i have never had a grand plan for my life
and when i was 15 i began to realise that all was not as i had been led to believe
not least as to where meaning and happiness are to be found
and so at 16 i abandoned a promising academic career
and began to pursue independent consciousness studies
by way of psychedelics, yoga and meditation
supplemented by reading
eastern and western esoteric and spiritual literature
by the time i was 18 i had confirmed the claims
i found in the upanishads, dharmapadha, tao te ching
and the writings of Alan Watts and mystical poets
by the time i was 20 i had formulated a fantasy that one day
i would live in a tipi, teach yoga for a living and grow my own vegetables
at the time a few pioneers were living in tipis
many people were growing their own vegetables
but no-one, at least in UK, was living from teaching yoga
40 years on i have lived in my tipi
i have never grown my own vegetables
and i have been living from teaching yoga for almost 50 years
i had discovered yoga in 1973
when stumbling upon my Uncle
an Anglican Minister
for whom i had both a deep respect and affection
praying in tree pose wearing only boxer shorts
the potent currents of peace and reverence emanating from him
were unlike anything i had experienced before
excpet while under the influence of mescaline
and certainly not when he was in his robes or pulpit
and i knew that whatever it was that was generating those qualities
i wanted it to generate them in me
and so i began a daily practice
supported mainly by the books of
Andre Van Lysebeth
when i began to teach
my practice had become based on the Iyengar Method
and i decided that i would never demonstrate postures
as i did not want to intimidate my students with my prowess
and thereby support any inclination they might have to put me up on a pedestal
and so to disempower themselves
i have never identified myself as a yoga teacher
neither in my own mind
(i see myself as an undergraduate research scientist doubling as an artist)
nor in the way that i relate to other human beings
which means that i never initiate talk about yoga in social situations
nor place myself in relation to friends and acquaintances
as if i have some subtle and meaningful insight into human nature
(which it seems i do)
i suspect that my father’s intellectually bullying relationship to my mother
may have some bearing on this tendency of mine
to be hyper sensitive to the perilous intricacies of charismatic imposition
when functioning through intellectual and verbal acuity
and the dangers of authoritative power dynamics
being unable to accept the authority that BKS Iynegar seemed to demand
of his teachers my experience in zen inspired me to go my own way
but not without help from ashtanga vinyasa yoga
although not from any particular teacher of that method
nevertheless i have derived deep benefit
from the experience of a number of yoga teachers
first being Pat Hudson
one of the first of mr. Iyengar’s uk alumni
who introduced me to his method in a very open and generous way
then Clive Sherdian who kindly pointed out that
yoga posture practices are by nature tantric practices
this insight not only allowed me to relax about the presence of sexual energy
in my practice and my classes
but underpins my ability to recognise the dangers
of transcendental somatophobia expressing itself on a yoga mat
and then BNS Iyengar
who made it clear that the Practice Formats of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
were rather a kind of training format
in saying to me laughingly one day
“ah, first you learn the alphabet, then you write your own poetry”
and finally a subtle tip from Shandor Remete
who kept sarcastically repeating “so-called mulabandha”
whenever anyone was talking about ashtanag vinyasa practice
which encouraged me to challenge what i had been told about the bandhas
perhaps even more telling, though, is the help i received from
an astrologer at a friend’s birthday party
who asked me which siddhis i was pursuing
in instantly recognising that i was pursuing
the coarse siddhis of strength, flexibility and structural perfection
i realised that what i should be most interested in is
sensitivity
which gift, in effect, has led to
the Dynamic Yoga Training Method
which was incubated in the ground breaking classes
of the Life Centre in Notting Hill London
where i was trying to teach the Ashtanga Vinyasa Series
at the same time as Sting and Madonna were learning them
in trying to teach the Primary Series to students
who did not have a daily self practice
it was clear that the method desperately needed modification
not least in its teaching
if people were to avoid hurting themselves
while genuinely transforming their bodies and minds
in a harmonious and meaningful rather than simply self satisfying way
and so 25 years on from there
i was teaching The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
which for all that time has been exploring the questions
(and finding their answers)
that only now are beginning to surface into popular yoga culture
i.e.
