Lisa Walford

Day 1, Dec. 17, 2017, PM session, Pune, India.

Prashant began our afternoon session by setting expectations and asking us to recognize the nature of his work. “We have to be on that plane where we are doing together, not that I am teaching. I will be triggering the thought process within you that leads to classical yoga.” It is when we are relaxed and at home that we can truly come to know the Self, for there can be an honest inquiry then. He suggested that isolation is the best environment for real study, and that is why he has not traveled to teach anywhere.

The invocation “establishes the compatibility with the endeavor” that is to follow. The main principal in yoga and in the Yoga Sutras is one of internalization. Knowing this prepares us for the learning that is to come. Prashant systematically prepares us for the invocation. He says little about the physical posture, but will reference that you should sit with noble intentions. The focus then turns toward the exhalation, leading towards deeper and deeper exhalations. He asked us to exhale from the pelvic floor, in the eyes, from the brain. I remembered Guruji saying that the exhalation is an act of surrendering one’s finite into the infinite. How Prashant begins with the body, focuses on patterns of exhalation to reinforce the letting go, and then directs the exhalations into various spheres that further reinforces this internalization. Ultimately we are asked to abide within the heart. Invocation….

Many of us have “tagged” Prashant by saying that he works with the breath. But Guruji taught breathing, he explained. When he gave a demonstration it was a feast for the eyes, it was a super human feat. And the exhalation was a major part of it. “He was the first to introduce using the breath as a prop.” The breath can be strong medicine to push you out of your comfort zone in many ways. “Did Guruji not dig you out of your ability?” Did he ever say “do as much as you can”? Guruji taught with intensity. He may have been addressing particulars such as to stretch the fingers, upper arms, and the four corners of the elbow; and the only way you could maintain this pose was by using your breath. Imagine that you were demonstrating a pose in front of him, you would not want to come out of the pose. It is the breath that helps you stay longer. The breath can be used to exercise, to sustain or maintain a pose; it can also be used as a tool to investigate, to direct and to condition the body/mind. So we should not think that Prashant is bringing something new here, this was his point.

“Similarly, postures should not be merely done, like mechanical breathing. Postures should be used. Suppose you do a great and perfect pose, what is next? You come down and out of the pose, it is finished. How anti-climactic! Rather, the postures are to be used to address any condition that afflicts us. In the back of Light on Yoga there are many sequences for various conditions. For example, Sirsasana and Sarvangasana are frequently recommended. The application would be different if you were working with a student suffering from constipation than from someone with diarrhea. How can the same pose be used in diametrically dissimilar conditions? The pose must serve a purpose and not be merely for display.”

“What is the difference between the breath and breathing? Breath is a quantity and breathing is a process. When you endeavor to go further, you need more quantity. For every state of mind there is a corresponding breathing process. When we say to students to breathe normally, do we mean volume or the process? There are countless breathing practices.”  This reminds me of when I first questioned Prashant many years ago. Chris Stein and I interviewed Prashant about how to begin to introduce his work into our teaching. So funny to imagine asking him anything like that now, for that is diametrically opposed to his current message. We must each find out our own way. However, Prashant was very gracious and he said to begin by working with the exhalation in various ways in the postures. My practice has changed considerably since that conversation.

“Let me watch how I breathe in different conditions to see if this breathing patter is compatible?” He then referenced the sutras. Would the process of breathing be different for: Sthira sukham (firm, steady and happy) II.46? For Prayatna (persevering effort) II.47. For Saithilyananta (relax into the infinite being) II.47? “Read”, he said, “how the breath is used to do these different modes, what is breathing mode in each? For every Chitta Bhumi (qualities of mind) there is a state of breath.”  I realized that I have been breathing on a very surface survival level. While I know that slowing my breath down is good when I am upset, I have not watched each minute of each day to understand the potentials in the breath. Nor have I penetrated deep enough into the nature of the breath in the way that I have with my asana practice. Yet the breath is more vital, more profound, more complex. Prashant suggested that these lessons should learned spontaneously and that “instructions become obstructions.”

