will never be a six day a week shala attendee. My home practice is just as vital as my practice with my teacher, and if I was forced to choose, it would always be the home practice. This is where most of my growth has occurred, it took me a long time to have the presence of mind to be able to begin and maintain a personal home practice. Once I achieved it, this personal practice felt like such a gift, this was what I had been searching for in my 10 years of practicing studio-led yoga classes, when it all felt empty and meaningless and not at all like yoga.
But right now I am lucky to have the benefit of both. My teachers shala is a simple, unassuming grounded place that has given rise to a yoga community. And my teachers have forced me to face numerous physical and mental discomforts with the practice that I may not have been able to face or resolve without their assistance.
No, by "Granny style" I don't mean VK. I mean doing more or less straight-up Ashtanga, but slowing things down and/or modifying as needed. Then again, come to think of it, maybe when you do this, you end up with VK? Well, I really know nothing about VK, so I'll stop speculating here...
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this Chiara, it is curious to wonder about the relationship I might have had with a teacher had I been closer to AYL, Ashtanga Yoga London say ( the only shala I visited, twice in 2008) Still remember the generosity of Louise, the teaching assistant on duty those two Sundays. When I look back at some of my old posts, that process of growing through the practicebut in the AYL context would have been interesting, wonder if I would have stomped off or stuck with it. I don't feel I've missed out though, this has been an interesting process too but it's curious to reflect on.
I do consider Ramaswami my teacher, since the day I first stepped in class and heard him say "stretch, stretch, stretch' but especially on the last day when I took his hand to say goodbye, kind of understood the whole kissing of the guru's feet thing that day though we only shook hands. There's trust, love and respect there, reverence.
Would be nice to be in India for a few months one winter he's there and visit him every morning for an hour just as he did his teacher, not to be perhaps. Should move heaven and earth more to attend his workshops when he does visit the UK even if it is in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps I'll be able to host him in Japan when we move back, nice thought.
Seem to be thinking of Manju as my ashtanga teacher already and I haven't even met him.
Thank you for this omiya, yes the balance of both is perhaps best, Kevin, who blogs at Journey of my practice, probably lives a similar distance as me outside London and makes the effort to attend his shala most weekends, so it's possible. I could perhaps have done the same although Sunday is the only time M and I have to see each other with her working so much. Perhaps when situations change something similar would be possible.
I should go to Susan now she's teaching in London, always seen her and Angela as if not my Ashtanga teachers then certainly guides ( though I've pushed against them at times, struggled a little - all part of the process I hear) in that they've been commenting/advising/suggesting/encouraging/supporting/giving me a hard time here since I started this blog and pretty much my practice. I may not have agreed with everything they've said and/or argued an opposing view but much of what has been said continues to sit in my head and bump up anew with some of my preconceptions and prejudices, bruising and even denting them occasionally.
I'm slow : )
Would be hard to give up my home practice now, still think it's the ideal but a regular shala visit might be called for. Perhaps make the commitment to attend Manju's workshop when he comes to the UK each year, more of a commitment to this tradition/lineage/approach that I seem to have been unable to extricate myself from anyway .
Interesting to reflect on these things.
Time for practice.
Fine with granny style Noble, those wise old Grandmother's know a thing about the world, tough and hardy too many of them, but I hear you.
It is an interesting journey. I've tried so many different combos of teacher/shala/home. I never would have predicted where I've ended up.
I think a lot of people who see Manju infrequently still think of him as their teacher. Once the relationship is there, thoughts, observations and suggestions can be exchanged even long distance.
I do think it's nice to combine home and Shala practice, but many things are nice, and we all have to do what works. One of the beauties of Ashtanga is that it becomes something a bit different to each of us depending on....well I'm sure you can fill that in, depending on so many things.
A literature professor used to quote James Joyce, "There are many rooms in the house of fiction...." and so I think there are many in the house of yoga. Lots of beauty, lots of inspiration can be found there, whether we live on one floor or explore it attic to ceiling. The light shines throughout. The wisdom to adapt the practice, yet adapt and grow ourselves, within the limits available to us, leads us deeper into the practice, I think.
I am trying anyway. I learn something from everything. You worry about home vs. shala practice a lot, so maybe you're feeling the need to explore or shift the balance in some way again a little bit, as with Ramaswami. I am sure you will find the right way.
Thanks for all the love and energy you bring to this blog. We your readers all benefit from your dedication and I am grateful.
Yes Anon, that's how I feel about Ramaswami, once the relationship is established, distance doesn't seem to matter. Strong friendships are like that too no, time and distance unimportant.
If I worry about the shala/home shala thing it's more in the sense of 'worrying a tooth', playing with it, coming back to the similarities and differences, benefits...I've no regrets, it's been a great ride thus far. I think at one point I would have ruled out regular shala practice, less inclined to rule anything out now, even Mysore, if somewhere local opened up I'd probably explore it but just as happy to go along as I am.
Thank you for commenting on this one and for your kind words.
Same anon here. Thanks, Grim. As long as you're following through on your own beliefs and needs, and desires, in an honest way, it will all work out and continue to support and nourish you, I am sure.
Hi Grimmly
I've spent virtually most of today exploring this blog and all that it contains.
I'm a very recent convert to Ashtanga after a few years spent on Iyengar class and, more recently, Vinyasa flow. The Ashtanga practice seems to contain the bits of the other two that I enjoy most. Was lucky enough to be in Bali last week where I stumbled upon an Ashtanga shala offering Mysore style with a really great teacher. But now I've returned home and am very far from any shala. So I'll be following the home practice path. (With Iyengar classes thrown in for rigour). So thanks for all the info contained on this blog- I'm sure I will be a regular visitor. :)
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.