When The Student Is Ready The Teacher Will Come - Part 1

We never know who our teachers will be.  However, I feel we know what we are here to learn.  (Really?  I don't. What is she talking about? I'm good at learning languages, is that what she means?)

Or should I say, a part of us knows--a part that resides deep inside us.  It is the seed of our existence.

For most of us, we may never tap into that place of knowing and are destined to work out lessons in the external world - again and again and again and again and again ad nauseam.  These lessons are compounded (again and again) with external garbage that litters our path along the way. Nature versus nurture comes into play. Our true nature and the essence of why we are here grows farther and farther away from us.

Yes, Existentialists and whatever other philosophies beg to differ and I'm fine with that.  I come from a place of feeling there is something else.  I can only speak for myself. And whether that feeling was brought about by my brain, how I was brought up, or that I just was born that way (my earliest recollection of this feeling goes back to three years old) is up for debate.  However, if you're with me on this or at least open to going on this particular verbal journey with me, keep reading.

My mother used to always use a quote she credited to Voltaire (though I've not been able to verify the author) "The more you own, the more owns you." Anyone who has some "thing" in their possession:  a car, a house, a washer/dryer, an oven, a computer, knows what the quote means eventually. It takes head space to own stuff.  We have to be responsible for its care and upkeep. We have to deal with it when it stops working.  Therefore, the lessons we are here to learn get compounded by what we add to the pot. When our pot is overfilled with other stuff, getting to the bottom of it is a lot harder.

There are many spiritual references to the idea of becoming an "empty vessel".  It's been used as a great propaganda tool as well - empty yourself and be filled with the crap I believe. Needless to say, we over stuff our vessel with more than just material things, we fill it with food, habitual thinking, ideas, assumptions, intellect, supposed facts, theories, pride, fear, anger, resentment, lust, desire, attachments to people, pets, places, presumptions, problems, poor health and principals, just to name a few. It's as if the seed of our existence is a huge magnet at the bottom of our pot or vessel drawing stuff after stuff, filling us to the brim with not an angstrom of space for air.

This magnetic seed, I believe, is our life's yearning to learn what we are here to learn --yet our over-materialized external world puts us so far away from finding our "north" we end up filling ourselves with the wrong fertilizer and branching off in all kinds of directions. You've seen those trees that grow oddly to avoid power lines. On my walk the other day (without my son --insert frowning emoticom) it became abundantly clear how much noise interference there is -- all in the name of "progress".  Add to that all the other sensory interference there is around us and you get a glimpse at how many "weeds" and "stones"  are getting in the way of right actions and aligned growth.

If we go on the theory that this is God's playground (or "The Source" or whatever word works for you) and we are his/hers/its "hands and feet" to help experience willy nilly as many experiences as this world will allow, then over stuffing the vessel may be just collateral damage. You're stuffed and then you die (this takes the obesity and hoarder epidemic to an interesting place, huh) 

If we go on the theory of reincarnation and an individual soul's quest for new growth to raise the vibration of the "source" (which is the one I'm going with here, though I am aware I'm over simplifying) then keeping an empty vessel might be useful. To figure out what that "new growth" needs to be we might have to shut the magnetic seed down completely.  Let everything fly out and start over. Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, no.  If you read my earlier blog on the Manouso Manos workshop you learned we've grown attached to our stuff, we hold onto it in our bodies, not just in our thoughts. Shut the magnet off or not it's hard to get rid of everything. Some of it is stuck.  Some of it may have even procreated with other parts of us. What can we do?

That's where yoga comes in handy.  Through the eight limbs of yoga we can begin to dig deep down within ourselves -- first (re)connecting our mind to our body, which most people have become very detached from; and then eventually connecting to that seed of our existence. To do that we have to weed out the stuff we no longer need. BKS Iyengar in Tree of Yoga  (click)says:

"Yoga is meant for individual growth and for physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual defects to be removed.  It is designed for the removal of fluctuations and afflictions, pains and sorrows."

It's nice to think we can immediately transition into an empty vessel and embrace the Zen Buddhist idea of keeping a Beginners Mind (click), but in reality it takes a tremendous amount of work to get there.  In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we are given a 196-step-by-step process for getting to the "empty vessel" state.  Each one of the 196 pithy threads have a myriad of layers. Therefore, the deeper we get the deeper we can go.

