Friday, April 11, 2014

Can you get bored with your yoga practice..?

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Some people get bored doing this or that. I have had, and do, have  students who will always want some "entertainment" on the mat (in Mumbai, that is sort of a must, it seems:) Some people get bored with the same people they have to practice. Or the same gender(. Surya namaskar -- the biggest target. Pranayama, it can really get some people!!

 I had an American lady who muted her criticism of my stubbornness to the Sivananda style, saying I was like her (opinionated, she meant) .. and some part of the criticism involved the fact that I was not open to experimenting with how she felt I must do the class.. Frankly, heavens, was she qualified to suggest this? Apparently --  she had tried  hundred schools of yoga. But clearly she had not stolid practice, because she fumbled in all the classic poses, yet she would want to tell me what I must teach her!  It was not that I did not want to enterrtain her(which was her grouse really:), but I believe, as my master says,  It is better to practice one thing, than to try 1000 things that remain unlearnt! (An ounce of practice is better than tonnes of theory: Sw Sivananda).

She dropped out, not surprisingly.

I also have students advising me on how to sequence the class, where to place some poses, where to place the pranayama: it is pretty amazing -- in a way, I guess, because yoga is now so widely around, everybody thinks they know a lot about it.. which is good. Or is it? :)

Yeah, I am in a rut, apparently.. not being entertaining et al.. Next I may be required to wear a clown's hat, or a item number costume.....Whatever!!!!

Here is a story:

A monk said to a master. "I am bored with following my breath."

The master grabbed him and pushed his head under water. Just when he was about to drown, the master pulled up his head and said: "Are you bored with breathing now?"
 

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