Geeta taught about backbends and inversions today. She showed several sequences for opening the thoracic spine and taking care of the cervical spine. It's detailed work, and there is a reason for each particular way that she adjusts the student, the props and herself. Their is no careless or useless instruction or adjustment. As a teacher myself I know how much knowledge, effort and care is necessary to be effective and safe in this work. So, to see her do her work is AMAZING! She is a master.
There is no note taking allowed in the yoga hall. Geeta told us today that she has never written down what she learned by watching her father. She was never allowed to ask questions . . . no questions were allowed. She only observed. Then she had to ask herself, "If he moved to the right side of the student to make that adjustment, there must be a reason. If he supported the cervical spine in this pose and not in that, there must be a reason. What is the reason?"
Think about it. What good is a note on a paper? The experience and knowledge must be in your cells. You learn by doing, not by taking notes about doing. What real and valuable knowledge have you ever learned by taking a note?
Friday, May 14 - Day 3
Geeta emphasized observing the pose in all of its parts. What is happening in the foot, the leg the abdomen, the chest, the arms the neck the face? More importantly, where is there no feeling? What can you do to bring life to that area?
"Where there is no feeling there is no life. Where there is feeling there is life."
She speaks plainly, but the words are potent because they come from experience and they are true. It is hard for me to do her teaching justice on this page. Suffice it to say that I am never restless or anxious as she lectures and demonstrates for 4 hours every morning.
Poses we worked with today:
Walking forward and backward while learning to lift the abdomen
Utthita Trikonasana
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
"Where there is no feeling there is no life. Where there is feeling there is life."
She speaks plainly, but the words are potent because they come from experience and they are true. It is hard for me to do her teaching justice on this page. Suffice it to say that I am never restless or anxious as she lectures and demonstrates for 4 hours every morning.
Poses we worked with today:
Walking forward and backward while learning to lift the abdomen
Utthita Trikonasana
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
Thursday, May 13 - Day 2
Yesterday it was supine and prone poses, today it is seated poses. Geeta referred to the Bhagavad-Gita where it says that realization comes from meditation and that meditation is done in a seated posture. For this reason one must learn to sit properly.
Geeta continues to emphasize that you must first learn in your own body then teach others. It seems obvious, but it is so true. You can not teach someone to play the violin beautifully until you yourself have mastered it.
She also mentioned many times that some students do not know how to receive instruction. They say, “Oh, don’t touch me, don’t adjust me.” She says that they want to do the poses the wrong way because of the ego, “They want to be the one to say I know. When one says I know they close the doors of knowledge. When you say I don’t knowknowledge will come.”
Here are the poses we worked with today:
Dandasana
Urdhva Hasta Dandasana
Padangustha Dandasana
Parsva Swastikasana
Janu Sirsasana
Paschimottanasana
Parsva Paschimottanasana
Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana
Utthita Parsva Hasta Padangusthasana
Eka Pada Mulabandhasana
Wednesday, May 12 - Day 1
This morning we worked with the shoulder, chest and shoulder blades in both supine and prone positions. Geeta had us observing ourselves and others. We spent most of the morning looking at the shoulder blades and their position on the back body.
She had us lie in Supta Tadasana so that the floor could give us a sense of where each shoulder blade was. At first I could feel a slight difference between left and right, but not much. She had us do it again and for a long time. After a while I felt how the outer border of the left shoulder blade was on the floor while the right was not. Not only that, but my right trapezius was lifted toward the head and my right shoulder was rounded away from the floor.
Noticing these substantial left/right differences showed me the value of staying with an observation. It's not enough to take a quick glance, I have to stay with it in order to penetrate past the periphery. If I do, then the adjustments that need to be made become obvious.
Geeta showed many ways to adjust by having 5 or 6 students up on the stage and adjusting them in succession. We worked with partners in various ways to get the trapezius to descend and the shoulder blade to move into the back body. My partner was George from Australia. He lives in Hong Kong and just took over the Iyengar Yoga Studio of Hong Kong.
Poses we did today: Supta Tadasana and Supta Urdhva Hastasana with variations of both, prone savasana with variations, ardha bhekasana and bhekasana.
Portland is very nice. Free transportation by light rail, good food and clean streets. Everyone is friendly and all are very outdoorsy, if you know what I mean. Lots of people biking to work. That's all well and good, but what's lacking is any semblance of that city edge? By my definition it's not really even a city. I know Boston and New York where things are a little dirtier, a little tougher. There's nothing to be afraid of here.
I'll try to get some pictures of the convention center today and post soon.
