My Methodology is Yoga

One who shirks action does not attain freedom; no
one can gain perfection by abstaining from work. 
Indeed, there is no one who rests for even an instant;
all creatures are driven to action by their own nature.

Those who abstain from action while allowing 
the mind to dwell on sensual pleasure cannot
be called sincere spiritual aspirants. But they
excel who control their senses through the
mind, using them for selfless service.  

Fulfil your duties; action is better than inaction.
Even to maintain your body, Arjuna, you are obliged
to act.  Selfish action imprisons the world.  Act
selflessly, without thought of personal profit.  

- Bhagavad Gita 


Last week I decided to offer an arm balancing and inversion workshop.  It was prompted by a couple of things - the first being that a friend I was in teacher training with asked if I could offer such a workshop, and the other was my desire to give people the tools to create a stronger yoga practice.   After all, the foundation of the arm balance practice is repeated in many postures, and happens to be one of the foundations for a safe & strong vinyasa practice as well.

Yesterday, I was asked what methodology I use to teach arm balancing - and was it effective, could I personally hold a 30-60 second handstand? 

What is my methodology?  This is something I've never really considered as part of my teaching practice.  Of course, we have a physical based methodology, we teach alignment and we have based our teachings on the study of anatomy, physiology and the less tangible subtle body.  There is process, there is the setting of foundation, and the gradual (albeit non linear) progression in skill.

My immediate response was that my methodology was yoga.  Union. 

From the outside, and often from the inside as well, yoga can seem like another form of fitness.  Just another way to exercise the body - to move the body - to feel good.  Maybe it's just stretching to some.  And, of course, yoga is a great way to exercise.  But, it's more.  We know this.

Yoga is about creating a relationship.  A relationship with your body, with yourself, with God (pure energy, truth, ultimate reality, stillness).   Many reasons initially bring the yoga student to the mat for the first time, but it doesn't take long to realize that there is much more going on during practice than just exercise.   When we begin to open up to communicating with our breath, our bodies, and our hearts - we begin to open up to life.  To being human.  We recognize the role of the ego, the role of humility, the role of practice as we move toward finding stillness.

"yoga citta vritti nirodahah"

-Patanjoli 

(yoga is the cessation of the whirls of conciousness)

As we approach an arm balancing practice, we recognize there is work to be done.  We have to learn to distribute weight into new places, we need to learn to create a new relationship with gravity, we have to become intimate with the very subtle sense of breath and being.  We need to be fully present.   If we approach the arm balance practice without the more subtle approach of yoga, we begin to seek only the results of the practice.  The practice becomes about an attachment to success.  We strive only to achieve the fruits of our labour.  We start jumping our feet up trying to find bakasana, or we fling ourselves wishfully into handstands.   We see the external shape and try to recreate it.  But, we all know that the external shape is found when we begin to understand the internal processes required to create that shape.     

In the above excerpt from the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is explaining the practice of Karma Yoga, or selfless service.   Krishna recognizes that the human being, by it's nature, acts.  We are living creatures, and that our nature alone presumes that we must be active.  Krishna describes how it is through action we obtain freedom, through action we can follow our path (our dharma).  But, he cautions that the action must be selfless - that we cannot work simply for the fruits of our labour, or for the sense pleasure of achievement or success.   

This is the methodology of yoga.  

"Practice and all is coming" - Pattabhi Jois 

When we come to the arm balance practice.  We know that achievement does not mean that we've become a better person.   There is no great mystery to be uncovered when your legs fly up in koundinyasana.  We celebrate what we see as success.  We post photos on Instagram and Facebook, hashtagged, #progress.  We reap the reward of our practice and we fully embrace the joy of the moment.   But, we know that the yoga was about more than the success - the yoga was about the process, it was about the work, the practice, the openness and the willingness to create a relationship with ourselves through dedication to practice every single day.   

We know that the progress is non linear, that we might have days, weeks, months or years that set us back.  That we may be injured, or ill or that our physical form might not find what we would call success in postures we are working to achieve.   The yoga is what allows us to see that despite what happens with the physical form, we may still be progressing or growing as a practitioner internally.  That progress cannot always be measured by what is happening externally.   The yoga is what allows us to be still despite the myriad of curve balls life can throw at us.   The yoga is what allows us to fully feel happiness, joy, pain, sorrow, anger.  The yoga allows us to be in the moment that is directly in front of us - whatever that moment holds - knowing that the next moment may bring something entirely different.  We learn to detach from the expectations we hold for each moment, and instead we embrace them fully as they arise.     

My methodology is yoga.   I wouldn't have it any other way.