Cultural Musings

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE COMMENTS JERI AND JEN (AND DAD), Glad that the reflections of clothes and coffee are compelling reads and Dad, tell mom we have many photos of FC road, though unfortunately we did not capture the goats on film.

Randy, Vashali was really great. Definitely helped us overcome the okra experience from tuesday's lunch... We had these potato doshas and a giant onion hashbrown like cake thin. Doshas, for those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure, are like giant thin slightly chewy pancakes, and then folded up on one side there was some yummy spiced potato mixture (I think you can get other things in them) and it was served with two sauces on the side, which I, like Sally in When Harry met Sally am a huge fan of, sauce on the side...

A line of thinking I would add to Christina's reflections on Prashant's class has to do with "culture." Prashant talked a lot about the culture of the pose. Prashant himself likes to play with words and I've been playing a good bit with all the ways that we use the word culture. Perhaps due to having a scientific father and working in a science lab at Burroughs Welcome one summer, one of the first uses that comes to mind is cultures that grow in a petri dish. in isolated conditions, certain things grow well. So one might think of how we grow the practice of yoga through setting aside or isolating. For instance, I have a yoga room. I set aside time to practice, sometimes i even remember to turn off the phone. then there is the idea of acculturation, getting used to something, like getting used to the culture of Pune and the skills that requires and learning the culture the ways of the RIMYI institute... of course, there are obvious uses of culture, like "American culture." often in that context, we can be idealize what is great about it, "Clean public restrooms, Starbucks on every corner," or what's bad about it, "commericialization of the spiritual, Starbucks on every corner." then of course there's high culture, opera, art museums and the like, and popular culture, movies, ipods, blogs.... but what does it mean to have a cultured mind or to be a cultured person or to allow oneself to be cultured by the practice of yoga.

Aristotle defines human beings, [actual he says men, but I will update him for him as I am convinced he would do for himself if he were around today.....] as the political animal, because they have the capacity for speech. I think this is important with respect to what it means to be a cultured person both because of the social/ communal/political definition and because he does acknowledge that at base humans are animals and the actiivity of culturing the human is an activity of privilege. It is how we become all that we can be... the sort of animal who appreciates beauty in the world and the creation of beauty, the sort of animal who can speak and communicate with others and care about the way in which that communication takes place, the sort of animal who has the luxury of time and resources to cultivate ethical and spiritual practices....and yoga is just such a practice. when we allow the practice of yoga to culture us, we are transformed, we become more human and in that process of becoming human, Pantajali says we become aware of our inner splendor. That inner splendor is an awareness of our divine nature and our association with the divine/God.

Aristotle actually saw the practice of philosophy itself, the contemplative life as the means by which humans become divine, in so far as is possible for that human animal (and it thought humans could go quite far along that path).

Some more thoughts on Sunita's class. It was just super fun. She has a really bright and shiny, playful personality. She also has those keen observation skills and a high level of ability to motivate you toward doing. we did a lot of forward bends and twists while working with motion, reaching and stretching the arms (and of course the mind) beyond the feet, around the back over the head. Often, in Iyengar Yoga there are a lot of long holds (like janu sirsanas in Prashant's class) well the next morning same pose, but in and out in and out. it was an extremely energizing practice and a way of getting out of mental ruts. Forward bends can be quite stimulating....not just peaceful and restful.... B.K.S. himself also added some helpful comments about how to twist from the side of the room and the class just felt like a deeply communal endeavor all in all.

one of the really liberating things about being here is seeing beyond the sometimes very rule based way Iyengar yoga gets taught. shoes off, mats straight, blankets folded, fringes alternating, all the alignment instructions, don't do sirsasana more than once, always demo, always repeat poses. It is not like the rules are out the window here, but it is so clear that the rules are a means to an end and not the end of doing and not the end in and of themselves, (though it is hard not to get wrapped up in that in the grips of assessment frenzy. What is the most consistent theme throughout I would say is the process of learning. how do we get the mind to learn and keep learning... to be as Sunita said in class, firm yet flexible... flexible yet firm.

There is a great B.K.S quote on the wall of the Dallas studio that goes something like, the flexibility we gain in asana is a tangible symbol of the flexibility that we gain to face life's challenges." which I've always thought of in terms of physical flexibility but here I really see the mental flexibility as the deeper meaning of that quote.

well, that's it for now.