Travel with Practice

I travel a lot.

I have traveled a lot. 

My movement around this world has slowed but once in a while I still visit a far off place and some not so far off places. Throughout I can keep up with ashtanga because it travels well. I know in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika it says to limit travel but it’s so easy nowadays. It can be draining though. It’s a challenge. Unexpected happenstance shows up hindering progression. A magic moment makes it all worth it. And the breadth of knowledge gained by doing. Sounds like practice. Oh practice. Asana, now that’s a challenge for me to keep up with on the road. It’s a little easier with ashtanga. A little easier for me knowing my and having a practice.

Finding an ashtanga studio is relatively easy. We even have a working one in Asheville, www.ashtangayogaasheville.com. 

I’m on holiday. I get the feeling that I would like to do my practice at a dojo and have a look-see on the internets. Results follow. Maybe there’s no dedicated ashtanga only studio but that word ashtanga will probably pop up. Most of the time a class labeled ashtanga means we know what we’re getting. A led class. It would be better to see “led primary” or something similar but not everything is laid out on a silver platter. A class could have differences than a “normal” led class. I look for words like “based on,” “mixed,” “inspired.” These terms mean the class will deviate from the counted series. Doesn’t mean they’re bad but just know what you’re stepping into. Don’t judge them when it’s not what you expected. Truly it’s all ashtanga. Ashtanga means a way towards yoga not primary and the rest of the series. The series are great sequences of asana that have had time to be studied and refined. Other sequences can be just as good or even more pinpointing a specific area than primary. I do like knowing what I’m getting into with a yoga class though. Especially if I’m new to the studio and teacher. They don’t know me. I don’t know them.

Get to introduce myself. Tell them about myself, my decade long practice. Ugg, I don’t like talking about myself. Feels like gloating. But, this simple intro prepares everyone for some ailment I my or may not have, my experience level, my devotion, a bit of insight to why I might be doing yoga. All that personal shit. It’s nice. A little human connection before practice. That’s yoga, connection as one in all sorts of situations. Led class, Flow Missile Flower Power Class, or Mysore.

Oh yeah the real score, seeing mysore classes on a schedule. When you need just a hint of motivation and not a fix like led class. Mysore, I can do my practice. I can do me. Still an introduction is necessary. Maybe know way you would like to do first, second, third, fourth, or whatever you may be practicing that day. Most of the time I keep it simple for everyone and just practice first for my first time at a studio. Talking with the teacher before class should work out what would be appropriate to practice. Sometimes I simply just need a spot and don’t want the attention of the teacher. I still respect their space and stick to the “traditional” series as I know them. Not adding something because I feel like it but just trying to stay on the same page as everybody. Not disrupting the class and the regulars. Already having a new person show up out of nowhere can be distracting to some students.

Such a nice atmosphere a mysore class provides. A space one can just fall into and fit into. Just like doing asana. Moving the body in more and more awkward and complicated positions to bring comfort in all situations. Like traveling. Seeing more and more to get comfortable with all the differences on this planet. To see that we live in different places but are all moving towards the same goals. Learning the more I see the less I know and that’s a good feeling. A fulfillment only felt while stepping out of the norm. Plus going to a studio usually means you won’t have to practice on filthy hotel carpet or rocks on a sandy slant. 

But, I have a high tolerance for uncomfortable and don’t really like driving places in the early morning when on holiday. Because I know my practice I can just sleep in, lay out my mat on the filth, and practice. On my own. For myself. Wherever I can. Whenever I can. Yoga practice is constant. Asana practice can be situational. Travel safe and bring your practice with you.

The Three Gunas and Me

Almost to the end of practice. Breathing. Setting up for my nonexistent meditation practice. Then rest which I love and hate. Baddha padmasana to Yoga mudra. Sometimes the ones Manju showed me to padmasana. Hand forms chin mudra. Chin mudra, connecting myself with the true-self. Control over the gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas —

A brief description of the gunas if you’re not quite sure of them. I’ll start with just translating guna. In English it’s merit, quality, virtue. Our habits. It’s the thread keeping our personal mala together. They’re the aspects of us that in varying degrees create our personality. Each of us containing all three no matter how much we tell ourselves we’re missing one or don’t need one. We attach ourselves or define our lives around the ones we seek. The ones we have aversion to tell us deep secrets if we can just brake past our own blindness. Then it gets deeper.

Sattva, सत्त्व, goblin. Ha! I’m not kidding but that’s not the sattva I’ll be talking about here. I do love though that it can mean goblin, demon, and monster. Sattva is the guna of balance, harmony, goodness. Sure sounds good. That’s all I need, right? Peacefulness, creativity, positivity. I can get attached to that. Come to me balance. Set your roots here.

Rajas the guna of hot. Moving towards action and having passion behind it. Something to get that ego behind. The drive that keeps us an individual. That since the world center around us and that’s how it should be. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Sometimes neither.

Cold? Don’t want to move today? Tamas, the guna of down. Darkness rolls in. Chaos disillusions and we fall into inactivity. The imbalances show through the widening cracks and I can’t decide if the laziness, anger, or anxiety make me dull.

These are our three gunas. Our hot, cold, and just right. Then we rest just a bit too long and the family of bears devourer us in that comfy bed.

I sit in padmasana, hands in chin mudra, and the brain works. My gunas I’m attached to are Sattva and Tamas. I strive for harmony. Strive so much I don’t think about how I am trying to achieve it. Usually ends up thinking of others far over myself. If I do what I think they want peace will stay. I have to listen though. What I assume is helpful is sometimes just me not listening correctly. Not really listening for what would really help.

I cower behind false positivity because I think that’s what others want to see. Not showing feeling and locking it deep inside. So deep I can’t see it. Forgetting that I feel. That my feelings matter and won’t get in the way of peace. This is not balance. Not harmony. I am imbalanced. It slides me into inactivity because I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know myself. Anxiety rolls over the darkness inside me that hides all I need to pay attention. I want nothing. I do nothing.

Then the past that shapes us. I grew up in South Florida. Heat and humidity abound. My father’s hot temper. So passionate that his passions blinded him to the happenings around him. Maybe he used them as an escape from the things around him. Self absorbed to occupy the mind from trouble. I built a tolerance to Rajas. Heat don’t bother me. Passions leads towards bad habits. Yet my ego stays strong blinding me to the true needs of others that I thought I was providing for.

I have no control. I don’t know myself let alone a true-self. Seeing this is a start. I guess I’m figuring out who I am. Reaching total loss of control means the only change from there is a bit of the opposite. Control of the gunas. They make up who we are. We view ourselves truthfully and don’t hide from what’s inside. Life is scary, I know, but it can continue and get better.