Wednesday, February 6, 2013

In an ideal Ashtanga universe... home practitioners, cranks, adjustments, and getting the most bang out of your workshop buck

Many of you out there probably already know by now that Kino has written a lengthly--and, in my opinion, well-balanced and well-thought-out--response on Elephant Journal to the negativity directed against her in the most recent episode of Kinogate. The response is so comprehensive, and covers so many aspects of what her haters hate her for (her short shorts, her high public profile, her teaching through Youtube videos, to name just a few), that I have a feeling that people might even start referring to it in the near future as the "Kino Manifesto"  ;-)

Since most of you have probably already read and thought quite a bit about said Manifesto, I'm not going to reproduce and say anything more about it here. But I would like to think a little about an interesting aspect of Kino's work that Boodiba over at Queen of the East Village has brought up: Her high-profile traveling teaching lifestyle, which leads her to teach workshops at many places around the world to the virtual exclusion of teaching a regular Mysore program (from what I understand, she has a highly capable staff of teachers who teach the regular Mysore program at MLC). 

Of course, many people think that this is not a bad thing: Together with her Youtube videos, Kino's intense and tireless traveling teaching schedule (I honestly often marvel at her ability to stay healthy and mentally sound with such a gruelling schedule) have enabled many that would otherwise never have encountered Ashtanga to form a connection with Ashtanga, and take benefit from this practice.

But Boodiba looks at this matter from a different perspective. She writes:

"However one cannot deny that to entirely remove oneself from the realm of running a regular Mysore room in favor of high priced, short term workshops, changes things. Not only does it limit availability to those with a certain income, but it also severely curtails the ability to deeply transmit knowledge the way it was traditionally – since we’re all so concerned with that merit badge – intended to travel, slowly, over a period of time, in a one on one fashion.

I came back from a workshop in Miami, with Kino & Tim last October, with a game changing, hidden injury that announced itself right after I returned. This was “the straw that broke the yogi’s back” and I quit practicing.

Do I blame the teacher? Not exactly, but I DO blame the workshop. I only wanted to experience practice with Kino, so I signed up for this 6-day thing. If I’d had the option to do a stint of just morning practice with her, I’d certainly have chosen that option. We were all assisting each other, pretty “cold”, practice wise, for hours in the afternoon. Plus I was getting cranked deeply in morning Mysore every day.

Most people who know me are aware I love the deep cranks, however, IMO it’s just not safe to do this on consecutive days, for a week, unless you know the person & their practice quite well.

But if you’re charging $900 a head for 20 people, you’ve gotta give ‘em something.

So I’d say, if a teacher is really concerned about tradition more than ego, career & profit, they might not want to exist on expensive workshops alone."

I think Boodiba brings up many valid points here. But I'm not sure if it's fair to blame the workshop, or to blame anything or anyone at all, for that matter. Now, in an ideal Ashtanga universe, in which shalas are as ubiquitous as MacDonald's restaurants are in ours, none of this would be a problem. Kino wouldn't have to travel so much, and more people will be able to have access to this wonderful practice regularly and hopefully, affordably. (Btw, I do understand the inappropriateness of this MacDonald's analogy, especially in light of the fact that Kino is often criticized for contributing to the McDonaldization of Ashtanga. But I guess what I am saying is, if it is possible to have a traditional Ashtanga shala on every street corner, just like we now have a McDonald's on every street corner (well, we don't, but you get the point...), then we would be able to get the message of Ashtanga out to so many more people, and so many more people will be able to take benefit).  

But we don't live in that universe. Which means that many of us (including yours truly) have to practice mostly by themselves, interspersed with trips here and there to workshops to study with teachers like Kino and (hopefully soon, in my case) to Mysore. And Kino is providing an invaluable service by offering these workshops and by making her Youtube videos.

There is, of course, the problem of injuries. As a matter of fact, I sometimes ask myself if at least some of the injuries and pains that I have experienced through the course of my practice could have been avoided if I have had the better fortune of practicing regularly at a shala. The answer to this question is probably yes; but this is a moot answer to a moot question, given the universe we live in. Given the universe that we live in, it comes with the territory of being a home practitioner that we have to find a way to look out for ourselves more, even if this means letting go of the idea that we need to get more out of the workshops we attend by receiving more cranks/strong adjustments from the teacher while we are there. Given the universe that we live in, we have to find a way to be more aware of what is going on with our bodies, and perhaps even to refuse poses offered to us at workshops if we really feel our bodies are not up to it; for instance, I once had to refuse Karandavasana when Kino offered it to me at her workshop, because I was just recovering from a tweaky right knee.

