Ashtanga Anarchists

In high school I had a mild crush on Gene Wilder.  I think it was maybe because it was not what people expected and because I wanted to laugh.  Danny Paradise reminds me of Gene.  The whole evening I had this thought in the back of my head that maybe he would honor a golden ticket.  Maybe not.

I walked in late.  Actually, I was right on time, but Danny was so enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge that he got out there in front of the class as soon as he could and started talking.  Learning yoga isn't like, "ok, get ready, here we go."  Instead, it is a lifestyle, it is spontaneous, and you learn the most when you don't see it coming.  I wonder what I missed.

As I sat down, he was answering ashtanga "user" questions about anything and everything.  We took a short break and then talked some more, learned nauli kriya, laughed, and then began practice.  In addition to the "traditional" ashtanga sequencing, he showed us variations and asanas that used to be taught back in the day.  He laughed as he explained how teachers who have been teaching less than ten years will tell you that there is only one way, but let's ask them if they are still practicing like that in thirty years...

Some notes:

*disclaimer:  below are my personal notes and are to be read as such.  I've done my best, but I apologize if I've misinterpreted anything.  

Like David Williams, Danny says that yoga lasts about 24 hours and then you need to do it again.  Even if it is just for 15 minutes.

Minimum yoga practice as taught to him way back when:

Nauli, 3 Surya A's, 3 Surya B's, the last 3 finishing postures

However, he really emphasized that one must make the time for yoga because you have to take care of yourself.  So, "if your work doesn't allow it, change your job."

Yoga is about awareness.  We have to take responsibility for our actions and responsibility for the state of the world.  We are the ones who must find solutions.

The first ten years of practice are undoing all the damage you've done up until then.  After that, its healing the day before.

3 Common misconceptions about yoga:

1.  Guru Worship.  It is about the practice!  You don't need to go to a teacher all the time.  The sequences were made for you to be taught (by a teacher) and then practice on your own, returning to your teacher when you are ready to learn more.

2.  Pushing.  The best teachers do not push.  They understand that the body is transformed slowly and steadily.

3.  Vegetarianism.  It isn't required, but it will make your practice lighter and just plain better.  Plus, meat is icky.

Danny practices on the wood floor, with a cotton rug, or a "travel mat" that looks like a sheet of packing plastic.

The original yogis were anarchists, not fundamentalists.  Get off the wheel of life and increase awareness.

Yoga injuries:

1.  Often caused by greed and inattention

2.  Do what is appropriate on any given day and recognize your limitations as the body is always changing

3.  The key is no pain in practice

healing = heat + oxygen

Please see yesterday's post for a clip from Danny's workshop at OM Factory NYC.

Let's finish with some yoga porn, shall we?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abBwccUCFEU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7img8taGWY

there is the best comment on youtube for this video. it says, "i would hinder this woman's flexibility in yoga via impregnation". Really, it says that.

Cry Baby

"It's okay to cry."

The words echo for a moment. Tears well up in my eyes. In the dressing room later, I think about how I can't really remember ever being told this before but want to believe that I have.

In our interview this month, Guy mentioned how practice is usually physical therapy or emotional therapy. Today, holding my shoulder, holding my tears, I remember "emotional therapy".

"This is your pose," he says.

I guess I never did really have that exorcism. In Mysore last year, I really thought my back bends were going to shit. I knew that issues were coming up and I was working through them, but I really thought that I had worked through them. I went from happily grabbing my ankles last June to struggling in October (oh Saraswati!). But it has been up from there. Literally. I'm up my legs again, but not without a great amount of struggle.

In the Danny Paradise workshop last night, he talked about how for ashtanga practitioners, they experience the effects of old age earlier, but then are unaffected later in life. You live a vibrant joyous life and then you die. Just like that. So, a certain amount of physical discomfort (this is different from "ouch" pain) can be expected.

