THE 'PROPER' MOOD FOR YOGA

Miss Manner's column on contemporary manners and etiquette by Judith Martin, has the title: GOOD YOGA TEACHER BEGINS EACH CLASS BENT OUT OF SHAPE! The 'bent out of shape' part does NOT refer to the poses, postures and asanas that turn people into pretzels and contortionists but to the attitude of the 'teacher of yoga'....the writer describes the modos and attitudes that the yoga teacher seems to be displaying and which turn people off by her describing the things that have 'gone wrong with her'etc. before class...apparently then teaching, in the words of the writer to Miss Manners, ' a wonderful class'.... This basic attitude demonstrates that many of today's trendy yoga instructors and certified practitioners,even afer years of assuming the obligatory postures of Hatha and other yogas, have yet to quell the mind and the emotions and only subdue the body....mastery of the body should, as many think and feel, relax the body and eventually the mind but thei takes time.... The writer of the letter seems to want to help the yoga instructor get out of the doldrums and negative state she has 'posed herself' into....claiming that the teacher is in financial difficulties(which seem, if real,to be of her own doing)....and is overly concerned with appearances, wanting people to think well of her(the instructor)...... Self-centered yoga instructors of all persuasions often do care more for 'perfect' postures or 'appearances' and will often go to great lengths to do so, by 'standing on their heads' or 'bending over backwards' to both please students and bring in cash and other 'sacrifices'.. Miss Manners shows the correct attitude for dealing with this, perhaps gained from her devotions to manners and proper behavior, a sort of yoga in itself....helping people has become a sort of, as Miss Manners astutely notes, 'A NATIONAL PASTIME' along with other similar recreations of a national character.... But I seriously doubt that this yoga instructor will ever be able to 'get into the proper mood for yoga' if she has not early on in her career learned how this is done....usually self-taught persons or DVD trainees fall into this group...

THE MAHABHARATA

Yesterday, I spent most of the day and some of the night reading a bit of the MAHABHARATA, the William Buck Version in English and also watching the two disc DVD of Peter Brook's movie version which was based on stage plays done around various parts of the world.........Peter Brook is a very intense and creative person, often described as 'demanding' and'rude' but with whom I can sympathize since doing a few TV projects myself and wanting to do the images as I have and hold them in my mind for what I want to do........I have his 'MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN' based on GURDJIEFF'S second book...and which I have watched innumerable times but which actually needs expansion and details that seem lacking in certain areas, and which might lead those unacquainted with THE WORK to make conclusions based solely on the film.......thus going nowhere beyond the 'cinematic' presentation..... THE MAHABHARATA,however, has some interesting things that take it from the realm of the 'cultural-ethnic' classification that many will place upon it, and ignore the universal aspects that need to be understood, basically some of the 'causes' of war and the social ills that plague mankind and how they often arise...though one need not accept the 'religious' twists and turns that fill both the written and film version(s) of this. A multiracial cast provides a most provocative performance while the MARTIAL ARTS movements, are interesting as are some of the weaponry performances,all of which seem derived from JAPANESE,FILIPINO, & South East Asian weaponry systems in a mix that will delight many traditional persons to a great extent if they keep an open mind. A few familiar uses of shields often used in other 'epics' that deal with armies and wars and face-to-face combat and tactics will come to mind as one watches the ba ttle scenes....a few horses add to the fray but the lack of elephants and some others that are often found in such movies, does not detract from the interest one feels during the film....which could have been a realy great epic if it had been done with a big multi-million/billion budget, no doubt, the ESSENTIAL FRAMEWORK of the magnificent MAHABHARATA is there..... Like the movie, ASOKA, another grand epic set in India, this movie gives one many things about which to ponder over and to meditate upon, if one is willing to make the effort beyond the mere form of exciting entertainment and examine the personal and moral and social and historical dilemmas posed to everyone...... THE YOGA OF ACTION, of course, seems to be the focus given by KRISHNA and which has been come to be termed: KARMA YOGA....a sort of 'Hindu' "KUNGFU" so-to-speak....and the other great works allied with this one: The BHAGAVAD-GITA & THE RAMAYANA also are most deserving of attention by martial artists who wish to know more about 'ancient warfare and combat' as well as some strategy...but I am afraid few will seriously take to this special arena as they often are more taken up with strictly Chinese and Japanese strategies that have become of common interest lately,namely both from books on the subjects and numerous movies on such that have flooded the West in past years, all of which I also find enjoyable and significant and take not in the ordinary way of mere entertainment and the like.

WHEN YOIU ARE READY YOUR GURU OR TEACHER WILL APPEAR EVEN IF HE IS A FIGMENT OF YOUR IMAGINATION!

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST GURU!

IF YOU ARE ON THE WAY OF THE YOGI YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME YOUR OWN TEACHER!

This is a most gradual process or progress if at all....and many attempt to do this on their own from the very start and end up far from what they wanted to be or do....and even with a teacher they often leave and take up other things...

SRI TIRUMALAI KRISHNAMACHARYA

Having seen and perused the book on the life and teachings of SRI KRISHNAMACHARYA, I finally bought the book by A.G. Mohan and his son, Ganesh Mohan and read it from cover to cover...I was impressed by the photos in the book of 'THE FATHER OF MODERN YOGA'doing yoga in his eighties and the account of his life and teachings...He lived to be 100 years and in his 'WARRIOR VINYASA' I could see,among other things, some I had seen in other yoga sequences and asana, that martial artists of all persuasions could benefit from a study of this.....I was drawn to the simplicity of things, the basics stressed, and the gradual progress indicated, especially in terms of pranayama and breathing, that one has to undertake while using movement(s)... Quite often far too complicated things are entered upon without knowing where one is going to end up....and this has been the case with a great deal of yoga teaching, at least in more modern times, where many things are 'blended' and 'mixed' and served up as 'great cocktails' to be imbibed...... Those who consideer themselves well-grounded in some system of yoga or of several systems, if such can really be done, would do well to read this book and re-read it since it has much to consider and understand, once one has settled down and dismissed one's own peculiar notions about practice and yoga,etc.

TESLA & YOGA

From reading a recent biography of Nicolai Tesla, the 'electrical genius' whose eccentricities have been elaborated on numerous times but with little understanding, of course, that he was well acquainted with RAMAKRISHNA's philosophy as were several otther geniuses of that time, such as, Henry Ford, Luther Burbank, etc. Am not sure if he was aquainted with Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky, but it is rumored that Einstein kept a copy of the SECRET DOCTRINE either in his desk or in his library....soooo......... Tesla apparently followed several things in yoga and had a remarkable concentration and focus.....of which more can be said.......