Tag: yoga

getting back to yoga

by L. Valdez Karl


(Dr. NC @ KYM, The Power of Yoga, March 2006)

I guess maybe it’s about time that I start writing about yoga again. but then again, maybe not, as I’m beginning to think that my yoga thoughts are too radical to be accepted calmly by some people. I told my students this morning that I’ve always felt like an outsider and now, returning a third time from my yoga life in India, I feel even more radical.

Every time I go to KYM to study, it always brings home to me how much I dislike about the state of yoga in the west. Maybe “dislike” is too strong a word — I will rephrase: how certain things about the state of yoga in the west bug me. Now before anyone jumps down my throat, I am not saying that one is better than the other, i.e., east v. west. I’m saying that to me there are marked differences between the two and I know which one resonates with me in a much more profound way.

KYM is known for yoga therapy or what was formerly called viniyoga. Desikachar no longer refers to his father’s style as viniyoga. We each met with a yoga therapist and received a consultation for whatever ailed us, physically, mentally, or emotionally, then an appropriate yoga therapy practice was prescribed for us. That practice became our private asana class with a therapist, and we took the daily classes in pranayama, meditation, and the Yoga Sutra-s together.

I came to India with a painful back problem that I’ve had for about three months. My ego was telling me I’m a loser because of course as a teacher I’m not supposed to have any physical problems because I do so much yoga…right? One day in October I woke with severe muscular pain on the right side of my lower spine and I had done nothing to my back like pick something up the wrong way or get up from a chair the wrong way, and it certainly did not happen doing yoga. I just woke up one day in severe pain. The pain would go away during the day as I moved around and I was still able to teach, but it served as a reminder of one of Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Mindfulness of the Body, and that no one escapes sickness, old age, and death.

My consultant at KYM was Dr. NC (we call him Dr. NC because he has a last name with about 26 letters) who taught the yoga therapy classes in the intensives I took in 2005 and 2006. I explained my problem and my pain and he had me do some asanas and examined my spine. He asked me to squat and asked if I noticed anything. At first I said no, then he told me to repeat the squats and to pay attention. I noticed that my left side felt like it weighed a ton and my right side was very light. I told him this and he said yes, that I favor my left side to the detriment of my right. He said my spine had curved to the right and that the right side of my pelvis is higher than my left.

I was horrified. How could this happen, I asked, I’M A YOGA TEACHER! (as if we are supposed to be invincible.) Dr. NC said that walking a certain way, sitting a certain way, standing a certain way with a hip hiked up and out, constantly carrying a bag on my left shoulder, all of this contributed to a spine curvature after 50 years. It just happens, he said, it’s just the way it is.

So after he said that it’s wonderful I am so flexible and in such great shape for an old broad — OK, he did not say “old broad” but he was amazed at my uttanasana — he wrote a yoga therapy program for my back that is simply amazing and wondrous. He said if I did the practice every day for 3 months my spine should be back into alignment.

I did the practice for 5 days with Usha, one of the KYM yoga therapists. She was also wonderful, adding a little something every day to the asana mix, so I came home with five different yoga therapy sessions. I did the practice every day in India until I got food poisoning and I have not done it for two weeks now, but I started again from square one yesterday and I will build it up again.

It is an amazing practice because I can literally feel the change in my spine and pelvis when I sit in sukhasana. At the beginning of the practice my right sit bone is off the floor. At the end of the practice both sit bones are firmly grounded and I have no pain for the rest of the day. Before I started doing this practice, I would wake up at night in excrutiating pain when I turned from my right side to my left side and now that no longer happens.

So what does this have to do with yoga east v. west?

TO BE CONTINUED…

on the road again

by L. Valdez Karl

adios, y’all.

this is my last post for 2007. no blogging for almost a month. the new year will dawn for me in chennai, india.

