Category Archives: Kathryn Payne

The Relevance of the Upanishads in Teaching Yoga

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Alright, it’s Friday night, I just had a pint of espresso gelato, and I’ve got some Ingrid Michaelson playing to help me continue from the last conversation, how is the study of the Upanishads relevant to the contemporary study of yoga?

What role might the teachings [of the Upanishads] have in how you teach yoga?

First, I’d like to digress a bit and talk about how I came to become a yoga teacher. (Nikki Chau is taking the long way home… You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you? :) )

To be quite honest, I’m not exactly sure why I decided to come to yoga teacher training. Of course, I could cite a number of reasons, like my lame attempt at a joke in this reflection: the decision came when I realized I had wandered far enough into the woods to point out what a tree looks like (groaning allowed here), but not yet far enough that I could confidently describe to someone the lay of the land.

Some part of me was motivated to “be in the system to change the system” after I saw how … well… bad, gym yoga was, after taking one or two classes at my local 24 Hour Fitness. (I don’t mean to imply that all gym yoga is bad out there. One of my friends from yoga teacher training, Candace Jordan, is a fabulous teacher at 24 Hour.)

Well, I could go on, but you get the point. The reason, the *real* reason why I teach yoga, is unknown to me. I just responded to the urge to teach, but of course, how to do it, and how to do it effectively, would be something I’d learn over time.

The Foresighted Teacher

When I first started teaching, I wanted to cram as much information in the heads of unsuspecting victims… ahem, students, as much as possible. I had learned so much, so so much, and I was more than excited to share it all! I was that overzealous teacher that talked too much (and still do) about the hands and shoulders and shoulder blades in Downward Facing Dog and the gastrocnemius in Warrior I and blah blah blah, off I’d go.

My first lesson on being the far-sighted teacher is from Kathryn Payne and the story of Indra and Virochana in the Chandogya Upanishad. The two had been living at Prajapati’s house for 32 years before Prajapati asked what they were doing there. Thirty-two years! I don’t know if that was some sort of reverse dog years back in the day, but to me, that is a really long time to just hang out waiting for a teaching. Granted, they were going to learn the secret to obtain all the worlds, but still!

When Prajapati told them “The person that is seen in the eye—that is the Self”, and sent them away, Indra pondered upon it, and came back because he had more questions. And what did Prajapati say? He wanted Indra to stay with him for another 32 years! And on and on it went, for a couple more rounds.

“So it is, Indra,” replied Prajapati. “I shall explain the Self further to you and nothing else. Live with me another five years.” Indra lived with Prajapati another five years.

This made in all one hundred and one years. Therefore people say that Indra lived with Prajapati as a brahmacharin one hundred and one years.

When I first read this story, as a student, I stopped dead on my track of “I want all the answers and I want them now.” What is the position of the diaphragm in this and that pranayama technique? How do I know when this and that happens? When will I “get it?” (Come to think of it, I was probably one of those annoying kids that incessantly asked “Why?”)

Indra teaches me to live my questions, and as a student, not to expect all the answers handed to me on a silver platter, but my job is to take a statement, a teaching, and *think* about it, contemplate on it.

As a teacher, Prajapati teaches me to have foresight, to give students chewable and digestible bites, and in time, the students who stick around, who have the willingness and commitment, will learn the lessons on their own terms.

The Koshas and Ways of Looking at the Human Body

As you may have noticed, I am pretty concerned with the muscles and bones in the human body. In my first couple of classes, I got downright specific, saying things like: “lift your xiphoid process”, and “stretch your Piriformis”. It was the language I had heard in class, and so it was the language that I repeated. Luckily for me, my mentor Jean Massimo put me in my place, “You need to meet the students where they are”, and where they are is not straight out of an Anatomy class.

Having worked in the Technology industry, my mind has been accustomed to thinking of systems as individual components, and I would think of the human body as such: this bone here, that bone there, this action requires this muscle to stabilize and that muscle to be the prime mover, and so on.

This is all fine and good, Kathryn told me, and as a teacher, it is almost a moral obligation to understand Anatomy. And yet, there is more to the human body than just a bag of bones (sorry, Norah Jones), which I’m learning more and more every day from the Taittiriya Upanishad and the kosha system.

Besides the gross physical body which we can all feel, there are subtle undercurrents that course through, the emotional layer, the energetic layer,… all things that are just as equally important to direct our attention.

Chanting Om in Class

Once in the 200-hour teacher training, we discussed chanting, especially the Om sound, and whether or not we should/would do it. Would it sound too “religious”? Would it scare people away?

As the time, I didn’t feel particularly strong about one way or the other. (After all, there are other bones for me to pick. :) Har, har, har.)

