Instruction

So in the spirit of economic ennui, I flew to class ready to jam! Maybe people will finally bail themselves out of their cash-obsessed brains and, instead, take the opportunity to be truly introspective about their lives??

It began with an impossibly tough quiz. I felt like I was duped, drowning in a five page long ocean of asana points and counteractions. There's one teaching tenet I think I'm finally understanding in some scope: always instruct two points on the body at once, in order to correct ALL extremes of incorrect alignment. Here's an easy example: in Tadasana (Mountain pose) the student should firm the quadriceps back while releasing the tailbone down. We've been talking about it in class the whole month, but I'm finally "getting it". I hope my quiz score doesn't betray that...

We also began verbal instruction of a pretty simple sequence, Surya Namaskara A (Sun Salutation A). Or, I should say, I thought it would be simple until it was my turn to instruct the three other students in my group. I noticed I had to actually perform the asanas in order to instruct them. I noticed most every group was doing it this way. How is it that we have such a tough time distinguishing action and asana from thought? This could, on it's own, probably be a doctoral thesis. Any takers?

Protest

...Imagine my surprise this past Thursday when I was just working as usual at the City Hall Farmer's Market...a delightfully colorful protest of about 200 people stepped right in the middle of the City Hall lawn to bring light to LA's enormous policing issues on Skid Row.

One woman I talked to told me that she was arrested while working construction on one of Los Angeles many new lofts - simply for being homeless! She had no prior record and two kids.
Incidentally, there hasn't been any new homeless housing built in the area around skid row, estimated to have about 7,000-8,000 homeless residents.

THIS is the kind of cause I'd like to donate yoga to! Somehow?

Also, more official coverage of and info about the protest, here.

Eatin

Last night I broke the fast. I finally found a scale and it said 151 - when I started I think I was between 165-167lbs. Whoa! With that said, I didn't do this for the weight loss, but I always lose weight when I fast. After 36 hours of orange juice and more yummy cane juice (following 15 days of detox elixir), I had a small (but totally decadent) salad. small leaf lettuces, olives, orange tomatoes, red onion, sunflower sprouts...and the dressing...I created this one after trying others.

Fantastic Voyage Raw Vegan Caesar Dressing

1/2 lb raw cashews

3-4 lemons (juiced)

1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt

1 medium clove garlic
2 tbls dulse

12 oz water

Add cashews, lemon, dulse, and garlic to food processor. Blend until stuck to side walls, scrape, then slowly add water. Continue adding water, salt and blend until sufficiently delicious.

I felt a little timid about eating because I didn't want to lose the total euphoria I was feeling in the end...you knew Jesus could handle 40 days... Capturing that feeling in words is tough, I think language can't adequately capture all the transforming neural stuff that was going on. What it was, I don't know. I! will! fast! again!

My asana practice has been compromised, because I've been pretty overextended. When I did practice, I was totally down for being humbled. I got served this past weekend with more inversions and asana practice that showed me I am as graceful as a pig with lipstick on. I fell a few times.

Last Friday, we discussed the first six yoga sutras of Patajali. What was particularly resonant was the philosophy discussion, where James noted, quite simply, that every sutra, i.e. everything in yoga philosophy, is contained within the first: atha yoga nusasanam, roughly translated as "now is the time for the practice of yoga". Like most other Angelenos, wish I had the time.

Day 14

So I've done a piss-poor job of journaling my detox experience so far. It's been unexpectedly balanced and pretty serene. I'm been inclined to sniff anything someone in my company is eating, more out of curiousity than primality. I've felt a gradual reprogramming to eating and my approach to food. More toxic foods don't seem as appealing, so I'm not craving anything I wasn't into before. Gabriel Cousens would be happy to know. I have been eating bits of salt off my hand here and there, that's about as wild as it gets.

Well, there were a few expections to the ease of fasting. On Day 11 I got a stomach ache so awful I was doubled over for about 20 minutes. And there have been a couple times I've felt inexplicably, profoundly depressed, albeit brief - I hope it was an emotional exorcism.

I was feeling energized today when I got to class and found out we were going to do inversions the whole weekend. In yoga and ayurveda, inversions are said to be simulateously stimulating and detoxifying. With that in mind, I struggled through the practice - though I did get corrections galore from Joan Hyman, so I felt supported. We paired off to "teach" handstand in pairs. This can be rather awkward against a wall with your pelvis in someone's face. Or, maybe it's the beginning of yoga acrobatics, of which I am so fond?

David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace died yesterday. He hung himself.

He was one of those writers whose work I identified with intensely - he captured the peculiarities of American indulgence beautifully. I can locate a particular time in my life when I started to read Infinite Jest. Even though I couldn't swallow all 1079 pages of it, I did devour his collections of short stories "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men".

He gave one of the most brilliant Q & A I've seen after a reading from "Consider The Lobster" at the Hammer Musem about two years ago. My friend swapped anecdotes about Zanesville, Ohio with him during the signing afterward.

While I process the tragedy of his death, I can't help but think about a later body of work we'll never have the opportunity to read.

Ouch. Oh. Ow. Wowza.

I'm resigned to the pain I'm experiencing from class yesterday. You know, the pain that leaves you dreaming of getting your Natura on, if only someone would carry you to the massage. Amy Lafond sent me and my hips to school. This is, of course, not the unbearable, nasty kind of pain. It's a duller, expansive pain that hopefully means I'm working with ahimsa, not against it. Hey, whatever. Full moon's got me drained...

