Guy Donahaye Interviews Rolf

 Posted by Guy Donahaye on July 8

https://www.integralashtanga.com/mind-medicine/2024/7/8/rolf-interview

Guru Purnima

Saturday, July 12 is Guru Purnima.

"Yogacharaya Shri K. Pattabhi Jois (Guruji) was born on the full moon of July 1915, in Kowshika, a small hamlet located 150 kilometers from Mysore in the southern state of Karnataka..."

Chant the Guru Stotram.

Practice with Sharath in the US.

"They thought that the boys and men that would come to my class would be a bit shy because I’m a woman. But I was determined; this was something I wanted to do. So I did it! The decision was all mine..."

Guruji's teacher: Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

Mary Flinn was one of my first serious teachers

Guy Donahaye was my first Mysore teacher

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya 

caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

Weekend Edition #7 Videos

One can't learn yoga from youtube videos, but if you are going to watch videos, watch these ones :)

Mini documentary on London's Stillpoint Yoga capturing the warmth of practicing together:






Kino MacGregor describes the stories we tell ourselves in "Strength of Body and Mind in Yoga - Stay Up for the Full Ten Counts in Utpluthih":

Guy Donahaye shares footage from the old shala in 1999:
 





An interview with Saraswathi Jois & Sharmila Mahesh:





Yuko's Story - Cancer Recovery and Yoga | URBAN YOGIS Episode 2:





Mysore clip from the film Enlighten Up:





Mr Ramesh - La peur (the fear):

Pattabhi Jois talks about yama, niyama...

Conference at the Old Shala in Lakshmi Puram 1998 via Guy Donahaye and Ashtanga Yoga Shala NYC.

Weekend Edition #1

Eating to support your practice
Guy Donahaye
Ashtanga Yoga Shala NYC
http://bit.ly/VMCWpx


How to learn Ashtanga Yoga. Led class versus Mysore class?
Magnolia Zuniga
Mysore San Francisco
http://bit.ly/YMwMme


How to practice when hell’s freezing over
Angela Jamison
Ashtanga Yoga Ann Arbor
http://bit.ly/V4PXYP

The winds
Kate O'Donnell
Ashtanga 4 Life
http://bit.ly/14JDXiD


Food + Yoga
New segment on the blog on you guessed it, food!
http://bit.ly/VLoo4f


Check out
No Impact Man (book, movie, how-to's)
Vegucated (trailer, watch online)

Guy Donahaye ABQ - Bibliography

Source: Guy in ABQ, AAYS

Resources and references mentioned during Guy Donahaye's weekend workshop at the Albuquerque Ashtanga Yoga Shala October 19-21, 2012

 

 

GENERAL

Guy's Shala in NY:  Ashtanga Yoga Shala NYC
A good place to practice and a website full of valuable information.

http://aysnyc.org/

Guy's blog "Mind Medicine:  Ashtanga Yoga Darshana"
http://yogamindmedicine.blogspot.com/ 

Guy's book "GURUJI: A Portrait of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of His Students"
http://bit.ly/RhagPj

Book extracts:
http://bit.ly/QCpfmU

Interviews:
http://bit.ly/OXgeGN 

DAY 1:  Fundamentals of Practice

Reading list at Guy's website:
http://ow.ly/eGhEQ

What is Yoga?

http://bit.ly/WEqaZ6

What is Ashtanga Yoga?

http://bit.ly/RRM7O0

Pranayama and mulabandha

http://bit.ly/TtDdvI  

Breathing

http://bit.ly/VwropM

Practice guidelines
http://bit.ly/RlVPLC

DAY 2:   Mind Medicine I

Ashtanga Yoga Mantram and translation
http://bit.ly/RlVIj3

Yoga Sutras & Hatha Yoga Pradipika

http://aylibrary.blogspot.com/p/resources.html

Why right leg first in padmasana

http://bit.ly/PGSi6L

Diet and lifestyle

http://bit.ly/UtMljY

What is the Self?

http://bit.ly/WEsUWk

Daily practice

http://bit.ly/MYrf3H

Ego, vrttis, householders

http://bit.ly/RQIJTS

Ayurveda, doshas, recipes, and many more resources
http://www.ayurveda.com/online_resource/index.html  

Ashtanga yoga history and lineage
http://bit.ly/Rapfc0

DAY 3: Mind Medicine II

3 gunas, Yoga Sutras, and more

http://bit.ly/UtOlsh

When to and not to practice

http://bit.ly/RL6UkY

Pain
http://bit.ly/MrZN4R

First you do asanas

http://bit.ly/TbI4j7

Mind control

http://bit.ly/PmoilT 

Guruji teaching

http://bit.ly/X3WQcU

Mad attention

http://bit.ly/PN4gkt

Nadis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadi_%28yoga%29

Check back soon for more updates...

