Yoga: A Relationship with Practice

I'm piggy backing on Nobel's recent post today as he ponders, "Why do Ashtanga?"

Here's an excerpt from his post:
"Lately, I've been thinking about the nature of the Ashtanga practice, and how and why I came to practice Ashtanga. There are many questions that come up in the course of my reflections, questions such as: Do all Ashtangis go through the same experiences and processes in the course of encountering and starting the journey of practice? Are there common themes that run through all such encountering-and-beginning-Ashtanga stories? Or is every practitioner's story very different from every other practitioner's, so that there are no commonalities at all? Is Ashtanga for everyone? If it is not for everyone, what kinds of persons is it for? "

Great questions!...and Nobel's blog is a great one for keeping me thinking...

I dabbled in yoga classes of various styles from the time I was 16 until age 23...a bit like dating really...or something like an encounter with the 3 bears. I liked yoga in general, but no particular class was just right.

I went to my first Ashtanga class and that was it. When the time came to move to a new city, I went looking for yoga classes in the Ashtanga style. I wasn't interested in anything else.

...but why Ashtanga??

The one word answer for me is relationship.

As Nobel pointed out, within this yoga practice is structure. That structure let me dig one hole deeply. I've spent the past nearly 10 years digging just a little bit deeper to see where it would take me.

I'm not the first person to point out the similarities in the way Ashtanga practitioners relate to their practice and the way we relate to actual human beings. I've heard my teacher refer to the reasons that he is still "in love with the practice". I have "good practice days" where understanding seems to flow freely and I have "difficult practice days" where the practice and I seem, for the moment, to be at cross purposes.

...but it is that day to day digging within, that results in one deep hole. The path to depth has asked for more patience and commitment than dabbling with a little of this and a little of that, but it has also produced more steadiness, clarity and compassion. If I am going to attempt the same seeming impossibilities daily, I'm going to have to learn to cut myself some slack!

The daily relationship with a set series of poses done in a particular way (with breath, bandha and driste) have provided great opportunities to wrestle with surrender.

Nobel has this to say about surrender:
"All is coming. The practice, by its very nature, demands surrender within effort and effort within surrender: One tries one's best at every posture (effort), and if one doesn't "get" a particular posture today, there's always tomorrow's practice (surrender)."

The Ashtanga practice is subtle this way. What appears to be the same sequence of postures is never really the same twice. If I surrender to the practice as the ultimate teacher and to the guidance of my human Ashtanga teacher, then my understanding of both the practice and of myself evolve continually. As soon as I think I understand, there's more.
This process of meeting seemingly the same practice daily and frequently being startled by something new, is exciting, sometimes intense and often humbling. I don't know nearly as much as I momentarily might think I do and the practice always knows more.

To provide just one person's thoughts on Nobel's questions:
Yes, I think there are commonalities in what practitioners find within the Ashtanga practice, although of course each person's story is their own.

No, I don't think Ashtanga yoga is the technique for everyone. I think everyone could do it, but not everyone will want to....and that I think is key. This is just one path to the center. Patanjali's Yoga Sutra mentions several ways in. The important part according to Patanjali is that we choose the technique with which we can maintain a relationship...whatever that practice may be. Practice consistently, over a long time, without a break and all is coming.

Yoga Sutra 2.2

Yoga Sutra 2.2 "The practice of yoga reduces afflictions and leads to samadhi."
-Iyengar translation

B.K.S. Iyengar has this to say in the commentary on this sutra: "The purpose of this yoga is to minimize all impediments to meditation and thus bring the intelligence to full, vibrant life."

Thoughts:
I really like what Mr. Iyengar has to say in the commentary on this sutra. This practice really is "householder yoga", a practice to teach me how to live in the world with greater equanimity and joy. It is not a way to escape from the world. The long-time teachers and practitioners set good examples of what is possible here by maintaining practice and all the "householding" responsibilities with admirable grace and light-heartedness. It is definitely something to aspire to.

It Comes Back to Practice

...on with the yoga sutra...

In sutras 1.17-1.11, Patanjali describes each of the five fluctuations in more detail, but in sutra 1.12 he comes back to the point of how to get to "yoga", where "yoga" is "the suspension of these fluctuations".

and the answer is... Practice.