My mom used to use the idea of fake it til you make it to help us with our studies.  "Pretend like you are very interested in learning everything your history lesson is teaching you and eventually you will be."  I have to admit that trick can get you to a beginners mind pretty quickly. However, it doesn't give us the depth of understanding we need to sustain it. We still have to do the work.

We can learn a lot about ourselves and get into a nice zone with music, dance, mountain climbing, running, tennis, golf, and more -- but my personal realization is that these things end up turning into escapes, because they involve an external factor that takes you away from yourself. The answer isn't out there.  It's inside you. Unfortunately, we avoid going there at all costs, which is why all these diversions (and more than I could ever list here) are so successful.

It is also why we need a teacher to guide us inward.  A beginning yoga student isn't likely to be walking into the studio with the goal of learning to connect with the self.  Even many advanced practitioners don't have that intention.  But yoga has a way of getting you there eventually. In Tree of Yoga Iyengar says:

"Experience is real;  words are not real. They are somebody else's words, but it is your own experience.  When stability in experience is sustained and when the feeling of experiences does not waver, it is samadhi." (click word)

Sitting in meditation is a way to discover the self. However, most of us need to make the necessary connections through the limbs of yoga to get us to a place where we can actually sit still.  I know I did and will probably always need it.  It is from my yoga practice that I have been able to be open to going deeper in my meditations (along with the guidance of my wonderful meditation teacher).

We've heard all too often that life is a journey, but so many of us have gotten stuck on the curb feeling stiff and stuffed with things we don't need. Others have become a dumping ground for cigarette butts, beer cans, and other trash.  When we finally realize we are not getting anywhere that way, we might decide to become an active student of life.  The cool thing is that once we are honestly ready to be a student, our teachers will come.

And eventually we begin to be a teacher for ourselves.

To be continued....

 

Learning To Tame The Wild Animal Within Us: The Manouso Manos Atlanta Workshop.

The annual workshop with Manouso Manos in Atlanta, hosted by Kathleen Pringle, owner of Stillwater Yoga is something most of us striving yogis look forward to. This summer it was a tough choice for me. I have a son about to leave for college. Luckily, it worked out for both of us. After the first 30 seconds of Manouso's workshop, I knew I'd made the right decision and my son was glad to be able to hang out with friends who are going to different colleges. Best of all, I got share what I learned in the workshop with my son on our traditional walkabouts at the end of the day.

In the workshop, Manouso pointed out that in the Hatha Pradipika (a yoga text that dates back to somewhere between 1400-1600 AD) it says, "A ringmaster tames a wild animal slowly and systematically." Needless to say, our bodies are the wild animal.  In Iyengar Yoga, we learn we can't force our body with violent determination like I did for 23 years in ballet. We have to coach it.  We have to understand it (Svadyaya: self study, study with our teachers, and higher resources) and encourage it to shift using consistent effort (Tapas) and right actions (Kriya). I hear a Sutra of Patanjali in my head (guess which one, Kquvien?)

2.1 tapas svadhyaya Isvarapranidhanani kriya yogah

"Burning zeal in practice, self-study and study of scriptures, and surrender to God are the acts of yoga."  --BKS Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

I like to believe that the billions of hours I spent in the dance studio struggling to make my body move in ways that didn't come naturally to me were actually part of my yoga journey. However, I was definitely not practicing the (click) Yama,  ahimsa or non-violence. Iyengar Yoga and my awesome teachers have given me the opportunity to begin to learn to stop fighting my body and understand it, even be inspired by it.

I believe beginning such a rigorous physical study like ballet at the young age of five gave me an acute awareness of my body (for better or worse). Manouso mentioned the downward spiral of thought processes that can take place with an old yoga ritual of reflecting in a mirror (or on a lit candle) for hours on end. I figure I spent my entire dance history with that exercise. I also realize my earlier work is helping me learn and appreciate the different alignment required in yoga, while aiding my vision towards the possibility of moving into the deeper consciousness that Iyengar Yoga fosters.

For my exploration: A short physical examination of Iyengar Yoga could be that it's about alignment and that ballet is about movement.  Both are organic and ever changing - and while the concepts of alignment and movement have to be present for both yoga and ballet, the alignment is designed to create a specific movement:  Ballet aligns us to move from the inside out. Yoga aligns us to move from the outside in.  Ballet is a performing art.  Yoga is a spiritual art.