But to put a more positive spin on all this, perhaps we can see this as all part of our sadhana as home practitioners. Maybe part of the sadhana as a home practitioner is to not get too attached to the idea of having to get the most bang out of our workshop buck by getting as many deep adjustments and/or postures as possible. In any case, when all is said and done, there is (or should be) more to workshops than getting deep adjustments/cranks, right?     

25 comments:

  1. Lol! Between the two of us we have played havoc with B's already busy traffic over at her kingdom.

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    1. Indeed :-) Pretty soon, her live feedjit feed is going to overload and break down...

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  2. I'm a home practitioner for many years now, but have made a point to practice about two weeks a year with certified or authorized teachers, immersions or trainings, as it were, to give my practice a little infusion of parampara.

    I've never been hurt by these teachers - they are knowledgable veterans, they know what they can and can't do, and they are wise enough to know that they can not really know my practice or my body well enough in such a short period of time to justify "cranking" on me - or any other student - in these workshops.

    I have been hurt in workshops though - but not by the other students, nor by the teacher. No, I've found that assistants - who perhaps want to make a good impression and show they "deserve" the honor of assisting, and who, perhaps, are feeling nervous - are ones who have hurt me in the past. I guess they assumed, too, a natural flexibility made it OK to push me as hard as possible. It happened mostly when I was neophyte practitioner, in workshops for "teacher training" - I lacked the knowledge and confidence to tell folks to stop hurting me.

    One gave me an adjustment that tweaked my knee so much, padmasana was difficult for a few years. Another assistant adjusted my hips abruptly in halasana and wrenched one side of my sacrum away from my pelvis (I had trouble even walking the rest of the weekend, and still have scar tissue.)

    I almost had a knee damaged again by an overzealous male assistant at a large Ashtanga event (both shall remain nameless) last year. He didn't look at me, but was glancing around the very, very busy room as he pulled me deeper into a posture. (Trying to see where he needed to go next, I guess.)

    There are bad teachers and there are good teachers. It comes with the territory in Ashtanga. As a student, I've learned to sense when I shouldn't go further without risk of real injury, and have developed the awareness and confidence to tell a teacher "that's good" or "enough" to save myself some woe. But, it took me years to learn when to say when. I try more to keep myself safe now, because I'm in my mid-40's and I won't heal as quickly as I one did. It's just asana, after all, and for me has become a little less important part of my practice.

    I shudder to think of all the injuries that arise from students - and teachers - who think that going deeper automatically means "better" in the practice. Sometimes, a light touch is much more beneficial and therapeutic. It may take longer, you may not "evolve" as quickly, but, perhaps "slow and steady wins the race" is a better approach vs. a hardcore, "resistance is futile" approach!

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    1. Thanks for sharing Michelle. Yes, knowing when to say when is a valuable and important skill to acquire in the journey of being a practitioner. I think being able to say when also allows us to help teachers or assistants along the path of their sadhana by giving them valuable feedback as to what is appropriate and what is not, and how to read body cues more sensitively.

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  3. Ha! It's funny -- we, as a community, seem to talk a lot about too much adjusting (current topic, related to workshops/events) and then shift to talking about too little adjusting/attention (KPJAYI/what's the point of going).

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    1. Just so you know where I'm coming from, I just came here from reading Patrick's latest post (http://theyogabum.blogspot.com/2013/02/everything-i-believe-and-no-longer.html)...

      Anyway, I have recently begun to wonder if some Ashtangis have commodified the receiving of adjustments/attention in the same way in which people in the broader culture have commodified sexual attention or energy. As in: You complain if you get too much of it, because frankly, too much of a good thing is usually bad for you. But you also complain if you get too little of it, because then you see yourself as not worthy of receiving more.

      Just a thought.

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  4. Okay....I am sure I will not be liked for this comment...but umm...thee are plenty of people who claim they were injured by Pattabhi Jois as well and he ran a very dedicated Mysore program. I don't say this to point fingers. The reality is that as long as you live in a human body, you will hurt and break shit. When I sign up for a yoga workshop with someone who gives strong assists and adjustments, I know what I am getting into and I take full responsibility for it.If you are scared of injuries, you should practice a less physically challenging yoga. Don't touch the stove unless you can accept that fact that you might get burned. I will write a blog post on this :)

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    1. Don't worry Shanna, I continue to like you despite (or maybe even because of) what you say :-)

      I largely agree with what you say here. But I wonder if your stove analogy may not be a bit off-target. It seems to me that in Ashtanga, we are not deliberately touching the stove. What we might be doing is holding a very hot and very heavy pot. And we get careless or sloppy or lack strength, we touch the pot and get burnt...

