Iyengar yoga - Holly Foster

April 26, 2019April 29, 2019

The student’s journey

During seventy-three years of teaching and practising, I have observed that some students pay attention only to the physical aspect of yoga. Their practice is like a fast-flowing stream, tumbling and falling, which lacks depth and direction. By attending to the mental and spiritual side, a sincere student of yoga becomes like a smoothly flowing river which helps to irrigate and fertilize the land around it. Just as one cannot dip into the same river twice, so each and every asana refreshes your life force with new energy.
~BKS Iyengar, in Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health

I recently had the good fortune to attend a screening of a documentary entitled Iyengar: The Man, Yoga, and The Student’s Journey. Filmed before his passing in 2014, its release last year honoured the 100th anniversary of his birth. The film was inspiring on so many levels, and though it provided less insight into Mr. Iyengar’s early years than I had hoped for, it more than made up for it through stories of the profound effects his teachings have had on so many lives. I was particularly pleased to see Father Joe Pereira featured with his Kripa Foundation work that brings the healing benefits of Iyengar yoga to those suffering from addiction and HIV/AIDS (you may recall an earlier post I wrote about Father Joe and what an extraordinary experience it is to study with him). For me, some of the most memorable scenes in the film involve Mr. Iyengar’s granddaughter, Abhijata. We see her practicing asana intensely, with strict guidance and adjustments from her grandfather and other teachers, and she tells us, “It appears my grandfather teaches me asanas, but if I had to sum it up now, he is teaching me how to search for meaning in anything I do. He is teaching me huge concepts.” This is the true essence of yoga.

Most often we come to yoga through asana, the postures, and we arrive on our mat expecting a purely physical practice. However, if we are paying attention, we realise that the postures are merely a gateway, leading to a vast expanse of knowledge and exploration and connection. We begin a journey that lasts a lifetime, slowly peeling back the layers to reveal our innermost self, to attain what Mr. Iyengar called true alignment: “Yoga helps to integrate the mental and physical plane, bringing about a sense of inner and outer balance, or what I term alignment. True alignment means that the inner mind reaches every cell and fibre of the body.” This journey towards true alignment begins on our mat, but it does not remain there – the lessons we learn in each and every practice, through each and every asana, begin to colour and shape how we view and interact with the world around us.

Mr. Iyengar defined yoga as “the union of the individual self with the universal self.” His teachings embodied the eight-limbed path set out in the Yoga Sutra by the sage Patanjali: Yama (ethical behaviour), Niyama (restraint/discipline), Asana (posture), Pranayama (expansion of vital energy, the breath), Pratyahara (detachment of the senses), Dharana (focused attention), Dhyana (prolonged concentration, meditation), Samadhi (“when the knower, the knowable, and the known become one”). Deep exploration of this eight-limbed path takes a lifetime (or many lifetimes), but I believe that we can be forever changed even by taking the first step on this path: by embracing the first Yama, Ahimsa. Ahimsa translates as non-violence – toward ourselves, others, the world around us, non-violence in our thoughts, words and deeds. To me, an equally apt definition of Ahimsa would be compassion. When we practice yoga, we learn to be compassionate toward ourselves, and as we direct compassion inward, we begin to radiate it outward to all those we encounter. As Abhijata said, yoga is teaching us huge concepts – we need only open and awaken to these lessons and let them unite us with something greater than our individual self.

If you have the opportunity to see this documentary, I highly recommend it. In the meantime, I share with you the trailer for a glimpse of the film’s wisdom and insight.

Iyengar: The Man, Yoga & The Student’s Journey

April 6, 2019April 6, 2019

Planting new seeds

I love being a student. I love learning new things – new skills, ideas, perspectives. When I do something I’ve never done before, I feel awake and fully present, my attention squarely focused on the moment in which I find myself. It could be almost anything – hiking a new trail, exploring a new city, learning a new language. Our experiences shape who we are day by day and moment by moment; we are always evolving, integrating what we learn and experience into our body of knowledge and adjusting how we interact with ourselves and others accordingly. If we approach each new person/place/idea/experience with an open mind and heart, we can invite their lessons deep within to help us grow, to broaden our horizons and expand our view of the world around us.