The feelings that come up for me in ankle grabbing are intense. Physically, I 've got very strong sensations coming from my right shoulder. But it isn't pain. More like stepping on spilled soda in a movie theatre--gummy and sticky.

Once I'm there holding my legs, drawing my elbows toward one another, expanding my chest, and straightening my legs, I experience a mixture of exhilaration and panic. It feels like I have a bird in my chest flying in a cage (which is my ribs) with no place to get out. All I can think is "my shoulder."

Mentally, I find myself both dreading and looking forward to back bending which of course, is very confusing. The constant devil on this shoulder and angel on that can be tiring. I find myself surrounded by feelings of disappointment, feeling trapped, frustration. This is all after the forearm stands pincha mayurasana and karandavasana. I don't want to say there is drama around all these poses, but I guess there is (since I'm writing about them and all).

Last year I remember very clearly that it was right after back bending that I was overcome with these really intense feelings of "I can't" like the ones you get when you are super upset as a kid. I really felt like a child in fact. I was really upset. I went to my mat for finishing and got so upset that I just got up and left. Second series sure does a number on the nerves. Although these feelings I experienced today might look the same to what I experienced last year I now realise that actually I've grown a lot. When the emotions came up this time instead of walking out (like the devil on my shoulder told me too), I focused on my finishing poses. I did it, I didn't die. I made it through. This feels like growth to me.

Okay, now Danny Paradise. Maybe tomorrow. For now, enjoy some videos!

Danny Jumps Through at Om Factory NYC (last night)


Youtube video: "Ashtanga Yoga -- River of the Soul"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB055-M6QwA

Danny reminds me of Gene Wilder.

Stay tuned...

The scoop on last night's Danny Paradise workshop at Om factory NYC!

Jumping into paradise

I'll be the one wearing the Havaianas.

It is official. Yesterday was our first 70 degree day since October and the flip flops are out and staying out. On some blocks, I can smell human pee and tree blossoms. Spring is surely on the way. It was so painful getting used to closed-toe shoes after India. I fought it to the very end last fall until my toes were painfully cold. And now, I've got little pink "almost-blisters" as my feet transition into warm weather attire. But it isn't just the early signs of summer that makes the Havaianas so needed, its that they are incredibly squishy and the balls of my feet are tender from my pincha "timbers".

I spent the afternoon playing around at New York's Om Factory with Paul, Emily, and Fara. I was giving them jump through tips (not that they really needed them) and Paul was giving us "press" handstand tricks. We were in the middle of the room, at the wall, on blocks, straddling to handstand, jumping, "bakasana-ing", lifting, etc., all with bellies full of Indian food. I figure if I could make a handstand-to-bakasana (among other things) happen then, that says something. So Paul (whom I regularly steal vinyasa sequences from because he is great) has me on this little extra-curricular "lift-up therapy" program. I promise to youtube it if (like he promises) I can lift up to handstand from uttanasana with a straddle minus props.

(Om Factory is this really amazing space in midtown. Danny Paradise is doing a workshop there on Earth Day, April 22, and to my happy surprise, I'll be there! Looking forward to it for sure. Now if I can only see David Swenson soon, I'll have re-created an "ashtanga mela" of my very own...)

So what inspired this little yoga sesh? Well, if you get a couple of yoga peeps together, something like that is bound to happen, but also I just got the new Kino DVD, and I've had some of the stuff she talks about on my mind. The first part of the dvd (about 20 min I think) is about Kino, her Shala, and her practice. The second part (also about 20 min) is a look into one of her workshops in which she discusses the basic principals of re-learning how to walk on your hands. Although it is hard for all of us to believe, she says that when she first saw people lifting up handstand, floating, etc., she was like "there is no way!"

So, practice, practice, practice...

Oh and I think that exploring that mysterious and uncharted area of my body that controls the lifting is the key to this whole floating/karandavasana business. Or maybe not. But it is an interesting journey.

dvd preview on youtube: