Iyengar Yoga News - issue 11 - Autumn 2007

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IYENGAR YOGA NEWS The magazine of the Iyengar Yoga Association of the United Kingdom

I SS UE

NU M B E R

11

AUTUMN

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®

IYENGAR YOGA

www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

ASSOCIATION (UK)

President: Yogacharya Sri B.K.S. Iyengar

IYENGAR® YOGA NEWS - Issue no.11 - Autumn 2007 Editorial Board: Sharon Klaff, Philippe Harari, Judith Jones, Rachel Lovegrove, John Cotgreave Layout:: Rachel Lovegrove, Philippe Harari and John Cotgreave Printed by: Blueprint Press, Cambridge, on paper made using wood from sustainable forests and without the use of chlorine Cover photo by Jake Clennell ® used with permission of BKS IYENGAR, Trade Mark Owner

Vacancy

on

Editorial

Board

There is a vacancy on the editorial team of IYN. The ideal person would have a knowledge of Photoshop and QuarkXpress and would assist Rachel in doing the layout and artwork mostly during July/August and December /January each year. They must also be contactable via email on a daily basis at peak times. The job would involve undertaking any task that Rachel requires during those periods, including creative photo layout, assisting with proof reading and checking for errors in the layout before the final edition is sent to the printers.

If interested please contact Sharon Klaff at: sharon.klaff@btopenworld.com.

Guidelines and Deadline Submissions: Deadline for Next Issue: 1st November 2007 Length: Features: 1500-2000 words Reviews, Profiles: 400-1000 words Newsbriefs, Letters, Questions: 1-3 sentences Format:: Please include headline, byline and credit line Type and fact-check text Caption images Credit copyrighted materials Supply camera-ready art at medium or high resolution at least 200 dpi.

Listings: Please submit title and date, location and contact information by e-mail submissions to: sharon.klaff@btopenworld.com

E D I T O R I A L When Guruji first came to the UK in the early 1960s nobody could have imagined the imprint he would make.

No sooner had he arrived than news spread of this thing called yoga and it wasn’t long before a small group gathered around him to learn the subject and teach it at what used to be their keep fit classes. Amongst that early group of pioneers was Angela Marris who sadly passed away on 5th July 2007. Both Guruji and Geetaji have sent their personal condolences which we have reproduced with the kind permission of Brigid Philip to whom the letters were addressed. A full obituary will be published in the February 2008 edition of IYN. Since those early days, the IYA (UK) has grown. With almost 3000 members it is now a respected force with its own national magazine packed with interesting articles and news. With increased awareness of the remedial aspects of yoga, IYN 11 brings information about the British Council for Yoga Therapy and the IYA (UK) involvement with the York University back pain and yoga trials. There are interesting articles on health issues like Guruji’s “Health and Salvation” and a class for the over 50’s. Spondylolysis and Spondylolisthesis are explained with information as to how Iyengar yoga can be used to alleviate the resultant pain.

Diane Maimaris continues her series of interviews with those early pioneers and Kirsten Agar Ward writes of her visit to Pune and the Puja for the opening of their Bath studio. There is news of the official opening of the Sarva Centre as well as the new East Finchley Iyengar Yoga Studio and two reports about the June IYA (UK) convention. Vula Bolou shares her experience of the Junior 1 assessment in March.

Apart from the usual reports and announcements, the new Q & A page edited by Judith Jones and Elaine Pidgeon is introduced as well as our very own “Desert Island Āsana ” with Laura Potts.

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FEATURES - YOGA AND HEALTH Health and Salvation Spondylolysis and Spondylolisthesis Yoga Āsana and Back Pain UK Back Pain Trials

B.K.S. Iyengar Karen Wilde Karen Wilde Alison Trewhela

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ARTICLES Impressions and Reflections in Pune In Conversation with Jeanne Maslen IYA Convention Report - June 2007 Broadening the Arches Bellur Fund Raising - Celebrations in Cirencester News from three Iyengar Yoga Studios Taking Yoga to New Places Desert Island Āsanas Yoga Shashtra Book Review Back to Basics - Śīr āsana : A ā ga Yoga in Urdhva Mukha Śvānāsana Q & A Page First Aid Teacher Workshop Yoga Class for the Over 50’s A Greek Woman in High Wycombe

Kirsten Agar Ward Diane Maimaris Rozz Cutler Judy Smith Judith Jones Sam Robb-King Laura Potts talks to Liz Ballantyne Sunita Iyengar Arti H Metha Arti H Metha edited by Judith Jones and Elaine Pidgeon Diane Maimaris Brigid Philip Volu Bolou

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REPORTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS Bellur Appeal and Bellur Competition Winners B.K.S. Iyengar 90th Birthday Calendar 2008 2008 IYA (UK) Annual Convention - details and application form IYA (UK) Reports: Chair, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Membership and Office Manager How to use the Certification Mark logo and the name Iyengar - a guide for teachers What does ‘Mixing Methods’ Mean?

A Tribute to Angela Marris Disclosure Scotland British Council for Yoga Therapy IYA (UK) Anti-harrasment Policy Kent Iyengar Yoga Institute

20 34 35 52 56 57 58 58 59 60 60

MISCELLANEOUS Classes at the RIMYI Events Listings: your guide to Iyengar Institutes in the UK Assessment Results Yoga Rahasya: details and application form IYA (UK) Merchandise Advertisements Executive Council and Committee members ‘Yoga Twists’ Liz Maimaris Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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HEALTH AND SALVATION Five occasions are regularly celebrated at RIMYI - The Annual Day, Hunuman Jayanti, Guru Poornima, Patanjali Jayanti and Guruji’s birthday. It is on these days that Guruji, Geetaji and Prashantji share gems and pearls of wisdom through their talks and discourses. In 2004 on the occasion of Guru Poornima, Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar gave a talk on health, a very unique interpretation and explanation of health. An edited transcript of the talk was published in Yoga Rahasya Vol.12 No. 2. and is reproduced here with kind permission of the editor.

Poornima means a bright illuminative light. A Guru is one who removes the veil of ignorance in the students and kindles the lamp of intelligence like the moon, which beautifully reflects only one day of the month. We are all hankering for spiritual enlightenment. Spiritual enlightenment cannot come without breaking the shackles of so many distractions which take place in our thoughts, words and deeds.

health is nothing but salvation or freedom from pains and sorrows.

We have seven states of consciousness. [These are] vyutthāna citta (wandering mind), nirodha citta (restraining state of mind or consciousness), samādhana citta or praśānta citta known as tranquil state of consciousness, ekāgratā citta or single state of attention and awareness.

Attention without awareness is not concentration. Intellectual evolution can lead to intoxication of the sādhaka . The sādhaka prides himself on having tremendous memory and a tremendous intelligence. The sādhaka develops arrogance and pride knowing nobody can come close to him in arguments. That is why ekāgratā citta leads to the downfall. This is aha kāra citta , the egoistic consciousness or intoxicated consciousness. The pride in him splits the consciousness and is known as chidra citta .

Like a glass thrown on the floor breaks into several pieces, so inner consciousness cracks to such an extent that one cannot know were to begin with or where to end when the aha kāra citta develops. One is in utter confusion and chaos, and when that state comes, your health breaks down on the conscious as well as the conscientious level.

“... and that divine state of health is nothing but salvation or freedom from pains and sorrows.

I have spoken on Yoga for many years. I went on climbing and must have reached the top of the ladder but now I think that I must climb down in my talks so that you, my students, who follow me should climb both factually as well as intelligently. We have to come down to the basic knowledge often, as spokes of the wheel, which move up and down.

So, far from this point of view, I thought of speaking of health and salvation. No salvation is possible without health, except for a select few, who can endure all sufferings and be close to God. But, that is not possible for us who have an average level of intelligence with high motives. It is health which only leads directly to salvation.

The seven stints of health I have explained what health is on many occasions, but each of you may have your own definition of health.

According to me, we have seven stages of health as we have seven stages of consciousness. What are these seven states of health? They are ethical or moral health, physical health, mental health, intellectual health, conscious health and conscientious health. Note that there is a lot of difference between conscious and conscientious health. You reach a divine state of health when you reach the conscientious state of health, and that divine state of 2

If that consciousness develops the temperament of enduring and proceeding further towards the conscientious state of health, then there is purity and health from within. This is known as the subtle state of health, the subtlest of he subtle sate of health. When that state is achieved, the chidra citta (the pieces of consciousness) is united with this inner conscientious feeling. This is health from the anta kara a which is the inner interior-most Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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sheath of the body. When this health is earned and achieved, then that is known of as divine health, or in spiritual terminology, mok a , freedom and beatitude through emancipation. So you would know that health has got different facets like a diamond throwing different lights from different angles.

Health is like a diamond having different facets of life, which you learn while practising yogāsana and prā āyāma . In order to learn what light on life the body is throwing, one has to be attentive to see where there is illumination in the body and where there is no illumination in the body. Why does the illumination sometime shine without any attention and awareness? Why is it that sometimes we can catch it and sometimes we cannot?

But, often our body, instead of being like a shining diamond remains like iron without any flashes of illumination.

As practitioners of yoga, we have to acquire all these seven facets of health so that one is free from the tangles or getting tainted by the disturbances or disharmony in these various stages of health.

understand the action so that there is understanding between the mind and the body. A communion and communication takes place between the body, mind and intelligence so that all three act as one.

Mental health What we normally refer as the physical body is much more at the higher level. That is why we practice āsana and prā āyāma to change the physical into a psychological body because there is a quality of touch and contact.

Contact with touch is not just physical. Touch is a quality which makes one grasp the connection that goes on between the outer body and he inner body, the outer mind and the inner mind. There is an imbalance in these in our practices and the illusion sets in and downfall begins. As I said earlier, pride sets in and one develops heedlessness when one reaches the highest level of concentration or focal point of attention. Similarly, bhrānti darśana leads you towards losing what you gained. You may think that why am I wasting my time in doing these āsana and prā āyāma ? Let me jump to a new venture.

This way you go on rolling, your intelligence from one point to another. You start with confusion and you end up with confusion.

“But, often our body, instead of being like a shining diamond remains like iron without any flashes of illumination. “

The causes of ill heath Patanjali has very clearly mentioned the reasons for ill health which disturbs and acts as an obstacle to reach the highest level of divine, spiritual health or salvation, or freedom from body pains and pleasures. These are five kleśas : avidyā , asmitā , rāga , dve a , abhinive a that inflict the emotional seat, or the mental health. The seat of the heart gets disturbed by these 5 afflictions whereas intellectual disturbance takes place with the 5 v ttis: pramā a , viparyaya , vikalpa , nidrā and sm ti .

These five afflictions and five fluctuations of man, which disturbs us from experiencing that divine health, bring forth vyādhi, styāna, samsaya, pramāda, ālasya, avirati, bhrantidarsana, alabhabhauikatva, and anavasthitatvani citta viksepah te antarayah . These nine main vehicles of ill health disturb the conscientious health. These are body disease, mental laziness, doubt, confusion, carelessness, idleness, physical laziness, intoxication with the power of the words and forgetting what life is meant for, illusive thoughts without bearing on actions. So when we have to do āsana and prā āyāma , the action has to coordinate with the thought wave and the thought wave has to Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

These are known as the nine obstacles which fuel the flame of diseases with psychosomatic thoughts. As the flame burns stronger as the wind blows, ill health further deteriorates by the wind of du kha daurmanasya a gamejayatva śvasā praśvāsa vik epa sahabhuva .

Du kha has got several facets like health or ill health, but

in the gross form it is the mental agony which you can all understand. Daurmanasya , fickle mindlessness is a mental state. It is a negative state of mind with thoughts of confusion and doubt. Daurmanasya is “I don’ think I can do this.” “I cannot do this.” You decide as you think.

When Geeta and Prashant tell you “Do this pose”, don’t you yourself sometimes think “Can I do it or can I not do it? I don’t think I can do it.” That is daurmanasya which you yourself create and therefore develop a negative approach for a positive line.

A gamejayatva , a shakiness of the body. Your body

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shakes and tremors come in and then you feel the state of such a condition. This forms the basis of psychiatric diseases. When the body shakes, it means that the nervous system has broken. Neuropsychological or psycho-neurological problems set in. The shakiness in the body creates distance between the body and mind. The yogi says that you have to develop this positive equality of bringing union between the body and the mind. That is why one has to do āsana and prā āyāma at all ages under all circumstances, whether young or old, valid or invalid, healthy or unhealthy. They play a major role, but we have not gone into that depth in our yoga sādhanā that is why there are failures. Laboured breathing, heavy breathing brings cardiac diseases. You know how much the heart is strained when the breathing is heavy. Today heart diseases are increasing because of the laboured breathing, which is due to stress on the heart and the brain. These form the foundations for the development of ill health in a human being.

All these various illnesses are fur ther fuelled by vitarka hi sādaya k ta kārita anumodita lobha krodha moha pūrvaka m du madhya adhimātra du kha ajnāna anantaphalah iti pratipak a bhāvānam , i.e. improper or

If you would have observed when children stand erect, their intestines almost touch their spine. But do you know that your intestines have moved far away from the spine when you stand erect, but they move back in śīr āsana .

What does this teach? This is known as intellectual health. I did not teach him by intellectual gymnastics, but through direct example.

“The Yogi says that you have to develop this positive equality of bringing union between the body and the mind.”

perverse thoughts, emotions and actions result in endless pain and ignorance. They are made to occur through direct indulgence and through inducement or abetment.

These are further stirred in gas form by greed, anger and delusion, which may be mild, average or in intense degree.

Intellectual health In order to gain health and to get rid of these impediments, Patanjali in the 3rd chapter speaks of the value of āsana - Deśa bandha citasya dharā ā. Here he says that one has to reverse the attention of the consciousness inwards, which is nothing but meditation within (antara laksya ). Deśa is the body, can you tie, can you knot your mind within your body, within the particular areas? Then you can gradually connect one area to the other so that the citta remains constant without movement in that particular spot.

How that focal point of intelligence has to expand within the frontier of the citta is nothing but dhyāna . For example, when I was practising today I told once of my 4

students who is a doctor “can you tell me now śīr āsana can work on the vital organs.” He had no answer, so I explained to him: “Your kidneys should be touching the block of wood (that was kept between the wall and kidneys)”. He did it, came down and said: I felt a little expansion in the abdominal organs.” I asked him if that was all he could get. Then I explained to him further on how the feet also move back when he moves the kidneys towards the block. The heels should be in line with the buttocks, the feet perpendicular to the floor with only the toes pointing upwards. This time he observed that his organs moved closer to the spine. Then I had to guide him organ by organ and he finally realised that the intestines do not bulge in śīr āsana.

The frame of mind gets restricted to physical health only, but here is organic health, mental health, emotional health and intellectual health. If you all practise the way that I showed, then you will begin to examine which organ is working, which organ is not working, which organ like a diamond throws light on life. If you do not experience any sensation then you are like an iron ball with no sensation of even the wrong presentation. Intelligence should either be like an iron ball or it should be like a diamond ball in your practices. The light dawns on you for right health.

You have to study what action comes from the thoughts and at the same time study what changes in the body and mind are produced by correct action. We fail to study.

We are just grounded on physical health.

Conscientious health I want you to jump that highest health, the conscientious health, which is the key to understand what the self is.

Conscience is close to the self whereas the physical body is far away from the self as you have to come from the Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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body to the cells, cells to the fibres, tendons, then the organic body, then from organic body to mental body, from mental body to the intellectual body, then to the conscious body and then to the conscientious body. So you have to understand whether you are conscientiously doing āsana and prā āyāma . I have deliberately used the word conscience because it is triggered by the self. One can understand the term “conscience” better than the “self ”. Does not the conscience prick you when you do something wrong? Does it prick the mind or does it prick something deep inside? Then they realise. So we say conscience is the seed for us to see. From the conscience you observe consciously and tame the mind and the intelligence for it to guide the physical body to act so that the physical body, the mental body and the spiritual body are all coordinated, work with cooperation to experience what divine health is.

I can quote from Patanjali: vitarka badhane, pratipak a bhāvanām. Bhāvanām means feeling. Badhane means pain.

that it is brought in par with the good side. That is known as vicāra . This vitarka and vicāra have to synchronise argumentation and coordination in action in an āsana .

Then you feel a sort of joy or happiness in freedom. This happiness is an indicator that you are educating your intelligence to balance on either side evenly so that the consciousness enters there to understand what is conscious health on that part.

Emotional health The mind is the cause of emotional ill health. The mind is attracted by lobha, krodha, moha, which is greed, anger and infatuation. The emotional attractions are kum - lust, krodha - anger, lobha – greed, moha – infatuation, mada – pride and mātsyara –hatred. These emotional attractions work on the six chakrās . That is why yogis say “If you know how to alert the chakrās , you have controlled the shadripus (six enemies of emotional intelligence).

Sage Patanjali tells us in the second chapter that you have to develop emotional health.

You can minimise sufferings or sublimate them when you develop emotional health by understanding the meaning of these sutras. Then there is no du kha at all.

Otherwise, du kha and avidyā will eternally remain in you. So if you analyse the āsana and prā āyāma and work in such a manner, then you are putting a brake on the ill health of emotion as mental ill feeling may not develop. It creates room to reach the highest state of divine health. That is salvation through divine health.

“We fail to study. We are just grounded on physical health.”

If one shoulder blade is paining is sarvāngāsana and the other is not paining, have you ever thought of why it is not paining? You complain about the shoulder blade that is paining. But Patanjali has clearly mentioned how you have to analyse. You have to trace the mistakes when the feeling is good on one side and not the other. The pain should guide you, but you complain and we correct it out of compassion. But, you do not catch how the badhane the pricks, the pain was removed. You just respond “I feel good” but do not analyse.

Patanjali has clearly said that you cannot do the āsana without vitarka and vicāra . Vitarka means you have to analyse what is coming, what is not coming and why it is coming or not coming. What do I have to do to get what is not coming? The right side of the shoulder gives the healthy sensitive movement because sensitivity belongs to intelligence. This is known as intellectual health on that should blade which is not paining. If the shoulder blade on the other side is paining you then that is not a defect of the body, it is a defect of the intelligence. You are using your intelligence more on the sensitive side and not caring about the non-intelligent side. That is the cause of pain.

You have to change the non-intelligent side of the body so Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Please know and understand these various stages of health and find out in which stage you are. Is it physical health? Is it a mental health? Is it an intellectual health? Is it emotional health? Is it conscious health or is it conscientious health? Study the various problems of the states of health while doing the āsana . When there is a coordination from the physical health to the conscientious health, then as Prashant said, you are not an individual, but you become an institution. And that institution is known as purity within this various physical, organic body.

The body has several sheaths and we have to reach all of them. In the āsana , the muscles have to “fan” not only the 5

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outer body, but also the inner body. As you alter the speed of the fan from slow, medium to fast, you have to perform the āsana in such a way that you can fan the inner body. The wind moves away when you can get the fan to move fast, but if you slow down the fan then only the wind circulates. Similarly while doing the āsana you have to understand where consciousness and conscience is circulating. I am not speaking of this wind but of prā a śakti .

crooked, the branches alslo go crooked. So in śīr āsana , if the root is not straight, stable, steady and parallel to the floor, then the legs wobble forward and backward. Now you can understand how much of intellectual study is needed just to do śīr āsana ?

Do we use our intelligence to such a level? Then, how can you say I am intellectually healthy? This is what yoga teaches you. Learn from the peripheral self, which is the stem to the inner Self which is the pure Self.

The function of the pancha vāyus on our system We have got 5 vāyus , so we have to understand the function of these vāyus on our system. The vyāna vāyu engulfs the entire body and if the vyāna vāyu is not helping you while doing the āsana then you cannot inhale or you cannot exhale. Why can an asthmatic patient not breath in or out easily? This is because the vyāna vāyu is not soft but very aggressive. That is why they cannot breathe. You have to find out how the vyāna vāyu is functioning in each āsana . Vyāna vāyu gives room for expansion.

How to do the āsana There should be tremendous communication in our asana using the various functions of the vāyus , various functions of the joints, various functions of the cartilages, tendons, fibres and various sheaths of health. Tomorrow, when you do śīr āsana , you will be surprised to know that the top cartilage of the knees does not grip at all. You only grip the bottom edge of the cartilage of the knees in śīr āsana , but it is opposite in sarvāngāsana where you grip the top but not the bottom.

The word itself means to spread from the bottom of the soles to the crown of the head, from the right outer skin of the palm to the left outer skin of the palm. The vyāna engulfs the entire frontier of the human being and its extremities in the skin. We must study vyāna vāyu while doing the āsana. In some āsana , the vyāna vāyu gives room for expansion. In some, it contracts.

Do we study? The vyāna vāyu loosens your intelligence’s attention. Attention comes automatically when you know how to control of vyāna vāyu . You enter the stage of dhyāna , which is the uninterrupted flow of awareness.

The uninterrupted awareness on the flow of prā a and adjustment of prā a only keeps the uninterrupted flow of the intelligence in the frontier of the body.

Take for example śīr āsana . You lose your balance if you expand your legs, but if the vyāna vāyu comes closer to the other four vāyus which are within your legs, then you get stability. The vyāna vāyu acts like an envelope. The vyāna vāyu is not contracted if the legs are let loose and you loose balance and you fall. But if you study the vyāna vāyu in your upper arm in śīr āsana then it is totally different. It does not expand and so your neck pains, your shoulder blades pain and you feel uncomfortable. The action of the vyāna vāyu in the legs and in the arms in śīr āsana is totally different. It expands in the arms for stability and contracts in the legs.

Like the river, which flows within its two banks, we have to study yoga by viewing and by understanding the knowledge of yoga and the science of yoga. On one side of the river you attain apavarga , freedom and beatitude, and the other can lead you to bhoga , sensual pleasures. Through the science of yoga (vijnāña ), follow the methodology as a means to reach the other bank (apavarga ), which is nothing but salvation, emancipation, freedom and beatitude.

This is how the vyāna vāyu distinctively functions in various parts of the body. We do not study this and because we do not study this we do not get conscientious health. You may be practising consciously, but the consciousness is not penetrating into the conscience.

Therefore when you do śīr āsana , your mind is only on the legs, but our shoulders are dropping. If the roots are straight, the tree is straight, is it not? If the roots are 6

So please practice yoga to achieve this seventh state of health, which brings the seventh stage of consciousness so that, at the end, there is only one health, there is only one consciousness and that is divine health, divine consciousness.

God bless you.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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IMPRESSIONS and REFLECTIONS in PUNE

by Kirsten Agar Ward hese are some of my impressions and reflections on attending classes in Pune in January 2007. As such they are incomplete and not exhaustive. They are an attempt to convey a flavour of what was taught.

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Cultivate Learnership and Studentship Yoga classes and practice should be engaged in with a willingness and desire to learn. This is very different from the attitude of being there to show off or be assessed or even simply to do. We should ‘work for impressions not impressively’ (i.e. not to impress others)!

A consequence of this learner’s approach is that one should not expect to leave a class feeling ‘nice’ or other pleasant or pleasurable sensations. By its very nature learning can be uncomfortable and painful physically, psychologically, emotionally. Remember the distinction between yoga and bhoga (pleasure). Always seeking comfort (physical, mental or emotional satisfaction) gets in the way of learning. We also need humility and curiosity to learn.

Ego Management The moment any part comes forward in posture there is arrogance. We have to manage our ego and not allow this to happen. We need to take care not to let our ego get bigger as we improve, rather it should diminish. Proper acknowledgement leads to greater humility rather than greater pride as we make progress (i.e. acknowledge the true source of progress; it is not our ego, on the contrary the ego gets in the way of progress). And in turn this enables us to learn more.

If you know one āsana you know all āsanas Guruji said it does not make sense to say ‘I know this pose/I can do it well, but not that pose.’ Furthermore he said we must practice honestly i.e. with integrity, incorporating what we have been taught or claim to know into what we do, not just forget about it unless we are specifically reminded. We have to purge our intelligence and do to touch the divinity within ourselves not to satisfy the mind.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Beware of Note-taking!

One problem with any written record is that it is very time-specific; although it may be true and helpful at a particular point in time, it ceases to be valid at another point in time, or its validity is much reduced. What is meaningful and salient when you are 20 years old is different from age 40 or 60 or in different health conditions. Also notes are very personal to you and not easily transferable to others. If you have ever borrowed someone else’s notes you should understand this – although they might serve as a reminder at a gross level they are never as meaningful as one’s own impressions.