      But anyway... what's in an analogy? :-)

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  5. Anytime you practice with a different teacher, there is an adjustment period, getting used to the new teacher, whether for a workshop or mysore practice. There is an adjustment period for the teacher too..however, i think it is much shorter for them than it is for the students..and therein lies the problem. It can be very hard to receive very different kinds of assists-much more intense ones- almost immediately because you have not gotten used to the teacher. Surrender, faith, whatever you want to call it. This makes injury more likely to happen because part of you is resisting the assist.

    This is my issue with workshops..the format is too short to probably be of use for someone like me, who does not like that sort of intense change in a short period of time. Plus, I wonder if teachers who primarily assist/teach at workshops or any shala where they are not seeing the day in and day out practice of the people there, might start to push too hard, and not realize the consequences of their assisting/teaching. It's easy in some ways to come in and make big changes in the name of progress..but the big flashy asana changes..are they helping the student find real stability of mind?

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    1. Interesting insights, Suzanne. I don't have any real answers here to these thoughts that you bring up, but I will keep pondering them.

      "It's easy in some ways to come in and make big changes in the name of progress..but the big flashy asana changes..are they helping the student find real stability of mind?"

      I think the intention behind these big flashy asana changes is to show the student what is possible in his/her body if he/she keeps working on it. So there is some value in these. As for stability of mind... well, I don't know if any teacher at any workshop (or at anywhere else, for that matter) can ever give you that...

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  6. Hey not meaning to pick on you Nobel, but didn't you claim earlier not to know about commodification? Whence the new understanding?

    Gosh, I'm feeling a little vindicated with all this.

    Nataraj

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    1. I got some (albeit shallow) understanding of it from following the most recent episode of Kinogate... Well, actually, I'm still not sure if what she is doing qualifies as commodification, or if commodification is necessarily a bad thing, if this is what she is doing... (What exactly is commodification anyway? Are you commodifying something the moment you exchange it for a certain monetary value? If so, then am I not also commodifying my philosophical prowess in teaching philosophy for a living?)

      Ah well, I'm actually a little too philosophied-out at the moment to engage in any more conceptual analysis for today. So I'll leave things at this.

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    2. Well yes, adjunct teaching is a perfect example of the commodification of labor, as Marx might put it. Which, with the ongoing elimination of full time teaching positions, is a key factor in the commodification of education. Isn't America great? "The Land of Opportunity." Same thing with healthcare etc, as I was saying.

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    3. It looks like I have to agree with you here :-)

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  7. Adjustments, cranks, never had em never missed em. Thank you Nobel and Boodie and Serene, I'd been planning on taking Manju's adjustment training in August but why for heaven sake, really not interested in giving anyone an adjustment. Plus, hurtling through Manju's DVD I was struck by the absurdity of this practice when taken so quickly, just begging for injuries. Slower mindful practice with gentle hints on alignment seems , to me at least, the way to go. How did these full on adjustments come about anyway, yet more fixation on the asana and getting the next and the next ( says me sheepishly having been there). A nice thing about Kino's videos ( hated the Elephant article btw but at least she addressed the criticisms rather than just dismissing those with genuine concerns for the practice, she is Certified, an ambassador after all, as haters) is that in the videos she gives us hints to explore in our own practice at home, we know our bodies best as long as we follow common sense but with a little mindful bravery thrown in for luck.

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    1. I guess just as there is asana fixation, there is also adjustment/crank fixation ("crank addict" :-)).

      I've never done Manju's DVD or studied with Manju before. Is the DVD primary, second, advanced, or an amalgamation of all of the above? Is it the same speed as Sharath's led primary, or faster?

      Hmm... why did you hate the Elephant article? I don't really care one way or the other, but I'm curious nonetheless.

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    2. Reasons for disliking the Elephant article are pretty much what D has written below, kept thinking, a dignified silence may have been the way to go, perhaps a response on her own blog, but Elephant? Each to their own.

      I like Kino a lot as you know and I appreciate the teaching videos she's shared and what she's done for home Ashtanga but I find I do tend to agree with many of her critics.

      I think she was clearly wrong about the video ( some of the professionals who have commented here have made that pretty clear), once she realised she'd screwed up she should perhaps have just pulled it, re edited the thing, put out an apology then kept mum about the whole thing.

      I personally can't stand the whole business promotion aspect, a quiet dignified livelihood is my personal preference ( but then I have issues with money).

      The shorts? Doesn't bother me that they're short, I wear shorts in my practice too. I don't see her as presenting a 'sexy' image at all, but it's the glam thing I find depressing ( I have less of a problem with Tara's natural healthy representation but then she's not Ashtanga), hate the thought of how somebody looks ever being an issue in Ashtanga in the way that it is gym yoga (which could of course support her argument but please don't play the feminist card on this, it's a little insulting), before you know it people will be branding their kit like John Friends mat ( actually I laughed out loud in support when i hear she'd started marketing the shorts).

