I'm all for ashtangis going to India. In fact, I would love to go there myself to practice one day. They just have to address that whole showering/toilet/stray puppy issue. But I get really irked when people come back and are full of 'well, this is how Sharath does it' and 'Guruji says this' and 'Guruji doesn't like that'. I prefer it the way Teacher does it. He just says 'my teacher taught me this way, so this is the way I teach it'. I went to the led half primary/half secondary at the studio in Huntington. Or so I thought. Turned out is was a led primary but not everyone was allowed to finish. I distincly remember having a discussion with the teacher/owner last week about how she changed the format of the Saturday led primary class to be led half primary and half secondary up to ustrasana. I thought that sounded like fun, and certainly more asana practice than I would get in the vinyasa class that comes before it so I figured I'd go. Otherwise I would never go, I despise led primary. I really dislike going at someone else's pace. So I get there and it's a different teacher and she just got back from Mysore like literally last week. OK, whatever. I need to practice so no biggie. The class starts and she announces that 'we are going to do it like they do it in India'. Which means led primary only, everyone goes up to Navasana and if you can't bind the marichys then you won't go past that. So during navasana she (very publicly) taps like five people to keep going. She stops two more at kurmasana. There were only two people who finished the whole primary series. One guy asked if he could just TRY bhujapidasana and she's like 'no, just sit and watch and do the vinyasas with us'. Um, fuck that. I did my backbends and finishing along with three or four others and left when the 'advanced practitioners' were in shoulderstand. Oh yeah, you're not surprised that I wasn't one of the ones who wasn't asked to keep going are you? Because I wasn't. I didn't really care that I was stopped, it wasn't that big of a deal. It was more the vibe of the class that I found to be a problem. I need to find out if she's the permanent Saturday teacher because if she is then I think I've hit a dead end again for finding a steady class. I know that I'm picky about my teachers, I can't take a class with just anyone but I don't think I'm being particularly picky here. She just rubbed me the wrong way. Very 'I went to India - holier than though' kind of attitude. The whole time it was full of 'Sharath says this' and 'Guruji says that'. Um, if I wanted to know what Guruji and Sharath had to say, I'd fucking go to India!
More Not So Anonymous Shala drama that I won't go into here. Apparently not only are we not supposed to blog about our teachers but we aren't supposed to blog about our shalas either because they're monitoring us. Not acceptable.
Still working on getting that lease signed so that I can sleep at night again.
It's soooooo hot and I'm exhausted. BF is adamant that I go to the movies with them tonight to see Indiana Jones but I don' wanna!
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19 comments:
That teacher sounds totally annoying. It's not how Guruji/Sharath teach anyway!
I'm sorry. What an overly drill-sergeantish approach and unhelpful practice.
The hilarious thing about the "In Myyyysoreee they do x"/ correct- vinyasa- as- of- the- last- five- minutes approach is that it is so ignorant of the longer history of this practice. Vinyasa are changed, new policies (criteria for moving on) are instituted, numbers of sun sals are altered, moon days are shifted and expanded. This is all done for either the purpose of fucikng with your mind (SKPJ knows how to mess with you) or more often just to satisfy overwhelming organizational needs. Benchmarks for moving on, superfast led classes, extra rest days, etc., make teaching the multitudes job halfway doable. Thank god they do it.
But we don't need to pretend the system, which is always changing, has always been the same. Or that the changes of the last 5 minutes are "right" or express the essence of ashtanga.
Inexperienced people obsess about petty stuff to demonstrate that they have been to Mysore (and that this makes them "better" or something). Which mostly just demonstrates that they've been to Mysore once or twice without absorbing the deeper, non-arbitrary stuff about the practice.
Just takes up space in my practice when teachers see me once and want to make me do correct vinyasa of the last five minutes. It's sometimes kind of arbitrary, intrusive, and show-offy.
Oh no. I just wrote a whole post on your comment thread, Sonya.
What I meant to say was:
"I agree. Sorry the local shala isn't more fun. And see Indiana -- it's pretty good."
everyplace/body is so freaking different. led classa(hardly ever) at my shala i stop where i stop in mysore. in lino's workshop i asked him beforehand where to stop and he said "no you do not stop, you go everywhere and you feel the flow!" in islamorada everybody went all the way through no matter how new they were, if someone was REALLY lost sharmilla came to assist them.
That was supposed to be 'holier than THOU not THOUGH, tee hee.
Owl, you can post as long a comment as you like on my blog any damn time you please! And yes, from what I understand from Dominick, this stuff changes and morphs and half the time Guruji doesn't remember how he taught it yesterday much less freaking 20 years ago. I'm ok with that! She needs to get ok with it!
