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| Mysore magic |
Haven't had the chance to watch this yet, looks nicely shot and I love the picture right at the end of the statue of the feet on the red background. First reaction from the trailer puts me off going even more though, practicing with others, still don't really get the attraction (see this recent post ), see if I change my mind when I get to watch the whole thing later. Off to see Coriolanus now and then supposedly The best pizza in London
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22 comments:
It can be irritating practicing with others. It can be irritating living with others too, working with others, being on the tube with others... yoga isn't just about doing what is most pleasant. It's practice for real life. :-)
Ha ha too true Susananda! It is a whole different practice in a busy shala, for me it was a big practice in concentration and drawing the senses inward. Home ractice on your own terms is a luxury, one could even say a bit spoilt perhaps. Not that I'd swap my home practice,but my trips to shalas are usually worth it.
I'm so thankful for having access to both. They are very different experiences, both with their ups and downs.
I would struggle to sum it up better than Susananda, but I would add, that I do like having some guidance, and my practice checked by a force far greater than my own opinion.
Agree with you both.... I wouldn't give up my home practices either! But I don't believe in being attached to it just because it's nice, we prefer it etc. Nor would I want to be attached to the shala to the extent that I didn't like to practice away from it!
'yoga isn't just about doing what is most pleasant'
Susan I practice Ashtanga seven days a week, if I wanted something pleasant i'd pick a different style : )
'Yoga as practice for real Life'
we seem to have a completely different idea of what yoga is,I see it more as way of questioning what 'real' life is, dissolving it, not something to get me through the day.
..and for me, at least, practice is private and personal really don't have any interest in practising in public, nor for meditating in public for that matter. frankly I find the whole idea quite strange.
perhaps if i had practiced in a shala from the start i would feel differently.
No that's not it , that's not fair, I know it can still be private and personal when you practice in a Shala, I cant really put my finger on why I find an incongriguity there, I just have no desire to practice in a room with others, think I get fed up trying to explain that. M. Says I'm irritable today because I didn't practice, apologies if my responses have been ...abrupt.
I wouldn't fret too much, most of us need the boost that practicing with a teacher gives. Not something you should have to force. At the end of the day none of it really matters anyway. Seems you're doing fine as you are.
I don't view practice as 'something to get me through the day', that's not at ALL what I said..... although you just said you might be irritable from not practicing :-)
I do view it as a tool for observing our reactions, and throwing someone with long legs in front of me, or a carpet seam or a noisy breather to one side is brilliant for that.
Anyway, as Esther says you are fine as you are, but your public inner debate over Mysore has perhaps been a bit frustrating for some of the rest of us.
Have a good day :-)
Actually in all honestly, it IS something to get me through the day, also. Of course.
Hey StEvE, are you still in Mysore??
(apologies - found StEvE's blog but can't seem to leave a comment without downloading a new browser)
Yeah, sorry about that Susan was prickly, think the 'inner Mysore' debate was/is an important one though (especially for home ashtangi's), a blog can't be (perhaps shouldn't be) comfortable reading all the time
http://tinyurl.com/6sxyujw
That from a card carrying fan of the place.
Surely there are issues about what Mysore is, what it means, whether it's still relevant and if so why...somebody should make a movie about it.
I was just pointing out the irony ;-)
I agree it shouldn't always be comfortable reading, that's why I'm here asking annoying questions sometimes! :-))
Yep, I read that post. But I think almost all of us here are still here gladly, even if it means practicing under the sink sometimes.
They are trying to address the situation by extending the season by three months and limiting individual stays, which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned.... making sure anyone who wants to come here gets the chance.
I'm kind of sympathetic to your feelings, grim, but I'm not in mysore and there is no likelihood I would have the opportunity to go so maybe i am just justifying myself. I don't want to step out of my life and be 100% focused on yoga for months--I have relationships and obligations that I can't and don't want to set aside for that long-- and I don't want to be packed in like a sardine and deal with some of the other issues I hear about. I don't know if I'd form relationships with teachers or students there. I do practice in a shala (on work days), but I have kind of slowly developed relationships with a core group of shala mates, so it doesn't feel like a random crowd, but a group of colleagues, working together respectfully in our little sanctuary, and I get a lot of really constructive help from my very knowledgeable teacher (who for various reasons is not tied to the orthodoxy of some other senior teachers) who knows me and my practice well and with whom I have a relationship of mutual respect. I love practicing at home too. I need both.
It feels like the same energy you get around a bunch of music practice rooms in a music school where people are both practicing alone and working with teachers.
think of it like having the chance, as a musician, to play with others.
But that still doesn't mean you have to go to mysore.
