Shala X
I had a WONDERFUL practice at SHALA X today!!! Main Teacher was so supportive and told me to begin slowly by covering only Standing Poses today. Assistant Teacher helped me in Uttita Hasta Padangusthasana, which I really needed because my scarline is keeping me from straightening my standing leg as I extend my other leg. After Standing Poses, I went to Finishing Series. And all was good. Not just good, but DELICIOUS!!!!!!!! Warm, sweaty, delicious Ashtanga Yoga!!!!!!!!!!!
Assistant Teacher, whom I had never met before, told me that for now, my yoga will be "going slow, being patient". I can dig it.
I think that for now I am more comfy not mentioning anything or anyone concerning my practice by name. I am really desiring some privacy on that front, despite how much I love talking about my actual practice.
A couple of clarifications now, to address a particularly bitchy comment I received on my last post from someone who seems to have pretty strong convictions, but not strong enough that he or she was willing to identify himself or herself by name:
1. I am not responsible for the assumptions and misunderstandings of others. Assumptions and misunderstandings happen in other peoples' minds. I do what I can to report things accurately. The rest is up to the reader.
2. I have NO problem with Eddie or any of his students. I very much LIKE almost everyone I have ever met at Ashtanga Yoga New York. I respect their choices while realizing that it probably wouldn't work well for me, at least the me that I am today. Perhaps another few years of yoga, and I will welcome their way of doing things. Who knows?
3. I don't believe that respect OR EVEN POLITENESS require that I embrace any particular way of approaching Ashtanga. And neither respect nor politeness require me to keep my mouth shut about it on my own blog. I guess you could consider me the Bill Maher of Ashtanga Blogging: "yogalitical incorrectness" may be expressed, and heretofore unbroken taboos may be broken.
4. I don't need everyone who reads my blog to like me (although I really love to be loved...is that so wrong?). I would hope that my readers read my blog with the understanding that we are all different, and that is why, thank God, we have so many choices in terms of where to practice and with whom. I would MUCH rather invite intelligent discussion and debate than be "liked". I'd like to be liked as well. But given the choice, I would rather provide good reading!
5. If you find my words one day to be inconsistent with my words the next day, then EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!! I am not a politician making promises; I am a human being making statements about how I feel on any given day.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." My readers, I wish for you to EMBRACE inconsistency as your horizons broaden, and may your horizons NEVER stop broadening.
Off to teach my Jewish Octegenarians....
YC
6 comments:
If you have to censor your blog, what is the freakin point!
No censorship!
I love your ranting and your opinions, even if they differ from mine.
Glad you are back to the shala!
I think we can all agree that ashtanga is an amazing practice!
true dat!
yoga chickie
practice and all is coming....theres more wisdom there than meets the eye....
i think this blogging is doing you more harm than good. if you don't wish to follow this system go back to Bikram or something more suited towards a western way of looking at yoga.
i will pray for you.
O puh-lease. Chickie is on a journey just like the rest of us - only she has the chutzpah to put it all out there. As she pointed out the other day, her posts reflect the thoughts she is having at that moment. Comment and debate? Yes. Throw her to the Bikram wolves? No.
One thing that i dont think most people who practice this yoga in the west think about is how the appropriation of another culture's practice can be disrespectful to the culture as a whole. When something is americanized for instance the true essence is taken away and the focus tends to revolve around a kind of self centered,vanity driven practice.Bikram plugged into this and is making billions of dollars off of these soul sucking type precepts. From what I have seen on this blog--from the comments made about others to yoga chickie's total disregard of Indian culture in relation to what yoga really means-- it just makes me sad.
It's the people like her that my Indian friends despise. And its why yoga gets a bad wrap still in some circles.
If yoga chickie spent half the time she spends writing some of this commentary on her actual practice and spiritual path I think it would open new horizons for her.
To despise requires attachment. Attachment is an obstacle standing in the way of progress on the Eight Limbed path.
As stated in Chapter 1, Verse 33 of the Yoga Sutras: The mind becomes clear and serene when the qualities of the heart are cultivated: friendliness toward the joyful, compassion toward the suffering, happiness toward the pure and IMPARIALITY toward the impure (emphasis added).
I know plenty of Jewish people who are offended by the practice of Kabbalism by Madonna and Britney. But here's how I see it: If it makes them happy, then, whatever.
Lauren
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