Impressions rather than technical points The mere process of taking notes can be stressful and thus counterproductive. Rather, once we are beyond beginners’ level, it is advisable to note our impressions of what we subjectively experienced in a class and practice.

Furthermore these impressions should be noted with reference to the process and context, taking into account cause and effect, not just certain ‘end-points’. One should ‘be a traveler rather than merely a tourist’ (the latter is just concerned with reaching a destination, but we have to know where we started from and know something about the journey, how far we got and how we got there, what were the landmarks along the way).

Such impressions are in the body, breath and mind and do not necessarily need to be written down, but we do need to make an effort to notice them at the time and articulate them to ourselves.

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Cultivate Literacy and Articulation We have to develop skill in ‘reading’ what is going on in the body, mind and breath when practising, i.e. sensitizing ourselves to it. Furthermore we have to cultivate skill in articulating to ourselves (and to others if we are teachers) what it is. We need to understand that although we might notice an effect of an adjustment on the body e.g. ‘I bent down further in uttānāsana when I extended that finger’ actually its effect might more properly be described as ‘I found space/freedom’. The latter is about something more subtle and inner, the divine; the former a by-product of that.

Comparisons are not Always Odious!

Comparisons are an important tool in learning, and in order to make them we need to use another important tool, that of memory. One cannot live in the present when one is learning; one has to use memory and this requires alert attention. For example, one has to note and remember one’s condition at the start of a class/practice and keep measuring/noting it as one proceeds. This is essential for a scientific approach. One has to be able to gauge the effects of specific actions, approaches etc and memory is required to do this. For example what is it like when ‘abdomen-ising’ a pose compared with ‘shoulder-bladeising’ it? Otherwise one is simply acting like a child in a sweetshop trying everything for immediate gratification and nothing more.

Of course like any tool, comparison can be misused, such as when we compare ourselves with others, or compare how ‘well’ we did previously with now (either to tell ourselves how well or badly we are doing these days compared with before). Either way such comparisons are a disturbance and a distraction.

Imagination This is also very helpful in learning. We were given a variety of images to help us learn. For example, using the breath as a mother and body as a baby and vice versa.

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Also considering the breath as a river - in phase one of an asana as a river vigorously going down hill and in phase two as a serene river in flood plain, such that it can seep (i.e. the breath seep through the body). Also in pranayama the mind being like a mother watching her baby learning to walk. One responds to the qualities associated with these images, and one can also reflect on and try to understand what these are. For example, a mother’s touch to her baby is delicate and tender and child’s touch is innocent etc. It seems to me this imagery is effective because it helps us contact the emotional and be less brain-centred in our approach.

This is not to say that intellect is not required, of course it is; Guruji says we have to sweat intellectually as well as physically. Intellect is a tool which we should try to use objectively rather than identifying ourselves with it.

Prashantji posed an interesting question for us to consider - what is the noblest quality associated with each of the elements?

Cultivate Tolerance This is especially important in the learning situation (and teachers also need high levels). We need to be tolerant of some discomfort not only physical, but also mental (e.g. confusion or when we don’t seem to be understanding what is happening) and emotional (e.g. when we have to face up to our ego being humbled). Such discomforts are necessary in order to be able to learn. In psycho-babble: if we always stay in our comfort zone then we will never progress; we are cheating ourselves. Guruji said yoga is meant to satisfy the soul not the mind, and we corrupt it by trying to find a way to satisfy the mind. So we should not go for safety to do a pose (e.g. by keeping the hand in a certain place as we fear falling over, especially in front of others), because in so doing we are not learning the āsana . By really learning the āsana the fear can be got rid of not by avoiding it.

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Discrimination This is of course a vital tool in yoga and one of the things it develops. It is no good using memory, comparisons, imagination, tolerance etc. willy-nilly. One has to exercise discrimination in their application otherwise they are unhelpful. For example, with memory we might use our memory to remember perceived wrongs done to us rather than using memory constructively in our practice to help us develop. We are often tolerant of our own vices (and intolerant of those of others) and intolerant of discomfort and discomfiture, uncertainty, inability to do or understand in classes and practice, when we should be the opposite.

affected by things such as our health, injuries, mental and emotional states, whether we are preparing for pranayama or forward extension, or backward extension, the season, etc this will affect the postures we practise, how we practice them, how we know when to come out of a posture etc.

We should be aware of what exactly we are doing at any moment in practice.

We should know why we do something, or why the teacher says do something, at a particular point, not just do something because it pops into our mind. Pragmatism involves doing what we need to do when we need to do it.

We might use comparison wrongly by comparing ourselves with others rather than using it within our practice, e.g. how triko āsana is at the beginning and how it is after doing a certain kind of practice, or what happens if the hands are turned out in ūrdhva dhanurāsana compared with turned back. Similarly we might have good imagination which we apply to escapism rather than to helping us with the realism of practice. We have to develop discriminative intelligence (See ‘Light on Life’).

We are forgetting Tapas, Svādhyāya and Isvara What is good teaching?

Pranidhana

When do we say that a class was great? When we feel good after it? Or when we pick up lots of points? Or if we understood what the teacher was trying to convey? And it was not a good class if we don’t feel good after, didn’t pick up lots of points, didn’t understand? We should go to teachers who make us learn rather than those who make us show or feel good. Furthermore a good teacher cultivates independence not dependence.

In our approach to yoga we must take care not to get stuck only with śaucha (purity) and santo a (contentment) but remember the other three niyamas not least tapas (burning effort).

If we rely on our teacher to feed us technical points then our learning will always be limited. We have to try to reach a stage where we are finding out for ourselves and really experiencing. That is not to say that we no longer need a guru and good teachers. The subject is very complex so we should be careful not to think a good teacher is one who oversimplifies so we can feel more mentally comfortable. Yoga teaching cannot fit in with this consumer mentality where everything is consumer driven.

Do what you should be doing rather than what you can do Then compare this with what you are doing. Otherwise it’s not scientific, i.e. be pragmatic rather than dogmatic.

The question of should-ness is interesting. It will be Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Theory & Practice are necessary complements to each other One without the other is meaningless.

With heartfelt thanks to Guruji, Geetaji and Prashantji and all at RIMYI. 9

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IN CONVERSATION WITH JEANNE MASLEN

by Diane Maimaris (photos by Lynne Couchara and from Jeanne’s own archive)

As regular readers of IY News may recall, the edition of Autumn 2005 featured Debbie Bartholomew’s interview with three doyennes of Iyengar Yoga in Manchester, Jeanne Maslen, Pen Reed and Lilian Biggs. Lilian Biggs sadly died in 2005 – on page xx, we report on the library named in her honour and opened by Jeanne Maslen at the Sarva Centre in High Wycombe. On that occasion, Diane Maimaris met Jeanne Maslen and talked to her about her life in yoga.

Jeanne Maslen first discovered yoga when as a stand-in keep-fit instructor at the Withington Education Centre, she and her students were invited to a yoga demonstration by Penderell Reed. “About a dozen of us attended and although at that time Pen wasn’t doing Iyengar Yoga, I thought it looked more interesting than what I was doing in my keep-fit classes. So we invited her to come and teach us on a regular basis. I tried out what she showed us and found I could do it quite well. Eventually, Pen started a teacher training course and about 12 of us joined”.

In 1966, Jeanne came across a copy of the newly published “Light on Yoga” by Mr Iyengar in her local public library. Not long after, her daughter, Carol, was watching “How”, a children’s TV programme, and called out: “Mum, come and have a look – this is like what you do”.

“It was Mr Iyengar, and the programme said he was in London. I rang Pen and we decided to write to Allen and Unwin (Mr Iyengar’s publishers) and ask them for an address. He answered within eight days and said he would come to Manchester next time he was in the UK”.

The following year, before his visit to Manchester, Pen and 10

Jeanne talked to their own students and put up posters, and 500 people came along to see him. “We’d been trying out some of the postures from “Light on Yoga” and decided to start the event with a little demonstration, accompanied by recorded classical music, before Mr Iyengar arrived. However, he arrived earlier than expected. I didn’t realise he was there until, while I was doing vīrabhadrāsana III , I suddenly spotted him in the front row – my fingers were pointing straight at him. I nearly fell off the stage. Then Mr Iyengar got up on the stage and said that what we’d been doing wasn’t his yoga and that he would show us the postures in the book. I Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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we’d do two hours prā āyāma in the evening. We had to do backbends out of the window with someone holding on to our legs. There was very little equipment – we used to do our shoulder stands from the floor. Later on we took out the first lot of equipment with Silva Mehta – mats and blankets, and we’d use four or five for shoulder stand”.

She recalls how the use of props has evolved over the years. “I remember when Mr Iyengar first started using belts. He knew exactly what he wanted – the first belts were luggage belts and they came from France”.

Jeanne her first group of students with Guruji at the RIMYI

knew at once that was what I wanted – he jumped into everything. I felt that our yoga was gentle and soft and nothing compared to what he was doing”.

Jeanne and her group stayed for about five weeks on their first visit and she recalls how during that time the wall ropes went up. “Mr Iyengar demonstrated what we had to do – hanging upside down with legs up the wall. We’d never seen anything like it and one of our group took fright, climbed through the window, leaving her shoes behind and ran off back to the hotel. It took me until the next day to persuade her to come back and give it a try”.

Mr Iyengar encouraged Jeanne and Pen to come to his classes in London. Jeanne’s children, Carol and Mervyn were still young, but her husband, John, was always very supportive, and used to take time off from Jeanne tells how on that first work so that she could come visit in January 1975, she and to London. “We’d go down for her group were allocated the weekend and stay with accommodation in one of the Silvia Prescott, sleeping on her nearby cottages, eight of attic floor. The classes were in a them sharing one room. She large gym, and Mr Iyengar put and one other slept in Classes at RIMYI us in lines, walking up and sleeping bags on the floor – down. I remember him pushing the others shared three beds.

They found that they were me to the front to show vīrabhadrāsana III - we had to do also sharing with bold, active and voracious rats, which the pose and give instructions at the same time. He shouted at me “You’re not an express train – do it more slowly”. He scurried over them at night, gnawing at their suitcases and was too demanding at times but I got used to it. I needed the discipline. Although I was struggling, he gave me confidence. I’m glad I took all the flak at the beginning - you’ve got to have selfdiscipline if you want to do it. It helps you to understand yourself and where you are at that moment in time”.

The year before the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute opened in Pune, John went on a business trip to Bombay and decided to go and visit Mr Iyengar: “I wanted to see whether I could let Jeanne go!” My Iyengar took him around Pune on his scooter and showed him the site of the future Institute. Jeanne took one of the first groups from Manchester to Pune when the Institute opened in 1975. “We’d practice in the Institute from 7am to 12 noon and afterwards, as the builders were still in, we’d stay and help clean up. Then Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Jeanne under close scrutiny from Guruji

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into the sleeping bags. Jeanne decided to move her party into the nearby Ajit Hotel, where they were able to sleep undisturbed, cook their own food and practice on the mosaic-tiled roof terrace, and it was there that they subsequently returned every year.

Jeanne says that when she comes back from Pune, she’s enjoyed the practice so much, teaching is the last thing she feels like doing. “You can’t just come back and teach what you’ve learned straight away. You need to work at it for four or five weeks to assimilate it. It’s tough – people want you to give them what you’ve learned. Mr Iyengar used to say ‘Don’t go back and teach straight away’”.

Jeanne and her students always used to follow up their stay in Pune with a trip to another part of India, which John would arrange. “He’d always come with us and take his holiday then. He got to know the hotel manager in Pune very well and together they would arrange our trips around India. The manager became a great friend and comes over to us in Manchester to watch cricket”. The extension to the holiday provided a further opportunity for the group to practice together. “Wherever we went to Delhi, Goa - we’d do our yoga together on the beach, in the bedrooms, and we’d talk over ideas”.

Jeanne has always kept notes and draws on things she learned since she first went to Pune. “I keep going over and over what we did, and sometimes I surprise myself at what I come up with”.

Jeanne is concerned that sometimes people returning from Pune misapply some of Mr Iyengar’s teaching.

“When he is dealing with one person, he doesn’t mean to apply those instructions to everyone. But everyone is hanging on to his every word thinking, “Oh, that’s how to teach it’”, and they come back with what they think is a general instruction .

He taught me what I needed – he is very good at spotting what you need. One of the first things he said to me was ‘shoulders back and down’. He thumped me between the shoulder blades and it did the trick as I’ve never forgotten where I must work. But the thump didn’t hurt - he never hurts anyone”.

Jeanne says that Mr Iyengar always thought it was very important to show how to make adjustments, and would often ask Jeanne, as leader of her group, to come up on the stage to do a posture. “ I always felt as though I had a private class as it benefited me so much”. Jeanne has 12

A General Class with Guruji at RIMYI

followed in Mr Iyengar’s footsteps, frequently inviting one or more of her students to come on to the stage at the Manchester Institute to show a posture. “I started by asking for volunteers, but people held back. Now if I see someone who I think needs help, I ask them if they would mind coming forward”.

Like the Inner London Education Authority, the Manchester education authority was impressed with Mr Iyengar’s approach, and decided that yoga teachers in the Manchester area should be Iyengar-trained. After his first visit in 1968, Mr Iyengar returned to Manchester every year until he stopped coming to the UK. Jeanne, Pen and the other Iyengar yoga students and teacher-trainees set up an Iyengar yoga committee in 1971, and the practice of Iyengar yoga spread in the area. After 20 years without a building, in 1992 the yoga community in Manchester Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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opened its own Iyengar Yoga Institute (the Manchester and District Institute of Iyengar Yoga).

always enjoyed it but thought I’d never be able to teach it. When Mr Iyengar came to Crystal Palace for Euroyoga we had prā āyāma on the list and he wanted some of us British Jeanne started introductory teachers to teach it. I told him teacher training courses in we had lots of teachers but 1972 and continued until none felt ready to teach 1995 when she handed over prā āyāma on this occasion as to Tricia Booth and Julie there were going to be a thouBrown at the MDIIY. Jeanne sand students attending the told me that Manchester is event. Certainly none of us was one of only a few Institutes keen to teach it in front of him. in the UK which holds One of many photos taken for a RIMYI calendar He understood and taught us regular teachers classes so that they can maintain and deepen their level of training himself. He showed us what we needed to do to prepare and practice. “I’ve being taking these classes on Mondays – supta vīrāsana, supta baddha ko āsana and so on. and Fridays for over 35 years and we now get 45-50 He taught us lying in śavāsana for an hour. He said it was teachers attending each week. Earlier this year, I passed the hardest thing to teach – to lie still and concentrate. on the Monday class to Julie Brown, leaving me more time He could see people fidgeting and he said if they didn’t lie for senior teaching on Friday and at weekends. We’ve got still they’d never be able to sit up for prā āyāma ”. Jeanne 15 teachers preparing for Senior assessments, of whom says she tends to keep to the basics when teaching prā āyāma “Viloma , ujjāyi – that’s what teachers want”.

12 are taking the Senior 3.

She teaches it because it’s on the teacher-training syllabus In the teachers’ classes, we continue to work on the level and trainees have to learn how to teach it, even if, as she 1 postures as they recur at all the levels. When we are says, they are not always really ready for it. “I love being working on the more advanced postures, I make the taught prā āyāma and I practice at home myself; when I teachers take a few steps backwards, and think about the teach it I try to pass on the way I do it”. learning process students need to go through. I might take them back to rope work, or over chairs, before they Jeanne is one of the UK’s first senior teachers, and has go into the final posture. It’s also important for senior held an Advanced Certificate since 1981. Before the days o f

Jeanne at Crystal Palace in 1993

Jeanne teaching at the MDIYI

teachers to go on working on the senior postures even if they do not have the students to teach. Working together at my weekend courses gives them a chance to teach each other”.

Jeanne started teaching prā āyāma ten years ago. “I

senior assessments in the UK, teachers had to be recommended to Mr Iyengar, and go to Pune for their assessments, taking with them a long essay on philosophy and photographs of themselves adjusting students. In the early 1980s, the first teachers recommended by Jeanne to Mr

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Iyengar as senior teachers were Tricia Booth, the late Lilian Biggs and Hilda Hooker. Subsequently, in 1992, when assessments were held in the UK, the first senior teachers trained by Jeanne at that level were Margaret Austin, Penny Chaplin, Ann and Peter Jackson, Elaine Pigeon and Pen Reed. Teachers still come from all over the country and from abroad to her senior level classes in Manchester, and Jeanne also travels to Denmark, Holland and Germany where she is a teacher and moderator. She’s delighted that the first six German candidates for senior level all passed their assessments earlier in the year.

One of the most valuable lessons she learned from the Iyengars was that if a student has a problem with a particular posture, or an injury, you have to work on yourself to find out how best to help them. She recalls taking part in a course on women’s health given by Geeta Iyengar in which she and other students were asked to show the postures as if they themselves had bad knees, or were pregnant or were going through the menopause. “I remember a student stuffing a cushion down her front so that she could show how to do a posture when pregnant”.

In the North of England and Scotland, in Jeanne’s experience, men are as likely to take up yoga as women. “When Pen and I first started teaching, we were attracting more women than men, and we made a special effort to bring in the men. “Eventually they came along. The men students think yoga is marvellous – it keeps them fit and it helps their hamstrings”. Jeanne is very proud of the fact that one of her students, Louise McMullan, has been teaching Manchester United Football Club players for some years, and she’s hoping that Ryan Giggs, who has written in praise of Iyengar yoga, will open the Institute’s newly refurbished ground floor in September.

To Jeanne, the current “trendiness” of yoga is nothing new. She recalls that in the 1960s, when yoga was first being popularised on television, on enrolment nights at the Withington Further Education Centre, the queues for yoga classes stretched around the block. But when students today come along to the Institute having seen Gerri Halliwell videos, they soon find out that Iyengar yoga and celebrity yoga are very different. “Not all of them stay but most do”. Regardless of passing fads and trends, thanks to the foundations so firmly laid by Jeanne Maslen and Pen Reed, Iyengar yoga in Manchester will continue to flourish and to build on its own standards of excellence.

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CONVENTION REPORT JUNE 2007

by Rozz Cutler

weeLanding at Luton airport from Malaga, I was struck by how green England looked, the variety of trees and shrubs. After the miles and miles of olive groves in Andalucia, Spain, this was a feast for the eyes! The convention was a feast for the soul and inspirational for my yoga teaching and practice.

poses supta pÄ dÄ ngu thÄ sana , leg raises, supta tÄ Ä sana , arms overhead and then come up straight into ardha nÄ vÄ sana , were followed by forward bends.

I was very much looking forward to the convention after having been taught by Rajlaxmi, supported by Devki, in Pune last August. Brunel proved to be a perfect venue for the convention; we had our own rooms with en-suite bathroom, a luxury indeed. Food, always important at these events, was good and varied.The organisation of the convention was excellent.

The Friday was a day for teachers only. It started with an hour of prÄ Ä yÄ ma , followed by standing poses, all pretty basic stuff. I had hoped for more of a challenge and some discussion about the process and practice of teaching.

Saturday again started with prÄ Ä yÄ ma taken by Devki, she used wonderful expressions like “ Milk nourishing the spiritual heart,â€? “ become humble inside “ as we lay in Ĺ›avÄ sana , breathing deeply into the thoracic area of the chest. After prÄ Ä yÄ ma there was a short break followed by standing poses. Whenever I concentrate on my thighs

whilst doing Ä sanas I shall forever hear Rajlaxmi’s voice shouting with great feeling, “Pound the thighs back, kick the thighs back “ and yes, it works. Saturday evening the Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Sunday was my favourite day, prÄ Ä yÄ ma lead by Rajlaxmi.

Her soothing voice, took us into a deep relaxation, and exploration of the abdominal and thoracic areas. Devki teaching the back bend class was fantastic. I loved her youth and enthusiasm and her ability to demonstrate the poses was superb, inspiring. We did arm balances in rapid succession, right foot leading then left foot leading, followed by sĹŤrya namaskar, chanting the name of a different sun god before each sequence. I had not done this before and it added to the joy of doing this sequence. Moving on to ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana, on the ball of the foot and top of the foot, rolling from one to the other and so on‌ finally arriving at ĹŤrdhva dhanurÄ sana. Up we went with Devki’s voice in our ears, “ rock backwards and forwards, don’t be afraid, now shift the weight over onto the left leg and raise the right one up into eka pÄ da in ĹŤrdhva dhanurÄ sana, up went the right leg, then the other side, fantastic. We finished with triko Ä sana, pÄ rĹ›vako Ä sana leading into śčr Ä sana done with the eyes closed and the legs slightly forward (this is a closing of the sequence śčr Ä sana) Lastly, vÄŤparita kara i followed by Ĺ›avÄ sana - perfect.

The two women taught with great dedication, knowledge, passion and a deep sense of the spiritual. I found the three days very inspirational. I felt that my practice over the weekend became much freer and being in a room full of fellow yogis created a great feeling of oneness. Thank you very much indeed.

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BROADENING

THE

ARCHES

by Judy Smith

he teachers’ workshop at the IYI Convention at Brunel University began with an early morning pranayma class.

Everyone, especially Devki and Rajlaxmi (who had just arrived from India) looked bleary-eyed as we sat for the invocation.

We then began with seated prÄ Ä yÄ ma , but Devki & Rajlaxmi weren’t happy with our seated posture (apparently our groins were neither open nor lifted) so we lay down for the rest of the prÄ Ä yÄ ma . It was an excellent start to the day.

They focused on breathing in through the upper chest and then exhaling through the upper chest. This sequence of breathing was continued in the middle/thoracic chest, the lower thoracic and repeated in the upper, middle and lower abdomen. I felt revived after this session and ready to enjoy the rest of the programme.

T

We started with tÄ Ä sana – don’t we always – working on the arms and shoulders. We fully rotated the arms upwards when extending them to the side (palms facing the ceiling) and then keeping the upper arm facing up, we turned our palms towards the floor. We then went through triko Ä sana , vÄŤrabhadrÄ sana II and v k Ä sana (to open our groins). Rajlaxmi then told us to do tÄ Ä sana again with a wooden brick horizontally between our inner knees and squeeze the brick hard so as to take our inner knees towards our outer knees. We did uttÄ nÄ sana in the same way and I must say my legs really felt as if they were straightening. Triko Ä sana was repeated followed by pÄ rĹ›vako Ä sana and I could feel a big difference in the legs compared to my first triko Ä sana . Devki demonstrated ardha chandrÄ sana , explaining that we had to bend our front leg – almost as if doing vÄŤrabhadrÄ sana II – when going into the posture.

She said that when we took our hand to the floor, we didn’t create enough space in the side ribs i.e. our hands were too close to our standing foot. Also the movements had to be synchronised so the posture ‘flowed’ more and she suggested we raise our lifted leg higher in order to open our groins.

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We then did vÄŤrabhadrÄ sana I , lifting the heel of the back leg so as to broaden the left sacrum, which made for a much quieter posture. VÄŤrabhadrÄ sana III was done by going from vÄŤrabhadrÄ sana I to III back and forth, in quick succession – exhausting but surprisingly effective for both balance and stamina. VÄŤrÄ sana was our next pose – thankfully as my legs needed a rest! – and we were told to take the weight towards the toe nails, away from the knees. This not only took pressure off the knees, but also made the outer shin-bone press more into the floor. We then did parvatÄ sana in vÄŤrÄ sana , pÄ rĹ›va vÄŤrÄ sana , adho mukha vÄŤrÄ sana and ended the morning session with chatoosh padÄ sana and setu bandha sarvÄ ngÄ sana .

After a lunch break, we began with supta tÄ Ä sana . By extending our arms over our heads and taking our elbows to the floor first rather than our wrists and hands, our shoulder blades moved well enabling us to straighten our arms even more. This was followed by supta pÄ dÄ ngu thÄ sana I with a belt around the front heel bone of the raised leg. We made the inner thigh of the ‘floor’ leg heavy and the outer thigh light. We spread the arches of both feet from inside to outside thus broadening the soles of the feet. In supta pÄ dÄ ngu thÄ sana II as the right leg went out to the side, we moved our right side-ribs outwards so as to elongate these side ribs. This action also broadened the abdomen, which made the pose quieter. In supta pÄ dÄ ngu thÄ sana III , the groin of the lifted leg moved down and the ‘floor’ leg as in supta pÄ dÄ ngu thÄ sana I . The action of broadening the arches was repeated again and again in these poses and I felt it just reinforced the mantra: “Feet in tÄ Ä sana for every Ä sana â€?.

