Blog
October 2008
Musings from day 3 of the David Swenson Worshop....
David has all these great sayings and stories that he shares when he teaches. On the first day he told us that we should strive to do our practice like a zen calligrapher who uses the minimal amount of ink to convey the most beauty and harmony. A similar analogy he used was to practice yoga like a cat - i.e. using the least amount of energy required for any action.
This is really important in Ashtanga if you want to end up with more energy at the end of the practice than when you started. Which reminds me of another story he told us about David Williams - he says that David W. talks about increasing "his bars" - referring to cell phone bars. His goal in yoga is to increase the prana or life force in his body - at the end of practice, we should strive to have more "bars" than when we started. For those who practice yoga, hopefully you know of this strange phenomenon of leaving a very challenging asana class and feeling as if you could climb a mountain. The reasons for this are varied, but a lot of it has to do with the breath and its effects on the parasympathetic nervous system. I have found that if I stay focused on my breath throughout my practice. I am bringing more energy/prana in than I am putting out, even if the practice is strong. On days when I am scattered and just muscle through the practice without a good breath, I am drained and tired.
When I was in India, I kept waking up at 3 or 4 am each day even though I did not need to be at the shala until 6:00 am. At the time I was confused by how little sleep my body seemed to need when I was putting it through much more physical rigor than it was used to. Now I am pretty sure that the extra prana in my body was responsible for the unexplained energy and mental alertness I felt throughout my trip. Coincidentally, I have been waking up at about 4:00 am every day I have been in Florida, even though our workshop does not begin until 8:45 am. Hmmm....
I am in Winter Park Florida right now for a week-long workshop with David Swenson. Technically it is a "teacher training" workshop, but I am primarily here (or at least I keep saying I am primarily here) to deepen my personal practice. Whether I feel ready at the end of the week to try and begin adding some classes called "Ashtanga XYZ" to my teaching schedule remains to be seen.
I have been spending a fair amount of time debating this question of whether to teach classes called "Ashtanga". In this tradition, the" authorization" to teach is formally handed down from a member of the Jois family (Pattabhi Jois or his son Sharath). Since I am realtively new to this tradition, I am a long way off from being authorized by Guruji or Sharath. In fact, there is a strong possiblity that it would never happen! Several more trips to India would be required, not to mention some serious progress in my back bends.
On the other hand, I have been practicing yoga for about 10 years and teaching other types of yoga for more than 2 years. Part of me feels drawn to teach this practice that I love...and in the process help get more people in Savannah introduced to its beauty, simplicity and complexity. On a good day I think of this as a desire to grow a community of happy, well-balanced practioners. On a bad day I see this as just another ego trip in which I want people to want to love what I love. So....while a part of me tells me that it would be wrong to begin teaching formal group classes of a practice to which I am so "new," I know this practice better than any other yoga since I have practiced the same poses in the primary series sequence hundreds (and maybe thousands) of times.
David spent some time during the first day talking about what it takes to be a good teacher. In his opinion, certification can mean nothing - there are people who have a certification but are not ready to teach. On the other hand, as he pointed out, even Guruji and Mr. Iyengar have never been "certified" according to AYRI standards. Interesting note - we will not get a "certification to teach" from this class, but we will get a "certificate of completion" from his teacher training program.
At this point, my opinion is that a good teacher should have practiced the poses in the sequence enough times to be able to speak from a depth of personal experience. They should also be able to teach the sequence without having to do the poses with the students, so that they can observe and adjust and count the breath and do all of the things that are necessary in this complex practice. They also need to have enough wisdom to guide the students in the many, many questions that come up as students begin to peel back the layers of their egos and discover the lessons that reveal themselves through the the symbiotic emotions of accomplishment and humility. The dilemna is how to learn to do this without years of practice as a teacher!
For now I will keep teaching my "power yoga" and "dynamic flow" classes. I love these classes because they allow me to explore and grow my skills as a teacher without the responsibility (and baggage) of teaching the Ashtanga tradition. Plus it can be fun to lead a class with music!
