About Ashtanga
Yoga |
Ashtanga yoga is an ancient way of calming and purifying the body, nervous system, and mind through rigorous physical practice.
It greatly improves physical and mental health as well as providing a simple way for your life to steer itself in a positive direction. Parampara Ashtanga yoga, like most bodies of knowledge from India, rests firmly on a tradition of direct teacher to student transmission known as Parampara . Meaning, this is not something you can learn online or from books or videos. Practicing ashtanga yoga requires commitment to learning from a qualified teacher. Ashtanga Lineage The ashtanga yoga of my teachers Eddie Stern and Sharath Jois is the yoga of their teacher Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and is the yoga of his teacher Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and was the yoga taught to him by Rama Mohan Brahmachari and so on and so on and so on.... I didn't invent any of this nor did my teacher or his teacher. Ashtanga practice compared to other forms.. An ashtanga class may feel more like grad school or taking private lessons. Often students have had experience with vinyasa yoga and hatha yoga. Compared to these others Ashtanga is not much different. Same poses, same eight limbs. What sets the tradition of Ashtanga yoga appart is the method of teaching. Most ashtanga classes are not lead by the words of a teacher standing at the front of the room. Ashtanga poses and sequences of poses are memorized by the students. The room is for the most part quiet. Students go through the poses at their own pace. So how do they memorize all those poses? - Slowly. Begining ashtanga students can count on being taught a 20 to 30 minute set of poses. When those are memorized and comfortable the teacher adds more. Little by little a longer sequence is built up with more challenging poses being added in time as the student is ready. This kind of class structure has come to be know as Mysore style. Named for the city in southern India where Pattabhi Jois taught this style for seventy years. for more info please check out ashtangayoga.info kpjayi.org |