Mysore-style Ashtanga yoga

So one week from tomorrow my new Mysore style Ashtanga program starts at Yogasource. I think I'm getting excited, after having a couple great trial classes during what is usually a led primary series, I'm even more excited, because I see the potential it could have. So I'm at home again on a Sunday afternoon, its really too hot to do anything else other than maybe see a movie, but I've done that two days in a row already to stay out of the heat, and I'm watching videos on youtube of Mysore style classes, of Pattabhi leading folks through advanced posture sequences, of him giving talks on philosophy, etc. And its just making me more and more excited. I can't wait for it to start and see what happens. Seabrook and I were at lunch after class today and talking about how taking her practice into her own hands (she started practicing the primary series after we went to Chicago to study with Kino MacGregor) is transforming her faster than she ever did before, taking instruction in classes. And its true. When you go to a class you get to check out, almost completely. You have to stay tuned to something outside yourself in order to know what to do next, so you are on the same wavelength with the class. But this does not allow you to tune in, into yourself and feel whats going on, feel how you feel while you're working through so many postures and vinyasas and breathting and more. So you never get to really go inside and explore your own inner landscape. I assume being led in a class is the closest thing most people get to surrendering and allowing themselves to chill out and just take what comes with a grain of salt, but to me a real practice happens when there is silence, only breathing, and you are moving and following what comes up, whether it be physical, emotional, or energetic (see my last entry). And one thing the Ashtanga practice does so well, is that it gives you a sequence and prescribed way to breathe during said sequence, so all you have to do is put out the effort to remember what comes next and then it becomes rote, and then you get to do the work. The practice is there and you have to dig in and work within to make it through to a new level of practice, not just checking out, but checking in! So some say that the same sequence all the time is boring and not good for everyone, but when its the same all the time, you know what comes next, you don't have to think about it, you don't have to think at all, just breathe through it and be present with the physical, emotional or energetic issues that come up. Its all good! Love this shit I do, I can't believe I ever left the practice. Although if I hadn't dug into the Anusara system I wouldn't have learned some great alignment and be able to heal my body, and if I hadn't dug into the Kundalini system I wouldn't have gotten so in touch with the energy of the body and how to move and manipulate it. These things have been invaluable to me and helped me go deeper and deeper and become a better person and a better teacher, so appreciation to both of those systems of yoga practice, but most of all to the Ashtanga system, which has taken me to levels of being I never thought possible, and helped me help others start heading in that direction as well. Much love...