Tuesday, January 22, 2013

David Garrigues on Guruji, pain and injury; Sharath on not being able to go to India


I just watched this recent video by David Garrigues, in which he talks about the place of pain and injury in Ashtanga yoga. He starts by talking about aligning the shoulder girder properly to prevent shoulder injuries. But he then switches gears and declares that there is a certain karmic component to injury; as he puts it, "you cannot have a long intense relationship with Ashtanga yoga without some kind of injury happening." Injury may arise in the course of your Ashtanga career due to moments of carelessness, genetic weaknesses, or the presence of certain lifestyle factors that impinge upon your practice, or other factors that are simply beyond our control. Whatever the case may be, we should not think that it is "wrong" to be hurt, or that being injured in the course of practice is somehow a yogic sin. David also brings up some funny Guruji stories about injury and pain; I won't go into the details here. I'll leave you to listen to them for yourself in the video.

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I just read this very detailed report of Sharath's latest conference (Sunday January 20th). Here's something from the report that really struck a chord with me:

"One student asked Sharath what one is to do if they cannot afford to come study in India, but want to have and maintain a dedicated practice. I loved his answer to this question. We can afford cell phones and nice meals, nice clothes, etc but we cannot afford yoga? He spoke of so many of his students who make tremendous sacrifices to come study with him each year, bringing their children, sacrificing many things to ‘find’ the money to come to India and study with him b/c they want to learn the truth of what is yoga, they want to learn this practice properly under his guidance. If so many of these people can do, everyone can do. So many families coming now brining their children, uprooting their lives to come learn proper practice, to understand this yoga, to show their dedication for this practice, this lineage – if parents can make such tremendous sacrifices and bring their children, it is possible for anyone to do. He chuckled and advised someone to skip one meal per day for some time until they saved enough for the trip."  

Hmm... now I can't help but wonder what Sharath would say about not being able to come study in India because of immigration and career issues? I have a few pictures in my head as to what he might say, but I'm not going to put it out here just yet, since I don't know him personally, and it is rude (not to mention fruitless) to guess what people would say to your personal situation when you don't know them personally. But I can't help wondering, nonetheless...

31 comments:

  1. "We can afford cell phones and nice meals, nice clothes, etc but we cannot afford yoga?"

    Hmm. Maybe Sharath can help these underserved people by setting up an online store, that way people can buy as much yoga as they can afford. I have a spare ten dollars in my wallet right now, how much chitta vritti nirodha do you think that will buy? Maybe Sharath can offer samadhi on an installment plan.

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    1. Well, from what I know, chitta vrtti nirodha is both free AND priceless :-)

      While I do find the idea of a samadhi installment plan quite amusing, I don't think that's going to work...

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  2. Eh, last year he told me to go home to my students and my husband instead of staying the full three months.

    Stereotyping his commentary is not likely to produce anything accurate.

    But folks like Anonymous will continue to manufacture, and attempt to amplify, their personal projections. Random.

    http://journeytomysore.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/conventional-yoga-wisdom-or-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/

    Love from the land of -16 below...

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    1. Great to hear from you! And love to you from the land of many many hot springs (of which I have yet to visit even one...).

      "Stereotyping his commentary is not likely to produce anything accurate."

      Agreed. Which is why I have decided to stop imagining what he may or may not say to me.

      Karen is a very wise person :-)

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    2. My online persona is wiser than I am. ;-)

      Speculating about what Sharath thinks is great sport, but in the end (at least in my experience) he always surprises you. So best to come here (when you can) and see for yourself.

      I hope we can have a cup of chai together in Mysore one day. (Perhaps that can be the new Ashtangi greeting...)

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    3. "I hope we can have a cup of chai together in Mysore one day."

      Likewise :-) Actually, I was told that it is a tradition in some parts of South Asia to sit down and have three cups of tea with somebody before transacting business or talking about anything serious. So maybe we would have three cups of chai, and then talk "yoga-shop"? :-)

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    4. You're on. The cups are small. :-)

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    5. Good to know the cups are small :-)

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  3. No doubt when Sharath counts those vinyasas, there's a special oomph to it. "ChaTUR-desha!" But I don't know if that makes for $50 worth of shaktipat.