I started this blog in 2005 before my first trip to India. I had been around the sun over 50 times and had never been overseas in my life. I went to India alone, not knowing what to expect but having an open mind to everything. I wanted to chronicle my yoga studies and my travels but as it turned out, it took a long time for my india experiences to marinate me. I returned to india only 6 months later for another training and more travels.

so now this is my third trip for more yoga and more travels to different cities, even to another sea. now people think I’m the well-seasoned india traveler and they tell me they want to go to india with me. a former yoga student of mine and his girlfriend are meeting me there and neither one have ever been to india. frankly, I’m not so sure how the girlfriend is going to handle india, but they both know that I won’t hold anyone’s hand and baby them. I told them that they needed to be independent travelers and go with the flow.

no one babied me in 2005, but that’s the way it’s been most of my life anyway. So far I’ve stood up to what life has thrown at me on my own strengths, so a 17 hour train ride through the Indian countryside doesn’t phase me too much. I like the people I will be with, but I can’t wait to be alone and traveling. as jerry jeff walker sings, fast freights make me wonder and that full moon still drives me wild.

they say that once you’ve been to india you are never the same. india either hardens your heart or opens you up completely. either way, you never look at life, especially your own life, the same way again once you get back. people always ask me about the culture shock of india…my culture shock is when I come back to the US of A.

I know I will have the same experience as I did last year – as I laid in bed tossing and turning in the very early morning when I arrived, I realized what india means to me. it is yin and yang, the Tao, and as I thought about Ma India, I literally felt both halves melting into One, the One that makes me whole.

jai bhagwan

how to accomplish pincha mayurasana – not

by L. Valdez Karl

look familiar?

c’mon, you know y’all are thinking that, too….

"yoga is life"

by L. Valdez Karl

Being inspired by the yoga social network WoYoPracMo (World Yoga Practice Month) that Yogamum created, I created a yoga social network called “Yoga is Life.” I whipped up the website on the spur of the moment.

The Krishnamacharya quote “breath is central to Yoga because it is central to life. . .and Yoga is about Life.” has always resonated with me. As one of my yoga pals recently wrote in an email “yoga is not just yoga, it’s life. It’s not a class you attend, it’s inside of you all the time.” Isn’t that beautiful? So true.

So I decided to try to start a little global community of yogins who feel the same way. Read below for what the site is all about:

http://static.ning.com/yogaislife/widgets/index/swf/badge.swf?v=2.2%3A2447
Visit Yoga is Life

“Let this site be for anyone who believes that yoga is much more than what we do on the mat. It’s for those who are weary of yoga snobbery and brand name yoga. It’s for yoga lovers who are serious about yoga but who don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s for those who believe that an open mind rather than an open body is what will further their practice and lead to their personal transformation. It’s for yoga teachers and yoga students and all those in between who try to live their yoga to the best of their ability — and if any of us stumble along the way, all of us are here to pick each other up.

Feel free to start a discussion, start a blog, or start a rant. Feel free to laugh or cry. Add a song, add a video, or add your favorite yoga or spiritual quote.

Above all, live mindfully and be here now.

peace
shanti
salaam aleikum
so shall it be”

I sent invitations to people in my address book to start off with. The ever riotous Yoga Dawg is a member calling Yoga is Life the “Hip New Yoga Network” (thanks, Y Dawg!) Some of my own students are members. It’s a group of yoga teachers and yoga students, both seasoned and newbie.

One thing I have learned this past year in the blogosphere is that people you don’t know and probably will never meet embrace you without any agenda, and that the global yoga community is sometimes much more supportive than the one in your own backyard. I found that out with the drama I went through with my former studio.

So if Yoga is Life sounds like something you want to be a part of, please become a member. I’ll be in India during January, so y’all will have to keep the global party going.

ditto

by L. Valdez Karl

“i am so very happy to be a student instead of a teacher for a few weeks. cause teachers need love, too. often my students don’t understand this & don’t want me to go away. but we are no different from them. we are all students who need guidance. and i can’t give if i don’t receive. a teacher who does not continue to study & practice is nothing but an empty vessel with nothing to offer.

and no one wants that.”