After having read the Mandukya Upanishad, I have a much stronger conviction around chanting Om: that is, unless I am prohibited to do so, I will chant it, and I will explain as best as I can the significance of it. I believe that people are only afraid to do things that they don’t understand, and Om may seem mystical schmystical at first. Once someone is exposed to what it means, then they can make the conscious choice to do it or not.

AUM, the word, is all this, the whole universe. A clear explanation of it is as follows: All that is past, present and future is, indeed, AUM. And whatever else there is, beyond the threefold division of time—that also is truly AUM.

The Relevance of the Upanishads in Contemporary Yoga

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How is the study of the Upanishads relevant to the contemporary study of yoga, and what role might the teachings have in how you teach yoga?

These are the questions to an essay for my teacher training, and I keep staring at them and the blank space below. Some very childish part of me wants to say, “Well, it’s *very* relevant, and it plays a *big* role in my teachings. The end. Can I have dessert now?”

Needless to say, these are Important Questions to simmer on. (And I know how hard they are to think about, because I keep procrastinating by checking my Twitter and Facebook.)

I will always remember one day in my 200-hour training when my teacher Kathryn Payne prepped us for the study of the ancient texts. She prefaced by pointing out how prevalent yoga has become, it can now be found in high school gymnasiums and health clubs across America. You can now buy Om tanks and Shanti cami and Chaturanga pants from the GAP. I don’t know if they have it yet, but I’m pretty sure some car designer out there is thinking about an in-car yoga mat holder.

“And so,” Kathryn said, “it’s now more important than ever to study the roots of yoga.” (Yes, even beyond the wisdom of ancient Californians.) And so to the roots we go, waay back in the day, even before Patanjali’s time, back to the Upanishads.

How is the study of the Upanishads relevant to the contemporary study of yoga?

Before delving into this question, it’s helpful to define “the contemporary study of yoga”, and furthermore, the study of yoga in North America as I know it (contrary to the popular belief, it’s very hard to see Russia from here).

In the days of the Upanishads, life–in terms of basic needs–was very difficult. The caste system further imposed a sense of eternal condemnation, generation after generation of the same societal status. Thus, the desire was to escape the SSDD cycle, to pack up and fly away from all the harsh conditions of life. They certainly weren’t concerned with getting the perfect yoga butt.

In our time, the emphasis tends to lean more towards the physical benefits of yoga, at least in the early stages of Yoga Exposure ™. Modern comforts have brought modern stress, both on the body and the mind. As a culture shackled to physical perfection, we are hell-bent on getting bendy with the practice of the yoga postures. On the surface, it appears that (for some of us), the final goal is not some kind of liberation, but to look like the Yoga Journal cover models.

And yet, beneath the glitters of fancy stretchy yoga pants and the hottest (pun intended) trendy yoga class, the level of human neurosis hasn’t changed very much over the millennia. A quick look at any magazine newsstand will reveal that we are all still trying to find love, peace, and happiness, concepts borne out of our minds as a product of how we view ourselves and the world. Everyday on my Facebook friends page, at least one person will confess to wanting to be somewhere else, doing something else. The yearning to escape is still ever strong.

Therefore, since it addresses the very desire of all living beings to be free, the Upanishads have tremendous relevance to the contemporary study of yoga.

Now, let’s get more personal and specific.

For me, the study of yoga has evolved to mean the study of myself. This one little bit of simple realization may not seem very earth shattering, but it has been a long time coming.

The Identification with Material Possession

Twelve years ago, I was a scrawny 15 year-old doing yoga for the first time on one of those aerobics foam mat in a local mom-and-pop gym with a wild-haired teacher straight from Woodstock circa 1969. I did yoga, but I knew nothing about the philosophy of yoga, and couldn’t tell the difference between yoga, pilates, and stretching to save my life.

Had I truly understood yoga beyond “sitting with the soles of my feet together on Saturday mornings”, I would have perhaps sailed through smoother waters during the teenage years.

There’s a good chance I would not have identified myself so much with the cool clothes I couldn’t afford and who’s more “cool” to sign my yearbook, had I been as wise as Naciketas telling the God of Death Yama that fair women (or Leonardo di Carprio) cattle, horses, elephants and gold will not cut it.

But, O Death, these endure only till tomorrow.
Furthermore, they exhaust the vigour of all the sense organs.
Even the longest life is short indeed.
Keep your horses, dances and songs for yourself

Katha Upanishad, chapter I verse 26

The Identification with the Capability of the Body

In my early twenties, while continuing to attempt the yoga asanas in Power and Bikram yoga classes, I remained largely ignorant of the rest of the teaching. I was dedicated to doing yoga, and there was a time when I would go to class twice a day. I thought for sure I was progressing as an advanced yogi.