how to make yoga practice safe from psychological and ideological aggression
and
how to keep contemporary yoga free from avoidable power dynamics
and
how to rescue ‘yoga philosophy’ from the nihilism of its transcendentalist metaphysics
the Dynamic Yoga Training Method
is not just another style of yoga
it is a genuine methodology of somatic self enquiry
that is loosely based on the Krishnamacharya tradition
depending on it for nothing other than postural shapes
while drawing directly on my deep but unorthodox training in zen
my training as a Montessori teacher
and experience of tai-chi as practitioner and teacher
what makes The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
so radically and powerfully different from all other approaches to yoga
is not at first so obvious and to see it
a distinction needs to be made
between practice styles and learning methodologies
as far as i can see
almost every so called style of yoga
is exactly that
a slightly different way to practice
based principally on differences in postures used and their sequencing
with further proprietory distinctions being made
through differences in the ideology within which
and soundtrack and rituals
through which they are instructed
to generate a religious or sacred atmosphere
and yet there is one approach to yoga that is clearly more than that
the Iyengar Method puts much less emphasis on sequences
nothing on ritual or esotericism
and almost all on learning how to do individual poses correctly
of course many yoga styles draw on mr. iyengar’s ideas of alignment
even if only as a vague concept
they apply in their own way
to organising a few body part relationships
more as padding to beef up their instruction palette
than as a learning process
there are other styles, such as Scaravelli and Anusara yoga that
being spawned from mr. iyengar’s work
give some emphasis or another to correct form
but not to a methodology of learning
more to showing how things should, and are not to, be done
within a particular emphasis (spine) or context (grace)
but for the body to learn to do new things
it takes much more than being shown
what is right and what is wrong
and even the Iyengar Method
overlooks in its presentation
the basic principles of learning in general
and even the specific principles of somatic learning
and so students struggle for years (forever)
without ever feeling the comfortable ease of effortless effort
about which Mr. Iyengar waxed so eloquently
and the Iyengar Method has become little more than a Geometrical Straightjacket
that produces as much tension and uptightness as it does structural changes
until the 1990s
there were really only two different approaches to yoga
the Iyengar Method which was all about alignment
while free from overt ritual ideology and esotericism
made pragmatic reference to Patanjali
especially “sthiram sukham” and ‘effortless effort"
and what we who were studying Iyengar called ‘marshmallow yoga’
which was about relaxing into stillness
with a strong emphasis on esoteric anatomy, visualisation and ritual
which originating in the Hatha Yoga of the Pradipika etc
was passed down through the ashrams and books of
Sivananda and Satyananda Saraswati
to whose students the approach of Iyengar
was non-spiritual, militaristic and aggressive
then, like a comet over the horizon
the 1990s saw Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and the name of Pattabhi Jois
burst into and logarithmically enlarge the yoga firmament
by way of Sting and Madonna
depositing into the forum of yoga posture practice
the concepts of vinyasa, bandha, ujjayi, and drushti
alongside its own approach to correct form which actually means
how to place body parts so that more movement is possible
and placing stage centre acrobatic agility and brute strength
from which it is now almost impossible to escape
so now
rather than the distinction being between alignment and relaxation
each so called yoga style that an entrepreneurial teacher
has put forward into the yoga market
has its own blend of seven fundamental factors
- relaxation into stillness (yin yoga)
- alignment (anusara)
- bandhas (usually misunderstood)
- ujjayi (ditto)
- vinyasa (usully applied without any biomechanical sensitivity)
- drusti
- esoteric references
BUT NOT ONE OF THEM
addresses itself to how the body learns
and applies that to how yoga is taught
not one of them does what any good (and bad) piano teacher does
giving students first scales, then arpeggios
then very simple pieces without too many sharps and flats
for many years before they become ready
to play a chopin or mozart sonata
for which they need to have developed
the digital dexterity and tonal/rhythmic acuity
by way of their scales and arpeggios
the only obvious exception is The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
i have been told that in Spain people say that
“Godfrey and his gang think they are the only ones who understand yoga”
and even if that statement could be made of any approach to yoga
it does have some truth in it
for we do appear to be the only ones
who understand not only how
but even that
yoga on a mat must be taught on the basis of how the body learns
and its inherent vulnerabilities
rather than its potential capacities
otherwise immediate tension and long term struggle is the result
not to mention injuries obvious and subtle
but
if you watch a child learning to walk
do you see struggle and tension?
