It’s been quite a year…

As I was walking around the block after tonight’s dinner, I had a chance to reflect back on this year of intense change. Despite having some major personal losses, this year has also had a few bright spots for me.

One major highlight was finally meeting H.S. Arun. In the above picture, before a class in his Kailua workshop he asked me “how much do you weigh?” “200 pounds” I replied back. He then had me sit on him as a weight for his Upavishta Konasana. He asked me to take my hands to Urdvha Hastasana to centralize the weight. We really bonded well during the workshop. Thank you Robin Mishell for the photo.

My classes are growing. I used to have an average of about 6 people per class. This year it has grown to about nine. The really nice thing about these numbers are that many of my students have been practicing with me for more than 5 years, and a small handful for more than a decade.

I’m still in teacher training. Despite all that has happened this year, I am still working toward my Junior Intermediate I certification. Above is one of my mentoring teachers Ray Madigan with Laurie Freed (in Kurmasana) who passed her Junior Intermediate II this year. Along with Shelley Choy, Ray has been leading trainings a few days a month. I am blessed to have these small sessions with my teachers.

My garden. I can’t express how much pleasure I derive from gardening. Watching life grown and change daily before your eyes awakens me to the miracle of this existence. Above is a tiny lettuce sprout springing out of the straw. I may even start another blog just focusing on my garden and the techniques of the Fukuoka style.

My loving, talented wife. She has propped me up during my down times, and I have propped her up during her down times. We make a great team and I love her very much. Also helping to keep joy in our lives is my hanai niece Sasha who often joins us for our misadventures like eating robot served sushi.

Lastly, my blog. If people keep viewing at the current rate, I should make 100,000 views this year. To me that is far higher than I have ever dreamed for this little blog of practicing Iyengar yoga at home. Thank you all for your readership, and I hope to have some great posts in 2017…

 

Brave New World of Yoga

I took a few weeks off of blogging to focus on taking care of my father-in-law whose health has been poor this past month. In the interim, I explored the underbelly of the internet to see how other people are practicing Yoga. I joined a Yoga chat room on Facebook. It really opened my eyes to the current psyche of Western practitioners today. This information is helpful for me as a Yoga teacher, so I can at least have a frame of reference from which my younger students are coming.

Discussions on this Facebook chat page revolved around three topics: Selfie/Instagram posts, Yoga Teacher Trainings, and 30 day challenges in that order of post volume.

Selfies are so prevalent, that more than half the members of the group thought that posting postures of themselves is what encompasses the whole practice of “yoga.” The standard post would be something like: “This is my Handstand today #goalkiller” and then there would be showers of praise in the comment section. It seems as though people are doing one contortion-esque posture (not even asana), asking for and receiving reinforcement from the FB community. It is doubtful that these are part of a sequence and more just “showing off” the ability to be flexible and balance.

Yoga Teacher Trainings were the next big topic. Between people hawking the next big YTT in Costa Rica, Bali, or Timbuktu, people would either brag or whine about their current YTT experience. The YTT people were not imparting any particular insights or knowledge of their training to the group, but much like the selfie crowd were seeking some sort of approval or status positioning that they were on their way to teacherhood.

One disquieting aspect was the prevalence of online teacher trainings. There were actually a few good discussions on why online teacher training is not appropriate. One theme that came up is when a topic would be questioned, the pack mentality of the group would say that the person is “judging” and that “yoga is whatever you want it to be.”

I tried to introduce some concepts to the group like Aparigraha and even posted my essay about the new prevalence of alcohol in yoga classes. It made for some interesting discussions. Unfortunately the majority in the group saw no problem with it and said that their studio has alcohol events regularly. The Aparigraha post was quickly drowned out by the latest barrage of selfie posts.

Lastly, the 30 day challenges were a ubiquitous part of the group discussion. I understand that these challenges are helpful for new students to be motivated to practice. But after the 30 day challenge, then what? Another 30 day challenge? To me it just shapes the practice like a monkey swinging from  tree vine to tree vine without any direction.

Some may read this post and say “you mean there is another way to practice?” The answer is there certainly is another way. Yoga is made for us to confront and conquer our senses, our ego, our samskaras, and our karmas. Asana can be a powerful tool in doing this. But as we are now seeing, people are using asana to become more deluded and lost in the ego’s trappings.

I ended up leaving the Facebook page. It was causing too much citta vrtti in my own life. This experience has motivated me to re-read the Bhagavad Gita whose verses are refreshing and healing after seeing what Yoga is becoming in the commercialized world.