Like many other young women in our society, I had a dysfunctional relationship with my body, expecting it to look a certain way and do certain things. I’m pretty sure there was a part of me that badly wanted to look like the Lululemon ads.

I didn’t know then the story of Indra and Virochana seeking out the secret to “obtain all the worlds and all desires” from Prajapati.

O Indra, this body is mortal, always held by death.
It is the abode of the Self which is immortal and incorporeal.
The embodied self is the victim of pleasure and pain.
So long as one is identified with the body, there is no cessation of pleasure and pain.
But neither pleasure nor pain touches one who is not identified with the body.

Chandogya Upanishad, chapter VII verse 1.

When I started taking on the study of yoga seriously (at Pacific Yoga), I learned to notice my state of mind in the asanas, and then how to observe the unconditioned breath, I began to see what it means to “be the observer”. So *this* is the difference between yoga and aerobics, *this* is the difference between yoga and stretching.

By thinking of yoga as postures or breathing techniques or the practice of a  mantra, the most meaningful definition of yoga is easily lost. And what is said to be yoga is not actually yoga. It becomes the new thing that I’m getting right or not getting right.

There’s nothing inherent in a Sanskrit mantra or a yoga posture that’s liberating. It’s only yoga when the real definition of yoga is having an impact on the experience of the mantra or posture and each of these becomes a new type of experience, a progressively purer experience, freer from the intrusions of identity hoping for a good result, or fearing that it will not be reached. - Vyaas Houston

The Meaning of Om

Let’s say I measure my yoga maturity with my ability to do Hanumanasana, and let’s say I seek out fame and glamor, and accessorize with the latest yoga bling. Even if nothing else from the Upanishads is relevant to me or my yoga practice, there would still be one thing from the Upanishads that makes the study of yoga sweeter, and that is learning the meaning of the mantra Om.

“Om” is ubiquitous. Not only do we have Om tanks, Om tees, and Om incense, in Seattle alone we have a health club named Om, and a brand new dance/yoga studio named Om Culture. In studios across America and the world, somewhere, someone is chanting Om. I myself chanted Om for many years before I learned the origin and significance of Om, and my relationship with it has never been the same. I now make sure that I pause after each Om, to honor the silence from where all sounds come from.

He is the Lord of all.
He is the knower of all.
He is the inner controller.
He is the source of all; for from him all beings originate and in him they finally disappear.

Mandukya Upanishad, chapter I verse 6

The Relevance of the Upanishads to Contemporary Yoga

The study of yoga and Upanishads are complementary. I could sit and read and discuss the Upanishads until the cows come home, but it would be merely an intellectual game, it would not be lived and experienced. My physical practice has been an extremely useful tool to actually put the teaching to the test.

(Some would argue that you could just live the teaching of the Upanishads in “real life”, and I would agree that that’s the ultimate goal. I think of my practice on the mat as similar to musicians practicing the scales, or riding a bicycle with training wheels.)

On the other hand, I would not have come to the understanding of the different states of consciousness, I would not have discovered the meaning of Om on my own, at least not in the time I’ve been given. And that is where the reading and studying of the Upanishads come in to illuminate, to reinforce my practice of Hatha yoga and the rest of Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga.

Business of Teaching – Yoga Teacher Bios

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I’m reminiscing now, one late winter afternoon in my 200-hour teacher training, we sat around in a circle awaiting the handouts. The topic du jour was the Art and Business of Teaching, specifically, how to write your yoga teacher bio.

Our teachers, Theresa Elliott and Kathryn Payne, have been teaching for at least 20 years each, so they have seen their fair share of yoga teacher bios, and they handed out samples for us to read and peruse (“Names have been changed to protect the innocent” :) )

“Write about who you are and what you have to offer”, was their first advice. And please, don’t go overboard with the name dropping. If you didn’t hear it the first time, go easy with the name dropping. By the way, did we mention no name dropping?

Okay, so the exact details of how it went down may be a little different, but the one thing I remember most vividly is to be careful about who you say you “studied” with.

In my current 500-hour teacher training, we are required to apprentice with a Senior teacher, and at first, I wanted to go round and round and take a sampling of all the teachers in town. My advisor Kathryn gently put me in my place, “let’s be clear on whether you want to apprentice or just to check out someone’s style of teaching”.

I have now realized the difference between “being influenced by” and “studying with” a teacher. Kathryn apprenticed with Dona Holleman for three years and practiced with her for 10 years. (Okay Kathryn, I guess you could say that you studied with Dona Holleman :) ). If I just took a weekend workshop with someone once, and if they don’t even know my name or my practice, then no, I can’t really say I’ve studied with them.