or do you see effort, failure, delight
and continuous, unflagging repetition?
it is through the joy of accessing inherent capacity
and not through intention and struggle that you learned to
feed yourself, walk, talk, put on your clothes and make up etc etc
the human body learns through repetitive action
within which, simply by way of repetition
action is refined until it becomes consistent enough
to establish stable neuromuscular pathways
from which those learned actions, movements, shapes
become effortless and unconsciously articulated
by the somatic intelligence that developed them
as neuromuscular habits
that come out of their didactic arena into life as a whole
as the way the body acts and moves
any learning process proceeds step by step (vinyasakrama)
from the simple to the complex
where the complex becomes possible
only on the basis of the simple having been assimilated
in somatic learning overriding this
leads inevitably to tension and injury
and when that somatic learning includes
establishing new relationships between all the body parts simultaneously
as is the case in a yoga posture
overriding the step by step process of vinyasakrama
necessitates endless struggle and continuous injury
for almost everyone
the most obvious thing about
The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
and which makes it unappealing to so many
is its continuous use of consistent repetition
through the agency of ‘ullola’
short sequences of two, three or more postures
repeated in a cyclical flow anything from three to ten times
(the scales of dynamic yoga)
(one of 8 movements was used for this piece)
it is a truly and obviously dynamic approach
both to learning and practicing yoga
within which genuine stillness
capable of permitting the experience of asana described by patanjali
(because the body is free from tension and struggle
while mind is free from intention and any other distraction
from the ability to feel)
becomes not only possible but inevitable
what is not so obvious
even to the student
is how systematic this repetition is
in recalibrating all the relationships between all the body parts
that participate in ‘traditional’ yoga postures
this systematic recalibration of the whole body
is undertaken within a very simple but sophisticated transition
from one simple and extended version of Suryanamaskar
to another one more challenging
supplemented by very simple, safe seated, supine
and modified inverted postures
until eventually the body becomes able to perform
traditional yoga postures without any struggle at all
and while recalibrating all the body part relationships
(on the basis of systematically sensitising all the facets of all the joints)
this process is at heart one of learning the language of the body
of learning what each joint feels like when it is free from pressure and tension
so that it is immediately apparent when what is being done is beneficial
and equally when it has not been adequately prepared for
and that is only the superficial difference
for the language of the body to be genuinely understood
and effectively responded to
mind must also be recalibrated
so that it not only becomes able to
recognise and understand the significance of the subtle
but it also learns that it can let go of its need to control
and eventually also even of its need to know
into the deeper spiritual intelligence of consciousness
(functioning overtly as the ability to feel
and expressing more subtly as the delightful presence of
spaciousness, lightness, emptiness, peace and love)
by way of the more superficial somatic intelligence of the body
this recalibration happens necessarily within the somatic recalibration
as the practitioner becomes able to feel more deeply
mind becomes able to see more clearly
and eventually and spontaneously surrenders more and more
(enjoying so much as it does the delightful presence of
spaciousness, lightness, emptiness, peace and love)
into the intelligent presence of consciousness
which more and more becomes the guiding force
not only of practice but also of life
as mind learns to let go of its strategies
into the direct authority of genuine intuition
and the calm clarity through which it expresses itself
beyond any argument or doubt
what this all means is that
The Dynamic Yoga Training Method is based
not on tradition, geometry, skill nor knowledge
but on the natural intelligence of consciousness, body and mind
becoming integrated (yoga) by way of safe, simple and accessible movements
fertilised by the Dynamic of Integrity
upon which the stability, mobility and safety of the joints depends
this is a dynamic that can actually be and often is
applied to any yoga posture outside of the vinyasakrama of dynamic yoga
