Thus Spake B.K.S. iyengar by Don Gura Graphic Design, Inc.

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BY THE SAME AUTHORS by O.K.S. IYENGAR - ligl11 on Prdndydma, Allen and Unwin (in preparation). - Yogadipilu:i, /umiere sur le yoga, in French. Ouchct-Chastel. - light on Yoga, Yogadi'pikii, Allen and Unwin.

by B.K.S. IYENGAR. coUcctcd by Noelle Perez-Chri.stiacns: - Etincel/es de Divinilr! - Sparks of Dlvinily. Paris

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To my Master B.K.S. IYENGAR , • hard as a diamond, • soft as a rose petal, · subtle as a leaf trembling in the breeze, • whose intensity brings one quicker ro the END.. , With infinile gra1iiude.

by Noelle PEREZ-CIIRISTIAENS : 8.K,S. Iyengar, WI mystique hindou ivre de Dieu. Yoga physique ou Yoga spirituel? Yoga 1/YUJ' Yama-Niyama (in preparation). - l'r<i111.ig11iho1ra, II! sucri}icl! quo1idil!n d11 Pro.no (according lo R.K.S. lycngar'.s

lcchn iquc).

- Cakra. - Kwulalini-Ma. - Mok.sha : pr,11ycihdra, cihdrana, dyd11a el samddhi. Om. - <;avcisana. - Les Ye11x. ag,•111s de dispersion ou d'i111egra1ion. - La Main, agent d'tmi{(!. - Le Christ et le Yoga. - l<1 Pe11r, i11str11ml!11l prM/r!gir! du saut dan.s /'Au-de/a. - Eire el (011) Avuir de /'aplomb•. - l 'Aplomb, base de /'epa11011issement psychosomatique• • . - Yoga et pro//!ines a11i111ales (in pn.-paration). - Yoga est-ii u11 sacrifice? (in prcparaLion). - Bhoga est-ii 1111 sacrifice (in preparation).

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FOREWORD In 1959. savings in hand. 1'oelle Pcrcz-Christiacns travel:cc lo l:lc!ia to wo�k with 8. K.S. Iyengar. From 1960 to 1965 they met again in the Swiss resort town of Gstaad for practice. and Noel:e was lucky enough to be almost alone with the Master in the days before the world came to reoogniz.e his unique message. A private !es.son in 1970 opened infinite horizons for �oclle. alrc:idy ripened by the illness and fatigue of the precceding years. The fruiL, of the 1970 synthesis were seen when Iyengar came in 1971 and I 972 to conduct two intensive yoga ses sions in Paris. His keen observations provoked a new intensity of .searching throughout another year. The recent objurgations seemed incompatible with those of the precceding year; persistent work was necessary to shed light on the imper· tant tcchnicaJ and philO!lophical aspccls of his practice During the years I 973 to 197 5. Noelle del vcd into fi f1ecn years· worth of ac cumulated correspondence and notes. The product of this Jabour was the resulting oollection of the .Master's sayings, Sparks of Divinity. Against a background of fif. teen years of intensive work and progressive maturation. this work wa� a decisive turning point in her philosophy, in her approach to life. and in yoga. Everything was thrown into question in the light of what the \-la�t.er had written or said There followed a leap forward: bit by bi:. ever:,1hir.g became clr.:ar. In 1976 Iyengar returned to Pari� for another �cssion. :--ew relations as<.:cr.a:nct! that the right road had been chosen. and that the way wou:d t,e fruitful. In August 1977 an exceptional astral conjunction bro·Jght about the · certificate from On High· a."lG a new purification of her li:ac:hing me:hods: 3 whole new term:nology was born in the ligh: of BEING. Life goes on. and Noelle is driven to pass on this philosophy and to introduce others to this art of living. faced as she is with skiI:ed pup.Is suffering from their misunderstanding of Jyengar's mes�e. With deep love and zeal. she tries to make them aware of all that is Ien behind by those · who have ears and hear not·. The teachers of the lnstitut B.K.S. Iyengar de Paris urged her to write this book so as to give a concrete form to her ·Jnique interpretation. to aJ!ow those who arc unable to attend her classes to profit from her teaching, and to provide a spring board for future generations of seekers toward� new syntheses. This little book is the fruit of her reler.tles.s refinement of yoga so that she might be refined by it. in a never-ending reach for Harmony. We thank her heartily for all the joy she has brought us. The team nf teachers e1:circ/1n[? her.

CONTENTS Foreword ................. .>••..•••••••.•••.••••••..•••••••.•••••• 4 Introduction ..... ... ...... ....... ................... . ........ . .... 5 PART I: HOW IYENGAR TRANSLATES CERTAIN SANSKRIT WORDS. Introduction ...................................................... IO I. Rasa: · you have to savour the fr agrance or a posture (M 29) ........ 11 2. Brahmasutra , · Watch your median ltne · .......................... 12 J. Sama: · Everything should be symmetncal · ........................ IS 4. Kramayoga : · Rhythmical stretching of the spine· .................. 17 5. Kramakalayoga : • Chronology • .................................. 21 6. Manas : · Put your brain in your buttocks · ........................22 7. Atman: The individual soul (jiva1ma11) w11h the universal soul (paramatman) (LI I). ...................24 8. Sthira and sukha: · Taira sthira suk.ham asanam · A lirrn. stable sitting posture (Patanjali. 1145) ................. 26 9. Phala : The fruit ... ...... .......... .... .... . . .. .............. 29 I 0. Pranidhana : Complete surrendering .............................. JO PART II: HOW IYENGAR EXPRESSES CERTAIN SENSATIONS lnlroduclion ..... ...... .... ........ . ............................. J2 I.· Stomach 111 • •.••.•..•.••• .••••.•.••••..••..•...•••..•..•..••• • )5 2. · Chest up and wide· ..... ..... ..... ........... . .............. 37 3. · Back erect · ............. ...... ............................... 39 4. · The back i� a frame·...... ......... ..... .................... 42 5. · From the gross body to the subtle body, and from the sublle body 10 the supreme ........................44 6. · Stretch this nerve· . . .... ....... . . ......... ...................4 7 7. · The diaphragm is not a muscle · .... ...........................48 8. · Stretch the bullocks· ..........................................49 9. • It's not on the axis· .. .. ...... .... . .... .. . . . ................ 54 PART Ill: How· IYENGAR l)ESCRIBES Cl:.RTAIN DETAILS Introduction . ..... ..... ..... ........... . .. ....................... 60 I. Tadasana .... ................................................ 61 · 65 2. The centre of the foot .......................................... 3. The centre or the foot : The Ma.�tcr·� practical instru1.11on ............ 70 4. The outer edge of the foot ...... ... . ......... . .. ... ..........7 2 ... .. . .. ..... 7 J 5. Turn the lcfl. foot in ,u1d the right foot out . ..... ... 7 4 6. The dots in the shoulders when the arms arc straight .. . ... .... .. 76 7. Crooked body has a crooked mind .. ..... .

.. ' PART IV: THE :-.1,\STl:R S "DON"J'S ln1rcxluc.:1ion I. · 0011·1 jerk· 2. · l)on·t squeae. s1re1d1 · J. · Don't strain your brain· 4. ·1 don't want molion: I \\,ml at·lion· 5. · Oon ·1 lxnd : t:he�t fprw,ird · 6 · Don ·1 fort:.:: gt1 (h.:cp i 1is1<.k · 7. · [)011· 1 twisl: i1 shoulu p:1.�s · . 8. · Don't clenc.:h your br;un. as }'<H1 ..:kndi your tl'eth do t:hn)nnlol,!ic.:al tirnm� without actini; 9. • Don·1 psyc.:holoi;.ic.:a.lly : the brain 111u.-;t wtirk · tO. · Do11·1 tead1 what ynu . c hm'l know·.. 1 l. · Don'I be contented: purge the sell'· J 2. · Don't discuss with your pupils: don't wa,te �11iur trmc · 13. · Don't ..:heal me... · .. .

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INTRODUCTION When B.K.S. Iyengar teaches a class, the most devoted pupils }\'rile, take notes . make hasty sketches. Others spend hours. in the even in�� after class. committing lo paper everything which comes lo mind. all their impressions or his precious teaching. Tape recorders run, casseites are nervously turned over so as not to lose a single morsel of the precious nourishmcnl. Thus it has bet.'.n since al lea.st I 9 59, when I began to take notes and to make sketches. Once home again. goocl student:; sort their noles; driven by their Master's en, thusiam and whipped by his imperatives stili ringing in their ears. they try desperately to follow his instructions lo the lclter. eluding what they cannot yet un derstand. charging ahe.id with what seems simple. and lhe re�;ul( !hey call • true Iyengar yoga·. But in this very sorting - which I did «s well when I was at that stage of the road - resides !he seed of the cata�trophe: details are seized upon and the synthesis is passed by. Now. this synthesis alone L� what all teachers want to impart. and the details arc not given as orders but as cbcs to that which would happen by it,elf if the synthesis were sought after. Also. notes are often taken during a group Jes.son. without indicating for whom lhe correction or advice wa.� meant; one ju�t cannot make everybody. stiff and supple, fat and thin, old and young, do the same posture in the same way. \1aybe if the notes were accompanied by a film or by photographs' Rut these sorl� of precautions. although :nd1spcnsablc, are never 1aken. And yet the Moster clearly �aw the difficulty ant.! the danger in lhis practice. ' lt is very ditticult ·, he said (Kl)." · to synthesire everything, and 10 :lraw out of the common centre what is good lor everyone'. And he cries.· Be careful 1• to those who want to remember rather than prm:lice : · Memory rs useles.s if it brings about a ,epelilion o' the past' (J 14). There lies the profound tragedy of so many well-intentioned studcn:s. There is \he real rca�on for so many distended ligaments. sprains. ir.Oammations. slipp;:d discs and inverted curvatures of lhc spine. for the never-ending desperation of so r.,any who attempt · meditation · and who realize. once the novelty wears off and 'they become rational ae;ain. that they have only been to\lghening !heir bodies with exerd,;es which can often be physically and psychologica.ily dangerous for W�ter. ner�. It is true thnt some studenL�. very tirco and s..ippc(l by the cfTon of a�ceticism which demand� abs0iutc obcd1ance. do somct:mcs receive · litt!e drops· of rasa en· couraging them to continue in �pile of r.:vcrything • ,\ll · �,y�i' t-'' w 1h �in·, ';tr 1•,,1.:,cn,n.1n· q\kV<.!U 1rorn the \la.�t..:r·!rt. \!'dk�:c<.·t! \o1\m�1.,, (I I.; S ly�n�.or.,<'11,,:lc<.I I·;· ;--;odk Pc,·,·,. ('hr,s1;;,cn.,. l'�ri,. 1911,.

Spark., of Didn/1,>

• Was it luck, chance, favorable planetary radiations, or was 1 in a good position lhat day? I don't know, but it was extraordinary,· wrole an old friend. · In spite of all the aches and pains and difficulties, those little drops of silence, of meditation. persuaded me that something true was happening and that I should persevere. I know lhat I have so much still lo learn and to find, and that if the ra.sa doesn't come aJI the time it's because I don't always find my own mistakes. In ,ny mind, it's above all a question of work, of tirne, and of patience. Little things like that which fall out of the sky from lime to time encourage you to continue·.

This is all fine. and N. is right lo speak of chance, planetary influences, or of a p:isition which might, just once, happen to catch a student unawares and give him something totally unforeseen, an accidental favour leading him to hope for a miracle. Other students who don't attach any importance to such passing oc curanccs as agreeable as they are rare, will keep on working out of idealism or love for their master. Still others - perhaps luckily for them • will never experience such ' consolations', but will nevertheless persevere in their practice. In any case, they all come back to the West convinced that they have lo work doggedly, that success and suppleness will only be theirs by the sweat of their brows, and they push and pull and force their poor bodies and deform their joints, already badly mistreated, expecting thus to attain samadhi. Iyengar echoes Patanjali in lelting us that samAdhi is · for the very courageous yogin · ; we have to know where and how to apply our courage! Is this to say that the Master is on the wrong track ? No. He merely has the courage not lo be engulfed in desperation on seeing his teaching deflected from its goal, his personal searching flouted. lly whom? By his best students, those who love him the most and wish particulary to follow his teaching to the /euer and not to let anything get lost. I w:is one of these for years. As long as I had the strength, I pushed and pulled with desperate energy. broke myself and out of respect for the revered Mast.er, said not a word. A,s for Iyengar himself, he Jidn't understand what was wrong. He sent warnings and pieces of advice whose deeper meanings escaped me, and the trouble got worse. After I told him about my painful back sprains in 1961 he wrote (C2J): ' I hope you are ro:overing from all your weaknc....ses. These things w-e to be susuuncd lllld we should maintain and remain calm and proceed in our aim which is our goal. • Fine, let us sustam them calmy and go on breaking ourselves for the sake of our aim ! During the wint.cr of l 96 3 the Ma.st.er confessed thaL he didn't understand the situation; ' l don't know how \he pains have not left you. I hope God's grace falls on you soon anJ you arc relieved of these ugly patches in your life· (EI 0). Later, in 1965, I almost gave up, realiz.ing that he would never understand a Western body. or a girl who was solid, heavy, and brave to the point of killing herself; the day I arrived in Gstaad to begin the two and a half to three months of practice we had each year, everything was fine as he watched me go through my paces. The next day he announced, "Jumping ! ' He saw right away that l still couldn't jump. (I would never be able to jump because of my build and because of the pulled ver tebrae block.mg my spine in several places). Sighing, he looked al me as if despairing : 'Still not supple ! ' I thought I would faint. No, really he would never undei.tand ! A wave of feeling surged up in me, I thought I would break into 6

leaIS, but I managed to calm down and th..: lesson continued as before. Bu� l had understoo<l that there was something to grasp that the Master could never give me and lhat I had to discover alone, albeit with his instructions. So I carried on working for many years, without despairing, but always on the look.out for anything that might guide me to sec what it was he wanted from me that he could not put into words ! In 1969 he confirmed this heartfelt thought of mine: · It is not a los.s if you cannot vi$it Gswd. Aher all, yOIJ have tak�n much yoga training from outside : and now the light has to illuminate you from witl,in by your own sadhanA. May that light shine upon you ' (K 17). One day. I conceived the desire lo immerse myself in my coUection of letters and notes, to bring out the Sparks of Diviniry. Significantly, for that whole year, my strength was sapped and the · desperate energy · had to give way to patience and deep searching in order to continue. Then I saw that in his letters, in r.iy notes, in the scribbled drawings, all was clear. The whole synthesis was there. implied, but I had been too · tough· to take the time lo de::pen my awareness to the end, through the ' non-violence · and the patience requested explicitly in his instructions. The synthesis was there : the triage that my inexperience had automatically performed was the source of the trouble. My badly.Jed bod}' began to reassert its natural rights. Then began a period of research starting from the newly-discovered synthesis. · Everything he says should produce this result, but I don't feel a thing. What could be wrong ? Where is the error?· Tirelessly, I. peeled the notes down in all their subllely lo try to find their g1obal me.ining, which I then put to the test in the postures !Jul while making visible progess, l fell something was still missing : rasa. The 'fragrance· of the posture would not come. I laboured. my team of tea\:hei. laboured, we all laboured, avidly searching ; in spite or more and more precision of del.l.il which was already bearing fruit 1n us, the heart of the problem was not resolved. Iyengar ceaselessly beseeches us to 'strive for lightness· and we were heavy, bone stuck 10 bone, joints weighing and becoming innarncd. We were glued to the ground and nothing was easy in spite of strenuous work. We had only aches and pa.ins in place of the ' nice feeling · Iyengar says we should have. What could 1t be that we were missing ? The miraculous answer came with a trip 10 the exhibition · Les Ongincs de !'Homme' (at lhe Musbe de !'Homme in Paris, 1976), when l realized what Iyengar had shown us several months before during the July 1976 session he gaw in Paris. Light dawned, finally our weight cJisappcaroo, and we no longer touched the ground; finally the fragrance was offered to us, and the relislting of each postun: became almost an intoxica11on. Finally the synthesis had come. All the details then found their own place and their own importance, and we began lo do Y08a, With the encl of August 1977 came l11e · certificate from On Hil!h ·. irrefutable proof that we were following the right rood. Wll:lt happened? I shall only bric0y recount it here, having already told the :.tory in l'Aplomb. In 1976 Iyengar had shown me. one after the other, that all the statues of the Ramses exh1b1tton seemed lO be on the point of collapsing forw ards, their weight falling on the front foot, whereas al the Mu.see Gu1mc1 the Indian 7

statues seemed about to ny away. Later, at the exhibitiqn at the Muscc de !'Homme. I learnt to my amaz.cmcnt that one of the transformations undergone by the human skeleton wac; a shortening of the calcaneum : the heel-bone thiclzened in order to ' receive all !he weip,ht · of the newly-upright body. In front of tbc display-case, I tried the experiment - and the miracle occured: linaJly the way to Iyengar's synthesis was ur.veih:d. But how could it have taken so much time, striving and suffering, so many hours lost in vain on side roads ? The answer i� siir,ple : in translating a book one has to strai n one's ingenuity in order to convey the idioms of one language in another. One doesn't, for instance, translate tbe French 'ctre d.ans la lune· by ' to be in the moon ·. Some things are so much a part of the commo n sense of a civilization that it doesn't even occur to an author to point them out; it's up to the translator to put the reader on th e right trock. This is exactly what has to be done what should be done - when a book or notes fall into the hands of those who haven't drawn a synthesis ! Iyengar sho1.1lrln't be read. he should be transl.ited, and therein lies all the art. Out how to do that before having f1r�t understood him?

PART l

HOW IYENGAR TRANSLATES CERTAIN SANSKRIT \/VOROS

A tropical civilization. together with ;,,ll lh� c:q:>ericnces it comprises, has to be translated fir.;t into the experiences, then into the words, of a northern civilization : the sensations of relaxed, rarely brulal, ancl no t very strong vegetarians must be ex prc�c;ed in terms of the ser.sations 0f w ell-nourished, strong people, albeit st,mted by the cold, always en the defensive, oonfronting a civilization which lh.re;itcns them from all sides. Everything rr,ust I.Jc felt. and then trans/n1ed- this is the crux of the matter. This is what leads others. those who ciing lo the letter of the law. to say that we are moving away from the Master, while we are actually getting closer, following the spirit ' to the lctter ·.

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After yoga, bhoga I· 8

Easterners work from rhe Mind; Westerners work from the inlel/ect. (QI l)

You are too intr:1/igeru. Can you nor he in telligently intelligent ?