[emphasis added]

another pithy bindi comment from from her blog bindifry’s itty bitty brain basket. I emailed her to tell her that I’m lovin’ what she’s writin’ because she’s sayin’ what I’m thinkin’….

The Buddha pictured above is the Medicine Buddha. Read more here:

“Medicine Buddha’s blue sky-colored holy body signifies omniscient wisdom and compassion as vast as limitless space and is particularly associated with healing both mental and physical suffering. Making a connection with him, practicing meditation, reciting his mantra or even just saying his name helps us achieve our potential for ultimate healing.

The historical Shakyamuni Buddha provided teachings on healing and systems of medicine which were collected into four volumes called “The Four Medicine Tantras”. These teachings became the basis for the system of medicine practiced in Tibet and other Buddhist lands. They are characterized by a belief that all disease is essentially rooted in a psychosomatic cause, namely, spiritual confusion…”

I am using my trip to India as a healing mission. I have private classes set up at the yoga school where I will get a private consultation regarding my health, physical and otherwise, and a yoga/pranayama/meditation practice will be prescribed. I will then do my private asana class every day with a senior teacher of TKV Desikachar along with pranayama and meditation classes and a Sutras class.

There is nothing seriously wrong with me, at least that I am aware of. A medical procedure I was to have today has been rescheduled. but all this year I have felt “off” and ungrounded no matter how much yoga I did or how much I meditated. I have only myself to blame because I went off my thyroid meds early this year which wreaked havoc on my body. let this be a lesson for y’all: don’t mess around with your thyroid!

But in my bones I know it is more than that. being in a state of energetic dis-ease all year took its toll, and then the coup de grace of the dysfunctional yoga studio was the finishing blow on my subtle body, my sukshma sarira. I know that the rage I felt about what happened, while no longer consciously apparent, settled into my subtle body which then manifested physically into conditions relating to the first, second, and third chakras.

So I’m going to India to heal myself. India is always psychically healing to me but it is my hope that it will especially be so this time. like bindi’s experience, my students also are never thrilled when I’m gone for a month, but it’s the way it has to be. India feeds me and nourishes me and without it I am just that empty vessel that bindi wrote about. This is only my third trip, but each time I am there I feel like I have always been there.

My students know how I feel about India and they always ask me if I am coming back “this time.” Last night a student said that if I don’t come back he’s going to come looking for me which I thought was sweet and funny.

I told my students last night that this time I am not bringing anything back. I usually return home with a large suitcase filled with gifts and items to sell like shawls and silk scarves, jewelery, and cool Indian “yoga stuff.” this time I will be selfish — no lengthy travelogue emails home describing every street cow I see or every bit of yogic insight gained. and absolutely no blogging about my adventures. I’ll be in-country and off the grid. So to my friends who read this blog, sorry, but don’t expect to hear from me for an entire month.

It’s time for me to lose myself in the arms of Ma India. and whatever happens, happens.

it’s time for this vessel to be filled.

yoga every day?

by L. Valdez Karl

World Yoga Practice Month — January 2008

can you do yoga every day in the month of January?

sure you can! and blog about it! read more about it at Yoga Gumbo.

I’ll be off to a good start on January 1 because that’s when my classes start in India at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. I’ll just have to make a commitment to stick to my practice while I’m traveling the temple trail through Tamil Nadu on my way to Kerala.

jai bhagwan!

if you can’t stand the heat…

by L. Valdez Karl

…get out of that yoga studio — or at least ask the teacher to turn it down.

