Masala Yoga: Mixing it up or getting mixed up?
Masala Yoga
In India, everything comes in masala – a mix of spices to enhance the flavour of your meal. But when it comes to Yoga traditions, there is not so much masala, rather there is the opposite -Parampara.
Parampara is the direct passing of knowledge from student to teacher over generations. As yoga booms in the west parampara is becoming lost and there seems to be a constant yearning for masala. Something new, spicy, playful, exotic to motivate us to get on our yoga mat. In that constant search for something better, yet somehow with a desire to stay connected to tradition, yoga teachers are creating a masala out of the teaching of the world’s most respected yoga teachers. In the name of innovation and creativity there is no problem here – give it a new name, make it sexy and there won’t be too much confusion. There is a place for creativity in all spheres of life. But instead what is happening is we see teachers trading on the popularity and reputation of certain styles of yoga and then making a masala (mix) out of them – but not calling this masala something new. Usually it is teachers not qualified to teach these systems who are unable to see that in making their masala they are leaving out what is most important in the traditions they are mixing.
Most commonly this is a mixing of Ashtanga Yoga and Iyengar Yoga
The work of Pattabhi Jois (Guruji to me) popularised Ashtanga Yoga and Mr Iyengar created one of the world’s most influential styles of yoga – Iyengar Yoga. Both were students of Krishnamacharya, yet taught very different forms of yoga. Why is that? Well, as many people have said, perhaps Krishnamacharya gave different teachings, or gems of knowledge to his different students. The vinyasa method which he shared with Jois became the hallmark of the Ashtanga Vinyasa practice. While Mr Iyengar certainly practiced this vinyasa system himself in his earlier years (as you can see on youtube!), he refined his own practice and system of teaching over the decades apart from his guru into what we now know to be Iyengar Yoga.
Both systems work. I have seen it. The teachers in both systems have spent many years in practice and are no mere graduates of 200 hour trainings! The study of the Iyengar and Ashtanga systems have been their life’s work.
However these days we find way too many people mixing the systems and not doing anyone any favours.
Iyengar Yoga is highly technical and the teachers are very learned, having studied the body and its movement patterns for many years in order to become teachers in this tradition. Ashtanga teachers (well teachers qualified by the KPJAYI in Mysore) have thrown their hearts, bodies and minds into the vinyasa system through many dedicated trips to Mysore, India and understand that essentially Ashtanga Yoga is not just a vinyasa system, but at its heart a bhakti practice (devotional practice).
When we mix systems we don’t get to experience the fruits of what Iyengar and Jois discovered through their decades of practice. Instead we get a mish mash of systems and eventually (if not at first) confused students.
For me Ashtanga Yoga is a heart centred practice. The beauty of the practice is that it is done in silence, the alignment is internal – aligned with breath, movement and drishti. Notions of external alignment in this system force onto the body arbitrary ideas of how the body should look or express a certain posture. In actuality the expression of the posture will be different for each individual.
It is a problem in yoga teaching these days that yoga teachers believe they know a lot about alignment, anatomy and how the body works. It is over reaching. Without an anatomy or physiotherapy degree we are simply scratching the surface of what we might know. Because the depth of knowledge through rigorous academic study is lacking, teachers utilise simplistic alignment cues and often black and white ideas of what is right and wrong in postures.
Often this focus on alignment is purported to be drawn from the Iyengar system – as Iyengar Yoga does focus on alignment. However the alignment being taught in Iyengar Yoga (as I have experienced it) is deeply experiential. It invites the practitioner to be drawn deeper into their experience of the body and how it is working, holding postures and moving. Simplistic alignment cues are not needed, because to be an Iyengar Yoga teacher you have undertaken many years of dedicated and supervised study with a teacher yourself.
An intense focus on anatomy has no place in Ashtanga Yoga. For me as a teacher I know how to adapt and work with people from all stages of life and situations within the practice. This comes with experience teaching. Most of the time, rather than force an expression of a posture onto a student, I am happy for them to work with and discover the posture in their own good time. Yoga is not inherently unsafe and students are capable of learning through experience. When we try force the body into how it should look or what it should do through poorly informed notions of ‘Alignment’ having attended a few anatomy workshops and some Iyengar classes, we rob students of an opportunity to experience a system in its fullness.
To me it demonstrates a lack of faith. I have faith in the Ashtanga system, I know it works. I have faith in my teacher Sharath Jois. There is Bhakti, devotion to the practice, to Guruji and Sharath for carrying on this precious lineage. I don’t doubt that it works and therefore need to add a layer of western movement reductionism to my teaching. Whenever we continually focus on anatomy and physical alignment we move away from the experience of being in the moment. Duality kicks in and we try to bring the body to a place it is just not ready for. Not only can we get hurt, but there is a lack of self love, of acceptance, there is a lack of faith.
Iyengar and Ashtanga weren’t meant to be mixed. As Guruji would say “Too many teachers is crazy making”. Try a system with a qualified teacher and stick with it, go deep. We are fortunate, through the work of Geeta & Prashant Iyengar and Sharath Jois we can still discover the fullness and richness of yoga systems such as Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga. We can still learn with these people, it’s never too late to learn these systems properly! Find a teacher, study intensively, then go to India (whether Pune or Mysore). We have seen time and time again people being discouraged from going to Mysore, told not to learn at the source. Then sometimes a decade later they go and everything changes once they become part of the parampara (lineage) of Ashtanga Yoga. People who have been hesitant value the experience immensely and others realise what they have missed out on, or what for some unknown reason their own teachers have kept them from experiencing. Moreover going to the source, whether it be Mysore of Pune is an act of gratitude, of thanks to a practice which has brought so much. Giving thanks helps us flourish as people. So surrender to something bigger than yourselves, be humble and practice the system faithfully. That’s when the magic occurs.
Namaste
Jean x
* Images via A. Medin, published in Australian Yoga Life.