We only did a few asanas, but we did them intently. We practiced Sirsasana in the mode of exercise, lifting the legs, shoulders, etc. And then we repeated the pose but for a state of tranquility.

We had been sitting for almost two hours so a standing pose was most welcome. Trikonasana from the point of the back foot, he said, for stability, and watch coming out of the pose; the same composure would remain. We came out of the pose really slowly so as to observe any changes in the breath, mind and body. We next did Adho Mukha Svanasana and stepped into Utthita Trikonasana. This was completely different, of course? Finally we practiced Bharadvajasana followed by Utthita Trikonasana.   “Essential yoga cannot be taught,” he said, “it has to be learned.”  While we were practicing Utthita Trikonasana, we approached it through three different gates, and the experience was completely different. The practice was more about the discovery than the doing of it.

Guurji never taught Geeta and Prashant directly, he explained. Rather, they had to “see, to analyze, to recall and react, to deliberate and reflect and then try to comprehend.”

The evening session looked like it was going to go over three hours. Someone from the venue came and told Prashant that it was time to leave. He is so full of inspiration that he could have continued indefinitely, but we certainly were ready to digest this amazing meal of thought, breath, and breathing.

Day 1, Dec. 17, 2017, AM session, Pune, India.

Today the actual sessions began. Abhijata waved the diya (candle) around Patanjali and we all joined together for the invocation. There was so much material covered that I want to post, but I think you would all gag and not complete the blog! So I will extend the posts past the six days of inspiration..

Farooza gave an elegant introduction for the orientation. She painted the picture of the sun and moon, bright and cool, a reflection. Guruji was like the sun, sometimes harsh, strong; so bright that you cannot look directly into it. Prashant is like moon, but, as the moon is the reflection of the sun, we can look into it, it is cool. Guruji taught so quickly, by the time we heard it he was on to something else.  Geeta and Prashant help us to read between the lines of Guruji’s teaching.

Prashantji then joined us amidst an overwhelming standing welcome. He has a healthy sense of humor: “orientation is a problem for me,” he said, “as I am not oriented to myself.” He explained that this is not an intensive, as that would imply that we would learn a lot in a compressed period of time. That is not what he is about, he insisted. Prashant is also humble. He said that an intensive is not really his make-up. It takes a lot of time for us to learn something in a deep way. He explained that Guruji taught intensives because, at that time, he had to produce teachers, and foreign students could only come for a short period of time.

Prashant then said that in all the time that he has been teaching, he has not produced one single teacher, “that is not in my software” he chided. “I myself am not a teacher. I am just a student,” and “My teachings are an intensive which is extensive.” He takes a little bit, like the breath, and stretches it into volumes. He said “the learning should not be very formal every time. Because yoga is a natural thing,” and “My bad habit is that I observe too much.” He referred to the intensives he watched in the 70’s, when groups of foreigners would attend for a month. What he observed is that students were anxious and excited in these intensive, it was not natural. Prashant wants to be very informal, he is in his house, and hope that his students can be informal with him.

Yoga is about life, can we get oriented to life? Life is Drama, for which there is no script, here we don’t have a script as we do not know what will happen from moment to moment. Just as life is unpredictable, we cannot know. In the business in life, we must be predictable, but yoga. Yoga is not about the business of life. To not know what he is going to teach is his privilege, as the thrust of yoga was already there for Prashant. That was not the case for Guruji, Prashant said. Guruji had a different path, he had all the hardships. We are the next generation.

Guruji learned yoga by Yog, he was not a follower or a student of a teacher. “Self-study teaches you yoga.” The concept of a self-made man is improper, for it comes through study. Prashant tells his students to never say that he is their teacher: “I escort them to yoga,” “Yoga is an out-of-the-world subject, not a worldly subject,” and “If you say that you are a student of mine, it means that you are studying me!”