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1. RASA YOU HAVE TO SAVOUR THE FRAGRANCE OF A POSTURE'

INTRODUCTION

In order to understand the depth of lhe secular experience conveyed by Iyengar:s thought, and the way in which he tries to make us grasp it • in � language not his . own ! . we must al all costs discover which sanskrit word or wh1c� Eastern. notion he is translating by an English word. Otherwise, we are sure to miss the point and will understand only the weaker part of lhis message from India, which he is trying to transmit to us. This effort should be made passionately and relentlessly, especially by teachers whose Language of instruction is not their inother-tongue. Consider the Dutch teaching French students in English, or French; the Japanese teaching Du!ch students in English ; lhe English teaching the Germans ; non llalians teaching Italians : the French teaching Americans... and you may begin to undersLand the desperation of the great mystics upon seeing their teaching Oouted and distorded by disciples who neverUiclcss loved them dearly. As �rench studenLS, we receive from Iyengar.in English, notions so subtle that some Indian scholars feel they can only paraphrase them, preferring not to give a single word as the tr.l.nslation. Is thi.<; to say that one should not teach what one has received? Not at all. But in _ _ order to be able to teach without betraying the Master, one has to have felt in on� s Ix.mes the experience he is attempting to pass on, and as Paul of !arsus said, · become everything in turn lo men of every s_ort ·. • As much as possible, one has to slip into the Indian body and mcnwlily in order to perceivc the message. � o pass _ it on, one must go back to the source : lhe Sansk.ril. This process opens Lnfinite horizons. We a.re therefore going to review a cerlain number of important words from lye ngar's vocabulary in order to improve both our understanding and our trans mission of his message. • l Connlhi.1.11s. 9 : 22 (New Engli>h lliblc)

(M 29)

·Fragrance· is a sensory word - how can a p�lurc have a fragram."C '! This word expresses an agreeable sensation - how can an msulTerably difficult posture produce an agreeable sensation? In this simple little word many have a chance to see that they arc on the wrong track as they work to lhc breaking point with so much love and goodwill! I discovered that the Sanskrit word Iyengar is thus lr:1I1s!ating is rasa tPataiijali, II 9). Ra.sa comes from the root RAS: to taste. lo rdish a taste: rasaj,--:a i$ one who savours. knows enjoyment : ra.sajiiatva means poetic taste; ra:;ayoga (in the plural) is a harmonious group of n pvours. Raso is a sort of magnetic current nowing from the artist to his circle of auditors

and back again, charged with the artistic emotion he created in them. h's a tenuous, vibrating whole through which the spirit passes and transforms an or dinary Indian and makes him thrill to eternal Vibration. It is el duerule, which makes the matador sublime and enraptu res the enthu�iastic plaza, 'making the JX."Opte rock m vibrations too powerful for simple mortals, unless they have been hoisted lo that level. All this is rasa. Is this what you experience when toiling over ' your · pooturcs or when you proudly perform lifiy or a hundred backbcnds at a go? No. You are clearly oo the wrong track: go seek elsewhere that which lhe Master would � to bCU14 ),:)tj to savour with him ! Careful, though : Indians are excellent merchants, all Easterners are more cunning than we are, and if you are looking for something other than the true fragrance, you will end by getting whal you St'Ck. Iyengar has said this clearly : · In tncient times, pupils went in search of qurus. Now gurus go in search of pupils. That's why srirituality has lo�t its fragrar,ce' 081 ).

· Yoga ts the music of the body, the mind and the soul, because u/1 three are in u11Jso11 • (I' 92). 10

Here is ?. serious warniog ! From time to time, i.ter back an<.l ask yourselves sin cerely what it is you are looking for, and if, you haven't foundered in an easy, superficial, and highly physical yoga : whether you tast.e the rasa or not will give you your answer. 11

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2. BRAHMASUTRA.

'WATCH YOUR MEDIAN LINE

Iyengar lives on rhe a.xis : observe rhe vertical fall of the folds of his dorhes.

sensation, Several ideas, which Iyengar describes differently, all express the same d sculpture call dance an Indian of treatises what in included be lo all and seem s which Iyengar tries to Brahmdsutra, the thread of Brahma. Among the sensalion median line. Perhaps the and , symmetry or parallelism axis, the are feel us ma.Jtc there are others ; these three seem to me to be the essential ones. l As WC will deal with the axis later, I will only allude lo it here. However, will side_ s try to define the sensation of the thread of Brahma, of n symmetry of the two 1 it think I tha line. median the along side each of work parallel the of the body, or ways. dilTercnt several in saying does seem as though this is what Iyengar is

had a solid In ancient India. no artist could begin work without having therefore He n. meditatio and a. pranayd.m asana�. including yoga in on preparati no which without position. scaled a in posture had lo have practi ced a balanced of cosmic reint�gration is possible. It is evident. then, that the notion of · thread the dance with d concerne stitras the in ed well-plac is ne· Brahma· or • plumb-li and thi!"·proportions o( statues The different yoga postures are for .us more and more sublic forms of balancing. well, or more and more refined foundations ror ooncenlration. As Iyengar says so the or el d mo to material the i.� body lhe which an in art of n they are the applicatio stone to chisel according to the idea the artist wishes to cxpr�s. In sum, we arc the stone, the sculptor is Brahma, and the technique used is yoga \\'hen we say of •Brahm!·. we might as wel! say: Harmony, Air, Silence. Peace. or Gravity. All these are tangible manifestations of the non-manifested Energy. which remains quite esoteric a notion as long as ll ha.,; not c.iught us ur in IL,;clf. Among these tangible manifestat ions of Creative Energy. certain arc fruiL�. like n Harmony and Silence: others are rather agents. like Air a d Gravity Without earth. \his on anything balance not Gravity, the Air could In an article on 'The Dance and Sculpture in Classical lndrnn Art· • Kapila Malik Vatsyayana writes: ' Venically, the human figure is conceived as compased and in of two halves, one on each side of a median line, rhe Brahmds1itra. a fixed here have we flilSh, a In · grovfry. varuib/e line representing the immutable force of two notions Iyengar dwells upon ; on the one hand, the axis of gravity every being • in • Dioscnc ·• 1964, 45-48. pp. 25-38

must submit to, or live under pain of sprains . d . n _ammat1ons, in a s!.'.llc of con. stanl aggre!..�ion against the Cosmos . . . : an0 i (non-violence) hut living ahirnsa g � in a slate of hinua (aggression inj� ry {��in l e other h�n�. rhe cdian line of . :71 Che human body. Our task is aiways lo brin • �� e lalcr lo_ coincide with the former. How does the Master a(tcmpf to make us u�d crstand this median !inc? . The crown of the head, the centre or the forehead the root of th h8 tip 01 the n�se tho middle of the t sternum, all should be in one line, (Q4o}. !low C<ll� l�o�e,e be more exph , c1t? We can well understand why he recommends to u a I ways to warch our median line. (L2) s We !ind an echo of this in Vatsyayana .. A II nov cme�rs are vlsua/lzed In re/al/on ro lhe vertical median '. Several line-; i ; . ater. c read : _In _Indi_an sculpture. lhc study of nexions or bhanga is essential! Y the , lud,. of the dLStnbut,on or m�s ses � and the codification of the laws of ba e �o J Iyengar explains that our efforts of pas:i�� ; and � � ld not be SUrJJrised when } . a rvity m�st test and · weigh • !he masses of the body on each side a: � cst!�iltcs the weight of a piece of fruit m the hand. He adds that this wo�k pa s1v1ty and act1v1ty must balance the � weight evenly on each side of the bod ...• Id we1gh _evenly on both the left and right sides. Only then wilt lightness coma. (X32i) O�� h e g ht has been _brought gen , tly back on to the median line and c nt�uste<.f to t�_ee t;rea d of Brahma, to Gravity wh11t could be ten weighin heavil rcss1l'�ly against it ? Obviously ,/lhi � work demands an cnormou� degr,1 o'1r"it!�fion, It s a slow road but a sure one, toward� great lightness - and freedom.

ipe

Iyengar explains this thought in other terms . , T e r1g�t an� the le� have_ to meet in the ce_ntre . (Q40). Consider the force conveyed i, t� Y e word meet . as in the express1on · to meet one's death·.

The i.:eighr sinks and /here is a load on the righr arm, rhe leg is hard to hold (Vasisl11<isa1U1 1976). 13

All the weights meet In the center and arc projected upwardJ. The righr arm �nd left leg lengten vertically: Ille fX)Se ts very light. (cl. Bes.sight).

Returning to Yatsyayana, we fi.nd: · We call samabhanga a position which l.s perfectly balanced: the 1wo ftJJ.lves of 1he body, one on each side of 1he Brahmci.su1ra, are of equal weigh! and the distribution of the total weight ls perfect. The phys{cal balance produces a spiritual and emotional balance. This ls why gods and god· delSes, and also humans In a :srate of peace (Shanti), stillness, and coUected thought. are siwwn In samabhanga ·. He adds that · all the saltvi.ka piclur�s of lndian sculp· ture are shown In this a11itudc '.

·3_ SAMA ' EVERYTHING SHOULD BE SYMMETRICAL

Iyengar continues (Q40): · That \meetiog in the centre) means you are completely in con· lac1 ; if there is a looseness, there is no contact st all : the sell arll the body have lost the contact, so you learn nothing '.

We could also quote many othc.-r sayings of the Master on I.he frantic search for t>alance, the gifl of Brahma the creator. which must not be held by th e muscles but by the spirit, but we will content ourselves with one (K!4): • You have to work to ob tain a perfect balan<l! between both sides of the body · - here is the Brahmasutra again !

Echoing this union Iyengar evokes, which arises out of the balance in Gravity, Vatsyayana writes th.at from a balanced creation in sculpture or dance (and we · woul d add. in yoga) emanales 'an aesthelic joy close 10 rhat supreme hJJ.ppln.ess 1hl11 results fro,n the union of the soul wlth God ·. l believe his lianslator thought this was the best image to express Lhe ideaof the union of Lhe atman in the Atman, or as Iyengar says, the fusion of the Jivatrnan in the Paramatman ·, as we will see later on. This work of constantly relinquishi.ng one's weight to Gravity, to live on the thread of 13rahma and not to leave i!, brin�, one gradually to taste rasa. Rasn w iil carry the true seeker on to ANANDA (Bliss).

T� undcr.;tAnd this esoteric pronouncement, !et us go back to lhe Sanskn·t The ..., or d Sllf111). means same · ,.,., .,,...,,ual• sun · u· ar, alik · · e , identi · cal to. We have encountered it · th d - amc Of ! he JXlst�re lfu;la.sana, samasthill. Salllas th iti (with a JX)int . �nde; t��) �. 15 il:11 �dJectiv e sign ifYlll8 case, comfort. In this word the notion of . anc.J . mlo ea e s 1nesc:i p ble. Samcina means homo :° � � � same �rt; s.a_nwyu� �Yl!J bc)�nS the r t which gives us•genous, identical of th e . yoga') means t� ad·ust � , 1 �0. JO n i , SCJmayoga ts a 1unct1 on, a union. Here is th e idea of two identical th ings )Otn ed or enrolled together .Ill the same action.

1'ow I think we arc rea<.Jy to scale the prodigious heighls of the Master's . thought : . £verylh1og should be symmetrical : that is why yoga ie�ce helps to understand lhe following : , Take each pore is a basic art · (P7) This e of the slcin for a co�sciou$ ! �: ad1un and balance gently your body from inside with the help ol these conscious eyes as it is �it'. . I lo n �� )'.(t�v;; \t�e out�ide ones) lo observe and correct the body position !adjusting ii from 51 es · ere indeed is the notion of sama, a balance. a paraJlelism

A last sentence from YaLsyayana gives us a glimpse of the socrels of Indian mystical doctrine, which Iyengar docs his utmost to transmit lO us: 'The position of samabhanga ro wlilch the dancer (of bharatanatyam) rel urns is of prif111).ry Im portance In Indian choreography, and, wirh rare exceptions, corresponds to a posture expressing the :sere11i1y of perfect balance. · He adds : ' It is a position in which the weig h t is equally clistributed between the two halves of the body ·.

Bit by bit, we see the intricacy of the ideas : the· centre and the two sides, the plumb-line, the thread of Brahma, the perfect balance in Lhe total surrender of one's weight lo Gravity. All these notions form a background against which one seems to see Jyengar, as if in filagrec. Two concise terms from the Sanskrit appear to have produced this, .Brahmdsutra and Sama. We turn now to sama. 14

Trikoruisan.a 1959 : the left side is bent, the nght o� 0\Cr·s1re1ched: the weight is no1 on the a.x,s and parallelism is faulty : then there are tet!sio11s almost everywhere. 15

t: · Geometrical ad. He continues' with more precision of though �:��- be balancad - use both sides ol the �ind • (X 165). �ere �e might use 1urtem• \� samciyoga ! He returns to the notion of parallchs_m 1� the body: the San td counter-challenge should weigh evenly on both the left and right sides. Only then · �ha�le;�·:s" is to say an equal absence come· {X322). Oc.arly ru1 equal weight. that be tasted. In other words, will lO htncss hg for sides both in felt be mus t t hg, h 0 right and Jen. should bring. lightness to both !�, 'nrst passive,. then active, _ in us. 1Lc; onders w , operate to yoga of work the for. �des evenly, a1uig � 0

4. KRAMAYOGA ' RHYTHMICAL STRETCHING OF THE SPINE '

We come now to an even more impenetrable notion, that of rhythmical stretching. '�hy !hm has to be observed in yoga·, says Iyengar (P86). Do you sec what he means? I d1dn l ! As early a'l 19 59, he wrote me : · In asana, too, maintain a detachod at1itude 10 the b�dy end at the same time do nol n �glect to stretch fully. Rushing to lhlngs saps the strength. The mind should be calm and everythrng should be dona in rhythm · (AJ 3). UJtcr, the phrase · rhythmical stretching ol the this be contained in sama ?

-....\ ��i' ••

�-...- -�� - -� . :}.��( .

:·

Whatever he is doing, Iyengar always keeps the double parallelism of the pelvis : facing rite wall. and parallel to the floor.

Here is another sentence on the observance of parallelism in life and therefore in iLc; preparation, the work on the equality in one's foundation in yoga : · When I ask you to stretch your spine. you stretch in the middle where Sushumna is, but you shoitld relax in the middle and stretch on botlt sides : shakti will be free only then · (G 13). How could one better express the work of ' active· tacµsana, of lhe unimpeded diaphragm? When I think of lhe years l had to Jabour in order finally lo be able to relax in the middle. instead of contracling, and to \el my' .wings', as Iyengar calls the floating ribs, work peacefully! Yet I first heard this admonition in 1965. Once Shakti .is free. Kuhclalini awakens, 11ood; the whole being with incredible warmth, and hurtles it into the cosmic dance of Energy which is ll and is manifested in the' relative. 16

spine·

pierced my car-drum. Could

Why not, rather, in Krama? Krama oomcs from the root KRAM, which means to advance, to go towards, to approach. The dictionary reveals interesting meanings for Krama which can enlighten for us one of the least known aspccl, of lyengar's thought and teaching. ll1ese are : order, succession, scric..�. and even 'way of acting'. Kramayoga means suite, succession, ordering. Thanks to Mademoiselle Esnoul, we can add to· this list ' rhythm ·. Kramayoga means rh�hm Fine, but how can one do a yoga posture with rhythm ? How can one stretch one's spine _rhythmically? There L5 a noLion ?f stepping in KRAM: to take .steps, to advance with regular. eyen _steps. Bu� I still didn't understand: to me, rhythm denoted a regular beat m flme. Cardiac rhythm, or respiratory rhythm, or the rhythm of my metronome at the piano were all familiar examples of rhythm to me - ones in which the beat became more or less frequent in time. In the course or my research, I came across a book on Su!ism which described a certain mosque (nlso serving as a university) consisting of a ccntrnl courtyard around which a certain number of pavilions were rhythmically disrrlhuted. The ac companyin� . diagram clearly showed that these pavilions were harmoniously placed equ1d1Stant one from another, cre:iting a bc:iuliful. harmonious whole. Then light dawned, and I understood finally how to make my studenlc; do back bends: little by little. an equal space must be created between each vertebra. Rather than a disharmonious and dangerous angle in the lower back, the goal is a smooth ctirve embodying the spine from the sacrum to the last vertebra of the nape. Jn or der to achieve this, we must apply the saying previously cited; there must be no compression, no matter how small, in the spine, no posterior muscle may work, 17

., Nao.1.re, rhythm no, only /:>eats the · s1eps · of time; ir also divide:, the !>pace in10 .,gu/ar inlervals : all Hamwny is rhy1hm. A ' rhy1hmical sm:1ching ' is ;.:• . ,� .. clearly visible on 1h.e fiuck of the .:Jt ··., Guru : parallel wrinkles lake form 011 1he skin showing lhi? ''.'.;, . stretching which allows a curve lx!tween each a11J ew;,ry ver1ebrae 1959.

;fj · '·

The melody oj" Jhe perfect rhythm of a pea·pod. Rhy1hmica/ balance of an old roof

lfrre. .first, the spine is clor1gu1t:d t..1bso/111ely ,,,, :he a:d�. bcc,w;,.• 1hc1 p1:h1 s bane can be bro111d11 lo 1/ie center and the groin aperwre (siretching of 1he bu11ocks) ullows ii. Th£>n kRc1pi11g the s1re1ching made by the diaphragm accion foctive lacjdsana) the back is im•ited to a circ11lar uperture which is translated on the back. by parullel scores, ut ,:ach v<::rti?bra . Obscrw the very wide opening of th L' nipples, an.J · the drawing aside 'of the ribs. Noie also that 1he nape is stre1d11!d in the spin.al co/1111111 prolongation 1..-ithout any ex.a 6gera1c:d curvat11u of the cervicu/ region.

the job must oe Jell to lhe big operator. the cliaphrag m and its t<.:am ( which lyengai calls lhe work of the· anlerior muscles of lhe spine'). Then Sushumna is free, · the way of the Lord has bl!cn prepan..'tl ·, ,rnd Kundalini or Sh.ikti awakens and cir culates. Then you could almo:,t l,).'.)Ok an egg on the pupil's back., such is the hc::n gener.1l<::d ! An,d the �ilence c1l!.llcu by the intensity of the cunccnlration needed to mainlrun a stable foundation is S<) intense that an infinite peace seeps in all over and th<:: minutes go by unnoticed. Triangular rhythm in f,l'e lobes. 18

In Gst:iad. Iyengar expl.l.ined to A. that the nipples spread out in bJ.ckbenus. Women don't feel the �me thing as mr.:n as they have more skin tu stret-:h there. 19

be spr ead out if the thorax isn't, and how can it be stretched if How can th e nipples was to bend al the waist and force all the weight on to the aJI the � was to do T i sen sation can be felt only when a way to separate the thoracic ver han ds � hus .Then the back. establishes little by little a rhythmic and harmonious tebrae fo nd ension of the chest ensues, and only then do the nipples spread out curve, an d ext orget the Master's warning : · Don't strain your back ! · f d er 1" war s . "'ev I w revealed to us, and with it, the different words Iyengar Finally, Kra mayoga _ � I transmit 1t. to try to ses .u

11 lI

5. KRAMAKALAYOGA ' CHRONOLOGY

As it was discussed in Yoga YUJ: the word · yoga· exprc:-;scs an itlea o! Junction. of binding, of linking together several thing.� to form a new entity We have just seen that kram� gives the idea of advancing, approaching, going toward�. Kala is time. Kramayoga was a rhythmical suo:cssion; kramakdlayoga indicate� the same suc cession in time. It's a· chronological· junction. the junction of successive momenl<, in time. a series of moments. or a �cries in time.

Regular rhythm of th£ skin scorfngsfo/lowing the regular rhythm of lhe whole spinal column stretching. (cl. P. Morin, I 972).