I recently attended a conference and had the good fortune to study with some exceptional teachers. I chose sessions that I sensed would offer new ideas and perspectives on familiar topics, as well as some that were largely unknown to me, and I was not disappointed. I learned about a lineage of yoga called Purna Yoga that was created by Aadil Palkhivala, who jokes that he began practicing with B.K.S. Iyengar while in the womb (his parents were having fertility issues and went to Iyengar for help; after four months of practice with him, Aadil was conceived, and both his parents and Aadil continued to practice with him for many years to come). I studied hip health and explored a Purna practice created to support long-term hip mobility and stability. I learned about Thai yoga massage and self-massage, seeing meridian theory from a different perspective and gaining a deeper understanding of the power of hands-on body work. I rolled around in the world of therapy balls, learning more about the role they can play in analysing and improving strength, flexibility and range of motion in our myofascial structures. And I had the opportunity to study with an anatomy expert I have followed for many years (Leslie Kaminoff), diving into lively discussion and practice on bones, muscles and structural diversity, as well as breath-centered yoga and the bandhas. What an extraordinary few days!

After taking in all this new information, I let it settle. I assimilate and integrate what I have learned into my experience, where it can inform my practice and my teaching, where it can help me grow and develop. New seeds have been planted. Some will sprout and flourish, guiding me in new directions on my path, whereas others might not take root or blossom only briefly, as their lessons do not resonate as deeply or with the same relevance to where I am heading on my journey. That’s the beauty of learning – we open our minds and hearts to what an experience can teach us and we have the opportunity to listen and look within, to notice what touches us deeply, what lights us up, what changes our perspective or challenges our preconceptions. We can disregard the lessons, let them roll off us with no effect, or we can welcome them in and see what happens to the way we view ourselves and the world.

In spring we are surrounded by new growth, with budding trees and flowers beginning to bloom. What a perfect metaphor for our own opportunity to grow! My recent studies have sown a healthy handful of seeds, with more to come I’m sure, and I look forward to tending them and seeing what fruit they might bear. As the natural world wakes up around you, what seeds do you wish to plant? What unexpected wonders might they bring your way?

September 24, 2018

A lifetime of learning

This weekend I had the extraordinary privilege of studying with Father Joe Pereira. A Catholic priest for 51 years, Father Joe also studied closely with B.K.S. Iyengar for more than 40 years. He has been sharing the wisdom and healing power of Iyengar yoga around the world, while harnessing its therapeutic benefits to treat addiction and manage HIV/AIDS at the 69 treatment centres run by Kripa Foundation, which he founded in 1981 (http://www.kripafoundation.org/).

For those who are unfamiliar, B.K.S. Iyengar is widely known in the West as the father of modern yoga. The form of Hatha yoga he introduced is firmly rooted in the eight-limbed path set out for us by the sage Patanjali around 400 CE. Iyengar yoga is often thought of as alignment-based asana, but it is so much more than a physical alignment practice – guided by the moral and ethical compass of the Yamas and Niyamas, it seeks to align the external body with the internal environment; it enables us to forge a union of body, mind and spirit, and from that place of union we can discover our connection to the Universe, to the God of our understanding, to that which is greater than ourselves. We come to realise that we are not separate from one another; this existence is shared, and we must live it together with compassion and lovingkindness.

To me, the importance of lifelong learning cannot be overstated. Our minds and bodies thrive when we are learning something new. Though I am a teacher of yoga and meditation, I will always be first and foremost a student. I try to approach each day with an open heart and an open mind, receptive to whatever lessons that day may bring. When I take a class, a workshop, or training, I invite a beginner’s mind as I explore with wonder all that is being shared. In the presence of someone with such depth and breadth of knowledge like Father Joe, who is extraordinarily wise, compassionate, humble, and kind, I am filled with gratitude for his teachings; like a sponge I absorb all of the wisdom he shares and welcome it deep within my bones, deep into my heart so that it may infuse and inform my practice and my daily life on and off the mat.

There are lessons to be learned in every moment – we need only pay attention and open ourselves to the wisdom in the world around us. When we learn something new it changes our perspective; we look at our life, or aspects of it, in a different way. These teachings can come to us in myriad forms, through myriad channels, anytime and anywhere. Though we can have powerful learning experiences in formal settings like courses and workshops, some of the most profound lessons come when we least expect them – in our encounters with friends and loved ones, with unfamiliar people and places, when we are communing with nature. The common denominator between all of these learning opportunities is that we have opened ourselves to possibility, and we have done so with presence, with mindful awareness, with a willingness to release our attachment to what was and welcome something new.

For these latest teachings from Father Joe, I am deeply grateful. When you look back upon your life, at the important lessons you have learned, who are the teachers and what are the experiences that taught you most? For even the seemingly small lessons we can give humble thanks, for every lesson we learn informs our journey, shapes who we are, and helps us determine the next step along our path.