Does Yoga Help With The Big Questions Of Life?
/Dear Yogis
There’s a posture that I love to teach: Ashtavakrasana - Eight-Angled Posture. It’s fun to teach; the class can descend into chaos! You start with a hip-opening exercise. Then, sitting down, you try to get the back of the knee up on the arm/shoulder! Next is pressing the hands into the floor to lift the bottom up. Finally, pushing the legs out to one side while leaning forward. It’s amazing when you get it. Instagram may have been invented for this very posture.
As you would expect, there’s profound meaning to the posture. It is named after the sage Ashtavakra who was born deformed. And, as you would expect in a yoga/Hindu story, he was an enlightened master who chose to take his birth in a crooked body.
The Ashtavakra Gita is the account of his philosophy – it’s the usual thing; how is liberation to be acquired? The answer: “You are neither earth, water, fire, air or ether. For liberation, know yourself as consciousness, the witness of those five things. See yourself as distinct from the body, free from bonds”. These are continuing themes of yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism. “The wise man knows the self and he plays the game of life. But the fool lives in the world like a beast of burden”.
This posture came to mind because I caught myself saying in class that original yoga was for the 'householder', not for those who wanted to withdraw from society and become hermits. Yoga gave people in the family, community and society access to a spiritual life. This made me wonder if yoga can really help with the colossal questions of love, loss and grief. Does it help to know that the essential nature is different to the body, different to the personality we so strongly identify with? Does it help at all when we lose a loved one?
Perhaps! In the depth of life’s difficulties, the Ahstavakra Gita is, at least, a very celebratory, uplifting read. It reads like a call to action and so gives you energy. Energy enough, perhaps, for that knotty posture. Here are the best quotes.
Training
I’m signed up for Ty Landrum’s Breathing into Alignment: An Ashtanga Yoga Asana Intensive from Friday 10 April 2020 to Sunday 12 April. I wrote about his workshops last year and still teach some of his handy techniques. Come with me!
I have also signed up to Ourmala’s training to teach yoga to refugees, 13 & 14 March in Richmond. Join me!
And next Friday is the second second of three workshops: ‘Headstand to handstand’ with Anastasis Tzanis. The theme is Alignment and it’s at Triyoga Chelsea, 19:45 - 21:45. Why not come!
Home Studio
Classes are filling up quickly but Tuesday and Thursday at 6.00 have loads of places. There was a problem with the booking site. My fault... I paid the bill now! See what’s available in the attachment.
Yoga in the News
Just as we say goodbye to Veganuary, Women's Health has 18 Vegan Athletes Who Swear Their Plant-Based Diets Help. The most famous is Venus Williams but many mention improved energy and quicker recovery. Venus 'was diagnosed with autoimmune disease Sjorgen syndrome in 2011, she looked to a raw vegan diet to help her get back on the court'. Others are American football's Colin Kaepernick, MMA's Abel Trujillo, and Dana Glowacka who holds the women's world record for the longest plank.
HuffPost UK has the surprisingly unyogic: Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Yoga. Teacher Nadia Gilani says: ‘Here I am, a South Asian yoga teacher, feeling forced to distort a tradition that is a part of my own ancestral heritage. This paradox is exhausting to exist within’. Oh dear!
Enjoy Le Weekend
