Born again Ashtangi II, Mysore (?) Becoming Authorised (!)

Into the second week of practicing along with Sharath's led primary, I've settled into the captured stream from Joisyoga. They seem to have stopped streaming this on a loop and though Sharath is now teaching in Encinitas there's nothing about streaming Friday's led from there. My Guess is that they'll turn the NYC stream into a DVD. I'd buy it if they do, I prefer it to Sharath's CD and DVD, it's quite a bit slower, room to breathe.

I noticed while trying to see if they were streaming from Encinitas that their 'boutique' is online now, us guys get a t-shirt, that's it. Seems Sharath has a new DVD out too, half Primary, didn't I hear somewhere that Kino is doing a half primary as well?

The born-again Ashtangi thing is going well, enjoying the led primary every morning but it's exhausting, did I really practice at that pace every morning? I'm sweating buckets and kind of feel as if I've hit a reset button or having An American werewolf in London transformation going on, but spread over a couple of weeks rather than two minutes. I seem to be getting leaner, feel longer, limbs lengthening, becoming stronger perhaps, fitter too.

Switched my eating around from a light breakfast and dinner to a light breakfast and lunch then nothing but a banana or two until breakfast, working well, feel much lighter or at least emptier during practice.

Playing a little bit by the rules, even have my chin to my knees rather than forehead, hell why not, got my drishti going and everything. I also took a rest day on Saturday, complete day off, not even pranayama. That was quite nice actually, felt it Sunday though, hard first practice back.

The plan is to do a month of this and then perhaps add 2nd up to kapo for a month, then up to Karanda and split the thrid month. Never really did it that way, just jumped into 2nd ( just checked, i kind of jumped in, worked through the series a few times on my day off then did some primary to kapo for a while then primary to Karanda before splitting, so if not adding poses then adding sections), so like the chance to explore. But for now keep this up for a month, following along with Sharath's led, just as if I was in Mysore. That reminds me, I was asked two questions...

1. Now I'm a born-again Ashtanga, do I have plans to go to Mysore?
2. If so would I be interested in becoming Authorised to teach?

Mysore....I don't know, I've thought about it recently, especially since I sold a Sax last week and could buy a ticket. I just can't think of a good enough reason. I don't even practice in a shala here let alone go over there. If I went I could only go for a month so would only be practicing primary and I can do that here, am doing that here and as intensely as if I was in that room. I drop back and come up here pretty deeply (stop the video to do a few of those then pick it back up at paschi) so don't need to go for that. There are a few bloggers it would be nice to have the chance to practice with but I'm the least social person I know so would mostly be keeping myself to myself. Be nice to spend some time in India but there are other areas I think I'd rather visit than just stay in Mysore for a month. Be nice to see where Krishnamacharya taught all those years ago though. I don't know, see how I feel a few months from now, when does the shala open again, when do people tend to go, end of the year?

The second question amused me, thanks for that P. Would I like to be authorised to teach Ashtanga? Again, I don't go to a shala and don't particularly agree with hands on adjustments, be a bit hypocritical of me to consider teaching in that way, although I hear there are some ashtanga teachers who rarely adjust physically. Then of course there's the integrity issues of planning to go out there, what, three of four times, with that intention and the feeling of selling out I'd have from keeping silent and toeing the party line when I've questioned so much in the past and still have questions or concerns. ( Not critical of other teachers here, it would just be an issue for me because of my... well documented, concerns regarding the practice) No, no, no plans on that score, don't think they'd have me anyway.

Besides, though I enjoy practicing Ashtanga I don't think it's for everyone, it works for me and I seem to kind of need this kind of practice, at least for another couple of years but If I was to recommend a yoga practice then it would be Vinyasa Krama. No plans to seek to teach that either at the moment although I guess I would if someone asked, would feel obliged to given that Ramaswami has shared so much.

Re Vinyasa Krama, I'm employing Arturo's approach in the evenings after work and working through the different sequences, picking up where I left off the day before. Twenty minutes of Asana before pranayama pratyahara and japa mantra meditation. Seems to be working out nicely thanks Arturo.

One thing that did strike me recently, followed a question from Claudia concerning whether I considered Sharath to be preserving the lineage of Krishnamacharya. My answer was that I thought he was preserving the lineage of later Jois, which is fine of course, but that perhaps Manju might better be considered to be preserving early Krishnamachary ( of the Yoga Makarnada and Mysore) through teaching more in a manner of early Jois ( which I assume to be closer to how he (Jois) was taught/guided by krishnamacharya). But I don't know just speculating.

If then I'm interested in continuing/preserving/promoting Krishnamacharya's teaching, both early and later periods, then I should probably try and attend Manju's workshops and possibly, one day his TT's.

Has everybody downloaded their copy of Krishnamacharya's yoga Makaranda?