I went to Pune this past summer for my second visit to study with the Iyengars. Over the course of a month and a half, I heard the following message delivered over and over again in different formats from both Guruji and Geetaji: “You are all here just to collect points. I cannot teach you. You are not here to learn.” There is a famous Zen story about a cup of tea that illustrates what I think they are trying to say:
Underlying the genius of the sequence and actions he taught was a relentless herding of my mind into the present state.
Nan-in, a Japanese Zen master, was serving tea to a visiting
My mind tried to escape the present moment by crying, “I’m
university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served
tired, and I can’t stay in Sirsasana any longer. My neck is going
tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full and then kept pouring. The
to break!” But then I told myself, “Wow, he has been teaching
professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain
for 75 years and has heard every excuse in the book at least
himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
5,000 times. Stay in the pose, Cynthia.” When I started to feel some mastery, like I was “getting it,” Guruji would say, “You
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and
people are just here to collect points so you can teach them.
speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your
You are not here to LEARN.” Every time my mind tried to get
cup?” (Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki, 19).
up and “go to the bathroom,” Guruji was standing right in front of me—kind and compassionate but unyielding. He
As adults—or long-time yoga practitioners—whose teacups are
kneaded and shaped the clay of my mind until the asana was
full, we need to make space for the skill, knowledge, ability, or
fired into a fine bowl, and then just when I had almost given
information we seek. We make space by beginning again in the
up, he exploded the bowl into a million shards of intelligence.
present moment. We have to empty the cup. As adults, we can’t simply accept a new cup of tea each time. Instead, we must
In the practice hall, I would excitedly start to work on the
allow the tea of the present to blend with the milk of true
things Guruji had taught the day before. One day, however, I
knowledge and be sweetened by a sense of sattvic amusement
had a sinus infection and so was doing Adho Mukha
and awe. This is the difference between simply being a child
Svanasana in the ropes with my heels up the wall. Guruji had
and cultivating a beginner’s mind as an adult.
been teaching an action of grounding the heels the day
The Present Moment: Akasha
before. While my head was down, I felt his presence as he glided across the floor to his practice area. I heard him say,
On my recent visit to the Iyengar Institute in Pune, I had the
“Why do I even bother teaching. No one here is practicing
honor of being in classes taught by B.K.S. Iyengar and his
what I taught.” I thought, “Uh oh, he’s talking about me.”
granddaughter Abhijata. Underlying the genius of the
Shortly thereafter, one of the assistants came over and asked
sequence and actions he taught was a relentless herding of
me very kindly to ground my heels. Going through my head
my mind into the present state. Guruji went through what
was, “But can’t you see that I’m sick?” and shortly thereafter,
appeared to be a methodical set of actions but would stop
“I’ve heard that excuse 5,000 times before, Cynthia.”
frequently to ask, “Do you ever practice this way? Do you stop to observe and watch? What is working, what is not
The opposite can also be true, though—we sometimes hold
working?” It forced me into a very concentrated, present
on too tightly to what we learned the day or month or year
state of mind. In that state of mind, I was able to drop my
before. My teacher Manouso Manos has related a story of
preconceptions and create space for what I was learning.
practicing with Guruji in India. Manouso was in the practice
Even though the poses were ones I had done many times
hall working on the actions in a pose that Guruji had given
before—Adho Mukha Svanasana, Parvatasana in Virasana,
him specifically the day before. Guruji came by and said,
Sirsasana—I found something new and exciting, something
“Why are you doing the pose that way?” to which Manouso
that became part of my experience and part of me.
said, “Sir, because this is how you told me to practice.” Guruji replied, “But that was yesterday.”
III.11: sarvarthata ekagratayoh ksaya udayau cittasya samadhiparinamah The weakening of scattered attention and the rise of one-pointed attention in the citta is transformation toward samadhi. (Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, B.K.S. Iyengar) Fall 2012/Winter 2013 Yoga Samachar
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