I’ve been reading bindifry’s itty bitty brain basket blog for a while now. bindi is an astanga teacher in chicago. proving once again that it’s a small world, I already “know” bindi from the yoga studio where I trained although we have never met. such is life in the blogosphere!

bindi is in india right now so I emailed her and told her how I loved her post about cranking up the heat during yoga because I totally agree with her. bindi gave me permission to quote her blog:

“for all of you who like to turn up the heat in the yoga room to 80, hear me out. not everyone can tolerate that kind of heat. us pitta/vata people have a tendency to overheat. and that is not good for us. the yoga room seems to be a constant battle of heat/cold depending on the dosha make up of the individual. sharath talked about this last year when i studied with him in australia. he said there should always be windows open, ventilation at all times. and it is dangerous to have sweat dripping off your body because that means the body is unable to cool itself anymore. too many salutations is not good when you are this heated, and you should do less. and you should do more when you are very cold. when i practice yoga, i do not even turn the heat on. because it’s actually dangerous for me to over heat. there aren’t any totally closed rooms in india, so this western idea of a sauna room with steam on the windows & puddles of sweat is just that-a “western” ideal of yoga. we want the heat to “do” the yoga for us, instead of us making that heat ourselves by working hard. the room should not be heated above 69 degrees. the last thing you want to do is ingest other people’s toxins. someone like me has a real reason for needing to practice very early in the morning. especially in south india. and this is the reason. i lack kapha in my bodily make up. i like to make my own heat. too much makes me overheat. sick, even. and i turn very red & am unable to cool down for a long time. i lose my appetite, and get heat stroke.

i am reading an interesting astanga book right now called, “ashtanga yoga practice & philosophy,” by an australian named gregor maehle. he talks about this phenomenon. …here’s some paraphrased words from the book regarding heat:

‘care needs to be taken not to overheat. overheating is not good. sweating too much drains the life force from the body. 68 degrees is ideal for practice. heating the yoga room above 77 degrees produces flexibility, but decreases strength, stamina & concentration.’ he goes on to discuss how overly flexible people are lacking strength, a result of biochemical imbalance. and too much strength without flexibility restricts the range of joint movement.’ ‘a cold room increases awareness and attention to detail & pays off in terms of benefits. there is more learning if the temperature is low & the body becomes sturdier due to the awakening of physical intelligence.’

so please consider others in the room when you enter the yoga shala & take it upon yourself to turn the heat up to 80 degrees. if you are that cold, you need to do more salutations, move faster, and do not stop moving. sensitivity to others is supreme. and think about that when you close a window, too. because some of us are losing our life force.”

(italics emphasis added)

the yogis reading this know the yoga styles where it is customary to turn up the heat. I have done both styles and frankly I think it’s a gimmick. I think it’s a gimmick to cater to the western mindset of “it ain’t a workout unless I sweat.” I know that people who do Bikram yoga claim that they are more flexible after a class. well, yes, because it’s the heat that’s doing it, not the yoga. it’s a false sense of flexibility.

flexibility has everything to do with the connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, and fascia of the body), not the muscles. and the connective tissue must be therapeutically stressed (i.e., held) for a minimum of three to five minutes in poses like cobbler’s pose or pigeon or low lunges or hero, to name a few. that’s yin yoga. connective tissue must be worked every day, consistently, in order to achieve true flexibility. anything less, and connective tissue will literally shrinkwrap your joints. you don’t need heat to achieve the flexibility that working your connective tissue in this manner will give you.

In a vinyasa class we can create heat by holding the pose longer and watching the breath or by engaging in kumbhaka after the inhalation. But many yoga students can’t be still for that long. You don’t have to do “power yoga” or move fast to create heat. I sweat a lot anyway and I’m dripping with sweat if I practice in an unairconditioned studio during a hot midwestern summer. The sweat rolls down my face so I don’t need the heat cranked up.

bindi is right on when she talks about heat not being good for certain doshas. teaching pranayama indiscriminately in a group class without knowing the students’ doshas is also not wise. for example, kapalabhati breathing aggravates vata, and if the student is vata/pitta, and does kapalabhati breathing in a room that is heated to over 80 degrees…you get the idea.

is yoga about soothing and harmonizing the mind/body complex or is it about further aggravating an already stressed and aggravated body?

