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. Traditionally, the practitioner engages the system
six days a week, taking breaks when the moon is full or new. 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. |