B1tO'RoughJack
Bluelighter
They focus on kundalini? I wouldn't start with kundalini yoga in my experience, and in my honest & humble opinion too...
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Yoga
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They focus on kundalini? I wouldn't start with kundalini yoga in my experience, and in my honest & humble opinion too...
OverDone
Bluelight Crew
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We never made it over there today but plan on next week. Is kundalini more difficult? I was told that they were going to start us off with simple breathing and that this particular form involves gongs and chanting.
The reason this is attractive to me is that I'm looking for a way to be more in tune physically and spiritually. The added bonus is that it will help me in meditating.
I'd love to hear more. I really don't want to get a bad taste in my mouth from jumping into something that is too advanced. I tend to get dejected and write things off that could be good for me. Knowing this, I'd really like to hear your experience
It depends on the instructor. You can have a basic class in virtually any style. Give it a stab, and see how it goes-- you'll never know how you like it until you try. Just remember that if the first class doesn't work out, try other ones-- even two instructors in the same style will have massively different classes.
B1tO'RoughJack
Bluelighter
what kinda temperament do you have? What kinda constitution?
If you find it hard to sit down and meditate, I have found that after doing ashtanga sporadically for a few years, focussed for 2, that meditation comes very easy now - very little chatter in my head. If you find it hard, I would suggest yoga that is very physically active until you can sit down and meditate happily by yourself - it came really quickly for me, when before I just couldn't.
I've been regularly doing Bikram Yoga for just over a year. It's fantastic for your body and mind. A lot of people don't try it because stories of the heat put them off. Your body accclimatises pretty quickly. If you get a chance, try it - you won't regret it! Amazing detox 
I actually have a pretty big beef with Bikram/Moksha. Aside from the whole corporate yoga, 'patented' sequences (which are, incidentally, unbalanced), cramming people in and offering little in the way of instruction or adjustment, there is no reason whatsoever to practise in a hot room. If you're doing it right, you're generating enough heat within you to soften your fascia; by applying that much external heat, there is a serious added risk of overstretching/stretching ligament and cartilage. The whole 'it's hot in India' rationale is kind of moot: go to practise in Varanasi, and you'll find that you'll be getting up at 4:30 to get your practise done before it gets stupidly hot.
This is no judgment to you clear sky - if you enjoy it, and are able to practise safely, then by all means do so - but I would strongly recommend against doing Bikram/Moksha, at least unless one knew very well what one was doing beforehand.
This is no judgment to you clear sky - if you enjoy it, and are able to practise safely, then by all means do so - but I would strongly recommend against doing Bikram/Moksha, at least unless one knew very well what one was doing beforehand.
I hear what you're saying, Dave.
A little bit of research goes a long way with Bikram practice. You see new students that clearly haven't done any research - pouring water on themselves, breathing via their mouth, consequently ending up on their backs for most of the class. Keeping hydrated before and after class, as well as taking mineral supplements to replace what's lost through sweat, makes the practice so much better.
There is the danger of overstretching, but you just have to know your limit and not go deeper into the posture than your body allows. Personally, I find the heat beneficial for going deeper into the postures than you normally would be able to. Having said that, there are always show-off types that overdo it and moan about it later.
As to the instruction/adjustment - I guess I'm lucky to live in a small city. Our Bikram instructors are very helpful even when the classes are packed and they adjust the postures if they can tell you have injuries that interfere with your practice.
So I'm in complete agreement - research is a must for an enjoyable Bikram class.
A little bit of research goes a long way with Bikram practice. You see new students that clearly haven't done any research - pouring water on themselves, breathing via their mouth, consequently ending up on their backs for most of the class. Keeping hydrated before and after class, as well as taking mineral supplements to replace what's lost through sweat, makes the practice so much better.
There is the danger of overstretching, but you just have to know your limit and not go deeper into the posture than your body allows. Personally, I find the heat beneficial for going deeper into the postures than you normally would be able to. Having said that, there are always show-off types that overdo it and moan about it later.
As to the instruction/adjustment - I guess I'm lucky to live in a small city. Our Bikram instructors are very helpful even when the classes are packed and they adjust the postures if they can tell you have injuries that interfere with your practice.