We then did ĹŤrdhva prasÄ rita pÄ dÄ sana from the ground up. We were told to lift our shinbones as we raised our legs to 45 degrees, then to ‘suck the thighs down’ towards our abdomen and move our inner groins Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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to the floor, as the legs lifted to 90 degrees. This made the legs feel incredibly light and kept our lumbar spine elongated. This was followed by ja hara parivartanÄ sana in which we shifted our buttocks to the left when we took our legs to the right. This action enabled the lumbar to lengthen and the abdomen to release. The top leg was the same as supta pÄ dÄ ngu thÄ sana III .

Then came supta baddha ko Ä sana with a rolled bandage under the tailbone to open the groins. We then did mÄ lÄ sana with our legs and feet together, rolling the roots of the thighs in and taking the inner groins down. From mÄ lÄ sana we went into paripĹŤrna nÄ vÄ sana and ardha nÄ vÄ sana

wor king thighs and groins in the same way. We did baddha ko Ä sana , again with a rolled bandage under our tailbone. We lifted/coiled our tailbone and buttock bones in and moved our knees back. upasvi ha ko Ä sana was done with the bandage under the tailbone and the heel-bone supported on a brick to make the back of the legs extend and move closer to the floor. We sat in vÄŤrÄ sana and when we did parvatÄ sana in vÄŤrÄ sana , we bent our elbows, back of the hands above our head and then straightened our arms with resistance. We were told to work our upper arms and not to squeeze our elbows towards one another. In padmÄ sana , much emphasis was placed on spreading inner arches to outer arches – again that tÄ Ä sana foot.

We did paschimottÄ nÄ sana with our legs apart and came

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

forward by extending our chins forward and then taking the back of the head towards the floor. This diminished the ‘dorsal hump’ that many of us have when we come forward in forward bends. Before going into śčr Ä sana we did uttÄ nÄ sana with bent legs, ribs on our thighs and then straightened our legs. This released the spine. Broadening our arches was again stressed in śčr Ä sana and we were told to roll onto our inner forearms in order to lift our shoulders more.

In sarvÄ ngÄ sana we had to lift our outer foot bone so the outer legs lifted and we had to keep our thigh muscles from ‘dropping’ towards our faces. This made sarvÄ ngÄ sana feel very light and open. The day concluded with Ĺ›avÄ sana which was very welcome.

I think I speak for most of the attendees when I say that it was a most informative, enjoyable day and for those who haven’t been to Pune, it was a taste of the treats in store when they do decide to go.

(See Page 36 for details of IYA(UK) Convention 2008)

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BELLUR FUND RAISING: CELEBRATIONS IN CIRENCESTER ON THEIR 10 TH ANNIVERSARY

by Judith Jones wenty three years ago Judi Sweeting taught her first Iyengar yoga class in Cirencester to one student!

For thirteen years she taught classes in village halls, school halls and local authority venues until 1997 when she joined with Tig Whattler (he had been teaching in Bristol for a few years) to open the Cotswold Iyengar Yoga Centre, in a lovely Victorian Villa with an overgrown garden.

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Tig and a friend Ian worked very hard to rebuild Watermoor Villa, labouring every day on the building and teaching classes every evening for almost a year. CIYC opened its doors to 120 students. Ten years on from the opening by Jeanne Maslen in 1997, CIYC has 400 students taught by five teachers, a real success story and a testament to the quality of the system of yoga teaching which BKS Iyengar has given us.

It was decided that CIYC would hold an anniversary weekend for all the students : classes taught by Richard and Kirsten Agar Ward and Jayne Orton; a children’s demonstration; a “Yoga in Action” type talk and demonstration about “the first 5 weeks of Iyengar Yoga classes” and how from this introductory syllabus, the intermediate and senior work comes about.

The weekend arrived, it was raining, but the Pakistani Wedding tent, about to become an extra yoga space, looked beautiful with the fairy lights and soft floor on the lawn, very challenging when performing ardha chandrāsana, but wonderful for dhanurāsana ! The yoga studio was bedecked with photos and paintings of Guruji so he could honour the proceedings and a colourful banner from the emporium in F.C.Road, Pune The classes were filled to the brim with students whose ages ranged from 5 years in the children’s class, to the 87 year old Liz Keeble, known to many of you and to Guruji. To round off the event there were snacks and fireworks.

It was a very happy “Iyengar family weekend”, enjoying the classes, remembering the last 10 years of CIYC, and 18

looking forward to the next 10 years of sharing Iyengar yoga together. The entire proceeds from the weekend, over £1,000, will be donated to the Bellur Trust to help the people of Bellur, who are another Iyengar yoga family dear to Guruji’s heart. Thank you Guruji, without you, none of this would be possible.

AC TION FOR TH E BELLUR TRUS T As you will have read in previous issues of IYN, the Bellur Trust is the charity founded by B.K.S. Iyengar and his family and students in 2003 to bring “upliftment” to the villagers of Bellur where he was born.

Until recently Bellur was just one of many very poor villages in India where life is extremely harsh, even archaic, and the chance of the individual to fulfill any potential thwarted by poverty, lack of health care and educational opportunities. Basic amenities which we take for granted, like clean drinking water and decent sanitation, don’t exist.

In 2003 this was Bellur, the only public building being the primary school, built in1967 by Guruji in memory of his parents. This building was run down and most of the village houses in a state of neglect, almost dereliction.

Most of the men laboured in the surrounding stone quarries for very little money. Several years of drought had worsened the situation. Guruji had regularly visited Bellur over the years and was always distressed at the plight of the children. He had made many contributions to the school which at least provided the children with a free meal. But the villagers knew nothing about Guruji or his great achievements During the celebrations for his 80th birthday in 1998 Guruji expressed his desire to take yoga to the villages of India. He had taken yoga all over the world and now it was time to give it to the children of India. In 2003 Guruji decided to build a yoga hall over the existing primary school. This was the beginning of change.

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The Primary School project was enthusiastically received by the villagers who were willing to send their children to school for the free mid-day meal more than for education, free books or free uniforms. In return the children attended yoga classes. But Guruji’s vision of bringing yoga to Bellur had expanded. He financed the building of a temple dedicated to Patanjali – the first one in India. This provided the village with a building which would be at its “heart”, serving as a community space as well as a place for religious observances. This was 2003 – a turning point in the history of Bellur.

Guruji also wanted to improve the general health and welfare of the villagers.The Bellur Trust was constituted to undertake far reaching educational, social, health and cultural reform. Bellur was soon to become a model village in India, where the building and establishment of educational, medical, social and cultural facilities can be seen to transform the lives of village people, bringing them hope for the future of their children, improved health, self respect, and a pride for the place in which they live.

The work of the Bellur Trust has been largely funded by Guruji and the Iyengar family but also by donations from Iyengar yoga students and associations world wide. So far it has achieved the following: Provided a 50,000 gallon water tank to provide fresh clean drinking water to the villagers; Purchased 16 acres of land on the border of the village for building projects, now called Ramamani Nagar, which has road access from the village, fences, power supply and amenities. On this site has been built: The High School – to provide free education beyond primary school for girls and boys; The Ramamani Iyengar Hospital, a well equipped 20 bed day hospital also with surgical facilities and emergency care – all free of charge; A building for the establishment of cottage industries and rural crafts ; An administrative office for the Trust and a guest house for visitors to Bellur who are making a pilgrimage to the Patanjali temple or assisting in the work of the Bellur Trust Future work As many of you will know who are involved with charitable work, it is often easier to fund the building work and infrastructure than the ongoing maintenance and support.

In Bellur we need not only to support the students and Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

staff of the schools and hospitals and the maintenance of the buildings, but also further training. Many training opportunities are planned for the future: a nursing college, adult education, nurturing of traditional arts and crafts, horticulture, animal husbandry and of course yoga !

What has been done in the UK to support Bellur?

So far this year over £7,500 has been raised in the UK by individuals, centres and institutes. The most successful fundraising event was a sponsored headstand organised by one of our senior teachers. Her students responded wonderfully, not only raising £4,400 for Bellur, but improving their practice as well! Institutes and individual teachers have run charity events, and you have donated through the magazine appeal (see below) and the convention competition. Thanks to everyone who has donated!

2008 Calendar The Bellur Action Group (BAG) is producing a 2008 calendar of Silvia Prescott’s photographs of Guruji’s practice which will be sold in aid of the Bellur Trust.

Be sure to buy a copy – or more - they will make great Christmas presents !

What can you do to support Bellur?

Teach or organise a workshop over a day or a weekend from which all profits could be donated to Bellur Trust.

Help to promote the Bellur Trust to your students and friends to see if they would like to make individual donations. Ask the main office for information to hand out.

Donate by post. IYA (UK) will transfer all funds to the Bellur Trust on your behalf. Whether you are an affiliated institute or private centre or friend of IYA you can make an individual donation.

Organise a special fundraising event such as a coffee (or chai) morning for the neighbours!

Bellur Fundraising Materials If you would like to receive flyers, artwork, pamphlets or a sponsorship form to help you to set up an Iyengar yoga workshop or event to raise funds for Bellur, please contact the main office: admin@iyengaryoga.org.uk tel: 020 8997 6029

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The pictures show Guruji awarding certificates to yoga students, and the boys and girls of the Ramamani Iyengar High School, whose lives have the potential to be transformed by the opportunities that the school has provided.

Winners of the June 2007 Convention/Bellur competition 1st Prize: 1 free entry to the June 2007 Saturday & Sunday weekend convention - goes to Maria Bird in Berkshire.

2nd Prize: 1 free week of general classes OR 1 free weekend event at North Surrey Centre for Iyengar Yoga goes to Maria Zervudachi in East Sussex.

3rd Prize: 1 free copy of the book: Light on Life goes to Nick Johnson in North Shields, Tyne & Wear.

Congratulations to the prize winners! Thank you to everyone who entered the competition, the proceeds of which went to BKS Iyengar’s charity for Bellur.

Bellur Trust Donation Form

Please cut out this slip and post with your donation to: IYA (UK), PO Box 54151, London, W5 9DH. All cheques & postal orders payable to: IYA (UK) * Name: ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…..……... (can be individual name or organisation) Address:…………………………………………………………………………………...………..……..….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………….……………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……

Tel:…………………………………………………………………………………………………..………..

E-mail: ………………………………………………………...……………………………………………...

Amount donated : ……………………….. Date: …………………………………….

Would you like your name to be listed?

Y/N

Would you prefer to remain anonymous?

Y/N

* Due to Indian Government regulations, the Trust is unable to accept donations from any individuals, centres or institutes that have not been officially ratified, so please send your donations to IYA(UK) for forwarding.

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IYENGAR YOGA STUDIOS BATH IYENGAR YOGA STUDIO he new Bath Iyengar Yoga Centre opened its doors for classes in April 2006. Tucked away in a quiet riverside enclave in the heart of Bath, yet only a few minutes walk from the mainline railway station it is a beautiful space, with a contemporary style and fully equipped for yoga.

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We were delighted that teacher and friend Faeq Biria agreed to help inaugurate and bless the centre on 2nd September with a special puja ceremony. Puja is intended to bring auspiciousness on a new venture and build on its foundations as Faeq explained in his address at the inauguration to ourselves and invited guests and pupils.

We settled in Bath in 1999 and established a small yoga studio in our home and also taught in various local halls, but soon realized it was necessary to expand. We feel the subject and those who study it deserve a clean, properly equipped, dedicated yoga space. There is a positive vibration that comes from having a space devoted solely to yoga and our revered Guruji’s teachings. The aims of the centre are to bring health, happiness and peace to its students according to the purity of Guruji’s teaching.

Richard started Iyengar Yoga whilst an undergraduate at Oxford University and was extremely fortunate to be taught directly by Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar after only having practised for one year, during Guruji’s visit to London in 1976. He was then doubly fortunate to visit Pune for an intensive course for the first time in 1977.

After completing his degree he began teaching Iyengar Yoga full time and has never looked back. “Once I took up Iyengar Yoga I knew that I didn’t want to follow any other way of life and I felt that becoming a teacher of Yoga could be a way to pass on some of the benefits of this wonderful subject to people.” Kirsten also studied at Oxford, graduating in Experimental Psychology, and then working as an Educational Psychologist for 10 years before taking up Iyengar Yoga teaching full time. “To a great extent I see what I do now as a natural progression from my previous work. However, I find that Yoga offers a more complete understanding of what it is to be human, since it puts spirituality at the heart of things.”

It was a joy to begin the Centre’s inauguration proceedIyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

ings by reading out an affectionate and encouraging letter from Guruji. Faeq explained that puja, although it is a spiritual and religious ceremony, is not an invitation to join a particular religion. We were making it in order to invoke different energies connected with yoga, but also connected to God, to further the aims of the centre. He quoted and translated an ancient Sanskrit sloka which expresses the vision of yoga about prayer - ”Just as the rains which come from the sky one day join the ocean, whatever prayer you do to whatever God, in your heart you are praying to the one God.” In this sense puja is universal and not religious in the sense of sectarian.

The puja began auspiciously with special threads from the temple being tied around our wrists for our spiritual engagement with the venture. They were to be left until they eventually wear away (Richard’s is still there ten months later). Next the images of the deities were garlanded and flowers were offered and scattered. Then a coconut was broken on the doorstep and brought in as an offering. The whole gathering chanted the sacred syllable Aum whilst candles and a three-wick lamp were lit. The three lights symbolize the three moods or strands of nature – sattva, rajas and tamas. Incense was burned and circled in front of the images and a bell rung.Turmeric and red kum kum powder were applied to the deities and also on the family’s foreheads and all present were invited to join in.

Following this, invocations to the various deities were chanted by those present who knew them. We commenced with the invocation to the Guru since without the teaching of the Guru we will never be guided towards God. There was also an invocation to Lord Ganesha. He is the most well known god in India, the son of Parvati and Shiva. Our first requirement on the spiritual path is to find the strength not to stop because of obstacles and it is Ganesha, as the elephant-headed god - a symbol of the energy of the universe which squashes and smashes the obstacles on the spiritual path - who provides the practitioner with the energy to remove the obstacles and practice. Prayers in the puja were also offered to Vishnu in the form of Lord Venkateshwara. As Faeq explained, according to the traditions of yoga, the science of yoga sprouted from the navel of Lord Vishnu at the same time as the world came from transcendence to immanence in the form of a lotus also from Lord Vishnu’s 21

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navel. Prayers were also offered to the Goddess Laxmi, Vishnu’s consort who is very important for yogis. Also felicitated were Lord Brahma, the Creator and Lord Hanuman. the symbol of the pure devotee and the supreme master of pranayama. Of course invocations were offered to Lord Patanjali in the form of Adisesa (composed by Vyasa) as well as the invocation to Patanjali all Iyengar practitioners know from the beginning of classes. Although legendary, Patanjali appears actually to have lived on earth around 2,500 years ago and he codified the entire system of Yoga into just 196 sutras. It was our Guruji who helped most of all to recognize Patanjali‘s divinity and he was the first to settle a puja for Patanjali and he built the only temple in India which is dedicated to Patanjali. There were also several repetitions of the very important Gayatri Mantra, mantras for peace and for good wishes.

After the invocations camphor was burned for purification accompanied by an invocation composed by Guruji’s ancestor and which is often used in most great South Indian temples. The vessel bearing the burning camphor was passed in front of everyone present who placed their hands over the smoke and over their faces while making the vow that through the practice of yoga each would burn away the impurities of the body and mind as easily as the camphor burns away. Then Faeq chanted some slokas from the Bhagavad Gita that Guruji loves most.

Then Faeq, Richard and Kirsten pranam-ed (prostrated) in front of the images.

Afterwards prasad in the form of Indian sweets was distributed amongst all those present and a splendid South Indian vegetarian meal served to the guests. Guests and well-wishers kindly donated £1200 for Guruji’s Bellur Trust.

It was a beautiful ceremony which touched the hearts of all. We are truly fortunate to have been taught directly by BKS Iyengar and his family and now to be able to provide this centre, better to share Yoga with others. We aim to share what we have learned with purity, sincerity and love and help people to experience the wonderful gift of the

art, science and philosophy of yoga.

See www.bath-iyengar-yoga.com for more information and details of upcoming special events.

Bath Iyengar Yoga Centre is at Beehive Yard, Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BT. Tel: 01225 319699 22

THE IYENGAR YOGA STUDIO IN EAST FINCHLEY We opened The Iyengar Yoga Studio in East Finchley in January 2007, nearly ten years after we first discussed the idea. It was a great day even though our under- floor heating was behaving a little eccentrically, the floorboards in the studio weren’t as level as they should have been and we couldn’t always unlock the front door. This was the culmination of a lot of dreaming, some earlier unsuccessful attempts to acquire premises and nearly four years of difficult negotiations and legal wrangling. We were feeling very jolly.

Gene Dicker, Patsy Sparksman and I first talked about finding or building a yoga studio nearly ten years ago. We were in Pune for Guruji’s 80th birthday celebrations, sharing a room at the Pride Hotel, and free enough from the daily round to dream a little. Neither Gene nor I had started training as teachers, but we had young families and we were always fantasizing about having somewhere light and serene where we could practice yoga undisturbed. In contrast, Patsy’s needs were real and pressing.

As an experienced teacher using her home for a lot of classes she and her family were keen to reclaim their sitting room.

Back in England, mundane priorities reasserted themselves and nothing much happened for a few years until a possible site caught our attention and we began to think in more concrete terms about what we could actually do.

Two missed opportunities later, we stumbled across our current site when it was just a derelict and disused shed joined to the road system by a narrow right of way piled high with rubble, and fly-tipped waste.

We were thrilled. It seemed ideal. We did look before we leaped, but not for very long. The site was close to home and we would have a chance to build something bespoke and beautiful rather than having to adapt a building designed for some other purpose. It felt lucky and we were certain that all obstacles would fall away.

They didn’t of course. In fact, they multiplied and wove themselves around us in tangled webs until we felt we would never escape. We learned that a seemingly neglected and unloved site in a popular residential area can be like a sleeping crocodile pretending to be an old log while lying in wait for unsuspecting passers by. And that most such plots have more than one determined set Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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of sights trained on them. It took nearly four years for us to open the studio and lots of effort, frustration, work, emotional energy, patience and – of course – money.

During the time it took to build, long term local residents kept a watchful eye on progress.They were excited that an eyesore and local trouble spot was being put to rights, but not certain about how it might affect their lives. No one knew much about yoga, some people thought that they might be disturbed by music and chanting, and everyone was worried about increased pressure on local parking. We were aware that the tight community had concerns and we had to be prepared to spend time letting people know what was going on and generally reassuring them.

Technically, it was a difficult build that used every inch of the restricted site.The side-walls almost touch the boundaries of the plot and had to be constructed entirely from inside the building as did much of the complex roof with its sky lights carefully designed to let in lots of diffused light. We were incredibly lucky with our architect Dean Hawkes who not only gave us a beautiful design but also the benefit of his experience as a project manager.

Dean visited the site every week, closely monitored and minuted progress and was always calm and sensible, especially when we weren’t. Whenever things were particularly difficult he fed us pleasurable distractions like designing a bench for the lobby or choosing paint colours. Dean kept us going and we are very grateful to him.

Five months after opening the studio we have a lot of very busy classes and others are growing as news about the Studio gets about. Being in the middle of a residential area, the studio gives a lot of people the chance to attend classes close to home and in some cases this makes the difference between learning and not learning yoga.

We are still getting used to the building, still sorting out practical problems and still learning about working together. We are waiting for our wall ropes and have more to do at the front of the site. But our students love the studio and we have a great sense of achievement every time we walk through the front door, every time we start a class and every time we begin our own practice in the space that we first dreamed about a decade ago.

We are very proud of the letter from Guruji that grants us permission to use his name.

The IyengarYoga Studio in East Finchley is run by Patsy Sparksman, Gene Dicker and Wendy Sykes. Contact details as follows: The Iyengar Yoga Studi, Yoga House, Leicester Roa, East Finchley. N2 9EA Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Tel: 0208 815 1918 Info@tiys.co.uk www.tiys.co.uk

SARVA CENTRE GRAND OPENING The official opening of the two new studios at the Sarva Iyengar Yoga Institute took place on Sunday 6th May. The Oakwood and Rosewood studios have been operational since October 2006, but what with Introductory Level 2 and Junior Intermediate Assessments, teacher training, workshops and various other commitments for the very busy co-founders, Sheila Haswell and Ally Hill, the official opening has been delayed until now.

As we approached Sarva on the morning of the opening we were feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. To be taught by an advanced teacher, Jeanne Maslen, in a class with established teachers - we just hoped our bodies would not let us down.

On the journey there we mused how great it must be to realise the dream of opening a yoga centre; to have overcome the obstacles, with the hard work now over. We have watched the development of Sarva from centre to institute, converting the upstairs, converting the downstairs, removing the hippies from the car park. What an achievement, what a lovely space to have created!

We visit Sarva regularly as we are teacher trainees and, having attended yoga classes and workshops elsewhere, we realise just how lucky we are to have a fully equipped yoga institute so close by. But Sarva is more than that, and we do not just mean the coffee lounge. Perhaps it is down to the family involvement (not forgetting Jo’s home-made flapjacks and cakes) which makes visiting Sarva feel like being at a friend’s house. On the Tuesday night before the opening Sheila had said she was delighted that she had managed to hem the curtains in the coffee lounge, but there was a lot still to do. On the day itself everything looked great. We noticed that her beautiful Om carvings had made their way onto the walls after all and that even the Ganesha statue was sporting a chrysanthemum garland.

Before the class we saw Jeanne double-checking her lesson plan. This was most encouraging to novice teachers like us.

The class started, as usual, with the Invocation which Sheila led. This time, with over forty voices, it was quite overwhelming, and very uplifting, creating a sense of oneness with our fellow yogis. When she began teaching, Jeanne’s voice was calm and still, with no trace of arrogance or ego. It had a resonance which enforced her experience and understanding of the subject. She promised us “something of everything” and she did not disappoint.

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remain alert during śavāsana though - it must have been the promise of lunch!

Before we could tuck into the delicious homemade vegetarian buffet we charged our glasses and, for the first (and probably the last time), took them back into the Oakwood Studio for the formal ceremony. Sheila and Ally talked us through their incredible journey creating Sarva and thanked everyone who had helped them along the way. We particularly liked the anecdote of the strange requests given to the tradesmen, “No, we don’t want any radiators and please ensure that the lights are too high to kick!”

The familiar limbering poses of adho mukha vīrāsana , adho mukha śvānāsana and uttānāsana helped steady the nerves; then there was a jumping series to warm us up. Then forward bends! Just as our hamstrings were asking what had happened to the standing poses we realised this sequence was giving good results. There was krounchāsana as a preparation for triang mukhaikapāda paschimottānāsana , stretching to our full extent then releasing, to stretch fully again after a few moments. The class was long enough to allow us to be patient with the body, to encourage it to release into poses. There was time to let the tension go and to achieve more.

Then it was onto standing poses. Not the more scary ones but triko āsana , pārśvako āsana and pārśvottānāsana . Followed by handstand and headstand, after which it was preparation for backbends with supports.

Working first with bolsters and chairs at the wall really helped when it came to lifting up from the floor, as we found this improved the extension of the arms. Before the class began Sheila had said it was the largest class there had been in the Oakwood Studio and amazingly there were enough bolsters for everyone! Next it was paschimottānāsana with a belt and bricks between the knees, then just above the ankles. Then reaching for the brick placed behind the feet, looking up and working on the extension of the front body all the while.

We could then hear the unmistakable noises of a party starting as Margaret Austin’s general class had finished. It was hugely reassuring to know that even the best of teachers can run over time a little. No one minded, and we certainly did not, as we had gained the benefit of a perfectly balanced programme and learnt so much. By this stage however, nearly four hours later, our bodies were beginning to remind us of our mortality as our thighs shook in the elevated halāsana . We did manage to 24

Jeanne Maslen formally opened the Lilian Biggs Library which is a valuable reference resource, including an extensive collection of yoga magazines generously donated by Dr Elizabeth De Michelis. Yoga Matters have also promised to donate some texts. The Sarva shop was opened

by Margaret Austin and we can highly recommend it as it is full of useful yoga goodies.

