I don’t know how I feel. Quite honestly, I vascillate between wanting a traditional Ashtanga practice, and wanting to have a traditional “listen to your teacher” situation.

In the past, this has played out with my sometimes going back to VBG and asking him if I can lose some of the poses in order to work on whatever I feel I am really stuck on. I stayed at Marichy D for a while, held up at Supta K for a good while, then Baddha K, etc. Essentially, I ask to tailor my practice a little more traditionally, and he’ll listen and then help me work whatever I point out as my new stopping point.

That said, I recognize that I am in a pretty interesting place in my practice right now — lots of things are falling into place, etc. I suspect VBG is seeing this and pushing me. In a non-traditional way, granted, but our karmas have brought us into this relationship, and I think we’re both managing it respectfully — so I’m giving this a shot.