We should have a suitable language for our study. Language is important. We say that we want a non-stop flight, this really mean that the flight will never stop! A visitor asked for a hot cup of tea, and he was given a hot cup with cold tea, i.e. the language is important, Chitta Vritti = language, can you name a single Vritti that does not include a word? My own impression is that we experience the world through an abstraction from the immediacy of experience and through our conditioning. Ultimately, we experience and come to know through the mind. In classical yoga the mind is considered a sensory organ.

In previous years, Prashant has introduced using sound such as the vowels in the Sanskrit alphabet or the seed mantras for the chakras as means to penetrate more deeply into an embodiment. A sound can have some meaning in it, or not. The state of Chitta depends on the stage of the Tattvas (elements) and Dhatus (tissues) in you, any imbalance in your body chemistry creates an intolerance or some condition. The mind will not be like a lake if there is an imbalance. Dhatu (constitution)- Rasa (biochemistry) – Karana (sheaths)- if there is Samyama in these faculties, then there is tranquility. Sounds with meaning are important for our tranquility.

There are two aspects to learning yoga. One is learning to do, we become indoctrinated. The other aspect is to know, learning to know. We have overlooked this aspect. When we are educated, we can do more with less, less energy. Education in yoga and knowing in yoga is more important, it gives you vision, navigation, skill. Yoga is knowing your own embodiment, you know yourself.

The posture is a mean, not an end. Means to study, your body is the textbook to come to know yourself. In an integrated practice, the mind becomes a book. These yoga postures are optimum potentials for you to learn the subjective matter of yoga, that is why these are archetypal and iconic position, to come to know the embodiment.

Dec. 16, 2017, Pune, India

I watched the last part of Prashantji’s class this morning, took Abhijata’s lady’s class, and then sat at Geetaji’s feet for a spontaneous talk about the how community must practice and learn from one another. The Iyengar family is truly gifted! I have now studied with three generations!

Transitions, Prashant said, it is all about transitions. When you change from the right to the left side, do you watch what happens in the transition? After the exhale and before the inhale, there is a U-turn, are you as aware of that transition as the in and out breath? The eighth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita points to the transition at the end of life, can we be aware in the transitions?

It made me think that all life really is a transition from moment to moment. And mastery comes in being aware of the changes, the transitions. When I hear a beautiful symphony, I am spellbound from moment to moment, because the transitions are so seamless, so breathtakingly captivating that I am completely absorbed. Is that not what “Samadhi” is, complete absorption? Prashant did not say this exactly. Yet as I watched the last moments of his class the stillness was palpable and the students were as if spellbound. They were doing Bhardvajasana, a simple seated twist. As they switched sides, Prashant would cue them to watch if the mind went faster than the body, and the breath, how did it change? The class looked like slow suspended parts, almost like cells in one organism, moving gently from side to side. That was the quality of presence. Transitions.

Abhijata is the young lioness taking charge of her cubs (us) now that her grandfather is no longer here to teach her and her aunt (Geetaji) rarely teaches. Abhi began her apprenticeship over fifteen years ago, when she was sixteen. She was never far from her grandfather’s eyes, and practiced daily with him. I remember Guruji looking into his granddaughter’s big dark eyes and asking impossibly difficult questions about an asana or about life. She would look back at him, innocent, knowing that he was about to spin his wonderful web of teachings. I am privileged to see this next generation begin to fill the role of “revered master”. Abhi has a master’s degree and two children of her own. She began traveling with Geetaji and Guruji as they presented at conferences in the US, China, Russia and Europe. She could see how different cultures interacted with her teachers. In some cases there was a language issue. She is now a perfect ambassador between the legacy that she has inherited and the 21^st century!

Abhi is young, dynamic, demanding, and delightful. She told a story of how, one day, Guruji had strapped her ankles and knees with iron rods (this is done for therapeutic reasons) and asked her to sit in Virasana. She tried and cried out, and tried again and winced. Her grandfather commanded her to sit, and she sat, such was the shakti of Guruji. Once she was in Virasana, he asked her what she had felt. She said, pain. He explained that we tend to run away from anything that we are afraid of, and that we glorify pain. As she focused more on the way that the knee could shift, and the rotation of the thigh and ankle, while the pain was still there, her mind was absorbed in the actions, interactions and reactions. This is Yoga.