As we devoured a most gorgeous lunch we reflected on the large picture of Lilian (Sheila’s Mum) with Guruji that had been looking over us that morning. We like to think that both of them were somehow with us at Sarva’s

Grand Opening.

Written by Emma Catling and Evelyn Crosskey Photos by Lynne Couchara

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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TAKING YOGA TO NEW PLACES

by Sam Robb-King uring the past year 4 intrepid yoga teachers have started teaching people who would not normally feel able to experience yoga for social, economic or cultural reasons. The classes have been funded by the Iyengar Yoga Development Fund which managed the fees teachers pay for use of the Certification Mark. 60% of this money goes towards development projects in Bellur, India. The remaining 40% is for projects in England. The teachers are paid £40 per class by IYDF allowing them to not charge the student. The IYDF committed to funding the classes indefinitely to give teachers the opportunity to establish a successful class.

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The project began by asking those teachers who expressed interest in the project to identify an organisation in their local community who they had an interest in working with. The teacher then approached the organisation, arranged a venue (which was provided free of charge by the organisation), dates for classes and the appropriate support for the group of people they would be teaching. The initial development work ensured the class was arranged in the way that best suited the teacher, prospective students and host organisation. The resulting 4 classes have now been running a few weeks and we can begin to learn from our experiences and determine how they are going to continue.

Korinna Pilafidis-Williams is teaching at Oak Lodge School, London, a state run special needs school with 160 pupils aged between 11-18. Korinna teaches two groups of students: a larger group of Year 10 and 11 pupils, as well as sixth form students, including students with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) such as mild autism , and also including two sisters with a rare congenital syndrome (Marinesco Sjogren) that affects their balance, eyes and muscle tone.

A smaller group is made up of 11-13 year olds and includes two Downs syndrome kids and others with MLD. Most of them wanted to do yoga and others had been selected by the PE teacher. One Downs syndrome boy joined the class so he could practise with his mum who also goes to yoga classes.

Korinna’s first aim was to improve their concentration and coordination. The orientation of their bodies and how to turn their legs is very difficult for them, and left and right Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

sides are rarely understood. ‘It is absolutely essential for me to be at the front of the class so any adjustment has to be made by the helper. For the first few weeks there have been lessons where it was an achievement just to have them face me. They are also very keen that I keep to the order of the poses and do not alter them.’ As expected it is a slow process but improvements are clearly visible in those kids who have come regularly.

Most importantly most of them are now able to finish their session in Savasana.

Korinna has enjoyed the sheer challenge teaching special needs kids, ‘since their enthusiasm and the honesty are even greater than I expected, I know exactly when they like or dislike something; there is no pretending. The kids are teaching me a lot and I have come to realise what we take for granted in a regular class. The initial slight mistrust of something new quickly vanished and now we crack jokes and they also tell me when they find something too difficult or boring. Before the classes began I was not sure what to expect but now I walk into the class and I often don’t feel I am in a special needs school.

Ailsa Peck is teaching at the Borders Carer’s Project, Galasheils. The class is made up of unpaid carers who are looking after friends or family members who require full or part time care and support to live at home. Carers typically suffer from isolation, stress and are often unable to work.

The class ranged in age from about 40 to 80 years with some who were very agile and others very stiff. One (aged 78) had done yoga before, the rest were new to it.

The classes were offered weekly for 8 weeks and attendance was high. The main reason that a couple dropped out was that they couldn’t get up and down from the floor. Most managed very well and enjoyed the challenge, but did need a lot of equipment for support .

‘My aim was to ensure that the group had a positive experience and felt that they were getting time for themselves’. Because of the high stress levels of some students the classes included fewer standing postures than usual in beginners classes and allowed for recuperative postures and ten minutes of śavāsana , Each class was followed by a drink and a biscuit so that students had time for a chat and to ask questions and just generally talk about how 25

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things are. This is all part of the supportive nature of the group.

Ailsa found that older people are great fun and willing to have a go and ask questions when they don’t understand, however there was a disadvantage in people already knowing each other because they chat making it difficult to keep them focused.

Fiona Fallon is teaching at the Key Centre, Somerset a community health centre for women and children in a disadvantaged rural area. Fiona’s more regular students to date are made up of 2 families, a mother and daughter and a mother with 2 children and their grandmother, others have come and gone. Each person who has come to the class had something to declare on the medical form that requires special care, making it more of a challenge, since they are all beginners as well!

This class is different from the other 3 in that it drew its students from the estate, but these people did not necessarily know each other, making the class dynamics more difficult to establish. ‘the challenge of this class has been to present yoga afresh to new people each week, hoping to inspire, help and enthuse them to return’. This was in contrast to the experience of teaching a regular established class in which newcomers can be carried along by more experienced students.

skin conditions. The challenge for Myka has been in finding a balance between teaching the Iyengar method correctly without unnecessarily alienating students by being too demanding, too soon. So far she has found that these students are generally inquisitive and enthusiastic, and their commitment to make positive changes in their lives shows on the mat.

As these 4 classes evolve, the potential for the IYDF project is slowly becoming apparent and we are currently developing a further 4 classes with teachers who have registered interest. The challenge for the future will be to ensure the project continues to meet genuine need and to ensure that the benefits these classes bring to new Iyengar Yoga students is available for as long as they want to continue practising.

The final word has to go to Korinna’s student Chris who told us on his evaluation form that he ‘can do it’. What more could we ask for?

Initial concerns over the 2 children in the class were misplaced and Fiona ‘really enjoyed their presence because they inspired me to teach with them in mind’.

Students at the Key Centre were charged £1 per class in agreement with the host organisation, although they have recently volunteered to pay more because they enjoyed the classes so much.

Myka Ransom is teaching at the Multiple Choice Drug Rehabilitation Centre, Leeds, a community day programme aimed at assisting individuals to resolve issues regarding their drug use. Myka is currently on week 4 of an 8-week schedule.

The students have been in the early stages of recovering from drug addiction and therefore quite weak so Myka planned the lessons to be gentler than a normal beginners class. In addition, she has adopted a more relaxed attitude towards certain requests, for example, allowing students to keep their socks on for the first lesson due to 26

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DESERT ISLAND ASANAS Laura Potts interviews Liz Ballantyne, an Iyengar yoga student for thirty years, who teaches in Edinburgh. he idea for this feature for IYA News came from a conversation I had with a dear friend, Pat Spallone.

We were talking about the healing joys of restorative postures, and supta vīrāsana in particular; ‘oh yes!’ she said, ‘my desert island āsana !’ And so I began to think it might be interesting to ask some other yoga practitioners what their desert island āsanas would be, allowing just eight, as the classic Radio 4 programme allows eight discs, plus a favourite book and a luxury. Liz Ballantyne kindly agreed to be the first castaway; here is her selection.

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Take us to the beginning: which are the first āsanas that you would choose to take with you if you were marooned on this desert island, with only eight to sustain you?

I’d have to start with the sequence adho mukha vīrāsana, adho mukha śvānāsana and uttānāsana , because it prepares so well for practice, and links me to Pune and Geeta’s teaching. There’s so much in them. With adho mukha vīrāsana, I like the release it gives you, while still being quite inward and quiet. And adho mukha śvānāsana links with so many postures, all with different points, and it’s one of those homecoming postures that gathers you together.

And then triko āsana because it’s one of the first poses you are taught, so it’s a core, a constant in that sense. As the start of a practice, it always seems like a welcome: it starts me up. Yet every time is different: the unfamiliar familiar. The realization of the scope of it was from Prashant’s teaching, in his book The Alpha and Omega of Trikonasana.

It’s a pose that comes back to me when I need complete relaxation and undoing and centring. And if you were stranded on this desert island…then I would find some stones to support me in the pose, because I would need it. I like the connection with the Indian legends and stories too; it’s named after Bhisma, who had a couch of arrowheads that he would lie on in preparation for battle, because it centred his attention, his energy and focus, and that’s precisely what the pose does in time of stress. It’s one of these poses that feels almost complete within itself; I used it quite often when my mother was ill and I didn’t have much time to practise – that’s the kind of time when these poses come into their own.

Is there another that you couldn’t live without?

I would have to take something like pā āsana , just because it would give me something to work at every single day I was there! When you’re asked to choose your favourite poses, you tend to go for poses that bring joy, and I think it’s good to go for poses that you need to explore and are challenging – though I suppose living on a desert island is challenging enough!

When you go on to think of other postures then it’s difficult to choose: you have to take śīr āsana and sarvāngāsana as given, the classics – like the bible and Shakespeare if you like! – they’d have to be there.

Sarvāngāsana is a pose I’ve always enjoyed, with its variations. I remember in Pune, doing sarvāngāsana with all these strong Australian guys around me, and it was the first time I realized that you can’t do from strength – it has to come from alignment.

What kind of revelations did that bring you, what rests with you from that teaching? Did it change your relationship to triko āsana ?

It was the first time I thought of working from different centres in the body.

Are there any stories in your selection here that connect with your own yoga biography?

After the core āsanas , I come to poses that are little jewels that crop up at different times, like bhismāsana .

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

We did a long sarvāngāsana , Geeta kept us ages, and they were wilting but the middle-aged women, who had 27

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felt rather looked down on, tended to find they could stay.

The revelation at the time was that alignment and mindfulness was what sustained the āsanas and what brought quietness – working alongside the increasing effort from those guys.

And śīr āsana is such a barometer of the one’s state of being and state of mind. A memorable time was Guruji demonstrating on me for a visitor, how fearful we are of going into the unknown. And he was absolutely right! It was such a privilege to be in the right place at the right time – even if it felt like the wrong place and the wrong time! His amazing tolerance: he kept me there against a pillar, talking about fear with the visitor, and he said ‘see here’. I was demonstrating what he wanted to show, that I wouldn’t and couldn’t go into that unknown area. It was a time of my life when I was coming up to uncharted areas, and resisting; it took a long time for what he was saying to percolate through. It’s a pose that’s changed constantly in relation to where one is in one’s life, and it was a huge step when that message came through.

Yoga teaches you when you are keeping control: there are times when it’s right and necessary to do that, when you don’t have the resources. Going into the menopause was the start of my real problems with śīr āsana : this body and the future you don’t know. It’s been good for me: the ego just went and it taught me to do the āsanas , do my practice, with what was right and relevant at the time. Like Prashant’s phrase: ‘happiness is to want what you get’ – accepting what comes.

So you will have the bible – Light on Yoga – and the complete works of Guruji, so what other book would you like to take?

I would take Prashant’s Alpha and Omega: there’s a lifetime of his work there, and a lifetime’s work to learn.

And you can have a luxury, something that would make it better to be there.

I would like to have a saw; I assume there will be trees on this island, and then I could learn to make my own yoga props.

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YOGASHASTRA A BOOK REVIEW

by Sunita Iyengar Teachers who have not recently been to Pune will be interested to know that a new text-book for children has been brought out by RIMYI and YOG. In the 1980’s there were discussions about having a Yoga examination for young students. It was not until 1998 or 1999 that this actually materialised with a syllabus and an examination. Guruji had given a syllabus for 5 examinations. The teachers at the Pune Institute, LOYRT and Sunita Iyengar under the guidance of Geeta and Gurujee got together and planned the first text-book which has now been published with four more to follow.

BOOK 1 After an interesting introduction the book is divided into five parts.

Part 1 explains how to sit to recite the prayer to Patanjali, gives a brief sketch of his life and a history of Yoga.

Part 2 has ten stories to help the children understand the values of yama and niyama .

Part 3 is about āsana with their names, meaning, significance and technique.

Part 4 is a guide for practice.

Part 5 is a workbook for home study.

The book is written in English and requires quite a substantial knowledge of the language and also of Sanskrit. I think it will appeal to many western teachers even if they have no plans to teach children as it is of interest for the stories, the lesson plans and the Sanskrit. I wonder how many of us would immediately and quickly give the meaning of a list of 40 words – and this is in the first volume. For those who do teach children the books will be an invaluable resource both in the preparation of sequences of poses for lessons and in giving hints on how to help children remember their Sanskrit names.

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B A C K T O B A S I C S: S I R S A S A N A

by Arti H Mehta

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he hallmark of Guruji’s method of teaching is the precision and clarity of instructions. Geetaji has her own eye for perfection and observation of the minutest details along with the inheritance of Guruji’s traits. She sees to it that one and all present in her classes get the essence of yoga by her series of clear, simple, sequential instructions. During the Yog-Sadhana celebrations in December 2004, she emphasised on the basics and how to attain a firm foundation in our practices. Arti H Mehta transcribed and compiled her teachings for doing śčr Ä sana .

Placing of the forearms Interlock the fingers. The outer edge of the forearm bone should be firmly placed on the blanket. The flesh of the forearm touches the floor easily, but not the bone. Keep the bone in contact with the floor and let the flesh spread.

The skin of the front of the forearm drops, keep it up.

The portion of the forearm facing the ceiling should not turn out, but keep it straight.

Errors that can be avoided while taking the legs up The elbows should face forward.

The forearms must not shift from their position.

Pressurise the lower arms down on the blanket as you take the legs up.

Adjusting the upper arms Press the forearms down and then lift the upper arms up and forward.

Ensure that the upper arms stand on the forearms.

Space is created between the clavicles when the upper arms come forward.

The fibres in the upper arms have to come closer to the bone by expanding the flesh.

Rotate and move the inner armpits forwards.

Adjusting the head and face As one takes the legs up in śčr Ä sana , the force of the body moves the head and face forward. Therefore after going up: Move the head back to its original position.

Allow the face to recede back.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

“The front of the armpit should move like an arrow in śčr Ä sana and the back of the armpit should move like an arrow in prÄ Ä yÄ ma â€?.

Keep the back of the epic of the brain in line with the base of the brain.

Do not allow the skull to oscillate forward or backward as you breathe.

Adjusting the chest The upper part of the chest must move forward. The sensation in this region should be similar to the sensation that is felt when one is going to do vÄŤparita da Ä sana from śčr Ä sana .

Adjusting the floating ribs The skin above the floating ribs should massage the floating ribs.

Lengthen and extend the skin near the floating ribs, so they do not come forward aggressively.

Do not allow the bottom false [floating] ribs to project out.

Move the frontal bottom ribs backwards so that the back ribs spread out.

Observation of the abdomen The abdomen should not get puffed.

Do not allow the lower portion of the abdomen to drop inwards.

Adjustment of the diaphragm Sit as if you are sitting for prÄ Ä yÄ ma . Do antara kumbhaka and watch how the diaphragm and the skin rub the floating ribs for them to remain stable. The skin massages 29

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your floating ribs. This should be the action and the sensation that is felt in śīr āsana .

Normally in śīr āsana you massage the skin with the rib bones, but it is the opposite of that which has to be done and kumbhaka is the guide.

“The skin guides your floating ribs.

The movement of the skin in kumbhaka is the action in śīr āsana ”. This is how prā āyāma teaches us āsana .

Adjustment of the tailbone The tailbone should not project back. Move it in and then lengthen it towards the heel.

The anterior tailbone should move towards the posterior tailbone and the frontal tailbone should be longer than the back.

Adjustment of the hips Contact the hips and move the outer hips closer to the inner thighs.

The outer sides of the buttocks should move closer to the inner buttocks and the groins.

Move the outer hips closer to the inner thighs.

Adjustment of the feet and toes Touch the big toes.

Turn the metatarsals in for the toes to touch each other.

Press the toes especially the outer sides of the nails and then lift the skin of the toes up.

Adjustment of the heels Roll the inner heal towards the outer heel.

Do not narrow the back of the heel. Raise the inner heels up and do not let them shrink into the body.

Lift the inner heels and inner thighs up.

What is correct śīr āsana ?

The hemispheres of the brain should run parallel to each other. The distance from the centre of the skull should not be longer on one side and shorter on the other side.

So place the centre of the head in such a manner that all four hemispheres of the brain can do their job separately.

For this the back neck and front neck corners should be parallel.

How can you find out if the hemisphere of the brain runs parallel?

If the front tip is longer then you have contracted the hemispheres of the front brain. If you extend the back of the neck and back hemispheres of the brain are above the floor. Just like the stem of a ripe fruit which is perpendicular to the floor, in śīr āsana , the body should be perpendicular so that the arms, the legs, the back of the legs, the front of the legs, the side of the legs and the body floats on the four edges of the hemispheres of the brain.

That is correct śīr āsana .

Adjustment to the thighs and knees Keep the groins parallel to each other.

Cut the outer thighs inwards.

Move the outer side of the femur bone in and lift the pelvic up.

The eyes control your thighs. If your eyes turn then your buttocks and thighs give way.

Broaden the back of the thighs and narrow the front of the thighs.

Broaden the lower thigh muscles from side to side.

Broaden the back of the knees.

Adjustment of the calf muscles Move the inner side of the calf muscles back.

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ASTANGA YOGA IN URDHVA MUKHA SVANASANA Part Two of an article taken from Yoga Rahasya Vol 10 Compiled by Arti H Mehta from Gurujis teachings at the 80th Birthday and Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Institute n the last issue of Yoga Rahasya [editor’s note: the first part of this article was also published in the last issue of Iyengar Yoga News], we described the different methods of making subtle adjustments in ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana . We continue with some more methods that have been described by Guruji during his teachings. The methodology of going into an Ä sana and the subtle adjustments to be made vary depending upon what is to be done before or after this Ä sana .

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leg. When you do ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sa , the energy descends in the inner legs. This means the attention has gone, the Ĺ›akti [capacity] has also gone.

Turn the outer chip of the knee slowly towards the floor and watch what happens to the inner corner? It lifts up.

The percolation that you get in the inner leg from the buttock to the heel by rolling the outer knee cap in is the stretch that you should get in śčr Ä sana . This is a very pleasant sensation.

For example, ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana . helps one to learn śčr Ä sana while chaturanga da Ä sana helps one to learn the leg action in ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana . These aspects are being covered in this article, which has to be read in conjunction with Light on Yoga and Yoga In Action.

Attempt 6: ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sa to learn śčr Ä sana One faces problems in śčr Ä sana and sarvÄ ngÄ sana because the inner upper arms are shorter than the outer upper arm which are longer. The correct action of the Inner upper arm for śčr Ä sana and sarvÄ ngÄ sana can be learnt in ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana .. .

After placing the arms in ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ s a, turn the biceps from inside out. As you lift the outer upper arm upwards from the elbow also lift the inner upper arm upwards. Length is created in the inner upper arm.

The inner upper arm is not intelligent. It Is made intelligent by using the brick for your palms which allows your inner upper arms to go up. Observe how the fibres work, how the soma works. Observe where the energy is flowing and where the intelligence is feeling the soma .

All this knowledge comes from the soma - the peripheral part. Open the middle of the palms on either sides like the wings of a bird and observe how the entire body works.

Attempt 7: Learning ĹŤrdhva mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sa from chaturanga da Ä sana

In chaturanga da Ä sana , the energy ascends in the inner Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Adjusting the palms Lie down and place the palms on the floor. Watch the mounts of the thumbs of both the palms. The thumb whose mount is broad touches the floor while the one that is narrow does not touch.

The energy of one thumb moves towards the body while that of the other moves towards the periphery.

Touch the mounts of all the fingers including the thumb and little finger on the floor and feel its effect on the spine.

When the energy of the thumb moves backwards instead of forward, it means that the back of the arm is not lifted.

The inner biceps do not lift. Move from the inner biceps to the top of biceps.

Adjusting the legs Feel how the energy moves in the bottom of the inner calf muscles when you are lying down. It touches the skin. Maintaining this, watch the outer knee, whether it is in or out. It is out. Watch whether the foot is out or in 31

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the middle line. Why is it that the knee moved out when the foot is in the middle line? Question yourselves.

Maintain the elongation of the calf muscles as you go up into the āsana .

When you are on the floor, the part of the metatarsal that touches the floor should continue to touch as you go into the pose.

Adjust the legs such that there is a straight line from the middle of the metatarsals to the middle of the ankle to the middle of the knee to the middle of the thigh, middle of the pelvic girdle.

The skin crumbles on the inner side of the calf muscles.

Extend the inner side of the metatarsal to open it. The action that is learnt on the legs should be retained in

"ūrdhva mukha śvānāsana seems simple in appearance but requires tremendous purging of the intelligence to do it accurately. "

śīr āsana.

Attempt 8: Going into the asana Touch all middle of the knuckles of all the toes evenly on the floor. See that the centre part of the knuckle and not the inner or outer side is touching. Go into the āsana without disturbing the weight on the knuckles.

Holding there firmly lengthen the skin from the ankle to the pelvic girdle by pressing the knuckles further into the floor. These connections are very difficult and require a meditative mind.

As you lift the head to come up, dip the bottom of the centre of the arch as well as the heel of the arch.

Create space between the root of all the toes, broaden in this region as you go up.

When in the āsana and coming out Move the chest so that the collar bones are slightly higher than the scapula. Create space between the neck and the deltoids.

The outer biceps tend to be higher than the inner. So press the thumb side of the palms down for the inner biceps to lift up.

The centre of the diaphragm is higher than the outer side of the diaphragm. Lift the outer side of the diaphragm by raising the outer spine and not the centre of the spine.

The little toe knuckle gets lifted. Get the outer side of the little toe to touch the floor. Then the lumbar becomes broad and lifts vertically up.

Harden and alert the mounts of the toes when you come down. 1 Pressuring the toe bones, lengthen the skin of the lumbar when you come down.

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Attempt 9: Learning the arm action in ūrdhva mukha śvānāsana from ūrdhva hastāsana Without learning the perfect stretch of the arms, one cannot do ūrdhva mukha śvānāsana .

Stretch the arms up with the palms facing each other.

The back descends while the rest of the body ascends.

Lock the elbow joint, lift the socket of the shoulder slightly towards the biceps and feel the freedom that is created.

When you stretch, only the thumb goes up, the back body descends down. Lock the elbow and feel the deltoids. Lift the deltoid muscles (top inner back of the shoulder up) and feel the freedom that is generated 'the shoulders. That is the arm stretch in ūrdhva mukha śvānāsana .

Lift the outer side of the armpit till it runs parallel to the inner armpit. This lift cannot come till you lock the elbow joint. Then lift up from middle of the palm.

Preparation for going into the pose: (with the help of bricks).

The placement of the palms varies with respect to the defects in the arms: Place the palms on a brick each and adjust them in such a way that there is room between the chest and the arm. Maintain space between the sides of the chest and the arm.

The length of the inner upper arm is lesser than the outer upper arm. Turn the palms side ways to educate the inner upper arms. This is important for people who have problems with the trapezium muscles and stiffness in the shoulder blades.

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People can learn to straighten their elbows by placing the wrists on the edge of the bricks with the fingers pointing towards the body.

Those who cannot lift the chest or are stiff can raise the height of the bricks.

Learning the action on the legs in ūrdhva mukha śvānāsa from vīrabhadrāsana I The action on the back leg, especially the calf muscles, in vīrabhadrāsana I and the legs in ūrdhva mukha śvānāsa is identical.

Broaden the calf muscles.

Lift only from the inner knee and not the outer knee.

Roll the groins inwards for the back of the thighs to open out.

The toes, the knees, the legs The knuckle of the big toe guides your knees. If the knuckle turns towards the outer edge of the toe then the knee is turning in. The ligaments of the knees are

"Horizontal parallelity of the legs and vertical parallelity of the arms should be synchronised throughout your attempts at Urdhva Mukha Svanasana.”

toe is the "brain". Mindfully turn the nail of this toe away from the second toe. The back leg will then be able to face the ceiling completely. Touch the head of the knuckle of the middle toe on the floor to broaden the arch.

The palms, the arms Lengthen the index finger to attain the lift in the upper arms.

The skin of the top of the inner upper arm turns outwards but the skin of the forearm does not turn In that direction. Turn the outer elbow towards the inner elbow to turn the forearm.

opened when you turn the energy of the big toe towards the little toe.

Suck the knee-cap deep into the knee and see that the knee is lifted off the floor before the leg.

The outer side of the leg tends to be longer than the inner side of the leg. The inner leg lengthens when the bottom of the shin bone runs parallel to the floor.

