It strikes me now that only one of these postures is worth my time and that’s the first, Maha Mudra, why did I waste so much time and energy on all the others?
Is it really to keep us coming back to the mat or is it all a bit of a con, are we being distracted from what we first found when we practiced Primary. When I look back at my previous post I’m reminded of how I was more struck by the meditative quality of the practice than the actual asana, the asana madness came later, seduced by the awareness that my middle aged recently obese body could do these strange and wonderful contortions. Are we led astray? Did I lead myself astray, it was a home practice after all. And don’t we alway end up back at Primary asana anyway, sooner or later, whether from injury or age or self awareness?
These days, when practicing Primary, I’ll tend to skip even Janu Sirsasana A an B and just spend quality time in Maha Mudra instead with Kumbhaka after the inhalation (I might include C and D, I might not). All these postures, aren’t they a distraction? Jois said they were for Instagram ( OK, he actually said demonstration).
Above: The photos in the poster were all work in progress photos, this was before Instagram. However I too succumbed to fancy asana in fancy location, the one above in Santorini to promote Manduka's new blue mat .
Jois inherited From Krishnamacharya, lists of Primary and Intermediate asana, which he kept pretty much in the same order but practiced as fixed series. He also inherited a rag bag of what Krishnamacharya referred to as ‘Proficient ‘ postures that Jois employed as an Advanced series, then it seems to have become Advanced A and Advanced B and finally 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. That’s a lot of demonstration asana, I’ll ask it agai, have we been, are we being, led astray?
Exploring these asana was fun though, I admit it, and we can often use perhaps the distraction in our lives. There is a time though, surely, to put the toys away or perhaps not even take them out in the first place. And on reflection the Advanced asana were actually easy, no really, all that work on Kapo and dropping back over the years, the leg behind head work, easy compared to just sitting with the breath, getting beyond the monotony and relishing the space to be found there. I let my Pranayama slip a little, a lot, after coming back off nights and finding myself with less time in the mornings, it was a bugger to get it back again, to just sit and breathe rather than just knock out some asana. There was time of course, it was just harder, it is just harder, just sitting has always been harder than the most mind blowing arm balance.
Krishnamacharya wrote that they (‘advanced’ asana - are they really advanced or just intricate?) were unnecessary for most but that a few practitioners should practice them, so that they were not lost again. I asked a question of Krishnamacharya once on the blog “Hey Krishnamacharya, is there really any point to putting my leg behind my head?” ( you can google for the post or http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2015/09/convince-me-krishnamacharya-are-there.html ). He replied via Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934) that these postures could benefit the different chakras, I’m still not convinced.
I originally made up this Leg behind head sheet to show how Krishnamacharya seems to have taught, not in series like Jois but in groups of asana. If you had a nice Janu Sirsasana then he might lead you to a basic leg behind head posture and if proficient then he would ‘rediscover’ more leg behind head postures and no doubt use you in his demonstrations. Krishnamacharya was of course trying to promote Yoga that had fallen into disfavour. These days we tend to use these asana to promote ourselves (yep, done it, allowed my playing the flute with my leg behind my head to sit on a workshop flyer) rather than Yoga. Krishnamacharya fell into the same trap of the rest of us, rather than disclose Yoga he seems to have unintentionally hidden it under a pile of manure. Note the last photo isn’t me but a young BKS Iyengar from Krishnamacharya’s 1938
In the past I've asked if we are at fault with Instagram and social media but perhaps now I'm asking if they too were at blame, Jois certainly with his four series of advanced postures, Iyengar, but Krishnamacharya too. In seeking to promote yoga through asana perhaps he buried it away, hid it even further from sight just as perhaps the Hatha yogi's did before him with all their tantric practices, taking us ever further from Patanjali. Ashtanga, it isn't perhaps what it says on the box. It's a thought.
How to Relieve Back-pain and Bend Backwards Without Hurting your Lower Back
Is it really to keep us coming back to the mat or is it all a bit of a con, are we being distracted from what we first found when we practiced Primary. When I look back at my previous post I’m reminded of how I was more struck by the meditative quality of the practice than the actual asana, the asana madness came later, seduced by the awareness that my middle aged recently obese body could do these strange and wonderful contortions. Are we led astray? Did I lead myself astray, it was a home practice after all. And don’t we alway end up back at Primary asana anyway, sooner or later, whether from injury or age or self awareness?