The two met for a moment on the last day of the Manouso workshop in a first position plié: feet turned completely out, heels touching, knees bent. It's a pose that for me pretty much instantly engages the top of the femur bone (greater trochanter) into the hip socket. Manouso introduced the exercise as a transition into a wide-legged Tadasana (mountain pose), which as many of my readers know is not turned out in the least: toes and heels together. With our toes and heels parallel (hip distance apart) he challenged us to bend and turn out the knees, engage the top of the femur bone into the center of the hip sockets; and then straighten our legs, engaging the remaining actions of Tadasana.

Applying these same principals, we worked in Utthita Trikonasana (triangle pose) and Utthita Parsvakonasana (extended side angle pose).  Thanks to one of my instructors, Steve Jacobson, I had a little experience with this action in these two poses (but my eyes were still bugging out, Steve ; ). These two poses are very related in stance to third position in ballet (heel-to-arch alignment).

Third position is another ballet pose that for me enables instant awareness of the hip socket actions. Earlier in my Iyengar studies, it was from this position (then widened) that I began to understand the importance of the base footing in Utthita Trikonasana and Utthita Parsvakonasana (as well as others) to the engagement of the hips, which Iyengar further enhances by kicking out the back heel (of the back foot) further than the toes.

Starting from a ballet position is where my brain is trained to begin for now, but keep in mind yoga is a lot older than ballet. What I am discovering is that no matter what physical 'art' we use to create specific shapes with our body, whether we're creating a Grande Jeté (a split in the air) or a Hanumanasana (monkey pose or split on the ground) it demands a certain alignment that is universally dictated by the basic structure and capability of the skeletal and muscular system. Granted, no two bones are shaped exactly alike, but for the most part human skeletons have the same parts. Therefore, there are only so many ways to get to desired actions.

One of the key points Manouso addressed was that the real contribution BKS Iyengar (known to his students as Guruji) has made to the yoga world is his pioneering of the 'language' of yoga instruction. It is with this refinement (and constant refinement) of the 'language' that he uses to describe to the masses how to do each yoga asana (pose) that has altered the way we learn yoga.

Yoga was basically a prescriptive, one-on-one situation throughout most of history. Iyengar was introduced to yoga by his Guru, Sri T. Krishnamacharya at 16. By the age of 18 his Sri T. Krishnamacharya sent him to Pune, Maharashtra to teach a yoga class at a girls school. This was the first real yoga class. Despite the fact Iyengar is credited for teaching the first yoga class, it is his unwavering dedication to his own practice and sincere commitment to his students that continues to foster the transformational shifts to the yoga we know today.

In my mind, Iyengar's incredibly deep meditation in the poses have enabled him to dissect the actions of any pose again and again enhancing his understanding of what the body is actually doing and give voice to those actions. His extensive work (he is 94 years old, I believe and still spends hours upon hours in the yoga studio) and incredible findings are something from which not only aspiring yogis but also dancers, martial artists, and many other such physical disciplines can truly benefit. 

Iyengar's exploration of props has made it possible for everyone to gain the health advantages that yoga offers --no matter how young or old, sick or healthy, flexible or stiff, shapely or deformed you may be. I don't think anyone would argue any of these points (but feel free to).  No one in the yoga world that I know of has been able to articulate with such precision how to 'tame the wild animal' within us on such a grand scale, so we can begin to deepen our consciousness.

In the Q & A section of the workshop, someone asked how Iyengar might define consciousness. Manouso answered with a preface that no one should answer for anyone (especially on a subject as vast as the exploration of consciousness), but that he would try to convey what he believed Iyengar's thoughts on the subject might be as simply as he could.  He began by saying that Iyengar talks about awareness being a more vertical action and consciousness being more horizontal. He made us all hold our arms out in front of us with fingers pointing straight ahead.  He said that is awareness. Then he asked us to widen our fingers... not spread our individual fingers, but widen each finger from pad to root (or root to pad).  He said that is consciousness. Try it for yourself. Manouso explained that experience is what takes us from knowledge (vertical) to wisdom (horizontal).

When I talked about this idea of consciousness with my son on our walkabout, he told me about an article he'd read based on the work of (click here for a reference I found) Dr. Gottfried Schlaug on the study of violinist's brains.  Apparently, the motor cortex was more developed in students who began their practice before age 7; however, there was no change in brain size. Adding to what Manouso said about Iyengar's 'widening' principal my son used this example and suggested that consciousness is simply 'filling the same space with more'.  I'm going to miss that kid.