The outer side of the calf muscle moves towards the outer groins but the inner side of the calf muscles has no sensation. This is because the contact of the knuckle of the little toe with the floor is much lesser than that of the big toe.

The back of the leg should entirely be facing the ceiling.

To attain that rest your knees on the floor. The middle Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

The tailbone The posterior tailbone should move closer to the anterior tailbone and then lift up only from the anterior tailbone.

This article has been compiled from the teachings of Guruji during the 80th birthday celebrataions and the Silver Jubilee celebrations of RIMYI.

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B . K . S . I Y E N G A R 9 0 th B I R T H D A Y C A L E N D A R 2 0 0 8 IYA (UK) has produced its first official calendar to celebrate Guruji’s 90th birthday in 2008. The calendar is A3 in size with 12 wonderfully atmospheric archive black and white photographs taken by Silvia Prescott of Guruji practising in the institute in Pune and a portrait taken this year by Jake Clennell. This is the first time that these photographs have been publicly available.

All proceeds from this calendar will be donated to The Bellur Krishnamachar and Seshamma Smaraka Nidhi Trust, which was founded by Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar with his family and students to improve the lives of the impoverished villagers of his birth place. B.K.S. Iyengar’s aim is to bring yoga to the young people of India as part of their general education and to establish Bellur as a model village, where educational, medical, social and cultural facilities can be provided to improve the lives of its people and aid other poor villages in the Kolar district of Karnataka, Southern India. The Bellur Trust has already built a second floor yoga hall on top of the existing primary school which can also be used for extra classroom space. It has built, equipped and staffed a high school where it also provides free uniforms, books and mid-day meals for all the children. It has erected a water tank to serve the whole community and built, equipped and staffed a Day Hospital, and erected a building to house small cottage industries. In the future the Trust aims to build a Technical College and a College of Nursing and to continue to provide 100% free education and health care to all those that need it.

B.K.S. Iyengar and his family have donated enormous amounts of their own money to The Bellur Trust, whilst continuing to live a simple and humble life. Many members of the IYA (UK) have already raised and donated money to The Bellur Trust, and we are hoping to raise another £5000 through the sale of this calendar.

The B.K.S. Iyengar 90th Birthday Calendar can be bought from YOGAMATTERS. If you are a teacher, why not buy a few and sell them on to your students?

1 copy 2-10 copies 11-50 copies 51+ copies

£12 £10 each £8 each £6 each

Yogamatters - open Monday to Saturday 9.30 - 5.30 32 Clarendon Road, London N8 0DJ, UK or order by telephone on 020 8888 8588 or online at www.yogamatters.com

BKS Iyengar 90 th Birthday Calendar 2008 Published by the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK) in aid of THE BELLUR TRUST

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IYA (UK) ANNUAL CONVENTION NEWCASTLE upon TYNE 13th-15th JUNE, 2008 Working together with the North East Institute of Iyengar Yoga The Teacher Birjoo Mehta has been kind enough to agree to teach at the Convention and needs little introduction to many of us in the UK. Birjoo has been a student of Sri BKS Iyengar since 1975 and is now the managing trustee of the Light on Yoga Research Trust, Mumbai. Since 1984 he has accompanied Mr Iyengar on many tours in India and oversees. Birjoo has been teaching Iyengar yoga in Mumbai for about 20 years and has been one of the principal teachers at Iyengar Yoga conventions held in many countries.

He has visited the UK many times and is a truly excellent and inspiring teacher.

The Venue Best known in the past for its football and brown ale, the city of Newcastle has undergone a cultural renaissance and it is now the country’s most artistic city, according to a recently published survey of 14 cities. Members of the North East Institute of Iyengar Yoga are not surprised by the results of this survey and are delighted that IYA (UK) has chosen to hold their Convention in 2008 in the North of England. The University of Northumbria, with its pleasant compact Newcastle City Campus right in the heart of the city, will make the convention more accessible to members in the North and we hope that it will be an interesting experience for those from further afield.

Newcastle is a vibrant city with its historical as well as modern developments based around the river Tyne. The new riverside developments are within easy reach from the University as are a whole range of city centre attractions less than a 5 minute walk away, including a museum, an art gallery and major shops. There are also attractive parks in the vicinity.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Getting to Northumbria University could not be easier whether travelling by plane, train or car.

There are special arrangements directly from Newcastle Airport at a cost of only ÂŁ1 via the Metro train. It is only a short journey by Metro from the main Newcastle Central train station. Via a central motorway, the road network is good.

Accommodation Residential accommodation at Northumbria University is provided in the Claude Gibb Hall of Residence. There is a warm and friendly atmosphere throughout the building, which has its own quiet garden.

The rooms available for the Convention are of a high standard and have 3-star tourist board rating.

They are very attractive with coffee making facilities and washbasins. Situated on the first floor and above, there is good access via lifts and stairs. For every four people, there is one large shower room 35

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with toilet etc. None of the rooms have en-suite facilities. If the University accommodation is not suitable for you, book a non-residential place at the Convention and then book your own accommodation in Newcastle. The University is right in the centre of town and there are plenty of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts to choose from nearby.

14th June in the afternoon. An agenda and details of the time will be published in the Spring issue of the Iyengar Yoga News (Feb 2008) and on the IYA (UK) website.

The University is very proud of its reputation for providing good food for all its visitors. All food provided will be strictly vegetarian. If you have further dietary requirements you should describe them in the appropriate section of the application form. Accommodation and an evening meal will be available for members who arrive on the Thursday evening before the Friday classes and for members who arrive on Friday evening before the weekend classes.

IYA (UK), PO Box 54151, Ealing, London W5 9DH, UK Tel: 0208 997 6029 e-mail: admin@iyengaryoga.org.uk

If you wish to attend the Convention, please complete the attached booking form and return to:

All cheques should be made payable to ‘IYA (UK)’.

Payment in Euros is only acceptable from members in the Republic of Ireland. All other overseas payments must be made using PayPal - please contact the office for instructions on how to go about paying on-line (this only applies to overseas applications, not from the Republic of Ireland). A receipt confirmation of your booking with a personal reference number will automatically be sent to y ou once your booking has been received with your full payment. Please keep this in a safe place and use your reference number for any enquiries.

The Timetable No matter how qualified IYA (UK) teachers are, we are all classed as Guruji’s students. All teachers who travel to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune attend classes there as students. In this spirit, we have decided not to hold a Teachers’ Workshop during the 2008 Convention (as has been the practice for the last 2 or 3 years) but to make the whole 3 days open to all members of the Fees cannot be refunded for cancellations after 12th May 2008 unless there are exceptional circumIYA (UK). stances. All changes to bookings and cancellations The classes over the 3 days will be progressive and, before this date will be subject to a £5 administrain order to get the most out of the Convention, it tion charge. Reduced fees may be available for would be best to attend the whole event. For applicants having financial difficulties and who can some people work commitments may make this provide proof of their circumstances – please impossible so there is a choice. You can attend for contact the main office for more details before 3 days, just for the weekend or, for the people who making your booking. are unable to attend at weekends, for Friday only.

It is not possible to make a one day booking for A detailed programme and further information including directions to the convention etc will be the Saturday or the Sunday. sent out approximately six weeks before the event Each day of the Convention will start with and will be posted on to the IYA (UK) website. prā āyāma at 8am. There will be two āsana classes on Friday, two āsana classes on Saturday and one For your information: āsana class on Sunday morning.The Convention will University of Northumbria, Newcastle City finish after lunch at 2pm on Sunday 15th June.

Campus, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST The AGM of the IYA (UK) will take place on Saturday 36

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IYA (UK) CONVENTION BOOKING FORM NEWCASTLE upon TYNE 13th-15th JUNE, 2008 Surname

IMPORTANT First name

All bookings are on a first come first served basis, with a waiting list thereafter.

Address

Post code:

Telephone

Please try to keep your original booking as changes are difficult to manage administratively.

Concessionary rates may be available on application.

e-mail (print clearly)

Food

All food will be strictly vegetarian. Please state any special dietary requirements:

Stalls

If you would like to have a stall at the convention, please give details of items to be sold:

Fees will NOT be refunded for cancellations received after 12th May 2008, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

All cancellations before this date are subject to a ÂŁ5 admin charge.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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Please note: This year, we have decided not to offer a specialist teacher workshop on the Friday. You can book for either the Friday classes, the weekend classes, or ideally both. It is not possible to book for either the Saturday or the Sunday on its own.

None of the rooms at Northumbria University are ensuite. If you would like your own bathroom, you can choose the non-residential option and stay in one of the many hotels or bed-and-breakfasts near to the Convention hall, which is located in the centre of Newcastle.

Accommodation on Including: bed and breakfast £31

Thursday night (12th June) Evening meal on £16

Thursday night (12th June) Classes on Friday 13th June Including: lunch £50 Accommodation on Friday night (13th June) Classes on Saturday 14th June and Sunday 15th June

Including: bed and breakfast

£36

Including: Tuition on Saturday and Sunday Lunch on Saturday and Sunday

£80

Residential weekend

Including: Tuition on Saturday and Sunday Lunch on Saturday and Sunday Bed and breakfast on Saturday night Evening meals are not included in the residential weekend package

£115

£16

£17

Evening meal on Friday night (13th June) Evening meal on Saturday night (14th June) Car parking

Space is limited and charged at £4.50 a night. Total payment for Please state number of nights required and parking: add the full amount to your payment.

No. of nights’ required @ £4.50 a night: ......... £...............................

Day time passes may be available for nonresidential members. Please tick here if you would like a pass if space is available...........

Membership of the IYA (UK)

Membership of the IYA (UK) is a requirement. If you are not already a member, please add your subscription fee.

TOTAL PAYMENT

Please make cheques payable to IYA (UK).

Euros can only be accepted from the Republic of Ireland.

All other overseas payment MUST be by Pay Pal. For instructions on how to pay using PayPal, please e-mail: admin@iyengaryoga.org.uk

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£15.00

Total amount enclosed:

£ ..............................

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Q & A he editors of Iyengar Yoga News have been considering setting up a Question and Answer page for some time but have been quite wary of doing so.

Sometimes there is no single correct answer to a question and we would be concerned if readers took the responses we have published on these pages as the final word. These responses are the opinions of individual teachers in the UK and have not been checked by the Iyengars. If you disagree with any of the responses, please feel free to write in and tell us.

T

Also, it is very important to understand that each individual practitioner is different; what may be helpful for one person may be altogether wrong for someone else.

By far the best way to get any yoga question answered is to ask you own teacher.

1. I believe there are men poses and women poses as men are stronger in the shoulders and arms. Also women have arms that curve around an infant and that is why we cannot hurl a cricket ball correctly. As for chaturanga da Ä sana , that is definitely a man’s pose - True or false?

Marian Turner There are some poses which women generally find more challenging than men and vice versa, but this is not a reason to avoid practising them. The technique employed to achieve a pose like chaturanga da Ä sana may need to be different for women. For example the use of bricks under the hands often helps achieve more lift. This pose requires strength in the triceps and the muscles around the shoulders and chest, and this strength can be developed in the practice of other poses such as adho mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana , standings etc. Men tend to have better development of these muscles but women can also achieve this pose without becoming a body-builder!

It could also be said that some poses may be easier for tall people with long legs, or difficult for people with tight hamstrings, easier for young people, difficult for overweight people, etc, but this does not mean that they are not practised !

2. Why must my inner elbow face inward in tÄ Ä sana ?

I have slightly hyper-extended elbows and they turn to the front in tÄ Ä sana . What possible damage Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

could it do to my joints? I can see that in adho mukha Ĺ›vÄ nÄ sana or adho mukha v k Ä sana it makes a difference, but tÄ Ä sana ?

Alice.

Whether the elbow joint turns forwards or faces inwards varies from one individual to another. It is to do with the extension of the muscles of the arm. There won’t be any damage to the elbow joints if the inner elbows turn forwards while practising tÄ Ä sana . It is more a question of discipline and training. TÄ Ä sana is the foundation pose and observing correct alignment, extension, and direction in this pose trains the body and disciplines the mind in preparation for other poses.

The mistakes made in Tadasana will manifest in all the other poses. So to train the alignment of the upper and lower arm in tÄ Ä sana and ĹŤrdhva hastÄ sana should gradually improve this in other poses as well.

3. I note that you mention yoga for the elderly. I should be interested in some thoughts on approach to teaching students with osteoporosis who are not so elderly. I am a student.

Ann Crisp We receive many questions about specific medical conditions which are not suitable for a page like this that provides short answers to general questions. People who suffer from any medical condition must seek the advice of a senior teacher for their own practice. However, we have published in this edition (page 41) an article by Brigid Philip about her experience of teaching classes for the over fifties, many of whom present with problems.

This article is not to be construed as a recommendation for your own practice but serves as interesting reading and encouragement for those who are perhaps hesitant to go to classes as a result of age or issues that may require some remedial attention.

Should someone have the experience to write an article on osteoporosis we would be happy to consider it for publication in a future issue.

4. My question is about gas permeable contact lenses.

As a qualified Iyengar Yoga Instructor I do not allow students wearing hard contact lens to do 39

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sarvāngāsana or śīr āsana . I recently got a new

FIRST AID TEACHER WORKSHOP

student who wears gas permeable lenses. I phoned an optician to ask if it would be safe for wearers of these lenses to do inverted poses, but they were unable to answer my question.

Teresa Stevens Guruji has written that the problem poses for contact lenses are: śīr āsana , sarvāngāsana , hand balances, full arm balance and back bends - but he says : “In case they do not bother the eyes then one can do ...........But, never use contact lenses when wrapping an eye bandage.”

Teachers are taught during their training that students who wear hard contact lenses should not practice inverted poses. Rigid, hard contact lenses used to be the only option available. Some people found that they irritated the eye when upside down or if they made the mistake of dozing off to sleep wearing them they would wake up with very red uncomfortable eyes. Nowadays soft lenses which are completely flexible have by enlarge replaced hard rigid lenses.

But there is also the new generation of hard lenses which are the gas-permeable ones. These are much lighter, thinner and more flexible and let oxygen permeate through the lens to keep the eye healthy. They also sit better on the surface of the eye and so are much more comfortable and do not cause the same irritation if the eye is closed.

There are certainly many, many people, both teachers and students, who do practice inverted poses wearing soft and gas-permeable contact lenses without any problems.

Allow the student to give some feed back to judge whether it is suitable for them to practice the above poses.

Should you have any questions please e-mail them to Sharon Klaff at sharon.klaff@btopenworld.com Submissions for IYN12 must be received no later than 1st November 2007.

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by Diane Maimaris was one of a group of thirteen teachers, teacher trainees, and students taking part in Elaine Martin’s first aid course at the Harringay Club on 13 May. It’s a requirement at the Leisure Centre where I teach that instructors must hold at First Aid certificate and all Iyengar Yoga teachers are recommended by the IYA (UK), though not required, to get one. I was therefore delighted to find that NELIYI had arranged for Elaine to lead a one-day course.

I

Elaine is not only a teacher of first aid and resuscitation but also an Iyengar Yoga teacher herself. This meant that she knew all about the different environments in which we teach, and the kind of health problems or health hazards we might encounter in a yoga class. Her course is a general first aid course, and includes injuries such as electrocution and burns, which we hope would never arise in a yoga context. But of course, even these are not beyond the bounds of possibility – think of places where students can make their own tea and coffee.

She brought along several dummies, both adult and childsize, so that we could practice “lift for life” – lifting the chin to open the airwaves and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

We practised on each other turning the patient into the recovery position. In the afternoon, when we learned about bleeding, we had a lot of fun bandaging each other up and putting on slings.

Elaine instilled into us all the importance of knowing about the health conditions of individual students, knowing where the First Aid box was, and reporting any accident, however minor. She also reminded us about keeping a note of all the postures we had taught in case after the class in a student complained that they had been injured.

The day was very thorough and well-structured. I realised that a first aid course doesn’t just give us a certificate that some of us need in order to teach, but gives us basic and vital knowledge which we may all need at some point in our everyday lives.

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YOGA CLASSES FOR THE OVER 50’S - AN INSPIRATION FOR TEACHERS?

by Brigid Phillip uckily we have an extensive range of equipment for the Hornsey YMCA over 50s class - wooden blocks, foam blocks, four quarter round blocks, belts, lots of bolsters, chairs, cotton blankets, two stools, sticky and thicker mats, plus lots of wall space (with useful big mirrors). There is enough for classes of just over twenty, which is fortunate since the classes tend to be well attended. Also we are lucky that several teachers come, either as helpers, or just visiting the class in their holidays.

The helpers, Caroline and Scarlet, are attracted because they say that the class gets such an interesting and wide range of problems and abilities. Without the equipment and the helpers we could not attempt as much as we do.

New students sometimes say they are looking for a soft option class, whereupon the regular students laugh dryly and knowingly, and hurry to help newcomers get a useful set of equipment for the class!

L

The class was the idea of the YMCA in 1999, and Paul Walker, the yoga administrator at the time, suggested that I engage with it. None of us knew what to expect, and Paul produced leaflets explaining about my long struggle with arthritis, to legitimise my suitability to teach. This encouraged lots of students to try and see how they might do. Guruji’s “Yoga the Path to Holistic Health” is incredibly useful as it shows many variations on how to use equipment, and many students buy it for home practice – much cheaper than going to the osteopath! Iyengar yoga has been taught at the YMCA for many years, initially

by Ros Bell, which explains the gradual build up of really useful equipment. If your class hasn’t got much yet, why not try to add to the equipment slowly, identify new needs, and look after what you have got? The over 50’s get a lot out of yoga and teachers should not be reluctant to teach the age group.

The students range from people with tens of years experience to some who are just taking up yoga as infirmities and injuries arrive with age. It is a genuine learning community where anyone can and does offer insights, tips and encouragement. Everyone has an incentive and a vested interest in improving as much as possible and understanding what and how to do, they are very keen students. Several arrive with a lot of knowledge and apologetic that they can’t do poses “correctly” any more (they can see themselves as “failed young persons”!).

Others arrive with lifelong issues like very bad feet and ankles (often from wearing pointed high-heeled shoes – a disaster that the young now are repeating!), and are disinclined to believe in the improvement that they and others will achieve. Some practise meditation, some are not robust, and some are sporty types. People come, go, and return again according to the demands of jobs, family problems, holidays, and other interests. Laughter and jokes abound, and life’s problems are shared.

At the start of the North East London Iyengar Yoga Institute (NELIYI) Guruji suggested that we take our students with problems, who we were too inexperienced to teach, to NELIYI remedial classes with our local senior teachers (Diana Clifton and Genie Hammond). They showed us what to do and at the next class we would find out how to follow up (two classes a year). Other students we took to Mira Mehta for advice. All this valuable instruction was augmented on my trips to Pune when I helped in Medical classes. This has provided a really useful grounding for the over 50s. Doubtless Stephanie Quirk’s remedial workshops course will be great in providing a basis of knowledge for the next teachers.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

The classes basically follow the Pune monthly rotation of standing poses, forward bends, back bends, and relaxation/prā āyāma . We work quite slowly and thoroughly following one main point at each class with lots of wide leg uttānāsana interspersed between standing poses, and much use of chairs for support, steadiness, and alignment.

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We share successes and problems – it is all work in progress. However the class can be totally side-tracked to tackle the day’s injuries or health issues like bad hands, feet, shoulders, hips, backs, knees, ankles, or necks.

Some poses like supta baddha ko āsana are very popular (with arms supported at shoulder level by blocks for upper back/shoulder/neck problems), but others like supta vīrāsana seem impossible as it requires very different support for each student. We used not to be able to do this last pose, but with advice from Guruji for my husband about the importance of the pose even for those with great difficulties for its neurological benefit, and the appearance of the helping teachers, we now regularly include it. I tried out possibilities on my husband at home.

Everyone has to remember what equipment they will use and help may be needed. New students are amazed to see the class doing ardha chandrāsana and supta vīrāsana so well and without fuss!

We do see big improvements and gradually growing confidence as students begin to resolve confusions. In general it is the most rewarding class that I teach since the students are more heartfelt and humble in their approach to learning than younger students. They get the point of effortless effort quite quickly since they can do no other!

They don’t aim at showy poses, but try for cellular intelligence, and the feeling of harmony in poses. They look to feel better by the end of the class, and try for even stretch and alignment. They learn what to avoid and what to tackle. They give us useful feedback, which helps us learn from them. They are tolerant of my occasional political incorrectness as they say non-judgmental and inoffensive language can be obscure, and anyway results in a total loss of humour (useful since that is not my strongest point!).

They are very appreciative of the help of so many experienced teachers – and so am I. What is the biggest effect we see? Perhaps the people who arrive with knee, hip and back problems who get a lot of benefit from work on feet, particularly with quarter round blocks. We need more than four now! And all really benefit from and love prā āyāma and relaxation.

Some reflections from the class follow. They all said that they were true and they really meant them!

“Joining yoga classes has been an eye opener for me. Its made realise that an hour of yoga each day can relax mind, body and soul. I’m a more confident person emotionally and physically now.” Kanta 42

“The yoga classes have had a profound effect on me since I began coming in January 2000. I have found yoga to be grounding, and a great comfort and support both mentally and physically. The breakthroughs, on all levels, are exciting as are the feelings of stretching and balancing, again on all levels. Yoga for me has become a journey, whose direction and destination I am content not to anticipate.” Mary “My life with yoga began in 2003, with my body in pain from arthritis, osteoporosis and a curvature of the spine, causing me to lose one inch to my height. My journey has not been easy, but with the wisdom and guidance of my teacher and the support of the class, I feel I am learning to see through the pain. I have regained the inch to my height, and feel my mind, body, and soul have at last been put back together again, leaving me much happier and more relaxed with my body.” Julia “Yoga has restored my confidence in my body: no more anxiety when I step down from the kerb or climb a stile or gate; getting out of the bath or tackling a flight of stairs is far less daunting than it used to be. I am certainly walking taller in all sorts of ways.” Pat “Practising yoga for more than half my life I am still learning. It has taught me patience, perseverance and given hope when an injury/pain which seems to take so long to heal eventually gets better. After a yoga session I feel more in balance with my mind and body and more able to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life.” Sue “I love the way that Yoga enables me to go on developing my body’s strength, flexibility and vitality; my inner awareness, both physically and emotionally; and a sense of being at one with a worldwide yoga community.” Stella “I entered the YMCA inquiring if there was an exercise class suitable for the over 70s. “Yes Yoga.” Three years on – improved balance, knee and hip joints and upper back stress. Getting stronger all the time, all very happy making. Yoga should be made the law of the land!” Helen “Yoga gives me a way of relating to my physical reality and its challenges, which always brings me into the present moment, and it has that in common with a good many forms of spiritual practice.

Over many years I have found that it brings the fruits of a spiritual practice, too.” Helena “I am now 71 and am convinced that the more time progresses the more important yoga becomes in maintaining good health. It has taken me some time to realize that if I miss out on yoga I do not feel as well as I do when I practise it regularly.” Evelyn

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S P O N D Y L O L Y S I S & S P O N D Y L O L I S T H E S I S Part One by Karen Wilde pondylolysis is a condition of the lower spine where there is a degeneration or defect of the articulating parts of the vertebra and occurs in approximately 6% of the population. This condition often affects children, particularly those who are active in sports where there is repetitive hyperextension of the spine eg gymnastics, diving, wrestling. In this article Karen Wilde, an experienced Intermediate Senior teacher and a physiotherapist explains about Spondylolysis (SL) and Spondylolisthesis (SLS) to assist teachers to identify with the individual needs of their students who may come to yoga experiencing lower back pain to understand their condition. In part two Karen shares her experience and approach as a physiotherapist in treating SL and SLS and how to support the condition with yoga āsanas .

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Part 1: About Spondylolysis & Spondylolisthesis.

Spondylolysis This is the medical term used to describe the presence of a “defect” or stress fracture in the posterior arch of the vertebra (see figure, arrow). It occurs at the lumbo-sacral junction (L5/S1) in about 85% of cases. The remainder occurs at the L4/5 level or above and in about 20% of cases the defect is on one side only (unilateral).

Spondylolysis is not a congenital condition and has never been identified in a newborn infant, or a child who has not started to walk. Defects usually develop as a stress fracture in individuals predisposed to the condition, due to the shape or orientation of the bones at the base of the spine.