These days, when practicing Primary, I’ll tend to skip even Janu Sirsasana A an B and just spend quality time in Maha Mudra instead with Kumbhaka after the inhalation (I might include C and D, I might not). All these postures, aren’t they a distraction? Jois said they were for Instagram ( OK, he actually said demonstration).
Above: The photos in the poster were all work in progress photos, this was before Instagram. However I too succumbed to fancy asana in fancy location, the one above in Santorini to promote Manduka's new blue mat .
Jois inherited From Krishnamacharya, lists of Primary and Intermediate asana, which he kept pretty much in the same order but practiced as fixed series. He also inherited a rag bag of what Krishnamacharya referred to as ‘Proficient ‘ postures that Jois employed as an Advanced series, then it seems to have become Advanced A and Advanced B and finally 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. That’s a lot of demonstration asana, I’ll ask it agai, have we been, are we being, led astray?
Exploring these asana was fun though, I admit it, and we can often use perhaps the distraction in our lives. There is a time though, surely, to put the toys away or perhaps not even take them out in the first place. And on reflection the Advanced asana were actually easy, no really, all that work on Kapo and dropping back over the years, the leg behind head work, easy compared to just sitting with the breath, getting beyond the monotony and relishing the space to be found there. I let my Pranayama slip a little, a lot, after coming back off nights and finding myself with less time in the mornings, it was a bugger to get it back again, to just sit and breathe rather than just knock out some asana. There was time of course, it was just harder, it is just harder, just sitting has always been harder than the most mind blowing arm balance.
Krishnamacharya wrote that they (‘advanced’ asana - are they really advanced or just intricate?) were unnecessary for most but that a few practitioners should practice them, so that they were not lost again. I asked a question of Krishnamacharya once on the blog “Hey Krishnamacharya, is there really any point to putting my leg behind my head?” ( you can google for the post or http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2015/09/convince-me-krishnamacharya-are-there.html ). He replied via Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934) that these postures could benefit the different chakras, I’m still not convinced.
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| See this post which looks at most of the leg behind head postures in the poster this way, with a photo from Yoga makaranda and Krishnamacharya's list of supposed benefits http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2015/09/convince-me-krishnamacharya-are-there.html |
I originally made up this Leg behind head sheet to show how Krishnamacharya seems to have taught, not in series like Jois but in groups of asana. If you had a nice Janu Sirsasana then he might lead you to a basic leg behind head posture and if proficient then he would ‘rediscover’ more leg behind head postures and no doubt use you in his demonstrations. Krishnamacharya was of course trying to promote Yoga that had fallen into disfavour. These days we tend to use these asana to promote ourselves (yep, done it, allowed my playing the flute with my leg behind my head to sit on a workshop flyer) rather than Yoga. Krishnamacharya fell into the same trap of the rest of us, rather than disclose Yoga he seems to have unintentionally hidden it under a pile of manure. Note the last photo isn’t me but a young BKS Iyengar from Krishnamacharya’s 1938
In my defence, there was actually a point to the flute photos, see this post
In the past I've asked if we are at fault with Instagram and social media but perhaps now I'm asking if they too were at blame, Jois certainly with his four series of advanced postures, Iyengar, but Krishnamacharya too. In seeking to promote yoga through asana perhaps he buried it away, hid it even further from sight just as perhaps the Hatha yogi's did before him with all their tantric practices, taking us ever further from Patanjali. Ashtanga, it isn't perhaps what it says on the box. It's a thought.
UPDATE
Why did I waste so much time on Backbends!
I'm not a natural 'backbender', every one of these took a lot of work and time but then it's the same for those with more flexible backs, perhaps they come a little quicker, go a little deeper but I don't know anyone who hasn't had to put the work in with these, however easy they may make them look. Backbends take time and work and effort, a lot of effort, why do we do it?