and in fact for the well being of the joints, must be
a number of my students have also applied it to teaching other somatic skills
including horse riding, running and swimming
with welcome results
because Dynamic Yoga is based on natural intelligence
it is free from the power of external authority
whether that be tradition, ideology or even the teacher
and completely silences the nihilistic voice of transcendental somata-phobia
allowing practitioners to embrace their biology and all of its apparent limitations
not least the need for sex
the role of the teacher is that of intepreter
whose job is to speak so clearly on behalf of the students' bodies
that the students' minds quieten into the body’s ability to take care of itself
so that in one way the vinyasakrama of dynamic yoga entails
a process of unlearning that allows the intelligence of the body
to take care of its vulnerabilities unhindered
by the intentions and ideas of the mind
this speaking is done from a single fundamental premise
that underlies and is experientially confirmed by the Method
that the intelligence of life knows how to express, take care of and extend itself
and the function of the mind in yoga posture practice
is to use its intelligence to support that deeper intelligence
rather than to impose the imaginable upon it
so
the teacher is not functioning as an external authority
nor even as an example
but simply as a mouthpiece for somatic intelligence
(but not for spiritual intelligence)
if this is done with adequate
simplicity, clarity, directness and repetition
the minds of students become ready to let go
into the underlying somatic intelligence
within which the presence of the deeper
intelligence of consciousness
is accessed and mind becomes able to let go
of what it is not capable of
into the deeper intelligence that is
then practice becomes an effortless enquiry
into the possibility of providing a context (posture flow)
that allows mind to become more and more quiet and clear
and the intelligence of the body to express itself freely
and as it does so more fully
it does so naturally and effortlessly by extending the body’s
capacity for action by and through the structural requirements
of increasingly more complex and challenging postures
this increase is not undertaken to gain flexibility or strength
but on the one hand
to allow the body to express its natural tendency towards increase
while simultaneously
extending a deeper and deeper challenge to the application of
the sensitivity to sensation that is the core of the Method
so that a deeper intimacy with sensations
leads to a more subtle intimacy with
the ability to feel
which encourages mind to let go
more and more of its need to relentlessly strategise and control
into its more nourishing abilities to learn and enjoy
at the same time the repetitiveness itself
but more specifically some of the shapes and movements
that are so often repeated
not least the use of namaste in many different postures
generate within the Method a spontaneous invitation
to gratitude, reverence and awe
so that no partisan and possibly polarising expressions of the religious impulse
(no icons, no chants, no mudras) are required to add implied value
in a beautiful extension and expression
of the significance of the word yoga
in its meaning as unity, wholeness, singularity
just as the vulnerabilities of the joints and
the subtleties of the relationships between the body parts
are taken care of by The Dynamic of Integrity
so to do the bandhas and ujjayi breathing manifest themselves through it
while drushti is taken care of by the intelligence of the body
by way of feeling sensations as continuously and deeply as possible
and it is this Dynamic of Integrity
in combination with its sophisticated vinyasakrama
that makes the Method so powerful
while it is the sophistication of its vinyasakrama
that makes it so unpalatable to the impatient and immature
as it presents students with an inescapable and ongoing confrontation
with their own limitations, resistance, assumptions and conditioning
a confrontation which is of course the inescapable heart of self enquiry
but of no interest to those who are simply trying
to shore up their precarious sense of self and or their social standing
by way of flexibility, strength, 'perfect alignment’ or esoteric posturing
and when i was 15 i began to realise that all was not as i had been led to believe
not least as to where meaning and happiness are to be found
and so at 16 i abandoned a promising academic career
and began to pursue independent consciousness studies
by way of psychedelics, yoga and meditation
supplemented by reading
