Simon Borg-Olivier on Kino's Omstars channel.

I came across a trailer for a new course by Simon Borg-Olivier on Kino MacGregor's, Omstars channel (https://omstars.com/) , a channel she describes in their mission statement as "Netflix for yogi's". Following a link to the Omstars fb page I also came across a coupon (CELEBRATEONE) for the month of April, one month for $1, result.

I can't say, much about the channel, all I've watched thus far are Simon's videos but it's certainly as easy to subscribe as Netflix, an email address, make a password and you have an account. Fill in your credit card details, add the coupon and you're all subscribed and watching videos in minutes.

As with Netflix, this is an unlimited viewing subscription channel, you don't get to download and keep anything, although of course, you can always capture streaming content, a favourite clip or video playing on your screen, with the likes of the 'New Screen recording feature on the free Quicktime program that come with your mac ( I'm sure PC's have something similar).

There are a list of 'hosts', some I'm familiar with. Kino of course, Laruga, David Robson, Mark Robberds, Tim Feldmann, Eddie Stern, Ajay Tokas is there, also Alexander Medin. The others I'm not familiar with but all are in a sense hosts of their own channel under the Omstars umbrella offering one or more playlists (courses). There are Led Ashtanga series, breakdown of asana within series, anatomy classes and much more besides. A few years ago, back when I was hunting through YouTube in search of tutorials, I would have been very excited, these days I'm kind of over asana tutorials and led Series. However, I may well watch Alex Medin's Yoga Sutra series, before my subscription runs out.

This may not be my kind of thing currently but I imagine, to the home practitioner in the first few years exploring their Ashtanga practice (or yoga practice generally) this channel/website would be a godsend. It may not be free like YouTube but seems reasonable, with a lot of useful content. i believe there is another coupon available for April $80 for the year, that would be a bargain I imagine.

It was Simon I came for, I'm fascinated by how his practice, or rather what it is he chooses to teach, seems to be metamorphosing of late, each video i see seems to come at it from a slightly different angle, each demonstration of his practice slightly different,I couldn't resist a recent, up to date presentation.

And it is fascinating. After a trailer we get a twenty minute introduction/lecture (Learn the fundamentals), the science behind what he's doing, why he waves his arms about as he does, undulates his spine as he does, breathe naturally as he does. In the next video

The following video, just over an hour is Simon with two other practitioner's going through the key movements, alternative, active movement approaches to the surya namaskar and standing postures.

He even includes his active handstand approach, where the breath takes you up relatively effortlessly.

The next video is the Led actual practice, again it starts off simply, the same eight basic movements we had broken down in the first video. alternative foot positions are introduced, in the last ten minutes it becomes more improvisational, shifting the weight first here, then there. For me. having practiced this approach for a year or so now this and the previous video were revelatory, I feel I have a much better understanding of what is I'm actually doing or trying to do and how I can introduce this sense of play into my own practice of Simon and Bianca's Spinal sequence and active movements.

The final video is Simon practicing ( more practicing than demonstrating perhaps), he makes his 'clicking' sound to cue movements but that's about it. It's like playing along to one of your favourite sax players, (or trying to flollow a transcription) occasionally you get a little lost so just go off on your own for a bit until you kind of get back on track. Once you have the basic movements under your belt there really aren't any rules, just go, as they say, with the flow and your practice will no doubt be all the better for it.

Thank you Kino for bringing Simon to your platform, for the high quality production and excellent editing, was it filmed by who I think it was?

Update

Indeed it was, beautifully filmed and edited by Alessandro Sigismondi
https://alessandrosigismondi.com/about/ who also filmed these with Simon, two of my favourites.

APPENDIX

Links

https://omstars.com/

http://simonborgolivier.com/

https://yogasynergy.com/about-our-teachers/simon-borg-olivier/

I also want to recommend Simon's own video/download of the Spinal Sequence, slightly different approach to the way he's presenting it on Omstars, equally excellent.

https://yogasynergy.com/shop/spinal-movements/

And to put it into context and to go more in depth, Simon and Bianca's 120 hour Yoga Fundamentals online course

https://yogasynergy.com/yoga-fundamentals-yoga-synergy-online-course/

Alessandro Sigismondi
https://alessandrosigismondi.com/about/

More details

At the end of the practice, simon settles into this classic 'qigong' or rather 'zhan zhuang' position ('standing like a stake','hugging a tree'), a meditative posture that you can hold for five minutes as Simon does here or fifty, a whole practice in itself..