Iyengar is very attracted to Lhis noLion or time, which is a simple irn:,�c�sion or the relative in which we live until we experience snmddhi, but he tries to prepare the pupil for the dissolution of lime in infinity, to lc.:id him slowly towards the notion or a time beyond time, of a pcrpetu,11 instan1, a never-ending present. He therefore has to break the notion of time in om heads. especially the notion of time as a real entity which advances (KRAM). Tbu<; he speaks of • chronological authority·. by which he means the authority of a clock which obliges us to stay in a posture the length of time we have decided to devote lo it. He immediately breaks this notion : · Sit in this asana and accept ch ronological authority. Ch ronological authority is no authority, as time is just a movement in space· (XJ)). And he returns to this idea in another way: · Do not do chronological timing without acting psychologically. Tho brain must work· (X56).

We need a time of daily practice, until our whole lives are composed of daily yoga. But this time of work must not be a dead Lime, stupidly lent out of obedience. The intelligence. the mind, must use this time and through it dip into eternity. A clue to this might be found in another reference to time: · Chronological time and psychological time are quite different · (X 280). We have all had the experience of seemingly endless momenl�. and of days which ny by.

But we must admit that we would prefer to think of the word ·chronometric· rather than · chronologicaJ ·. The latter refers lo .an arrangement of dates or times of occurrence. With this in mind, the Ihm: sayings are much clearer and more comprehensible : 'The authonty of a time-piece is no authority. as time is just a movement in space ·. Only the perpetual present IS. ·

' c.:r.: foKu l'Ul. Noelle l'cr�-Chri,tt�cn.,. J>,ins 20

Then other sayings became clear, o�cs to which _l hadn'� �d enou� h at�en��n before : • Whet is tilt use of merely developing the muscles 11 the brain is not workmg ? 0 ). Here again is the brain, tied to the physical world, to help _ lhe body �me � n � scious, to perceive. This is the whole idea o f manas. Asam th� physical union · · The brain is 1he heaviest limb in our bodin • (X 194) Let u s ex":ffime an even more recondite saying (QSS): 'Move the ears deep inside, the bum_ _rasllnO on Iha mi�d. �I 1� 8 same 1ime the brain is looking at the mind so as not to allow the mind to create any vibration m you, trunk', and the mind is watching the brain so that the tuain is not cut ott lrom the obseivatton, from that humility '. Here again, the brain i.s join ed to the trunk, to the ear • a sen�ry organ . to the concrete sensory reality over which it w atches so� not t� allow it to err or to be disturbed by the mind, observing it in order to per�1ve all its sub.tlety ·

6. MANAS ' PUT YOUR BRAIN IN YOUR BUTTOCKS '

It is difficult to understand right away what is hidden in the re �m� use of a word which may seem to you to be evoked in an unusual fashio n ·

At f11St glance, this sentence must leave you speechless: how to put an organ, the brain, down into a muscle, the buttocks? Wpy did he not say, for instance, • pay attention lo your buttocks'. or even ' your bunocks must become intelligent ·? The Master used neither a word derived from • intelligence ', nor one derived from · at tention'. Why not? For years l wondered why h e named the organ and not its function.

And then, o ne day, having begun the translation of Patanjali's Yogaslitras with MademoiseUe Anne Marie Esnoul, I came across the word manas several times, alone and in composition. Here are few examples: - (I 34); manasahsthili, which she translated by · stability of mind • ; · (I JO): durmanasya, translated by • anxiety • (dur expresses a discomfort): - (II 40): saumanas,;,a. translated by ·benevolence· lsau, from SU, which means • beautiful ', ' gocxi ·, · welt ·. But each time Mad emoiseUe Esnoul expressed a discomfort: the exact meaning of manas can not be rendered in our languages by one word. She explained that it was 'the altention which prcxiuces lhe perception of the bodily sensations'. Could we not translate it by • attention · ? No, replied the Sanskrit scholar, ' attention · is translated otherwise. - Then perhaps by • perception · ? No, th ere is anot her expression i.n Sanskrit for · perception '. Is it a fo.cully of the mind? · Not for an Indian. Consider Iyengar : he translated it neither by · mind· nor by ·spirit' in English. It's a sensory faculty. It's o n th e physical level with the senses, like a sixth sense. It's the attention of 1he organ ilself which allows it to perceive the vibrations it is responsible fo r collecting and transmitting to the brain. Then l finally understood why Iyengar, wanting to use a physical word referring to the .senses, chose ·brain·. In asking for the brain to be put down into the but tocks, he awakes in the pupil the idea of allention and perception, ,f c(Tic.icious c.oncentralion to make the buttocks become conscious of their resix:,n:,aoility within Lhe entirely of the srnthcsis that is a posture. 22

7. ATMAN

, MERGING THE INDIVIDUA! SOUL (JlVATMAN) WITH THE UNIVERSAL SOUL (PARAMATMAN)

·whys· or' hows·of a relative nature from the level or duality come to disturb the fact of being without qualification or modality : BEING is all.

(L XI)

IJ J n, many books dealing with Being one sees very knowledgeable dislinctions bet ween the Self and the self, the Self and myself, often rendered by the Latin ego. When someone speaks to you of· yourself·, you know what he means. When someone speaks of the Self, you had so studied Einstein's idea of Energy lhat it � seeme d to you there was nothing but It - all matter being, in the final analysis, energy - and that beyond the notion of person, of individual {of mysel0. there was a Source of Energy great and universal and neuter, as long as It was not manirested i� some creation or other. rJ . And as you realized that lhis energy Source is universal, that it underlies all ll creation, is the manifestation of everything, and p,receed.� everything, at the same time you realized why Sanskrit - a language wherein the use of capital letters is urlknown - doesn't need Lo differenciate between the Self and the self. I remem, ber being very perplexed when Iyengar said, · It's the same • ; those were the days before I had discarded the notion of a personal God ! �

�

I w� Jen with· the problem of finding a translation. for atman, so ollen translated by• self·. Mademoiselle Esnoul came to my aid and suggested the trans lation •I· or ·.me'.

In 1963 Iyengar added: · When the mind is controlled, what remains? The soul. That is the very purpose of yoga' (F25). In 1968 another lexical difficulty wa� clarified:· ... the constiousness of the heart, where the true Self reveals it�lf · (159). In Sanskrit. • heart• is Hrdaya (or Hridaya); not the orgarr, but what we mean when we say' the heMt of the matter ', the ' heart Ian d of the continent ·,,the heart of the forest · , lhat is, the deepest, central part of a being, the source of .life. It is indeed in the depths of a being, well below all surf ace impressions, that the BEING reveals itself, annihilates all. dissolves all, absorbs all in Itself.

But for us this cannot come to pass out,;ide of life, that is outside of the asanas, which are like rough maps. Iyengar specifies : · As long as you do not live 1otally in the body you do not live totally in the Self. Total awareness·(X 177). Here we could transcribe all his instructions on skin, on sensations ; we might not betray him in saying, · my body, my dear guru·or' the body must silence the intellect and put ils feet firmly back on the ground·! If the attention on what is happening inside is not sustained and continuous, the danger of fragmentation is ever-present. and the intellectual brain thrashes about. keeping the individual on the surface of himself. The sentient animal brain can put man bac� where he belongs and give his intelligence . anct not �is intellect : the chance to think calmly. Only the experience of reality can help _ a being lo regain his balance and approach the consciouncss of HIMSELF: the BEING that he is. An asana is a slice of life slowed down. a rough map which allows for ob· servation and correction : thus the Mast.er specifies: · The Asana is an enquiry; who am I ? Throwing out the parts until only the self is left. The final pose is " f am " · (X 18 D.

How many years must' one work, in order linally to SlJ_o;eetl in putting the profound truth of such a sentence to the test? Yet those who have really Jet them selves be caught up, who are beyond the basics, and who are willing to give up everything in order to let yoga perform its work of merciless • pe eling·, can probably begin to render thanks to Iyengar for the profound wisdom which dic tated to him such a sentence, uttered luminously out of an uncommon experience of life!

We can say, then. that the fusion of the atman in lhe Atman is that of· me· in the Being, an experience so dumbfounding, so inexpressible, of annihilation.

Doesn't Iyengar say, over and over again, that •myself· and • the sel! · are one and th� san:,e? In 1959 he wrote me : · When the mind is no longer a screen, the Soul (Atman. the �mgl 1 s fr" .and it shin es as pure crystal with no reflexion on it. As the self is free from contact of �hings, _tha t 1s the Slate of exper iencing SamAdhi · (A45). I first used the French word Alne to _translate dtman. which Iyengar expressed by· self· or· soul·. But after �y expe�ence of 1977, I see perfectly well that they might all be rendered by BEING Indeed, at the instant when thought is stopped by the energizing cap· : ture. an unmense sile nce installs it.self in one. and the BEING is revealed. No

1972 : during a mnslerful demonstration he gave in Paris, Iyengar spoke for a long ticne. ' Why are you talking so long now ' l asked afterwards ? • · Before. the Master answered, I had nothing to tell; so, I was only showing ... ! · Great simplicity of Men who · only teach what they know ', (cl. Bes.sighi). 25

8. STHIRA AND SUKHA 'TATRA STHIRA SUKHAM ASANAM' A FIRM, STABLE SITTING POSTURE

· There ls no sirain anywMre '... ' lhe complex became simple '

(Patanjali. II 45)

(N 66): the sear is firm and com fortable.

' Yoga has been given for stab/Illy, only ' (X 363). When the grea.1 Patanjali wrote his sulfas he collected for the benefit of his followers instructions from the great yogi of his time. We know that 'sutra · designates a particular literary genre consisting in · stringing pearls on a thre� · (sutra); it's a rosary of mnemonic textS for t_ eaching. Thus we won't find plentiful explanations for beginners in the sutras ; rather a succint• resume useful to the ex• perienccd pupil who can read between lhe lines. Now Patanjali says that the correct seat or foundation for meditation must be

sthira and sukham. As we have soen for samaslhiN,"srhira comes from the root STHA, which also gives the adje(."tive • stable ·. Sukham is an adjective signifying

the comfort of a wheel whose hub is weU-centered. It's a word right out of the experience of nomadic peoples - and Indians of today· who travel in ox-carlS along bumpy country roads.

These two adjectives arc thus extremely important for us. not only in the case of the posture for meditation, which docs indeed require a very good seal, but also in lhat of any other posture, snting or st.anding. In all postures the foundation is of prime importance. For the practice of yoga will lead us little by little towards samadhi along the bumpy roads of our lives. How does Iyengar translate these basic requirements for a good seat, in order to bring tht:m within our reach ? · In meditation, the mind is still but razor-sharp, silent but vi�rant with energy. This state cannot be achieved without a flr,n, stable sittin11 posture, where the spine ascends and the mind descends and dissolves in the consciousness of heart lHridaya, the centfe). where the true Self reveals itself· (159). Wheo_the founclataon is comfortable encrJgh for the spine to be elTortlcssly erect, lhcn concentration can descend to be absorbed, dis.solved, in the Being. Several years later he returned to the same idea: • When you sit, lirst stability, then firmnes.s · (Q46). ffs of primary importancx: IO note lhat the Master is addressing himself to Westerners, so often sprawled in seats they think are comfortable: for he has avoided the original not.ion of· comfort· (sukltam)'. which would be falsely interpreted by us and replaced it with • firm •• an important word for the choice of •er.: L'Aplomb. bo� de reqllillbr� P:s.>•clwsoma1lque. N. Pcrci-ChriMiaens, Pan V. Ch. J

a seat. Indeed, so that the spine may surrender absolutely to Gravity, comfort demands that the scat be firm and soft : firm at the base and soft under the skin. Then the foundation is perfect if the correct height has been found. From all this it is evident lhat nothing can be done on a poor seat, maladapted Lo that which is being practiced (dukJia, uncomforlable). Other �yings come to perfect this new enlightenment ; · It is the job ol the spine to keep the brain alert and in position' 064); this is true in any _ posture. 1:-. sp!ne out of plumb results in compensations in the vertebrae, the �comx:t po�1t10�1ng of the skull and ultimately a brain out of plumb. Then the bra.1,n an�thet1zes itself, shuts it�elf off from this discomfort, and a Westerner can hve without su ffcring too much but also without evolving towards the goal he took on when he began to practi�·e yog« ! In a lesson Iyengar said cxpLicaty. 'I showed you the tension on my face in 27

� l

. that tension known as rigid stillness. The rigid stillness is n, reme ber. 7 This is aU� ntr C8 con a vibration. (Q56). It is patently true. when a �table, � is th�I id r of silence. T � � Y bee experienced, that there could not be the_shghtest no ar. s1Jtl ruble seat haS in IY . n o m,• co . up my . back,· or activate the 1&htest tension. As soon as I hold the 5 }'l• 1_ ,. but ri gidit)' or e c k will conform to the idea I am �posing upon ·t ine 5 .1:� g of promptin shghtest the to ity muscles of th t,a ail mobility, au adaptabil ed1�tely it will i.rnm surrender to gravity. As soon � one holds, total a from c� of egoll�m. a ret rn the B reath w �gid, co�� an . Iyengar says elsewhere. rigidity is a form � n es m t,eco active ego . the on e of pleasure infantile fell deeply of ion express . to oneseIf . an . n, towards the complete dissolution of everything meditatio to d r oa UuS Along elf as a person opposed to the Being, the comfo�table f?�n y that �es me. see m r �tting absolute mobility is the basis for �bsolutt; _1m?1ob1ht . elation JI\ gravity_ pe to beginners. By 'absolute tmmob1hty I m_� ehensible p n m This rnaY � i �: � we are producing, whic� � rigidity, but t�at stablhty i that which w not es'astance to gravity . . It IS in. the perfect silence of all . non-r plete com given bY � . t'-·t ,..,, I am fUlally the Being 1s manifested, the B eing that g O . manifestations o f m� c it. realized ing hav without the good hub). comfort, ease. well patAfljAli freq��ntly op � es sukha (su-kha hub), Jock of ease, discomfort. . r�ble unoomfo k the d "". ( u• a duf'Jl betnl; and and 4 6) . i II 7-8 •.. (Patar\jdl . e way . Su/cha alone LS the t'"'•

9. PHALA

THE FRUIT

Phala (pronounced with a ' p · foUowcd by an aspirate ' h · and not with an • f ·

sound) also signifies the result, the reward. Already in the Sanskrit we find one meaning attributed to the word ·fruit· in our Western languages. It comes from the root PHAL, to burst, to cleave, to emit heat (as in ftre). A fruit comes away of its own accord in the hand, when it is ripe, and can burst under the pressure of its own juices. Think of apricots or plums on a hot day.

Phalayoga is a reward, the obtaining of the result designated by the word ·yoga· ; it is to harness oneself (yoked) to a work, not to let any of the vital forces that one can bind together, bale together to use for the same end, be dispersed. Then the fruits of our labours will come by themselves, at \he right season. Iyengar says : · All would find their own fruits if they would only listen ' (X 51 ). Most students miss the fruits of their labours because they haven't listened properly to the Master. As Christ said, 'They have ears and hear not, eyes and soc not'.

At this point. I think it good to recall that ii is not enough simply to hear. but that we must • listen· with particular attention, with that conscious perception which takes us back to manas. We have to work so hard at hearing ! Hearing means understanding, too. Manas must reline the sense of hearing so that, finally. we can listen, that in listening we can heat, and that thus we may understand what to do and what not lo do : · It is never a Question of " what am I doing ? " but of " what am I not doing ? " · (JJ)

IIJ

Then the fruits of the synthesis will be given of their own accord. and will fall into our hands like ripe pears. -You must not seek. you must search.

-You must not see, you must look a t.

-You must not hear. you must listen to.

-You must not touch, you must palpate.

-You must no t smell, you must sniff.'

(X 249)

10. PRANIDHANA •

How will Iyengar go about maxing us feel lhis surrender lo lshvara concretely, in our own bones, against all anguish and fear? Through a surrender beyond �I reckoning, beyond all self-defense mechanisms, lo lhe guru who is, for the pupil. the • rough map • passing on t.he BEING, before the · interior guru • is awaken ed. Iyengar uses,. the word ' surrender · to make us grasp lhis complete self-abandon to Cosmic Forces, to Energy, through its various manifestations which touch us. • Surrender to ma ·, meaning in effect, · relax your aetion against me ·, was the order I received every time the Master came to oorrect a mistake in a posture. Everything was tensed, contractt;d, eilher by lhe false balance (because I was out of plumb), or by the ridiculous eJTort I thought I had to make to do what was required of me. If 1 hadn't relaxed, Iyengar could have hurt me or himself; first he took a step back. then the order came, and with it went all my resistance and hesitation, and he ad· justed everything little by little.

COMPLETE SURRENDERING

A.'1other piece of advice from Patanjati : · The surrender lo lshvara brings samadh.i,' he wrote (II I. 32, 44). In the word prarJldhdna, prana gives t.he idea of forward movement and in· tensity. Dhana comes from lhe root DAH, which means to put, lo pl�e. to �ei up, _ to establish. Pranldhdna is t.hus to be placed, stretched towards something; 1l_s _also to give oneself over to, the respectful conduct of a pupil towards the master;. il, s al• tention sustained, the complete surrender· to the master's hands, or to God s 0sh· vara).

Tlie surrender samddhl '. 30

Jsllvara

· This surrender, by breaking the chairi of dislJacting thoughts, inc1eases the intensity of ones concentra1ion • (JS8). Obviously, confidence increase:; with practice. The Master in sists on this point, seeing numerous pupils who do not truly hold fast to what he asks for : · If you do not surrender to you1 Guru (in lifel. at laast at the lime of learning, suuen· der. If not, the ego is responsible for that pride • (Q 13). He might have added (QI 4) :. • Unless the disciple gives up his ego and follows the guru's instruction he cannot make any physical, mental, or spiritual progress·. And so, as a result of continual surrender, surrender without argument, in spite of his fears, linle by little the pupil (who already has many years of practice and · passivity · behind him) becomes ready for t.hc spark of meditahon which captures him in a pos ture, during a lect.ure, on a walk ... Where is he? ls il in his body or out of it• that he seizes upon lhe light lhat is dissolving him'! Who is he? He per ceives directly without intermediary help that only Energy exists, and in intense fear, he tastes of this extraordinary harmony. But nothing terrible happens, for he is so used lo confronting fear t.nrough lhe complete surrender to h.is guru. · The highest form of surrender is meditation· (Xl27). In meditation there is nothing left but the BEil'-G : IT and nothing else.

brings • Cf : II Corinthians 12.2, · whechcr in Ille body or out of 11. l uo not know ·

PART fl

HOW IYENGAR EXPRESSES CERTAIN SENSATIONS

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It is very difficult to synthesize eve,yrhing. and to draw out of the common centre what is good for everyone.

