Arranging The Structure: Raya Uma Datta - Bahiranga Sadhana Workshop - Day 2

How do we begin? What is the balance of force?

Day 2 of Raya's workshop, Arranging The Structure, began by confirming our understanding of the previous day. As my glimpses here in no way attempt to articulate Raya's lessons entirely, his emphasis demonstrates the importance of clarification. I will do my best to do that. Iyengar Yoga uses asana as the point of entry into the Astanga or 8-limbed path of yoga outlined by the Sage Patañjali in 196 sutra's or threads. The sutra after 11:30 outlining the five Yama or universal precepts:

Sutra 11.31 jāti-deśa-kāla-samaya-anavacchinnāḥ sārvabhaumā-mahāvratam

BKS Iyengar transcribed in Light on the Sutras of Patanjali as “Yamas are the great, mighty, universal vows, unconditioned by place, time, and class.” He explains his reasoning for stressing their universality regardless of region, culture, or origin by saying: “They form the framework of rules on which society is based,” (LOYSP, p136). The five Yama or self-restraints are Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacarya (continence), and Aparigraha (non-greed). It is my understanding that Iyengar Yoga begins with asana because there is a universality to the human body for most part so it is a place we can all unite to begin to learn the art, science, and philosophy of yoga. Through asana we can better understand why the precepts are so meaningful. While the five Yama aid in the proper functioning of society, coupled with the five personal precepts or Niyama: Sauca (cleanliness) Santosa (contentment) Tapah (burning desire) svadhyaya (self study) Isvara prandnidhanani (surrender to God) they can also help arrange the structure of our body, mind, and breath in any given asana.

Raya asked where do we begin arrangingVirasana, heroes pose? The most obvious is the hips: hip to knees and hips to trunk. What is the condition of our starting asana? Is it to prepare for Paryankasana, couch or Bhekasana, frog as is the order in Light on Yoga? This virasana is to prepare for the Invocation. Therefore, while the arrangement of the structure stayed the same, the “force” and concentration were very different. Raya suggested support to keep the lower back engaged, which intelligized the spine and had a domino effect on the frontal body, chest, groins, hips. It also softened any mental and physical force to aid our moving inward to a place of calm and receptivity. He asked us to draw the eyes inward —recognizing the increased screen time and eye fatigue that results. He spent time here to relax and release then asked us to release any grips, such as in the big toe. He conditioned our inner awareness and alertness of the body. Are we being aggressive, assertive or affirmative. What is needed?

It is with this kind of acute awareness and attention, Iyengar Yoga asks us to bring to our asana practice. The Yama and Niyama can help us balance the opposite forces of doing and not doing to suit the condition of the asana. Keeping in mind the condition can be situational, mental, physical, or emotional.

Raya pointed out how Guruji identified when the front leg and the back leg are doing different things such as Parsvottanasana, intense side stretch, the starting points change for each leg. Raya asked us to connect the length from the right ankle to the right shoulder and then the left. Imagining arrows drawn to each set, he wanted us to notice how the starting point of each arrow and the length of the arrows are different.

Raya brought up the idea of the domino effect and how when the balance of force is not appropriate to the given condition of the structure how it affects everything else. He emphasized why learning all of the ways to arrange the structure of any given asana is all the more integral to our evolution as practitioners. Uncovering the wisdom that Uttanasana, intense forward bend can provide to Pashimottanasana, intense stretch of the western side of the body and Ubaya Padangustasana, seated holding both big toes, as well as Urdhva Mukha Paschimottanasana, upward facing intense stretch of western body —and how each of these poses can inform each other is what it is to be an Iyengar practitioner. He brought our attention to why BKS Iyengar provided different arm positions in Paschimottanasana and encouraged us to experience how it improves our understanding of the pose — noticing how they inform specific parts of the body with information we can apply to other asana.

Raya recognized that teachers must instruct in a specific krama or order, but teachers are also students. He said one of his favorite quotes from Mr. Iyengar:

Discipline comes from within ~ BKS Iyengar

As students, we must rigorously explore all Iyengar Yoga offers us. It is up to us to discover, uncover, and most of all practice, so we can embody why BKS Iyengar arranged the structure Light on Yoga the way he did.

Thank you once again, Raya for sharing your insights, Iyengar Yoga of Greater New York for hosting, my mentor, Kquvien DeWeese, and The Iyengar Family for making it all possible. I look forward to tomorrow.

Namaste

Arranging The Structure: Raya Uma Datta - Bahiranga Sadhana Workshop - Day 1

Look at your body like you are looking at a map. Where are you going?

Raya Uma Datta offers a unique perspective with his incredible perception into Iyengar Yoga, having begun his training at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) at the young age of 10 years old. What a gift to be able to learn the vast subject of Iyengar Yoga from the source at such a formative age.