Update - a response to an fb comment.

We get to choose our concepts, another one might be the concept of bringing together useful tutorials and led classes from accomplished practitioners and communicators. A few years ago I used to scour Youtube for those who could explain how best to get in and out of a certain asana. In that sense this is nothing more than an extension of my early youtube playlists of certain teachers content. I have profound distaste for celebrity, yoga 'lifestyle' and yoga and business used in the same sentence but if you are at a stage of your practice where youyare into tutorials then this may well be useful.

I'm sure there's still an Ashtanga practitioner buried within me somewhere but......

I'm sure there's still an Ashtanga practitioner buried within me somewhere but more and more I feel...at a distance. Only occasionally, when I see old friends practicing, Kristina, her shala in Rethymno, other similar humble rooms, do I feel like finding my way back.... out of fondness.

I heard Ashtanga subscriptions have been down of late.

The long long overdue outing of the Jois abuse scandal and the mostly unsatisfactory response /acknowledgement from senior teachers and the community.

Sharath's seeming lack of respect for lineage re the old teachers list- however apt perhaps in these supposedly 'Post-Lineage' times - and what else have we been writing about in the home practitioner blogs, pages, forums and groups if not Post-Lineage, Post-Guru...., if we weren't so Post-Post.

And then there's the whole Aloe/Codi/Kinoh noise of late, that makes me want (almost) no part of yoga anymore let alone ashtanga (Qigong anybody?). I mentioned a while back that I found yoga as product/personality grotesque and was censored for it, but what other word captures the blind distortion of all that we glimpsed as perhaps having value and meaning. 'The heart of yoga', if there is such a thing, has I suspect nothing to do with any product or ego, quite the opposite, surely these are all distractions.

Yoga as a business, really?

Away with it all, back to the primary sources (which are of course always secondary), there is some semblance (pleasing illusion?) of purity there at least....perhaps, or better still, rediscover our own traditions, or the spirit that still lies within, we may as well distract and deceive ourselves there as elsewhere.

I wash my hands of it all and practice whatever the hell it is that I practice, seek to tread lightly, be kinder, move my body, explore my breath (perhaps through blowing long tones on an old flute) and Sit (or stand by my four million year old lake) and merely 'be' for a time and that feels.... something.

Practice?

Home 'shala' version
Speeded up five minute version here
https://youtu.be/MfxsIeXomTs

Pranayama?

Appendix 1.

Suizen (Blowing Zen)

To begin the practice, after allowing about 30 seconds of silence to clear one’s mind, carefully proceed with each suggestion as you blow a single note. The entire thing should last at least 20 to about 45 minutes to be effective:

1. Listen to how the note begins and finishes.
2. Consider any/all silence before or after as music, as a “note.”
3. Listen to the texture of the note and the dynamic shape.
4. Listen to what happens to the sound.
5. Follow the breath as you begin/end the sound.
6. Listen to the quality/“shape” of the silence before/after sounding.
7. Listen to what arises out of any and all silence.
8. Breathe as if the breathing is part of the sound/note.
9. Let your breath slowly become the music.
10. Follow the note into your ears and try to find the place in your mind where you hear it.*

Any further details and ideas about the practice are pondered and developed by each individual, thus there is no one particular right way to do this. The idea is inner discovery, not outer mastery in order to gain recognition or attain rank. This is summarized by the word mushotoku, which means ‘without a salary.’ Zen monks use this phrase to to mean doing something without desiring a reward at the end, contemplate and study the process and the rewards will be what they will. 
-DR. DANIEL SCHNEE



Appendix 2.

Simon Borg-Olivier demonstrating/teaching this approach to practice that captivates me so much as well as helping a little with the growing disillusionment.

"Some people don't even call what they do yoga..." - Simon Borg-Olivier

Simon Borg-Olivier 21 January 2018

"Today I was asked 'Has yoga lost its soul in the West?' ... Here is an answer I just wrote ...

I think that most people teaching modern yoga have good intentions and some modern yoga does seem to help some people for some time. However, I don't think that what is mostly being taught under the banner of yoga in the modern world today is really yoga, but more a type of exercise system similar to the aerobics of the 1980’s.

Yoga means union and on a global level it is the recognition that every individual consciousness is related to every other individual consciousness in the same loving way that a mother naturally relates to a newborn baby, with selfless service and loving intent and the way a baby relates to that in terms of feeling safe and loved. If this was happening between all the conscious entities in the world today then I would say that the world is in yoga. But before this can happen on this world scale is must first be achieved on a personal level.