    Part of the compelling aspect of Pattabhi Jois is how a portion of his life was spent relying on the kindness of strangers, while remaining true to his dharma in the face of it. It is unfortunate that his resulting fraught relationship with money has become part of his legacy. The "Jois" family have become the Medici princes of their little world, and time will tell if that is for better or worse.

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    1. How do you go about measuring shaktipat?

      As for the rest of your comment, I refer you to OvO's link above to Karen's post.

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  4. If you read carefully, he's talking about things that are within one's control, over how we choose to spend our time and money. He's not talking about things beyond our control, like immigration issues, for example :)

    I know it doesn't feel like it (especially in the cybershala), but the truth is you are not the only one who wants to make it to Mysore but can't....I met a couple of folks who made the trip after many years (9 years, 12 years??) of planning. Keep the faith!!

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    1. Thanks D. Yes, I do think you are right that he's talking about things that are within our control :-) I'll keep the faith (what else can I do right now, anyway?)...

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  5. Hi Nobel

    I'd like to second what D said, I practiced for around eight years before I made it here, but now I intend to come every year. Don't give up. I don't think Sharath's comments were meant to imply that everyone should drop everything now, overcome every obstacle immediately and be here within the month.

    But the experience one has here is priceless.

    I find it amusing that the most vitriolic and absurd comments are usually made under the banner of 'anonymous'....

    In any case, someone with 'anonymous' 's attitude is quite right not to come, because they'd be incapable of getting anything out of it and would simply be an energy drag on everyone else.

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    1. Thanks for chiming in, Susan. Yes, I don't think Sharath meant to say that everybody who has ever thought of going to Mysore should just drop everything now and be there within the month, either. Although I have to admit that it's a little hard not to get that kind of feeling when you read about everybody's powerful Mysore experiences in the blogosphere (including yours...).

      I just read your latest post. Keep working on those tic tocs; they are coming...

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    2. Anonymous comments have the feel to me of coming from teachers who are worried about their turf and/or legitimacy.

      But that may just be my enormous projection! Haha! So take it with a grain of salt. Same as anyone trying to get in Sharath's head, or to characterize his teaching on the basis of... uh, no direct exposure whatsoever. Not helpful for clarity or for loving-supportive community.

      I'm with Susan on the relationship of practice and Mysore. I practiced for 7 years before my first trip. I went to check it of a list, and with a high degree of skepticism as well as passive aggressive critique that I didn't even realize I had on-loaded from senior teachers angry about their guru's decline and the fact that things were moving on to a new era. Once I cleared out these teachers' mournful, fearful and passive aggressive from my own emotional body (that took quite a bit of time - my "this is BS" thoughts stayed strongly engaged the first couple of weeks in Mysore), I recognized that what is being mind into there is golden and freaking brilliant. And I changed my life-situations and reorganized my manomaya kosha (thought patterns) to enable myself to tap into it more deeply.

      And I still went to the Ashtanga Confluence. And took students with me all the way from Michigan... ;) By now, the weird community fissures around "correct method" have long since healed. It's only in these hinterlands of comment threads that they may seem to still exist.

      Big love. Angela

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    3. Oh, and in Elephant Journal. Fissures seem to exist (get manufactured) there too. The yoga editor there recently departed, and with him some great contributors. Meantime, gotta get content somewhere.

      Karen, Susan, maybe the next turning of the wheel involves us pirating elephant? Occupy...

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    4. Just home from a pre-moon day dinner at Green Hotel. A big table -- people from everywhere; some who had been practicing for less than two years, some who'd been practicing for close to twenty; some on their first visit; one on her 11th. A remarkable community of practitioners. An experience that can not be fathomed via cyber-means or abstract projections. If someone is curious, they should come and visit. If not, no worries.

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    5. Thanks for sharing, Angela. Big love to you too. I guess I have the, uh, good fortune of never having studied with any of those angry senior teachers of whom you speak. My first major Ashtanga teacher (PJ Heffernan) was and still is fiercely loyal to both Sharath and Guruji. As is Kino, of course.

