I always believed that a good yoga class is not only about physical poses. A more important and crucial factor is what is being learned and shared in class. Perhaps that is why I love Anusara yoga as part of the requirement of an Anusara class is to have a theme to set you thinking. However, if you noticed, there are many many other yoga practitioners who complain that the teacher talk too much! When I heard such comments, I just smiled and walked away. ( I sort of sigh in my mind too… )
The revered founder of modern day Ashtanga yoga, Pattabhi Jois, has passed away on May 18 2009.
The day after he died, I went for an ashtanga class. I thought about Guruji as he was fondly known as by all his ashtanga students all over the world ( with numerous great teachers like David Life, David Swenson etc and famous stars like Madonna, Sting ). Although I am not a avid practitioner of Ashtanga, my occasional practice has brought me much benefits and much respect about the founder.
I just got an email from yoga journal that is about standing poses. In it, it shared the video of John Friend teaching the standing poses… it’s really beautiful…. I love the love and meaning that John gives to the practice. 
Beautiful energy and how he paints each pose.
He’s funny too! Just delightful!
www.yogajournal.com/video/112?utm_source=MyYogaJournal&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=myj_361
The amazing thing, the class is over 800 people!
PS. I gotta transcribe this!
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I remember back in Aug 2007, I wrote a post on my blog on my Cowface ( Gomukhasana ). It was one of those poses that I can never bind by myself. Now after 2 years, I can bind both sides on my own… well, hooking on to the fingers for a start. It’s still not easy for me as I still have to wiggle and adjust but I could do the binding on my own without help from anyone or towel. I used to think will I be able to do the binding, EVER? Well, this proves that with practice anything is possible!
Today I went for a “refresher” Ashtanga class. It’s been a long time since I did Ashtanga yoga. I used to go for Ashtanga at least once every two weeks two years back but now it has dwindled to an occasional one every now and then.
I am always in awe of Ashtanga practitioners. It takes such dedication and discipline to be able to practice every single day ( except on full moon days ) on your own early in the morning if possible. And to remember all the poses in the series? Wow… I cannot even remember past the 2nd pose after the sun salutations. Yeah, I am that forgetful. So it just shows that I need to go for more ashtanga classes to train the mind. Maybe even Mysore so that I get to train my brain.