(KI)

1. ' STOMACH IN'

INTRODUCTION Any art, especially the art of living and therefore that or yoga, ca.n only be passed on from old to new, from mother to daughter, from father lo son, from cat to kit ten, from guru to s�ya, in personal contact. using gestures and words as close as possible to the mentality, the previous experience, and the physical potential of the pupil requesting the initi:iiion. How lo awaken subtle feelings in an ever-changing body - and in such a coarse environment? This is the problem confronting every teacher. Same feelings can be laught through hand-contact, and the sensations become more and more subUe. But when the pupil's skin is insensitive, we a.re forced to use words, anc;I that is the source of the danger. This is precisely the difficulty the Indian masters have when faced with Western pupils. They arc addressing bodies which will never react like theirs; - mind formed (or deformed) by philosophies they have.never dre.i.ined of (everi if they are familiar with Western philosophers, they have been studied against a background of Eastern philosophy) - beings moulded by other climates, civilizations, and preoccupations for the most part diametrically opposed to theirs. Furthermore, this presentalion is made in English, a language which is not their mother-tongue, to people many of whom know it only as a second language. No wonder there are catastrophes and desperation, probably on both sides. This is why I thought it good to unveil some of my experiences and some ex press'ibns which, alas, I understood only too late, after irreparable damage had been done. I hope that those who read this work win he able to benefit more c�ily from the luminous teaching loo often hidden in the gangue of our Western education. 34

Herc is· a.n expression one oflen ht!ars from lven11.ar anti lo which one can alt.ach a double meanin_g. In his book. light on Yoga • at note of the description of the technique for the very first posture, ta<lasana, we read : · Koep the stomach in ·. For Weslt:rners, having a fiat stom?.Ch i.s the answer to one injunction : ' Pull in your stomach� · In so doing. the abdominal muscles a.re contracted, and the pelvic and abdominaJ organs are compressed towards the spine. Th.is is so simple to do that we don't stop lo wonder if there might not be another way to achieve a fiat ab tlomen : why fight it, ever since childhood we have all heard the same order. Right, but... Firstly. the space bet ween the pubis and the sternum is reduced when the ab dominal mu:;clc!> a.re contr:ictcd ; for instance, the reel us abdominis (connected at the bottom to lhe pubis and at the top to the ribs and sternum). shortens under 1;.-on traction. compressing tile space, instead of · creating' space as Iyengar constantly urges us to do. And doesn't it occur to us to wonder how, at the same time, we could possibly have the· chest up·, another of his familiar behests? If the sternum is pulled down, it cannot possibly rise Lo the oblique plane spcdfied by l}'en1sar (for he says that the sternum should be closer to the horizontal than to the vertical). II the abdomen is pulled in, the stern urn moves closer to the vertical, unless, of course, one dangerously accentuates the lumbar curvature of the spine in order to thrust out the chest. We will return to this point in the next chapter. Secondly, the volume of the abdominal cavity is raluced and its organs· com pressed If you suffered from nervous complaints, you would know it is absplutely impossible lo make the abdominal plexus undergo su<.:h pressure; lo · pull in the stomach' causes insufferable pain lO many. Now would Iyengar, who claims that hospitals arc to care for the sick and yoga is to keep the healthy well. insist on such compression ? Far from it : a few lines later in Ugh1 on Yoga. describing the a!Tects of lfidas.ana. he writes : · One teels light in body and the mind aquires agility·. When you pull i'n your stomach, you don'l feel light at all, you_ feel fir m - it's an entirely different sensation. As for the mind. even lhe brarn, 1t perceives no change for the bett,�r either. • Light .m YOl(.-i O,'pikci. B.K S. iyengar, George Alien and Un win l.tJ. London t 966.

lets itself be stretched up under the action of the ere as whe n the stomach e O t ; but a gr:eat lightness is felt. as if the stomach beco . Wh s � doe rt:i it m. diaphra' g of the diaphragm cannot take place without reaction this As all. at · weren t there ur na . cor · restoreu·' to ·its right · 1s all Y th e b rain t d ·na1 ful place spa the g atin Wbr well-positioned skull, and the mind is much clearer, more :�hin the newly luminous. The dia phrag m is not alone in working this miracle : it is helped by the whose fibres work in opposition lO those of the rectus ab t an sverse muscle, thorax itself a whole the ong �erics of I ittle muscles relays the AJ . . �ministhe diaphragm below nght to the top; r be\icve these must blossoming wave from la be the external intercos l muscles. One really should study the respiratory system in people who live' on the �is·. for this kind of information just cannot be found in the physiology textc; available to us at present, But more of this later. It becomes very clear. through the exegesis of lyengar·s writings and faced with lhe experience he had me undergo, that what he wants is not to have us pull in the stom ach, but to act in a manner such that the stomach be. stretched up : then everything he describes as the efTect of this action is reai'ized.

2. ' CHEST UP AND WIDE '

Here is another most interesting and significant expression, but one which has been so misunderstood. If you hear. • Chest up and wide·. the Westerner in you im mediately pulls your ribs up, and forgets the• open' part. Or perhaps for an instant you do think to open your ribs, then you forget again and U1e effort slackens. In any case, you have misunderstood. In your willingness to cooperate, you push and pull, activating your muscles in order to move your rib-cage about and change the position of the various bones in it. This is not al all whc1t you i;hould do. It will happen by itself, it will be the result : you simply have to let your breath position the thorax, and stop hampering it by placing your bones out of plumb, or worse, by forcing your muscles into aggression (ahimsa) against the weight. and against the natural opening ! If you try actively to put your chest up, you will immediately accentuate the back's curvature and compress your back downwards. In other words, trying ac tively to extend the front will shorten the back. Notice that Iyengar does not specify the front of the chest when he says 'cht:st up·. He does not say something like. • extend the front of your chest·. or• put the front of your chest up·. The chest is the whole thorax, front and back. This interprelation is certainly oorrect, for when he sees our sudden reaction to extend the front, he specifies, • Widen the ribs I · He couldn't say it more clearly! How could he explain more succintly the work of the diaphragm in the posture I call 'active t.1�a ·. which for him is just • la�asana ', since the other. my • passive taqasana ·, is his habitual state. If you let the diaphragm act freely ac cording to its nature, it will spread the floating ribs apart; playing subtly on the muscles of the stomach tlld the thorax, its movement is simplilied like a wave and propagc1ted all the way up, in front and in back, even separating the thoracic ver tebrae. If you are well-balanced on the cosmic axis the sensation felt is truly one of a widening in front and an extension in back. ' Chest up and wide • means wide In front and up In back. As soon as it has been felt like this, Jyengar's phrase becomes perfectly clear.

3. ' BACK ERECT '

Does · back erect' mean 'straight.en your back·. or · hold yourself up·. or even • put your shoulders back·? Iyengar employs this term to describe what s��ul.d _ 1Sd1ia happen to the back when one is set, sukha and s1hira. on one's feet or ones to practice pni.miyama or the posture for meditation. He specifies : · Lumbar vcr· tehrae relaxed, thoracic vertebrae ero:t. ·

• You have to ·work through the gross body to the subtle body (the spine), and then through 1he spine to the mind · (J 83). . • Keeping your body without tensing the skin of the body, face the inner body, the body which is in con/act with your soul ' (Q 48). · When you force, the brain Jerks •. 'Open the chest!' let the chest

be opened by 1he Breath's action. ,

Perhaps you don't believe me yet. You think I am not teaching • true Iyengar yoga·? Open his book, light on Yoga, to lhe description of the very first posture. taq.a.sana, the basic pose. the firm, stable foundation from which all others are derived, whclher standing or sitting, even pranayama and meditation. ln the description of the technique, under note J. you read: • ...chest forward, spine stretched up and the back S1raight. ' It is lhe spine which is' stretched up, not the sternum : with the words • chest forward', this sentence proves that in his experience, when the chest opens. the ribs are widened and the spine elongated. This is an extremely important poi.nt - one which [ hope has lino.lly been clarified. It would have luminous importance for us Westerners if we were more subtle, less brutal. less prompt lO respond peripherally wi!h our muscles instead of collaborating with Nature. in this instance lhc natural work or the diaphragm. 38

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• �-,...,,

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· The inJUr body has to raise your body up '. 39

r con.tracted, drawn in, held tightly. or on the contrary, stood Does· erect· mean without a prop? A mon u ment or a telegraph pole is erec ed plant y l firm u t'g ht � On�e planted o.-the vertical axis, a heavy stone like a menhir swids alone by castle of cardc:; stands alone, peacefully, passively ,erected, but ·o wn weight. A e c with such ar ! hion, almos_t with meticulous ritual, I yen gar would like our 1 n the' sam e fas the thoracic vertebrae, to be erected by the action of the ll:"IY rticul backS . i:n helpers. Once_ placed on th.e oosm1c axis. the whole spine can let diaphragm and its bone can let it.self be placed nghl where it should be: then little h_ eac d itself go, an ck 1s erected. the exa�gerated curvature of the lumbar and thoracic ba e th e littl y b their proper curv7s, followed immediately by the regions are reduced �d as�ume s_ku ll 1s back on axis, in plumb. All of curvature of the cervical spinal cord, _and the lhat 1s on an ascending action, and not in erection, of ovement m a on ns this happe contracti ng . Whe�. your mother genlly taps you in the back, saying, • Come on, stand up strrugh�. , or when Y?Ur gym teacher tells you to straighten your back, advises you to put your shoulders back, the result is or when o fashion course . tion trac con a always If t�e b��k. is '.111owed to straighten itself, the se_nsation. is like a fountain : along the spine, 1t chmbs._an d falls back down each side. This is exactly what Iyengar tries to make us perceive : The shoulders move away from the ear-lobes· - that is, the disiance between the ear-lobes and the shoulders is increased. For those who like _flower images, it'� rather Like a flow�r growing ou t of the earth, drawn by the sunlight an� blossommg, the sepals opening out and falling to each side while the pe!.als continue to be drawn upwards. 1

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lyengar's notion of ' inner booy · is very hard to explain, but nevertheless very important. He says elsewhere (N60) : ' Take each pore of the skin for a conscious eye; adjust and balance gently your booy from inside with the help of these con scious eyes, as it is difficult for normal eyes (the ouLsidc ones) to observe and oorrect the body position (adjusting it from both sides). ' A finer awareness, an in ternal, intimate sense of balanoe, must grow little by little from inside, and develop the body's non-resistance to Nature, eliminating peripheral imbalan ces due to this resistance, and bringing balance and stretch in Gravity.

We lind exactly the same idea expressed several years before 061): · Tho whole body, far from being ignored, is taken up in this spiritual alertnou, 1111 the whole man becomes pure flame. An alert, erect spine creates a spiritual intensity of concentration that burns out di5'ret· ting thoughts and tha brooding over put end future, and leaves one in the virginal, frosh present. ·

All rude efforts have beoome subtle, as the spine, with the central nervous system, leads the way to the Supreme.

Why do we alwafs want to waste energy, only to hinder the true action which would .happen of 1ts own acoor� if we didn't impede it? How could we suppose for an instant tha� .Iyengar, ':°ming from a civilization which gave birth to an art SO bal�ced d 1n plu�b , oould ask us to perform dangerous distortions and r contractions . How has tt never occured to us, in.. our cold northern climates that t e people of a tropical civ�i�tion do �ot need to relax because they live in a'state � rou�d.r:eI �at1on: this IS Iyengar s starting point. An Indian untarnished by �vC:� m C1VJh�at10 n has a straight back ; in order to save energy he Jives on the . cosm·IC forces in him, that or the diaphragm and the light m u scles of the rib-c.age.

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the .' back erect· requires cnormotrs attention, but no effort : an inlinite ton _ 15 nee�ed to remove all m_uscular effort whkh impedes the natural work ha g oft � own accord· �h1 �h shou ld happe� 1f w� let it. Then yoga . will lealpe� us httle by ltttle towards med1tauon · experienced m each posture and each . . · . moment of r" . K . lie · of the body, fact! the inner skin he tensmg without erect body your ea t . _ � _ body, the body which to raise your body up · has body inner the ; sool your with contact tn 1s (Q4S) A en ormous attention (inn �r b�y) is required to allow the masses of the _ outer . to sing) sh u�d be placed by gravity m their rightful places, but no bodily effort (ten submis_s�on be made. No more' holding oneself up ·, onJy an infinite effort of total each 1 ; .10 the coc;mic axis along which gravity steadily positions each bone and 1 re in har monious balance.

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4. 'THE BACK IS A FRAME '

T11e mind, our allenlion, is only the accolyte, the servitor. It transcribes what the Air is diCUting, the orders of the Breath, watching to see that its instructions are respe'-"1.ed and carried oul. For us there is only enormous work of attenlion. Everything else will be given, if we do what we have to do. Careful. we always want to do more; we shuffie the cards. and in so doing, we bungle the hand and are surprised to Jose the rubber.

· The back is a frame ' (034), a completely rlat frame on which a painter might stretch a canvas; the frame outlines lhe finished painting and s hows it to advantage. Which frame is meant? In bolh cases, the frame is something that someth.ing else is stretched on. The same image L,; found in the Vedic Scriptures, from the time when the Aryans were stiU hunters (and think of the Eskimos not fifiy years ago). Defore tanning. the skin of the animal is stretched and strapped on a frame. But the skin itself is passive ! It is stretched and laut; the frame is passive. ll IS. It is very important to interpret the Master's words corroclly. Usually he uses passive words which immediately we translate - in a st.ate of uncom prehension equal only to our love for him - in our hearts into active ones. Iyengar says : 'The back IS a frame ·, not• Harden your back to make a frame out of it·, or 'Contract the back· or · Squeeze your shoulder-blades lo stiffen your back·, or an11hing of the sort. He uses a verb of st.ale, not of action. The back is a frame, and the air comes in to stretch the skin of the chest upon it. Air is the activating force, the actor. Your back must wail attentively lO be mouldod by I.he action of the air. Nothing more, bul aho nothing less : it must be studded with intense attention just a.s a lield is dot ted with daisies in springtime. Herc again are the ' millions of eyes ' (M 11) : • the eye in each pore of the skin· (N60). We must remember lhat 'when the body gives way, the at tention has already given up· : the attention oollapscs first, and the body falls back into 'its old habits· and slumps.- Determined to follow the Master, we· cheat· and tensions come to cramp our poor backs, with the result that, after practice, they are com pletely bruised and aching all over. Whose fault is this? Has Iyengar ever said, 'Clench your bac¥. ·? He only says. · The back is a !tame·. JS. Nothing else. If you are not convinced, read this saying (QJ7) : The back is a blackboard; the air c.omes to write on it: the mind holds the chalk.· Here is the same image of the passive back, an attentive and willing· being. The actor is Air. Brcal.h, called the Lord in another saying, Prana, creative energy manifested in the bre.ath. Iyengar is clearly trying with these examples to in still passivity in us. for he knows that the real actor is the diaphragm. Aller death, when consciousness no longer commands the phrenic nerve, air no longer enters ihc lungs, although Nature hales a vacuum. \Ve really shouid pay close attention to the careful way the master • strikes ' us with passivity ! 42

• The back IS like a frame · (Q 34). · The buck is ,he blackboard, 1he air comes 10 ....,,i1e, lh� mind holds 1he chalk · (Q 37) A3

E GROSS BODY 5 , FROM TH BODY, . TO THE SUBTLE BODY AND FROM THE SUBTLE TO THE SUPREME rstan d completely backwards : that we unde . idea (taken from J83) . Here ts another es. and certainly not of some bodi e subtl • es tion of. gross or it' s not a�l a ument �f Nawre. constructed ., �e arc truly dealing with that instr ethereal gh which. w1�h progr�ssive throu us, ded ia that have precee over the m1�Uen we are nothing. nothing al that . we must come to realize o �rcept'on samadh1. wiU come BEING, za1i eal T the of on � r i refinement T r his I but h1 ng . • 1 n 't bo<lY · I d'd gh its al l· an d. that 1 t IS not more subtl• e experience• of a being throu d they not or her only ,with more whet ics. t , through its body·. AJl myst can only ers. say, through y an • b Mast ent Anci the of tion tradi the oj:S�ic �raining in have un ity is apprehen?ed more c t with reality. Toe Real approac ti�i�y through conta ler. m�rc lum_mous: as simp er. clear mes beco rience as the ex pun!ied: d_ivested of an d more are ty reali of of apprehension the o�gan sc��rc.eption o� or like a priori reasonings (Iyengar s frame of � 1 n f. e 1 . fal_la 1 us all living in. : �Y� {; -�oJs from the level of duality we are �: � � 1 Real1ty mm ' � sun, the g udin shro s ness cloud s , we h ave tamas . dark In �sknt term logies colouring theo and s myth .,:,.s hado s l the all is · . · behmd a vei of maya, wh1'ch pure and cI ear. to · rience from coming. . our ideas and keeping the expe and s had'1ng thrown up by dust of thick 1 cloud · • There is also ra'J·as : the our consci n the · •1r 1·mg up t o scree sw · ousness cles parti ue caravan a whirlwind of opaq e n s w�e shine h whic t Li�h a, tflat the ferv�nt seeker; the Light is sauv t solut�ly noth1�g . ab ing. noth when it. iving ers the possibility of perce n!hin becomes one with the thmg n g hind · pt ·I ts rays. Then the seeker knows· and. ·IS le lo interce · eIf as seeker and n of h1ms notto the e ledg know of '"'" ·1n th e 1 · 05 ,��t · . he ... ,. nows. I osmg · ed h'im. · th at has seLZ thmg the with the notion of the thing he soughl ; he is fused

:t:�i::

reside the_senses which But none of this happens without the body : in the body the attention. an? ev� n . �tions perce the of e awar es pe rceive. manas which becom ar expressed this very Iyeng and. s the strength to persevere when the seeking seem gayest_ less�ns I have and t firmes the gave he e wher l well in 1959 • al the schoo said with a great and m botto the on ever seen when he slapped one of the boys 10 contract t� e burst of l�ughter. · Will power is here.· He explained, 'lf you k_now how osoi.n a c psych the in With ). (A22 · muscles ii they are str ong you get the will power • t�e soma . · gh throu t whole' of a being, nothing can happen to · psyche · excep body. .dA

• Just as a goldsmith purifies gold, so must the body be constantly purifcd and purged, so that the inner gold may shine·, sayll Iyengar 046). To purify means to reline, a technical word, alm�t a materialistic word, like the word• yoga '.' Yoga· comes from a root meanin g bonds, lies. a root from which is derived· a whole voc abulary used by nomads who cannot use nails or other heavy materials, and whose whole lives are therefore composed of strings. straps, and ropes. It's a material word like al l the t.echnicaJ words.of a people whose feet are firmly on the ground. Th.ey consider that ground as they would their Mother, and their lives are sacred. As Iyengar has remarked, ' We are always seeking contact wich Heaven. But how many of us have made any reaS()nab/e conrac1 with Mother Earth ? • (J 16). Let us con sider the word ' refine· : it is in first sense a technical term. In French one speaks of refining oysters (afli.ner) to produce the pri2ed • lines de clair ·. Af. liner · is also a term used in cheese production : it's the last stage in the maturation of cheeses. In English we speak of· rer111ing • oil, sugar, and metals; dross and im purities are removed from the product. leaving only the pure substance So it isn't surprising that Iyen gar should speak of· purifying·. or •refining · a pupil : this is removing from him everything that keeps him from BEING. This slow, progressive refi nement refers as much to the attention as to muscles. or better yet, to the nerves which direct them. To pass from the gross body to the subtle body means. on the face of it, nothin g. Whereas to pass from a coarse sensation to the perception of an i n finitely more subtle sensation is an extremely concrete experience. however infinitely difficult to achieve! To succeed in relaxing the 'gross' muscles which are always ready to function. so that others which we find so difficult to marshaJ may finally learn to res pond ; to purify the sense of feeling so lhat I.he attention is conscious of more and more subtle impulses and responses ; to refine the nervous system so that only I.he tiny nerve and the little muscle needed at a give n momen t respond: all,this can be called base, physical work, but it forms the true. serious pathway ·Co a subtle. con crete reality, paving the way for the invasion of the Supreme. leading to something unimaginable for those who haven 't yet been swallowed up and di�olved in it ! The road to the ABSOLUTE goes from the gross to the subtle. In practice this means from the grossness of lhe unrefu,ed to the subtlely of right awareness. which demands a subtle respon se in order to produce the right action. Where is this subtle body for Iyengar. whose feet are certainly firmly on the ground? Jn the central nervous system, in the spinal column. Just a.� for us' spine· designates the spinal cord with its branching nerves and also the bony casing of the

vertebrae, for ancient Indian masters su.shumna designated the spinal column and cord. Now lyengar's saying 083) bocomes clear : · You have to work through the gross body to the subtle body (tho spine), and then through the spine to the mind.' In short, you must work the spine through the muscles and the mind through the spine. This couldn't be clearer or more concrete : one isn't running around in some ethereal body, but relining and purifying all the levels of one 's being until it can be com· pletely dissolved and realizes it has never stopped BEING. 'The body must be brought up to the lightness of the sell· (XJ78). He insists lhat we must not scamp the postures we c.an do easily : in each pose· there is lhe possibility of liner awareness.