Interview with Guy Donahaye by Elise Espat Part 4

 

Reflections on "Guruji: A Portrait"
Interview of Guy Donahaye
by Elise Espat - Part IV
Originally published September 17, 2012 Mind Medicine Blog

Is there a point in the book that you feel is really crucial to understand Guruji, the system, or the practice?

I feel the book makes a few important points. Perhaps nothing new is said, although for many people there will be a lot of new material. The fact that we have 30 statements or interpretations, and that these statements are broadly in agreement, or together put pieces of the jigsaw in place, what we have as a result is a kind of "authoritative" text.

Interviewees were not always in agreement and at times completely contradict each other, however, I think you can trace at least 80% agreement on most of themes throughout the book.

In some respects you could say the interviews were research on my part. For instance, on the origin of the sequences: David Williams and Nancy Gilgoff believed that the sequences we practice (with some modifications) had been passed down directly from the Yoga Korunta, a text, 100s or 1000s of years old. This was the story I received when I first started practicing since my first teacher had learned from a student of David's. I asked Guruji about this several times and was never quite sure what he meant by his answers.

Apart from Nancy and David, everyone else who was interviewed believed that Guruji was involved in creating the system of asanas. Manju goes as far as to say that Krishnamacharya and Guruji sat down and went through various texts (Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita, Yoga Korunta, Yoga Rahasya) and made up the sequences based on Chikitsa and Shodhona. Norman Allen alludes to Norman Sjoman's book and its suggestion that this type of practice is a new creation modeled on gym training.

I think, through the interviews and my own conversations with Guruji,  a picture emerges that the Yoga Korunta contained  asanas and vinyasas grouped according to their therapeutic benefits but that the actual sequences we practice were created by Guruji under Krishnamacharya's supervision based on Chikitsa, Shodhona and so on.

It seems that Guruji did much of the work in organizing the sequences as well as in modifying the vinyasas. If you look at Yoga Makaranda - Krishnamacharya's book of 1934 - you can see how he sequences the asanas and structures the vinyasas quite differently. Shammie said he invented, or discovered the surya namaskar - I believe this is true - at least in the form that he taught.

One of the reasons I made the interviews was to establish a coherent picture and to correct some misconceptions about the nature of yoga, as taught by Guruji.

Guruji felt very strongly that yoga is a spiritual practice. It is perhaps ironic that someone who believed this so deeply, is sometimes seen as propagating a purely physical practice. Too many of my fellow practitioners in the early '90s tended to think this way, and maybe this is something which motivated me to initiate this project. For Guruji, the purpose of yoga was to make one fit for realization - that was his main interest - I think this is emphasized in the book.

For many people who never met Guruji, or whose contact with him was minimal, the anecdotes and stories about studying with him and about his character have brought him to life in vivid color. For those who did know him, the interviews reveal other facets of his teaching and has brought back many memories. I have received many emails from readers expressing gratitude for having been able to experience an intimate meeting with Guruji through these interviews.

Here is an email from John Scott:

Dear Guy,

Brilliant! Fanatastic! Congratulations!

Thank you Guy, I do think you and Eddie have put together a lovely and very valuable book.

It reminds me how much we learned from each other back in those days (the early 90s).

Guruji passed on so much wisdom to every individual student, and this was because he was always on-to-one with each student, and therefore the questions asked of him were all uniquely different. 

What is so nice,  is that Guruji's students love to share and pass on their personal experiences with everyone else.

The photo on the back cover looks great* and it's just as Guruji was for us back in those days.

