Crim Week, Day 2: Seeing myself in the mirror

Posted in ashtanga yoga, dog! on 09/09/2008 05:50 pm by karen

Last night, Tyler ate a stick of butter The Cop put on a low table. All night he barked and moaned and rolled around in his crate like he was possessed by the devil.

I was pretty tired this morning.

At which point, I read from the Yoga Sutras:

Postures must have the two qualities of firmness and ease.

Gregor Maehle comments:

If the field of perception is filled with pain, the mind will be distracted. Patanjali’s definition of posture as ease automatically eliminates that which causes pain. If you are in a pose and experience pain you will not be at ease.

The widespread tendency in modern yoga to practice the poses in such a way that they hurt leads to being preoccupied with the body. This is by definition not yoga asana.

According to scripture, in asana the limbs have to be placed in a pleasant and steady positioning so as not to interfere with the yogi’s concentration. The inner breath (prana) is then arrested and moved into the central channel (sushumna). Sushumna will eat time, and the fluctuations of the mind will be arrested. Meditation on Brahman will then arise.

Asana is thus a preparation for samadhi, whereas practices that lead to pain will increase the bond between the phenomenal self and the body, which in itself is the yogic definition of suffering.

***

A little crim practice first thing this morning, using a DVD by Gabriella Giubilaro.

Lovely. And yes, crim week includes crim confessions: I love, love, love! asana without vinyasa.

Ardha chandrasana, always one of my favorite poses, was included today. On the right side, there was a delicate, whispery click click click, which adjusted and relieved the T12 hot spot.

***

At 10, I left the office and headed over to the nearby Anusara studio. Was looking forward to seeing my very first teacher, who owned the studio until recently. He’s been traveling and teaching so much that he sold it, though he still teaches there.

Unfortunately, he had a sub today. The sub was a lovely woman with a nervous, inner monolog leak. Inner monolog leaks aren’t my favorite thing, but whatever — we were just hanging out doing yoga. But it did occur to me that this particular nervous tic is verboten in corporate America –- a career killer, if you’re interested in climbing the ladder. I’m kind of curious about why that is. Too much naked humanity, perhaps.

We goofed around with Paryankasana (which I love), and some shoulder openers. Stood lined up a foot from the mirror for some shoulder awareness. Um, I look like a linebacker – all muscular (and I’ve lost LOTS of muscle since I switched from weights to ashtanga!). Anyhow, I look hulking compared to the others.

Interestingly, I imagined I’d be a stiff hulk compared to the Anusarans – but as it turns out, Ashtanga really makes you flexy.

Trikonasana without grabbing the toes. God, that feels weird! Virasana and supta virasana stuff. Pincha mayurasana variations. Hanumanasana variations.

Nice, all of it.

When My First Teacher teaches this particular class, which is an improv, hang-out-and-do-some-fun-poses class, he tends toward the esoteric. But this was a nice re-introduction.

***

Thanks all, for ongoing suggestions of crim practices. Keep ‘em coming. Maybe I’ll make a compilation of criminality.

It’s worth noting, I think, that the vast majority of the criminality is coming from men. What’s up with that?

 

17 Comments

  1. linebacker… you and me both!! (just posted linebacker evidence on my blog)
    Okay, so the first part of your post is something that has intrigued me immensely about the Ashtanga community. There seems to be two camps: those who think pain is actually necessary for “opening” and those who believe there should never be pain. I’m a little center here. I think it takes incredible body awareness to know the difference between discomfort and actual pain, and also to know my limits. My teacher is on the “no pain” path… which I appreciate, but I’ve been in Authorized teacher’s classes and been hurt. Bad. The pain I was feeling? Supposedly my fear. Yes, I was very afraid! I was afraid of INJURY. And the fear was not unfounded. For me, the practice is something I plan to do till I keel over, so if it takes me years to “open” without pain, then I don’t see the necessity of hurting myself to get to a pose quicker. I don’t know if I’m making sense. Have you experienced this?
    I’m so curious about your weight lifting days! When I have time, I’ll dig into your archives.
    (fun account of crim, by the way)- Liz

  2. hi karen, regarding male-crim activity, maybe it’s that we men are more sincere about talking about when we stray from the path?

    i’m not sure i picture an inner monologue leak. was she talking to herself while instructing?

    hugs
    arturo

  3. Hi Liz,

    Luckily, most of the teachers I’ve been around have been gentle — by Ashtanga standards. (Interesting I even think to make that qualification.) I often wonder about whether my fear is making me tighter and more prone to injury, but it seems like this is a pretty fine line to walk: I can throw myself into things and not fear, but I know that could result in injury. I tend to kind of back off and try to deal with the fear stuff a little deliberately. Like you, I want to practice forever, so no great hurry.

