Sundays thoughts

Many years ago I started teaching Ashtanga Yoga, probably much before I should have but I was asked to by this older lady who was deeply in need, and she is still someone I consider a close friend and love very much. But a few years later this vinyasa studio was looking for someone who taught Ashtanga and followed the traditional path of it, they heard about me and asked me to teach so I taught one Mysore style class on Sundays in the early afternoon for some years.

This yoga community in this city was not something I knew much about as I'd always practiced at home and not given too much thought to there being an actual yoga community out there other than the Ashtanga Community I'd met on my trips to Boulder and Maui to see Pattabhi Jois and Sharath. So when I became a part of it by default many started giving me unsolicited advice, which I would listen to and judge based on how it felt when I heard it or thought about it whether or not I would follow it.

One thing that sticks in my mind and that is on my mind much these days is that they told me I should not be friends with my students. Now, traditionally in India the guru is the guru and you are not friends with him, he is your teacher, gives you advice based on his lineage as to how to live and practice your yoga and you follow it using your own discernment as to what you'll follow to the letter or not. At least, that is how I feel about it, probably not the very traditional way to do it.

So this one struck me as odd. After this class often many of us would go have lunch and hang out and have some amazing discussions. This eventually led to some great friendships that I still have today. But their point was that many would expect free classes from you, take advantage of you and such, being your friend. But I have found the opposite to be true. They are more loyal and since they know I don't make much money they are more than happy to pay me on time and when its due, so on and so forth.

But this was back in 2003,4,5 and around there.

From that point after I began teaching a full Mysore program I often would advocate the group going to brunch after the morning class on Sundays since it was a day everyone was always able to come and then were also often free afterwards. These sessions proved to become almost the whole reason for the Sunday class, not really, but we often enjoyed them so much that the work the students were doing and that I had done in my practice that morning before the class was so worth it that it made that part of it seem simple and easy.

Now as I teach here in Germany on Sundays we do much the same thing, not everyone always can go, but we do it and it feels great. As I move on to India and set up a program there I will hope to do something similar as well.

I had a discussion with my roommate in Mysore who is a very traditional fellow whom I love and agree with very often, but when it came to the subject of being friends with our teacher he very distinctly felt that it was not to happen. There is to be separation between the guru and the shishya. Of course, I did not agree with this. Part, and maybe a very large part, of the feeling of devotion I have towards Sharath is due to the fact that I feel very friendly, loving, even brotherly feelings towards him. We have discussions very easily and when I have a question I don't have any problem asking him in class about it and he tells me often his opinions of what I'm doing as well, hahahaha! And I feel we have a very good relationship. So I aspire to be this way, and actually was long before I even had the personal relationship with him, albeit with a very different approach than him.

And I am a western man, as much as India is in my heart and soul and I only really feel comfortable when I'm there I was raised in the US and so have to process my traditional Eastern teachings through the veil of my western upbringing, which is true of any of us who are drawn to the teachings but not brought up in the culture they were conceived in.

I'm not saying that it's perfect and that there are not problems. But I am saying this is part of who I am. I am a social person, even though I also like my solitude and contemplation time, I do like to have social interaction with like minded people. In fact I'd say that more than anything is what has helped the yogic teachings blossom inside of me, hearing them, feeling them out, talking about them with others, hearing and processing their opinion against mine and determining what it really means to me. In fact going to India and becoming a part of this worldwide Ashtanga community is when all the teachings first started to blossom in me at all I would say, even though I was practicing for 14 years before then.

That might sound extreme, but I think its true. That culture is where they came from, experiencing it is when it made me realise what the teachings really were. And if sharing that with the students I happen upon can help them figure them out more quickly, then job done as far as I'm concerned.

Okay, that's enough. Have a great night!