Ironically, it was a fortunate meeting in 1952 with the violin maestro, Yehudi Menuhin which culminated in the introduction of BKS Iyengar and his teachings to the Western World.  Since that time, there have been many studies on the yoga brain development, here's one article I found that explores this idea in (click here)  Psychology Today.

"A yogi brain extends from the bottom of the foot to the top of the head"

                                         ---BKS Iyengar, Guruji UWACH:

My son added that there is no way for scientists to recognize consciousness other than identifying where metacognition (thinking about thinking) occurs in the brain, which happens to be suspended in a sort of neural terminal. Scientists still can't pin down the subjective experience in scientific terms (like experiencing brushing your teeth or... hmmm, let me pick something extraordinary, Ganda Bherundasana -a very, very, very, difficult back-bending pose). My son continued by asking a question that he quickly answered, "How can we be sure that anyone else is truly conscious? We can't be; we just assume that everyone else isn't an automaton because they act just like us." Like I said, I'm going to miss that kid. 

Earlier in the workshop, Manouso made a beautiful point that I hope I am not bastardizing (can I say that in a blog?) that a lot of yoga is about challenging us with asymmetrical poses and learning to work the body symmetrically. He began our education on this subject with several standing poses, then we moved into Upavishta.,  a wide angled sitting pose. We worked both legs with one leg transitioning from (if memory, Smrti serves at all) baddha konasana (bound angle), marichyasana I (a seated twist), virasana (a seated folded-leg pose known as Hero pose) -- forgive me if my order is wrong and please correct me.

As the actions of one leg went through this series of poses, the Upavishta leg, knee, thigh, and sit-bone had to maintain evenness and stability. He continued developing the actions with the subtleties that only Iyengar trained instructors seem to be able to share: pressing the calf away, pulling the shin back, deepening the groin, and much, much more.

Do I hear you grumbling that the exercise I just mentioned would bother your knees?  Knee trouble?  What knee trouble?  One student felt the workshop really helped her knee issues  (HS, I'm referring to you). Well, it's probably no surprise to Manouso and certainly wouldn't be to BKS Iyengar I'd bet - for whom with every lesson I take in the Iyengar Method, I grow in love and admiration. Most of us don't have a clue of the enormous applications and benefits, if utilized with Kriya, right actions, of the extraordinary work BKS Iyengar has done and how it can change not only how we do yoga, but also how we heal ourselves.

I can't begin to tell you the adjustments I received in my hips from just one weekend with Manouso. He has an acute understanding of the hips that is based on his own deep experiences and work in that area. The adjustments I receive from his workshops are never just physical, they are mental and usually very emotional. I have come to the conclusion that some stored traumatic experiences, an emergency c-section, along with my early turning out has made my turning in process intense on many levels (we all have our stories we're trying to detach from). Physically, my muscles developed in a whole different way in the hips and legs, which affected my skeletal system (now days ballet dancers often counteract this with an ongoing yoga practice). As far as the rest, I am in the same boat with many others who tend to store their emotions in their bodies. Here's a Yoga Journal (click)article I found on the subject.

One of my biggest epiphanies with Manouso (and I had many) came on the last day of the workshop in Parvritta Utthita Trikonasana, revolved triangle pose. The beginning of this lesson, as I recall, started on the first night of the workshop, in Sukasana, a seated, folded-leg pose, extending the inner thighs away from the hip crease, engaging the tops of the femurs into the 'hip sockets', tops of the sit-bones forward, groins deepening as the pubic bone lifts (can I say pubic bone in a blog?) the entire abdomen adjusts (and readjusts) naval drawing back towards the spine.

 It progressed through many other poses into the second day of the workshop.  As I recall, the second day involved many poses done in quick succession. Manouso related these quick changes to what we do with a new born baby. Being a recent granddad, he relayed how it's natural to take the arms and legs of the baby and play with them, switching up and down, in and out, bending and straightening.  Does the baby cry?  Not unless the child has gas (and I know a little knee-to-the-chest actions can almost instantly resolve that).  Manouso explained baby's don't cry with all these changes. They love change, but adults hate it.

