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!
Merely practicing physical postures is obviously not the meaning of Yoga. By reading Adi Śaṅkara we understand that incorrect practices have caused harm since ancient times. On the other hand texts like the Aparokṣānubhuti and Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra 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
The 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 […]
Merely practicing physical postures is obviously not the meaning of Yoga. By reading Adi Śaṅkara we understand that incorrect practices have caused harm since ancient times. On the other hand texts like the Aparokṣānubhuti and Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra 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 
The 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 […]