Tuesday, February 28, 2012

"Any Year. Any Age. You do. No Problem.": Guruji in action

I just came across the following video on a couple of different places in the blogosphere. Very inspiring video montage of Guruji in the thick of teaching. Many of his famous aphorisms are in the video (including the signature "99 percent practice, 1 percent theory"). Very inspiring, especially for those of us (including yours truly) who never got to meet Guruji. Enjoy!


Speaking of Guruji's terse aphorisms, David Garrigues has this to say in his latest post about this particular feature of Guruji's linguistic arsenal: 

"Learning from Guruji, observing his teaching, and hearing the repetition in his instructions was a true gift and his broken english, staccato commands still guide me in my practice daily. His limited use of english was perhaps extra eloquent in conveying the distinct nuances that he wanted to impart to you at any given time. Again and again he repeated: “yes you do!’, ‘No problem you go.’, ‘no fearing you go’, ‘why stopping?’, ‘Why waiting?’, ‘Hey bad man quickly you do!’ ‘yes you take it!’, ‘Why fearing?’ ‘Free breathing you do’ or simply a gruff, guttural ‘Breathe!’."

It seems that Guruji was definitely a proponent of "less is more" when it comes to verbal instruction :-) 

8 comments:

  1. Nice post Nobel, you know Kino has that essence of Guruji in her way of speech and her approach in adjusting. I was fortunate enough to attend her workshop this weekend in Orlando, what an amazing time.."backbending from floor, you do, many times" she's the real deal, of course you know that already:), just though I'd share some Kino love.

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    1. Yes, Kino is indeed the real deal, whatever anyone else may think :-)

      I'm really happy to got to study with Kino this past weekend at Krista's studio in Orlando. I'm sure you have learnt lots ;-)

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    2. Oh, I meant to say "I'm really happy YOU got to study with Kino this past weekend" :-)

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    3. I got it:) and YES I did:)From Dropbacks virtually on my own "do it!" which I am now trying to replicate by myself(fear rips thru me) and working on Laghu(oye vey)Wonderful talk on the sutras, man she knows them all and can recite them on a dime, amazing. Thinking about maybe if finances work out, going to the 2 week course at MLC in July with Tim & Kino.....and then there's the Mysore thing:) still up in the air about that one:) Are u going to CT and see Sharath and Saraswati? I used to live right there in Greenwich. Have a great day Nobel:)

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    4. Did you succeed in dropping back by yourself for the very first time this past weekend at Kino's workshop? If so, congrats! If not, congratulations anyway for getting closer :-) And yes, Laghu is tough. But it's really a very strengthening and healing posture (what doesn't kill you, becomes your friend ;-)).

      Yes, I also heard Kino's Yoga Sutra talk last year in Richmond. It was very clear and illuminating. I sometimes think Kino gets "typecast" as this asana machine; people forget that she knows quite a bit of stuff too (she has to, with the time she spent with Guruji and everything else she has gone through...). Actually, have you seen the interview I did with her in Richmond? If you haven't, here it is:

      http://yogadragonden.blogspot.com/2011/04/interview-with-kino-macgregor-in.html

      I don't know if I'm going to Greenwich in April. Not sure how the finances and the time (end of spring semester) are going to work out. But I suppose anything is possible.

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    5. Thank you Nobel:) I will check out the link, I think I may have seen it:) I don't think she is an asana machine, in fact quite the opposite, she's worked really hard in her own practice, people can be jealous. My Dropback perscription is to hang everyday, when I see the floor, do it:) Laghu, it may be my friend, we'll see:) I;m sure it will end uo bing my fave:)

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  2. This is definitely inspiring, and I love David's recap of it as well. I never got to meet Guruji either, but I love reading about him and watching videos of him. Hope you are well - Kristen

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    1. Thanks Kristen. I think these videos and students' accounts of Guruji are the closest way we can form a connection to the source of Ashtanga. Hope you are well too.

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