Something I first put on FB: "Keep it alive, keep it messy"

This single post seems to have been VERY popular on Facebook, shared and copied by at least six people that I'm aware of. I think that's largely because it is seen as saying, "take it easy, you don't have to get the advanced series, and even if you do, you don't have to do those poses 100 percent correctly."

It doesn't say that, in those words; David was really emphasizing doing asana practice here not for its own sake but for "the rest of the day" and thus his question, "what does it help you do in the rest of your life?" The line about the "protractor" also amused a lot of people.

In addition, I'm going to repost the "what I learned about asana" list that I also posted on FB. Ok, here we go. Happy reading!
*****************************************************
"KEEP IT MESSY"
Yesterday DS was talking about advanced poses, and again said that in the early days they got bucketfuls, whatever poses you wanted. This is also in part because there wasn't authorization/certification in the old days (from which the Tim Miller story about, "Guruji can I get any kind of license to teach this?" comes). In DS' biography as he tells it, he went to Mysore in the late 70s, learned all the way through the Advanced B (basically learned the whole syllabus, and I've forgotten to mention here that the studio has the David Williams poster, showing every pose in the old syllabus for ashtanga yoga, and it's pretty fabulous) and then came back to Texas and just freaked out from the energy and went on a 12-year search for everything, having written Guruji a letter asking about the meaning of life and where to find God and such and so on. Heavy stuff to throw on a guy who's 22. So he reappeared in front of Guruji 12 years later, and in an assisted backbend, K Pattabhi Jois recognized him, and Swenson does this great impression, eyes wide, voice high like Guruji's was in suprise: "Daaaaviiiiid Swennnnnsonnnn!" Awesome. Matt Sweeney told us a like story about practicing next to Dominic Corigliano. Apparently Dominic had been away from the practice for some time, and Guruji was "hassling him" in every pose of Advanced A, as if he remembered not just who Dominic was, but of what poses he was capable.



Doesn't matter who you talk to from the teachers who consider K Pattabhi Jois their teacher--take Swenson, Tim Miller, Kino MacGregor, others--they all have this giant reservoir of love for SKPJ. It becomes very obvious in the storytelling, the comic impressions, the lessons relayed. Good stuff.



Swenson said, "You know, I don't care if my hands never see my ankles again in this life." I really liked that. Shelley had told us a story about the two of them getting side-by-side mats in Mysore, and how watching David now struggle with the Advanced A (her exact story was that DS was turning white, pink, green and other colors in Viparita Shalabhasana on the way to Ganda Bherundasana) was a result of a lot of traveling, of being in his 50s now, and of hefting a lot of people up and down and over and around in poses. They really shifted the discussion from "which series" to "how does the yoga manifest in your life," they've hit that note a couple times. I think this is both important to them as teachers and also an answer to a lot of conference questions from us about classical Mysore practice and advanced poses and such (see my earlier note on this, for example).



"How does it affect the rest of your day--does it make you a better parent, or a better banker or auto mechanic or whatever you do?" That was David's question back to us. "Keep it messy, keep it alive," he said, talking about how in the old days nobody cared how or if the pose was messy. "You don't need to get out a protractor to measure the lines," he told us, specifically using Yoga Journal cover poses as an example. Poses can be sloppy in Dave and Shelley's room; vinyasa can be imperfect. ALIVE. Exactly. Keep it alive. DS said to us that the yoga should be a thing you can enjoy, and you can make it into whatever you want: ashtanga doesn't need to be a hard bike ride uphill. It can feel like your grandmother's house with the smell of fresh-baked whatever. It can be--and make it--as pleasant as you want.



The slideshow last night was part David telling his story (which I've borrowed from above, the 12-year break) and then two early films of David in high school, doing the Intermediate sequence (parts of it) on a bedsheet in the back yard and his mom crosses through the frame with a cup of coffee, just hangin out watching her son do stuff. He told us a story about he and Doug being hassled by cops as they practiced yoga in the park in the early 70s, because some neighbor had called and said that these young men with long hair were "doin some devil worship or somethin." The cops came up with guns to the two yoga practitioners, asking, "What're you boys doin' here?" and as Doug told it a couple years ago, they said, "Ummmmm.....breathing?" Anyway, the slideshow was dedicated really to DS' and Shelley's time in India, a sort of retrospective on SKPJ as they knew him, with a lot of India photos. They used to have a house there by "the park," which DS said is a well-known location to ashtanga practitioners: there are cows in the park and guys with huge truckloads of coconut shells and all other sorts of business.



