photo credit: lululemon athletica
The other night a new friend I met at Wanderlust told me a story about a Sadhu in India. This sadhu claimed that yoga in America does not really exist, and that what we call yoga is a crude mockery of an ancient discipline.
When a visiting American asked why he believed this, he replied that unlike the typical American practice, his teacher only allowed him to practice one posture his entire lifetime. Which one? Tadasana, the mountain pose, a posture that many American yogis consider little more than standing on two feet. The American visitor later said that when the sadhu showed her his tadasana, he stood so perfectly that he appeared as a pillar of light.
I couldn’t have heard this story at a better time, as the next I was signed up to take a class with Nikki Costello on “Teaching the Essence.” When I entered the class I was expecting to hear a lot of flowery language and mystical imagery about the “essence” of yoga. Of course nothing is ever what it seems and rarely what you expect.
Nikki Costello at Wanderlust by: Patience Steltzer
Unlike the other classes I had experienced at Wanderlust, Nikki’s class wasn’t a loaded practice full of extravagant words dripping with honey, it was a very simple practice that only consisted of 5 or 6 postures. We must have spent at least 15 minutes in tadasana, and the whole time I kept thinking of the sadhu.
As I stood there refining my mountain I could feel every muscle in my feet engage to root me down, and my fingers tingle as they reached towards the heavens, and while I struggled to keep my joints soft, my muscles strong, and my breath deep I felt a deep respect for the Sadhu and thought: I’m not a pillar of light…yet.
Wanderlust by: Patience Steltzer
When I left the class I didn’t feel doped up on endorphins or like a superstar yogini like I would after an intense vinyasa, but I did feel sharp. A little more shiny, brilliant, refined. Not too different from what a tarnished spoon might feel like after a good polish. I wasn’t a pillar of light, yet I was a little bit closer.
Before Nikki’s class I was under the impression that an asana practice should be an intricate sequence that seamlessly flowed from posture to posture. As an instructor I spent a lot of energy trying to choreograph classes that were both beautiful and butt-kicking, and typically those were classes I sought out as a student, but perceptions can change when trying to mimic a mountain.
Wanderlust by: Patience Steltzer
Looking back at how I felt in tadasana I realized that in a more intense practice I never had the time to feel the hundreds of tendons, ligaments, and muscles that worked together to support my body. I wonder if maybe the real choreography is not in landing the perfect asana sequence, but rather in bringing our muscular, nervous, respiratory and skeletal system together in perfect harmony.
Many of us work, live, eat, breath, and even practice yoga with speed, constantly trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as we can. Although challenge can help us grow, are we missing the “essence” of yoga when we focus all our efforts are on conquering the next difficult asana and sequence?
What do you think? Do you ever feel like you advance more from slowing down and turning your focus towards more “remedial poses”?
Patience! What a beautiful article. We only have to come back to remembering that WE ARE THAT PILLAR OF LIGHT, right? Remember, remember. Hari Om.
I do remember! Om namah shivaya.
Oh, how I do love this. Sometimes allowing the pose to lead the way, instead of us steering it, is what can be so remarkable about yoga.
I will always have this pillar of light in my mind now- thank you for sharing such a great story.
Thank you Emily! Sometimes we need to get back to basics to remember that.
Great post Patience! When I think of Tadasana I am reminded of how the most simple things in life are often the most subtle and perhaps difficult. For me Tadasana, like Shavasana and some of the other seemingly easy poses actually contains a universe of wisdom. Tadasana is all about how we arrange ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually in relationship to the grounding qualities of earth below and the spacial open qualities of the sky above. In some ways it is the culmination of the asanas in that it is about how well we stand on our own two feet and move in and out of action. It is about effortlessness and being present. The entire yoga practice culminates in tadasana. Thank you for sharing such a lovely personal expression of your journey into tadasana.
Thank you for making my experience possible David.
the hardest, yet most beneficial, thing for me is to slow down. To be, instead of to do, is an art, a lost art at times, that we all could benefit from reestablishing in our lives. Great post!
Yes! I teach a Beginning Yoga series, people brand-spanking new to yoga. I tell them during the first class, "You will have the opportunity to practice very advanced yoga today," and by this I mean Tadasana. As I lead them into it, I ask them to *notice,* and feel what it is about it that might be considered very advanced, or better said, skilled, yoga…to be content just being, not doing. The Upanishads say that "Silence cures all," and it is far easier to find such silence when we allow our bodies to become stillness…
Hahah i like that "practice advanced yoga" I may have to borrow that for my beginner classes. Silence cures all and we can't forget a steady body is a steady mind.
I love this – After all stillness can be the key to so much. I meditate a lot and today a friend of mine asked me how I bring my meditation into my daily life. I kind of just assumed if I meditate it will make me more present in my daily life. He suggested that I also do things in a meditative way outside of my meditation practice. Like mindfully eat a meal or clean a space. How does a student take the lessons from Tadasana into their daily life?
Daniel we are on the same wavelength I've been thinking a lot about being more meditative in my daily life too. I recently started a new job, and it requires me to clean dishes and other equally uninspiring tasks. And almost everyday I want to scream I am a yoga teacher! I deserve better than your nasty dishes! and then I take a breath and think of the zen proverb "before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. after enlightenment; chop wood, carry water." And after I recite that suddenly I realize my task isn't a punishment, but rather a blessing. I think that proverb helps us to remember that no matter how "enlightened" we become we must let go of ego an remain grounded in the simple, mundane or even unpleasant.
We are all only beginners. You never "complete" a posture. That's why it's called practice. Great article.
Nicely said, and experienced! After 40 some years of practicing yoga, at the feet of many different
teachers, I have recently started teaching a gentle class, for free, in a nearby library. "for that which
you most need to learn , teach" (or something like that.) When I focus on the highest truth to bring
my beginner students, I realize the value you have described. I am newly aware: it is not
the getting there, it is the being there. I teach, "do not hurry to the end of the pose, as with the
rest of your tasks, but savor, notice, breathe, adjust, breathe some more, BE." I am not certain
I got that before! (Pillar of light, here i come….:)
I love that and like Daniel Sunshine brought up how can we learn to savor, notice, breathe, and be even in day to day tasks. If life is short why are we in such a hurry to get to the finish line?