August 2007
Last class at the B.K.S.Iyengar Yoga Centre, Camps Bay, South Africa
all smiles before the Chair Salabhasana
Parvattanasana in Virasana
Viparita Dandasana in chair
more photos at
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Photo Gallery
all smiles before the Chair Salabhasana Parvattanasana in Virasana
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Wow! What a weekend.
I must admit to having felt a bit anxious at the prospect of attending a
16-hour workshop. With David, moreover. Would my body hold out? (Would
my mind hold out…) Would my husband have packed his bags and left the
kids with the neighbours by the end of the weekend? Had my
preparations/maintenance been enough since David and Jurgen left Camps
Bay half a year ago? I recalled the 90-minute sessions with them, after
which I would emerge, sopping with sweat, to go to bed as though I had
run a marathon. Was I mad contemplating 16 hours of it? Granted,
broken up into two seven-hour days and one evening session – but, still.
Quite a tall order for a rookie who still finds most of the standing
poses quite a challenge!
Thankfully, I was able to leave my worries at the door and, together
with most of the other participants, saw it through to the end. For my
part, I found it a thoroughly absorbing, informative and challenging
time. From the obligatory standing postures (often with the useful
approach of graduated exercises leading to the final posture); to the
pranayama sessions at the beginning of each day (who would have guessed
that there was so much to breathing – and that was just the exhaling
bit!); to the extended sessions of forward-bends, back-bends, twists
(ending with neutral poses, not extreme counter-poses – got it!) and
inversions (how I still need to build up that stamina…) and, of course,
some restoratives and ever-welcome savasanas. Never forgetting Jurgen’s
ever-attentive administrations - a quiet word of encouragement here, a
gentle adjustment there, a twinkle in the eye and mood-lightening quip
when he senses your resolve is wavering.
What more could one ask for?
This is not to say I breezed through it. Certainly not. Easy is not
what I’ve come to expect from David – but who wants easy? I laughingly
recalled during the course of the weekend how traumatic my first two
lessons with him had been. How devastated I was to discover how
uncooperative and stiff my body had become – and how he noticed every
single misplacement and misalignment, and let me know it! (I reckon his
hawk eyes must have caught me out upwards of thirty times in each of
those first two lessons.) It took a large dollop of courage and a
pretty strong leap of faith to come back.
And how glad I am to have done so.
My motivations were of course initially very much ego-centred –
somewhere between bloody-mindedness (“I’m going to get his criticisms
down to under ten per class if it kills me in the process!”) and a
bizarre need to please this hard-to-please man (“just one thing right,
just one thing right, please!”) But somewhere along the road it became
apparent to me that what I was interpreting as criticism (how fragile
our egos are…) is simply a purist’s insistence on imparting to us the
exact workings of this art/science/life that is yoga. And it’s an
insistence that we actually get it right. I could choose to take it
personally, or I could shed (or at least pack in the boot before class)
my ego, immerse myself, and learn all I could. If one is lucky to find
a teacher of this calibre who has spent most of his time living and
breathing his subject, it is strongly advisable to make the most of the
opportunity.
So, thank you to you both for this wonderful experience. I trust that
you will both continue to bring enlightenment to your pupils, wherever
you may settle – or even in your current gypsy format! Teaching is your
gift.
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