Ashtanga
Yoga as taught by our late teacher, Sri K.
Pattabhi Jois, is a practice
of mindfulness guided by conscious breathing. A
string of intelligently sequenced
asanas are learned and practiced over time to assist
in recognizing the layers
of conditioned existence which hinder us from
realizing the greater possibilities
of who we can be. Most of the
classes we teach on an ongoing
basis are Mysore-Style Ashtanga, a class closely
modeled upon Sri K. Pattabhi
Jois' teaching method as historically practiced
by him, his daughter Saraswati
and his grandson Sharath at their Ashtanga
Research Institute in Mysore, South
India. This is a teacher assisted class where
students go at their own pace with
practices of varying lengths and levels, from
beginning and intermediate and into
advanced series. It allows students to go deeply
into their own experience of
the practice while still maintaining the
essential and reassuring experience of
a close relationship with a teacher. Following
the guidance of Jois' own guru,
the renowned Krishnamacharya, this style allows
us to engage students in a one-on-one
physical and verbal dialogue. At the same time,
both teacher and student can enjoy
the collective sharing and intimacy of a group
of people gathering to practice
yoga together, certainly one of the finer things
in life.
The method,
a distillation of the results of millennia of
profound action by yogis in India,
is designed to systematically clear blockages,
build strength and tune undeveloped
areas in the physical body; over time, this
kinesthetic work practiced in the
body begins to replicate itself at the level of
mind, clearing blockages, building
strength, tuning. Regular practice sustained
over time is absolutely necessary
to achieve these goals, and to overcome
stumbling blocks encountered along the
way, yet the system is so potent that
practitioners feel changes after a single
practice.
Krishnamacharya, and in turn
Pattabhi
Jois, have regularly emphasized the
quest for personal health as an essential
part of yogic activity. The body becomes strong
and beautiful; the nervous system
awakens, heals and feels with fuller precision;
pathology in the body and mind
is revealed and cleared; immaturity in the body
and mind is revealed and exposed
to both evolutionary rigor and the love which is
purified attention; pleasant
gifts along the path of the greater work of
steadily deepening and expanding the
capacity for attention and applying it towards
the work of enlightening the body
and mind, allowing increasingly constant access
to collective soul and collective
spirit.
We have undertaken the full rigor of this
path and offer
to teach it to those who so desire. Westerners
who have tasted the experience
of the body in integrated response to the mind
and vice-versa, are either haunted
by it or feel the desire to live there. As the
21st century begins, a rapidly
increasing share of Westerners are irresistibly
drawn to the processes of yoga.
A good number of individuals carrying on the
historically potent Krishnamacharya
lineage are Westerners, and the great Indian
teachers in that line, recognizing
our hunger, have willingly offered it to us.
Ashtanga Yoga, as taught by Pattabhi
Jois, is a powerful sacred system, unmodified by
shallow frantic regions of the
American marketplace; the deep benefit of an
authentic yogic process such as this
may not reveal its extent all at once. If
you're willing to come and work,
we'd love to share it with you. |