eastern and western esoteric and spiritual literature
by the time i was 18 i had confirmed the claims
i found in the upanishads, dharmapadha, tao te ching
and the writings of Alan Watts and mystical poets
by the time i was 20 i had formulated a fantasy that one day
i would live in a tipi, teach yoga for a living and grow my own vegetables
at the time a few pioneers were living in tipis
many people were growing their own vegetables
but no-one, at least in UK, was living from teaching yoga
40 years on i have lived in my tipi
i have never grown my own vegetables
and i have been living from teaching yoga for almost 50 years
i had discovered yoga in 1973
when stumbling upon my Uncle
an Anglican Minister
for whom i had both a deep respect and affection
praying in tree pose wearing only boxer shorts
the potent currents of peace and reverence emanating from him
were unlike anything i had experienced before
excpet while under the influence of mescaline
and certainly not when he was in his robes or pulpit
and i knew that whatever it was that was generating those qualities
i wanted it to generate them in me
and so i began a daily practice
supported mainly by the books of
Andre Van Lysebeth
when i began to teach
my practice had become based on the Iyengar Method
and i decided that i would never demonstrate postures
as i did not want to intimidate my students with my prowess
and thereby support any inclination they might have to put me up on a pedestal
and so to disempower themselves
i have never identified myself as a yoga teacher
neither in my own mind
(i see myself as an undergraduate research scientist doubling as an artist)
nor in the way that i relate to other human beings
which means that i never initiate talk about yoga in social situations
nor place myself in relation to friends and acquaintances
as if i have some subtle and meaningful insight into human nature
(which it seems i do)
i suspect that my father’s intellectually bullying relationship to my mother
may have some bearing on this tendency of mine
to be hyper sensitive to the perilous intricacies of charismatic imposition
when functioning through intellectual and verbal acuity
and the dangers of authoritative power dynamics
being unable to accept the authority that BKS Iynegar seemed to demand
of his teachers my experience in zen inspired me to go my own way
but not without help from ashtanga vinyasa yoga
although not from any particular teacher of that method
nevertheless i have derived deep benefit
from the experience of a number of yoga teachers
first being Pat Hudson
one of the first of mr. Iyengar’s uk alumni
who introduced me to his method in a very open and generous way
then Clive Sherdian who kindly pointed out that
yoga posture practices are by nature tantric practices
this insight not only allowed me to relax about the presence of sexual energy
in my practice and my classes
but underpins my ability to recognise the dangers
of transcendental somatophobia expressing itself on a yoga mat
and then BNS Iyengar
who made it clear that the Practice Formats of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
were rather a kind of training format
in saying to me laughingly one day
“ah, first you learn the alphabet, then you write your own poetry”
and finally a subtle tip from Shandor Remete
who kept sarcastically repeating “so-called mulabandha”
whenever anyone was talking about ashtanag vinyasa practice
which encouraged me to challenge what i had been told about the bandhas
perhaps even more telling, though, is the help i received from
an astrologer at a friend’s birthday party
who asked me which siddhis i was pursuing
in instantly recognising that i was pursuing
the coarse siddhis of strength, flexibility and structural perfection
i realised that what i should be most interested in is
sensitivity
which gift, in effect, has led to
the Dynamic Yoga Training Method
which was incubated in the ground breaking classes
of the Life Centre in Notting Hill London
where i was trying to teach the Ashtanga Vinyasa Series
at the same time as Sting and Madonna were learning them
in trying to teach the Primary Series to students
who did not have a daily self practice
it was clear that the method desperately needed modification
not least in its teaching
if people were to avoid hurting themselves
while genuinely transforming their bodies and minds
in a harmonious and meaningful rather than simply self satisfying way
and so 25 years on from there
i was teaching The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
which for all that time has been exploring the questions
(and finding their answers)
that only now are beginning to surface into popular yoga culture
i.e.
