YOGA TECH
FROM DVDS TO FACETIME, HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN DEEPEN PRACTICE
By Heather Haxo Phillips
I
n today’s parlance, we would call our Guruji an “early adopter”—a person who starts using a technology as soon as it becomes available. When he was a teenager, Guruji was willing to use any medium to inspire others to practice yoga. Imagine the year 1938: The first commercial films made in India were gaining popularity, but few people had cameras of their own. Yet there was Guruji, participating in the first known yoga demonstration ever to be captured on film.
Decades later, when TVs appeared in most households, he was on every show that invited him, demystifying the practice, making it both accessible and exciting to viewers so they would take up a practice of their own. Today, technology plays an equally important part in spreading the practice of yoga. So much has changed since the days when Guruji was the only Iyengar teaching yoga. We now have access to his family, to senior teachers in India, and to thousands of other Certified Iyengar Yoga Teachers (CIYTs) worldwide. But also, anyone who has access to an internet connection can create their own deeply personal and personalized practice. That is not to say that the direct guru-sisya relationship is not tremendously important. The practice has to be handed down in person from teacher to student, with the right information given at the right time to progress in the practice. Yet technology today is so varied, so vast, that it creates incredible opportunities to propel us in valuable ways. My first direct experience with technology in yoga was around the year 2000. I had been going to classes for several years, no longer a complete novice but completely dependent on my teacher for guidance. I was offered an opportunity of a lifetime— to move to Beirut to start a nonprofit organization. My one hesitation about moving across the world was leaving my yoga classes. How would I survive without my teacher’s guidance? Unsure of what to do on my own, I slipped an AM/PM yoga DVD featuring Patricia Walden into my suitcase. I decided to let Patricia be my guide! Having no home practice whatsoever, I completely relied on Patricia every day for the months I lived in Beirut. Each evening, I pulled out my very heavy laptop and let Patricia direct me as the sun set over the Mediterranean. Yoga Samachar Fall 2017 / Winter 2018
In the weeks and months after each workshop, I return to the audios again and again. Those months in Beirut with Patricia by my side were deeply transformative. I learned that I could practice on my own. I went from doing yoga twice a week to doing yoga every day. I saw how much my body and mind could transform with a daily practice. Stateside, my yoga life continued with technology firmly in it. I was still a novice, but somehow, I got talked into teaching yoga (I guess the daily practice had taken hold in my body, and I showed some tiny amount of promise). Eventually I became certified and continued my studies, listening to audio classes from my trips to Pune, taking careful notes, and bringing what I could into my own teaching. And then when I was preparing for my Intermediate Junior II assessment, I got stuck. Where could I learn these Junior II poses? I wasn’t learning them in class. Luckily, I discovered the website iHanuman and realized I could download audio classes with John Schumacher. Over several years of studying for the assessment, I downloaded dozens of asana and pranayama classes with John. I felt like I got to know everyone in class—including his students and assistants. I felt hot even in January, because John’s class that day had been recorded in August when it was sweltering. I tried out the knee pain variations even when my knee was fine. I groaned at certain poses, along with the rest of the class. In some ways, it was a surreal experience. I studied “with” John as often as I studied with my local teacher. I took all 11
