In the current asana practice atmosphere, a breath centered practice that encourages you to take it easy if that’s what your body needs on a given day is a radical happening. It might not even be thought of by the general population as Yoga. Let me rephrase. Yoga, a word that can be translated to mean yoke, union or relationship, has come to be strictly associated with a practice where the teacher plays the role of a tough coach or school yard bully, encouraging you to ‘push it’, ‘hold it’, and ‘Go deeper’. The general belief is that the more specific anatomy instructions a teacher gives, the more they understand a proper practice and the better of a teacher they are. There is also this mutual positioning (in most classes I’ve been to and especially the most recent) by teacher and students to put the teacher on a pedestal. As if this person you’ve never met before could possibly know what your body needs better than you do. I whole-heartedly, passionately and lovingly, disagree.
So, you may ask, why come to class? Why partake in group practice? Why have a leader if you don’t need one? I come to a group practice to experience the shared energy that all of our combined intentions create and I appreciate the teacher as a guide and as a teacher but above all, I defer to my inner teacher. A teacher who acknowledges that listening to yourself above them is advanced practice is the kind of kind and healing teacher you want. This kind of teacher represents a deeper sort of Yoga, a loving union between your mind, spirit and physical body.
This is what I found when I came to Abhyasa. J. Brown teaches from a place of friendship, encouraging students to build strength in a measured and deliberate way. He reminds us again and again that there is no goal in Yoga, there is just the breath and the movement; the process. After my first class I knew I needed to train here, it was much like a slow and lovely class I had taken years ago in the quiet dessert town of Joshua Tree. It was what I’d been looking for; a whole practice built to allow the practitioner to connect with themselves (and hence life) in a meaningful way.
I went to a new Yoga class this week, my first one at this particular studio, with a teacher who has quite a reputation and following in Brooklyn. In Pictures he fits the role and the real reason I wanted to check out his class was his healing center/Yoga Studio Farm that I heard about in upstate NY. This completely parallels my dream and when I looked at pictures of it, I felt incredibly inspired, moved and hopeful. The world needs all of the healing and wellness centers and initiatives it can get right now so whenever I hear of one that seems in line with what I’ve been imagining I am happy, want to learn more and somehow be a part of it. As a Yoga teacher I thought maybe I could offer a class or two, as a budding entrepreneur and aspiring Healing center/ Farmer I thought I could learn a lot.
I came out of the studio feeling completely disillusioned and painfully reminded of the work-out like trend in Yoga, as well as the teacher as dictator rather than friend trend. No wonder this guy is popular, for all his alternative looks and seemingly off the grid ideas, both his teaching style and the type of Yoga he is sharing are right in line with the mainstream.
It seems that it is hip is to go to Yoga class and sweat and work and maybe breathe when you get around to it and then magically, because the all mighty wise guru says so, you get real spiritual, maybe even enlightened.
I don’t see the relationship.
I don’t get it. What does torturing your body (and therefor your mind and spirit, because they are all connected and the spirit is happy when you are gentle and loving to your body) have to do with enlightenment?
And while we are at it, what is enlightenment?
Enlightenment is when you are able to live in full embrace of the truth of interconnectedness. Because you are living this truth you act as love to all you come in contact with. And you are happy, even in your sadness, to be experiencing the present.
We are all capable of that. It’s not some far off dream or goal and it certainly will not be the effect of holding a crescent moon twist for a full minute with two reminders to breath while we push our shoulders down our back, tuck the lower shoulder, lift the weight out of the resting fingers, put the neck in line with the arm, lift the back leg, blah, blah, blah. We have enlightenment already. We are enlightened beings, some of us just have the shades drawn. And in my humble opinion, those who would ramble on and on excessively encouraging you to do 10 different strange and seemingly contradictory things with your body at once, without acknowledging that your body is yours and you have the right to listen to it over them and to connect with it deeply through deliberate breathing, all in the name of enlightenment, those may be the ones with the shades drawn most tightly.
And yet I like him. He’s not a bad guy. He’s just where he’s at. He even said a couple times in class, even though the sequence and his other directives did not agree, he said do as much work as you can while still being happy. I wish I could drag him to Abhyasa and set him on a mat in J. Brown’s class. J understands that sentiment and teaches fully from it. Rather than simply paying lip service to an idea of love, healing and tenderness, he enacts it, he guides students in his class to enact it.
In a few years, this popular Brooklyn Yogi may adapt his teaching style to truly represent the Yamas and Niyamas. Maybe he will greet students at the beginning of a class and ask them how they are feeling and if they have any injuries. Maybe he will find acting kindly and responsibly like that to be in line with living spiritually. Who knows, I don’t know. I do hope that he lets go of the habit of giving a new student an adjustment with his foot, consisting of a light kick in the fingers and an annoyed mumble, ‘Up on your fiingerss’.
In the meantime I am going to stick with Abhyasa for my regular practice. And from now on only venture out in order to get some teaching gigs of my own to spread the Yoga love.
As an end note- I do think we all have things to learn from each other, as teachers and humans. He gave me a lovely shoulder-scooping adjustment in Savasana, which I appreciated. I also feel as inspired and encouraged as ever to bring this slow +beautiful kind of Yoga practice to the world and to build a healing center/farm, it is so needed.