    The weightlifting days ended as the blog began, so not much about it in the archives. What are you curious about?

    Arturo,

    Re: the inner monolog. She was just kind of saying whatever was in her head — stuff like, “I’m not sure if you guys will like this… it’s a pretty interesting pose… well, I have tight hips, so it’s a little hard…I know lots of people don’t like this pose…oh, the music is kind of loud…” etc., etc. Basically, any time she got nervous, she kind of chattered a bit, but didn’t directly engage us — it was purely rhetorical. Does that make sense?

  4. I’ve wondered for a while what is up with big drastic painful adjustments. My first teacher gave intense but never painful adjustments, and since then, my three Mysore-room experiences have all duplicated this: PLENTY intense, but never an injury, never any fear (that wasn’t inside me to begin with), never any fear that that person would injure me. Just my luck? Whatever it is, I’ll take it. Personally I think teachers can read my “You Bring It” attitude from a distance, and they tend to only bring me what I’m ready for.

    Yes to the nervous inner-monologue teachers. Have had some, have been one. All nerves, unless that person is ALWAYS like that.

  5. I prefer to think of it as pioneering, rather than as criminality. Non-compliant yoga is all about pushing beyond the bounds of convention, or something like that.

  6. Please convey my condolences to Tyler. I haven’t eaten a stick of butter before but I can imagine what it might be like. I dropped a tater tot on the floor years ago and allowed my cat Hamlet to eat it. He had horrible gas and it made us both quite miserable for the night. I wished him well when I left for work the next morning and made a mental note never again to feed my animals anything like that.

  7. wait… Carl, you eat tator tots?
    Totally forgot to comment on the stick of butter thing (your post had so many juicy things in it)- that was so funny but so horrible. gross! A whole stick! Hope he feels better!

    I guess the weight lifting thing is interesting to me because I started yoga while doing something similar (well- kind of), I was involved in a lot of martial arts where we built up muscle in different ways than yoga does. I have found that coming to the practice with strength has been a bonus and a curse. It has allowed me to “get” some things quickly, but has also caused me to rely on my muscular strength than on the more subtle strengths (like bhandas). I seem to get the “look” of a posture before I get the subtleties of it- the lightness of it.

    Did yoga change your body drastically? no need for a lengthy response- sorry to side track your comments!
    Liz

  8. It’s not criminality – it’s just the male tendency to keep testing their powers of persuasion, if you know what I mean.

  9. oneshotonex
    09/10/2008 at 3:01 pm

    Yes Liz, I partake of the processed, fried cylindrcial potato food product now and again.

  10. “I have found that coming to the practice with strength has been a bonus and a curse. It has allowed me to “get” some things quickly, but has also caused me to rely on my muscular strength than on the more subtle strengths (like bhandas). I seem to get the “look” of a posture before I get the subtleties of it- the lightness of it. ”

    Yeah, I’m in the same boat. And yes, yoga changed my body dramatically. I lifted for years — weighed 125 at 5’4″ and had almost no body fat. Started climbing — dropped my weight to 115 (easy to do, since to keep it at 125 involved eating constantly and lifting for hours every day). Started yoga, dropped down to 110. Lost a lot of the muscle. Sad — and VERY hard to let go of — but I fell in love with the yoga…

    Wow, Carl, I’m surprised yet again. :-)

  11. … very interesting! Thanks for sharing. You can’t be a linebacker if you weigh 110 lbs, my dear. I’m sure you look fantastic!
    I know- I’m surprised too, Carl!

  12. I can if it’s all in my shoulders. ;-)

  13. Linebackers weigh 220+ pounds*. You two could be a linebacker by gluing yourselves to each other and growing a foot taller.

  14. Liz can sew us a jersey and we’ll try out for the NFL.

  15. That’s right, I’ll sew a big jersey that we can both stuff ourselves into. Don’t forget the tight, shiny pants!

  16. Does Prana make shiny football pants?

  17. I’m sure Lululemon does!
    actually, I bet (for real) American Apparel does… they bug me so bad!! When did looking like a hooker from the 80s become fashionable? I missed that.
    See what Carl started?

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