Rediscovering Light on Yoga (or the Grand Experiment)

Rediscovering Light on Yoga (or the grand experiment).

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law, who introduced me to yoga, was cleaning out her library and gave me four large shopping bags full of yoga books.  Among the many treasures were second (or in some cases, third) copies of books I have long enjoyed or lent out to friends, students etc.  Of all the books, the one I found most intriguing was a 1968 second edition hardbound copy of Light on Yoga.  I have had a copy of this book for at least 10 years and have paged through it, from time to time but have never really read it.  Usually, I would pick it up, become either inspired or intimidated by the pictures of Iyengar doing the poses and put it down again, almost always with the thought that there are better yoga books.  Paging through it this time, however, I had a much different reaction to it than I had in the past.  Perhaps because it is an aged copy of the book, complete with someones old scribbles, some minor damage and yellowing of the pages, it struck me that this book was first published over forty years ago. Before there was Iyengar Yoga, before there were any yoga props, before there was a "yoga industry" and before there were any of the other thousands of books on yoga, there was Light on Yoga. In that context, it began to become more clear just how groundbreaking this book was (and continues to be.)

While all the text and photographs in my later edition of the book were included and mostly unchanged from the earlier edition, the older edition was arranged much differently and, consequently, had a much different feel.   This is largely due to the fact that all of the photographs are in one section of the book instead of inserted among the text.  As I understand it, this was changed after numerous complaints about having to flip to the back of the book to see what a particular pose looks like and then having to go back to the written instructions for doing the pose.   Having all the pictures together, however, had a greater impact on me and allowed me to better understand how Iyengar sequenced and presented the asanas in his teaching and his book.

I mention all of this as an introduction to my little experiment.   Having been, in no way inspired by other blogs or similar experiments, I was reviewing the courses in the appendix of the book, when the little voice in my head starting telling me "you should do this." 

Immediately, resistance: 
"I can't" 
"It's 300, repeat that, THREE HUNDRED weeks long." 

After bemusedly watching these voices go back and forth, I decided, "What the hell, why not give it a shot?"

Afterall, Iyengar does promise in the book on page 60:  "Continuous practice will change the outlook of the practiser.  He will discipline himself in food, sex, cleanliness and character and will become a new man."  (Don't you just love the old self-help language?)

So I am committing to begin a daily yoga practice, based on the course presented in Light on Yoga.  I probably will make some minor adjustments to the course along the way and cannot promise that I will keep it up for the whole 300 weeks.  I just can't promise anything that far in advance.....

I do not plan on blogging every week about each week's sequence (that's what the book is for) or my responses to specific poses etc...... but I will check in periodically about insights, challenges, and anything else that might reveal itself along the way.  Anyone who wants to join me in this adventure is free to contact me at kyle@one-heart-yoga.net.

This blog will document this process but will not be entirely dedicated to it as I am sure most of you would be more interested in other thoughts/ideas/topics etc.  More on that in future posts.....

Did it say 300 weeks, seriously?  That's almost six years..... (Noah'll be almost 14 before I finish this)

Shanti,
Kyle