Jain Spirit 2002 03 No 10

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 28

Establishing a practice
One of the challenges of establishing regular asana practice is finding time to incorporate it into your schedule. Your daily practice does not need to be an elaborate routine. If you can create space in your day for a regular half-hour practice then, of course, that's wonderful. The truth is though that for most of us with homes to run, families to look after and jobs to hold down, such luxury of time is a rarity. It is therefore better to do 15 minutes daily rather than wait all week for a 90-minute class with nothing in between. It is essential to create the habit of yoga so that it becomes an integral part of your lifestyle and then attendance at class becomes supplementary, as it should be, to your personal daily practice.
Some spiritual aspirants might question this apparent focus on the body and argue that we should be paying greater attention to the state of the soul. Let's use an analogy. Imagine that you want to send something precious through the mail, an item you want to ensure reaches its intended recipient in one piece. What do you do? You wrap it carefully, package it well so that it isn't damaged in transit, and it arrives in the same perfect condition in which it started out. Well, so it is with all of us. We arrive on this earth in a state of perfection but as each year passes, a little more of that infant innocence is eroded as our attitudes become increasingly prejudiced by external influences. Advertising, TV, peer pressure all conspire to detract us from our spiritual aims and the path we were meant to tread. The essence of who we are, that Divine spark remains but becomes obscured. The practice of yoga can go some way to redress the balance.
Finding a teacher
It is essential to find a good teacher to ensure you learn how to practise the postures safely and correctly. In terms of a spiritual teacher, however, two schools of thought seem to have arisen
PUNAM GUDKA
on this subject, both of which are supported by valid arguments.
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A Jain education teaches compassion and self-reliance
Firstly, there is the concept of the traditional "guru" or teacher. The yoga student dedicates him or herself to a specific teacher whose aims and values they admire and with whose spiritual teachings they feel empathy. Within the last few years, the concept of "celebrity" yoga teachers has evolved. It is partly due to yoga's increasing popularity. Information about the practice and its exponents and teachers has become much easier to disseminate as access to the internet becomes more widely available. However, the unfortunate result is that a "cult of personality" has now become attached to certain yoga teachers. I sighed with some dismay recently when I saw publicity for a new British yoga book heralding its author as "one of yoga's brightest new stars".
Stressing the importance of one individual over another sits uneasily with the fact that the ultimate aim of yoga is annihilation of the ego and subsequent self-realisation. There is a disturbing spiritual inconsistency in the way that one teacher may be favoured over another solely because
Yoga Heals
they may be more well known. Another option is to rely on one's own "inner teacher". For practitioners already engaged in regular prayer or meditation practice and who are secure in the teachings of their own tradition, the concept of the inner teacher may well be more accessible and comfortable to work with. Certainly, if the aspirant comes to the practice with honesty and integrity, then that approach will work for them.
At the beginning you will need a teacher for instruction in the correct performance of asanas. By and large, there is no way of knowing which teacher is right for you without working with them, but all practitioners should heed and apply the usual guidelines for personal safety.
When we start something new or begin a journey, it helps to read as much as possible. A list of recommended further reading will follow, but remember this: Practice itself is the ultimate teacher. A worldrenowned yogi once commented that an ounce of practice was worth a ton of theory. How true that is! Here are some helpful, largely non-sectarian books which I hope you will find supportive in your practice.
Recommended Books on Yoga
How to Know God,
Swami Prabhavananda (Translator), Christopher Isherwood, (1996) Vedanta Press & Bookshop; ISBN: 0874810418.
The Yoga Book by Stephen Sturgess. Out of Print but soon to be re-published,
I believe, on 31 December, 2001 Robson Books; ISBN: 1843330903
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga, Joan Budilovsky, Eve Adamson, (2000), Alpha Books; ISBN: 0028639707
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga with Kids, Jodi Komitor, Eve Adamson, (2000) Alpha Books; ISBN: 0028639359
Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar, (2001) Dorling Kindersley; ISBN: 0751321672
Gillian Dunne is a Yoga Practitioner and teacher based in North London, and a keen subscriber of Jain Spirit.
March May 2002 Jain Spirit 27 www.jainelibrary.org