how to make yoga practice safe from psychological and ideological aggression
and
how to keep contemporary yoga free from avoidable power dynamics
and
how to rescue ‘yoga philosophy’ from the nihilism of its transcendentalist metaphysics
the Dynamic Yoga Training Method
is not just another style of yoga
it is a genuine methodology of somatic self enquiry
that is loosely based on the Krishnamacharya tradition
depending on it for nothing other than postural shapes
while drawing directly on my deep but unorthodox training in zen
my training as a Montessori teacher
and experience of tai-chi as practitioner and teacher
what makes The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
so radically and powerfully different from all other approaches to yoga
is not at first so obvious and to see it
a distinction needs to be made
between practice styles and learning methodologies
as far as i can see
almost every so called style of yoga
is exactly that
a slightly different way to practice
based principally on differences in postures used and their sequencing
with further proprietory distinctions being made
through differences in the ideology within which
and soundtrack and rituals
through which they are instructed
to generate a religious or sacred atmosphere
and yet there is one approach to yoga that is clearly more than that
the Iyengar Method puts much less emphasis on sequences
nothing on ritual or esotericism
and almost all on learning how to do individual poses correctly
of course many yoga styles draw on mr. iyengar’s ideas of alignment
even if only as a vague concept
they apply in their own way
to organising a few body part relationships
more as padding to beef up their instruction palette
than as a learning process
there are other styles, such as Scaravelli and Anusara yoga that
being spawned from mr. iyengar’s work
give some emphasis or another to correct form
but not to a methodology of learning
more to showing how things should, and are not to, be done
within a particular emphasis (spine) or context (grace)
but for the body to learn to do new things
it takes much more than being shown
what is right and what is wrong
and even the Iyengar Method
overlooks in its presentation
the basic principles of learning in general
and even the specific principles of somatic learning
and so students struggle for years (forever)
without ever feeling the comfortable ease of effortless effort
about which Mr. Iyengar waxed so eloquently
and the Iyengar Method has become little more than a Geometrical Straightjacket
that produces as much tension and uptightness as it does structural changes
until the 1990s
there were really only two different approaches to yoga
the Iyengar Method which was all about alignment
while free from overt ritual ideology and esotericism
made pragmatic reference to Patanjali
especially “sthiram sukham” and ‘effortless effort"
and what we who were studying Iyengar called ‘marshmallow yoga’
which was about relaxing into stillness
with a strong emphasis on esoteric anatomy, visualisation and ritual
which originating in the Hatha Yoga of the Pradipika etc
was passed down through the ashrams and books of
Sivananda and Satyananda Saraswati
to whose students the approach of Iyengar
was non-spiritual, militaristic and aggressive
then, like a comet over the horizon
the 1990s saw Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and the name of Pattabhi Jois
burst into and logarithmically enlarge the yoga firmament
by way of Sting and Madonna
depositing into the forum of yoga posture practice
the concepts of vinyasa, bandha, ujjayi, and drushti
alongside its own approach to correct form which actually means
how to place body parts so that more movement is possible
and placing stage centre acrobatic agility and brute strength
from which it is now almost impossible to escape
so now
rather than the distinction being between alignment and relaxation
each so called yoga style that an entrepreneurial teacher
has put forward into the yoga market
has its own blend of seven fundamental factors
- relaxation into stillness (yin yoga)
- alignment (anusara)
- bandhas (usually misunderstood)
- ujjayi (ditto)
- vinyasa (usully applied without any biomechanical sensitivity)
- drusti
- esoteric references
BUT NOT ONE OF THEM
addresses itself to how the body learns
and applies that to how yoga is taught
not one of them does what any good (and bad) piano teacher does
giving students first scales, then arpeggios
then very simple pieces without too many sharps and flats
for many years before they become ready
to play a chopin or mozart sonata
for which they need to have developed
the digital dexterity and tonal/rhythmic acuity
by way of their scales and arpeggios
the only obvious exception is The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
i have been told that in Spain people say that
“Godfrey and his gang think they are the only ones who understand yoga”
and even if that statement could be made of any approach to yoga
it does have some truth in it
for we do appear to be the only ones
who understand not only how
but even that
yoga on a mat must be taught on the basis of how the body learns
and its inherent vulnerabilities
rather than its potential capacities
otherwise immediate tension and long term struggle is the result
not to mention injuries obvious and subtle
but
if you watch a child learning to walk
do you see struggle and tension?
