The Yoga Voice

[Guest guest]

Alan, I guess you mean a certain person with an

impressive thumb-technique? <br><br>If a teacher is GOOD,

he/she can go tough on me if that means progress for me.

But "good" includes a minimum of respect for the

student. A good teacher will realise that you are

dedicated and challenge you. But he/she will never demand

more than you can deliver. Therefore, I would not

tolerate it if someone would insult or hit me. This, I

would consider as a sign for a bad teacher. <br><br>I

do not think that it is a problem if a teacher is

talking a lot (e.g. in the case that many beginners are

around) as long as it does not mean that I have to wait a

minute until he/she has finished before I know what they

expect me to do. <br><br>Mysore-style is OK for

"advanced beginners".

[Guest guest]

On B.K.S.Iyengar's notoriously violent teaching

style - consisting of "blows, slaps in the face, kicks,

abuses and humiliations" - there is an interesting

article by one of his students at

<a href=http://iyengar-yoga.freepage.de/abhyasa3/3mitleid.htm

target=new>http://iyengar-yoga.freepage.de/abhyasa3/3mitleid.htm</a> . The

article is in German only. Sorry.

[Guest guest]

"I hint and nothing happens. I hit and something

happens." <br><br>OK, sure, "something happens". I

understand what is meant. But anyway, there is a limit to

what I allow s.o. to do to me. I have a western-style

ego, I can´t help it. A dedicated student does not

need to be hit. And if the student is not dedicated,

why force him to become "better" by hitting him/her?

I do not see a point in this.

[Guest guest]

Have you ever wondered why they call him "BKS" Iyengar ?<br>BKS = Bite, Kick,

Slap

[Guest guest]

That a stay at the Inyengar-Institute in Pune is

nothing for the faint-hearted becomes clear in a second

article on the same website, by two German female

students on a visit there,

<a href=http://iyengar-yoga.freepage.de/abhyasa2/2institut.htm

target=new>http://iyengar-yoga.freepage.de/abhyasa2/2institut.htm</a> . Again

the talk is about the screams, the blows,

the pain; but this time the tone of the article is

much more critical. The report ends in a praise of the

apparently "more sensible" Western teachers.<br><br>Reading

such articles - too bad that nothing similar is

available on astanga yoga - it seems to me that the concept

of "the gentle yoga voice" (of "gentle yoga"

generally) is basically a Western one. I may be wrong, but

my impression is that in its country of origin, in

India, Yoga is often taught in fashion that is quite

different from what we are accustomed to here in the West.

No "gentle yoga voice" there.