Fun (Full) Weekend

Mark speaking. I had a full weekend! I taught for Hannah on Saturday and then had my backbending workshop at Bodhi. Today I had my morning class at Castle Hill. Everything went really well. Yesterday in Hannah's class I taught on the primary flows as they manifest in the legs. We focused on drawing from the outer edge of the foot to the pelvis and extending from the inner groins through the ball joint of the foot. We did some killer hip and groin openers and ended with Baddha Konasana. I spoke about the idea in Tantric metaphysics of how the world came to be from the Absolute's desire to know itself. The myth goes (roughly) that Shiva, the Absolute, created a mirror that reflected his image. This reflection, Shakti, is the world. I talked about how the geometric notion of a reflection is not an exact replica but that it is a figure with the same attributes as the original, just reversed. Here is a pic to illustrate:

What is interesting about this to me is that the reflection is both the same and different simultaneously. It has all the attributes, but it is the exact opposite image. It is a wonderful way to conceptualize the relationship between the Absolute and Creation. They are in a dynamic relationship of identity and difference, arranged according to the notion of a reflection.

So we drew in the from the outer leg and extended out the inner leg and I related the two actions as reflective of each other. The theme moved from the ideas above to a more practical meditation on integrity in general. Does our inner life reflect the outer life? Does our outer life reflect our inner life? The first is a really important question, at least for me being in the seat of the teacher. It is such a privilege to think about these ideas all the time and try to distill them for presentation in a class, but as I teach more and more the danger of these contemplations being merely intellectual exercises increases. Does my inner life reflect what I am teaching? The truth is that it does not always. But being in the seat of the teacher really calls me to be in integrity...if I listen.

The second question, "does my outer reflect my inner?", also helps to bring into focus the progress I am making in my sadhana. How often do I respond to hard situations resourcefully? How often do I respond with something higher than a mere reaction? Do my outer actions reflect the values I adore on the inside?

So we got to talk about all that AND move toward some awesome Baddha Konasanas. I have really been trying to teach different poses lately and take some of Christina's feedback about training my students to progress in their asana practice. I think it is working. Teaching poses like BK is great for me because I have tight groins and hate that pose. I had to really dig deeper in myself to teach a class oriented to it...I had to deal with my fear that people would hate it (because I might) and really consider the best way to teach the actions that would get people's knees closer to the floor. It is so easy just to teach backbends because I am good at them, they are fun so people generally like them, they often take people to a more exhilarating edge...and I want people to like me... It is so easy to fall into that rather than help my students develop a well rounded practice.

It is particularly difficult when teaching at new studio because new people are coming all the time. I always want to just give the new people a shakti blast so they see how awesome the practice is. But then I feel like I owe it to my regular students to help them progress by teaching them more precise technique. On saturday there were 17 or 18 people there, mony of whom were new students for me, and I taught them Baddha Konasana!!!

What I have found is that it is almost always better to stick with what I have planned. The cool thing about that is that I get to call upon all my resources and ingenuity. When I am teaching a more technical class, I start by giving people unconditional positive regard so they are open to my teaching and slowly start to command more attention and more effort from them. Then I try to show them the wonder of the Universal Principles of Alignment. That is what I did yesterday and it worked pretty well. A couple of tight dudes got their knees 3 or 4 inches further toward the floor in BK doing the midline assist that Darren Rhodes showed us back in August of '08 down in San Marcos. People were pretty excited and amazed that the principles worked! That is a kind of shakti blast too, just more through the intellect.

Anyway, the backbend workshop was great too. Zoe Mantarikas(sp?) was there and Ellen took the morning class and the workshop. I converted a couple of people to backbend fiends I think. That is always exciting!

Today my class was on the idea of Svadharma, or personal duty. I gave Krishna's lesson on how "our own duty done imperfectly is better than doing another's well" from the Bhagavad Gita. With this in mind we did a strong standing pose sequence focusing on maintaining muscle energy while we completed the rest of the actions. The last half of class we spent doing seated forward bends, twists, and pranayama. Drawing into the self, embracing our personal situation and experience as the path to the Ultimate. It was really quiet in there. Contemplative and sweet. I love those kind of classes myself because the interplay of hard work in standing poses to get the energy moving, the rootedness from the forward bends, the suppleness in the spine from the twists, and the quiet that the pranayama produces really makes for a natural entry into meditation and contemplation. It is much easier than just sitting down to meditate.

Anyway....peace out.