Chronicles of an Old Loose Ashtangi

My IG feed used to contain a few Ashtanga teachers and advanced practitioners whose poses were too "intimidating" for me to like, and their accompanying texts did not help either. I no longer follow them because they are not an inspiration, they do not give me a motivation towards improvement, quite the opposite. I can appreciate the beauty of a posture and enjoy the neatness of their execution, but that is all – and for me it is not enough. The flame of their painstaking accomplishment does not light the candle of a driving force towards the evolution of my practice. This is not a matter of not making comparisons, but rather of understanding that the plastic form of a perfectly executed posture corresponds to their body - and only to theirs. Clearly, we have no idea of the time and fatigue, sometimes the weariness, which costed them to reach that statuesque execution of postures. We take it for granted that they enter and exit those asanas just like that - eve...

La pratica di ieri mattina mi ha ricordato i bei tempi dell'estate scorsa, prima della lesione, quando tutto filava liscio e avevo la sensazione di volare sul mat (il mio bel tappetino volante 😊). Adesso non sono neanche lontanamente ai livelli di allora ma almeno mi sono sentito a mio agio e rilassato per quasi tutta la sequenza. Probabilmente sto ancora pagando una cattiva gestione del recupero post-lesione: prendendo troppo alla leggera lo sforzo e l’impegno richiesti, in questi 6-7 mesi sono via via regredito – anche emotivamente. Il corpo è un ingrato: fa molto in fretta a “scordarsi” modelli e schemi di mobilità, obiettivi raggiunti, ecc. Risalire la china, invece, è sempre faticoso e non so ancora quando potrò dire finalmente di essere tornato ai livelli di fine agosto. Dagli inizi di settebre è stato un inferno sotto vari punti di vista, comprese certe spiacevoli incomprensioni. Quindi, tutto sommato ieri una pratica “della madonna”. E sì che la notte prima n...

  I do not write to be read. I do not write for others  - that’s not the aim. I do it to clear my thoughts and not have to keep listening to a background inner voice. Writing is like a raw transfer of the immediate content of my mind and at times of some drawer of my memory. The mind dump has the function of releasing it, like when pulling off a handbrake, so the mind can move on. Then, by fixing my thoughts in black and white in an accessible, non-private environment, I can give them a sort of physical, tangible consistency.   So, as for me, writing has the value one puts into it. It’s like all the activities we carry out and the "things" we do. They do not have a depth by themselves, an innate authority: we are the ones who put the value in them, because the value lies in the intent.   All this sh** just to say that I believe the same concept is applicable to yoga. A few days ago, on this matter I read an IG post by a true fellow ashtangi who, as usua...

  Sé que el Ashtanga solo es una excusa. Lo necesito para observar otras cosas. Y para hablar de ellas. Para tratar de entenderme a mí mismo. Para intentar ver y reconocer a los demás tal y como son. Para mirar la vida con ojos más equilibrados. Para escuchar las voces con menos filtros y prejuicios. Para intentar ser un testigo imparcial. Para no dejarme llevar por mis tonterías. Para no cargar con las tonterías de otras personas. Para entender el verdadero significado de la tolerancia. Para aceptar sin adaptarme y resignarme. Para reprimir reacciones inútiles e insípidas o excesivas. Para satisfacer el ego sin ser su esclavo. Para agacharme sin conformarme. Para comprender lo que es la humildad libre de servilismo. Básicamente para ser un poco menos indiferente y huraño.

I have lost my balance and kind of "mislaid" my centre - perhaps a combined problem with leg coordination and core strength. The fact is that my Mysore is suffering from a peculiar lack of leg balancing stability. But that's only a part of the big picture. Almost every morning I start my day with a few loyal travel companions: ailing knees, a sore shoulder, a lousy hip, and a stiff low back. That's the landscape I am not willing to conform to, given that my mind is still keen on practicing. Expressions and results of those recurrent glitches are different from day to day, but my personal quest for a vanished balance is the one real constant.

  Hay gente que tiene esta idea épico-mítico-heroica, según la cual el Ashtanga sería una especie de panacea de orígenes remotos y probablemente también quitaría los pecados del mundo. Honestamente los envidio – dicho sea sin ninguna ironía. La creencia firme desencadena una especie de efecto sugestivo benéfico que eventualmente hace que la práctica tenga los efectos que proyectamos en ella. Una de las expresiones que he escuchado y leído más a menudo es: “el Ashtanga puede que te cambie la vida”. Obviamente no tengo ningún derecho a cuestionar la vida y las opiniones de los demás, pero me gustaría al menos tratar de expresar mis sensaciones al respecto. Básicamente creo que, admitiendo que el compromiso con la práctica de Ashtanga cambie algo en el contexto de nuestra existencia, lo que supongo que cambie es nuestra percepción y actitud ante la vida – lo cual no es poco. Por lo demás, tengo mis dudas. El ser humano no cambia, salvo muy raras excepciones; las "conve...

  Based on what I have been seeing so far, I guess there are teachers who think in terms of customer retention instead of student loyalty, and that could be a major problem. Let me try to explain my point of view. Why students stop going to a shala for good o why there's a recurrent coming and going of students? And why the student base is not stable? In business jargon: why the churn rate or at least the students' turnover sometimes is so high? Well, apart from obvious reasons like financial resources, change of residence or working site, as well as injuries or illness, which lay on the student's side of the equation, and not taking into account situations plainly independent from both parties like those we have all been living and suffering during the past two years, it's important that teachers be clear that they might need to take a long hard look at themselves and at their approach to students and teaching alike. When students are regarded as "money be...