With the advanced leg behind head's I posted yesterday at least we have Krishnamacharya arguing that each version had a point, an effect on this chakra, on that. I don't buy it perhaps but it's something, on Backbends Krishnamacharya was silent. I've questioned Krishnamacharya above on leg behind head work, as much as Jois, and as much as those of us who Instagram asana but in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda (MYsore 1934) there is only the one backbend, Chakrasana (or Triyangamukha Uttanasana), a variation on Uttanasana for Krishnamacharya, perhaps included for completeness as Krishnamacharya writes that there are eight forms of uttanasana's. No instruction for it, no explanation and yet it seems to have justified it's devoted inclusion in Mysore.
Only the one backbend photo in Krishnamacharya's early texts and no instructions for any of those he lists in Yogasanagalu but he was certainly teaching them. Here's BKS Iyengar in Krishnamacharya's 1938 documentary.
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| Photo: BKS Iyengar backbends from Krishnamacharya's 1938 Mysore Documentary. |
We're they only for promotion by the young boys of the palace, like the kids trained in Chinese circus camps or young gymnasts anywhere? We Ashtangi's are great at justifying, never more so than we with Backbends perhaps.
I've heard groaning in the shala's as teachers try to crank students into Backbends they clearly don't have the back for, groans followed by heartfelt thank-you's for a perceived extra millimetre, I've heard actual screams on workshops!
These days I only include a few gentle versions of the postures at the beginning of this 'poster', a smart Ushtrasana at most seems more than sufficient.
Yet I confess that on Saturday, I threw in my first Kapotasana in a year, it felt nice, I just scrapped my toes with my fingertips, no ankles from the air anymore, certainly not the twenty- five breaths I used to be able to hold it, three quick breaths only. On my blog there are posts on working on Kapo over two years, the same for dropping back, video after video of micro progress... Why did I waste so much time on Backbends? Why all these variations dangled in frount of us..., To keep us coming back? Back to our mat, the shala, to our teachers?
Why was pranayama never dangled in frount of us as much, or Sitting? Instead, " No pranayama until after you've mastered second series", no Sitting full stop and yet Krishnamacharya ALWAYS stressed an integrated practice.
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Personally backbends are no longer my thing, I prefer Simon Borg-Olivier's gentle spinal movements but if they are still yours then take a look at these perhaps on taking a perhaps safer approach.
And even if you've never gone near the more advanced backbends and have no intention of doing so, we can still be damaging our spine in our sun salutations, have a look at this video from Simon, lots of tips/suggestions to carry over into our Ashtanga suryanamaskar (this is part of an excellent 28 part series on YouTube.
Video: Simon Borg-Olivier Spinal movements part 11 Salute.
1 comment:
Comments have been turned as I'd stopped blogging for a while and was only receiving spam. This one just came in direct from Maya of Mayaland blog.
Hello Grim! I'm so happy that you decided to keep posting, always enjoy reading your thoughts. I had a thought in response today, hope you don't mind. So...why did I waste all that time...I kind of think, for me, the answer is in your post: it was fun and it felt nice. Or, to use another word, play, it was play. As an older (47, holy crap) ashtangi with nearly 9 years of home practice, I am definitely feeling the slow down, looking back to my years of asana madness bemused, while looking forward to nice, enjoyable, modest primaries. I'm totally with you on the dropping away of the extreme poses. But I think yoga done for play, especially in a younger body and for a younger mind that maybe needs more stimulation and challenge and adventure, challenging asanas can be inspiring, fun, motivating, interesting. And I think those are all good reasons to do them. The problem only comes along when there is competition, yoga ambition that leads straight to injury, with the resulting loss of practice. I guess I'm saying part of this question might be a stages of life thing. My daughter, now 14, can easily do the most advanced ashtanga poses and is bored by anything less. She does graceful slow-mo dropbacks, then just falls from there into a deep kapo with no effort, no work, cracking jokes while she does it. It's play, and it is where she is at 14, very different from 47. Or, put it another way, one could as easily say, why did I waste all that time playing legos? Why did I waste all that time playing sax? It was fun. That's it. Time well spent. Of course, if it isn't fun, if it is painful or work or pressure or shame or guilt, then forget it, if you ask me. THEN it's a waste of time.
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