Raya continued his Iyengar Yoga quest and by age 20 began teaching at RIMYI. After demonstrating for BKS Iyengar’s 80th Birthday, he formally became BKS Iyengar’s student. He traveled to Russia and China with Guruji (a name given to BKS Iyengar, meaning one who brings light). He later accompanied Guruji’s daughter, Dr. Geeta Iyengar, for an Australian and South African Convention. Since 2002, he has taught general classes at RIMYI.

Having had the opportunity to study with Raya at RIMYI, I know him to be a well-respected and dynamic teacher. He instructs from the heart and is dedicated to understanding and sharing the wealth of knowledge BKS Iyengar and the Iyengar Family have offered us. Below is a glimpse into the workshop’s first day from my level of understanding.

The workshop, hosted by Iyengar Yoga of Greater New York is titled, Bahiranga Sadhana which Guruji describes in Light on Yoga (p.21) as an external quest. Raya explained the external quest includes the ten moral/personal disciplines of Yama and Niyama and the physical disciplines of Asana and Pranayama. Raya added that it’s important to understand that asana is the quintessential medium that Iyengar Yoga works with and from to explore the 8-limbed path of the Astanga Yoga of Patañjali.  Iyengar Yoga explores asana using the ten precepts which are prescribed in Sutras 11.30-11.34 (conversely, you could say, the precepts can be explored through asana). The precepts are further described in subsequent Sutras that all have the definitive Sanskrit word Pratisthayam associated with it. While the word is transcribed to mean “firmly established”, Raya alluded to subtle meanings that enrich its place in these descriptions. The precepts have a “do” and “not do” rhythm to them, which we learn to apply to our efforts in asana until we are more grounded in them and they become part of our practice.

On the grosser level, there is structure and arrangement to asana. There is also a particular way to describe asana. The Sutras of Patañjali offer a definitive description that BKS Iyengar transcribes in his book, Light on the Sutras of Patanjali: “Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence and benevolence of spirit.”

11:46 Sthira sukham asana

Raya sited other Sutras to demonstrate the many descriptions, prescriptions, and characteristics that describe asana. He used a map as metaphor with its True North and then explained the broad lattitudes of what is still considered north to the east and west of that until it shifts into something else like northeast or northwest.

“When one moves from the grossest to the subtlest neither the beginning is seen nor the end.” ~ BKS Iyengar

Raya quoted Guruji and guided us to explore the concept of structure by devising a map of our body through a masterful arrangement of asana. Where do we begin an asana? Words communicate and guide us, he continued, but it is imperative to know what actions those words initiate. Rotating the foot versus rotating from the hip create different experiences. He used the idiom "crack the code" to encourage our quest to understand our asana's arrangement and structure. He challenged us to be ever-present to study and explore limb by limb, inch by inch, word by word, sinew by sinew, breath by breath, standing, seated, inverted and prone, beginning to end, end to beginning from the grossest to subtlest, and the infinite degrees between them both.

Thank you, Raya for sharing your insights, Iyengar Yoga of Greater New York for hosting, my mentor, Kquvien DeWeese, and The Iyengar Family for making it all possible. I look forward to tomorrow.

Namaste

New Years Resolution: UN-do Your Idea of a Disciplined Yoga Practice

Most of my readers come from cultures where discipline is revered yet feared. If you look up the word in the dictionary, it’s no surprise why:

dis·ci·pline/ˈdisəplən/ Training people to obey. Punishing those who disobey.

People with discipline are looked at in awe, ‘What willpower you have.’ However, those with discipline have an intimate relationship with the dangers of it. You read right. Look at the Olympic gymnasts and swimmers like Michael Phelps.

I can’t compare myself to them. I can say I have trained in techniques that celebrate discipline with almost dictatorial vigor at a very young age. I became a master at taking what felt like blows and daggers of correction and criticism from myself and o†hers without ever noticing the scars, until they surfaced and threatened to destroy me.

I read in one of BKS Iyengar’s books (I want to say it was the Tree of Life, bu† I’ve yet to locate it again) that his guru Krishnamacharya used a phrase like: ‘Let the yoga do the yoga’. That phrase coupled with ‘faith’ so eloquently explained in Patricia Walden’s infamous Taking the Next Step: Faith and the Yoga Vitamins blog are what I’d like to see shape the yoga of 2019.

Over the course of a hiatus from studio life, I worked to UN-do my idea of discipline. My mentor, Kquvien DeWeese, supported my efforts by being there for me and meeting me where I was without judgment. She helped me learn to stop judging myself. She told me there are all kinds of yoga. It doesn’t have to be a class.

Do yoga. Whatever way works for you. Start with a single pose - a pose that gives you joy. Become the pose. Let the pose become you, and you will be doing more yoga than you imagine. Have faith that whatever small part of yoga you bring into your life will take hold and light the way forward.

~Namaste