Lifelong Practice DAVID GOLDBLATT: HAVE FAITH IN THE PROCESS BY ROSE GOLDBLATT
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y father began his practice of Iyengar Yoga in 1972 and started teaching in 1976. Since childhood I have watched him maintain a consistent practice. In fact, he became my first yoga teacher and his devotion has inspired my own practice and ultimately my teaching as well. I was honored when Yoga Samachar asked me to interview him for the Lifelong Practice column.
Rose Goldblatt: How long have you been practicing yoga? David Goldblatt: I started my yoga practice in the fall of 1972 and have maintained a regular and consistent practice since then. RG: When and how did you discover Iyengar Yoga? DG: I had just begun a training in psychotherapy in London, and many of the people in my group were studying yoga with Dona Holleman, who had trained with B.K.S. Iyengar. My supervisor encouraged me to start yoga, and I began with one of Dona’s students because Dona had recently left England for Italy. My first class was an Iyengar Yoga class. There were some other teachers while I lived in England, and they were all Iyengar Yoga teachers. When I came back to the states, all the workshops and classes I attended were taught by teachers who had trained with the Iyengars. RG: Were you drawn to yoga for physical or spiritual reasons? DG: I had no idea what yoga was before my first class. I was always a spiritual person seeking a path that worked for me and probably thought for those reasons that yoga was something I should try. What drew me back was the physical side because I saw the potential to develop strength and flexibility, and I loved the feeling of embodiment, the way yoga can allow you to feel at one with your body. It was much later that yoga became a spiritual practice for me. RG: Did asana come easily for you, and were you flexible when you started? DG: Asana did not come easily for me at all. I was the most inflexible person I’ve ever met. I had some strength but lacked the ability to extend or flex much in any direction. Since I was committed and practiced, eventually this changed and continues to change. Though I have made enormous strides, some things are still very difficult. Of course, we all know that having the picture-perfect asana is not what yoga is about. Now at 76, an aging body presents new challenges with strength and flexibility. The beauty of Iyengar Yoga is how correct alignment and use of props, for example, teaches one
Yoga Samachar Spring | Summer 2019
how to work safely and make progress where possible. Even with limitations, there is always something to do. RG: As long as I can remember, you have been a very disciplined person, practicing yoga as well as your trumpet for hours every single day. Have you always been so disciplined? DG: I have always been somewhat of a disciplined person because I know that without practice, progress cannot be made; anyone who plays a musical instrument knows this. Really, this all stems from love of what one is doing. Not only love of music but gardening as well, for example—because as you know, I grow our yearly supply of vegetables, and without discipline, the results will not come. Somehow with yoga, it was different because yoga gave me the gift of a greater discipline, which spilled over to other aspects of my life. In other words, with yoga, I developed a level of discipline I never had before. Maybe because I had to work so hard, and without that hard work, there could not be progress. There is an overflow into other aspects of life, not only discipline, that comes with yoga practice. We start to transform as a result of our practice, which seeps into all aspects of our body, emotions, mind, and spirit. RG: Do you have a favorite memory from the early days of the Iyengars or of being in India? DG: At the 1987 convention in Cambridge, I had two memorable encounters with Mr. Iyengar when he helped me with Virabhadrasana I and another time when he watched me adjust someone in Parivrtta Trikonasana. Both times, he was supportive and encouraging, and I cherish those memories. I was only ever able to go to India once, and in 2013, I visited Pune and Bellur. I was deeply touched by what was happening in Bellur with the school and hospital and became aware of the tremendous and extensive charity work accomplished and ongoing by the Iyengar Trust. RG: You have studied with many teachers. Are there particular teachers who have especially influenced your practice?
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