or do you see effort, failure, delight
and continuous, unflagging repetition?
it is through the joy of accessing inherent capacity
and not through intention and struggle that you learned to
feed yourself, walk, talk, put on your clothes and make up etc etc
the human body learns through repetitive action
within which, simply by way of repetition
action is refined until it becomes consistent enough
to establish stable neuromuscular pathways
from which those learned actions, movements, shapes
become effortless and unconsciously articulated
by the somatic intelligence that developed them
as neuromuscular habits
that come out of their didactic arena into life as a whole
as the way the body acts and moves
any learning process proceeds step by step (vinyasakrama)
from the simple to the complex
where the complex becomes possible
only on the basis of the simple having been assimilated
in somatic learning overriding this
leads inevitably to tension and injury
and when that somatic learning includes
establishing new relationships between all the body parts simultaneously
as is the case in a yoga posture
overriding the step by step process of vinyasakrama
necessitates endless struggle and continuous injury
for almost everyone
the most obvious thing about
The Dynamic Yoga Training Method
and which makes it unappealing to so many
is its continuous use of consistent repetition
through the agency of ‘ullola’
short sequences of two, three or more postures
repeated in a cyclical flow anything from three to ten times
(the scales of dynamic yoga)
(one of 8 movements was used for this piece)
it is a truly and obviously dynamic approach
both to learning and practicing yoga
within which genuine stillness
capable of permitting the experience of asana described by patanjali
(because the body is free from tension and struggle
while mind is free from intention and any other distraction
from the ability to feel)
becomes not only possible but inevitable
what is not so obvious
even to the student
is how systematic this repetition is
in recalibrating all the relationships between all the body parts
that participate in ‘traditional’ yoga postures
this systematic recalibration of the whole body
is undertaken within a very simple but sophisticated transition
from one simple and extended version of Suryanamaskar
to another one more challenging
supplemented by very simple, safe seated, supine
and modified inverted postures
until eventually the body becomes able to perform
traditional yoga postures without any struggle at all
and while recalibrating all the body part relationships
(on the basis of systematically sensitising all the facets of all the joints)
this process is at heart one of learning the language of the body
of learning what each joint feels like when it is free from pressure and tension
so that it is immediately apparent when what is being done is beneficial
and equally when it has not been adequately prepared for
and that is only the superficial difference
for the language of the body to be genuinely understood
and effectively responded to
mind must also be recalibrated
so that it not only becomes able to
recognise and understand the significance of the subtle
but it also learns that it can let go of its need to control
and eventually also even of its need to know
into the deeper spiritual intelligence of consciousness
(functioning overtly as the ability to feel
and expressing more subtly as the delightful presence of
spaciousness, lightness, emptiness, peace and love)
by way of the more superficial somatic intelligence of the body
this recalibration happens necessarily within the somatic recalibration
as the practitioner becomes able to feel more deeply
mind becomes able to see more clearly
and eventually and spontaneously surrenders more and more
(enjoying so much as it does the delightful presence of
spaciousness, lightness, emptiness, peace and love)
into the intelligent presence of consciousness
which more and more becomes the guiding force
not only of practice but also of life
as mind learns to let go of its strategies
into the direct authority of genuine intuition
and the calm clarity through which it expresses itself
beyond any argument or doubt
what this all means is that
The Dynamic Yoga Training Method is based
not on tradition, geometry, skill nor knowledge
but on the natural intelligence of consciousness, body and mind
becoming integrated (yoga) by way of safe, simple and accessible movements
fertilised by the Dynamic of Integrity