Those were the days - the Lakshmipuram days

Photo By John Scott

I have already read a few of the pieces and have learn't so much more already

So again Thank You Thank You for sharing

Love John

Lucy India and Fynn

* This is John's photo



Guy Interview

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Interview with Guy Donahaye by Elise Espat Part 3

Part 3 of my interview with Ashtanga yoga teacher Guy Donahaye, author of "Guruji: A Portrait".

Originally posted here:
http://yogamindmedicine.blogspot.com/2012/07/reflections-on-guruji-portrait.html

Reflections on "Guruji: A Portrait"
- Interview with Elise Espat - Part III

Did you ask any of the questions to clarify a question you had?  For instance, whether advanced asana meant advanced practice?  Or what was mulabandha?  Was there a satisfactory answer?

I believe there is a general misunderstanding of the purpose of asana practice - which is therapy. Advancement comes through perfecting yama and niyama, pranayama and the internal limbs - asana practice is the foundation of that process. So no, I was not curious - I had the desire to get the subjects to speak about this so as to dispel this general misconception. 

Mostly the questions were not asked out of personal curiosity but with the intention of  getting the interviewee to speak on a subject of interest. However, I was certainly interested to hear their different perspectives and feel that my own understanding has been enhanced through the process of making the book.

In the Guruji book, it seems that people agreed that advanced asana did not necessarily mean advanced yoga practice.  Do you think that is true?  Through asana, with the tristhana and a good teacher and time wouldn't that lead to advanced practice?  Would a student automatically start doing self-study and such?

Asana practice is therapeutic, purifying and strengthening - both for mind and body. How much purification or therapy is required depends on the individual and what end result is desired. I don't think anything will happen automatically through asana practice alone, but if you have a good teacher, he or she will teach more than asana.

Dena Kingsberg: "Some of us have to drag our bodies a long way in order to facilitate the cleansing process.  Those of us with stubborn, egotistical natures may need to drag ourselves further and twist ourselves harder and bend ourselves deeper in order to appreciate that at the end of the day we just need to focus the attention and open the heart."  

One of Guruji's most capable students (not interviewed in the book) was given a practice of 12 Suryanamaskar A and 12 B morning and evening - this he was told was for treating "insanity of the mind". So there is no apparent correlation between being able to do postures and a particular level of spiritual or mental development. However, developing a practice with Guruji into advanced series and practicing the asanas over time gives enormous benefits. 

If the student has not gained some control of the bandhas by the end of Intermediate Series, she will have no choice but to master them progressing into the advanced asanas. Perhaps this is why instead of teaching the pranayamas after intermediate, as he did in the early 70s, later Guruji wanted students to be established in the advanced asanas first. 

Westerners have such a strong attachment to their bodies and body image that practicing asanas can easily lead to greater vanity, competitiveness and other distractions from the goal of yoga. Sri Shankaracharya warns in his Vivekachudamani:

"Whoever seeks to realize the Self by devoting himself to the nourishment of the body, proceeds to cross a river by catching hold of a crocodile, mistaking it for a log… 

…desire, like a crocodile, instantly seizes the aspirant who tries to cross the ocean of samsara and reach the shore of liberation without firm detachment, and straightaway drags him down." 

One has to consider: what is the goal of practice? After overcoming health problems, our aim is to be able to sit still and quiet with a concentrated mind. For some this can be attained easily, asanas are not required, which is very rare today. Some need moderate exercise and purification, others need deeper cleansing and more rigorous training for the mind.

Guruji taught that Ashtanga Yoga was a step by step method but that yama and niyama could not be perfected until the stage of pranayama. However, in spite of the fact that it is very challenging or maybe even impossible to perfect yama and niyama, an attempt to do so is required, and our success in yoga will be much more closely related to our progress in the first two limbs than the third alone. In a certain sense the yama and niyama encapsulate the whole path - it is said that liberation can be achieved through perfection of any one.

As far as asanas go, what is important in the immediate moment is a practice which gives us a sense of well being and freedom from pain. If we are sick, then we need to purify and strengthen the body. In preparation for pranayama we also need to purify the nadis further through Nadi Shodhona and to be able to sit comfortably in padmasana or a similar asana for a long period of time. 