That didn't stop him from moving us quickly into and out of various asanas that peaked with Parvritta Janu Sirsasana, revolved 'head-of-the-knee' pose not the popularized interpretation head-to-knee pose. Engaging the head of the femurs into the center of the sockets, we drew the navel back towards the spine, lifting the pubic bone with sit-bones off the ground, while tucking the tailbone, all before bringing the sit-bones back to the floor and extending the left arm (when revolving right) far past the inner foot, hooking the upper armpit chest with the help of a bent knee on the extended leg, then holding the foot with our left hand straightening the knee, re-engaging all the above hip actions as the right arm sweeps over the head to hold the top of the left foot, while the chest revolves towards the ceiling, spine resting (in our dreams) on the top of our left leg. You can breath now. Are you still with me?

All these lessons and many more including some valuable partnering work in Utthita Trikonasana and Janu Sirsasana, culminated on Sunday with poses like Parvrtta Utthita Trikonasana. Manouso began the day by moving us through actions we learned earlier adding refinements like in Sukasana we used our fists, not in a violent way, to help us engage the hips and extend the thighs this time. We did the first-position-hip-engagement work I mentioned earlier and worked the actions in Utthita Trikonasana and Utthita Parsvakonasana. In Parsvottanasana (intense stretch of the side body) using a Kurmasana (turtle) back action (navel pulling back towards spine vigorously); and then revolving all of that into Parvrtta Utthita Trikonasana and Parvrtta Utthita Parsvakonasana. Incredible.

Every fiber of my body was called to the mat. I felt the fascia (click word for more info) around my sacrum breaking up, opening an area I'd never felt before. It was amazing.  It was wonderful.  I think I saw God for a second.  With my lower body stabilized and engaged like never before, I was able to revolve the upper body. I found my fear disappeared and a beautiful new opening revealed itself. Can we do it again?

Granted, I'm lucky. I have the benefit of amazing instructors on a daily basis who are extremely dedicated to the Iyengar Method: Stillwater Yoga Studio Owner, Kathleen Pringle, along with instructors Kquvien DeWeese, Steve Jacobson, Kathy Koenigsbergand, Anna Leo, Nancy Mau, and Scott Schroeder.  I am able to go into class and enhance what I've learned and confirm or reaffirm what I think I understood. For example: Kathleen began to help us apply the actions we learned and honed in on the pranayama lesson I haven't mentioned here (prana: life force awareness through breath ayama: unstrained regulation). Kquvien helped us apply some of the actions learned while honing in on helping us link some of the arm actions we learned with distinct upper body shifts. Nancy demonstrated the benefits of the hand work we learned in the workshop as well as refreshed our pronunciation of one of the sanskrit words in the (click here) Invocation to Patanjali namely 'sahasra' (sa ha sa ra), which she heard in the workshop chanting where many of us habitually say (sa ha shra).  Guilty. 

You know the saying, which originated by children's book writer/illustrator, Robert McClosvky, but which is now being attributed to Alan Greenspan:

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant." --Robert McCloskvy

 It is very easy as Kquvien says to convince ourselves of things we think we know about ourselves and about the things we learn and take in from our environment.  Kathleen strongly recommends, we verify then verify again, what we think we heard in workshops and understand where, why, and how before beginning to share it. My instructors are attuned to Manouso's focus (Stillwater Yoga has hosted over 20 workshops with Manouso) so while they never teach what they haven't processed for themselves, they have studied at the Institute in Pune and have wonderful (there's that word again) insights to share. As for me,  keep in mind this blog is part of my journey. I'm a physical learner and a writer; therefore, I process by doing using my body, my pen or my keypad. So, I encourage comments on what I think I heard. 

Regardless of my accuracy, I want to impart what an amazing (I've used that word too much as well) experience it is to be in the presence of Manouso Manos and his wisdom. I know I haven't even begun to give him or his work in the workshop justice here.  He offered remarkable solutions to address specific physical problems. He could sum up a particular student's alignment (or misalignment) with uncanny accuracy.  He provided incredible teaching and masterful linking that even if my mind was not engaged (and it really had to be the entire workshop and long afterwards in discussions with my son) my body was being tamed slowly and systematically by this Senior Teacher, whose 40 years of deep training with his teacher BKS Iyengar has granted him the role of Ringmaster.

Thank you, Manouso. I look forward to next year.  Namaste.

To learn more about the incredible instructors of the Iyengar Method in Atlanta come to Stillwater Yoga or visit stillyoga.com. To attend a Manouso Manos workshop near you visit manouso.com  To find an instructor outside of the Atlanta area and for more information about the Greatest Ringmaster of them all, please visit: bksiyengar.com