6. ' STRETCH THIS NERVE '

He also says, 'II you cannot see the gross body, you cannot see the Sall' (X 186). As should be clear by now, whal. Iyengar caUs' Self' or· soul ' I prefer to call· Being': they are one and the same. In many olher sayings he insists upon the in terdependenc e of the body and the mind and the impa;sibility of developing one without the other. See X 197. P 14, N62, a·29, to list only a few.

· You mus1 keep 1he balance by 1he in1elliger1ce of 1he body (inslincl, balance feeling or abilily) and not by strength. When you keep 1he balance by strength, if is physical action, when by Intelligence of the body, It is relaxation in action ' (M 36).

When! was i� Poona !n 1959, Iyengar often spoke to me according to his Easlem mentality. hem� r:elat1vely untouched by Western modes of expression Un fortunately, I d1dn I always understand him ; that philosophy is so differe.nt so ' much more profound than the ones which had formed my thinking. Thus he would tell m� to • Stretch this nerve·, and J. wanting to understand would fish for a clue, feell.Ilg the place on his arm he w� showing me · That's no; a nerve; do you mean a muscle ?· . - . No.• answered the Master, . 1:,.s e nerve.. · And he's ,right: of course, but oh, th e years it would have taken for my mu.scies to become spmtualized • ! A shape is given to a living being by its skeleton. The bones of my arm allow ii to be placed so t_hat I may ty�, or grab a book from the other side of the table. T type, lhc humen are pcrpcnd1cular to lhc plane of the typewriter and the bo e � the forearms, hands, and fmsers fall into position in relation to it . if J wish t� � ho ld of a book the bones align themselves one after the other. Who gives the orde; to reach out or lo type? The nerves do. How do the nerves direct the bo ? Through the musc el s. The muscle is only an intermedia:Y, an accol)'lc. an assis�i: The . awareness of the_ n�ed to stretch or· to bend 1s U1 a very subtle system �am1rycat1o�s progressively more tenuous. l t :s �he nerve whlch has to be , stre�: ch_ed and 11 will be obeyed by the muscle 11 rs responsible for. Subt le Orien(aJs th�n k 'bones and nerves· and Westerners, who are so proud of their muscIes, think · muscles ·. In this sense the muscle belongs to the hypertrophy of the e o g th� gross ego which always wants to act; the nerve belongs to the more SU bt e'l being. . Iyengar is right : we must learn the_ art o� stretching a nerve, and slop res n l as it is maJad' JX> dmg with a quick, gross muscular t1ght.cmng, as vu gar st , ed completely inadequate for the reality of the experience the Master is atternp? lllg to make us undergo.

RAGM 7 , THE DIAPH USCLE ' . IS NOT A M

of pranayama) when I tried, n he ard in classes (especially class es This� what 1 °w �� ctive and useless energy, to feel what ly<;ngar. is st.ill v_ainly i a achon; inaction 1s for bu�bh.n g over rners feel. Decidedly, we always want Weste e mak trying to . us a cross to bear mustlo ? physiology. that h e can say · the diaphrao� is not a Is Iyengar i· gnorant of sterners and the r gross m uscular We know to ning begin ·s i I h Not at all. Mere y. for brutal and ·/ �e any mean s to silence our untimely need respo�se. � he w calling for subtle g feelin ctions in e � and to awaken finer distin � maladJUSlC the gurtl. who is simply our sub��fy ade quate to the demands of re, the Cosmos . �;i�:;�ir �he GURU. Gravity. Natu . tadasana. the m�terp1ece of the of work the in that us teach to . ly ngar tries forces of the being. �he muscl�s as it recruits to its service all the vital diap � powe�ful arch tt�e lf. He is and by that subtle onl_y � the synthesis ordered a violent sensation on the for look we as Jong as that stand �o make us under action which shoul d Lake trne the or a gross. muscular reaction. we w�l miss ng, helpi or d instea it place, and we hinder to act are n�t at �l the sam e as The sensations fell when the diaphragm is free . Master ts trying to ( e � d �s The feeling to the muscular sensations we are used ce of muscular act1v1ty, 1s absen the . sile�ce the In own. Unkn the gradually towards agm. diaphr born the lightness of the action of the

�iJ�:

STRETCH THE BUTTOCKS'

Here's a difficult sentence to explain as long as }'Ou havcn·t felt the sensation !

· What do you mean·. you must be �hinli.ing, 'squeezing the buttocks isn't hard.

It's easy ! ·

Not at all, because in what we call 'buttocks l thcre is a multitude of muscles responding to different nerves with differing responsibilities. If you want to pick up something without hurting your lower back, squeeze your buttocks. If you want to shed flab and firm your bottom, don't think alaout it, just squeeze your buttocks and everything will be fine . When you are walking on the axis, or when you are doing backbends. the bottom of the buttocks is the muscle to work : • Squeeze your four buttocks·, Iyengar used to say! When we practice setu bhanda-sarvangasana m preparation for backbends (or walking), the same sort of muscular action takes place. along with something else we hardly feel, but which works in active tadasana. In active laclasana (the only one described by Iyengar). it's an entirely d ifferent story : the work slarL5 at the top of the buttoclc� (which we like to call th e six 'buttocks'), genlly at firs t, growing in intensity as this effort is used up by the diaphragm. It's a deep, subtle action : one feels as though the but tocks will pass between the thighs. At the level of the hip joints. the ilium cavities must be made to pivot gcnlly around lhc femur head� in order to relieve the pressure on the lumbar discs. most often pinched between th e sacrum and the 5th lumbar vertebra, sometimes between L5 and L4 or between LA and L3. Then, if one is on the axis, the diaphragm takes over and relieves th e pressure further up. Iyengar tried to make me feel this at Gstaad. but it only gave rise, then, to another query. He trie d to make me understand by, showing me. but my body wouldn't do the same thing._�. His is not rusty like ours are; having never lived out side of the axis, he has been awake to th e finer sensations for years

· Sromach '" •. · chest tdt!dsana !

the stomach : active open •, without any nwsculnr tension In

It's the familiar slory of· Where is lhe bone, madam?·. which took place at Gstruid sometime between 1962 and 1965. He was starting one of lhe many back bends he enjoyed doing everyday, when he stopped, took my hand, saying, ' Put

J's hands show the bullocks their responsibility : pi-voting the �/vis, gently, around the femur heads... without removing the 11c.11ural cun'e of the lumbar region .

1.•. �

"'"r ...,,_ ....,.�

·i: ,: Jtf�tt�·

It is the diaphragm opening which seems 10 command the mana-uvre of rhythmical screlching of the whole spine. Here, the nape is over-curved,. which could show the ever prescnr tendency of the back muscles 10 tighten.

flere, the stretching of tlU? buuock.s is mou 1Jiu11 visible, in the folds of 1he Master's s.hons. This pelvis rotation brings the pubis bone for,,.,,a,ds, and allows the extension venebra by vertebra. of rhe whole spinal co/um11, commanded by 1he diaphragm and its · helpers ·. (I)

your hand here·. and placed it on his sacrum. Then his muscles began to work and lhe bone disappeared, swallowed up in the iron Oesh of his buttocks. My hand oould not have followed ; under my hanc.l was a thin, lhin line between two muscles of steel. My hand would have been pinched as in a nutcracker ! Trium phant, he nipped a.round and asked,· Where is the boo�. Madam?·. with that do_uble interrogative movement of the hands his pupils know so well. I had no idea, everything happened so fas t, l hadn't sren a thing, but I knew that something hap ;xned in r.is body that didn't happen in mine, that he didn't hurt himself. while I would finish aseriesof backocnds with terribly sore loins! That's aJI I knew then. :--:ow. I have understood · where · the bone must go for the right action lo take piace.

In spite of tlU? cxrrcrrw work of 1he buuocks, the ·whole eflon. here, is made in the /oi11S ; the pubis bone, being kept f,acJ..... ,ards fin relalion to the supporting line of the hands). docs not allow tht! stretching : the posture is then fell as a bending. The anly remt!dy, as long as the jlexibilily of iht' ,--oxo-.femora/ Joints hasn ·, come is 10 hdghti:n tht: floor under the hands. (])

This la1eral opening is obvious from the front : the thorax is widened and kepi • up and wide ': the nipples are wide apart. 1he shoulders 1hrown back... The pose is light because the flexibility of the Master's groin allows the action exactly on the axis; (cl. S. TurcJ..). (2)

is explained in_ light on Yoga by a . wor� which is . . •ork of the bullockshasn't felt lhe point of dep�ture ?f lh1s action. I� h1 s one as Jong as s.s . � mean i_ n��e of th e lcchmque : Contract the hips _ . says in note 2 he dasa.na, descnplt�� of 1.ahow those who helped him transla/e the book. into English ex Perhaps is is this very special, indispensible action of the buttocks. In layman's terms. pr �� d r, he i lium. Just try to contract the iliac bone! And tell me if ifs easy e htP r rs to t ne who doesn't teach in the language he thinks in! someo ;,,.nd to un d e,"...,,, · contract the hips·. Contract! I wonder if this confusion What's worse. he saysthe translation o his work into English? F�r when he � from n cou id have arise tch·. It cannot be said often enough that •stre says e h . h . teac es. . the action of stretr m _ ed. into a mus�uIar co_ntracu_ on,' w h',c h s h or_ tens. hin should never be trans,or �ut fnto an extension. Stretching 1s the opposite of Lightening and squee1.1ng.

The real difficulty for us. then, is lo know what he means when he says' Stretch the buttocks '.What sensation was he trying to convey when he laughingly told us at Gstaad to stretch our · four but1ocks' '! The answer came after the discovery of the right action of active tadasana and its systematic application \o all the other JX)Stures. In setu.b hand.a-sarvangasa.na. the work cha.'1gcd cornplctely to make us feel much more subtle sensations. Not onl y did the buttocks end up squcc-lcd, but the pelvis was gently pivoted around the femu r heads. Finally we could practice real backt-cnds. which no longer hurt the loins, but rather relievc<l the pressure there and stretched the back. Backbcnds became akin to docp, gentle therapy over the whole nervous system and the .spine.

We understood that lycngar's · four buttocks· should not tighten and squec-lc, but rather stretch, attempting to elongate. as if to pass between the thighs. without disturbing the natural lumbar curvature. This action starts al the top of the but tocks, where y our hands arc when they are' on your hips·. al the point we call the · six buttocks •.

How to transmit so subtle a sensation. but one so fun damental. without touching each student. one by one. countless times? It is impossible 10 explain this merely by telling him (in a foreign language) what he should foci, with words which cannot awaken in his body the feelings the Ma�ter tries desperately to make him perceive.

When we have learnt not to destroy our bodies, we will be able to care for our own backs and nervous systems. and for those of our students.

Activ e tdr)dsana is the go lden key of the wlio/e life: lhe diaphragm opens and sends a � e�ge to lhe bullocks for gently bringing up the pubis. by rotative action of the cot,l�,'d cav ities aro1md the femur heads ... exactly where the diaphragm needs ii to co ntin ue off and on ifs rlrwhmical extension of rhe whole spinal cord. Lirtle by ., . . . space ts. crea1ed' evervwhere. e. G., !terc. W(lS 111 her 8t!t 111011th ! At last, the baby 11.•as 110 longer dis111rbfng ha breu1lti11g.

9. ' IT'S NOT ON THE AXIS '

asked for sarvangasana, the students went into position. still on a single thickness of blanket, and all the necks were relaxed. Bui gone was the vertical axis : between nape and heels was a curve, varying according to the suppleness of the individual. Iyengar was furious : ' They are not on the axis ! · • Excuse me, sir, the necks are ·relaxed, like you said . ' Look, Noelle, don't argue. you see very well they aren't on the axis! Just look and you see what I mean ! ·

In 1971 Iyengar came to Paris lo give a session. The students went into sar vangasana,all with a singJclhicknc:ss of blanket beneath the shoulders as we all did this J:>?Slu _re in Orose days. Hands in bac.k forced the chest against the 'chin : • Good, good , sa1d the Master. The necks were fuUy sl.Ietched horizontally on the blankets. He bent and fell each neck one by one : · Tension, bad, very bad· I didn't underst.ind. • look ·, he insisted, ' all the nedts are tense. There is enormous tension in the brain · it's very bed., The nee� should be relaxed, end the nape gently, nicely stretched I · '

And that was lhat. He was gone, and we were left with the P\JZZ.le of how lO do _ sarvangasana with a relaxed neck but without sacrificing the vertical axis. For the first time this word struck my ear ; the notion of gravity was still to come. This was our new difficulty : to ally (YUJ) in the work of sarvangasana, (I) the search for the axis - for us still nothing but the vertical. and (2) the oonstancy of a relaxed neck iilld a comfort.able nape. The latter point is crucial so as not to over work the thyroid or risk damaging the nerves of the inner-ear. Then began years of research which led to the technique we now practice only after the discovery in 1976 of the cosmic axis alld of Gravity, which make things • stand up by thcmselve � · !

/959: An exrremely tense sarvdngdsana: lhe neck is oversrrerched on rhe floor removing completely the natural curvature jusl what may cause inner ear accidents and a reverse curvature of rhe cervical spinal column.

In I �70 during a private lesson, he had shown me how to work without being level with the ground. I had asked him to correct me in all the postures which hun ·me . In my mother's house in Geneva, he looked for all sorts of things II.> hold me up here, or to lift me there, always balancing the two sides of my body in relation to the median line so that the lumbar vertebrae were no longer forced out of their natural curvature. Any means was good to achieve the cooperative rather than disturbing the work of the mllscular masses. balanced, as it were. of their own ac cord. This proved the beginning of the search ror balance ·in all the postures, like a new beginning in a new yoga. From this moment date lhe folded blankets we use to practice the seated postures. Then came the search for, and the discovery of. the exact height al which to sit while practising the postures for pranayama. med(lal.ion, or front extensions (forward stretching and not forward bending !). This research received the sanction of the Master during a long session on pranayama in J 971 and the · certificate of approval · from Patarijali after Mademoiselle Esnoul helped us to find the deeper significa.nce of sthira and s11klia.

It was up to us to figure out the solution, as Iyengar !ell without telling us what to do. Luck.ily he was able.� return the foUowmg year for a short session, just Jong enough to add another building block to our research under construction. When he

We had thus been aware since the summer of 1970 of the precious help that blankets pile" evenly according to one's need could_be in some postures. Why not sec if using 91a.nkets might help us to resolve the dilemma we were fac�d with in sa.rvanga..'>filla ?

An accura1e heigh1 of blankets allows the neck to relax : · chin up Iyengar always says. Here, at last it's possible. B111 the posture is still very ti:nse and a, heavy push of the hands is necessary for the students 10 believe he is drawing near the a.xis.

Thus our way of practising sarvangus.ana was born : from then until 197 6 we used blankeL,; of varying thickness according to one's neck, usually around IO cm. Then in 1976 came the discovery of aplomb (perpendicularity), and the work of the arms had to stop to teach the trapezius muscles to stay relaxed. The work of the loins had to give way to a desperate search for the right place for each bone, for each mass in relation to the cosmic axis. Then began the work of meditation in each posture, which immerges hatha-yoga in what is often called rAja.yoga, and which for Iyengar is the same thing. This affirmation gave implicit approval· to our new way of practicing the posture in a state of' complete $\Jrrenderino • to Gravity, the cosmic Guru, the Brahmasutra. Yoga took on immense, infinite dimensions.

At last the work with a plumb line gives the solution : all physical ef· /or! ceases: a tremendous affenfive effort takes place in order to avoid any aggression against Grovitv (ohimsa). Detail of !he previous photo.

I l

.,lI '

.t I

G_, 8th month ofpregnancy • and a wonderful baby came in time ! • Here. no more tension anywhere, a complete SrJrreru:Jering 10 Gravity : 'because the complex become sim ple, one is one with the Infinite · (N 66).

------�----.

PART III

HOW IYENGAR DESCRIBES CERTAIN DETAILS

Jn my book 1 wrote about slanding poses : legs 1hree feet or five feel apart according to the postures. But ro be contented with that is meaningless ,· according to whal we want to work we must spread lhe legs more or Jess. (Fl O} The besJ way to appreciate the absolute non-opposi/ipn (a-himsa) 10 Gravity is /0 in· vert the photos; N. sticks 10 the ceiling; J. Ls already much lighter. G. ha.! nc more weight, she is hanging from the ceiling i11101al hartntmy with J111rselj; her baby and Gra1•ity. ' There should be harmony in action. See and act • (X 14 I). 58

For the letter killetlt, but 1he spirit giveth life. · Paul of Tar.ius II Corinthians 3:6

1. TADASANA

I J 1

Iyengar attaches immense importance lo the _basic posture, the foundation of lhe human being whether st.mding or sitting. A.saM is derived from the root AS, which also gives us the French word as.sise, seat, foundation. The word idqa (from TAI;)) means sound, blow, and mountain. Tac;!asana is the posture of the mountain.

INTRODUCTION Obviously each being must react according to his temperament. his abilities.· his handic:apl: and to what he has already understood in life. the difficulties he has already faced and the maturity he h � gai�ed. In �prmg one doesn't understand as _ _ _ _ one does in autumn ; in summer 1t !Sn_ t given as in winter ; and this 1s as true for the master as for the pupil. Ideally, an old pupil would receive instruction from an old master; then the progress :.ind syntheses would be• overwhelming.

He tells us another interesting thing : this posture has a second name, samruthiti. ShtUI is stability. sl.anding quietly. immobility. Total immobility can only come from being .on the cosmJc axis :.ind not from 'holding qne's balance·. Iyengar translate sthlti by ' stand ·, which expresses the passive state of being upright. and not the action of holding oneself up, as has been wrongly interpreted. ·Stand· comes from the same Sanskrit root STHA, which means immobile, quiet. From the same root come stall, stable, statue. stance, suitic. station. establishment, (lild many more. Sthill conveys the idea of continui'ty, suspension of activity, immobility, steadines.$, fixity.

Since such is not the case most of Hle time. we have collected some stumbling blocks which have wrought havoc among students not yet ripe enough to un dersl.and in depth how to apply the Master's advice to themselves.

