Ashtanga and Injuries. About Teacher Responsibility

It’s the duty of Asana teachers to know the patterns which lead to injuries. There is a tendency in Ashtanga to blame the practitioner for injuries. In this text Grischa analyzes the typical strategies of Mysore Style teachers who do so. We must be able to convince all sorts of students to change harmful patterns before they become an injury. This is remarkably difficult as most Yoga injuries build up slowly and practitioners don’t even notice it for most of the time. Even worse: Some students have been taught that pain is supposed to have some mystical benefits in the long run – just as so many still believe flexibility is a Yogic quality. It’s shocking how many practitioners stopped listening to pain as the most important built-in teacher that we have. Pain has no meaning other calling for change!

āsana – the temple of self-realization

Grischa Ashtanga Ekapadashirshasana bw smallMerely practicing physical postures is obviously not the meaning of Yoga. By reading Adi ŚaαΉ…kara we understand that incorrect practices have caused harm since ancient times. On the other hand texts like the Aparokṣānubhuti and PataΓ±jali’s Yoga SΕ«tra also prove the ancient tradition and importance of āsana practice. That it has always been more than just seated postures as some scholars claim nowadays. The scriptures serve as a compass and help us stay on the right

Yoga Sutra – The Master Key

SarasvatiThe term Yoga seems to communicate goodness per se and it’s asana component provides the perfect visuals. No wonder that it has become the ideal marketing tool for literally everything and nothing. The term Yoga has been seized by vast armies of pseudo-spiritual materialists in the past two decades. The art of self realization has […]