This story she related to us as we rested between Urdvha Dhanurasanas. She had us hold a wood brick between the knees as we lifted up into the backbend. It must be wood, she said, otherwise you will not pay attention! Of course no one wanted to drop the brick! We had to then walk the hands in close to the feet and find the interactions between the lift of the outer knees, the back thighs, and the buttocks. The vibrancy went from the knees and fear of dropping the block into the sensations of both sides of the back muscles being lifted up toward the front of the body. It was intense, but deeply satisfying.

Abhijata will join the Iyengar Yoga Association of the United States in 2019 for the next national convention. I will let you know, come!

Dec. 15, 2017, Govinda’s Gardens, next to the Ragwada Hotel, near Baner road, Pune, India. 4:00 onwards, dinner at 7:30.

A sweet reunion; the intimate family, five sisters and one brother, with the extended spiritual family of students and teachers from over 60 countries, all honoring the man, the father, the Teacher, him who we call Guruji.

When I showed up for my first intensive in 1986, Guruji had recently retired from active teaching. However, while Geeta taught, Guruji interjected constantly. She would repeat exactly what he said, and add to it. I did not realize at the time that Guruji had supposedly retired, for he could not stop teaching!

Prashant explained that Guruji never really taught them yoga. He and Geeta learned through watching him practice, teach, and through their own observations. We did not have teacher’s training courses like you all have, he chided us. We had to learn our own way.

Great grandchildren raced across the stage, oblivious to the crowd glued to the stories being so vividly shared. As one sister spoke, the others brightened up at the memory. It was the best commemorative celebration I could have imagined. Abhijata, Guruji’s granddaughter and the next generation in the Iyengar yoga legacy, had arranged the festivities. Every detail was special.

Geeta said that at first she felt really lost without him, and she went through a very dark phase. “We never really understood him,” she began, as she often does. Her respect and devotion for her father far exceeded anything rational. I sometimes think that this is her way to de-emphasize the value of her own teaching and experience. Everyone saw him as a flexible man, stern, she said, but he was transforming the entire human being. While the sutras speak of Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha, there are many other niroddhas. We must stifle the Ahamkara niroddha, as she rattled off five other niroddhas that we must subdue. Even in story telling, Geeta was teaching.

Sujeeta told a wild tale of yoga magic. Kids can do stupid things, and she did! She put a watermelon seed up her nose and did not tell anyone when she had trouble getting it out. Her nose began to swell, and she had trouble breathing. As doctors were making plans to operate. On the spur of the moment, Guruji showed her Kapalabhati. She blew so hard that the seed flushed out.

She had a wild mind, could not focus, and found that school was boring. Guruji had a big stamp collection from all the correspondence that he was beginning to receive. He asked her to remove the stamps from the letters and glue them into an album. In the process, she learned about countries, capitals and landmarks from all over the world!

Prashant went on and on about how he was a slow, dull, torpid kind of fellow. Anyone who knows him would be chuckling now, for Prashant is one of the most fascinating men I have ever met. Yet he slunk away from school to visit the maid’s house. When Guruji found out, Prashant received the spanking of spankings, he remembered.  Guruji encouraged him to study mechanics, then a visual art, and finally music. It seemed that the boy was being given the tools, with his hands, with his eyes, and with his heart, to make the choices he would need to make in life.

This coming year will be the centennial celebration of the gifts and guidance that Guruji has left the world. Communities everywhere are planning different ways to come together. For me, this public reunion fondly opened up the circle of family to include all of us who have been so deeply shaped by Guruji’s life and teachings

Totality: that is what everyone called it. The magnificent eclipse of August 21, 2017. The hype was exhilarating.

I happen to live part time on the Oregon Coast, the place where the eclipse would initiate this continent and then continue its trajectory across the US. Signs marked the anticipated crowds: $100 parking, no vacancy, eclipse sweatshirts, free glasses. The media compared it to the Millennium zeitgeist, a portentous event. Alternately, several yoga based oracles said that the eclipse was inauspicious and that one should fast and stay indoors. I knew that the experience would be partly based on what I put into it. Was this to be an accounting? A reboot?