· When that day comes the kingdom of Heaven will be like 1hls. T11ere were ten girls who took their lamps and went out 10 meet the bridegroom ... · (lvfl 15. I). 60

Iyengar translates sama by 'straight· and ·upright'. 1lus last W?�d is also t_he name given by archeologists to the menhirs ancl stele erected by religions o.ntenor to our... Samasthlti is therefore the state of �landing quietly without oscillation or ten. sion. 1hls can only occur on the axis. Iyengar must be ignorant of the fact that all iJ1 the West live outside of lhe axis and a,e· .1ever upright. but hold themselves upright, always. I saw him try to place different pupils on the axis in_ l 976,_ but as he gave no explanation, as soon as he let go, the student fell back into his false balance, out of plumb.

wbo put their weight into I.heir heels. People who are in balance ancl do go ah<?ut wrt.h their weight in their heels can suITcr from exaggcra.1.ed curvatures of the spine if they put their weight even further back. But we needn't worry about thal : that won't be our biggest mistake for a Jong time! Oo I.he contrary, we carry our weight too far forward ; once it has been cor�ec lly put back on the heels. all lhe good effects of the postures as Iyengar describes tbem a.re re.iped, and more. I beleivc lhis way is therefore right for Westerners. OnJy in passive lil.c;lasana can the active tac;iasana Iyengar describes be done; only from lhi.s point of departure does the body's median line, along which the energy circu1atc Lake off from the arch of the foot. Otherwise, the weight crushes the foot at the e.rch and cannot be sent up the Brahma.sutra, Laking us with it. a spider clim· biJ18 up its thread.

Iyengar carrying his second grand· Sl)n. Observe how straight the man behind him is walking : the weigh/ Is carried backwards.

J have already told the story of this class, and of its theme of the comma, ex clamation point, and question mark. The oomma was the student who still assumed the usual stance of Westerners, the exclamation point was he who tried to straighten himself, and the question mark was the one who accentuat�d his lumbar curvature by throwing out his chest, not having felt where the cosrruc axLS passes through the human body. Iyengar went lO great lengths, but to no avail : no one was ready to understand. !-le couldn't explain thal everything has to be relaxed, inch by inch, so that the· menhir • can rmd its rightful balance: ; his body has never Jef\ ils rightful balance ! Hpw can one teach something one has never felt and so has never suffered from ? Yet we sense from his txx,k that the notion of balance (aplomb) is of prime im portance to him : · People do not pay attention to the correct method of standing ', he says in the Effecl.s of tada.sa.oa in Lighi"on Yoga. !-le goes on to cast:gate those 62

Our of the cosmic axis, the load's weight would crush rite curvature of rhe nape thus causing ar throsi.s (0$ Iyengar shawed me on the Ancien1 Egypt s1a1ues).

2. THE CENTRE OF THE FOOT

I 2

When Iyengar realizes that his Western pupils are not on the axis he is disoriented ; at least he used to be, and did everything he could to explain what would happen by itself if the pupil (who was ofl.cn already teachi g) would let his weight be n placed in gravity. The fascinating details crammed into notebooks don't represent what the student should do, but what should happen b}' itself if all the necessary conditions were fulfilled. There is a fundamental difference he re, which for the most pa.rt goes unnoticed.

One of the Joubineaux·s chim pan:ees : the toes folded 11ndrr 1he soles clearly show the weight on the calcanea : astragala are still slightly leaning outward, thus causing leaning of the 1iblas. (I) Orang-ou/Qng ·s (woodmen) lefr foot skeleton .- (} ). Foot skeleton of a gorilla ; (with Professor Delmas' permission) (J).

Mo�eover, in terms of anatomy, the calcaneum {heel-bone) resL� on the ground a � tmy_ar�a. • as sm all as a coin·, says Iyengar, and this area is at the end of lh� This IS �ready visible in simian primates : however. they have no arch. In n th ehuman pri mate the weight-bearing surface has not changed: simply the aneu has ,.,� we; a been tipped up to form the beginning of lhe arch's curve. Iyengar is va o ".Vare of this: in 1959 he took me to the 1,00 in Poona to show me ri u details. He certa inly wouldn't tell his pupils to crush their arches on pur pose f1 outd be more profitable for them to figure out the hidden meanings hchi �d 1te Wor ds, so d1Hicult to gra�p in lhcir depth. that he showers upcn them.

C.:

6.d

When the weight is sucked up towards the man ·s center (towards the pubis bone) because of the work of the adductors (as we shall see In our n.ext book). the weight comes a111omatlcally just lo the spot poinled 0111 by the finger, on N. 's foot... and goes immediately to the very ent.l of the heel-bone, wfthaut any spedal aflentlon IO fr,

For instance, I always have to explain this to new students . many of them coming with several years of work behind them - who place their feet badly on the ground, because Iyengar �aid, ' The weight should be here ·• pointing to the middle of the inst.ep. The students think lhat there is the exact point which should bear the weight, that the vertical axis passes through this point. Th.is is wrong. Westerners live bearing their weight towards lhe front of their feel, on the toe joints ; so that to: bring the weight back 10 the instep is for tJ1em an enormous change.

Look carefully at !yen.gar; observe that his weight is on his heels ; this is conspicuous on the right foot. • Observe the sensi1ive touch of Iyengar 's fingers which show how to stretch the kn,!e, pulling the pupil 'in plumb '10 make her dare 10 put the weighr backwards, 1owards him. In ver, the photo and obsen-e; (cl. Bessigl,i).

But how could a man who has _spent every minute of his life on the axis advise someone !O put his weigh( on the arches of his feet, already so damaaed in Wester n�rs precJSCly because of the false balance? Not a single student has ever asked him�lf w�y Iyengar seemed to be going against the natural order of things, in plactng weight on th� arches ! The answer is quite simple : Iyengar is on the, axis where the human anunal belongs. When the species evolved towards a two-legged state, Nature completely transformed certain bo.nes, not to say all. With the genus ho�o t�e lumbar curvature first appears, permitting a comfortable upright stance ; the ischia, caJcanea, and astragala are also lr d.flsformed. It's lhe calcaneum which is transformed lo receive all the weight of lhc body. 66

Indeed, the human heel-bone is compressed, becomes rounder and thicker, and at the same time it is slightly tipped up in front lo form the beginning of the arch. A close examination of a human or simian calcaneum shows the natural protuberance meant to touch the ground right at the back of the bone. This means that the sole of the foot if not deformed does not bear down on lhc ground, sup porting all lhe weight in the case of s�ians, for they have anterior limbs .too. When the later simian primates stocxl up, the posterior limb received all the weight.

1 1e s imian Jeer, 1he Human right foot skeleton seen from 1/le arch ·s cun-e: as on 11_ � s/1gh1/y . s here, leaned 10 b111 , end very calcaneum can only bear the weight on its or ir1 Profess taken De/mm' (pho1os ; e curv arch's the of sides form one of 1he laboratory).

The sole of 1he foot of l>engar's son-in-law.- ob!>u 1-e 1ha1 the skin of 1he hct!l has blackened much more 1/uJn 1/,e 1oe joints. 67

you study a ph ��og�aph of the sole of an Indian or a Black who hasn't been _ deformed by our c1v1l12at 1on, you will see th �t the heel is sharply defined. especially _ _ _ if the individual in question is used to walking barefoot. You can see that the skin 15 dark and calloused as a result of being pressed bctwocn the bone and the ground. Only the skin of the heel has blackened and thickened. To what use then, you may ask, �e the arch and the toe joints ? The arch is for suppleness �d comfort. Although in o �r feet the toe joints have become almost amorphous, m healthy feet they serve in forward p ropulsion. For people on the axis, walking is not,� .it has become for most of us.a teriesof forward falls. In this perpetual forward falhng.· �he foot, mi r:aclc precision instrument that it is. has no role at all other ��an t� le� itself be earned forwards to catch the weight. The leg is propelled along tn .this 1mbalancc, and the foot at the end stops the motion. Nothing works �ormally any more Whereas for people on the axis, walking is a forward propuls �on, thanks lo the supplene;s of the toe joints and to the muscles of the bullocks. This means that for them: the toe join:5 will only �est on the ground, . and not bear down. When standing still. they ar.e in balance on their heels. On a photograph of such a foot, you can sec that the skin of the toe joint is much less bruised than that of the heel.

To resume. then: when standing, the weight is on the heels: lhc toe joinlS receive the weight only temporarily when pivoting in walking. Once you have ac cepted these two points (and l ask you not lo go on until you have). let us return to Iyengar. How could you expo::l a man who has always lived like this, who feels the ground like this, to teach the opix>sitc, and to incite his pupils to ruin what Nature so admirably created appropriate to its function 1 1 Iyengar lives on the axis: therefore he always stands with his weight to the back of his heel-bones, and this pre;enL� no problem for him either physical. physiological. or philosophical. Yet he senses that we lean forward. a.� if we were falling forward, obliging someone looking at us to direct his eyes downwards, down toward� the ground - as he described the statues in the Ramses exhibit in 1976. lie sees this but he cannot explain it lo us, never having fell the myriad com pensations along the length of the legs and the spine. It doesn't occur to him to show us where we should place our weight along the longitudinal line or the fool. On the other hand, he notices lhal some pupils have fallen arches and that other.; still stand on the outer edges of their feel. Trus is a familiar problem in India. too. So he tells them. 'the weight should be here·, pointing half-way between the slump to the inside and the slump lo the outside. The weight should be carried in the middle along the transverse line of the foot. If I draw two lines along the sole or my foot, one longitudinal and one per pendicular to it across the heel, the point where they intersect i5 the point where the weight should be borne when sta nding. One can sec by looking at a skeleton that the natural protuberance of the calcaneum prepared to receive the weight emerges in the middle of the rear of the bone. It's a i.mall area : remember that Iyengar always says that we must be balanced on a space the size · of a coin ' Now try to do the standing postures, putting your weight on this spot of your heels. and keeping it there. See if you discover with amazement that linally, everything · impossible · he has asked of you starts to rnake sense. You will find that you need to pay constant attention to b reak your old habit of putting your weight incorrectly on any old part of your feet. But don't complain : this is yoga, using at the same lime in the same place the seeker, the search, and the object of the search. Unity will be born in you, simply as you try no longer to cheat with gravity. And, as your sense of weight and balance hecom� ·relined·, you will discover that when your legs are stretched along the median line, if you are on the axis, the weight is ' sucked up · to your centre of gravity. The axis passes then through the arches of the feel - but the weight does not bear down. Don't for get that the Master continuaJly reiterates the need to keep the attention on that part of the body which is nearest the ground. That is our base. If the • very basis · is lalse, the entire structure can only l>e false. (X 168): Which ever is nearest the g round, that portion is the brain to un derstand the po �lure. (X269): Watch your base; be attentive to the portion neru-est the noor.

3. THE CENTRE OF THE FOOT THE MASTER'S PRACTICAL f NSTRUCTION

In 'the second year of my tutelage, at Gstaad in 1960, Iyengar had me work the standing postures without placing the soles of my f eet on the ground, in order to make me understand where to place my weight.

When I first came to him I had very little muscle, having practised for six years in Europe various methods of yoga, all ' flabby • types, as I disrespectfully call them! So his first job was to bui ld up my muscles, as it is for us with most of our beginne("S, . too. To do this, i was supposed lo • stretch ·, but by 'stretch · i thought he meant 'straighten·. so I straightened my legs and strained· with all my might and concentrated on keeping my feet firmly placed. Spreading my legs wa.5 at first so painful, that I had to push on my feet as hard as possible, a5 if to anchor them in the ground. You can well imagine lhe inflammations resulting from such intense work outside of the axis.

. towards the pubis. It is not at all a ques�on, as �o m�y Iyengar students seem to rting oneself think, of pushing on one's heels to_the pomt of d1�!oca�on, o su as if rooted in the gro�nd. If oi:ie LS o� lhe cosmic �LS, the �� hfis• sucked up, to the pubis and one nsks no d1Slocal.1on, even the stiffes pu P for the hip joints are loosened and become gradually (I re�t, grad�aJ!y ! � more fi eXJ'ble There are no infiamed joints or strained tendons m the thighs. . Whenever I worked with the Master, l remember l10w h would correct me m the sla.{lding postures. These arc t he ones ��ere our fal �al e does the moo t damage to our foundation and thus to our J011�ts. H� wo�I d s:� behind me and Of course pull me towards him. I had the sensation of being laid back agru·nst him. . everything became light, because I had been pl"'?ed back on lhe ax s But when I · J �ediaiely 1 felt him let me go, I panicked, frigh_tened of fallym . bac would put my weight forwards agam, and ever t �mg �;�� h�vy once more. When I do this to my students. I remove my h�ds sI owI y, lo accustom them to this new sensation, and ask them who IS holding lhem. me or Gravity? to me to wonder Never before having discovered balance (apIom b), d'd � ·1, occur all my weight Why why Iye�gar would have stui:>idIy tired hims�lf heavy stone �ound l energy ? Our workers an F ·ranee kn ow h�� !�u�i� . �:pfy by k.e�ping it on its point on the axis. Iyengar did the same. fact th.at he What should open the eyes o f man of his current students is the y l Yt s1ows lhat we habitually carr it too far for· pulls their weight back, which c ear

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ward.

Next year, when my muscles were formed, he tried to make me feel the axis • I see th.at now. The soles of the feet should be weight less. In Trikonasana, only the tip of my front heel was allowed to touch the ground at first. Then, without changing the distribution of weight, I had to lower the sole of my foot gently, and just touch the ground. Of course, in my ignorance, I had put my weight solidly on my back fool · and not just on the heel, either! It should have been easy, and he couldn't unde rstand my tremendous difficulty : I was too used to • holding " my balance on my toe joints.

Certainly if he himself felt his weight throughout the soles of his feet, or worse, crushing his arches, he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of inventing ways to make me feel the right balance. If, when he did his own practising, his weight crushed the entire soles of his feet against the ground, woul d he try to make others understand that their weight should be in the heels? Another significant detail: all Iyengar students will tell you that in Virabhadrasana, for instance, the back foot should slide as if on a cake of soap. Why? Because what is left of the weight, after it has been drawn up to the pubis and sent up the axis, is in the heel. and not at the end of the foot where we would so like lo dump it. On the axis, the weight returns of its own accord to the heel. The heel pivots to provide a better fou ndation for the leg, which feels stretched 70

Gstaad 196/.

5. TURN THE LEFT FOOT IN AND THE RIGHT FOOT OUT

4. THE OUTER EDGE OF THE FOOT Whal idiocies are committed for love of a master, simply because one doesn't un derstand exacUy what he ex P:cts ! The number of sunken or slipped vertebrae, of _ innamed femur head:-5 or groins, of cnpples or people completely twisted I have seen ! These people �bled �hems�lves out of love, lacking common sense in their love. Yet Iyengar cert.a.inly tries to inculcate the happy medium the exact point bet ween �pering one's body and breaking ones�lf because th� body's self-defense mechamsm has been unplugged out of love. His recriminations come: • You are intelligently intelligent? · This says a lot about too intelligent ! Could you not the oommon sense he would hke to see arising in fS students.

Let us consider the outer edge of the foot . In the standing postures where the legs are spread far apart. the back foot tends to slump toward<, the centre. This risks to c rush the arch of the foo! because the weight is no longer in the middle of the �kle-bone. The ankle-bone 1s ��·pulley' on which the tibia moves; in humans it LS parallel to the ground. permitting us !o walk with our tibiae pointed straight up. The human foot 1s made to bear the weight of the body in a certain position . T th spread of the legs tends to de �orm this foundation, we must remedy it at one�'. Th: Master says t o pla �e the weight_ on the outer edge of the foot.as a precaution to _ spare the p �p1l possible deformations. He doesn't intend for the pupil to continue to _ bear his weight �here after he has become more supple and more attentive 10 detail. To force the weight towards the outer edge of the foot is to risk a serious sprain. To the �rest.fall�n student_ who protests,· I'm doing what he said. and look what happens,1 . I feel lllce retorting,· Couldn't you seek the" why" in what the Master asks you lo do? Couldn't you be "intelligently intelligent"?·.

Let us consider the feet in Trikon:isa.na. You have just done the posture towards lhe Jen and you are about to do it towards the right. Iyengar tells you to turn the old front foot (the lcfi) so that it may take the correct position for a back foot, and to turn the old back foot (the right) to the position of front foot. So you turn the right foot correetly, so that the inner line of lhe foot is parallel to the wall you're looking at. Now why make things difficult - why not simply turn the lcfl foot till it is perpendicular to lhat wall? · Because ·, you're going to tell me, • Iyengar says "in".· Fine, then why not go past lhe parallel when he says·out·? In speaking, the poor student makes desperate and perfectly inelegant movements of the hips to place his foot •in·. which. besides, will inhibit the correct action that should lake place in his hip joints. and may provoke an inOammation ! All of this be�use people complicate their lives by hearing only what they want to hear. One foot is parallel, and one is perpendicular, to the wall. If the feet are turned naturally one will turn inwards and the other outwards- It's up to our joints to tell them how far to t�rn ; lhey, and_ not w_e, � e directing this operati� n ; Let us be intelligent enough to hsten to the animal w1thm us and not to damage 1l . • While doing yoga your body must tell you what to do, not your brain· (X 265).

�:: 1959: Noelle, when working was tightening lhe outer part of the leg down ngar sucks up lhe inner part towards the pubis bone. he is sucking the ; Iye •h:1e ar ch upwards. Compare Noelle's ankles with that of the Master's left foot . the ;1,JJ _ erence LS noteworthy.

Brueil-en-Vexln (78) 1971.

6. THE DOTS IN THE SHOULDERS WHEN THE ARMS ARE STRAIGHT

Finally there are the famous little · dotS' : l.inlc hollow dimples in the shot�: which m�t be kept. There can be no doubt; for a Westerner to do what an .0 does wilh straight arms, he must koep h.is arms bent.and s�k the e�t spac�� of his hands on the ground • and practise the posture like thlS for �ears · Only en and at this price will the spine be stretched from end to end, piece by piece an d space by space. 'Only then can sushumna and kundalini now, W.e muSl w��k t0wards elasticity in the arms. But · stretching ' must not be confused WI h •straightening·. either in one's head or in one's body.

Most Indians are Jong-limbed and slender, of the type that homeopaths call · fluorique ·, that is, very flexible and not very muscled people. Add to this a vegetarian diet and, frequently, the under-nourished state rampant in families •blessed ' with a great many children, and you have an idea of the Indian master's view of muscles and suppleness in general !

It is sometimes the case that I have Indians in my classes. When we start work on backbends, I find arms lhal ex Lend easily, but aren't strong unless the bones are placed end lo end in the line of gravity. The tropical temperament doesn't expend energy in vain : the trapez.ius muscles slay relaxed when the arms are strai ghtened. But, as they are unwilling to expend what little energy they have, they are reluctant to straighten their arms. and collapse before they can use the supplen� of their spines and awaken a touch of Kunclalini. 'lb.en my other students are astonished to hear me enjoin them - in lyenga.r's in1pcrative tone - to straighten their arms!

But for my weli-fed, well-built West.em students, the situation 1s exactly the reverse. They straighten their arms with di.fficully and require enormous energy to do so. The humerus hea.ds are as if glued to the glenoid cavities of the shoulder blades, and as soon as the student wants to straighten his arms, he contracLS the trapez.ius muscles of the back, threatening to harm the joints of the spine and removing any suppleness or nexibility they might have had. Then no ' rythmical stretching · is possible, and the student (often already teaching) is reduced lo forcing lhe weak spots of his back, weakening them more and more until, finally, a slipped disc wedges itself in the forced joint.

