Fellow yogi Jerome Armstrong is doing and documenting a 30 day Bikram challenge. Follow his posts here. Jerome is a very smart guy, always learning and exploring and practicing to go deeper into himself. His discussion of the Bikram practice, in addition to other practices and considerations, is insightful. Check it out.
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Every atom in our bodies is made of energy
Nothing more, nothing less The same energy that makes the atoms of the air around us The buildings and the people The stars and the mud Are all made of atoms, of energy We are all connected, but it is more than that We are all the same, but it is more than that There is no "we" Only one Yesterday Ida and I went to Chicago to take a day-long posture clinic and class with Esak Garcia, the 2005 Bishnu Ghosh Asana World Champion and one of Bikram's senior teachers. We spent the first 5 hours breaking down a handful of the postures, taking them step by step, muscle by muscle, organ by organ. It was interesting to hear such an accomplished yogi talk about the different elements that make a complete posture. I was glad at many points to have the training and practice I have. I understood what Esak was saying from an anatomical and physiological standpoint and also from my own personal experience.
Esak's approach is similar to Mary Jarvis' and also to the Bikram community at large. Squeeze everything, engage everything all the time. This is different from Tony Sanchez's approach. More than once, Tony told us that he tries not to engage anything when doing the postures; that he uses energy instead of muscles. Sometimes I feel like the Bikram school is trying to defy the laws of physics instead of working with them: bend forward without shifting backward for a counterweight, stretch your backside muscles while also engaging them. I was very happy that Esak also focused on stillness, something I have never heard another Bikram teacher (other than Bikram in his books) mention. Esak said that "the posture is holding still for 10 seconds." Simple and clear. But then the dialogue in class is always push, push, push, farther, deeper. It's a bit confusing. After the posture clinic, we did the beginning class. Out of respect and curiosity, I tried the postures how Esak suggests, with complete engagement. It was powerful and very challenging, especially in the heat. Where normally I can practice postures for 5 hours without stopping, I had to rest after about 25-30 minutes, in the middle of the balancing series. It reminded me of my early days practicing Bikram's class: give 100% right from the start and burn out long before the class is done. All in all, it was a great day. It is always inspiring and enriching to discuss yoga and to be around more accomplished yogis than myself. I learned a lot and tried some new things. Thanks Esak! "These Indian contributions...will become public property. No patents will ever be taken. The spirit of our national culture demands that we should forever be free from the desecration of utilizing knowledge only for personal gain."
From 'Autobiography of a Yogi' by Paramahansa Yogananda. Excerpted from an article by Carol Horton, Ph.D. Read the whole article here.
We’ve heard a lot about “yoga scandals” in the past several years: John Friend, Kausthub Desikachar, and most recently, Bikram Choudhury. Given that five separate lawsuits accusing Bikram of “rape, harassment, assault, discrimination and false imprisonment” have been filed, however, simply labeling it a “scandal” seems insultingly misleading. After all, we’re not talking about a prudish moral panic here: these are serious criminal charges. There was an enormous amount of outraged discussion and contentious debate over the “Anusara scandal” back in 2012. There has been very little public discussion of the Bikram case, however, at least in the formerly fermenting yoga blogosphere. It’s a curious situation, as the pending charges against Bikram are much more serious than the parallel set against Friend. One might imagine that the level of public outcry would increase in tandem with the gravity of the allegations being made. In fact, however, precisely the opposite is true. Read the rest of the article here. Yesterday, Ida taught the Core 40 at our home studio in Madison, Inner Fire Yoga. The class was for teachers and regular practitioners only, who also happen to be some of our closest friends. Basically it was to show the Core 40 sequence as a progression from Bikram's 26 - to share this knowledge and these postures we have been practicing for 8 months and that we learned firsthand from Tony Sanchez in December.
Doing the Core 40 class in my home studio, in the same room where I have practiced "the 26" hundreds of times, and where I have cleaned the floors and mirrors hundreds of times, was a beautiful experience. Ida was teaching the class, I was simply in the front trying to demonstrate the new postures as well as possible, but I felt like we were giving back to our community. We have something unique to offer, and we offer it gladly. Those who took the class were excited by the new postures and the more advanced style of the teaching - less dialogue, more stillness, more advanced grips and alignments. It is a bit of a relief for all of us who love the more traditional style of hatha yoga, where each pose is separate from the next, interspersed with stillness. We have been aching for some new postures beyond the 26 and some more advanced instruction. "In Buddhism the highest spiritual ideal is to cultivate compassion for all sentient beings and to work for their welfare to the greatest possible extent."
From 'The Universe In a Single Atom' by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. |
This journal honors my ongoing experience with the practice, study and teaching of yoga.
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