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Yesterday’s practice included my Shuffle and headphones and a Coldplay soundtrack. I needed something to distract me from all the stuff my mind was telling me I should be doing instead. A little music helped. Also raised the question: does Chris Martin make perfect music for Ashtanga practice because he is an Ashtangi?

Today was back to quiet. And a familiar question: Ashtanga practice and zazen. Are they the same or different? The answer is to practice. But my mind likes to pick at the question. I don’t know much about where Hinduism and Buddhism intersect historically. I have always assumed that Buddha’s experiments with asceticism probably meant he had some yogi friends. And the cultivation of the eight limbs of yoga certainly parallel the effects of zazen practice. I just am curious about whether Guruji (and Krishnamacharya, by extension) saw asana practice — and specifically vinyasa practice — as meditation in the same way that zazen is meditation.

In the Kwan Um school, there is actually a practice for people who have particularly busy minds: it’s called bowing practice. It involves full prostrations, over and over, for counts of dozens or hundreds or even thousands of prostrations. Quite similar to surya namaskara. I always adored the full prostrations.

Anyhow, that’s my question for today: Ashtanga vinyasa yoga and zazen, same or different?

Today: practice.
Tomorrow: practice.
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