Teacher Training - Day 2, First Sunday

Class was fun, illuminating, and tiring. The first class was largely a reprise of the Astanga warm up and the first 12 standing asanas of the primary series, which is familiar territory for me and a large chunk of my daily practice. Still, it was difficult to modify the poses in the manner Daren laid out, making me realize how ingrained my habits and inclinations are. I sleepwalk through Sun Salute 1&2 on many occasions, and the first 12 standing asanas of primary series as well, and simply altering a few of the details in each pose left me struggling against the inertia of poor habits I've built up. Deconstructing and rebuilding these poses and transitions if going to require a renewed commitment. Hell, I'm not even breathing right... While that could be discouraging, it's actually more liberating than I thought, because it makes me wonder how beneficial and gratifying my practice could be if my pranayama was optimal... Walls will fall, if I can get this right...

Reviewed Cobra (Bhujangasana), Up Dog, and Chataranga with a partner. I felt really grateful to slowly evaluate Cobra, because I rarely actually do the pose, usually skipping over it to do up dog. I had a lot of things wrong with this sequence, which was again surprising considering how often I do it. Not huge problems, but little things that differentiate between a vaguely correct pose and a pose that manages to trigger all the right flows. It feels good to be taught something correctly, and I feel grateful to have someone I trust spelling out these sequences and asanas in a manner that's irrefutable. Unlike my journey through martial arts, which was filled with multiple teachers at various schools telling me I'd learned something completely wrong, Daren is merely optimizing everything. Also, with martial arts, a lot of the differences between each school of thought are largely dogmatic and subjective differences dealing with historical animosities and long-standing cultural feuds about which technique is right, accurate, or oldest. With these asanas, it's not about being more right or stronger or greater, it's about seeing the underlying principles and grasping how to best make the flows work through each pose. There's nothing to argue about, there's no dogma, and variations and modifications are encouraged. You would never find that in some of the martial arts schools I attended. They maintain a military-precision and compel everyone to do the same technique in the same way... This approach to yoga feels far more welcoming, a "come-as-you-are" aesthetic that's intended to be personalized. Where the kung fu temple I attended was created to manufacture uniform spiritual warriors, Moksha's declared goal is to promote self-actualization. Those are two very different ideals, and I feel blessed to have finally arrived at a place where I'm not being judged for what I've learned before...

We reviewed some of the transitions between poses as well, and it was interesting yet again to take note of something I've been doing inaccurately. It was interesting to watch the group struggle a bit with jump backs and jump forwards, as it's something I've been struggling with for quite some time as well. However, a few years ago I did come across video footage of John Scott, a famed Astanga yogi, performing these transitions with an ease that's astounding and inspiring all at once. I've been trying to emulate his smooth lifts and graceful mastery everysince I saw these videos, so I thought I'd post them here in case anyone else wanted to see them. His entire Astanga sequence is a video well worth owning, because I have yet to see anyone move through the primary series with such grace. It's jaw-dropping when you see it in it's entirety, and i'd post it all, but it's too long. These are a great snippet, though... Have a look...




The rest of class went well... Looking forward to addressing these issues in my practice, and seeing what the consequences are....