Gameday

Did I mention that classes last five hours on Saturdays and Sundays? I'm loving what I'm learning, but here's to the marathon. It could also be because I'm on Day 7 of the fast...a fast with no end in sight(?) I haven't experienced any faintness or weakness. I'm still waiting to pass something utterly terrifying, God forbid.

One thing I applaud is the organization of class so far. A few yogi instructor friends of mine have complained about their teacher training programs lacking continuity. We have a clearcut routine of asana on the weekends. Of course, there's enough variety to remain stimulated. We learned a few externally rotated (in the anatomically rotated sense) standing poses today. I should be clear - rotation is, apparently, the orientation of the pelvis to the hips. They included trikonasana (triangle pose), virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2), and vrksasana (tree pose).

It was great to actually begin physical corrections on people - I'm totally graceless, but I want to have the Midas touch as a yogi! Not surprisingly, the instructors explained, lots of yogis are pretty fickle when it comes to being touched by an instructor. They're probably the same people in the throes of obsession with hyper-capitalist sports like the Ohio State v. USC football game...

Guess I'm a ham, I say "let 'er rip!".

Bones

I'll admit I was kinda bummed when I got the anatomy text and it wasn't the cut-and-
paste Bodyworlds looking one. Our anatomy instructor is a totally animated Burner dude, kind of like a walking qi gong installation. His name is Russ Pfeiffer and he's thoroughly entertaining to listen to. The lecture last night at the Teacher Training Institute focused primarily on the skeletal body.

Fortunately, yoga incorporates a variety of disciplines in anatomy including the more mystical "subtle body" (which we will study later). While we reviewed the skeleton in class I kept finding my hand wandering around my limbs and abdomen curiously thinking to myself "Holy crap, that's there?! What is that!" I bet we all feel kid-like curiousity when we prod ourselves to validate what we see in the textbook. I should probably just buy a box of crayons.

lingua franca

It's been really challenging maintaining an asana practice while being in school. At least I value what I'm learning right now. I haven't been to a class I wasn't forced to be in for over a week. It's funny how there's consensus about getting to class being the biggest challenge - it's really the truth. (Does anyone else identify with this?) Who hasn't thought "Oh, I know how to do a few vinyasas and sun salutes. Why bother driving to the studio when I can do this at home"?? Unfortunately, I usually compress a proper class into 3 minutes of adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog), utanasana (forward bend), and adho mukha vrksasana (handstand). Nevermind that I don't really do any official sequences at home.



So what is Sanskrit, beyond the language of krishna tongues and yoga poses? On second thought, I'll leave that to the wikis, though I really do intend to read more. I've noticed my own teachers always use both English and Sanskrit names for all the poses. I'm glad my teacher James Brown has a pretty good grasp of the lingo (at least, as it pertains to yoga) that almost noone in the world can speak. I'm lost without a dictionary...apparently, he said, the University of Cologne has the most comprehensive Sanskrit dictionary in the world. I promise I'll be there too, since I'm that special brand of gabacho who can only brave slurring through foreign vocabulary in my head.

Welcome...

I think the biggest surprise last night at our welcome was the sheer volume of the class manual we received. It requires two hands. I enjoy being consistently impressed by yoga’s ability to transform and humble – you know, the way you feel when you know a class of 35 or so is going to explore your body with the most scrutinous and meticulous eyes possible. Kind of like the way people were checking out the collection of Bernini pieces parked at the Getty right now.

There were a few exercises aimed at cultivating such an eye, which is something I'm sure we'll soon improve. What is it, exactly, to examine (or behold) a stranger so intimately?
Okay, okay, so ultimately, I'll probably be forced to get over my insecurities about extreme observation. I can appreciate the relationship a yogi has with anatomy.

Today's classroom practice involved exploring tadasana, or, for laypeople, the “foundational” asana. About an hour and a half of today’s class was devoted to tadasana, in all it’s glory and expression. Talk about a test of mental and physical stamina. Tadasana is not too challenging, but the length of time the pose is sustained can make it dramatically more difficult. Granted, lots of time is spent observing, but if we devote this much time to, say, chair pose, I think I might cry. No doubt there are more extreme things on the way.

And for extreme, I should mention that I decided my new schedule creates a terrific chance to do a detox. I'm trying a prepared raw master cleanse. I've heard it's easier to fast when you're really busy. I hope that's the case, since I rarely control where my mind is. I hope to make it to day 10...

The Countdown

My first yoga teacher training class begins in a matter of hours. Wait, that sounds too fatalist. My revision would read “I’m really amped to go to school again.”
I’m enrolled in the Yogaworks 12-week Teacher Training program with Amy Lafond and James Brown. It’s the 200-hour certification. The training is rooted in Ashtanga tradition.

I signed up for the course over a month ago – I have known this is something I’d like to invest in for the foreseeable future. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity, and more importantly for the flexible schedule necessary to do this without freaking out.
I recently quit a totally mundane job in a shop on Melrose Ave. and I knew this would be a great chance to enroll in class without consulting a full-time corporate schedule.
With that said, I caught myself completely unaware I am a “student” when someone asked the question at a party about a week ago. I haven’t been enrolled in a course of almost any kind since 2003, so I embrace the chance to actually do the required readings, among a host of other things I skipped during undergrad.

Speaking of texts, here's the assigned reading:
1) Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar (of course)
2) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda
3) The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice, by T.K.V. Desikachar
4) Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, by Donna Farhi
5) Anatomy and Asana: Preventing Yoga Injuries, by Susi Hately Aldous

I've been pretty devoted to yoga for 2 years and was a window shopper for about 4 years before that. Well, lo, it's time to learn again.