Ashtanga yoga: Do you teach what you practice? |
| Do you teach what you practice? Posted: 15 May 2020 07:50 PM PDT From David Williams's book "My Search For Yoga", recounting an episode of Guruji's first visit to California, 1975: "... none of these students was learning the Ashtanga practice with me in my daily morning class. Guruji and Manju went to this evening class with us...and watched while I taught...after the students left, I asked Guruji, 'How did you like the class?' He astonished me by replying 'Very good for the teacher!' 'What do you mean?' I asked. 'Well, it is good for you, the teacher. You earn money teaching...you do not have any work to do other than teach. You have lots of of time for your practice and all the other things you want to do.' 'What about the students?' I asked. 'Oh, the students, they will get old before they get well. The practice they are doing is not strong enough to cure them...they see you; you are very healthy and happy. They are not doing the yoga practice that you are doing.' ... After Guruji returned to India, when I taught yoga, I only taught Ashtanga Yoga." Is this not similar to today's Instagram and what not, where people get to see [insert your favorite] display the results of one kind of practice (their personal rigorous daily blistering practice that few people ever get to witness), but then promote quite another, modifications, props, shortcuts, you name it. Or, a variation on this theme, in my previous shala, we had quite a few students who took bone dry practice for themselves in the morning, only to turn around and teach some watered down version in the evening. "They will get old before they get well". Is this fair? [link] [comments] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from ashtanga yoga. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment