Gurus: Sianna Sherman
I have the best teachers.
John Friend.
Sally Kempton.
Teachers who are famous; teachers who are not famous.
Teachers who are friends of mine; teachers who I've never studied with but inspire me with their practice...
Recently, I got the latest Yoga Journal Magazine. I glanced quickly at the yogini gracing the cover, doing a variation of eka pada rajakapotasana #1 with an incredible mixture of ease and power, and I thought to myself: "Sianna."
Sianna Sherman is one of my teachers and a friend. I've studied with her for several years now, including retreats, both nationally and internationally. Aside from John Friend she is, in my opinion, the best therapeutics teacher. Sianna Sherman has the rare combination of sweetness coupled with a mind-blowing power. I've only seen it in another yogi, Darren Rhodes (he is the yogi on the Anusara poster). I watch her carefully whenever John has her demo a pose and I learn from the way she relates to her asana. Again, only her and Darren have brought tears to my eyes whenever I've seen them demo a pose- I think it's because they both have such an intimately devoted quality to their practice. I guess it would be like watching Mary Oliver compose a poem. Or Rilke write his "Letters to a young poet." Devotion is an honor to behold.
I was so deeply moved to see my beloved teacher Sianna gracing the cover of the most important yoga magazine in the US, that I've been showing it around in my classes and today was inspired to teach about our teachers, our gurus. the word guru literally means "heavy" and it refers to the quality of weightiness or power that a great teacher has. The words "gravity" and "gravitas" share the same root. The word guru also breaks down into two words: "gu" which means "darkness" and ru which means "light." So a guru can be a yoga teacher, a high school teacher, a family member, someone who moves you from the darkness into the light. It can also refer to a poem, to a work of art, to a forest, an animal, or even an injury. A guru is anything or anyone that moves you from the darkness into the light.
So in today's class we honored all of our teachers, in whatever form they take. We payed attention to the focal point of the different poses. The focal points are the key power center in a given pose, where you simultaneously draw in, like gravity, and from that place you extend out. It's the place where Muscular Energy pools and collects, and where Organic Energy extends out from. There are only three possible focal points: the core of the pelvis, the bottom of the heart and the upper palate, and only one is active in any given pose. I find that teaching using the focal points is an incredibly useful technique as the students poses become simultaneously stronger and free!
Theme:
Gurus
Highlights:
*Teaching using the focal points! A wonderful technique!
*"We honor and remember all of our teachers and we offer the teachings back out to the world."
*"Bow in to all of your teachers!" "Extend your energy out as if you where sharing their teachings with others."
*Did Sianna's favorite pose three times in her honor, Hanumanasana.
Challenges:
Had a wonderfully mixed group today. Really strong practitioners, including several teachers. There were also new yogis and some tired and injured yogis. There was a yogi who told me she won't be able to come to my "mixed level" classes anymore as she only wants to do advanced classes, even though she cannot straighten her arms in urdhva. I love her though, and if she comes back to my classes again, I will continue to help her straighten those arms, so she can then do those advanced classes she so wants to do!
I do think a lot of people get caught up in the "level system" and many want to do the hardest classes, just because the American culture is very much about pushing ourselves. I honestly feel like I teach the same way all the time, whether you call it "mixed, Level 2, open level," that is: challenging but loving, always reminding the students to rest, while still trying poses from the Level 2 syllabi, sometimes a level 3 pose... I think that we make our practice as hard as we want to. Or not.
Intermediate/advanced doesn't mean just doing a bunch of surya namaskars. It means doing challenging poses, including being able to kick up unassisted to handstand and do urdhva dhanurasana with straight arms. Yet is also means being still in a pose, with a sattvic heart. Not comparing. Being at peace. Doing the Universal Principles of alignment over and over. Offering your poses to something greater. It means being a kind and loving person to yourself and others. Not just chaturanga-ing your way through yoga, and then leaving class with no recognition of the divine light in you and others.
So class today was challenging in the sense that it was such a wonderfully varied group of people. And yet I felt like it went well! I really did. I think it's because I was so connected to the theme and I wanted to honor my teachers in the way I taught, that I somehow feel that it gave wind to my sails and we were all able to be where we were individually and expand collectively.
I ended with a beautiful Antonio Machado poem which honors the light inside.
It also happens to be one of Sianna's favorite poem.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt -marvelous error!-
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt- marvelous error!-
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt -marvelous error!-
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
For those of you, dear readers, who happen to speak Spanish, we get to enjoy the poet in his native tongue, as my grandmother Abi gave me her old Machado book of poetry. And interestingly the phrase "marvelous error" which repeats three times in fact is "bendita ilusion" which translates as "holy illusion" which I think it's even sweeter. But what do I know- I'm no Coleman Barks.
Anoche cuando dormía
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que una colmena tenía
dentro de mi corazón;
y las doradas abejas
iban fabricando en él,
con las amarguras viejas,
blanca cera y dulce miel.
Anoche cuando dormía
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que un ardiente sol lucía
dentro de mi corazón.
Era ardiente porque daba
calores de rojo hogar,
y era sol porque alumbraba
y porque hacía llorar.
Anoche cuando dormía
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que era Dios lo que tenía
dentro de mi corazón.
Comments