So I'm in complete agreement - research is a must for an enjoyable Bikram class.
psychoblast
Bluelighter
I am in my fourth week of Yoga Teacher Training at a Vinyasa yoga studio. I began with Iyengar Yoga in 2004.
I am also not pleased with the concept of Bikram Yoga. Yeah, the heat helps you go deeper, but the point of yoga is NOT to go deep, or to have your heels on the ground in Downward Dog, or any of that other ego-boosting stuff. The point is really to learn to focus all of your mind on one thing, unity of mind, by quieting the little ego voices that chime in and get distracted. The key to this is mainly focusing on the breath during the yoga practice, to make the yoga poses flow from the breath. You find balance by activating all the muscles in a manner that balances all of the tension created, like a tug of war by two equally strong pullers so that the rope is taught and not moving anywhere. Proper form is not about heels on the ground in Downward Dog, or touching the floor in Triangle or any of that, though with regular practice you will inevitably get to that point (actually, my instructor has recommended anyone who touches their heels to the ground in Downward Dog modify the pose so they do NOT have their heels on the ground because that prevents them creating tension toward the heels in the pose).
Anyway, the goal is united focus, as a means of connecting with the Universal Consciousness / Spirit. Yogis do Yoga not to improve their bodies, but to become spiritually enlightened. It was invented so monks trying to meditate would be able to sit still in a meditative pose without having their bodily weakness / distraction hamper their meditation practice.
A natural byproduct of unifying the mind, and reuniting it more with the body (the sense of embodiment when the mind and body are united in an activity) is that you will find yourself losing desire for things that are unhealthy for the body, you will be more mindful when you select your meals, when you decide what to do with your free time, how to sit (up straight or slouching), etc. So, what winds up happening automatically, is you become more healthminded. You eat less junk food not as part of some diet where you are consciously depriving yourself of foods you crave, but because you actually do not crave them anymore.
However, habits die hard and you really need a regular yoga practice to see these benefits. It can be pricey. I'm actually doing the teacher training so I can know enough to create my own yoga routines with full confidence and not be dependent on any teacher or studio, figure it is cheaper in the long run. I also am very interested in the spiritual growth practice. And if it turns out I can make a living teaching yoga, maybe I'll even give that a go.
Oh, another motive for me is that I have become "one with the universe" through some psychedelic drug use, one time for three days, and I felt very much like I expect Buddha felt for that brief time. I don't think drugs can take you to a permanent ascension like that, so I have sought non-drug means to achieve the same thing. Because drugs are not a permanent solution to the problems of our spiritual restlessness or emotional cravings. According to what I've read and been told by certain yoga teachers, as you become more advanced and enlightened doing yoga, you learn to consciously control your moods. You can be in a state of bliss whenever you like, regardless of what is happening externally -- caught in traffic, money problems, etc. Apparently the spiritual fulfillment feels better than, say, the pleasure you get from hedonistic debauchery (another path I've explored and found only temporary satisfaction). So, anyway, that may be what drew me to Yoga in the first place 8 years ago.
I guess I should also add I'm not entirely convinced you have to stick with the established poses. I feel like I've gotten to know my body and I find myself just doing stuff in my home, like cleaning, cooking, laundry, and I stretch for something, and feel some tension in my body, some limitation in my freedom of movement. I'll stop what I'm doing, and find a way to harmoniously explore that tension in the body and I find myself in balanced poses of my own creation, suited to fit my own body and my own internal tension. Maybe these poses are established yoga poses I have not yet learned, but maybe not. So I think there can be a thing called "personal yoga" when you know enough to know the kind of feeling you are seeking in your yoga poses of balanced tension. I have some instructors that would call that heresy, because they think each yoga pose is based on thousands of years of experimentation to find poses that are like unique antenna calling in a certain frequency of universal energy, and other random poses might call in bad energy or no energy, but I am not so slavish to the yogic traditions, even though I do respect them. Similarly, yoga is tied to the Hindu religion somewhat and to belief in reincarnation, but I'm frankly skeptical about the notion of reincarnation, which some instructors are slavishly commited to.