Yoga sutra 1.12 "The suspension of these fluctuations is through practice and detachment."
-Gregor Maehle translation

1.13 "Practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations." -Iyengar translation

Thoughts:

There is a lot I could say about how important a consistent practice is to me, but nothing I say can possibly convey what that practice has and does teach me. I learn from my practice every day. As I said in a comment on a fellow Ashtangi's blog, I would not trade the work that I do each day in practice for anything. There is nothing like it.

I like that Patanjali points out that "long, uninterrupted" practice is the path to a quiet mind. It reminds me that there is no hurry and no expectation of instant success (whatever that might look like). If the road to a quiet mind is expected to be a long one, then it seems the best course of action is to relax and enjoy the journey...and the longer that I maintain a consistent practice, the more possible that seems!

Thoughts on Time Away from Yoga Practice

I started the new year off with a nice long yoga practice and long unhurried rest at the end...ahhh. Practice has been a little stiff for a couple days as I returned from a 4-day camping trip earlier in the week. The hiking and cold weather certainly made itself felt!

It got me thinking about what happens when there is some time off from practice though. Generally, I practice 6 days/week, taking 1 day off per week for rest. The first day of each new practice week after 1 day off is usually a little tighter than other days. As an experiment I have tried not taking a rest day off. Not surprisingly, I was tired! I know a few practitioners that don't take rest days and it seems to work fine for them. I definitely feel better with a rest day...but what about several days off?

I was away camping and hiking for 4 days. I went with full intentions of doing some practice each day, but the weather changed my mind. We were in the midst of a cold snap, in fact the coldest weather we've had all year! Outdoor practice when lows were below freezing and the highest daily temperatures were barely making it to 50 F was not something I could bring myself to do. I am a Floridian after all!

Four days was the longest that I have gone without any yoga asana practice in years. The result? I am all the more convinced of the benefits of regular daily yoga practice with 1 day off each week for rest. Four days without yoga asana practice left me very aware and very grateful for all the benefits that this extraordinary practice provides!

More thoughts in the next post on the balance between practice and rest!

Discernment in Practice

If you watched the great video clip of Beryl Bender Birch I posted recently, you know that she wisely said that she doesn't feel she can teach anyone how to teach. She can only show them how she practices.

So to everyone who has asked me "How do I practice at home?", I have to say there is not one answer to that, but I will describe a little bit about how I practice at home and hope that is helpful to those who have asked the question.

Regular practice at home without a teacher present or the sounds of others breathing is not easy, but like lots of not so easy things, it is very rewarding. One of the layers that is slowly peeling back in my home practice is leaving a sharper awareness of discernment. For me this has been a long time coming. One of the most difficult things for me to judge when I first began practicing at home was when to push the edge and challenge myself and when to back off or even cut the practice short that day. There have been days when I continued on with practice when I should have heeded my body's suggestion to stop. There have also been days where I have done only what was familiar and comfortable when I had the energy and focus for challenge.
Only doing the daily practice itself has provided a way in to discern what was appropriate for any particular moment. Paradoxically, the way to learn how to practice at home, is to just start practicing at home. Part of home practice for me is learning to accept in that moment whatever comes up in practice and letting go of whatever expectations I might be harboring about how the practice should go. Again, definitely not easy, some days easier to practice than others, but always worth it.

When do we practice yoga?

When discussing the benefits of daily yoga practice compared to "once-in-a-while" yoga practice with students, I often hear the sentence "I don't think I could do that." Current yoga culture in the west often depicts yoga as a workout, something to increase strength and flexibility and perhaps workout some of the stresses of modern life as well. Casual yoga asana practice certainly has these benefits.

Yoga as defined at the beginning of the Yoga Sutra, however, is something different. Yoga is what happens in those few brief moments between thoughts when the mind goes quiet. Daily yoga asana practice is a tool for learning to create more of those quiet moments and stretching them to last a little bit longer when they do happen. How does reaching to touch the toes and breathing make space for the mind to be quiet? I don't know. I can say that in my experience, if my body will not be quiet, then it is very hard, if not impossible to get my mind to follow. When my body is calm, relaxed, and steady, it is far more likely that my mind will for just a moment step off the hamster wheel and pause.

For me, this shift in focus has only come from daily asana practice. It has changed my perspective on what is "yoga" and what is "yoga practice".

Beryl Bender Birch is well know for asking this question: "If the practice of yoga is really the practice of quieting the mind, then when can we practice yoga?"

The answer, of course, is "All the time!"