during my first training in India the class was predominately western yoga teachers. the asana class was the first class of the day, from 7 to 8 am, before the heat of the day, in an open-air room. all the classes were taught by Desikachar’s senior teachers.

one day a teacher was speaking about certain asanas and one of the American teachers asked, “but will it create heat?” The Indian teacher looked confused. “heat?” “yes, heat. like in the core.” the teacher still looked confused. “why do you want to create ‘heat’?,” she asked. now the American yoga teacher looked confused. she did not know how to answer that and remained silent.

the Indian teacher laughed. “South India is already hot. we do not want to create more heat! we do not understand this idea of ‘creating heat’ in your yoga classes.”

indeed.

thanks, bindi!

feel good friday

by L. Valdez Karl

You can read a larger version here. And thanks to the Y Dawg for posting it so I can liberate it!

hey, you can’t make this stuff up!

happy friday, y’all…enjoy…..

peace

yoga from hell

by L. Valdez Karl

more from the “yoga is evil” battle front thanks to a link on souljerky…

Vicars are Right to be Afraid of Sweaty and Sensual Yoga

“Children’s yoga classes have been banned from two church halls in Somerset, by vicars who regard the practice as “un-Christian”. ‘Yoga impinges on the spiritual life of people in a way which we as Christians don’t believe is the same as our ethos,’ said the Rev Simon Farrar.

I’m a yoga devotee, but I can understand Mr Farrar’s position. If he wants the kiddies of Somerset to grow into passive, faithful churchgoers, he’s right to keep them away from the ancient Hindu art of self-realisation….

…In Hindu mythology, yoga was developed by Shiva, the maverick, dreadlocked god of destruction and regeneration. He renounced the world and sat atop mount Kailash, manipulating his body in 8,400,000 postures, to reveal the basic animal instincts and desires that motivate us. Shiva was an outsider who refused to fit into mainstream society, cultivating his innate individuality instead, and yoga became the practice of rebels and nonconformists throughout Indian history.”

I love the comment about the early yogis being the nonconformists of Hindu society because if you read my post about my California training, Stephen Cope emphasized that the renouncers of the Hindu rituals, the sramanas, starting from the 8th Century BC to the 2nd century CE, used their own bodies and minds as laboratories for the direct experience of yoga and for the research on the nondualism of body and mind.

The actions of the sramanas were similar to that of Martin Luther when he told the Catholic Church, in essence, “I don’t need a priest to be the intermediary between me and the Divine.” In the same way the sramanas told the Brahmin priests “we don’t need your fire rituals and sacrifices to know the Divine.” Iconoclasts and rebels, I love it. By the way, I’m a very lapsed Lutheran. and always the rebel.

The author of the Guardian article finally asks, “Who knows what dangerous urges the Rev Farrar has repressed with his Anglican dogma, which might gush forth with a mere sun-salutation? Perhaps it’s not yoga that scares him, but what it might release within himself.”

What indeed makes someone so fearful of the unknown and the unfamiliar, whether it is within us or out there? Once I gave a cloth painting of Durga to the owner of the yoga studio where I used to teach because she said she wanted something that expressed “strong feminine energy.” She returned it to me within a week because she said that two students complained about it — two out of over 100 students that attended the studio every week. They told the owner they were “Christian” and the painting of Ma Durga made them “uncomfortable” because it was “Hindu.” sigh…it’s always the few….

No one tied them up, taped their eyes open, and made them stare at Durga the same way Malcolm McDowell was forced to watch graphic violence in A Clockwork Orange. I have never been to a yoga studio where anyone was forced to chant those evil MAN-tras to Vishnu and Krishna, those MAN-tras that strike fear in the heart of Pat Robertson. I wouldn’t go to a studio where anyone forced me to do anything. Apologies to any kundalini yogis out there, but I never went back to a kundalini yoga class because I was told I HAD to wear a white scarf. uh….no thanks.

