We believe ourselves upright; an outside eye reveals our imbalances. This letter links non-duality, the precision of practice and the transmission of yoga as a relationship of trust — in the lineage of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.
An outside eye to straighten up
This News Letter (March 2019) begins with an honest observation. On the way towards non-duality we try to be coherent, yet we know how hard it is. We are asked to stand up straight: we believe we are vertical, but a mirror reveals one shoulder higher, the head tilted, the pelvis rotated. In short, we are twisted — and the same is true in the posture (āsana). We need an outside eye to straighten and align ourselves.
At her first meeting with Guruji, Anne confided: “it is strange, but for the first time in my life I experienced that someone other than myself knew better than I did what was good for me… and I trusted him.” It is in this relational quality that the transmission of Yoga lives: a relationship of love, for without love nothing of value is done.
Precision and unification
The practice of Yoga Mālā is a work of precision — from the Latin prae-cisus, “without scission”: without dividing breath, movement, concentration or rhythm. It is a work of reunification. Three is not two, two is not one: non-duality (advaita) is not an undifferentiated unity but a relational One, articulated between the “I” and the “you” within ourselves.
The three points, according to Pattabhi Jois
The fourth śloka of the Yoga Korunta states: “Trī sthānam avalokayé āsanam prāṇāyāma driṣṭiḥ” — “the three important points of the method are: posture, breath and the focus of the gaze.” In Sri K. Pattabhi Jois’s comment, the method holds in three simultaneously performed points:
- Posture (āsana): a straight back, to lengthen the spine and ensure good circulation;
- Breath (prāṇāyāma): the rib cage well opened, for a long, soft breath;
- Gaze (driṣṭi): the head aligned, the gaze resting on one of the nine points, so the mind stays concentrated and is no longer troubled by its surroundings.
Om Shanti,
Jean-Claude Garnier
In short
Straightening up calls for an outside eye and a relationship of trust. It is there, in precision and in the love of transmission, that practice becomes reunification.