Intermediate series today and then I'm going to try to "keep it sloppy and alive" all week with the Intermediate because it felt good to do it on Thursday. Later I'll write about how the first adjustment in Kapotasana that I got here (Wednesday morning) turned fear and anxiety into more positive stuff even though I did not get the full expression.


*****************************************************
POSE STUFF
This is a combination of workshop information, adjustments seen and adjustments received. It's probably not complete, but it might give you ideas when you're practicing:

****

Utkatasana and Virabhadrasana I in Suryanamaskar B: you want the shoulders externally rotated. If you're in a spacious room, coming up wide to the side does this. In a crowded room, raise your arms PALMS UP and it'll happen. This takes much, much less muscle energy to hold than cranking the arms up there straight from heart center.

****

Padangusthasana, et al. (forward bends): send the shoulders down, and lean into the toes (actually Kino MacGregor was the first person to tell me to lean into the toes).

****

Parsvakonasana: press the knee against the arm, and swing the top hand not up and over but under and down and then up (basically swing it from your side down to the floor and then up over your head; same external rotation as above).

****

Parivrtta Parsvakonasana: grab the forward leg and twist against it, work the elbow down.

****

Prasarita D: pull up, don't let the wrists hang on the floor.

****

Utthita Hasta Padang'a: curl the toes around the fingers, grab the hip with the other hand.

****

Virabha B: open toward the wall you face. Knees apart. Tailbone sinks. Then turn your head to the front hand.

****

Dandasana: arms straight. This means you energize the posture. Try it.

****

Janu Sirsasana all: it's a slight twist. Chest centered over front leg; don't just hook the side ribs over it.

****

Mari A: reach Forward not Up. Bent leg is totally straight upright, not leaning to side.

****

Mari C: when wrapping the leg, get broad across the shoulders and SIT UP; this increasing breathing space radically.

****

Kurmasana: the key to lifting the heels is legs over SHOULDERS not over elbows.

****

Supta Kurmasana: find ways to broaden the collarbones (like grabbing the ankles of a teacher who stands behind you and who then walks back slightly to pull the chest/shoulders down and broad). No hand clasp will occur until and unless the legs are Over The Shoulders.

****

Upavistha: the feet are Upright, not rolling in. Also look out for that in Kurmasana AND Bhujapidasana: the legs do not "flop open" externally.

****

Ubhaya and Urdhva Mukha Paschimo: the feet are pointed, not flexed. In 2007 in the first one, they were flexed. No longer.

****

Setu Bandhasana: it is about extending the legs, NOT raising the hips off the floor.

****

Matsyasana: arms are straight now. If you do this in lotus, this makes the pose much bigger in the lumbar spine than the thoracic. Get ready to feel a backbend.

****

Sirsasana: it's legal to tuck the chin as the legs come over for Urdhva Dandasana. Makes it easier. I have also consistently been told to "make my elbows closer" to the point that the triangle base is very isosceles and not equilateral at all.

****

Krounchasana: it's half Tiriang Mukha and half Urdhva Mukha Paschimo. Look at the foot and try to bring shin to chest.

****

Ustrasana, et al. (backbends): a string attached to your chest takes it UPWARD. Only when you go upward do you go backward.

****

Laghuvajrasana: keep thinking UP, UP, UP; even as you lower, imagine that you are LIFTING IT.

****

Kapotasana: try to land the hands as close to your feet as you can. You can hang or walk, either's good, but hands as close to feet as possible.

****

Supta Vajrasana: the exit is CHEST UP, not lower back lifting.

****

Bakasana: the feet stay TOGETHER. In Mysore, this is entered from a Pasasana position (tight low squat). Even in B, try to jump with FEET TOUCHING.

****

Eka Pada Sirsasana: it might be useful to look at the foot as it goes over your head. Look sideways, don't duck.

****

Pincha Mayurasana: to keep from flipping over, keep one leg on "either side" as you jump up. One leg goes over your head, and you jump the other one up but keep it on your chest side. Sort of jumping into a short forearm split. Then raise BOTH legs to center, one from each direction. Tangentially, I taught myself to bunny hop (2 feet at once) into this after a workshop. Walk in as much as you can, bend legs, shoot them both up, hips over shoulders. When you get the hips over the shoulders, you can feel yourself stick the inversion. Then extend the legs and its yours. For the proper exit, David says, "Pull your hands back."

****

Karandavasana: in lowering, think Shoulders Forward, and Look Ahead. But try to get legs to chest Before You Do That.

****

Mayurasana: "think cleavage"!! :D

****

Nakrasana: feet touch. All the way through. It's easier if you keep your arms bent rather than straightening them, even in the jumps.