I read once that Yoga was the science of religions, that if all yoga books were burned, people could reinvent yoga from their own personal experience and practice because it is self-evident when you breath and move and focus your consciousness internally. I like that notion. I hate the concept of dogmatic religion, of having to embrace absurd myths as part of your religion. I think, therefore, that if Yoga is true to this idea of being the science of religions, then it must be an evolving spirituality and they must leave open room to abandon any precepts that are later understood to be flawed. So, I like to think you can ascend in Yoga while remaining skeptical about any of their teachings that you yourself have not yet found to be sufficiently proven or logical or self-evident.
~psychoblast~
I am also not pleased with the concept of Bikram Yoga. Yeah, the heat helps you go deeper, but the point of yoga is NOT to go deep, or to have your heels on the ground in Downward Dog, or any of that other ego-boosting stuff. The point is really to learn to focus all of your mind on one thing, unity of mind, by quieting the little ego voices that chime in and get distracted. The key to this is mainly focusing on the breath during the yoga practice, to make the yoga poses flow from the breath. You find balance by activating all the muscles in a manner that balances all of the tension created, like a tug of war by two equally strong pullers so that the rope is taught and not moving anywhere. Proper form is not about heels on the ground in Downward Dog, or touching the floor in Triangle or any of that, though with regular practice you will inevitably get to that point (actually, my instructor has recommended anyone who touches their heels to the ground in Downward Dog modify the pose so they do NOT have their heels on the ground because that prevents them creating tension toward the heels in the pose).
Anyway, the goal is united focus, as a means of connecting with the Universal Consciousness / Spirit. Yogis do Yoga not to improve their bodies, but to become spiritually enlightened. It was invented so monks trying to meditate would be able to sit still in a meditative pose without having their bodily weakness / distraction hamper their meditation practice.
A natural byproduct of unifying the mind, and reuniting it more with the body (the sense of embodiment when the mind and body are united in an activity) is that you will find yourself losing desire for things that are unhealthy for the body, you will be more mindful when you select your meals, when you decide what to do with your free time, how to sit (up straight or slouching), etc. So, what winds up happening automatically, is you become more healthminded. You eat less junk food not as part of some diet where you are consciously depriving yourself of foods you crave, but because you actually do not crave them anymore.
However, habits die hard and you really need a regular yoga practice to see these benefits. It can be pricey. I'm actually doing the teacher training so I can know enough to create my own yoga routines with full confidence and not be dependent on any teacher or studio, figure it is cheaper in the long run. I also am very interested in the spiritual growth practice. And if it turns out I can make a living teaching yoga, maybe I'll even give that a go.
Oh, another motive for me is that I have become "one with the universe" through some psychedelic drug use, one time for three days, and I felt very much like I expect Buddha felt for that brief time. I don't think drugs can take you to a permanent ascension like that, so I have sought non-drug means to achieve the same thing. Because drugs are not a permanent solution to the problems of our spiritual restlessness or emotional cravings. According to what I've read and been told by certain yoga teachers, as you become more advanced and enlightened doing yoga, you learn to consciously control your moods. You can be in a state of bliss whenever you like, regardless of what is happening externally -- caught in traffic, money problems, etc. Apparently the spiritual fulfillment feels better than, say, the pleasure you get from hedonistic debauchery (another path I've explored and found only temporary satisfaction). So, anyway, that may be what drew me to Yoga in the first place 8 years ago.
I guess I should also add I'm not entirely convinced you have to stick with the established poses. I feel like I've gotten to know my body and I find myself just doing stuff in my home, like cleaning, cooking, laundry, and I stretch for something, and feel some tension in my body, some limitation in my freedom of movement. I'll stop what I'm doing, and find a way to harmoniously explore that tension in the body and I find myself in balanced poses of my own creation, suited to fit my own body and my own internal tension. Maybe these poses are established yoga poses I have not yet learned, but maybe not. So I think there can be a thing called "personal yoga" when you know enough to know the kind of feeling you are seeking in your yoga poses of balanced tension. I have some instructors that would call that heresy, because they think each yoga pose is based on thousands of years of experimentation to find poses that are like unique antenna calling in a certain frequency of universal energy, and other random poses might call in bad energy or no energy, but I am not so slavish to the yogic traditions, even though I do respect them. Similarly, yoga is tied to the Hindu religion somewhat and to belief in reincarnation, but I'm frankly skeptical about the notion of reincarnation, which some instructors are slavishly commited to.
