“Original, Traditional” and “Feel good or Positive transformation?”
- flowerchen77
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Over the past few months, I’ve been reading the book “Yoga Reminder by A.G. Mohan with Dr. Ganesh Mohan.” It contains some insights worth reflecting on for practitioners, which I’d like to share with you here.
Original, Traditional
Some people loudly proclaim, “What my teacher teaches is the only authentic method,” or “Such-and-such yoga school has the longest history”…. By labeling something as “the true tradition,” they imply that “there is no other way to practice,” which effectively disregards the teaching principle of tailoring instruction to the individual. Just think about it: would the content and duration of yoga asana and pranayama practices be the same for the elderly, middle-aged adults, and teenagers? In fact, there is only one kind of yoga: the yoga adapted to you.
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The emphasis on traditions and lineages in modern yoga is often an unnecessary distraction to useful practice. It has played a role in yoga becoming factionalized and students occupied with teaching for the so-called right tradition or right lineage.
Sometimes, yoga “traditions” are just exalted terms for brands and labels. The security these lanes confer can play us false.
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For example, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika says that anyone can practice yoga, old or sick. But it does not say what practice exactly these people should do, nor does it say that they should all do the same practice. Again, common sense would suggest that while some principles of teaching an arthritic eighty-year-old and a youthfully energetic twenty-year-old may be the same, it would be unwise to make them do the exact same movements and breathing.
The feel-good factor and Positive transformation
Here is an article that’s well worth reflecting on. At the end of a group yoga class, we might comment: “That felt good,” “It was too gentle—I didn’t feel challenged enough,” or “The pace was fast and nonstop—it felt like I was flying”…. However, if you look a little deeper within yourself, can you recognize whether what you’re seeking is merely temporary sensory pleasure, and whether that truly connects to a positive transformation of your entire body, mind, and spirit?
You might well ask, “Does it really matter whether I’m doing yoga? I enjoy my classes.”
It is in your best interest to be clear about what you are doing and why you are doing it. The practice of yoga should not be a matter of blind faith in a teacher or in the teaching.
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Yoga is a pathway to positive changes in body and mind. But must people practice yoga not because they have a specific transformation in mind but simply because yoga makes them feel good.
Not all positive change in life necessarily feels good at the outset.
But where is the line between a practice that merely feels good and one that creates truly beneficial change over time?
Not every activity that feels good leads us to a better state of body and mind in time. But the converse is not true either - activities that feel bad don’t necessarily lead to positive transformation. In fact, what feels bad to the body and mind is actually harmful most of the time.
Can we be addicted to asana or other practices of yoga? Can a person do yoga practice because he feels good even if they aren’t really helping him in the long term?
Unfortunately, yes. And you have probably come across people who are in this trap.
This is like receiving a massage. Within limits, a massage feels good, but if it continues for hours, it begins to induce pain rather than pleasure!
Positive transformation, in contrast to feeling good, requires more than just rotating between the flux of modes in the mind and body.
Lasting positive change in body and mind arises from shifting the base mode of the mind a d body toward Sattva - lightness in the body and clarity in the senses and mind.
It is possible to practice asanas differently from this ideal, though. If the principal barometer is feeling good rather than positive transformation, injuries can result from asana practice. That’s because feeling good is not judged by the body alone but by the mind as well - sometimes mainly by the mind.
If my mind will be satisfied and feel good only when my head is on my knees with my legs straight, I may end up hurting my back to get there.
I am sure many readers will agree from their own experience that this mind-set is not all that uncommon in the gym or in an asana class.
When done this way - without monitoring our inner compulsions or minding our minds -asana can become a habit.
In a yoga practice where feeling good is the guide, the goals we set for ourselves may not be truly the ones that will lead us to a better place in time. What feels good to us can fluctuate, as the tendency toward restless and dullness (Rajas and Tamas) in our body and mind ebbs or rises.
For instance, many people with back pain try to stretch their aching muscles, maybe in a yoga class, to relieve the pain. It feels better temporarily, only to return in few hours. The underlying problem could be that their muscles might be not only tight or overworked but also weak. To relieve their pain, they might need judicious strengthening rather than stretching.
But strengthening may not feel good right away; it may not appear to be helping immediately. Give the regimen some days to weeks, though, and the back pain might be substantially alleviated. In this case, what felt good (stretching) was not the practice (strengthening) that could bring about the positive change (freedom from back pain)!
To ensure that our practice is relevant to us, we must ensure that we stay mindful of the goal.
Not only should the practice feel good, it must also leads toward a more balanced and positive state of body and mind, one of lightness and clarity.
Once this goal is clear to us, we have to be mindful of the body and mind, adjust accordingly to address imbalance, and do neither too much nor too little, avoiding both compulsion and indolence. The way to do this is by working with the body and the breath.
As this state of mind emerges, we endeavor to deepen and extend it as the foundation for deeper practices of pranayamas and meditation, and as the support for a healthy body and calm mind. This is the basis of an asana practice for positive transformation rather than only feeling good in the moment.
The real art of creating a right practice is not only to include the right postures in the right place, but to leave the wrong ones out.
A.G. Mohan was a student of the Yogacarya Sri T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), for 18 years. We are delighted to be traveling to India this October to learn from him in person.
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