The morning of Totality was well rehearsed. Countdown to Fifteen minutes after Ten. Everything depended on the weather, and the forecast called for fog. You see, the Oregon Coast is unpredictable! At 6am, we climbed into our cars and drove an hour to the Hilltop cemetery in Independence. We joined a small crowd for a clear and bright morning, with a view of surrounding fields of grain. The general mood was super friendly and everyone shared information, technology and food. With three hours to contemplate, I did a few Surya Namaskars and sat to meditate.

I can’t explain and won’t even try to give a poetic version of the Totality, except to say that my husband and I plan on traveling to see the next one in the US in 2024. Somehow I did drop to my knees and, along with many around me; the only thing that escaped my lips was “Oh my God.”

Did I have a transformative moment? A gestalt, Samadhi? Not exactly. But the experience was deeply moving. The eclipse became a metaphor for Samadhi, for a perfect union of opposites. Reflecting on different paradigms, the Yin and Yang, Ha and Tha, the singularity of the sun (Purusha) and the intimate changes of the moon (Prakriti), the lower self and the higher Self, I found meaning within all of these. The image in my mind has become a yantra to invoke, to sit with and learn through. And experience? How has this touched my psyche and my practice? I do feel anointed in some way, as if I have had a “glimpse” of the possibility of union on a “cosmic” scale.

Every day I find myself on my yoga mat. During these vacation weeks I often begin with Savasana. Some days I pursue an asana, or I explore releasing or stimulating a part of my body. Some days I do what Geetaji calls a “donkey practice”, I go through the paces. But now, on some special days, after any asana where I feel either my heart rate increase (backbends) or a flush of endorphins (forward bends), I stop and feel. How is my breath, where does my breath touch, and the heartbeat, how are my sensations changing with each breath, and between breaths. I tune in to the “not-doing” to feel the transfiguring power of each asana and sometimes, the integration and harmony within. Perhaps this is a union of sun and moon, the doing and “not-doing”. Another step in a long journey.

It’s always gratifying to be part of building a community. Tri-Yoga has been my home in London for the last three years, and I look forward to seeing everyone again. This year’s workshops touch on themes that impact us all in very direct ways.

These are turbulent times. In such conditions we call upon our integrity, resolve, actions and insight to guide us through the storms and uncertainty. The story in the Bhagavad Gita, that of depressed and dejected Arjuna’s quest for wisdom and insight, offers a poignant metaphor for us today. “Here (in the yoga doctrine of practice), no effort is lost, nor is any loss of progress found (backsliding). Even a little of this discipline protects one from great danger.” 2.40

These workshops apply the language of asana and Iyengar Yoga to explore the practices described in the Gita; that of service, wisdom, devotion, and meditation. We practice first to serve the health of our bodies; we cultivate wisdom so that we may live gratifying lives; and we embrace a devotional attitude in practice so that any effort becomes an offering. Service is tapas, discipline; the daily work to maintain health. Wisdom is Svadhyaya, studying what heals the heart and brings clarity and courage into life. Devotion is Isvaraprandhanani, recognizing the underlying harmony in all things around us. These are the tools that Arjuna and yogis everywhere find helpful throughout life.

I look forward to sharing these inspirations with you all. Please join us June 2nd – 4th at Tri Yoga Soho, London. For more info, or to sign-up, please visit here.

This is a unique time in our personal and collective history, for catharsis is always a window into the soul. I have lived through several seemingly seismic chapters in my life, as I am sure you all have. Our personal narratives help us realize we are not alone. I invite you to read an exceptional publication, Yogapoetica, which includes my article The Name that Can Be Named.

Every article is special, as we, the real people behind the face of yoga, share our insights, struggles and dreams. Please like this journal on Facebook (if that’s your cup of tea) and dip your hunger into the stories. It is truly awesome!  #asanaforthemind

Introduction to Iyengar Yoga for Teachers

I have been teaching this module for the Santa Barbara Yoga Center for twenty years. This year  we are changing the structure to include two workshops open to the general public. If you are an Iyengar student or a teacher in another method, come learn the guiding principles that have made Iyengar Yoga respected worldwide. The course will include a manual.