Yet Iyengar wants something quite different ! First of all, he never says, 'Straighten your arms·. but · SI/etch your arms·. Secondly, he insists that the trapezius muscles be · open ' ; when they are contracted, they are squeezed • shut • and the dislance between the car-lobes and the shoulders is diminished, not in creased as he insists that it be. 74

create dots between themselves: 'siretch the 197J' (Ye�gar shows to I t the /,ones A.dho Mukho. Shvcindsana, /.s always ure, is ost ,e, bones • create space A. nd really, it is tr11e, if t� ·studer11 takes pose. preser11ed bytlie aste� · a1:'eta:f:n limbs. and If each and every joinl i.s Jo1Jr the :n ually t °: eq care to balance t w etg , be stretched only much later. will knees 17,e .relaxed... thus 1he dors appear.

]

7 CROOKED BODY . HAS A CROOKED MIND ' I

PART JV

, 1 the case of non-handicapped people, a crooked body has a crooked mind·, is th� complete sayi�g �X6J). It has often been noted that Iyengar proc�ds �Y aJlusion as if he said, Do exactly as I say, and such-and-such will happen . With this saying . he puts it _the olhe: way : if you n�tice that your posture is crooked, it's because a crooked nund has un�ed somethmg on the body contrary to nature.

THE MASTER'S " DONT'S "

More : if your body is crooked, it's beeause you asked things of it which were not healthy for it, and Nature reasserted her rights by giving you a sprain or a slipped d�One also has the impression that he is saying, · Observe if your body is crooked, for a crooked mind deserves a crooked body ! ' Let us try through the body to right the mind . Then mind and body will be together in the natural simplicity of their true nature and harmony wiU reign in us. The Master also said. • The soul is working, not just the body· (X 187). ,-..:-q

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·Xi��:� )li � .... /. . '·t,'

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'For non handicapped people, crooked body has a crooked brain '(X 63); but for a hand icapped person, a thoughtful mind recreates as much as a 'right ' body.

M. ·F. learning how 10 sit, in spite of all her Infirmities, with the spine erect and rel ed a � to walk, surrendering her weight to gra\•ity, In spite of a very serious ;u Y �rthr111s. The right foot can ,w longer lay on the floor : however, passive 1 dasa na, is possible and open their treasures of light11ess and psychosomatic har mony. Inve rt the photo 10 appreciate the recorvered uprightness.

1';

It is never a question. of· what am I doing ? ', but of ' what am I not doing ? ' (13)

'Presence of mind ' means synchronism bet ween the body and the mind. (J55)

1. ' DON'T JERK '

I said earlier, that during my seven consecutive years of study with Iyengar, eac time he wanted to help, he approoched me, then paused long enough to say eilh� ·relax ' or 'don't jerk·. Oiµy then did he place me oorrectly, certain of havin awakened my attention so :that h.is correction wouldn't be impeded by a gros. brulal. muscular resJ)Onse, willing but inadequate. First he had to eliminate tt chances of either of us getting hurt.

INTRODUCTION Always the same thin� : we react brutally and wilh our muscles :when he wanls a very subtle response, nght on lhc median tine. But how can we u�derstand that we must go ever so g�ntly, softly, right lo lhe very deplhs, when he urges us on with such a strong voice and with what seem to many to be fierce gestures ? • I "."ill ne�er �et him touch me·. I have heard. And yet there is such tenderness som_etunes_. m � hands, such care lO av?id an accident, such caJm, such a syn: t�esLS of life._ It 1s. sad that because of his voice, which stings to stimulate and b�use ?f his gestures, so relaxed lhat lhey seem boastful to some most �f his pupils, bnng home from P?Ona only lhe desire lO break themselves or· others. They �ave!'l t understood . anything but lhe exterior of the Mast.er and have mis.sed the 1.0 fi uut.e depth of his Leaching.

A jerk is a response of lhe muscles rather than of the nerves. Out of goodwill, wanted to help the Mast.er. and instead of following him calmly, I hindered hi.J wilh a purely muscular resi>0nse, like all I.he students who oome ·to our classe Why do we do this? Because the adjustment must be made by mill.imetn:s, whi we Westerners are like poople wanting to adjust our watches with a carpenter screw-driver 1 A Westerner is like a great clumsy puppy overturning everythir with an inopportune wag of the tail, instead of waiting calmly to have understo: before going ahead. The necessary adjustment is usually very line · like the dar and tucks a tailor takes in a fitting. Here is the muscular hypertrophy of the Wert.em ego; this � lo be the point departure in order to arrive aL the precision respQnse of the nerve which lea steadily and surely to the expcrienCl! of the BEING.

We goi�g to try now to put in relief several of the Master's words wluch most o the tune go unnoticed, to the great detriment of his pupils and ours.

�----

1 z. , DON'T 1 1 l

1 I I )

SQUEEZE, STRETCH '

The Master's most imporuint ·don't· is 'don't squeeze·. Of course, those who

don't understand English weU have a special problem. When the French hear the harsh cry of · Stretch ! ·, accompanied by an imperative gesture, they understand ·tend.re· (strain. tighten). Practically fainting from the effort of compression which makes them feel as if their knee-caps are going to burst before his satisfied smile comes and they hear, thank.fully, his·Enough·. it never occurs to'them that· ten drc · is not the right translation for ' stretch •. The work. of stretching is much more gentle and pervasive, and produces effects diametrically opposite to those of tightening and straining: an extension. a lengthening , an opening. Proper stretching can only be done on the axis. None of hL� pupils that I have seen is on the . axis. As no stret�hing can take place, the result is a compression, a clenching which produces tension all over. How many years and how many accidents before they finally understand ? Yet one sentence is repeated often during the classes, · Don't squeeze, stretch·. This should alert at least those who do speak English, But nobody understands. everybody squeezes, compresses, contracts, pulls, forces. Granted, the Master's voice is not one to inspire the idea of a curb. Still the sentence is there and its value is inestimable. Iyengar does go to the trouble or explaining, but his warnings go unheeded. In

answer to one of my letters about relaxation, he wrote (A32): · Tensions are not stnt· chaa. If the str _,tching is go�d. relaxation is b�und to ht complete. Half-hearted stretch gives hall

, h11� �lution . But his student s continue to squeeze and to strain, which creates tension, UlStead of letting the stretch play on each joint, creating freedom and har mony or movement: then the energy, Kundalini, could pass through them.

He_ exJ:>lained to me in 1959 : · Yoga is circulation : by stretching, blood arrives, the thick bl0� 13 dnv1n beck, the energy goes on to the nerves which are f,d. little by linle intuition is im �ring · bu! �o not try to _find it ·. (A 11 ). �hen he spoke or circulation, he meant that Kundah01, energy c1rculatmg, creating space between the joints, starting with the on es between each vertebra. The space thus created, and maintained through 0 u� n s�t v igil�ce. permits another circulation of energy: that of the spinal n d�0 "".m� up to 1� source. lhe brain, from the ' sacral pump··. and energizing nou_ ru� lhe spmal cord and the cen tral nervous system. This circulation can o nt y CX!St in a stretch, on the axis, of course.

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noturtllt · le Bdl//emtrll. N Perct-Chrii;1iacn5, Chin.>n

Paris IQ7Q

Jn hald.sana, before the discovery of the use of the blankets, M. as everybody else. used to squeeze her thyrolde, straining her neck, altering slightly her cervical cur vature : she damaged some of the nerve:s especially those of the ears, from wMch she Is sl(/1 suffering. WUh a proper height of blankets filled to her neck, all these Important drawbacks are eliminated; 'chin up · Iyengar says ! Here It can be done, tUJI before. The cer vical spine column, at 1�, free, give s freedom ro the thoracic and lumbar spinal column ; the back made erect by the work of the diaphragm, in active td<jdsana, returns to Its natural ciirvature. The difference in both positions Is note-,...,orthy ! The first posJtlon crushes one everywhere, the other Is in harmony with body, mind and soul.

If you need greater motivation to appreciate the pressing need to reform your practice, think of some of the common uses of the word' squeeze·: one squeezes a lemon to extract the juice; one squeezes oneself into a crowded bus at the rush hour ; one squeezes money out of someone by extortion ; at bridge one squeezes one's opponents by forcing them to discard good cards. Don't do this to your body! 81

3. ' DON'T STRAIN YOUR BRAIN '

Naturally, every excess of muscular tension will be accompanied by cerebral ten sion. Herc we come to one of the words we were just LaJking about, ·strain·. • Don't strain your b1aio ', he �ys, laying his hand on the nape of your neck to make it relax, ' if you strain, if you clench your brain, no right sensalions will be able to reach it and the mind will not be free ; it will not be able lO direct the right response. Don't tire the brain unnecessarily, let it be supple, compliant·.

StudenlS who refuse to see. the difference between • strain · and • stretch · are hiding behind the physical effort they think they've understood, which is easier than the subtle effort they should give, for a life-long penetration of the Master's synthesis to take place !

His recommendation to remove all tension and nol to create new strain is not to be apptied solely to the brain. This admonition came in 1964: • Take care. while teaching, not to st1ain your back. Whilu teaching you may not feel it ; later you may sutter · (F 16). 'Jhc wi.sdom in this letter proved prophetic. I wish other teachers would stop destroying their bodies. with heartfelt joy, great courage, and mindless surrender to 'God's will·! Will any of lhem undersland the �faster\ warnings I am trying to put into We.stem terms and experience?

As for their students. will lhcy heed lhis warning from a l 961 letter (C 17) � · Do the As.an&$ without fail but not aggressively ; get control on all. but without strain '. Remember that · aggressive· translates for Iyengar the Sanskrit hims.a, and holds more meaning than Westerners usually a.scribe LO the concept or aggression. We must not falter in our practice, but also not do injury to our bodies, 10 the temple of the spirit, this raw material we have bocn entrusted wilh and for which no spare parts are available.

M. ·s setu-bhanda when exhausted stretching of fwr spine, passively. wt.;hlh us Iye�ga,: m�de himself sure of the total out any tncl1natton to work on the part of her . brain So . w� cleaning ihe b_cdy,. which is rhe temple of the spiri �f: l . (f 93); a n sort �I •�ii w�s ma de without any risks, as for this temple no spare parts , have J...engconc e eived by Nature.

This idea of non-violencx:, of care for the ·temple· is clearly implicit in the text which continues:• Do your work well and feel moment to moment as though it� the service you are doing ,iowards lhe Lord. Do think of him. · I should have un derstood, then, that my body was an instrument of worship, lhat it behove me to cherish and to care for it, and that the life it lived was an act of worship in which I was lhe m irustcr, the officiant al the temple.

4. ' I DON'T WANT MOTION I WANT ACTION '

His students have all heard Iyengar utter this phrase. usually to their astonishment, afler he has just given them an order. Desperately exhausted and aching all over , they put off trying to understand until later.

What wisdom in this trenchant phrase, what a profound analysis of life 1here is! He is saying, 'I don't have any use for it, I want the synthesis of a right action in which each movement. each detail h as its own role and takes its own place· .

. Motion is agitation, noise. Action is a harmonious whole in which everythi�g is dissolved that isn't part of the whole. Iyengar specifies : · II you do not know the silence of the _bod y,_you do not know the silence of the mind. Action and silence must go to gether. Where the• e 1s action, there is silence, and where there is silence, th era is action•. (LlO ) . One mov ement is disordered. confused. Several movements can wreak anarchy ; :" st� ?f the right action there will be disorder, which cannot create inner silence. r this silence IS created, it's bec.i.use the action is wor n ki g upon the pupil from top to rttom. 1� the _pu pi_! is �orking with his "':'hole bein �. he is in profou.nd silence. an everything 1n him 1s · transformed - his very skin becomes radiant. Once d gre fro� thi s experience. even his voice ha� changed; it has deepened and is to the silence he h as just tasled. �� f � �� e pupils had sounded the depths of the silence into which the right action e them, they would go to Poona asking for it. It is in lhis most captivating •�ilenCl.' t h at the Being engulfs the true seeker.

A synthesis was made.- af/er many yenrs nf work, In spile of the bob>• who was to be born less than one mon1h afler (and In due time!) G. achieves wflho111 nny dffllcultfes a �·ery nice Ek.a Pdda Rdjakapotdsana.

First of all, acllve tdf{dsana frees ' the baby head 'from 1he mother's ribs. and G. Immediately can breath much betrer : the rhytlimlcal stretching of the spine gen tly occurs In perfect comfort. Whlle the foot is held by the hands, l check to see If the slrctching proceeds harmoniously.

My leg5, /lute ty liu/e, release G. 's fool, but l go on making sure that, In her en· thusiasm, she doesn't forget the contlnual decompression of the spine.

At la.st, the · unison ' (P 92) is oblafned; her aflention is very deep and peaceful, so ! leave her 10 work alone and improve this bcauriful dsana. 85

5. ' DON'T BEND · CHEST FORWARD '

Thls key sentence was heard in my ti · �or all �he p�t�re:s we tend to c all· forward bends', wh ether standing or s1��mg. Yet bend is Just what he says we should not do!

muscles along the backs · It's easy·, answers the Master, whose quadriceps (lhe . This means that once forward· d lhe of the thighs) long ago ceased to suffer, 'chesdt of the right action, you exten instea if, But . work must will you again, the diaphragm then , thorax ' means the entire front of the chest, forgetting thal • chest thorac . At this moment, if the bra verte ic bend your back, probably around the 7lh · Don't bend ·, or· don'\ strain your back·, Master's eye is on you, you should hear , the in Janushirshdsana : on the floor er J. shows the sol ution to the same ha11dlcap o an s hu v and t body, the of part folds of her lights i ndicate a bending of the front all at lelism . srre/Chlng of the back but no paral

. . a,ds. (nor y e t backwards) ; its curIn fact, lhe back is not meant to bend forw vatures are meant to be conserved in all lheir in\cgnty. So.how do we manage• for .,......,_,a or Uttanasana? instance' in Paschimot'�"��...

Poona /959: the folds · registered on N. 's stomach clearly sho w ' soma • the ar 11 1. n �er n 1�1; front and the back, 1he parallel Slrelching of boiJ, an;erio:a,; ;;; r wc;e rhe spine doesn ·, exist. The very 1o :r;o _sf s �' next year, terrible pains in the , eg1�� ot �ed ? ut this non ethical pracrice. Compare tlwt wlth the parallel srretch.mg O; t e uru s stomach. Such a nice stretchlng l.s only possible, for u.s st(jJ eo ?Y n t be dlng down so far : giving priority 10 the rhythmical stretching and tc1 g I� e P Feasur� o f touching the knees wi th �n a� fron t stretchmg (front bending); one can the head. • The problem is ihe s make lnlercstlng comparlson· anot�r P hoto take� lire same year with the _ Masrer, in faschlmotdndsana (.rhis photo 15 In , Un mysllque l11ndou ivre de Dicu ·, between p. 96-97).

�r�

f ess and joint damages, stomach and 10 her stifn Once perched on a height filled d; tht' anent ion can be directed to the syn. back can be harmonio usly srretche which contribute 10 the posture action. enls chroni50tion of all of the e/e,n

the warnings he gives, a real foundation will be in of · lf we are willing to hear right action and transforming us bit by bit. How many stalled in us. creating thenot hear ? us have ears, and do 87

which allows the mind to fall asleep I { /uJ • the filled s,eat Isn't a lazy solution The · pt e seat, G. squeezes her back and priat appro her �hlle she Ls erched on part of the 1horaclc vertebrae, leaving· e;:�� klel jwl In a �eak spor, In 1he high ed. the lumbar region unstre1ch

6. ' DON'T FORCE ; GO DEEP INSIDE '

%��

• More. more, more ... ! · You are worn out. sparing no pains. sweating, panting, near tears, close to exhaustion. You were just saved from a strained muscle by the last· Enough ! ·• yet you persist, full of conridence and self-abnegation, shedding all notions of self-protection and giving yourself completely to him, when suddenly, like a bucket of ice-water thrown over your ardour, comes his reprimand. • Don't force ; go deep inside I '

•

What can this mean? You hardly have lime to con line the sentence to memory before another pose is sr.a.rLed, and the imperious voice commands, • Harder, har der, further ... · The golden key is there, in the · deep inside ·. There is the solution, without forcing on fragile joints or stiff muscles. On the surface are the details. the disordered and anarchic movements. one's attention scattered over all the points he is pointing out. Deep inside. the attention is diffused throughout, yet much more intense than that which wa� flitting about right and left fhecking everything. Deep inside is the central action, that of· active w.dasana· in all the postures : the whole spine must be given to the unique work of the diaphragm, which Iyengar calls the · muscles anterior to the spine ·. On the surface there are only the gross muscles posterior to the spine. Deep inside is the trne road tow8Jds Reality. from the subtle to the Supreme. This is where the Master would like to lead us. If only we understood the· mystical jargon·. indiscernible to all those who live on the surface of duality. in full relativity ! One feels that. for him, each posture is the road to meditation, and if he insists so, it's to hasten his pupils'unde rstanding .. to make them grasp what he wants them lo see.

Forcing not only creates rigidity, hence a lack of malleability, but also, as he says, ' the balance of the mind is rocked ii there is lorct · (P98). All adherents of • true Iyengar yoga • who are forcing their joints and muscles to the point of in nammation and strain. should let themselves be moved by reflecting on these sayings. Yoga is unfolded and opens the follower to its action. • I lay the corner-stone;· said Iyengar once,' true yoga startS afterwards·. Aller, that is. one has understood. finally. to go deep inside and not to force. Forcing keeps one on the surface of oneself: only the union of sukha and shtira allows one to go deeper into the silence at the he.art of the BEING. Sukha and shtira are exactly op posed to forcing, which immediately creates dukJta (discomfort) and a.�rhira (trembling, unstable. impermanent, inconsta..nt). 88

, from che sacrum thmlcal stretching of the whole spine By conce� ':at/on on the rh far a.� previously, as l the hands can no longer go bone to /rl(; very sea I of lh: skul is berter for the t resul The ! mind r neve ' . but less.. and the thorax seems to Iean ted 11nlty ls striking. whole being ; :he newly crea

7. ' DON'T TWIST , IT SHOULD PASS '

they pop a vertebra as a result of peqx:trating this violence upon their bodies, but then the other side will be blockod. Then lhey push and twist still more to over come the difficulty and dominate the pa;e, as if they are lh!.nk.ing, · It's eithe1 my body or my brain ; which will win 7 • Hit by bit, evcrythmg is jammed and deep tensions set in, creating aJI .sorts of compensations. A poor old friend, an old student, bandy-legged and aged by suffering and desperation, flops in front of me : ' I don't understand it, I do everything Iyengar says, I work steadily in spite of inflammations, and everything goes from bad to worse!·

• It sh�ld pas.s ' this is the sentence students returning from Poona o·ing m · my fiace, thin.king I don't know how lo do twists. Natu:aJly, I don't go about them e � �e way as they imagine Iyengar does. _ many � es I have heard him say, Don t force·. or· let it do it by itself'. They So _ all want to iorce and make it pass · Th push and puU , and n\J\ ey �·h·mg passes, unJess

Very calmly, for I have a presentiment of the root of the trouble, 1 say,' Show me what is wrong •. And the poor twisted b<xly twists itself even more, tensing in a superhuman effort against nature, as my friend says, • See, Iyengar says it should pass here, and I can't do it ! · Exactly what I expected 'Tell me again what Iyengar says?' • He says it should pass here '. ' Of course, " it " should pass. But it's not up to you lo pass it, nor to make it pas.s. The more you force, the less .. it" will pass. "It" will pass, and pass alone, if you have laid the groundwork for the action. Forgive me for saying this, but you are tiring yourself for nothing. If you surrender your weight just at the right place for Gravity to do its job, if you distribute weights and volumes according to the hints Nature would give you i f you bothered to lis1en to her, parallel Csama) on each side of the median line, if you relax your Lrapezius muscles, if you relinquish the active effort to the diaphragm and its team, then " it " will pass by itself, har moniously, without tiring you; and without forang. you will be brought progressively to an intensity of yoga you are ignorant of. ' Jyengar's " it should pass " is not at all what you are doing, nor what is hap pening to you ! You want to "make it pass". If you do just what is necessary, " it •· will pass by ilself. Iyengar is making a concession to stiff Western bodies in letting them wait several yeors before linking handl> in back, so that the joints can perceive the state of deep relll.l(ation (surrendering) i.n y.hich they must remain during the pose. That's all, a small concession compared to the damages you have inflicted on your poor body, lhis "temple of the spirit ... as Iyengar calls it'. Then the old friend, nonplussed, tries to understand: · But that's not how he makes me work ! •

f qngar doesn't P J:Sh, only he shows the corre ct spot w hich woul d · pass • by /!self. if � 1• e pupil_ , �/�� tn the pf'eclsely correct posltion,, acl/ve tdddsana Js given lhe � _ mum po_ss1b!l1ty to act. When one takes the � position, in comp/ere relaxarion yengar requires), lhe pose seems to be a rwistin g : al the very momenr of acting af ter any lens/on Is removed, the acrivlry Is, one more rime, a rhythmical strerching.

