How Ashtanga is your Ashtanga Yoga? 7 reasons why it may not be...

The title of this post may sound fun or even silly, but what I mean, even if it is obvious, worth mentioning. And I would be happy to read what you think about the following. – Please leave your comments below.

The following is in no way criticism! In particular it is not a criticism of a great Guru Sri K. Pattabhi Jois – for whom I’m suppose Yoga was more complete, more 8 limbed, than for many of his followers… Instead this article hopefully would serve as a food for thought and possibly an inspiration for some Yoga practitioners and an encouragement for experienced practitioners and teachers to share their thoughts.

Ashtanga Yoga consists of 8 limbs. And whatever your were told, heard or read – there is only one Yoga, and it is Ashtanga Yoga (it is also Hatha Yoga). All 8 limbs were (re-)formulated by Sage Patanjali. See for example the following 2 posts: “Ashtanga Yoga“, “Ashtanga Yoga in Detail“.

Interestingly enough people who practice they say “Ashtanga Yoga” have very little knowledge of any of the 7 limbs except asanas. Even more – most of them practice “the most demanding physical discipline I had ever known” – i.e. not even practicing asanas right. The citation in the previous sentence is from Yoga Journal, September Issue, p.64., author is: Jennifer Rodrigue. – In a way it is a confession of a good Yogi, who was lucky enough to meet a good Yoga practitioner in her life and she was conscious enough in her practice to notice how much she is missing and how little she progressed by that moment (a lot changed in her practice since then I believe).

Coming back to the citation… By the way, there are many more confession moments in that article: have a look at it if you haven’t yet, article is great, many people may recognize themselves and get quite a few “eye-openers”. – Even one limb of Yoga (asana) by many people is practiced in a wrong way (because it is unfortunately taught in a wrong way). Asana is a “comfortable” pose (and not only for your muscles, but your breath, and most importantly – your mind too) and purpose of the asana is not to sweat and get fit, although, it’s hard (impossible?) to find physically not strong true classical Hatha Yoga practitioner. Right? – People get fit and strong even if they practice Yoga as it meant to be…

Here are a couple more links to some other posts in this blog: “Asana – Part 1“, “Asana – Part 2“.

Sounds like I’m trying to teach you? No worries – I can not if you don’t want to Plus I sincerely hope that many of you know all this very well. In this post I just outlined a few thoughts which may trigger some study and investigation on your side if you would want to. And I’m also not going to change the way you practice and teach unless you want yourself. I understand that many people indeed want “the most demanding physical discipline I had ever known”, want to sweat, and call it Yoga. No problem with me! It’s your choice 100%. All I wanted is to mention that there is much more to Yoga…