There is an increased incidence in people who take part in certain physical or sporting activities such as female gymnasts, fast bowlers in cricket and weight lifters. These types of people are also more likely to experience symptoms due to this condition.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Spondylolysis is evident in about 6% of the population, but only 10 to 15% of those individuals who have a spondylolysis develop symptoms of low back pain that can be attributed to this process. The remainder is considered an incidental finding.

A spondylolysis will usually develop in late childhood or early adolescence, and if symptomatic at this stage a specialist may recommend the avoidance of activities that aggravate the condition and cause discomfort. In some cases a brace is used to reduce movement at the level of the spondylolysis if the defect is thought to be of recent onset in the hope that the defect or stress fracture will heal. Healing is however not always achieved, but despite this, symptoms will usually settle within six to twelve weeks.

It is however common for these defects to become chronic, and remain evident throughout life, but there is no need to become alarmed if this occurs, as the majority of people who have a spondylolysis experience no more back pain than other members of the general population who do not have the condition.

In adults who have a spondylolysis, degenerative changes are often evident in the adjacent discs or facet joints, which are just as likely, if not more so, to be responsible for symptoms of back discomfort. It is therefore important for your specialist to identify the origin of your pain before recommending the appropriate course of treatment.

So, to put it simply, a spondylolysis is usually an incidental finding on an x-ray or CT scan undertaken to assess back pain due to another cause.

Spondylolisthesis: The word spondylolisthesis comes from the Greek words spondylos, which means “spine” or “vertebra,” and listhesis, which means “to slip or slide”.

Spondylolisthesis is the term used to describe the presence of a spondylolysis where there has also been ante43

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rior translation of the vertebra with the lysis (usually L5), on the ver tebra below (usually the sacrum).

In the majority of cases the degree of anterior translation is slight, but in approximately 20% of cases the displacement of the upper vertebra can be marked.

Progression of the “slip” usually occurs in early adolescence and is more common in girls than boys.

The development of a spondylolysis which then goes on to a spondylolisthesis is usually associated with significant low back pain, but in most cases the situation will stabilise and pain will settle. It is only where severe pain persists, or features of nerve root irritation or compression develop that surgical intervention is indicated at this stage.

In cases where symptoms resolve some activity modification may be required to reduce the risk of recurrent episodes of pain as outlined for spondylolysis. It is important to maintain general fitness, and specifically the tone of the abdominal musculature.

If the pars “cracks” or fractures, the condition is call spondylolysis. The x-ray confirms the bony abnormality.

If the vertebra is pressing on nerves, a CT scan or MRI may be needed before treatment begins to fur ther assess the abnormality.

Types of spondylolisthesis There are different types of spondylolisthesis. The more common types include: Congenital spondylolisthesis - Congenital means “present at birth.” Congenital spondylolisthesis is the result of abnormal bone formation. In this case, the abnormal arrangement of the vertebrae puts them at greater risk for slipping.

Isthmic spondylolisthesis - This type occurs as the result of spondylolysis, a condition that leads to small stress fractures (breaks) in the vertebrae. In some cases, the fractures weaken the bone so much that it slips out of place.

Degenerative spondylolisthesis - This is the most common form of the disorder. With aging, the discs – the cushions between the vertebral bones – lose water, becoming less spongy and less able to resist movement by the vertebrae.

Less common forms of spondylolisthesis include: Traumatic spondylolisthesis, in which an injury leads to a spinal fracture or slippage.

Pathological spondylolisthesis, which results when the spine is weakened by disease - such as osteoporosis - an infection, or tumor.

Post-surgical spondylolisthesis, which refers to slippage that occurs or becomes worse after spinal surgery.

If the fracture gap widens, then the condition is called spondylolisthesis. Widening of the gap leads to the fifth lumbar vertebra shifting. It shifts forward on the part of the pelvic bone called the sacrum. The doctor measures standing lateral spine x-rays. This determines the amount of forward slippage.

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How common is spondylolisthesis?

Spondylolisthesis is the most common cause of back pain in teens. Symptoms of spondylolisthesis often begin during the teen-age growth spurt. Degenerative spondylolisthesis occurs most often after age 40.

What are the symptoms of spondylolisthesis?

Many people with spondylolisthesis have no symptoms and don’t even know they have the condition. When symptoms do occur. Low back pain is the most common.

The pain usually spreads across the lower back, and might Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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feel like a muscle strain.

Spondylolisthesis can also cause muscle spasms in the hamstring muscles in the back of the thighs. Tight hamstrings can cause the person to walk with short strides and with the knees slightly bent. If the slipped vertebra is pressing on a nerve, pain might spread down the leg to the foot. The foot might also tingle and/or feel numb.

How is spondylolisthesis graded?

A radiologist determines the degree of slippage upon reviewing spinal x-rays. Slippage is graded I through IV: Grade Grade Grade Grade

I - 1% to 25%slip II - 26% to 50% slip III - 51% to 75% slip IV - 76% to 100% slip

Generally, Grade I and Grade II slips do not require surgical treatment. They are treated medically. Grade III and Grade IV slips might require surgical intervention if persistent, painful, slips are present.

How is spondylolisthesis diagnosed?

An x-ray of the lower back can show a vertebra out of place. A computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan – which produce more detailed images – might be needed to more clearly see the bones and nerves involved.

How is spondylolisthesis treated?

Treatment for spondylolisthesis depends on several factors, including the age and overall health of the person, the extent of the slip, and the severity of the symptoms.

Treatment most often is conservative, involving rest, medication, and exercise. More severe spondylolisthesis might require surgery.

What complications are associated with spondylolisthesis?

Persistent pain associated with spondylolisthesis can lead to reduced mobility and inactivity. Inactivity can, in turn, result in weight gain, loss of bone density, and loss of muscle strength and flexibility in other areas of the body.

There is also a risk of permanent nerve damage if a slipped vertebra is pressing on a spinal nerve root.

What is the outlook for people with spondylolisthesis?

The chance of having a recurrence of pain depends on the severity of the spondylolisthesis. In the case of a minor slip, where the bone is not pressing on any nerves, the person might never have a recurrence of back pain Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

related to spondylolisthesis. In general, conservative treatment for mild cases of spondylolisthesis is successful in about 80% of cases. Surgery is successful in relieving symptoms in 85% to 90% of people with severe spondylolisthesis.

Can spondylolisthesis be prevented?

Although spondylolisthesis might not be preventable, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of slips: Keep your back and abdominal muscles strong to help support and stabilise the lower back.

Choose activities that do not place your lower back at risk for injury.

Maintain a healthy weight. Excess weight puts added stress on your lower back.

Eat a well-balance diet to keep your bones well nourished and strong.

I M P O RTA N T ANNOUNCEMENT Please note that if you want to apply to take the Junior Intermediate assessments next March 2008; please contact the main office as soon as possible.

Please do not contact Sasha Perryman directly as the main office is now dealing with the initial administration of the Junior Intermediate assessments for levels 1, 2 and 3.

E-mail Leza: admin@iyengaryoga.org.uk or tel: 020 8997 6029. Email is the preferred method of contact as it is quicker and easier.

The strict cut off date for fees and applications for these assessments is 30th September 2007.

The assessment fee is £88 payable to IYA (UK).

You must apply and pay your assessment fee before this date.

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S P O N D Y L O L Y S I S & S P O N D Y L O L I S T H E S I S Part Two - Managing Back Pain by Karen Wilde eaching yoga to students with low back pain requires a level of experience in teaching. For example a young adolescent who presents to a yoga class with low back pain would need early intervention to affect a successful outcome. Extension (bending backwards) is generally the most affected physiological movement and often the student may exhibit a full or excessive range of movement. (In the case of the student used for the following article, yoga āsanas and back pain, stiffness was a problem). Management of the student however depends on the severity of the symptoms. If the teacher is in doubt encourage the student to seek an assessment by health care provider for example a general practitioner or physiotherapist. An x-ray of the lumbar spine may be necessary to assist in a diagnosis. It is important that the student has a good understanding of their back and learns to manage the symptoms with the assistance of an experienced yoga teacher.

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In the first instance it is important that the yoga teacher questions the student – is the back pain acute? (of recent onset) or chronic (long standing), as different approaches are needed. It is my experienced as physiotherapist for 35 years and a yoga practitioner for longer that referred leg pain would indicate the student is not suitable for a general class and would require individualised attention as provided in the therapy class conducted by an experienced teacher. Intermediate Junior Level 2 teachers and levels above are qualified to take “remedial” yoga and if a teacher has not that level they must seek the advice of a more experienced teacher.

With Spondylolisthesis it is important that the student himself has a good understanding of the condition. It should be explained that there is forever the potential for instability and that the slip cannot be stabilised except by fusion and therefore the student must modify the physical demands placed upon his/her spine. He/she must learn to live with the condition and possibly compromise in his/her lifestyle and incorporate yoga practice.

iotherapist, treatment would be designed to relieve symptoms, attempt to stabilise the spine and reduce the degree of lumbar lordosis. This should also be given consideration, as a yoga teacher, with the remedial yoga practice. It is also important that a radiological re-assessment be carried out especially in young children as management also depends on the severity of the patients symptoms. I mention this as it would be usual that a person with the condition of spondylolisthesis would, most probably, have been treated by a physiotherapist before coming to yoga.

The Management of Spondylolysis and Spondylolisthesis with Yoga Asanas Important Yoga Asanas The following are yoga āsanas which are being followed by a student with spondylolisthesis. He is a physical education teacher, football player and athlete with extensive stiffness in the hips and legs. A full range of āsanas is given with emphasis initially on stabilisation. The sequence can be changed and modified according the students condition.

Standing Poses All standing poses should be taken against a column or support, eg trestler. Columns or doorways are good as you can use them for leverage.

1. Utthita triko āsana – X 2 each side with hand on block or holding the column or support to turn a) Facing column/ grill/trestler b) Back to column/grill/trestler 2. Utthita pārśvako āsana - as for utthita triko āsana with block and support, x 2 each side a) Back to wall/grill/trestler b) Facing trestler

Spondylolisthesis may at times be asymptomatic and if so requires no active treatment. If symptomatic, as a phys46

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level. For further stability the student can do with the back against the trestler or against a wall.

Pādāngu āsana II can be done with the same belt

strapping and support.

6. Marīchyāsana III Standing with R leg and hip along the side of horse and support, lift the R leg onto support and twist towards the support.

3. Ardha chandrāsana - L back leg/foot on column or support, hand on block, work to open pelvis, also make sure standing leg is perpendicular, x 2 each side

7. Seated pā āsana - sitting on stool, hip and leg against the wall, feet on floor. Student holding on to the column or support to twist.

8. Regular practice of supta pādāngu thāsana I using column or wall has been important.

4. Pariv tta trikonāsana - can be done either facing the column or support or with the back to the support.

Variation: The knees are bent to allow more twist.

5. Pādāngu āsana I and II

Pādāngu āsana I: right leg on trestler or support

e.g. chair, stool, making sure leg is at hip height, two belts tightly around the pelvis right below the hip bones – buckles at the back, one on each side of the sacrum. tab of the strap one off to one side, one to the other.

a) L leg out straight, inner leg touches side of column, R leg bends, foot on column – hold for required time to allow muscles to soften. 30 seconds minimum = 5 slow breaths. Repeat at least x 2 each side b) L leg remains the same, bent R leg straightens and rests on column. Timing as above L leg can be bent to allow a further release.

9. Supta pādāngu thāsana II L leg extended – support under knee or foot if necessary – with a strap around the R foot take the R leg out to the side, and support the outer thigh on a bolster. Hold minimum 30 seconds to allow the muscles to soften. Repeat at least x 2 each side.

10. Adho mukha vīrāsana a) Head supported – chair/bench/bolster b) Abdomen supported with weight on sacrum

Firmly pull onto the belt drawing down towards the floor. This will help to lengthen the back and side waist. If the leg cannot be brought to hip height the foot can be placed on a chair or at an appropriate Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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14. Savāsana - Legs over bench, light weight on abdomen.

You need to observe your student and be able to detect when that student is over stretching or under stretching in their practice – it must be avoided. It is essential not to let the over enthusiasm of the student to override the importance of the students understanding of when to give rest to the body and how to practice appropriately. Patience and perseverance are needed and a regular daily yoga practice must be encouraged with an understanding of how to modify the practice on “good” and “bad” days. A long-term commitment to their yoga practice must be encouraged to see the results.

11. Adho mukha śvānāsana in ropes Head on block. If stiff - heels supported with wedge.

12. Ardha uttānāsana : over support – halāsana box and bolsters, blanket rolled across lower pelvis to soften the abdomen and lengthen the back. Heels supported on wedge. Can stay long timing.

13. Ardha halāsana a) For the stiff student.

Student is placed over high halāsana Bench appropriate for their height, legs apart. If available 2 halāsana Boxes may be used. “Folded blanket weight” as tolerated over legs.

Summary - General Points In the Acute Phase restorative poses and the use of weights and props are important. Spine fully supported eg lying.

As symptoms settle standing poses are introduced to teach the use of arms and legs to lengthen pelvic and spinal tissues (e.g. stiff student) and stabilise (e.g. flexible student).

Twists are introduced in standing with supports to access deep spinal muscles required for ADLs e.g. driving car.

Backbends must only be introduced under the guidance of a senior teacher and only once core stability is well established. Back bending poses often aggravate back pain associated with spondylolisthesis.

Inversions reverse the compressive effect of gravity on intervertebral (IV) disc space. Use of rope śīr āsana is not advisable in acute stage due to difficulty getting in/out of the ropes which is likely to increase muscle spasm.

Therefore instead introduce simple poses gradually increasing in complexity. For example: halāsana Box with leg wide (use of bars if available). low setu bandha Box for supported sarvāngāsana.

Points to Note:

b) For the flexible student.

A halāsana box is used. A heavy weight is placed on the buttocks and thighs. A lighter weight is placed on the shins. A belt is placed around the shins.

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Back pain makes a student often fearful of movement.

Movements of the lumbar spine need to be reassessed from time to time with a therapist to ascertain change so functional outcomes are achieved.

The yoga class provides motivation to adhere to a daily Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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home practice.

The yoga teacher must be of an Intermediate Junior level II to take a therapy class and to progress the student appropriately.

An Intro II teacher would not be expected to have those skills but would be expected to contact a senior teacher for advice.

Low back pain in a young student such as described in this article warrants further investigations.

practor and/or masseur. The student needs to be aware that he/she should not undergo treatment the same day they attend a yoga class. The Practitioner involved should also be aware they are participating in an Iyengar Yoga class.

It is important that Junior teachers are under the supervision of a Senior teacher when dealing with central low back pain so that students are screened to an appropriate class in order to achieve long term benefits.

Conclusion

References:

In teaching we must be aware, observe and look. As yoga teachers we have a responsibility to teach at our level of expertise not above it. Spondylolisthesis can be an established diagnosis or an incidental finding on an x-ray. To ignore its symptoms could lead to surgery long term and this is to be avoided. An intelligent yoga practice is a means to managing chronic low back pain by:

Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health by BKS Iyengar Yoga: A Gem for Women by Geeta Iyengar Yoga Rahasya: Vol 13, No.2, 2006 A Matter of Health by Dr Krishna Raman The Pelvic Girdle by Dianne Lee

Reducing pain levels significantly with continuing regular practice of appropriate asanas therefore improving function.

Ongoing commitment to yoga practice is required for long term benefit (16 weeks minimum) to be encouraged.

Special thanks to Dr Arjun Von Cammer for his contribution in proof reading this article.

Karen Wilde is an Intermediate Senior teacher who teaches in Warrnambool, southern Victoria where she also conducts a Physiotherapy practice. Karen is an assessor and teacher trainer with the Association and visits the RIMYI regularly.

Investigative Clinical Trials with Iyengar Yoga A current three-year randomised central clinical trial comparing the effect of Iyengar yoga on central low back pain is being undertaken in the USA. If successful this study could lead to a multicentre clinical trial and hence the reputation of Iyengar yoga will be validated as a therapeutic science. It is interesting to note that persons with spondylolisthesis were excluded from the trials.

It is worth noting eligibility of the subjects recruited for these studies i.e.: Low back pain with symptoms persisting for up to three months.

They were excluded if low back pain was due to nerve root compression disc prolapse, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, and structural scoliosis or were pre surgical candidates amongst others.

The participating subjects agreed not to undergo other forms of treatment during the trial. Often you will come across a student in class who presents with low back pain who is attending various disciplines e.g. chiroIyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

PD DAYS & TEACHER TRAINERS Information on all forthcoming PD Days and Teacher Trainer listings can be found on the IYA (UK) website at www.iyengaryoga.org.uk or you can write to the office at: IYA (UK), PO BOX 54151, LONDON W5 9DH

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P A I N

T R I A L S

by Alison Trewhela

Iyengar Yoga Teachers Involved In Research Trials Investigating Yoga’s Effectiveness In Treating Low Back Pain ack in December 2005, teachers may remember being asked via an IYA(UK) email whether anyone would be interested in helping The University of York to set up a research project into the effectiveness of yoga for chronic low back pain. Research is something that IYA(UK) (and LOYA and BKSIYTA before that) have always wanted to develop, but financial backing has never before presented itself and, having myself taught and developed 7-week Better Back Courses for newcomers to yoga referred by GPs for over 10 years, I offered my help. Professors David Torgerson (Director of The York Trials Unit) and Jennifer Klaber-Moffett (Rehabilitation and Therapies at Hull University) had recently run a successful trial called the UKBeam Trial that tested the effectiveness of chiropractic, osteopathy and physiotherapy on chronic low back pain and encouraged by a smaller successful US Trial (Karen Sherman et al), they felt that “yoga offering its combination of physical exercise with mental focus would be likely to make it a suitable, cost-effective therapy for low back pain”. IAYUK were supportive for me to join the team led

by Professor Torgerson and including Prof. Jennifer KlaberMoffett, Prof. Ian Watt (GP Dept. at University of York), Prof.

John Aplin (Iyengar Yoga teacher from Manchester and medical researcher), Anna Semlyen (York British Wheel of Yoga teacher), Dr. Robin Monro (Director of The Yoga Biomedical Trust, who has since withdrawn from the Trial) and other research, administrative, IT and data analysis staff from University of York. A Trial protocol was designed by the academics and submitted for funding. The second funding application was successful and £285,000 was kindly granted by the charity ‘Arthritis Research Campaign’ (arc).

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The University of York Trial will be entitled “A pragmatic randomised multi-centred controlled trial into the effective50

ness of yoga as a treatment for low back pain” and the intervention will take place in five centres – Cornwall (Penryn), York, Manchester, North London and Central London with both an Iyengar Yoga and a British Wheel of Yoga class at each research site. 260 people who have complained of low back pain within the last 18 months will be recruited from GP surgeries to take part in the Trial. All participants will be given an educational booklet entitled ‘The Back Book’, which contains positive messages based on the latest research evidence. Half of those recruited will participate in the yoga and the other half will represent the control group by receiving ‘normal GP treatment for low back pain’. The yoga group will be taught a carefully-designed programme of yoga on a 12-week course from November 2007 to February 2008 in their locality and will be encouraged to develop a home practice of approximately 30 minutes of yoga daily.

Twenty yoga teachers have already been recruited to be trained to deliver the yoga for the Trial – ten are Iyengar Yoga teachers (Intermediate Junior or above) and ten are British Wheel of Yoga teachers – as we are lucky enough to have sufficient funds to train both a main and a back-up teacher for each class. The British Wheel of Yoga had been approached first and we have collaborated on this project as the two most widely recognised yoga bodies in the UK and therefore representative of the yoga that is most available in all areas of the country.

One standard programme of yoga needed to be found and I was asked to come up with a 12-week yoga course backed up by home practice sequences tailored specifically to low back pain, that could be delivered by teachers from both

traditions. It is important that teachers taking part in the Trial should feel that their own particular form of yoga training and experience are not compromised and so common ground needed to be found. The yoga programme needed to build on the postures and approaches used in the US Sherman trial. IYA (UK) Management Committee and then the Executive Committee gave their backing and support at Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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this stage as did several Senior Iyengar Yoga teachers, who gave useful advice. Teachers from BWY with experience in back pain also gave input and approval. Research has been carried out into the effectiveness of Iyengar Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain in the US by Kimberley Williams, et al and it has been useful to refer to their Trial analysis and the yoga advocated by Lois Steinberg with Guruji’s sequence advice.

The yoga needs to aim for simplicity in order that all the teachers will be able to deliver the course with clarity and in order that the ‘patients’ who will become ‘yoga students’ must easily be made to feel confident to perform the yoga correctly, safely and effectively both within the classes and

also during their home practice. These newcomer-to-yoga students will have been ‘selected’ rather than ‘actively-seeking yoga’ and so they may have a tendency to drop out if they have doubts, fear complex, increased pain or cannot understand the yoga. Another reason for simplicity is that the Trial is aiming to prove that yoga is a cost-effective treatment, so there are to be 11-13 students within each class. This is a relatively large number for a remedial/therapeutic yoga class, but the Trial will exclude patients with serious pathology and anyone over 65 years of age. Another consideration is that the Trial is set up in five centres throughout the country in order to represent what can easily be delivered within a normal and average yoga class environment – this of course means village halls, school halls, etc., where there can be chairs, walls, books and belts, but there will be no specialist equipment e.g. ropes, trestler etc. or teaching assistants. In fact this makes the yoga more user-friendly for home practice by using only easily available equipment and the students will be given their own mat.

Students participating in the Trial will be given a Relaxation CD as support for this important element of the course.

There will be a ‘What to Do If You Get a Sign of a Painful Back Episode’ pain-relieving yoga pose suggestion sheet, a ‘Core Practice’ sequence and two ‘Progressive Practice’ sequences (‘A’ and ‘B’) that fit into a longer ‘Complete Progressive Practice’ sequence. The 12 classes will each have a distinct theme that will aim to introduce these new students to some of the basic principles and philosophical concepts of yoga.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Having identified appropriate yoga, I have been tied to my computer for a couple of months writing up a Students’ Manual – thankfully yoga sorts out all the tensions that that can create within the body and the mind. A Teachers’ Manual is now being written by myself and Anna Semlyen and I will train the teachers with the help of Prof. Klaber-Moffett in how to teach the yoga programme for this particular Trial in July and September. Of course, as yoga teachers we know how amazingly well yoga can work for many conditions, but also how it is not an exact science, rather requiring adaptation and modification, according to the needs of the individual. The yoga will be designed to progress gradually over the 12 weeks and modifications will be allowed for individuals with specific needs.

Outcomes will be assessed using the Roland and Morris scale and the Aberdeen Back Pain scale. The 260 Trial participants will be asked to fill out questionnaires at baseline and then at 3-month, 6-month and 12-month follow-ups. We would hope therefore that the yoga group will be considerably improved through their positive introduction to yoga and that the 12-week course will have provided many of the students with the encouragement, confidence and impetus to join a regular Beginners’ class or a Remedial class where available.

So, if that happens and you are a teacher in the right area, your teaching may also become a part of the Trial’s impact. If so, please ask your student if you may borrow their Students’ Manual in order that you can be made aware of the yoga they have been practising. Results will be completed by April 2010 but the outside Independent Trial Steering Committee and arc may push for interim results to be published sooner if they are positive. It is the hope of the arc and The York Trials Unit that yoga will become a more mainstream treatment for chronic low back pain and the results will certainly be eagerly anticipated by all. There are also talks and funding applications for further research to be carried out into yoga’s therapeutic value for other conditions.

A big ‘Thank You’ to anyone who has given advice, encouragement and support for this project, which should prove to be very useful in raising the profile of Iyengar Yoga in the UK in a professional way.

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I Y A ( U K ) R E P O R T S Chair’s Report to the AGM – June 2007 Philippe Harari This is the end of my first year as Chair of the IYA (UK) and I have enjoyed doing the job. I will attempt to summarise, in no particular order, what has happened within the Association over the past 12 months.

For the first time, members can join the IYA and pay their subscriptions over the internet. I would like to thank all the people involved in setting this up – I know it was a lot of hard work. We are aiming to extend the option to pay on-line for conventions and assessment fees. Apart from introducing the on-line payments, we did not make any major changes to our website. We have purchased all the available domain names containing the words ‘Iyengar’ or ‘IYA’ – basically to prevent non-Iyengar people from using them. If any IYA member is interested in any of these names, please let us know.