      But--and I know many people have made this observation before--perhaps the blogosphere and its hinterlands of comment threads have a way of bringing out certain minority views and magnifying them and bringing them up for endless debate. Kind of like an Ashtanga version of a filibuster, if you will.

      I like the idea of Occupying the Elephant. To be way, Elephant does have some good contributors (Kino, Tim Feldmann, David Robson, to name just a few), but maybe there aren't enough to make up a critical mass. So yes, Occupying Elephant sounds like it may be a good idea. Except that I am still quite hung up about what I know about Elephant's editorial and management practices, and am reluctant to be seen as putting my weight (or, more precisely, whatever weight I have) behind a periodical with questionable practices.

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    6. Karen, thanks for sharing. All I can say is: I wish I were there!

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    7. Oh gosh.... I don't know if I can bring myself to pay enough attention to Elephant to occupy it ;)

      Yes, there do seem to be some angry and/or bitter senior teachers. Although I'm reframing my definition of 'senior teacher' somewhat after the last conference.... I tend to agree that just because you came here in the 1960s, it doesn't make you one.

      Yes, dinner was wonderful last night, and it was especially interesting to talk to someone on her 11th trip, who is so utterly without a sense of self-importance, and still enjoys mixing with those of who are just diving in. Remarkable.

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    8. I can imagine that it takes a certain kind of person (and I mean this in a good way) to be able to interact and hang out with people who are just diving in without feeling superior or self-important in any way. Very humbling.

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  6. Anyone believing my intent is to deny the authenticity of their Mysore experience, be assured that is not the case. Quite the opposite. What I am concerned with is commodification, specifically the commodification of that authentic experience. Commodification of yoga. Commodification of education, of healthcare, food, clothing, communication, now all of it is equally subject to the economics of supply and demand. Are you down with this? What does the ethicist have to say?

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    1. I don't know about commodification. All I know is that Sharath is doing his best to pass on what he's being taught by Guruji, and everybody I know who has been to Mysore (especially everybody else who has commented here thus far) are also doing their best to learn and absorb as much as they can from him. Why use big words to describe something that is really very straightforward?

      P.S. Btw, you might want to think about identifying yourself here; in other words, "de-anonymize" yourself, if there is such a word (ha! talk about using big words...). I normally have nothing against anonymous comments. But it just seems a little unfair when all of us are putting our names out here and stating our honest heartfelt opinions while somebody is hiding behind a veil of anonymity and sniping at everybody else with big words...

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    2. I keep a quotation on a sticky note at work -- to try to keep myself in check. "My concern shows my ego." Yup, all that stuff we express "concern" about: worth examining intentions a bit...

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  7. Yes indeed, we are very blessed to have all of Guruji's teachings preserved in such capable hands. Parampara!

    About that, I was wondering... Guruji's practice of therapeutics... I'm curious to hear about those in need of therapeutics, how they are faring at the Mysore shala these days. Like, the students suffering from leprosy. Guruji was legendary for his ministrations with lepers. Is Sharath doing as well the lepers? Perhaps we can get an eyewitness account from one of our friends in Mysore.

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    1. I don't know about lepers, but a friend of mine had pain and scheduled some time with Sharath. She was given some special exercises to do outside of practice, and something to pick up from the Ayurvedic store. For me, that falls under 'therapeutics'.... although, given the name of the primary series, so does the practice itself....

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    2. This is interesting information, Susan. Will keep this in mind if I suffer from pain when in Mysore :-)

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  8. oh forgot to mention... those interested in my identity. I'm Nataraj! Anyone care to dance?

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    1. I'm not saying this to be mean, but what does calling yourself "Nataraj" tell us about you, other than the possible fact that you like to dance? I mean, I could call myself "Ganesh" (not that I would want to...). How about something that would give me an idea of what you are or what you do when you are not trolling comment threads? ;-)

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  9. I agree that you can and should go to India to study at AYRI especially if you plan to "teach" ashtanga yoga. I hear all kinds of excuses, but these people are those who refuse to give up their idea of what they think Ashtanga should be and just are not interested in being told to do things differently (correctly). So therefore, they are NOT teaching Ashtanga.

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