Where did the notion come from - that advancing through the series would lead to advancement on the path of yoga? It seems like there should be a logical correlation.  However, the purpose of the asanas is therapy. As long as we continue to fall short of following the yamas and niyamas perfectly, our system will require continuous correction from practicing asanas.

Guy Interview

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Interview with Guy Donahaye by Elise Espat Part 2

Part two of my interview with Guy Donahaye on his book "Guruji: A Portrait".  And beyond.

Originally posted here:
http://yogamindmedicine.blogspot.com/2012/07/reflections-on-guruji-portrait.html

Reflections on "Guruji: A Portrait" 
- Interview with Elise Espat - Part II

Everyone you interviewed spent time with Guruji in Mysore.  Why is making the time to practice in India so crucial? Or is it?  

If you want to go deep into a subject, you have to go to the source. Spending time in mother India is an incomparable experience and having the opportunity to study closely with a master such as Pattabhi Jois is a priceless opportunity. I believe that it is almost impossible to understand yoga without spending extended time in India, so for a deeper understanding I think it is necessary.

Practicing with Guruji, especially in the intimate setting of the "old shala" in Lakshmi Puram was a very powerful and transformative experience. Receiving the asanas from Guruji and being adjusted in them by him on a daily basis also has a profound impact. Beyond the effectiveness and beauty of the sequences he created, the nature of his adjustments and the way in which he engaged with each individual were teachings on a daily basis. Much more is conveyed through teaching asana than is at first evident.


He would observe our personalities, mental and physical states and engage with us accordingly - teaching us yama and niyama and other yogic truths indirectly or in a practical way. For instance, in some students he was always trying to curb ambition and break down an over inflated ego, in others he was pushing, encouraging, demanding more effort. For each individual on each day it was different. This often caused a lot of confusion, intense emotions and outbursts of anger - either in private or in the shala - one day you though he loved you, the next he seemed to despise you. This caused a lot of self reflection and self analysis.

Prior to 2002 Guruji's yoga shala was very small. In the beginning there was space for eight yoga mats - two rows of four. As the numbers grew we squeezed an extra mat in each row and then eventually there were two in the middle - making twelve. In '91, when I first arrived, Sharath was just beginning to assist, so there were two teachers and eight students in the room. Prior to this and during the summer months there were only a handful of western students, sometimes only one or two - they would get private lessons from Guruji.

With the new shala there was space for sixty students to practice at the same time so the teacher student ratio changed radically. By this time there were many of Guruji's students teaching around the world and students coming to Mysore already knew the practice, so the teaching in the new shala for most students was more about quality control and less about one-on-one teaching. At times there were as many as 300 students present in later years. However, Guruji's commanding presence continued to have a powerful impact on everyone present even though he did not necessarily engage with you directly. It was a common experience that when Guruji spoke to one student - he would shout "straight(en) your leg!" or "touch your chin" - other students in the room felt spoken to also and even though his prompts were not directed at them, they were able to use them also.

Much is made (with good justification) of the ashtanga sequences, however, it makes a huge difference who you learn from and the environment in which you learn. Some say the practice is the teacher. I feel the practice is more like therapy. The guru is the teacher. Even though the teaching may not be explicit, by investing the teacher with a real or imagined superior knowledge, he causes us to reflect on our own limitations. When you are in close proximity to the Guru, these reflections take on a much greater intensity. We used to call mysore a karma accelerator - we felt that enormous transformation was taking place.

How does Mysore influence the practice?  Or does it?

Going to India can help by making practice the central theme of one's day for a period of time. It is also an opportunity to allow the transformations which want to take place in the mind/body to unfold in an environment which does not elicit one's habitual (conditioned) responses. Somehow India has the effect of opening people to greater acceptance and transformation.

I believe it is easier for those who spend time in India to become less materialistic and to start to guide their lives on the basis of a spiritual purpose. While churches in the West are closing, in India every tree or road side rock is a temple to a deity. While many indians crave the same material rewards as westerners, the celebration of and devotion to the divine is everywhere.