The 40% share of the Certification Mark payment from teachers that Guruji kindly allowed the Association to keep (the Iyengar Yoga Development Fund) is being put to good use. We have now set up 4 classes around the UK for disadvantaged people: one for children with special needs in London, one for carers in Scotland, one for recovering drug users in Leeds, and one for impoverished elderly people in Somerset. We have committed ourselves to supporting these classes in the long term and we will see how these projects progress. In the meantime, there are another 4 projects in the pipeline. I would like to thank Sam Robb-King for doing such an excellent job in coordinating these projects. We also intend to use some of the money to set up an international Iyengar website archive, working in collaboration with the IYNAUS (our counterparts in North America).

We are continuing to run teacher assessments at all the different levels – literally hundreds of candidates take assessments each year. Teacher trainers have now been supplied with a comprehensive manual containing all of the information they need; thanks to Sheila Haswell for putting this together. Also, we are maintaining our extensive programme of Professional Development days; these are excellent learning experiences for teachers and we would urge all to attend them if they can. Our thanks to 52

Judi Sweeting for co-ordinating these and to all the Moderators who have been running them.

We have introduced more flexibility in the requirements that teachers must fulfil to maintain their teacher membership by renewing their Certification Mark. Our requirements specify that our teachers must attend 25 hours of Iyengar yoga training every year, and also attend specialised teacher training at least once every 2 years. Up until recently, people have been using attendance at our Professional Development Days as their specialised teacher training. Now, a visit to the RIMYI, attendance at specified specialist workshops (e.g. Stephanie Quirk’s therapeutic workshops or similar course run by teachers approved by the Iyengars) or attendance at the IYA national Convention Teachers’ Day also count as specialised training.

We have drafted and approved an ‘Anti-Harassment Policy’; this sets out procedures in the event that one member of our association formally complains to us that they are being bullied or intimidated by another. We are in the process of writing a ‘Sustainability’ policy of the Association. Members can see copies of all our official documents on our website.

We have decided to join a newly formed organisation in the UK called the British Council for Yoga Therapy (BCYT). Joining the BCYT at this early stage in its development will allow the IYA (UK) to influence its future direction and policies. It does not commit IYA to anything more than we already do (uphold ethical standards, good practice, etc.), and gives us an important way to influence the future shape of how yoga teaching is regulated in the UK. Of course, we have the option to leave this organisation if at any time we feel that our membership is not helpful to the development of Iyengar yoga in the UK. The Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) in the UK has offered The University of York’s Trials Unit within the Health Sciences Department a large grant to carry out a high-profile clinical trial entitled ‘pragmatic randomised controlled trial into the effectiveness of yoga on low back pain’. As well as a representative from the IYA (UK), the trial team includes a number of people practicing other methods of yoga and our main concern is that we do not compromise the Iyengar method in any way. Although this particular trial may not turn out to be the ‘perfect trial’ Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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from the point of view of Iyengar yoga, it is an opportunity for the Iyengar community in the UK to show that we can collaborate with other yoga bodies and agencies without letting go of any of our principles. Our involvement in this project could be very useful in furthering research into the benefits of yoga and also raising the profile of the Iyengar method in a professional way in the UK. There is already talk of further research opportunities in the form of follow-up trials and other yoga trials, e.g.

Diabetes, Over 65s Health, Yoga for Anxiety and Depression. Our thanks go to Alison Trewhela for leading in this project on behalf of the IYA (UK).

We are continuing to monitor the media in the UK for references to yoga that need to be challenged, and have been very successful in getting articles published in a wide range of newspapers and magazines. In particular, we have been making the public and also institutions that run yoga classes, such as health clubs, aware of the significance of the Iyengar Yoga Certification Mark, and how it is a guarantee of high standards in yoga teaching.

Our ‘Bellur Action Group’ has now really begun to get going and we have raised over £8000 since we last made a payment to the Trust; we have a range of fund-raising activities planned for the coming year and hope to raise much more than this. We would also urge all members of the IYA, and teachers in particular, to do some fundraising for this extremely worthy cause.

Following a competitive tendering process, we have appointed Yogamatters to be the official supplier to the IYA (UK). This means that we no longer sell our own merchandise but members can buy all the things we used to sell (books, CDs, DVDs) directly from Yogamatters. This has saved the Association an enormous amount of work and will not result in an increase in prices. The only book that we are not selling through Yogamatters is ‘Basic Guidelines for Teachers’ - this is now only available to certificated teachers and teacher trainees from the main office. I would like to thank Patsy Sparksman who ran our merchandising service for years and now has a lot more room in her kitchen cupboards.

We have decided to welcome Tricia Booth as a new honorary member of the Association. Tricia has been a very active and dedicated member of the IYA, and before that the BKSIYTA, for many years, and her input has been invaluable.

We have had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Rajlaxmi and Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Devki Desai to teach at our Convention this year. The 2008 convention will take place in Newcastle on the 13th, 14th and 15th June and will be taught by Birjoo Mehta.

Many will be aware of the Yogacharya Festival taking place this July in Santa Clara, California and organised by Kofi Busia. Kofi is organising this Festival to celebrate the life of Yogacharya Sri B.K.S. Iyengar and his 70 years as a yoga teacher. As part of the Festival celebrations, Kofi is editing a book entitled “Iyengar: The Yoga Master”, intended as a gift to Guruji from the entire Iyengar yoga community.

The royalties from this book and the proceeds of the Festival will be donated to the Bellur Trust. The Yogacharya Festival will consist of an initial 5-day Iyengar intensive, with classes being taught by Iyengar teachers drawn from all over the world. This will be followed by an Open Weekend where teachers from a variety of yogic traditions around the world will gather together to acknowledge Guruji’s influence on their work. A final component of the Yogacharya Festival is to hold meetings to discuss the establishment of an International Iyengar Yoga Association, which would aim to cement unity amongst the worldwide Iyengar community and to propagate Guruji’s work. The IYA is sending 4 delegates to this meeting (all expenses paid from the surplus earned from the Yogacharya Festival) and they will produce a full report when they return.

Finally, I would like to thank Margaret Carter and Judith Richards for all the work and time they have put into the Association over the years. Both of them are retiring from their posts on the Executive Council at this AGM. Diane Maimaris is taking over Judith’s role in charge of Public Relations and Ros Bell is to be installed as Vice-Chair at this AGM. We do have some vacancies on our various committees, and in particular are looking for people to stand on the Events Committee.

Treasurer’s Report Diane Clow Financial Accounts for 2005/06 as at 31st Mar 2006 The financial accounts that were published in the Feb ‘07 IYN were presented to the AGM and appproved by the meeting.

Membership Fees for 2008/09 (Proposed and Accepted at the June 2007 AGM) 53

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I am happy to say that for 2008/09 all fees are to remain the same except for the increase in Individual Fees from £13.50 to £15.00 as shown highlighted in the table below.

The reason for this is not just financially based: last year approximately 59% of teachers joined through affiliated member Institutes, with the remainder 41% joining as individuals. We hope to encourage teachers to join through Institutes wherever possible. It was also felt that Assessment Fees had risen sufficiently over last 3 years to warrant not increasing them further for 2008/2009.

In addition, it was agreed that we should budget for a possible additional part-time role but that this would be funded by reserves for a period of minimum one year and then reviewed in the budget round for ‘09/10 and therefore would not affect membership fees for the coming year.

Institute members Individual members + overseas supp.

Individual teachers Affiliated Centre Teachers Supplement Teachers concessionary rate Introductory assessment fees I Introductory assessment fees II Junior Intermediate assessment fees Senior Intermediate assessment fees

6.00 15.00 15.00 100.00 35.00 21.00 55.00 88.00 88.00 88.00

Continuous Improvement and Strategic Changes On-line Payment for Renewals process – As a pilot, this was a success with approximately 40% renewing on-line (321 out of 871 teachers). Also Paypal is being used for ad-hoc direct payments rather than direct into bank accounts, making it easier to track. It has made a huge difference to the finance team and a lot of positive feedback has been received by members who have used it.

We are aiming to extend the option to pay on-line to conventions.

Certification Mark Payment: - The Certification Mark payment is now paid annually representing the full previous membership year and is transferred electronically.

Membership Report Brenda Noble-Nesbitt One full year is now under my belt and I have gone through the whole rocky road of the membership year, although I am sure that this must have been an extraordinary year with so many changes introduced for teacher membership - resulting in well over 3000 e-mails for me to deal with in the few months preceding renewal. I know this because none of these were ignored and none deleted until everything was finalised!

The on-line facility has been extremely well received and has greatly exceeded every expectation. It seems to have had an effect on renewal both on-line and via the post, with all time records being set for prompt responses. Your criticisms, comments and problems encountered at renewal time and reported to me have been recorded to inform renewal for 2008/09 – and we can’t provide a better service than this.

Membership numbers* for 2007/08 May 2007

Institutes

Individuals

Totals

Non-teachers Teachers

1027 646

218 235

1245 881

In order to encourage even more members to take the plunge and use the on-line facility, plans are already underway to change the design of the hard copy to serve a dual purpose and match the on-line format.The renewal form, as well as being a stand alone form, will also include instructions about what to expect on-line, since it is often the unknown that puts people off. This may also help to reduce the number of queries received in the membership office from teachers needing help with the process of renewal, on-line or otherwise, which is always a difficult situation to manage at such a busy time of the year.

Once again many thanks for all the support I have received from the membership office, not to mention other committee members. *Please note these numbers are recorded to the end of May, at the time of going to press, and are not complete for 2007/08

As always many thanks to the team: Prabhakara, Leza, Philippe and Juliet.

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IYA (UK) Membership & Office Manager Report Leza Hatchard Dear all, It has been an interesting year so far. Renewals back in March were the busiest yet with more teachers renewing than ever before. We have approx 900 teachers listed on the IYA (UK) website now with more teachers due to qualify in October 2007.

Thank you to all those teachers and non teachers who took the plunge and renewed using the online forms and PayPal for the first time. Considering it was a pilot it was hugely successful. Over 40% of teachers chose to renew online through the IYA (UK) website and it made the renewals process much quicker and easier to administrate. We are currently working on the feedback and glitches with the online renewal forms and will bring an even further improved renewal process on the website for you in early 2008. If you have internet access, then renewing online through the website is the way to go for the future. It’s much easier to complete the online forms and is a far quicker process for you. The online payment facility is also secure and protected.

Many teachers are still referring to very old and out of date copies of the teachers lists and wondering why they cannot find information on them for certain teachers. The teachers’ lists go out of date as soon as they are printed as people’s details change and as new teachers qualify and existing teachers retire or stop teaching. The IYA (UK) website facility ‘Finding a Teacher’ replaced the old teachers’ lists and you can find all of the current, up to date, fully renewed teachers with the certification mark listed on the website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk Hopefully as you are reading this, the first production of an Iyengar yoga calendar will be in circulation. The calendar is filled with beautiful photographs of BKS Iyengar and was created to support his charity, The Bellur Trust. A lot of members have asked over the years for photographs of Mr Iyengar so this was a way of giving people access to some of the wonderful images. It’s not only a lovely item to display but is also practical and supports an extremely worthwhile cause.

The Stephanie Quirk remedial workshops have been a great success to date and places for all of the level courses are filling as quickly as the details for them are released.

We hope to provide more events through IYA (UK) in Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

the future and the events committee welcome your ideas and suggestions.

Finally this is my last report to you all as I will be leaving IYA at the end of this October. It has been 4 years since I started back in 2003 and so much has happened during that time and I have met so many amazing people along the way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our members, teachers, trainees and non-teachers; for all of your words of encouragement and support over the years. I am leaving to go travelling for a while and hopefully on to new adventures. I will miss working with you all and I wish everyone the best of luck for the future. Take care of yourselves and thank you for everything.

Leza Hatchard has been Membership and Office Manager of the IYA (UK) since October 2003.

Sadly, she is leaving us at the end of October this year in order to do something much more exciting. She is going travelling with her husband Dave and then on to spend some time living in Seattle where they have lots of friends.

Leza is the first and only person we ever employed and the impact she has had on our Association is impossible to quantify. She has transformed us into an efficient and effective national organisation. As Chair of the Association, I have worked closely with Leza since she started with us, and she is going to be a pretty hard act to follow. She is completely committed to her work; I don’t think she ever missed a deadline or didn’t do what she said she would do. Hundreds of IYA members have had personal contact with Leza and they can testify to her efficiency in responding to calls and e-mails, her clarity, her patience and her friendliness.

Leza, we offer our heartfelt thanks for what you have done for us. We will sorely miss you but we wish you all the best in the future.

Philippe Harari (Chair IYA (UK))

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Teachers (and Trainee Teachers when qualified) How to use your Certification Mark logo and the name Iyengar The IYA (UK) is keen to encourage all teachers to use the Certification Mark (CM) trademarks as shown below. The more they are used and seen the more they will be generally recognised and known as the guarantee of a properly trained Iyengar yoga teacher. Please display your CM trademarks by using the logo in your advertising and the name Iyengar.

Please use this logo!

The Cer tification Mark was introduced by BKS Iyengar in 2004 for all those trained and qualified to teach the Iyengar method of yoga. It is the mark of a genuine Iyengar yoga teacher. The CM is a logo of BKS Iyengar in Natarajasana in front of a stylised image of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) building in Pune. You can use this logo as an emblem to show that you are trained and qualified to teach the method of yoga evolved by BKS Iyengar. The logo is sent to all teachers when they first take out the licence in the form of an acetate copy. If you would like an electronic copy please contact the Main Office: admin@iyengaryoga.org.uk.

You may also use the Iyengar name as a registered trade mark in upper case with the registration mark symbol ® as shown below; IYENGAR® Both trademarks should be displayed in black on any light coloured ground with the registered trade mark symbol, ®.

For more information on the many places where you can use the CM trade marks, look in Appendix A of your contract. In the section labeled Goods/Services the contract lists all the different sorts of activities and materials where you may use the CM, e.g. seminars, film video and audio productions, books, brochures and stationery as well as the obvious advertisements.

Then check Appendix B which tells you clearly how to present the trademarks.

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Use of the name Iyengar by a yoga centre or business Eligibility A licence to use the Certification Mark is not a licence to use the name “Iyengar” as part of a teacher’s business name.

Any teacher proposing to use the name “Iyengar” in the name of their privately owned or rented yoga centre/studio/school must : a) Be a current full teacher member of the IYA(UK) licensed to use the Certification Mark. b) Be qualified at Junior Intermediate Level II or above. c) Have preferably attended classes at the RIMYI in Pune and, if not, then a letter to BKS Iyengar from the Association (see below) should indicate that they are whole heartedly, sincerely and dedicatedly passing on BKS Iyengar’s teaching.

How to apply a) Contact the Ethics & Certification Committee through the Main office.

BKS Iyengar has requested that Associations first check the eligibility of any teacher wishing to open a yoga centre or business displaying his name in its title and also approve the proposed name so there is no conflict caused with any other centre. b) When verified by the Ethics & Cer tification Committee the teacher must write to seek approval from BKS Iyengar enclosing a letter from the Association.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL NOMINATIONS NOTICE If any member of the IYA (UK) would like to stand on the IYA (UK) Executive Council as an individual representative could they send their nomination, along with a proposer and seconder, to joe.burn@virgin.net.

If more people stand than there are seats we will have an election.The Executive Council would really welcome non teachers onto the Council as well.

Please do not hesitate to contact Joe Burn, (IYA (UK) secretary), if you have any questions: Telephone Number (01224) 591 271.

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WH AT D OE S ‘ M I X ING M E THOD S’ M E AN?

By Judith Jones (Chair of the Ethics and Certification Committee of the IYA (UK)) e all know that Iyengar yoga teachers should not ‘mix methods’, but why is it so important to us and what exactly does it mean?

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In the Iyengar method of yoga we do not practice āsanas and just to keep fit. The method of practising āsana and prā āyāma which BKS Iyengar has evolved is a complete spiritual practice. He does not claim that ‘his’ method is the only valid one, or even that it is the best method for everyone. But he does warn against jumping from one method of yoga to another, and does not want his method mixed with other spiritual practices. The best way to progress along the journey from the outer sheath of the physical body to the inner sheath of the soul is to follow a single path, however difficult or challenging that path may be.

Teachers who call themselves Iyengar teachers must ensure that their teaching is firmly rooted in the Iyengar method, which is itself rooted in the teachings of Patanjali, and is not mixed with other methods or disciplines. The following paragraphs appear in the Standing Orders to the IYA (UK) Constitution and explain exactly how teachers should avoid mixing methods.

This does not mean that Iyengar Yoga teachers cannot have another interest or be qualified in another field but that in the yoga teaching situation the practices are kept completely separate. If an Iyengar Yoga teacher is qualified in another field and wants to also teach or practice this, it must be completely separate from the Iyengar Yoga class.

Iyengar Yoga Centres (i.e. any business given permission by Guruji to use his name) should only advertise Iyengar Yoga classes, workshops, conventions etc or props and materials for use in an Iyengar class. Advertisements for any other activity or discipline or alternative therapy should not be displayed as this is confusing and may appear to endorse a mixing of methods.

Iyengar Yoga teachers teaching through other organisations or using their buildings to hold classes, must not link these organisations to Iyengar Yoga or introduce other activities into the Iyengar Yoga class and must make it clear to their students that Iyengar Yoga is a separate system.

The best way to progress along the journey from the outer sheath of the physical body to the inner sheath of the soul is to follow a single path, however difficult or challenging that path may be.

PRINCIPLES FOR INTERPRETING THE TERM “NOT MIXING METHODS” It is the individual responsibility of all certificated Iyengar Yoga teachers licensed to use the Certification Mark not to mix the Iyengar Yoga method with any other methods or activities or disciplines.

Iyengar Yoga teachers are committed to teaching only one form of yoga, i.e. Iyengar Yoga according to methods of Yogacharya BKS Iyengar. In addition Iyengar teachers do not introduce anything into the Iyengar method from another discipline or activity. It is a mark of integrity in Iyengar teachers that they do not mix the stream of learning that they are responsible for passing on.

Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

In the classroom situation there should be a clear interval between the end of the Iyengar Yoga class and the teaching of any other form of meditation.

This is especially important if both classes are to be taught by the same teacher in order for there to be no mixing in the minds of the students.

Any student not wishing to participate in the meditation should be allowed to leave. It should be stated clearly that the other meditation is not part of the Iyengar method.

On retreats, weekends other short courses or holidays offering Iyengar Yoga with other activities, the other activities should ideally be taught by another teacher. If the same teacher runs both Iyengar Yoga and also a course in another activity, a clear distinction between that activity and Iyengar Yoga must be made. Any advertisements should differentiate clearly between Iyengar yoga and other activities.

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A T R I B UTE TO ANGE L A M ARRIS Angela Hildyard Marris passed away suddenly on 5th July 2007 at University College Hospital aged 91 years. The funeral Service was held at St Giles Church, Cripplegate (Barbican) on Tuesday 17th July at 3 p.m. followed by private cremation.

On hearing of her passing from Brigid Philip, Guruji and Geetaji sent the following letters:

Dear Brigid Philip, Sorry to hear of Angela Marris who passed away on the 5th July. She had crossed 90 years and I had wished her then to live one hundred years. But God thought otherwise. She was with Silva, Beatrice and Diana in my first public class in London. That year these 4 started and it slowly grew into a gigantic tree. She was responsible for collecting fees, meeting all expenses of the classes which she managed for years, with a selfless mind as a social service. We lost a good friend and a noble heart. She was lively till the last breath and that itself speaks volumes of her clear head and clean heart. As her funeral service is on the 17th, may I request you all to place a floral tribute on my behalf and I salute her for being my student, a well wisher and a great friend. I pray for her soul to rest in the abode of God with peace.

BKS Iyengar Dear Brigid, It is very saddening to hear that Angela Marris is no more with us. I was very fortunate to meet her in 2002. We were corresponding from 1962; so in a way we were pen-friends, but I had not met her until 2002. She was a person of big heart. Often she wrote appreciating Guruji’s teachings whenever he visited the UK. Apart from having beautiful handwriting she was a wonderful person and a great soul. Let the soul rest in peace.

Geeta (her pen friend, who met her only once) **Lorna Walker is preparing the obituary for the February Issue of Iyengar Yoga News. Please send any recollections and stories to her by e-mail to lornamac@supanet.com before October 15th 2007.

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DISCLOSURE SCOTLAND Announcement for Teachers Resident in Scotland and Teaching Children or Vulnerable Adults Please note that this announcement is contrary to the advice in recent issues of IYN as amongst other things Scotland has its own Government and legal system.While it is good for those south of the Border that the IYA (UK) has made arrangements to enable them to apply for disclosure it would be most appropriate to follow the law of the land: Disclosure Scotland provides an accurate and responsive disclosure service to enhance security, public safety and protect the vulnerable in society.

Disclosure Scotland is part of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) which, in turn, is a common police service and an executive agency of the Scottish Executive. Disclosure is a requirement of many employers and insurers for anyone working with children (incl.under 18’s) and vulnerable adults, and if self–employed it would be in your interest to have it.

The level of Disclosure required depends on the degree of contact you have with the group and availability of supervision by someone holding a suitable Certificate. Levels vary from Basic, which anyone can apply for, through to Standard and Enhanced levels, the latter is for those solely responsible for such a group.

These applications have to be countersigned by an “umbrella” body, that is normally the employer but in the case of running a private class the registered “umbrella” body is the Scottish Disclosure Advisory Service. www.disclosurescotland.co.uk or 0870609 6006 Basic cost £20 Scottish Disclosure Advisory Service 01786 825313 Basic cost £10 (subject to travel expenses) Footnote: Further to the feature in IYA news about CRB checks and Lloyd Education, Dominic Batten from Sheffield has written in to suggest that it may be worth teachers contacting their local authority to see if checks can be done through them. In Sheffield for example there is no charge at all as the council wishes to promote healthy activities for young people and also to encourage community activities. It may not always be easy to find out which part of the council may do this, but there should be an Inspection and Registration Unit that should know.

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BCYT - BRITISH COUNCIL FOR YOGA THE RAPY

by Ros Bell es, another abbreviation to remember! BCYT stands for the British Council for Yoga Therapy, which IYA’s Executive Council decided last year we should join. If you would like to find out more about the BCYT, a good place to star t is its website (www.bcyt.org.uk).

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If you’ve seen the Iyengars at work in Pune, you’ll know how much value they place on the medical (remedial, therapeutic) aspects of yoga. Many Iyengar yoga teachers in this country too are very interested in the potential that yoga has to help people with medical conditions or injuries, and several of our more experienced teachers already work with students in a therapeutic context.

This could be a remedial class, one-to-one sessions, or giving a special programme of āsanas to someone in a general class, for example.

Since this is a significant part of what Iyengar Yoga teachers do, IYA has a responsibility to stay in touch with what is happening in the wider community of yoga teaching and remedial yoga. One reason for being part of the BCYT is that it represents a friendly and responsible-minded gathering of people (mostly yoga teachers) who are concerned with this aspect of yoga, and who wish to promote the growth of shared knowledge and good practice in this field.

The members of BCYT come from various schools of yoga, and work together harmoniously, respecting the differences they may have, as well as seeking common ground.

The other main reason for joining with others who work in this field is that the UK is becoming an increasingly regulated context for those of us in health and education – and yoga can be seen to fall into these categories, even if they don’t describe completely what yoga is about.

Because the national government has a responsibility to safeguard members of the public, it is obliged to concern itself with what practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine are up to. Yoga therapy or medical yoga can be included in that broad category.

cally, it has invited yoga therapy (and also other complementary medical disciplines) to come up with an effective system for regulating itself. This seems preferable to having a set of regulations foisted upon us by some outside authority that may have little or no understanding of what yoga is all about. BCYT is the body that is trying to develop an acceptable system for self-regulation of the yoga therapy profession, a system developed by people who understand yoga.

IYA’s Executive felt it was important to be part of this development, so it has been sending representatives along to participate actively in BCYT meetings. The BCYT, in turn, sends representation to the working group that is developing the structure and procedures for a proposed federal regulatory body, so IYA has a clear influence on the future of regulatory systems that are likely to affect yoga teachers.

Seed funding and other support for this venture has been provided by the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, but most of the people involved in the BCYT are contributing their own time and effort voluntarily, in many cases with the support of their own organisation. Large yoga organisations, such as IYA(UK) and the British Wheel of Yoga, and also smaller schools and individual practitioners are taking an interest in the progress of this development.