I have my own opinion about what the owner should have done, but the fact that these women were so fearful of something that was not in their realm of experience gives me pause. Hmmmmm…how would it go over if I walked into a church (my own choice, forced by no one) and told the minister or priest that as a Buddhist, looking at Jesus on the cross bugs me and I want it taken down. I would probably be politely told, “get over it. this is a church. this is what we do.”

Be afraid. be very afraid. yoga might make you think.

pray for Pat Robertson

by L. Valdez Karl

you heard it here first from this Buddhist: let’s all pray for Pat Robertson because he needs to get help for his own brand of evil and narrow-mindedness. Pat needs an intervention. I humbly request the help of Shiva, Ma Kali, Buddha, and Tara and all the boddhisattvas to lead this man from his delusions and into the Light.

uh…do you think that’s enough help?

Pat Robertson Not Down With Yoga

According to Robertson, “stretching before exercise” is great, but those evil yogis are going to make you chant mantras to Vishnu and Krishna…and you won’t even know you’re doing it!

Yeah, that Krishna dude, what the hell was HE smoking?….

“Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve…Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then, you will achieve your destiny.” (Krishna, Bhagavad-gita)

Does the thought of Jesus being a self-realized yogi frighten you, Pat? Hmmmmm…Jesus as a bhakti yogi or a karma yogi? ……naaaah….that’s too far out to believe…kind of like that notion of a virgin birth, I guess.

Beware…keep doing yoga and before you know it you’re worshiping a MONKEY GOD!

and then…before your final descent into hellfire and brimstone for all eternity… when you’ve become totally brainwashed by an evil mantra-chanting yoga teacher like me…hey, but I’m only 37% EVIL….

This site is certified 37% EVIL by the Gematriculator

…you’ll smear your body with ashes, wear your hair in dreads, and start smokin’ a few chillems everyday! OM NAMAH SHIVAYA! You’re gonna need those chillems where you’re going, sucker!

Robertson says that all that other stuff about getting into a higher consciousness, merging your spirit with an ever-present God, and that God is everywhere is pantheism and that’s where “YOGA GETS REALLY SPOOKY”!

Yoga is spooky? You know what I think is spooky, Pat? People like you who promote numb groupthink and abhor the Feminine Divine, jai ma! People like you who think we need protection from vile pagans like Buddhists and Muslims. People like you who can only get your message across by pandering to guilt and fear.

hmmmm….pantheism…now what exactly is the definition of pantheism?
(taken from Merriam-Webster):
1. a doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe.
2. the worship of all gods of different creeds, cults, or peoples indifferently; also, toleration of worship of all gods.

what?!? “toleration”? oh my heavens, toleration is exceedingly evil! we really can’t have anything like that because that might mean that we’re really not better than anyone else.

God is everywhere? you mean He’s not an old white dude with a long white beard somewhere up in the sky behind the clouds? I’m crushed.

Think I’ll follow the Dalai Lama’s advice and send Pat Robertson lots of metta, lots of loving-kindness. HHDL says that true compassion is having compassion even for your enemies, even for people who hate you.

I am sure Pat Robertson would tell me that I am going to Hell unless I accept Jesus Christ — just like what the flyers said that were being handed out by the Christians (friends of yours, Pat?) who demonstrated against the Dalai Lama when I saw him this year. According to them, HHDL is going to hell unless he accepts Jesus Christ. I also don’t know right from wrong according to them because Buddhists never talk about an all-powerful God. Yup, that’s a bee line straight to hell if ever I saw one.

Fortunately, Pat, I’m a lot smarter than you — because I don’t believe that everyone who calls themselves Christian are as close-minded and hateful as you.

That’s OK, Pat. Buddha loves ya despite your disgusting ignorance. and you know something? Despite all your holy-rolling, there’s no guarantee you have that one-way ticket to Heaven because karma is karma. You believe in karma, right, Pat? You might use different words for it: the Bible says you reap what you sow. You just might come back as a naked Shiva baba.

Maybe I’ll see you in a Buddhist Hell Realm. I’ll be the one doing yoga.