Every cell has its own consciousness and I believe that perfect health and yoga in a human body of about 50 trillion cells will manifest when every individual cell treats every other cell like a mother treats a young baby and every individual cell feels like the other cells are treating each individual cell like a young baby. Another way of saying this is that perfect health and yoga comes in the body when there is the circulation of energy and loving information in the body. In scientific terms this is when blood circulates easily through the body without the heart racing and the parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxation and rejuvenation response) is dominating over the sympathetic nervous system (the flight or fight response).

However, in modern yoga and most exercise regimes, when the body feels any sense of increased heart rate, increased breathing (or more correctly increased minute ventilation), increased muscular tension or even an increased sense of stretching, then the body tends to be put into a overly dominant sympathetic nervous system state. The subconscious response during this type of situation is for the body to think there is something wrong, that change is needed and that we are not okay at the present moment. At such times the body tends to reduce, or even completely switch off, the functions of the digestive system, immune system and the reproductive system. Your ability to absorb nutrients and eliminate wastes is impaired with reduced digestive function. Your ability to recover from sickness or injury is hampered with reduce immune function. Similarly your cells ability to reproduce and grow appropriately, as well as your hormone function is reduced when your reproductive system is not working at its best. At such times of 'flight or flight’ that are stimulated with the increased sympathetic nervous system stimulation that is generated with over-tensing and over-stretching muscles, over-breathing and labouring the heart, the dominant emotions (at least on a subconscious level) will tend to be fear, anger, aggression, competitiveness, and a sense of lack of safety. This does not sound at all to me like the yoga described in the Yamas and Niyamas of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

I believe that if you are doing real yoga then you should be feeling love, happiness and safety while you are practicing not only in your relaxation after your exercise. I believe that you should be enhancing the activities of the digestive, immune and reproductive systems, not depleting them; and that this is what creates the possibility for internal health, happiness and longevity. Your yoga practice should be able to increase blood flow without needing to increase heart rate, like a meditating yogi can sit relaxed and naked in the snow but not get cold. To generate yoga on a physical level by improving blood flow without needing to increase heart rate is not only possible but it is the way of healthy people and the way of real hatha yoga. There are 11 other ways of increasing blood flow other than the heart. However, to achieve this it is not possible to simply learn yoga in one month and learn how to teach yoga in one month, especially if your teacher has only learnt for one month, or even a few years. I see that the biggest problem in modern yoga is that it is being spread and taught by people who have mostly missed the essence of true yoga and who lack the traditional and modern science required to translate the ancient teachings into the modern body that has been so radically affected by a predominantly sedentary chair lifestyle in the stressful environment of modern life.

Many people attending modern yoga classes have diagnosed or undiagnosed musculoskeletal problems, medical conditions and mental disorders. Modern yoga teachers invariably have to address the physical, physiological and mental states of their students. Many yoga teachers don't even realise that most modern people have these problems. Other teachers, usually with minimal qualifications, infer that they can help people with musculoskeletal problems like a physiotherapist can, infer that they can help people with medical conditions like a medical doctor can, and infer that they can help people with mental disorders like a psychologist can. If possible I would like to see the introduction of a much more stringent grading system for yoga teachers that really is much more like the grading systems of medical doctors, physiotherapists and psychologists. That may sound extreme to some people, but I ask you that if you were not healthy or had a physical, physiological or mental problem, how would you feel if your therapist (who may tell you that they are a doctor, physiotherapist or psychologist) also confesses to you that they have had only one month of formal training in their field! Would you feel confident to place your body trustingly in their hands?

-Simon Borg-Olivier21 January 2018 

https://yogasynergy.com/category/simon-borg-olivier/

April 2018 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami-अक्लिष्ट akliṣṭa

In March I taught a ten day fifty hour program on Bhagavat Gita for a compact nice group of participants. It was in New Delhi organized by Mini Shastri of Om Yoga. It was very satisfying experience

I am planning to return to USA end of April. In May I have a short extended weekend program scheduled in Germany. It is organized by BDY the German Yoga Association. Here is the link for the program

https://www.yoga.de/weiterbildung/veranstaltungen/event/detail/8053d1be-57c8-e711-80ea-1458d043c6c0

It is from May 25^th to 27^th 2018 and near Frankfurt Germany.