She had us lie in Supta Tadasana so that the floor could give us a sense of where each shoulder blade was. At first I could feel a slight difference between left and right, but not much. She had us do it again and for a long time. After a while I felt how the outer border of the left shoulder blade was on the floor while the right was not. Not only that, but my right trapezius was lifted toward the head and my right shoulder was rounded away from the floor.
Noticing these substantial left/right differences showed me the value of staying with an observation. It's not enough to take a quick glance, I have to stay with it in order to penetrate past the periphery. If I do, then the adjustments that need to be made become obvious.
Geeta showed many ways to adjust by having 5 or 6 students up on the stage and adjusting them in succession. We worked with partners in various ways to get the trapezius to descend and the shoulder blade to move into the back body. My partner was George from Australia. He lives in Hong Kong and just took over the Iyengar Yoga Studio of Hong Kong.
Poses we did today: Supta Tadasana and Supta Urdhva Hastasana with variations of both, prone savasana with variations, ardha bhekasana and bhekasana.
Portland is very nice. Free transportation by light rail, good food and clean streets. Everyone is friendly and all are very outdoorsy, if you know what I mean. Lots of people biking to work. That's all well and good, but what's lacking is any semblance of that city edge? By my definition it's not really even a city. I know Boston and New York where things are a little dirtier, a little tougher. There's nothing to be afraid of here.
I'll try to get some pictures of the convention center today and post soon.
Tuesday, May 11 - Opening Remarks
Geeta gave her opening remarks tonight. The theme of this convention is Yoga Therapy. She told us that when BKS Iyengar started he did not have a teacher, but a guru. His guru, Krishnamacharya, told him which asanas to perform and he performed them. There was no instruction as to the poses. At the time there were no yoga teachers as such, just yogis and not many of them.
After some time guruji began to investigate the poses and their effects on his own body and mind more closely. He used himself as a living laboratory, as an experiment . . . what happens if I do the asana this way or that way? Which adjustments have a good effect and which have a bad effect? In this way he began to perform the asanas with more and more feeling and sensitivity to his own condition.
Geeta told us that yoga therapy is not just giving a sequence of poses for a certain condition. It is not like going to the doctor to get a prescription - the teacher must be sensitive to the students condition. The teacher must see the student - how they walk, how they talk, how they breathe, and how they hold themselves. What is there? Which parts move freely in the body and where is there restriction or obstruction? The teacher does this with the tool of sensitive observation.
There are two types of observation. Geeta said that one must learn first to observe oneself so that one can begin to observe others. This observation process is done using asana and pranayama. When performing an asana don't just go to the end of the asana form. Go step by step and find out what moves and what is stuck. In Utthita Trikonasana take time to see the change of the breath from feet spread wide to turning the feet, from extending over the leg to stretching the arms and from turning the waist to looking up. Refine yourself in this way, and see your students in the same way. This type of work leads to yoga therapy.
It was an absorbing talk and Geeta's words had the depth of experience and dedication behind them. Even after a long day of travel she had my full attention. After the talk there was a big dinner for everyone.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 5 - Travel Day
Drove to Boston last night and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Got up early and took the complimentary shuttle to Logan. It was me, a Dutch guy headed to Singapore with a fresh Phd. and a new job. ALso, about five men and women dressed all in the same color blue. They each had some kind of gold pin somewhere on their uniform and three of them had CREW nametags. They were very chatty and awake and talking about work. They said things like, “how long you out for this time?”
I’m in the Denver airport waiting for my connection to Portland. I feel strange and removed to be among so many people who have nothing to do with my everyday life. I’m flying all the way across the continental United States to a yoga conference led by a someone coming from faraway India. The woman on her laptop next to me is coming from her farm in Wyoming and there are thousands of others in this airport making their way to myriad other destinations for who knows what purposes. Other airports all over the world are full of still more swarms of people doing the same thing. Thinking about that makes me feel so, I don't know . . . existential.
All right, back to the subject at hand, the teacher’s conference. My thoughts are mainly focused on Geeta and what it’ll be like to be with her for the next five days. The format is like this: 8:30 – 1:00 with Geeta in a mega class; It’s 500 students all of whom are certified Iyengar Teachers. 4:00-6:30 in smaller groups with other teachers for practical application of the content from Geeta’s morning mega class.
Geeta has the reputation of being a demanding and even unreasonable teacher. People are scared of her. There are stories of her hitting students and telling people who have traveled long distances to leave. I don’t know how much is true and how much is lore, but we’ll see.
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Hi. I'll be at the Iyengar Yoga Certified Teacher's Convention in Portland, Oregon from May 11-16. The convention will be led by Geeta Iyengar.
Click on Follow to join this blog. I'll try to post regularly and take some pictures along the way so you can follow me on this trip.
Click on Follow to join this blog. I'll try to post regularly and take some pictures along the way so you can follow me on this trip.
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