The traditional Hindu culture as primarily propagated via the Brahmin caste is based on the same principles as yoga. Guruji's old shala was in Lakshmi Puram, a neighborhood hardly touched by the twentieth century, where people lived much the same way they had been living for hundreds of years. We lived simply without furniture other than a mattress on the floor, intermittent electricity and water. We went to bed when the sun set and got up long before it rose. All around us the local people were all also involved in their early morning rituals, chanting, cleaning, bathing, etc. The target of life for the Hindu is liberation, yoga's target is the same.

Yoga is only one of 64 arts, each of which can bring a practitioner to samadhi and Self realization. Many students learn a musical instrument or study Sanskrit or philosophy - these pursuits take one deeper into an understanding of the science of Self realization.

Guy Interview

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

Guy Donahaye in New Mexico

Ashtanga Yoga weekend intensive with certified teacher Guy Donahaye
October 19-21, 2012
Albuquerque Ashtanga Yoga Shala
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Register
This event will fill up. Register now here.

Question?
eliseashtangayoga@gmail.com 

SCHEDULE:

Friday
Fundamentals of Practice
7:00 - 9:00 pm

Bandhas and breathing in asana and Pranayama practice. This introductory session will explore the fundamental building blocks of asana practice, focusing mainly on bandhas, breathing, alignment and vinyasa. Through learning uddiyana, agni sara and eventually nauli, a deeper awareness of the bandhas arises. Through this awareness we will explore the expansion of breath, correct alignment and find balance, "sweetness" and strength in the asanas and pranayamas.

Saturday
Mysore Practice
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Mysore style practice allows you to breathe and move at your own speed. The verbal instruction is minimized to allow you to sink deeper into the internal aspects of the practice. Much of the teaching comes through the application of hands-on adjustments, which is a form of body work that enables the student to understand how to move beyond apparent limitations. The adjustments show the body how to move with selective effort using the appropriate muscles and allows the parts of the body which need to release to do so.

Mind Medicine I & II
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Two talks on Ashtanga Yoga theory, philosophy and practice. Followed by Q&A and Pranayama.

Sunday
Mysore Practice
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Mysore style practice allows you to breathe and move at your own speed. The verbal instruction is minimized to allow you to sink deeper into the internal aspects of the practice. Much of the teaching comes through the application of hands-on adjustments, which is a form of body work that enables the student to understand how to move beyond apparent limitations. The adjustments show the body how to move with selective effort using the appropriate muscles and allows the parts of the body which need to release to do so.

Mind Medicine I & II
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Two talks on Ashtanga Yoga theory, philosophy and practice. Followed by Q&A and Pranayama.

ABOUT

Guy Donahaye met Sri K Pattabhi Jois in 1991 and continued his studies with him, mostly in India, over a period of eighteen years until Jois' death in 2009. He is one of only 40 students worldwide who has been awarded a teaching certification by Jois during his 70 years of teaching, and has been conducting yoga classes in this traditional method since 1993.

Guy's interest in yoga is equally therapeutic, philosophical and spiritual: He came to yoga with the desire to improve his ability to meditate and found in yoga a deeply therapeutic tool, which facilitates spiritual evolution through healing body and mind.

In 2009 he published "Guruji" - a tribute to the teachings and life of Sri K Pattabhi Jois with Eddie Stern - a collection of 30 interviews he had conducted over a twelve year period with Jois' senior students and family.

He has been the director of the Ashtanga Yoga Shala in NYC since 1999 and before that in the UK from 1993-1998. He teaches regular workshops on Yoga Philosophy and Practice in New York and internationally.

More information and registration www.AshtangaYogaAlbuquerque.com

 Related:

Interview with Guy Donahaye by Elise Espat

{Moon Day} Tuesday, June 19 New Moon

Next Moon Day: Tuesday, June 19, 2012
No classes, take rest!
Full list of 2012 Moon Days

Why?

From Shri K. Pattabhi Jois via the Ashtanga Yoga Shala:

"That day is very difficult day. Two stars one place (conjunction) is going. New moon also, full moon also. That day very dangerous day. You (take) practice (on that day), anyone can have a small pain starting. That pain is not going very quickly. Long time he is taking. Some broken possible. That is why that day don’t do." continue reading

Interview with Guy Donahaye, Author of "Guruji: A Portrait"

Last year I had this idea to interview Guy Donahaye - my long-time teacher in New York City - about his process in creating his book "Guruji: A Portrait".  Our process went on for months and led down many roads.  By the end we had more than fifty pages of dialogue and a feeling that we were only getting started and perhaps we ought to just start over.  And yet, there is something interesting in the bumps and stumbles.  Perhaps it tells us just as much and maybe more than a polished finished product.  So here it is, piece by piece, one by one, the first question and an answer.  More to come, maybe.