In June I will be teaching for a week at East Side Yoga Center in Austin Texas and then a 15 day 100 hr Vinyasakrama Yoga program at Victoria in Canada, sponsored by One Yoga. For more details please refer to the Events page of myweb site http://www.vinyasakrama.com/Eventshttp://www.vinyasakrama.com/Events You may be able to find details about other programs scheduled for the rest of the year in this link.

अक्लिष्ट akliṣṭa

In this article I would like to discuss the use of the terms अक्लिष्ट

akliṣṭa and kliṣṭa used by Maharshi Patanjali early in the work of Rajayoga. or yogadarsana. He refers to vrittis and groups all vrittis into five. Vritti is activity (vritti jivane). Here it refers to the activity of the brain or citta or more specifically the visesha vrittis or the activities of the citta that manifests to the individual and to the individual only. The five vrittis are pramana or activity of the brain in ascertaining the truth. The second set of vrittis are activities of the citta where it comes to a wrong conclusion, then we have activities of the brain which are purely imaginary. The fourth will be deep sleep and finally we have smriti vritties or remembering or recalling information from memory.


What is equally intersting is that Patanjali also classifies differently the vritties as klishta or leading to pain and akslishta or not leading to pain. Klishta comes from the root 'klis' to cause pain as in klesa. Klishta vrittis are those vrittis or activities of citta that lead to pain and sorrow whereas aklishta vrittis are those that help lead the yogi to the favourable state of flowing peace. The vedas also refer to anukula and pratilula or activities that are favourable and activities that are unfavourable.


Then what citta vritties or activities are favourable or aklishta and what are unfavourable or klishta? The answer is simple All activities that lead one to the desired goal is aklishta vrittis and those that divert away from one's goal is klishta. So it is clear one sholuld know what is favourable or aklishta and what is unfavourable or klishta to reach one's goal. Since Patanjali used the terms klishta and aklishta we have to know what is the goal of yoga. The goal of Patanjali's yoga as all of us know is citta vritti nirodha or ultimately a complete cessation of all cittavrittis. Then the question is if all cittavrittis should cease then no vritti is favourable.


But then the citta vritti nirodha can not be achieved by all nor at once. One has to train the citta to shed more and more vrittis before the cittavritti nirodha can be achieved. How can it be done. Using the cittavrittis appropriately. Find out those vrittis that are helpful to overcome all the vrittis in the end. These Patanjali would call as aklishta vritti and anything that does not lead to the goal will be klishta vritti.


What are the vrittis then that can be termed aklishta vrittis. They are the yogic activities.Yogic activities are said to be nonbinding while all other good and bad activities give good or bad results but still keep the individual under bondage. Distinctly different are the yogic activities which give neither good results like wealth fame and heaven nor bad results like ill health poverty or a place far away from heaven . What do yogic activities do? They reduce, step by step, the multitude of distracting vrittis and ultimately help the citta transcend all the vrittis - good, bad and yogic- in a stae of kaivalya.


Patanali succinctly puts all activities or karma as of four types. White or good karma, black of bad karma, mixed or karmas that are part good and part bad and fourthly yogic activities that are none of the three. They, the yogic vrittis only lead to cittavritti nirodha. So the yogi picks and chooses the appropriate vrittis like kriya yoga, ashtanga yoga, samadhi yoga dependig on the stage the yogi is in. In the Bhagavatgita after listening to Lord Krishn's discourse on Samkhya where the individual self is explained as non changing pur awareness, and then His advise to do appropriate activities, Arjuna asks why should he do activity why not become a sthitapragna or one who is established in the true nature of the self. The Lord implies that one has to still act appropriately. He says that wise people give up both dharma or good karmas (sukrit) and also bad karmas dushkrit). Among all activiteis yoga is the one that will give salvation (kausala) Therefore the Lord urges Arjuna to become yogi and do the appropriate yogic activites.


If I am lost in a new place (every birth, one is born in a new place) and lost my way to go back home I keep searching until I get the right direction to go home. But the journey has one more leg that is travelling back home. Here home is one's own real self. Yoga is the activity that delivers one to one's home one's self. These activities of the citta are the aklishta vrittis. Aklishta vrittis are yogic vritties or yogic activities that lead to kaivalya or cittavrittinirodha.

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see also perhaps...

My Ramaswami resource

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/srivatsa-ramaswami-vinyasa-krama.html