Utkatasana and NPR

[Guest guest]

1.) The correct method for Utkatasana is to have

the hands together and head back, back, back. Five

breaths. Practicing with hands apart will be practicing a

different pose. Practicing the correct pose means you will

get better at it. Consult Yoga Mala and look at the

picture of Pattabhi Jois.<br><br>2.) For the correct

method of Suptakurmasana, consult Yoga Mala. It is

concise and very well explained, of course.<br><br>3.)

NPR - For those of you who cannot, for one reason or

another get a good (or any) NPR station but who are

obviously able to be on-line, go to: www.kcrw.org and have

a ball. It is the Los Angeles NPR station website

with three streaming broadcasts - live, all music and

all news. They also have many, many past shows

archived on mp3's which can be downloaded and played back

on Real Player 7. They have TAL and The Lowe Life

and tons of other great stuff including one of my all

time personal favorites - Joe Frank's 'Somewhere Out

There' and 'The Other Side'. Also the best music

programming I have heard anywhere. All you need is a computer

on line and speakers.<br><br>-T.

[Guest guest]

<< For the correct method of

Suptakurmasana, consult Yoga Mala. It is concise and very well

explained, of course.>><br> concise, yes. i will take

the liberty of putting down the entire explaination.

to save space, i will pick up the instruction from

the kurmasana position. comments in brackets are

mine:<br><br>"Then, doing rechaka [exhale], bring the hands up behind

the back and take hold of the wrist; this is the 8th

vinyasa [out of a total of 16 vinyasas for this asana].

Next, cross the legs over each other, put the head on

the floor, and do puraka and rechaka [inhale and

exhale] as much as possible; this is the 9th vinyasa, the

state of which is called Supta Kurmasana..."<br><br>i

found it interesting that he makes no comment about

placing the crossed feet behind the head on the back of

the neck. is this one of those things that has

evolved over the years since his original publication? or

is it one of those gratuitous fad things that some

feel have no place in a true ashtanga practice, like

head stands out of navasana and curly cue fingers?

<br><br>if anyone doesn't have this essential text, it is

sri jois' guide to the standing postures, the asanas

of the first series and the finishing postures. as

you can tell from the description above, he informs

us what to do, but there is not much there on the

"how to's" for those of us a few smidgeons shy of

linkage. 'light on yoga' by bks iyengar gives instructions

that are strikingly similar to the instructions i

posted here earlier from beryl birch's book

[Guest guest]

thank you Funkybadlady for the KCRW tip; I used

to listen to KCRW when I lived in the LA area. I've

got it on now and eagerly await some radio shows,

especially because we may get cable internet this week

(GULP! I've heard so many bad things mixed with the

good--any ashtangis care to comment?)<br><br>And thank you

Monkeymind; I knew Savage Love had to be online somewhere,

but in the column there is no reference to a website.

[Guest guest]

>Cable internet absolutely rocks! Am using

Road Runner from Time-Warner cable and have had no

problems since the day it was installed well over a year

ago. A couple of glitches occurred when my son put a

second and third computer on our little LAN and they

graciously and quickly helped him sort it out over the phone

and we now have no problems at all. It's really fast

and downloads are a breeze. Will never go back to 56k

modem. Highly recommended.<br><br>>Interesting, the

psychology of poses. For me bhujapidasana requires totally

facing fear. Saw Okrgr1 at mysore this morning do his

kurmasanas very smoothly. Not me. I can't breathe in

balasana and find most deeply folded poses uncomfortable

and claustrophobic. But I like a long slow count in

virabhadrasana A and adho mukha vrksasana. Also uth pluthi -

probably because I have tight stiff shoulders and was good

at dips back in my old weightlifting days.

[Guest guest]

" a true ashtanga practice, like head stands out of navasana and curly cue

fingers? "<br><br>Come on

[Guest guest]

<<come on>><br>tiddly, i personally

couldn't care less whether someone does head stands out of

back bends or does curlycues with their toes. some of

those who post here promoting a strict adherence to a

particular regimen do feel that some currently common

movements, gestures and postures are incorrect and

superfluous. i was just curious about the placement of the

feet in this posture and how it is currently taught by

sri jois--does his current teaching differ from that

of a few decades ago?

[Guest guest]

No offence intended to you personally okgirl on

this...I just think that exploring is okay. <br>I always

take the attitude of a child while doing yoga or any

spiritual practice. In this way there is room to understand

the differences bettween right and wrong methods of

practicing. It makes it safe for me to explore god really (in

practice) <br>I put teachings I recieve to test in my own

body and mind...just like a child testing authority or

boundries. I don't listen to anyone's guilty conscience

really. I listen to my own self now after 20 years of

practice, and be assured that Guruji has taught the series

differently over the years. <br>My advice is this: don't take

a fundamentalists viewpoint on totally - they may

have good sound reason behind their thoughts but have

neurotic parts of themselves too - just like you and I.

Isn't yoga about dissolving the separations bettween

ourselves and our world?? <br>I find a lot of yogi's get

stuck in their own stuff - often. To be truely

accountable on all levels - try opening a yoga school like I

have - theres real learning there!

[Guest guest]

<<No offence intended to you personally

okgirl on this>><br><br>okgirl? OKGIRL??!? them's

fighting words! NOW i'm offended. an innocent typo you

say? hmmm, well, okay, i can see that. humph.

okgirl--hope none of the guys see this. ;-)