      Putting the teaching videos out there on youtube I agree with ( but am very aware of the arguments against it, good strong arguments) but have felt recently she's over done it, one a week for heavens sake. I feel the same about my own videos, you type in Vinyasa Krama and my videos come up, loads for em, bothers me somewhat, seemed a good idea at the time ( am planning to take the VK tag of most of them).

      She's Certified, an ambassador for Ashtanga, which is perhaps why this matters and because she puts herself all over the net to such an extent there's no avoiding/escaping her representation of Ashtanga. If you have a completely different idea of what Ashtanga is or should be about then that's bound to grate. Me, I prefer a Nancy Gilgoff image/idea of the practice.

      This doesn't mean I'm a hater, you can disagree fundamentally with your friends and people you care about, it annoys me that her critics get dismissed as 'Haters' in that way but I then haven't seen the recent criticism, Ashtangi's can get pretty nasty, we take our practice very personally. Do we have haters Nobel I though we just had critics and as long as they're respectful I have no problem with that, happy to push back and engage rather than dismiss.

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    3. bugger, thats longer than I thought, sorry

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    4. Hey, no problem with length, Grimmly. I write long things myself :-)

      Regarding my personal views about Kino's response, see my response to D below.

      I also don't like the way people have been polarized into "lovers" and "haters". Actually, I may have been guilty of contributing to this polarization myself; I have found myself using the word "hater" in this post rather than the more neutral "detractor".

      But I also can't help wondering if the "haters" had it coming, in a way. I mean, if you read the tone and the language of most of the negative things that have been written about Kino online, it is hard not to come away with a sense that the writers really have a very personal axe to grind with her. When these writers get called out, they always backpedal and say, "Oh, I just disagree with this or that thing that Kino does. I have nothing against her personally." But really... who are we kidding? Anyway, given all this, is "hater" really too strong a word to use?

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  8. Not a fan of the article either (or the site, really). Felt as if she was adding fuel to the fire of Kino-haters, prompting people to take sides (the pro vs anti-Kinos). I can understand why she felt a need to clear the air, but honestly, I think if you're really grounded and connected to why you do what you do, you're less likely to feel a need to justify yourself, you know?

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    1. Hello D,
      "I think if you're really grounded and connected to why you do what you do, you're less likely to feel a need to justify yourself, you know?"

      Normally, I would agree with you. But in this particular case, I think what she is doing is at least understandable, because what happened with the Mysore video seems to have struck closer to home, so to speak, i.e. the people who objected to being filmed are people who seem to be friendly with her. I think we can at least cut her some slack for being hurt, can't we? :-) And if she is really adding fire (i.e. rajas) to the Kino-haters, well... the universe does need a certain amount of rajas from time to time; otherwise everything will just stagnate.

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    2. Yes I can understand that she's hurt and this is one of her ways of dealing with it. But I also have a skeptical mind ;) That said, my dislike of the article stems more from an aversion of anything Elephant-related....I'm neutral about Kino and her teaching style.

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    3. I don't know if you know this, but I'm not a big fan of Elephant either. Makes me feel that doing business the old-fashioned way (i.e. actually paying real editors to edit submissions rather than rely on unpaid interns, having a stricter system of peer review, etc., etc.) isn't such a bad idea after all.

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  9. I really like Kino, and I hadn't planned on it. But I took a workshop with her, and she was a really experienced teacher--she's given a LOT of adjustments in her lifetime. What I don't understand at all is why there is a problem with her looks? I don't even think she goes for glam really, of course I'm from the south where folks wear more makeup and have always had bigger hair, but why do all yogis have to look alike? It's the one thing I hate hate hate about ashtanga--so much conformity. It's confusing to me. I love ashtanga, but I will never look like an ashtangi. I want to some days, but I don't. We are not the body. I am so confused by all the kino hate.

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    1. I hear you. I'm actually pretty confused myself. But if I may go out on a limb and venture an explanation here, I would guess that what people have a problem with is not so much her looks, but rather what they see as the packaging of sex appeal in a practice that is supposed to be sex-appeal-free (you know, brahmacharya and all that good stuff). Like Grimmly, I also do not think that Kino is trying to be sexy; if anything, she's just trying to be functional and presentable and professional at the same time. But I'm guessing that many people do not agree with me here.

      Sometimes I wonder if many Ashtangis (including myself) are a bit sexually repressed. But I'll shut up now. No need to start a blog war here...

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