Prashant's Sequence

Invocation
Dwi pada viparita dandasana on chair- 10 minutes
10 minutes of Prashant Talking (PT) "Become unified and prepared in body, mind and breath. Use the breath to diagnose the body and the mind. Use the mind to diagnose the body and breath. Use the body to diagnose the breath and the mind."

Dwi pada viparita dandasana- 10 minutes
PT-5 minutes "...having diagnosed one must look for treatment and execution. One must understand what one is up against and use the poses to treat the mind and the breath, the breath to treat the body and the mind, the mind to treat the body and the breath and so on. You must understand your condition so you know how to proceed. For instance if you know that Guru Prashant is angry you will develop a strategy. But if you know and understand why Guru Prashant is angry you will develop a different strategy perhaps..."

Dwi Pada Viparita dandasana- 10 minutes
PT-10 minutes "...one must understand that to do yoga therapy it is very different than allopathic treatment or even Ayurveda treatment and so forth. In those systems the patient does not need to be aware or informed of what is wrong with them nor are they expected to be intelligent participants in the treatment. In fact, usually doctors find it quite difficult to treat other doctors. For something to really be yoga therapy, the patient must be adept. They must be a skillful participant in their healing or else the yoga therapy is really no different than physical therapy, occupational therapy or psychotherapy. It is just techniques applied to the body or techniques applied to the mind much in the way medicine is applied to an illness. this presents a difficult challenge in the "cash crop" of yoga therapy. You really cannot offer it in its true form to the uninitiated...."

dwi pada viparita dandasana- 10 minutes
PT-15 minutes "...This is not to say that positive effect will not happen from the techniques when they are applied. But that is not yoga therapy. Yoga therapy is comprehensive system that aims at all levels of being....one must understand that there is a state of mind beyond doing, knowing and understanding where the real transformation occurs. There is not even a word for it in English but it is close to reflection. You want to understand and experience but it is in the reflective state where the yoga therapy really happens...Think about the moon and its reflection in the water. What is the nature, the quality of the reflection vs. the quality of the actual moon in the sky....this quality is what we are after in the yoga. And about the moon. Think about how much the astrophysicists have told us about the moon- its size, the atmosphere, the composition, etc. But how many astrophysicists in their journals have inspired anyone to awe like all of the poets who have written about the moon?...

dwi pada viparita dandasana- 10 minutes
PT- 5 minutes- "And while changes will occur in these asanas and from these techniques understand that these are merely cosmetic changes. If you want to really alter the nature of your mind you must work at what level? (Silence- perhaps because we are clueless, perhaps because we are not sure whether this is a rhetorical question and it is best to play it safe in such circumstances!) You have no idea do you? To change the nature of your mind you must work at the level of tendency. It is at this level where you can affect the pranic system and the casual factors. Think about it. All of you come to class and have such pensive expressions. You are in the blissful state in savasana but by the time you are to the gate on your way out of here you are average again. You are actually sub- average for you return immediately to gossiping, anger, jealousy, etc. So understand that the changes from the yoga were merely cosmetic. They did not work on your tendencies and on the elements within you...."

rope sirsasana- 10 minutes
baradvajasana 2X each side
Adho mukha virasana
ardha halasana, supported

That was the flavor of it anyway. All in all, we did viparita dandasana for the better part of 90 minutes, interspersed with his talks. Crazy. (and some of you think I talk a lot!!!) And in a weird kind of way, I really liked the class. Plus there was very little of it that those of us in the Red Tent couldn't do so that was nice as well.

We had pranayama with Geeta this morning. That is kind of another story. She was quite confrontational with several people, which was interesting in a lot of ways. It didn't land on me today but there is a way that you can see that when she is going after someone, it could be you. It really isn't a personal thing. Certainly, at any moment we are spaced out, unaware, greedy, opinionated, not listening, egotistical and could easily serve as prop for her Teaching Points that have little to do with the how-to of asana or pranayama and have everything to do with practice and studentship. And though from the outside it is easy to see how people who are receiving said attention aren't making things better for themselves in their responses, it is pretty clear to me that very few of us would be able to act any differently if we were in that hotseat! Also, it is very clear that those people are kind of taking one for the team, so to speak.

(And those of you out there who are teachers and who are also my students- no, I do not think this is effective teaching nor do I want to emulate it in my classes nor do I think any of us should. I am just reporting on what happened and my musings about how to make use of it! In general, what I want us to do in classes is to manage ourselves as teachers in such a way that our students are inspired to go deeper and to become better, not scared into it. But that is another story.Oh, and while I am in a parentheses I do not suggest Prahsant's teaching model either!)

Anyway- the lessons in pranayama abounded- how restoratives help prepare us, how to explore the nuances.. I found that whole aspect quite inspiring, in fact. It was kind of like information about how to explore in your practice and even a sense of permission to make it your own.

On the domestic front- after two very hot, near sleepless nights in a 3rd story room with no fan, Anne and I moved our mattresses into the living room for a slumber party under the fan with the screened windows open last night. What heaven. No bad dreams, no waking up drenched in sweat... (ah, the pitta begins to reduce)....we watched a movie on her computer, fantasized about buttered popcorn, settled for peppermint/chamomile tea instead and had a grand ole' time..