upon which the stability, mobility and safety of the joints depends
this is a dynamic that can actually be and often is
applied to any yoga posture outside of the vinyasakrama of dynamic yoga
and in fact for the well being of the joints, must be
a number of my students have also applied it to teaching other somatic skills
including horse riding, running and swimming
with welcome results
because Dynamic Yoga is based on natural intelligence
it is free from the power of external authority
whether that be tradition, ideology or even the teacher
and completely silences the nihilistic voice of transcendental somata-phobia
allowing practitioners to embrace their biology and all of its apparent limitations
not least the need for sex
the role of the teacher is that of intepreter
whose job is to speak so clearly on behalf of the students' bodies
that the students' minds quieten into the body’s ability to take care of itself
so that in one way the vinyasakrama of dynamic yoga entails
a process of unlearning that allows the intelligence of the body
to take care of its vulnerabilities unhindered
by the intentions and ideas of the mind
this speaking is done from a single fundamental premise
that underlies and is experientially confirmed by the Method
that the intelligence of life knows how to express, take care of and extend itself
and the function of the mind in yoga posture practice
is to use its intelligence to support that deeper intelligence
rather than to impose the imaginable upon it
so
the teacher is not functioning as an external authority
nor even as an example
but simply as a mouthpiece for somatic intelligence
(but not for spiritual intelligence)
if this is done with adequate
simplicity, clarity, directness and repetition
the minds of students become ready to let go
into the underlying somatic intelligence
within which the presence of the deeper
intelligence of consciousness
is accessed and mind becomes able to let go
of what it is not capable of
into the deeper intelligence that is
then practice becomes an effortless enquiry
into the possibility of providing a context (posture flow)
that allows mind to become more and more quiet and clear
and the intelligence of the body to express itself freely
and as it does so more fully
it does so naturally and effortlessly by extending the body’s
capacity for action by and through the structural requirements
of increasingly more complex and challenging postures
this increase is not undertaken to gain flexibility or strength
but on the one hand
to allow the body to express its natural tendency towards increase
while simultaneously
extending a deeper and deeper challenge to the application of
the sensitivity to sensation that is the core of the Method
so that a deeper intimacy with sensations
leads to a more subtle intimacy with
the ability to feel
which encourages mind to let go
more and more of its need to relentlessly strategise and control
into its more nourishing abilities to learn and enjoy
at the same time the repetitiveness itself
but more specifically some of the shapes and movements
that are so often repeated
not least the use of namaste in many different postures
generate within the Method a spontaneous invitation
to gratitude, reverence and awe
so that no partisan and possibly polarising expressions of the religious impulse
(no icons, no chants, no mudras) are required to add implied value
in a beautiful extension and expression
of the significance of the word yoga
in its meaning as unity, wholeness, singularity
just as the vulnerabilities of the joints and
the subtleties of the relationships between the body parts
are taken care of by The Dynamic of Integrity
so to do the bandhas and ujjayi breathing manifest themselves through it
while drushti is taken care of by the intelligence of the body
by way of feeling sensations as continuously and deeply as possible
and it is this Dynamic of Integrity
in combination with its sophisticated vinyasakrama
that makes the Method so powerful
while it is the sophistication of its vinyasakrama
that makes it so unpalatable to the impatient and immature
as it presents students with an inescapable and ongoing confrontation
with their own limitations, resistance, assumptions and conditioning
a confrontation which is of course the inescapable heart of self enquiry
but of no interest to those who are simply trying
to shore up their precarious sense of self and or their social standing
by way of flexibility, strength, 'perfect alignment’ or esoteric posturing