Mysore Musings: krounchasana

In the wake of yesterday's interview with Guy (for the May issue of Living Mysore Magazine, I am grasping for some firm ground. The conclusion?

No too tight, not too loose.

Obsess and don't obsess. Find the middle ground.

What keeps speaking to me is this question, "why are we doing this yoga?" The answer keeps coming as "to transform".

Example. My body is physically changing. It is adapting to the new challenges of my practice, it is getting stronger, lighter, and the shape is slowly shifting.

Example. My mind is changing. Thinking of the physical aspects of practice, there is no one day that I am performing. I am not practicing and practicing these postures so that one day I can show them off. I can't just fast so that the next day I "feel light" and then can do a certain posture. The choices I make for what I put into my body are long-term habit changes. Every day is the performance, everyday is the practice. Everything has to change.

Example. But why does it have to change? Am I obsessing over asana? Kind of, but not really. I am obsessing over cultivating mindfulness in my thoughts and actions. It is watching myself as I move through the world the entire 22 hours until the next asana session. The whole day is "doing yoga".

On this entire physical/mental shift fostered by the asana practice, it is interesting how one would think that "oh everything is perfect and now I will just work on this one thing", when actually this one thing effects everything else. I remember when I did this workshop with this Ayurvedic teacher that was all about Mind Body Centering and she was talking about how when you get an organ removed, that sickness and pain that was there is still there because the issue was never solved. How could it still linger even when the physical organ was gone? It is simple. Everything in the body is connected to everything else. When an organ is removed, the body doesn't think, "okay, the right kidney is gone, oh well." In this same way, getting a new posture changes your entire practice and then changes your entire life. Everything is different, everything is connected.

Excited about this Danny Paradise workshop coming up at Om Factory next week. It is always interesting to hear different points of view. Also hyped about Mysore, so I dug up this info to inspire!

Ashtanga Yoga in Mysore, India
General Mysore Info:

Another keyword search: which leg first in krounchasana?

That one is easy! Jump through from downdog with the right leg bent and left leg up like in triangmukha eka pada paschimottanasana. Then do a vinyasa and jump through with the left leg bent and right leg up. Pretty much its always right leg first. There are a few exceptions though. For instance, you twist to the left side first in pasasana. Why does it say to twist to the right first in David Swenson's book? *Shrug*

"The master Shankara reminds us: 'Converting the ordinary vision into one of knowledge one should view the world as brahman (consciousness) itself. That is the noblest vision and not that which is directed to the tip of the nose.'"

I've been reading a copy of Gregor Maehle's Ashtanga Yoga: Practice and Philosophy that I found, once again, on our book shelf. That book shelf is like that room in Harry Potter that manifests whatever you need at that moment. Yes, if you are patient and open to it, the world provides. I had seen it at stores before and couldn't bring myself to pick it

up. To many words, too few pictures, you know. But right now it has been just what I needed. It is fairly dense, but the information is accessible and applicable, which is important. He gets very specific about ideas that people often generalize, which is really fantastic. The man has got a lot of interesting things to say, so if you can, pick up a copy of this for sure.

It is a good day when Sharath gives you pasasana. It means he has given your primary a stamp of approval. F, its a good feeling. I remember when Guy gave me Pasasana. I was shocked for a while. I had been doing full primary for so so so long. Or at least it felt like it. I thought I would be there until the end of time because my heels were nowhere near the floor and it takes a very long time to stretch the Achilles tendon. So you can imagine my surprise when after about a week, he gave me krounchasana. Krounchasana looks kind of simple, but it feels like pop rocks in your body if you're doing it full-blast ashtanga style (sticking to the vinyasa, chin to shin, pointed toe, bam!). Again, I thought I would be there for a while, but then I got salambasana...

Today, I went in for practice thinking "yes, these are Sharath's last few classes" and "no, I don't expect any postures". It was so empty when I walked in at 4:30 I couldn't believe it. The energy was so incredible. Sharath was all over the room giving minor adjustments and tips. He even walked over me to check my drishti in a pose--a small detail that could easily be overlooked in a more crowded class. I could feel him watching me in the second half of my practice and when I got to pasasana, I took the first side, then moved to the other. Sharath came over and rocked me onto my heels, then at the end let me topple over saying "mumble mumble mumble krounchasana mumble." And so that is how today my pasasana was approved by Sharath when he gave me krounchasana.

Here is a picture from a really great album with photos of second series led at the Shala. Here, they are doing krounchasana, which is the second pose in the second series of ashtanga yoga.

It has been raining quite a bit here recently. I can definitely feel it in my body and in my moods. I completely missed out on summer this year. One week of short sleeves in New York. Two weeks of pool weather in Mysore. Back to fall in New York in October. Yikes.

Still no word as to how Saraswati will arrange the classes once Sharath is out. I heard that today they moved everyone to 5 or 5:45. Time will tell...

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