How about that John scott idea? I think if a particular teacher attracts you, that is the direction to go in, rather than forcing yourself to overcome ambivalence about going to mysore. If and when it's the right thing for you to do, you'll know it and feel it. You might have to be ambivalent at a distance for a while for that to happen though.
I know that sounds sort of mystical, but it's my 2 cents.
Practicing with a different teacher who doesn't have a claim on owning the lineage (i.e. who is not set up as the ultimate authority, but as a guide) might feel less like surrender of your autonomy and ownership of the practice--part of the worry I hear implied here
Your right of course Susan, I should expect a few ...uncomfortable comments/questions sometimes, it's all good.
I heard about the shala opening earlier, from July ( I think Claudia said), that would be better, I'd rather practice in that room with twenty-five than a hundred plus.
Thank you for the thoughtful comment Anon and for the Music analogy although I taught myself and have never played with anyone.... always had a soft spot for Miles Davis story of him facing away from the audience when he played : )
Perhaps it comes down to temperament, many thrive in that environment and I can imagine that there is a special atmosphere and energy there, not my thing perhaps but I get it. There is a long...longggg tradition of practicing alone on the dry hillside.
There are some workshops I'd like to take and some teachers I'd like to meet but that's mainly from a kind of historical curiosity, the ex classicist in me, a fascination with fragments. I guess I don't really feel the need to have a teacher, happy to work asana out myself, let the practice be the teacher, everything important is probably found in the postures or moving through the sequences, that's no disrespect for the lineage really but rather an acknowledgement that they've probably already done their part, the teaching's in the practice, our job is to listen and embody it.... perhaps.
Practicing with a teacher is a bit like having the barber hold up the mirror behind your head when he's finished to give you a chnace to see the 360 degree cut. It's useful for a glimpse now and then. Watching the Mysore Magic video, you notice a lot of people straining in their seated twists with bent arched backs, etc. A good teacher, I think, gets you thinking about the points that you can't see in your home practice, gets your proprioception activated, so you can take your practice home and continue to improve your focus. Otherwise, if the focus of practice is the breath and bandahs, who has time to worry about who's next to them. I could be in a room of one or one hundred and my focus would be the same. Yoga is for me a solitary trek.
I'm most struck by the beautiful colors in the video. So lovely, the glowing mix of them! Perhaps because I watched it last night, I dreamed this morning that Sophie (nearly 8, haha) and I went to Mysore. She was a teen-ager in the dream. It made me think that if she were ever interested, that would make it so incredibly fun, to go with my daughter to have a grand yoga adventure! Everything is more fun with Sophie! Her curious, try-anything fearlessness inspires me when on my own, I'd probably rather just stay home. It's too hot in India, too expensive, what if I got injured from an aggressive adjustment (a fear of mine). Besides, I can't get my leg behind my head so clearly I'm a yoga loser, haha.
Grim, I selfishly hope you choose to go, to see where it all started, to try it out, just so I can read what you blog about it, :) .
Love the barber's mirror analogy Anon,my videos have to take the place of the, not the same I'm sure. Though I write about asana a lot and often seem fixated on it I tend to think that's just the focus of the blog. I like working out the puzzle of a posture but never really felt the urge to find a teacher to help me learn an asana or new series. I'd love to be able to do kandasana but wouldn't bother trying to find somebody to teach me it, sure it'll come in timeI'm more interested in inhabiting a posture than the alignment which I tend to think will sort itself out sooner or latter as you settle in, these long stays I've been working on seem to be good for that.
Your right of course, ultimately there's just that mat and you forget about what's going on around your, don'd know why i make such a big deal about practicing alone, we always practice alone.
there's another nice video set in Mysore, nice light to, Guru the movie
http://www.guruthemovie.com/
Still haven't seen Mysore Magic, just the preview.
nice dream, check out Donutzenmom's Mysore blog, she's there with her daughter now
http://journeytomysore.wordpress.com/
Oh, Grim, thanks for pointing me at Donutzenmom's blog, so sweet, her and her lovely daughter Anna doing Mysore together! If Sophie and I went I just know I would be in the beginners class while she was in the advanced of the advanced class, haha. No I'm not jealous of my kid's insane yogic ability, why do you ask?
You might not be jealous of Sophie's insane yogic ability, I however haven't forgiven her for popping into that toes to head raja kapotasana grrrrr
Just kidding sophie (he says through clenched teeth),
You have to think about how poor Kino will feel when Sharath comes up and taps her on the shoulder in Led Advanced B leaving Sophie to continue on...just not fair on everyone else, she'll have to stay in the yurt, she'll just have to.
Glad you found the blog, she's lovely, her daughter too.
*laughing* Poor Kino!
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