Reflections on "Guruji: A Portrait"
Interview with Guy Donahaye by Elise Espat - Part I
http://yogamindmedicine.blogspot.com/2012/04/reflections-on-guruji-portrait.html

How and why did you choose to ask the questions you asked for the interviews?

When I arrived in Mysore in the early '90s Guruji used to give regular theory classes, but his ability to communicate was often thwarted by language problems.

Guruji spoke a little English but he had a strong accent which was often hard for English speakers to understand and mostly impossible to understand for non-native English speakers when he started to talk about philosophy.

In the first few years I was there, there were 15-20 students at his theory classes. We were French, German, English, American, Dutch, Swiss… a jumble of languages with varying limitations on the grasp of Guruji's broken English and Sanskrit. So his efforts were often mired in frustration. I felt for him (and for myself - I was also frustrated we were unable to learn more from him in this forum).

There were also increasing numbers of students who did not want to think too deeply. For them being in India with Guruji was perhaps a bit of a lark and not an opportunity to absorb the fullness of what he had to offer. Often they turned Guruji's theory classes into a bit of a circus.

Guruji was a scholar and had the desire to share the gems of the Upanishads or the Yoga Sutra with his students, but as time went by, the quality of the interest was often brought down to a lowest common denominator by questions such as "Guruji, what is the best kind of yoga clothing or mat to use?" or other perhaps important, yet mundane subjects.

In the end Guruji would often shake his head in frustration and resignation and say "You don't understand! Just do your practice and all is coming!" This was accepted by increasing numbers as a motto, and for some, as an invitation not to question any deeper. But I felt it was said in the context of frustration that direct teaching through the mind was not possible.

"Sat tu dirgha kala…" - perhaps Guruji's favorite words - "you practice for a long time! 10 years, 20 years, your life long, you practice!" He was able to convey this aspect of his teaching with absolute effectiveness - but what did he mean by "all is coming"? I think this is the subject of much of the book.

So my first motivation was to give Guruji a voice and to try to share his philosophy. Of course it is not his philosophy, it is the eternal teaching of the Vedas, Upanishads and other sacred literature of India, but unique in the way it came to expression through him.

Originally the interviews were part of a video documentary project. What I had in mind was to paint a portrait of Guruji, an Impressionistic image or collage, by juxtaposing different shades and hues of answers to the same questions. My questions were designed to be cut from the end result, leaving the interviewees to speak for themselves. You will notice there are very few questions which evoke a yes/no response.

I wanted to make the interviews as comprehensive as possible because I was not sure which parts I was going to want to use. When the interviews first started to take shape as an idea Guruji was still relatively unknown (Yoga Mala had not been translated into English) but by the time I started asking the first questions (1999), he was already traveling and teaching extensively and had become well known in the West.

While I had been motivated to write a book myself, I felt that the voices of others would give much greater authority and weight - and as it turns out also wisdom, eloquence and insight! The questions covered several areas such as: Guruji as teacher, the practice, theory, Guruji as family man, origins of the series and the individual experiences of the interviewees. As time went by the question list became more comprehensive, but it changed with each interview as I noted particular areas of interest or expertise. If I found the subject going in an interesting direction, I would follow it.

I have always known yoga as a spiritual practice, but many I have met on the path are more interested in the material benefits. Although the book is called "Guruji" and does contain biographical and anecdotal stories about his life, the larger part of the book is devoted to what he was teaching. What is yoga? And how should practice be applied? What are the benefits? And what is the metaphysical viewpoint which underpins the yogic knowledge? Guruji is the lens, the teacher,  but the main object of interest is yoga itself. Because there was no clearly (or universally) understood "Ashtanga Yoga Philosophy" amongst his students, his philosophy became summed up by many as 99% practice, 1% theory, do you practice and all is coming etc - and that was about it. I felt this imbalance needed correcting.

Guy Interview

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3