On Saturday, I attended Jim Kallett’s second annual Bikram Yoga Posture Clinic. Besides being extremely knowledgeable, he is an amazing narrator, full of passion for the subject. I usually have a hard time paying attention for long periods, especially when the language spoken is English, because it’s not my native language. But I must say that the 7 ½ hour seminar flew by so quickly, I found myself wanting more.
It’s practically impossible to summarize in one post what we covered in the seminar but I’ll just scratch the surface. Jim talked about quantum physics, the unified field theory and how it pertains to yoga. He talked to us about Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda, the key figures in the introduction of yoga to the Western World. He also talked about Yogananda’s younger brother, Bishnu Garan Gosh (a well-known physical culturist, lawyer, doctor, engineer, philosopher, hatha yoga master) and his most favorite and devoted disciple, Bikram Choudhury.
Many people know about Bikram's life in great detail but I am summarizing for those who don't. Here you go, his life in a nutshell ( feel free to skip to the next paragraph if it sounds too familiar):
Bikram Choudhury began studying yoga at the age of 4. At 12, he was the youngest ever National Yoga Champion of India, holding the title three consecutive years. At the age of 17, a weight-lifting accident crushed his knees. The doctors told him he wasn't going to be able to walk again. Under the guidance of his guru, he created the yoga series and restored his health. Six months later, his knee had totally recovered. On his guru’s request, Bikram went to Mumbai to see a patient and soon became ‘the guru of Mumbai’, healing politicians and other celebrities. Later on, on his guru's request, once again, he travelled to Japan and saved the life of a member of the Japanese imperial family. During his time in Japan, Bikram also healed the Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. In 1972, president Nixon came down with an attack of phlebitis while visiting the South Pacific. Tanaka recommended Nixon to see Bikram. Few weeks later, with the help of some Epson Salts, massages and lots of yoga, Nixon was cured. Nixon offered Bikram an open invitation to come and live in the US. I think we all know what happened next. If interested in learning more, I recommend you read “Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga How the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fullfillment” (the red book).
Going back to the seminar, the lecture part was 3 hours "short". Here are some of the notes / nuggets of knowledge that I took (every single one could be a separate post) :
- "To become more human is to become more conscience" - JK
- “The mind is like a drunken monkey stung by a bee”. Meditation quiets the drunken monkey.
- If you don’t have fear of death, you will never die.
- Success in life comes from concentration (bring everything to a single point)
- Karma Yoga (your words, your actions, the reason why you are here) = Hatha Yoga + Raja Yoga (the mind, the king)
- Energy consists of nutrition and relaxation. The number 1 nutrient is oxygen. No oxygen for 2 minutes and you are gone. You gotta feed nutrition to yourself. How do you do this? Breathing.
- Take hwy 5 don’t take hwy 99. Build the neuropath. Lock the knee. Lock the knee. Lock the the KNEE
- What connects your body and mind? Your spine. The spine is the most important thing in human life.
- You can’t start a Cadillac with a Toyota Key. Bikram Yoga is the right key. We call it pissing in the wind.
- Western medicine emphasizes in surgery and drugs.
- “When one has become successful in asana then pranayama is perfected”
- You travel 6 inches all your life, from your brain to your heart.
- “Emma was born in a noodle factory in Milan. I was born in a steel factory in Chesfield” - JK
- Suffering Discrimination? The fight starts internally. The heart fights with the lungs, the pancreas with the kidneys, the thyroid and pituitary glands.
- Yoga is a tool. Don’t blame the hammer.
- Achieving is the easy part, maintaining is the hardest part. It’s a process, 3 steps forward 2 steps back.
- The 5 aspects of the mind are: 1) Faith/Trust in the process, teacher, yoga. 2) Self control/self-discipline 3) Determination / will power 4) Concentration and 5) Patience. It all starts with trust and faith.
After lecture, we had posture clinic for 4 ½ hours. We only covered standing postures as we ran out of time. At 5:30pm, we started class. Jim went through the standing series rather quickly and focused more on the floor postures since we didn’t cover them. I am happy, as he was able to give me a correction during locust pose, my most challenging at the moment. He basically lifted both of my legs almost vertical. It felt amazing. I wish I would had brought my camera with me.
I strongly recommend this seminar to anyone in San Diego. It was 10 hours of pure yoga bliss. By the way, this was my second year attending. The material covered was similar to last year's, yet so different. It's like the Dialogue, it never gets old. You always learn something new every time.
Namaste
This was 25 minutes, including picture ;-) Not bad !!