I read once that Yoga was the science of religions, that if all yoga books were burned, people could reinvent yoga from their own personal experience and practice because it is self-evident when you breath and move and focus your consciousness internally. I like that notion. I hate the concept of dogmatic religion, of having to embrace absurd myths as part of your religion. I think, therefore, that if Yoga is true to this idea of being the science of religions, then it must be an evolving spirituality and they must leave open room to abandon any precepts that are later understood to be flawed. So, I like to think you can ascend in Yoga while remaining skeptical about any of their teachings that you yourself have not yet found to be sufficiently proven or logical or self-evident.
~psychoblast~
B1tO'RoughJack
Bluelighter
psychoblast that's fucking ROCKING!
I have myself started to get into 20-30 minute yoga most sessions now, 45-60 mins tends to only happen once a week, and 2 hours only when I am doing a class - so once a month, sometimes twice.
Dave - there are modified sequences for short sessions(in Astanga at least), with some of the posture slightly changed, it's just so you can make sure your practice is regular and balanced.
Totally getting my mind under control - I almost never get nervous anxious chatter anymore, and my focus is a lot better...but I have to accept to a certain extent that the fidgetty side of me is just my Vata dosha.
I find I can candle gaze, cloud and sun meditate, and generally sit and let my thoughts naturally dissipate 8 times outta 10. Feel so good!
I have myself started to get into 20-30 minute yoga most sessions now, 45-60 mins tends to only happen once a week, and 2 hours only when I am doing a class - so once a month, sometimes twice.
Dave - there are modified sequences for short sessions(in Astanga at least), with some of the posture slightly changed, it's just so you can make sure your practice is regular and balanced.
Totally getting my mind under control - I almost never get nervous anxious chatter anymore, and my focus is a lot better...but I have to accept to a certain extent that the fidgetty side of me is just my Vata dosha.
I find I can candle gaze, cloud and sun meditate, and generally sit and let my thoughts naturally dissipate 8 times outta 10. Feel so good!
psychoblast-- Yeah, Bikram is basically anti-Iyengar. All ego, all the time. I recall hearing-- don't quote me on this, as I can't vouch for its veracity-- that Mr. Bikram himself was lobbying to get yoga as an olympic sport?! How on earth would that even work, I would wonder? Whoever gets enlightened first gets the gold? 
bit'o'etc...-- I've heard tell of such; the owner of the studio where I (used to) practise is a dedicated Ashtangi and would teach a beginner's class based around the shorter sequences. On a good day they'd get to navasana, which is a pretty sensical place to stop if one's working toward Primary.
bit'o'etc...-- I've heard tell of such; the owner of the studio where I (used to) practise is a dedicated Ashtangi and would teach a beginner's class based around the shorter sequences. On a good day they'd get to navasana, which is a pretty sensical place to stop if one's working toward Primary.
panic in paradise
Bluelighter
oooh
i hadnt seen this thread!
BBL
i still believe that sleep-standing is the ultimate yoga, simply live...lmao
i hadnt seen this thread!
BBL
i still believe that sleep-standing is the ultimate yoga, simply live...lmao
DOB
Bluelighter
everytime I hear yoga I imagine farting in crowded place and fit girls in yoga pants
DOB
Bluelighter
not really,I find it very awkward and humilating farting in close proximity of hot girls..... when I was going at karate trainings same thing,those excersises made me fart so much even 10 years after I think how ashamed I was....
moral of the story do yoga alone or be cyborg
modern buddha
Bluelighter
If you're not farting or close to farting, you're not doing it right, imo.
treezy z
Bluelighter
i've taken a couple yoga classes, once a week 6 weeks each, i couldn't stand the classes but i always felt great after.
DOB
Bluelighter
If you're not farting or close to farting, you're not doing it right, imo.
lol true :D
panic in paradise
Bluelighter
lol
i wound up doing a head/handstand once...seemed the natural thing to do atm.
i wound up doing a head/handstand once...seemed the natural thing to do atm.