TT: Spiritual drishti

TT stands for Teacher Training, but I'm feeling lazy so TT it is.

It was great to be back, and even greater to see all my friends from last level. It was really like six months hadn't happened at all and we were back chatting and joking from the first minute - I know this is going to absolutely fantastic. We started out by introducing ourselves (heh, I got points for quoting Patanjali) and then starting on reviewing the series we were learning to teach last time. This was done by going through all the poses with someone doing the asana in the middle and each one of us teaching pose by pose. I did the Prasarita Padottanasana and taught the Paschimottanasana A - I was nervous beforehand but when I was teaching it all came out very naturally, and Paschimottanasana is a beautiful pose, one of my favourites.

The title of the this post comes from something Al said - we were talking about the drishti in Utthita Parsvakonasana which can be difficult on the neck, and Al said that for him the spiritual drishti that was just as important. What he meant was that even though the neck might not bend to see the drishti - but if that's the focus of your spiritual inner drishti then you're achieving the pose just as you should. And if you look at David Swanson in Utthita - his neck is actually very straight and only his gaze is to his fingers... not like the guy in that link who is really cranking his neck which is what most people do.

Other things I learned - teach the pose by four basic elements: feel, touch, drishti and bandhas. And, well, breathing of course. What should the pose feel like, what's the touch contact with the mat i.e. how are you rooted down, where is your gaze and the internal locks you should be engaging. Good guide, worth remembering - and I'm trying this time to write down all those insights I find useful.

You can't add any more comments, but if you wish you can email the author.