Meditation, Not Mad Attention

Dear Yogis. 

Here is what passes for a thrilling Lock Down, Saturday evening…  David Williams (71-years-old, practiced yoga for 50 years) published his memoir  My Search For Yoga and did a Q&A session to promote the book. I’ve been to his workshops many times before and he’s a huge influence on many, many teachers and… an online talk is the new going out! 

David Williams learnt ‘classical’ Ashtanga Yoga from  Sri Pattabhi Jois in Mysore in 1973. Since then, he practiced yoga every day (apart from the allowed days off). He has never had a job; he only wanted to focus on ‘trying to be a yogi’ and being in a state of  chitta vritti nirodhah (still mind). He was serious, he was vigilant, he travelled to conducive environments, and he studied every thought in his body in order to ‘be present’. 

He says: ‘We wouldn’t sit and meditate but we would try to be in a state of meditation every waking minute. And that’s the big game over the decades'. That’s the idea of yoga, that you’re trying to be in a state of meditation all the time, not just in yoga practice. If he realises he’s agitated, he’ll say to himself; ‘You’ve lost your yoga’ and he will go and sit quietly to get it back. Sitting meditation was not part of Ashtanga yoga, he says. According to Pattabhi Jois, people who sit in Transcendental Meditation were performing ‘mad attention’ not meditation! 

There’s so much more that he talked about - how he has modified his practice over the years, his advice to new yogis, and the goal of physical yoga. I’ll write about those in the coming weeks. 

Zoom Classes  

We tried out something in class this week suggested by David Williams’ talk. He said that back in the 1970s, everybody did Upward Facing Dog with their knees on the floor and ankles relaxed. He never saw anyone even try to do it with their knees off the floor until maybe 10 or 15 years later. His response to seeing that was: ‘Why would they do that?’. When he tried it, he discovered that you have to stiffen up your lower back to get the knees off the floor. He said, ‘This isn’t for me! Yoga is for making yourself looser’. Well! We tried it in class… comparing knees down to knees up and paying attention to the lower back. Try it! David is right! He also holds the posture for five breaths in the floor section of the Primary Series. We tried that too. We could have another go today…  come to the 4.30 class this afternoon and see for yourself.  

Yoga in the news  

Financial Times has:  Yoga influencers have stretched themselves. ‘A meditative and spiritual practice with the ultimate aims of self-diminution, ego transcendence and union with the divine was transformed into a certifiable, priceable and user-friendly product . . . promising a positive body image, fitness and stress relief,” says a new Cambridge university study of yoga’s post-1970s evolution’. 

‘(C)ourses have now minted a lot of yoga teachers, only a few of whom have the charisma, looks and luck to transfer their classes online and build an audience as their studios have shut. The pandemic and the rise of online platforms have exposed yoga’s oversupply of casual labour.’ Good article! 

Refinery29 has:  Conspirituality Is On The Rise In The UK’s Yoga Community. ‘When asked why distrust in the government is so high among her community, Saffron responds: "Because we are more in tune with our bodies and natural intuition. We don’t sit around in sedentary jobs, eating processed foods, listening to whatever the government says. We spend time moving our bodies, fuelling with whole foods. It gives us clarity to think for ourselves."’  

The Metro has:  Inclusive wellbeing studio launches with all Black yoga teachers. ‘Mindwalk Yoga works in partnership with Fierce Calm, a not-for-profit yoga organisation that aims to make yoga accessible to all while supporting the most vulnerable in society within a diverse and welcoming environment. As part of the launch, they are offering 14-days of free, unlimited classes from March’. 

Keep warm this weekend.