And I hate to break it to this chick, but I've TAKEN a led class with Guruji AND Sharath AND Saraswati and they have everyone do everything. All the way through. You just do the best you can. And that's what MY teacher taught ME. :)
The mysore self practises I have done in the last 4 months, since finally leaving behind lead classes,the teachers have all let students plod through, provided they know the sequence, a very flexible girl on the next mat was stopped at the end of standing as she didnt know the order of primary series. When I saw someone that flexible being stopped I wondered when the teacher would stop me, but she didnt, she just let me do the asanas as best I could. So long as I wasnt doing anything dangerous or detrimental she encouraged us to keep going.
Oh, and I thought Indiana Jones was LOOOOONG and TEDIOUS. It wasn't much better than National Treasure, which I also thought was a waste of $11 and two hours. It doesn't help to have a 9-year-old next to you who talks through the whole movie. Sex and the City was WAY better. I guess I am not into action movies?
Hi Sonya!!! Are you heading to Anonymous Shala today??? I am going LATE!!!!!
One friend of mine who saw Indiana Jones really liked it. I'm not sure it's worthy of $12 for myself.
Noooo, am in the throes of a pre-ladies-holiday funk, I feel gigantic and tired. And the Puerto Rican Day parade is today, which makes travelling into the city a nightmare. Practicing at home, methinks. I may try to get in for a class this week, maybe Thursday or Friday depending on when Laides' hols start.
There was some cool stuff in the movie but it was LONG and the acting was so wooden. The plot was quite tedious.
Sonya, yes, that is what D emphasizes. That and the fact that SKPJ changes things and says they haven't changed in order to kind of blow your mind and get you to let go of arbitrary hangups.
I guess Indiana 4 is long and tedious. Maybe I liked it because it romanticizes academic life, which is ALSO endless and tedious.
:)
I like "I teach how my teacher taught me", that's what H says too. My experience in Mysore was to be stopped half way through Primary, but I didn't really mind because I was so happy to just be there. Guruji does remember what he used to do 20 years ago, don't be fooled by the broken English, he still has a very sharp mind. But as OvO says, he loves messing with people's minds :-)
I just hope you will find a class/teacher youreally like and it will make you practice enjoyable again. Good luck with that and your leasing issue. New house though - that is exciting, right? Like starting new life.
Come visit us in DC soon!
Yeah, V, I hear you and I agree, there's probably a lot of the mental game there as well. Honestly, if he just forgets, well, that's certainly ok too! He's over 90 years old for heaven's sake! It was more her annoying attitude I didn't like. However, I'll give her another try because I tent to make snap judgements and that's not always helpful.
Alfia, hello!!!!! I just want a place to live!!! :( Is that so much to ask. We put another offer on a different rental in case this falls through for whatever reason. The backup is already vacated and has been on the market (overpriced) for quite a while so hopefully it will work if the first one doesn't. Sigh.
Sounds like a good idea to go back. :)
Yes, I agree that I don't need him to be superhuman. He forgets senior students' names all the time, right?
I feel like it would be a lot harder to learn to be my own teacher if I thought other teachers were perfect.
Oh wow, I'm sorry you can't seem to catch a break out there. Yeah, find out if she's permanent.
Drill sergeant approach = not good. What's also not good is, this is a beautiful practice, at its core. And it's so much more helpful and motivational to have teachers who make us feel good about our practices, our efforts, what we can do and what we're trying to do. And by doing so, they encourage continuation of the practice, which of course breeds more learning.
Apparently this woman hasn't learned that yet.
At our Anonymous Shala, if you go to led primary, you do all of primary as much as you can. They don't tap you out.
LOL, it's true that he forgets people's names, didn't Rolf say so in the Guru documentary? I wouldn't know, since I've always been "tomorrow you come" for all of them :-D
Hi LIA
Do continue on your commentaries about nameless shala. You do it with humor and kindness. How else is the truth going to be known? That teacher may be going thru a first fervor. She sounds very inmature or inexperienced as a teacher. I'm not sure if they are telling her in Mysore that it's the way the led classes should be held. It sounds more like she thinks she should immitate the Family. One usually would not complain about being stopped by them at at certain asana. One of the shalas I go to, the authorized teacher does a led class once a month. People are asked to stop where they normally stop in their daily practice. I haven't seen any led classes here of half primary and half second; maybe this is new, although it's part of David William's repertoire in his workshops. If a way of teaching is not sustainable (as in students won't show up) I think a teacher will neet to become flexible or simply teach an empty room. Cheers,
Arturo
Hi Arturo!
What agitates me is that I was expecting one thing and ended up with something completely different regarding the Saturday class. I'm not good with change or surprises, I guess. Anna is correct, at Anonymous Shala you do the whole thing the best you can.
He asked meif I could feel what he just done and I said yes. When he told meto kiss him, I kissed his lips hungrily.
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He asked meif I could feel what he just done and I said yes. When he told meto kiss him, I kissed his lips hungrily.
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