{as

• Maybe, I don't know, but everything I have said is in his book and in Sparks of Divinity. I haven't invented a thing. Ever since I have worked like lhis, everything

he says should happen, does happen. I think he does teach like this, but that the ap proach to understanding is easier for Westerners from some other point. Try it again and let me know hbw it works·.

p es b� Ilse( . f/.. under the lnrelligenr . action of rhe diaphragm and the t horax in 115 Iotaar tty, �a�es. by itself. its own place on the median fine· by a �lay of weighr and cou111er-we1g111. 'fl'

8. ' DON'T CLENCH YOUR BRAIN, AS YOU CLENCH YOUR TEETH '

I I 1

This sentence (X86) is very difficult to understand if one has not yet felt the relaxation of the brain, completely at case and deeply receptive, when finally one no longer compresses the skull.

]

This compression has two possible origins : on the one hand, the hair and the skin of the head and face. and on the other, the neck muscles right at the base of the skull. As long as the slightest tension exists in the skin or in the muscles, the brain is not free and one does not have a sensation of peace inside the skull. When the facial skin relaxes. one feels something curious. as if the bones were finally free to spread out! This feeling is agreeable, but il's not all. Seeking the upright balance (aplomb) makes one feel something that can only be described as the absence of sensation in the area of the upper cervi� vertebrae, and a vacuum inside the skull : the result is o. silence inside the brain. In this state, the vibrations are finer, sounds are purer. colours more intense. Finally replaced in plumb, the brain swts to live again a� if awakened from a long hibernation. Having once felt this sensation in passive tadaso.na, then more intensely in active tadasana, one has only to transfer it to all the other postures, This demands a great deal of' refining· work. It is the direction lyengar has indicated: · Passive neck goes with activity and right action · (X258). He follows with, · learn to find pmivity in activity · (X259). He also said, · Do not contract your brain when you stretch your body · (X 198), and : • An active brain is an aggressive brain. Do not clench your brain, u you clench your teeth. Learn to keep the brain receptive while using it · (X86).

This phot o foUows the one of 1he · do1s ·: after creating the general re/axalion of the whole pose 'jl,•hlch allow s · the s1,etchin g of the bones ', the Master made N. gently a ;:: slowly elonga1e the back of the knees (bul not tiKhten the legs!) without �h u; g�ng 1� balance of the posture. Finafly, he makes sure that the neck is relaxed, ltow,ng a complete relaxation of the brain. 92

The Master is clearly opposing 'active brain·, that is, one which emits con stantly, to· pas.sive brain·, one which is silent, reccpUve, perceptive. For Iyengar, •aggressive· is opposed to· receptive·. Therefore, if the brain is to stay relaxed to fulftll iL,; role as receptor (which goes with manas), it is imperative that the skull be given maximum comfort in the best possible position. Th.e only way to achieve this is through the profound relaxation, on the one hand, of the skin of the whole head, and on the other. of the muscles of hie neck, especially the nape. This relaxation must go deeper than you can even imagine. down to the tiniest tendon touching the' skin· of the.bone. Only the hand of an experienced teacher, who has acquired a feel for it over the years. C3J1 teach all the ncd<s he ha.� been entrusted with to relax in this way. 93

9. ' DON'T DO CHRONOLOGICAL TIMING WITHOUT ACTING PSYCHOLOGICALLY· THE BRAIN MUST WORK I

Greek) is wor thless in itself; the whole being must participate and profit from th time devoted to the practice: ' Profound observation is all points working together · (X52 !1ere again is manas : the .brain must also work. He shows us how to aclu�ve tlus Has sach pan of me done my job correctly ? · (XSO). He returns, again and agam, to th idea o( manas, as if to ensure that we no longer work stupidly: · The brain must st the movement· (X64). Thus' yoga is a physiological exercisa which should be converted into psychological action (P57). Through yoga, the body regains its dignity, and re:;tores the being to i rightful place in the c.osm.ic order, thanks to manas. Manas destroys the invadi.r. intellect and develops the intel ligence. Iyengar explains this very well {Q 12) i response to a question about the difference between intellect and intelligenc likening these to· a ' ve rtical Wcstern brain · and a · horizontal Indian brain respectively.

Don't practise for an hour. or for any length of time, by your watch. Lose the notion of time, and immerse yourself, body and soul, in your work. This is an ex tremely important notion. So many students say, ' I should be making progress, l do" my yoga " an hour a day·. Ye.s, but they are doing it stupidly; like well-behaved children they do what they have been told to do, without letting their commo n sense guide them. Corn n;ion sense, for the most part, has been eradicated by civilization, yet they might be guided by their bodies, if manns could play its part, but for the fact that they can not perceive its sensations · because their pra.ctice consists of • what t hey have to do·. r once knew a fine man, with a good head for business, who decided to do acer tain number of sun-salutes ea.ch morning. In order not to lo.5e count, he used a number of matches equal to the number of sun salutes he wanted to do. In this way hi.s mind was free to turn over the important aspects of lus day's work to come. He made a little pile of matches and kept track of his practice by moving one over after each sun-salute. When hi.s pile was used up, · his ' yoga was done, and he Jen for the office al peace with himself and the world. Th.is is an extravagant ex.ample of 'chronological timing·, the time one regretfully devotes to an unin teresting chore. When this man decided one day to d rop ' yoga ', having made no progress, little did he know that yoga, for him, was the office: that was what cap tivated hlm and absorbed all his energy ! I know people who suddenly decide, one morning, to do I 00 backbends at a go, without bringing a spark of intelligence to their work, simply to develop their en durance. Fine - I have nothing against this, but it's not yoga. I know othe� who do 'their hour' of yoga every mqrning, following a fixed programme, without con sidering whether certain postures would be better for them on a certain day . l know still others who practically kill them�elves to finish in half an hour a programme wluch ought to take them an hour to do intellige ntly. Surely Iyengar is revolting against all these tendencies, all these examples 01 a la.ck of common sense, when he says that practising according to time (chron()s in 94

1 o. , DON'T TEACH YOU DON'T WHAT

A last warning: in order to teach well, one must not only have achieved n syn thesis. but also be able to reproduce in oneself the error commiited by the �tudent. Then perhaps he wiU see the error, feel its elTect. and learn to operate the subtle workings of his body he has no idea of yet and is not using constructively, ' Cra&ta the pupil's mistakes in your own body and then do the pose to oet the feeling of the wrong movement·, said the Master (X 347). Only then will the right movement be mnde possible. and it can participate in the synthesis which is action, the right action leading to truth. Only reality can lead to Reality. And reality can only be reached through a perfect foundation.

KNOW'

There is deep wisdom in this advice. But il is hard to follow : we all think we know something. and that we have mastered it after a few sessions or a month of work in Poona. How many people teach. calling themselves ' Iyengar students·. who have understood not a whit of his synthesis? I know one who speaks no English: he studied in Poona for two weeks and then set himself up in France under the Master's name. In answer to our remonstrations, he said simply that even after a single le�on one could call oneself lyengar's student ! And yet the Master warns imprudent students not to teach what they don 'l know: ' Before interpreting and experiencing on your pupils, learn and interpret on your own body· (Q9). There would be less harm done to students· bodies if their teachers stopped teaching the postures that still hurt their own bodies. As long as a leacher has not resolved a problem on his own body, that posture should never appear in the Jes.son ! Also, the teacher's body is never quite lhe same. and won't have the same reactions, as the students ' booies. The risks are great that the students will ·inherit· the problem before they are advanced enough to recognize it. Iyengar specifies : ' Do not teach until you have anained maturity or you will not be abla. to bear the con sequences· (Xl5I). ·Maturity· means, above alt, having drawn a synthesis. How many of his �tudents could really teach, then ? One or two, maybe three? Who knows. probably not more than that.

The Master also said, · It is bener to train one pupil honestly, than to train thousands·

(X346) . This notion is what proved the ancient master's worth. But reme mber that

he,� also told us that in our time, gurus were going in search of pupils. and that this ts why their teaching has Jost its fragrance: how can one honestly teach twenty stude nts at a time. unless several tea chers work together? How can one truly make more than five or six students progress at the same time. making each one feel in his bones what he should taste. and savour what he has tasted? When I orked with Iyengar, there were only two or throe pupils. yet it took me much � ime and many false starts to arrive at the deep synthesis. shou ld all �oga teachers give up their work? Yes, if it is only a means to earn . a 1� ng. l mmed r�vt 1ate ly, if that is all it is. No, if they are constantly able to make p gress. dee�n their understanding, and bring into question themselves, what the �e t eaching, and how they are teaching it. For, as Iyengar says, ' The pupil eaches the master. Looking at the pupil guides the master· (XJSI).

a1J

11. ' DON'T BE CONTENTED PURGE THE SELF '

If one studies the eight limbs of yoga, one discovers lhal one of the principal vir tues for cultivation mentioned by PaLaiijAli (11 32) is santosha, contentment. Twice in Sparks of Divinity, Iyengar says, · Oo not be contented'. H owever, in the early yean of his teaching, he wrote me, 'I do my best and am contented with it. • We can understand· content' in two ways, almost opposite in meaning. One in dicates a Lack of progress : l am content with I.he lilt.le I have ; the other indicates peace of mind : I run contented, sure that I have done my best. It is as bad to forge ahead out of dissatisfaction and insatiable thirst for progress, only to break oneself, as it is to remain in mediocrity, .satisfied with minimal progress : Iyengar qualifies this a.s ' unmoral ·. His saying FI O specifies that to be contcnl.ed with the literal application of his instructions is stupid ; they are meant to be la.ken for general indications. Perfection requires infinite precision. By · purge · he means a constant n:newaJ of effort, a perpetual striving for improvement, a purification ; everything contrary lo lhe idea of being sal.isficd with what one has acquired. Being contented with lhe known will never open the way to the unknown.

12. ' DON'T DISCUSS WITH YOUR PUPILS DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME'

ers who Here is a saying lit to shciFk more than one of our students, little Western masters! their with like to think they are on an equal footing b�ars n This supposed equality is a lofty idea, an int_ellectual utopi_a which m hun� mother its to al resemblance to the natural state of things. Is a kitten eq� I as mother and ting? As two living beings, they are botn wonderful ammals, bu.When he knows ca!. the from learn to son. they are not equal : the kitten has mucn was her son. he that ber remem longer no will she does, she as well as hunt to how ·school· run by If J wanted to learn how to play hopscotch, I would �o to lhcme. If I wanted to e£i d1r tney as jump and Mars, ;C1de Champ the little girls in the .. cat's cradle ', 1 would find someone a of s learn to make the intricate string design else to be my teacher.

Titis research, this activity, must be based in passivity, in peace and harmony • Everybody should live quietly, whether his experiences m happy or $lid, whether they are sue cams or failures. That is contentment · (B6). There always seem to be two oomplementary proverbs for the same idea, and one understands better if one knows the other. One might say the same about gurus. To live in harmony, Lo keep one's balance, one has lo hold fast to two precepts, one called satisfaction and I.he other, dissatisfaction. Contentment and discontentment make a dvandva at the heart of which a spark is set afire, and the light grows, shines, and spreads its rays over all who oome near this new source of clarity. lyengar's many sayings on the body sometimes seem oontrad.ictory. Here he advises us not to pay attention to its complaints,· because it is lazy·. and there he recommends listening to the inner voice of· common sense·. • the intalligenea of tha hean ·, lhe wisdom of the animal harmoniously balanced in the Cosmos. It is up to l.:S to synthesize these two extremes. Then and only then, a new source of pure water will burst forU1, sparkling with life and joy, to give Life to all who come to drink. • cf; :

tn1Jln axent d'wtltef by the :.amc author

10 discern the difference, berween rh.e real ques1/ons which rhe I t It IS · mos1 diffici,lt Westerners argumenta 1·1venes.s wIt·,ch must be cut wer ans ' and the Ma.st er h a.s IO · t er, a1 a bar, ,n -·' s,s . . •s morher a,w ,en.eva. ans'l'.>ers N · G qwc • . kl, y. Here, "· 1 /97/ . /;"'Tigar

animal ethics. dating from an era before socie ty's m oral If we were to relearn an� dog� would ?e our ma5ters. Imagine a dog's reaction. C?ns, p1g ows, code, sparr impolite to s�1ff another dog! If he could speak my were I to tell him 1t_ was ru �s sh oulders in th� face of such incomprehension. ex la nguage. he �?u ld sh g mdecent than asking someone for his identity card. more no 1t s plainin g that A new s tudent arrives with his head stuffed full of preconceived n otions that Iyengar call�' f'.ame �f mind·. He.can onl� think in his own ter ms. Yet the reason for his co mt.ng IS to dissolve these frames . He argues out of fear, afraid to let go of the familiar notior1S of duality with which we all live. We are consumed by an ideal, yet dying of fear when we have to let go of our primitive syntheses to atlain more reft.ned conceptions. What good is arguing? All discussion is in vain since il,; basis, the supposed equality of pupil and mast.er with respect to t he art to' be tran smitted, is false. To answer a question is the responsibility of the master toward5 the pupil desiring clarification. But to argue as equals is a waste of time and energy which can only be harmful to both. How Westerners like to play this game. and how rar e are those who are ready to listen! Who among lyengar's students hasn't heard his sharp · Oon't argue with m1 I'? In 1959 he cut short my tendency to ar gue, sa ying, • Go practise what J sav and teU � about i� tomorrow._· The next day he could easily see that the d ifliculty had been rn my mmd, and whisk me back on the right track with a nick of the wrist. �notber year_ he answere�. 'I �on't argue with my wife : even less with you ! • Uttle by !•ttle '. the pupil IS p�t back tn htS place, a small. humble place where yoga can work IJ1 him through his master and transform him beyond his wildest dreams. Th� hardest things for the mast.er are to tell the di/Terence betwen the true question and the germ of an argument. nnd then to cut the latter short painlessly. These poor Western students are so used to wasting their time with worthless words, that flll them up and deaden them!

13. ' DON'T CHEAT ME ...

How could the master's sense of humor be better emphazised than by trying to make clearer this phrase that all of us heard, put into that form or another ? He is asking something which seems impossible to do, the pupil thinks about and gives a wholly different answer from what Mr. Iyengar was expecting. The Master asks again for the sam e synthesis of action ... and the pupil, tired, skips the effo rt : · don't try to escape '. rues the Master. The pupil. feeling unmasked, seeks again, but more as if looking for a• parking place· than trying his ut most. Straight faced- wag, Mr. Iyengar would then exclaim : 'don't che81 me... if you cheat me you cheat yourself ' .••

'don't search an escape!' - If a ,-.): balance is held by the action of the muscles, it's a physical ac- :_. ,, tion... you merge yourself by '. and by in ii, it's a total l.;.. psychosomatic acti�n whiclt �akes yo� little by 111 tie to the ;�_;;/. Beyond : (from M 36) , • left : G. holds her balance : the pose is false, and exagerared _ 1enst0ns In the back and legs , .'. · . ri:-. ;.,· ..�').;' .. ,;..�. can be percerved. :-:,::�':' ,, :··:;; .

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:;f;\:· ::�;/fr��':;/�;�� Vi-\,\. ,·\) !/\}ii( . :::,·· J in a deep relaxation, a non- 1--1, aggression againsl Gravity, a 1 _I perfect harmony: the Unity of'.. the whole being set up again by l itself. and. by and by introduces the ;, 10 • imperceptibly • it BEING. · Think light . (L 12).

I 100

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101

• _When trying to cheat, the pupil is wronging but himself. Through the way he �� prepar? �If for an asana, he is showing the Master his approach's in s1p1�ty or 1nte_ll.Slty _(P89), Mr. Iyengar specifies : 'you cannot cheat ma· which is precisely explained ui the logion X 33 7 as it came in from the USA while I was oollecting the Master's • sayings ·. The Master is not cheated ... even when he would, once in a while, pretend to close his_ .eyes. Don't let y<:>urself be iaken in, he is far more intelligent than yourself (Pl l 7); 1f he would real12.e that you don't really want to be trained, he would, then, let you cheat as much as you like. . Let'� never . forget ,the logion X 339, as it comes out directly from orient.al wisdom s expenence : Casual people should be treated casually. Dedicated ones treat with dedication •.

CONCLUSION

As I started out by saying, some lyengar's students spend their time _tak.!ng notes. did too. But later, instead of altcmptmg to synthesize all the delal. ls into a_ � monious, balanced whole, they rack their brains to maintain a servile subm1SS to minutiae. In the begirtning they are fascinated by the Master's ery-orts to he. them see that Yoga is union, but later they are blinded by the profusion of detail They no longer see the road as a whole, but pause to consider each flower and pebble. Thus they miss the gaping hole, in which sooner or later they all, due their failure lo synthesize. Some of these come lo the Institul B. K.S. Iyengar de Paris, limping and trying hide it out of love for the Master. They are infuriated lo see that I am not a fanar for detail. Patiently, we try to make them foel the synthesis. Asto�ished, t�ey . each detail assume its place, as the inflammations die away and thetr enthusiasm reborn. A feeling of lightness and union is born. Then I have them read this r,nssage from the Master's book Faulty practice causes discomfort and uneasiness within a few days. This is sufficient to show that one is going wrong (... ) The right method of doing a.sanas brings lightness and an exhilarating feeling in the body as well as in the mind and a feeling of oneness of body, mind and soul.• Pa.in should draw the loyal pupil out of his state of stupid adoration and le him along the road of intellige nce tha_l the Master h � cleared for him. lf this littl_e book, fruit of my own stupid adoration and the pains and . irreparable damage . caused, can help others to find the true way, then all the trials suffered along th� road to the realization of the Being will not have been in vain. With this hope my heart I end this day.

May I. I 979

Light 102

Yoga. op. CJL P:in II. llints .ir>:J Cau11ons for Lhe 103