Training and Seeing
Tuesday and Wednesday are our days with Abhijata and the teachers she is training. It is great to experience such a different protocol to classes here and fun to witness “the next generation” coming up at RIMYI.
As I mentioned, there is a much more socratic approach to most interactions now. Abhijata of course feeds instructions and gives clarifications to the teachers “on deck”, but it is encouraging and helpful to hear her suggestions and corrections. There is no sequencing per se as we move through approaches to certain poses, allowing the assistants to help and adjust and find their voices. The classes are rigorous and usually contain about 3 “batches” of students taking turns for certain postures.
Yesterday was Pranayama, mainly restorative poses. Her reminder was that it takes a certain amount of “comfort” in an asana in order for breath to be able to be paid attention to. It is not “perfection in asana” that is needed, as suggested in the Yoga Sutras, but asanas are the ways and means to open spaces and connections within the body for the breath to move more freely. It is one of the beauties of the development of props to have the breath be ever accessible in asanas that might prove to be difficult.
In the afternoon, we had a special meet-up for the foreigners to cover questions and approaches to Padmasana – lotus pose. It is nice to have our small group work together on something specific and have opportunities to explore and develop connections with each other as well.
Last night we stayed more true to forward bends and played with some rope variations that tend to be challenging. This morning was a lot of inversion repetitions at the walls, interspersed with some seated twistings in the middle of the hall. Definitely I got vibes of my old gymnastics class as Abhi had “the visitors” end class with rollings in Chakrasana, which we started last night, but without any height which is harder. Chakrasana is rolling back over yourself from a bent leg Halasana position. All in all, two great classes that moved fast and furious and engaged all the senses. During these classes as well, it is clear that Abhi has an expectation that all will go home with homework – something to practice and utilize at home. She mentions Malasana (the squat) as a cure for constipation, relating to the disappearance of squat toilets here in India. She mentions using your “cot” (bed) for things like Dwi Pada in the chair or Purvottanasana (extension of the front side of the body). We observed the use of stairs and stools and the platform for deeper forward extensions and stiffnesses. There is a lot packed into a short 90 minutes.
The rest of the Wednesday program has been up in the air as Abhi is training her teachers some of the day. We were able to sit in on the Yoga Sutra Study portion today and enjoyed joining in on chanting the start of the second chapter – Sadhana Pada. This practical chapter starts with the three parts of Kriya Yoga (the yoga of action) and goes into the major obstacles (kleshas) to life and practice. She gives homework for observation and development of the “seeing” of our Self. She made the suggestion to begin to watch our tendencies toward Raga (craving) and Dvesa (aversion) – to “see” ourselves in action and reaction. Her point is that in the “watching” and “seeing” we will transform. Think of when a parent is around, or the police, or any watchful eye, how we behave. Like that, when the mind is trained to observe ourselves, we may begin to find different ways of action.
For practice, I personally have been inspired by a woman here from Rishikesh, North India. There have been a couple of things in practice that she has done that I am sure would challenge my fear and comfort levels – worthy opponents in the Dvesa (avoidance) category of transformation. 1) Headstand set up right at the edge of the platform where there would be no floor in front of your eye level – getting in is the first obstacle 2) Full arm balance with the back to the platform where you are either challenged to balance OR you drop back into Urdhva Danurasana with the feet up on the platform. Both look terrifying, but I am challenging myself to work up some courage to give them both a try. We’ll see….
The end of the week means Prashant classes again. Time is flying already, and I feel one month will pass too quickly. But as usual, I am soaking in as much as I can and enjoying every minute.