Iyengar Yoga is based on an integrated body/mind/breath exploration of the Self that employs the body as a vehicle towards the skillful mastery of the mind. Beginning with the structural conditioning of the body to ease pains or injuries while building mobility and strength, the practice deliberately trains and focuses scattered, stormy, or sinking minds. Physical vitality encourages emotional stability that leads to a deeply satisfying life. Each class is like a canvas, bare in the beginning. Each posture is a brush stroke that opens the hips and shoulders, stretches the legs and elongates the spine. Good alignment can deepen your breathing capacity.

Following the public workshops those of you in the teacher training will review the sequence, actions and applied principles from the workshops. Together we will look at each asana and review how it applies to your body and practice.

Teaching pranayama and introducing the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are my favorite part of the weekend. I hope you will join me!

Public workshop: Sat. 11/12: 10:30am – 12:30pm
Upside down and Inside out:Inversions come in many flavors: standing, chest expansiveness, restorative and full on. Inversions benefit every system in the body, and hence are considered the most important postures for a daily practice. Join us for a progressive practice that builds from standing inversions to the experience of being upside down that is right for you. If you are new to Iyengar yoga there are effective ways to modify the classic inversions. For the experienced student, you will refine the postures.

Public workshop: Sun. 11/13: 9am – 11am
Twists, backbends, the Niyamas and Ashtanga Yoga: New to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali? Asanas and Pranayama are but two of the eight limbs path (Ashtanga) in the Yoga Sutras. In this workshops Lisa will make Sutra study practical and accessible through supported and dynamic practice of back extensions.

The teacher training schedule:

Fri. 11/11: 4pm – 8pm
Sat. 11/12: 10:30 – 7pm (break 12:30pm – 1:30pm)
Sun. 11/13: 9am –  5pm (break 11am-1pm)

For more information, please visit here. I hope you can join us!

Going off the well-worn track

What happens when I jump off the bus, or the train, or the plane? It depends on how fast I am going to somewhere other than where I am, now, in this moment. This summer I stepped out of the moving city and landed on the Oregon Coast with our new puppy Sita, and my husband. Open hours, open practice, wide open horizon and a phenomenal night sky. How to start my practice when I’m not going to teach? It was more complex

than I thought it would be, this “taking a
vacation”.

Touch. I was touched by the silence of opening to not knowing, and the noise of Urdhva Dhanurasana or Eka Pada Sirsasana begging for attention. I began each practice with Savasana, the touch of mind probing, sensing, softening, listening. Touch is interesting as we use it to imply so many things. Guruji notes that the skin is the largest sensory organ in the body. We can feel a firm handshake or shoes that fit too tight. We prefer soft and natural fabrics, the tactile efficiency of the right pen, or the slender stem of a wine glass. Touch is the only sense for which there is no cultural art form, such as music, art, gastronomy and perfumery.

Savasana. Invite the touch of mind probing, sensing, softening, listening. In yoga, sound is equated with the element of space, while the mind with the element of fire. I might probe to feel the difference between the two sides of my calves on the floor; but really I have to allow the sensation to come to me. I listen with my body; I soften the zealous mind and allow for nothing at first. Then, slowly, I feel the mind shifting into a state of awareness that spreads and “touches” different parts of the body from within. I find this listening to be different than a body scan or Yoga Nidra; perhaps more akin to some forms of Vipassana meditation.

I did continue with Urdhva Dhanurasana or whatever caught my fancy that day, but at some point I would “rest” in the pose. Invite the sensing, softening, and listening into the shape. Perhaps the pose was not perfect or photographic, but that is not the point. If I practice like this more often, I will not need a “vacation”, for every practice will be touching this spacious place of resting deeply, Savasana in action.

Thank you Oregon and summer of 2016. Now to return to the spinning wheel; what web will I weave this year?