There’s still a lot to be done, and it is essential that we get as much input as possible from concerned parties. If you have a special interest in remedial yoga, and would like to get involved in planning how it will be regulated, this is a great opportunity to be proactive.

If you would like to find out more, please contact Ros Bell on r.j.bell@open.ac.uk – we’re especially keen to hear from people who have relevant knowledge or skills and a bit of time to spare. You don’t need to be a remedial yoga specialist yourself, or even a yoga teacher, to contribute to creating an effective and positive regulatory body.

But you do need to have a clear idea of what Iyengar yoga iis, be enthusiastic about exchanging ideas and working co-operatively with yoga colleagues from other traditions, and be very patient with the ins and outs of bureaucracy!

Rather than the government devising a set of rules and imposing them on yoga teachers who work therapeutiIyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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ANTI- HARASSMENT POLICY

New Member Institute: Kent Iyengar Yoga Institute (KIYI)

by Angela Hulm

Recently the IYA has adopted a new anti-harassment policy which applies to all members of the association and employees.

It is now part of the Standing Orders of the Constitution and is available for all members to look at or download from the IYA(UK) website.

The Constitution can only be amended with additions or changes approved at the AGM. However the Standing Orders can be amended at any time with approval by the Executive Council. Amendments are made quite frequently and the website has the most up to date version available.

eachers and students in South London and Kent have set up a new Member Institute. The Kent IYENGAR Yoga Institute (KIYI) has been formed to serve the southeast. Sevenoak,s Bexley and Bromley in Kent are well represented, with enquiries already from London Boroughs Croydon, Lewisham and Southwark.

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We won’t have a home building, but maybe, like some other member Institutes we can have a regular home for yoga days.

If anyone does not have access to the internet or requires a paper copy of either the Anti-Harassment Policy or the whole Constitution & Standing Orders, please contact the Main Office.

Ethics and Certification Committee

So far, yoga workshops have been held with local intermediate teachers, and in March we were honoured with Sylvia Prescott leading a 4 hr workshop attended by nearly 50 people. The surplus from this is being used to finance the setting up of the Institute. Thanks to Bob Waters (Senior Intermediate level 2) teacher for a full good humoured yoga day for our inaugural meeting.

I YA (UK ) ME M B E R I NS T I T U T ES

Member institutes are democratic organisations so anyone who practices or teaches IYENGAR yoga can join.

Response to our initial flyer has gained a lot of interest, as well as volunteers for treasurer, newsletter writer, artist, news sub-editor, and even a teacher co-ordinator. Our interim committee is chaired by Maggie Dix (Junior Intermediate Level 3).

IYA (UK) Member Institutes are non profit-making membership organisations committed to promoting the practice and philosophy of Iyengar yoga in their areas. Member Institutes are entitled to send rerpesentatives to sit on the Executive Council of the IYA (UK).

They offer a wide range of classes and workshops led by qualified teachers with years of experience. For details of classes and local teachers please contact the people listed on the next page.

The membership fee brings you membership of both IYA (UK) and the Institute.

We are determined that the new Institute will do whatever its members want to promote Iyengar yoga locally.

So far interest has been about yoga days, and more classes. Other requests are for teacher updates midweek, halls with ropes, and a student request for Saturday classes.

If you would like to find out more about setting up a Member Institute in your area, or if you live in the Kent area and would like to join KIYI, please contact me on angelahulm@hotmail.com or 020 8462 4868

As a member of both organisations you are entitled to: local newsletters, free copies of Iyengar Yoga News twice a year, local events and classes at reduced prices, discounts on national IYA (UK) conventions and the opportunity to network with other Iyengar yoga practitioners.

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C LA SSE S

A T

R IM YI

If you wish to attend classes at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune, you must apply through the IYA (UK) - individual applications sent directly to the RIMYI will not be accepted (people from some other countries with less well established national Associations do apply directly to the Institute using a form that they download from the RIMYI website, but this option is not open to people from the UK, and definitely does not result in getting onto classes earlier). The application process is as follows: 1. Download an application form from the IYA (UK) website (www.iyengaryoga.org.uk) or contact our Main Office on 020 8997 6029 or at admin@iyengaryoga.org.uk 2. Fill out the form and send with a Bankers Draft for US$150 made out to RIMYI to: Penny Chaplin, Flat 1, St. Johns Court, Finchley Road, London NW3 6LL Please do not include photos or personal mail. Please note: For admission, the RIMYI requests that the student’s practice of 8 years reflects an understanding of the foundation of Iyengar Yoga. This would include the regular practice of inverted poses (8-10 mins. in the inverted postures), and the regular practise of prā āyāma, Women should know what is to be practised during menstruation. All students should have read, at the minimum, the introductory chapter to Light on Yoga and be familiar with the terms and principles covered in that chapter; RIMYI offers one or two months admission. No extensions beyond 2 months under any circumstances; The total cost is $US400 a month and a deposit of $US150 must be paid in advance, with the balance payable on arrival at the RIMYI. The advance deposit is part of the fees and hence not transferable to any other person or course. It is non-refundable. In additon to the balance of $US250 payable on arrival at the RIMYI, you will need to present your letter of confirmation and two photocpies of your passport and visa; 6 classes are given per week, each for 2hrs duration. A schedule will be given on arrival; The last week of each month will be prā āyāma classes; The classes will be conducted by BKS Iyengar or his daughter or son or by staff members; When applying please include relevant bio-data with any health conditions; Certificates will not be issued at the end of the course; You will need to make your own arrangements for board and lodging; Applications are for individuals only - no groups. However, if you would like to go at the same time as a friend, you should both indicate this clearly on your application form.

3. If you would like a confirmation that your application form and bankers draft has been sent to the RIMYI, please enclose a sae. All application forms are automatically forwarded to Pune and there is absolutely no selection process at this stage.

4. When the administrator at RIMYI, Mr Pandurang Rao, receives your application form he will automatically place you on the next available course and send you a confirmation letter. Please note: The RIMYI receives many applications from all over the world; the waiting list for classes is around 2 years; You may have to wait from 3 months to a year to receive your confirmation letter; If your confirmation letter comes direct from India please let Penny know. You will know the letter has come direct from India by the stamp and postmark. If you receive a photocopied letter posted from London then your confirmation letter has gone through Penny and you don’t need to inform her. (Pandu sometimes sends a group of confirmation letters to Penny for her to forward to applicants); Do not ask to change the date you are given unless you have a serious need to do so on compassionate grounds.

Check the IYA (UK) website for more information, travel details, contact numbers for accommodation etc.

www.iyengaryoga.org.uk Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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EVENTS LISTINGS: YOUR GUIDE TO Avon Iyengar Yoga Institute Bob Philips Events organiser & acting Chair E-mail: yogabob@homecall.co.uk Phone: 0117 9639006

Bradford and District Iyengar Yoga Institute Alan Brown 01535 637357 alan@dianalan.plus.com

Cambridge Iyengar Yoga Institute Sasha Perryman - 01223 515929 sashaperryman@yahoo.co.uk www.cambridgeyoga.co.uk

Dorset and Hampshire Iyengar Yoga Institute Secretary - Ealine Rees - 01202 483951 www.DHIYI.co.uk

East of Scotland Iyengar Yoga Institute

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Please contact the events organiser, Kiim Trowell on 01202 445049 for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Saturday 27th October - Diane Coates 24th & 25th November - Richard Agar Ward from Bath

www.gwsiyi.org.uk

Glasgow and West of Scotland Iyengar Yoga Institute www.gwsiyi.org

Institute of Iyengar Yoga in Sussex Brian Ingram www.iiys.org.uk 01444 236714; brianiyoga@tesco.net

Kent Iyengar Yoga Institute Angela Hulme angelahulm@hotmail.com; 020 84624868

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Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

14th October - Silvia Prescott at JustYoga,Worthing - £20 members of IIYS, £24 non-members 17th November - PD Day with Jayne Orton at Brighton Natural Health Centre - £18

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

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IYENGAR INSTITUTES IN THE UK Liverpool Iyengar Yoga Institute Judi Soffa 0151 7094923 mail@yogastudio.f9.co.uk

Midland Counties Iyengar Yoga Institute www.mciyi.co.uk Brian Jack 01789 205322; wejacksis@btinternet.com

Manchester and District Institute of Iyengar Yoga Janice Yates www.iyengar-yoga-mcr.org.uk 01613 683614; mdiiyoga@amserve.net

North East Institute of Iyengar Yoga Gordon Austin 01915 487457 yoga@austinmg.wanadoo.co.uk

North East London Iyengar Yoga Institute www.neliyi.org.uk Nancy Clarke 02084420617; nancyclarke@btinternet.com

Oxford and Region Iyengar Yoga Institute O . R . I . Y. I .

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

20th September - Brenda Booth - Harringay Club 14th October - Jayne Orton - Harringay Club 4th Nov - PD Day - cakcoulson63@hotmail.com 18th November - Marco Cannavo - Harringay Club

15th September - Kirsten Agar Ward - Newbury 3rd November - Mary Heath - Salisbury

www.oriyi.org.uk Jenny Furby - 01264 324107 jennyfurby@btinternet.com

Sheffield and District Iyengar Yoga Association Dominic Batten Tel: 0114 264 9418 dombatten@aol.com

South West Iyengar Yoga Institute

Please contact the events organiser for details of events and classes, or see the ‘events’ page on the IYA (UK) website: www.iyengaryoga.org.uk

20th September - Richard Agar Ward 2nd & 3rd November - Judi Sweeting and Tig Whattler

www.swiyengaryoga.ukf.net Jean Kutz 01872 572807; jean.kutz@tesco.net Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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A GREEK WOMAN IN HIGH WYCOMBE he train is racing forth on this chilly morning. It’s midMarch and I am on my way to the Junior Intermediate I exams to be held at the Sarva Centre. The name does ring a bell. Is it because of Sarvangasana?

Searching back in my memory, I remember I read an article about it in a previous issue of the IYN magazine. What work and worry and joy and love went into it!

T

I think of my own studio in Athens and I can sympathise. It feels such a long time ago, but it’s only a year and a half since we opened up. A lot of students have honoured it with their practice. All my classes and workshops take place there. It still hasn’t had the privilege of welcoming any other teachers though. It’s particularly missing the energy and wisdom of the senior teachers – those who are so easily accessible in England.

There’s only five Iyengar certified teachers in Greece, all of them in Athens, and I am the youngest. We are all at the Introductory Level, although a couple of them have been practising for over 20 years. And to think I am the one on the way to the Junior Intermediate I exams – brrrrrrrr! I am filled with longing for my days in London only three years ago, when the most amazing teachers, classes and workshops were just a scooter ride away. The absolute joy of going to class. Now, I have only my practice.

Enough of reminiscing – the train has arrived in High Wycombe. After a short taxi ride away, I am standing at the side door of the Sarva Centre. Sheila and Ally welcome me.

Their warmth and compassion of those first moments were to accompany me for the whole of my day there. Practicalities aside, I enter the Rosewood Studio, where I was to be examined. What a place! The light in there was pure and ample. The feeling in there was one of love. I saw a statue of Ganesha to my right, where I offered my bow in humility – the Remover of Obstacles was watching over me.

Some of my co-examinees were already there. They were exchanging names and handshakes and I joined in – and that was it. We all connected in a way that only a strong common experience such as exams can invoke. We practiced and talked and held each other and smiled. The warmth of the room entered our hearts and engulfed us.

Soon enough the assessors arrived. No matter how many exams one takes (and we all had our fair share to get here), it is unnerving to see the senior teachers with the notebooks in their hands entering the room. And don’t they look 64

by Volu Bolou serious! I was honestly thankful to hear our moderator discussing it – how concentrated they look when they are observing us and trying to fill in their sheets at the same time.

It was a long two hours this first practice part of the exam.

Since I have only been to very few teacher training sessions before (there’s no teacher training in Greece yet), I wasn’t completely certain about the way some of the āsanas were expected to be practiced. I could only do what I practiced on my own and in Pune a few months before. The assessors advised me when I seemed ambiguous. At last, śavāsana was announced and everybody, students and assessors alike, smiled – it was the end of the first part.

We were then gathered so we could be assigned the āsanas that we would teach each other in the afternoon.

As soon as I heard the names of the poses, I immediately thought of looking through my notes and checking up on the essential points for the teaching. However though, I was so tuned into myself that I realized that I was in need of something more urgent than the notes – a restorative pose.

So, I set myself up for a fully supported supta baddha ko āsana and I surrendered to it. This āsana is such a gift!

I felt such tremendous gratitude to Guruji for those minutes of full joy. I got out of it, still carrying the peace and silence I experienced.

The teaching part of the exam came. We all did our best not only as teachers but also as students. We wanted to help each other do well, so we followed closely on instructions and recommendations. The assessors were observing us carefully, asking questions or directing us. At the times when my inability or my plain ignorance in a pose was revealed, I felt like a naughty child being uncovered. I caught myself secretly being grateful for the correction though!

When the last one of us finished, I almost collapsed. We all hugged and ran to the kitchen for a cup of tea. It was possibly the most hard-earned one of the year!

Then came the wait and the anticipation. I felt the exhaustion in body and mind. I was thinking of success and failure together, of my efforts to get here, of what was expected of me. I took a moment to remind myself of the joy of the journey to get here. Just that morning, I had received a text message from my best friend, quoting a line from Guruji’s ‘Light on Life’: the highest point of today should be the Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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lowest of tomorrow’ – so that we don’t lose sight of the greater picture.

We didn’t have to wait long – the assessors were already summoning us to the studio. They took one look at our stressed and exhausted faces and one of them said: ‘ don’t look so miserable – you all passed!’ We screamed selfishly and completely heartlessly towards our fellow students being assessed next door. We couldn’t believe it. Thank you Ganesha! Thank you Guruji! Thank you to all our teachers!

Needless to say we were all delighted. We had to be asked to move to the next room, so we could each individually reenter the studio in order to receive our personal instructions. We were given enough homework but at the time nothing else mattered – celebrations were in order.

My points to be worked on were … well, they will have to wait a bit. Till the next exam!

A S S E S S M E N T

R E S U L T S

Junior Intermediate Level 1 Trish Barker Vula Bolou Yves Bouvy Miriam Brady Anne Brooks Janette Browne Lyn Buckby Tessa Bull Annette Cahill Julia Casson Jo Crossley Jenny Deadman Vivienne Dick Genevieve Dicker Priscila Diniz Emily Druiff Terri Eagleton Marcus Evans Carolyn Ferguson Grazia Farina Anne Forward John Fuller Ayala Gill Matthew Greenfield Ruth Hancock Ally Hill Alexia Hudson Kari Jagger Linda Jolliffe Heather Joynes Louise Kaye Sharon Klaff Sandra Lang Justine Lester Janet Lintonbon Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Myles Lobjoie Anne Lynn Frances McKee Wendy Newell Mary Niker Lynne Offord Melanie Palmer Caroline Raybould Elaine Rees Trish Sangwine Paula Savery Meg Scott Roberto Silva Susan Stephenson Andy Tait Vivienne Thickett Janet Turner Barbara Vidion Pilar Vigus Ute Wastcoat Helen White

Junior Intermediate Level 2 Diane Bliss Sue Chapman John Cotgreave Deborah Curran Jill Fuller Ruth Galinsky Felicity Goodson Andrew Hall Martin Hall Leela Grethe Hansen Isabelle Khellafi John Leachman

Rachel Lovegrove Pamela Martin Jackie McCaul Jayesh Mistry Joan Oldfield Lindsey Patterson Myka Ransom Annamaria Sacco Marian Sharp Wendy Sykes Amanda Whitehead Gaynor Wilson Kathryn Woodcock

Junior Intermediate Level 3 Sandy Bell Frances Brown Laura Caro-Sanchez Diane Clow Jenni Doohan Simon Edwardson John Ferrabee Ofra Graham Steve Lamont Pavara Alison Pegg Iris Pimm Andree Shrivell Berni Thompson Best wishes next time to those who were unsuccessful this time.

Many thanks to all those who helped with the organisation and running of the assessments.

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Y O G A

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R A H A S Y A

Yoga Rahasya is a quarterly Iyengar yoga journal published in India. Four issues a year are mailed to you, normally starting from the next available issue. Back copies are sometimes available (£3.50 each); please write a separate note if you are enquiring about these, listing the issues you are seeking. To subscribe, or to renew an existing subscription, please complete and return the form below with a cheque made payable to “IYA (UK)” to: Tig Whattler, 64 Watermoor Road, Cirencester, Glos. GL7 1LD. Queries to this address or to info@cotswoldiyengar.co.uk.

Please write very clearly (or type the information on a separate piece of paper).

In order to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998, IYA (UK) agrees not to release the details you give us here to any external party without first seeking your permission. We may pass on these details to our Indian Yoga Rahasya publishing partners. This information is collected, stored and processed for the purposes of Yoga Rahasya journal subscription and distribution administration. IYA (UK) does not sell or exchange its membership lists with other organisations.

Name: ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Address: .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................................................................ Post code: .............................................

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Is this a renewal? ............... If so, please state issue no. new subscription is to start with, if known. Vol. ............... No..............

Amount enclosed (cheque to “IYA (UK)” please) £........................................................ (one year’s subscription (4 issues) is £16) Please enclose a stamped s.a.e. if you require a receipt.

Signature ........................................................................................................................................................ Date .......................................................................

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Iyengar Yoga merchandise from Yogamatters Yogamatters is the official supplier chosen by the iya(uk). We supply a wide range of yoga mats, props, books and other media. Wholesale rates are available.

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Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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yogamatters.com 020 8888 8588 67

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ADVERTISEMENTS

ADVERTISING in IYENGAR YOGA NEWS We only print quarter page adverts (80mm wide by 118mm high); you can either send the completed artwork (as a ‘press quality’ PDF, a high resolution JPEG or a QuarkXpress document) OR you can send the images (as high res. JPEGs) and wording and we will make the advert up for you. Please note: · Advertisements for yoga classes, events, holidays etc.

- will be only be accepted from certificated Iyengar Yoga teachers · Advertisements for Yoga Centres will only be accepted from official Iyengar yoga organisations · Where yoga equipment is itemised in an advert, this will only be accepted for equipment which is used within the Iyengar method. The name ‘Iyengar’ must not be used as an adjective attached to specific items of equipment e.g. use ‘blocks for Iyengar practice’ rather than ‘Iyengar blocks’ etc. · Goods or services which are not used in yoga and/or which are not acceptable within the Iyengar method will not be advertise in IYN · Advertisements for other goods (e.g. Books/CD ROMS/videos) will only be published if they concern the Iyengar method or have otherwise been approved by the Ethics & Certification Committee of the IYA (UK) If you wish to advertise in the next issue of Iyengar Yoga News, please send all text, photographs or artwork by the next issue deadline (see page 1) to: jcotgreave@merseymail.com Advertising rates Quarter page: £35; Small ads.: 40p per word NB. the Editorial Board reserves the right to refuse to accept advertisements or parts of advertisements that are deemed to be at variance with the stated aims of the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK). IYA (UK) does not necessarily endorse any products etc advertised in this magazine 68

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Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

Sarva Iyengar Yoga Institute Check our web site for the many events taking place.

Yoga days, holidays, workshops and Teacher Training at all levels.

01494 521107 www.sarva.co.uk High Wycombe, Bucks HP12 3AB 69

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ADVERTISEMENTS

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The Centre was opened in September 2006 for the exclusive teaching of Iyengar Yoga. It is fully equipped and offers a wide range of daytime and evening classes open to all levels of students from beginners to regular practitioners For further information, please contact Margaret Carter Tel No: 01925 758382 Email: KnutsfordYoga@aol.com www.KnutsfordIyengarYoga.co.uk

The Knutsford Iyengar Yoga Centre is an approved Affiliated Centre of the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK)

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ADVERTISEMENTS

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Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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IYA (UK) EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Officer position Chairperson Treasurer Secretary Vice Chairperson

Deputy Secretary

Deputy Treasurer

Membership Sec.

Dep. Memb. Sec.

Rep.

Name Philippe Harari Diane Clow Joe Burn Ros Bell AIYI Edgar Stringer BDIYI Jo Crossley CIYI vacancy DHIYI Andrea Smith ESIYI Julie Anderson GWISIYI Helen Graham IIYS Andy Roughton LIYI Helen Green MCIYI Prabhakara MDIIY 1 Debbie Bartholomew MDIIY 2 vacancy NEIIY Brenda Noble-Nesbitt NELIYI Tessa Bull ORIYI Judith Jones SADIYA Wendy Weller-Davies SWIYI Janice Chesher R. of Ireland Aisling Guirke R. of Ireland Eileen Cameron Individual Brenda Booth Individual Louise Cartledge Individual Elaine Pidgeon Individual Patsy Sparksman

e-mail philippe.harari@runbox.com dclow@hotmail.co.uk joe.burn@virgin.net r.j.bell@open.ac.uk yoglyded@yahoo.co.uk jocross_ley@yahoo.co.uk

Telephone 01223 523 410 0131 334 7544 01224 591 271 020 8340 9899 01761 435 468 0777 300 1791

andrea@iyengaryoga.me.uk julieindia@hotmail .com heleng.yoga@ntlworld.com amroughton@yahoo.co.uk h.young@merseymail.com prabhakara@freeuk.com debrabartholomew@btinternet.com

0239 246 6750 0141 642 0476 01273 326 205 07794 579 874 0121 449 7496 01706 841 942

b.noblenesbitt@gmail.com tessabull@onetel.com jjyoga@btinternet.com wendy@wellerdavies.co.uk janicechesher@waitrose.com aisling_guirke@hotmail.com eileencameron@eircom.net brendaboothkent@aol.com louise.cartledge@btinternet.com elaine.pidgeon@virgin.net patsyyoga@aol.com

0191 388 4118 0208 340 2091 0148 871 838 0114 251 7359 01872 552 867 00353872891664 00353 12841799 01892 740 876 01428 645 825 0131 552 9871 020 8455 6366

Committee members: Note: Committee chairs are in bold. Co-opted (ie. non- Executive Council) members are in italics.

Management Committee: Ros Bell, Alan Brown, Joe Burn, Di Clow, Philippe Harari, Judith Jones Planning: Ros Bell, Joe Burn, Alan Brown, Louise Cartledge, Di Clow, Philippe Harari, Brenda Noble-Nesbitt, Prabhakara, Andrea Smith Ethics and Certification: Ros Bell, Penny Chaplin, Judith Jones, Pen Reed, Judi Soffa, Judi Sweeting, Tig Whattler Assessment and Teacher Training: Debbie Bartholomew, Alan Brown, Julie Brown, Brenda Booth Sheila Haswell, Meg Laing, Jayne Orton, Sasha Perryman Communications & Public Relations: Jon Cotgreave (IYN), Diane Goldrei (PR), Philippe Harari, Judith Jones (IYN), Sharon Klaff (IYN), Andy Roughton (website), R.achel Lovegrove (IYN) Archives/Research: Debbie Bartholomew Conventions/Events:: Helen Graham Moderators: Richard Agar Ward, Margaret Austin, Brenda Booth, Tricia Booth, Julie Brown, Dave Browne, Penny Chaplin, Diane Coats, Sheila Haswell, Judith Jones, Meg Laing, Sasha Perryman, Elaine Pidgeon, Jayne Orton, Pen Reed, Judi Sweeting Professional Development Days Coordinator: Judi Sweeting Assessment Co-ordinator: Meg Laing Senior Intermediate Assessment Organiser: Jayne Orton Junior Intermediate Assessment Organiser: Sasha Perryman Introductory Assessment Organiser: Sheila Haswell Republic of Ireland Assessment Coordinator: Margaret Austin 72

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Yoga Twists

by Lis Maimaris Yoga is a tongue twister For the body Its words and rhythms Stretch and tone My limbs and my mind Opening up cavities Waking up slumber: In my Inner arches, sacrum, lumbar I can be a tree A frog I can curl up small Lie like a log I am a triangle, A warrior, A dog I stretch From balls Of toes To hips To sitting bones Yoga words into yoga poses Roll out my creases Reach in deep Lift me up Transform me And as I lie in Savasana My body feels like A tongue After a mouthful of Tongue-twisting Looser, relaxed And at least an inch longer Iyengar Yoga News No. 11 - Autumn 2007

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