Late last night, the magic that is hyperlinking on the Internets lead me to this funny and poignant post from Yoga Spy: Naming Names.

_____ began practicing yoga in 1989 while living in New York City. _____ spent several years exploring many different yoga traditions leading to years of study in the Iyengar yoga tradition with many of its master teachers such as Faiq Biria, Manuso Manus [sic], Ramanand Patel, Aadil Palkivala [sic], Joan White, Kevin Gardner [sic], Lisa Walford, Paul Cabanis, Marla Apt and Kofi Busia. _____ has also studied with renounwed [sic] teachers such as Judith Lasater, Donna Farhi, Dona Holleman and Rodney Yee. _____ was introduced to the Anusara tradition through workshops with John Friend and Viniyoga with Gary Kraftsow. In recent years _____ has been practicing Ashtanga yoga as taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, under the guidance of Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty. In the Ashtanga tradition _____ has also studied with Richard Freeman and the guru of Ashtanga, Pattabhi Jois.

Someone forgot to nudge this teacher and say, “Hey, you’re nobody without Jivamukti.”

Recognizing one’s teachers is a nice way to pay homage and to give prospective students an idea of one’s teaching methods. But it’s a slippery slope to blatant marketing and name dropping.

If I see someone list a dozen significant teachers (covering the panoply of yoga lineages), it verges on ADHD to me.

We are all influenced by numerous teachers, by reading their books, taking their workshops, and studying regularly with those in our own town. Indeed, I have taken many workshops with different teachers, some famous, but would I call them My Teachers?

P.S I would tell you who Yoga Spy is, but I’d have to kill you. (Not really :) , I myself don’t know who Yoga Spy is either, but then again, I don’t even know who “I” is sometimes…). Just rest assured that the Yoga Spy blog is much recommended both in terms of content and style.

P.P.S That last bit of Engrish is intentional.

Seattle Yoga News – Asana Technique with Kathryn Payne at Island Yoga Center

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If you’ve ever taken a Yoga Teacher Training from Pacific Yoga or a Sanskrit Weekend workshop in Seattle, you know Kathryn Payne. Otherwise, you may not have heard of her because she tends to fly below the radar, enjoying the island life on Vashon Island.

If you don’t live on an island (and yes, let’s forget for a moment that we all live on an island of some sort), the image of an island brings all sorts of images to mind: exotic, tropical, coconut trees, grass skirts, white sand, Johnny Depp (what, you don’t think of The Zaniest Pirate of Them All?)… and far, very, very far away, like, over-yonder far, which is what I imagined Vashon Island to be before I set foot on it.

Well, I’m here to assure you that Vashon Island is definitely not far away at all. It’s a mere 15 minute relaxing ferry ride from the West Side Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal, and it’s a great, great place to be.

Why all this praising of Vashon Island? Have I been hired by the Vashon Island Tourism Board? Actually, no, but I *have* been apprenticing with Kathryn Payne at Island Yoga Center on Vashon, and I just want to tell you about a class that she’ll be offering to refine your Asana techniques. There will be three sessions altogether on Tuesdays from 9:30-10:45AM. $15 each, $36 for the full series.

  • September 19th – Standing Poses
  • October 27th – Basic Backbends
  • December 1st – More Standing Poses

From the flyer:

This three-course series will focus on moving in and out of specific yoga poses. This includes refinement of techniques, understanding the components of the pose and feeling “from the inside” when a posture is accomplished.

In Standing Poses, Part One, we will pay special attention to the movement of the pelvis in triangle and extended side lateral pose. In addition we will look at the spine and neck movement in these postures. Have you wondered about that “pinch” in the lower back or pain in the groin? Or maybe everything feels fine, but you would like to refine the postures that teach us to stand and move with grace, both on the mat and in the world.

Kathryn is really awesome to study yoga with, not just for the Asanas but also Pranayama and philosophy from ancient texts (and I’m not saying this because she’s my Advisor and that she might be reading this… but then again, I’m really not above going for brownie points :D ). She’s got a way with using image and language to get you thinking about your body in really neat and interesting ways. And for context, she studied with Dona Holleman, whose students include the famous John Friend, and Vyaas Houston, the founder of American Sanskrit Institute.

So, if you can make it, I totally recommend taking a trip to Vashon Island and Island Yoga Center.

Seattle Yoga News – 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training at Pacific Yoga

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If you are looking for a quality Yoga Teacher Training Program, look no further than Pacific Yoga Teacher Training & Advanced Studies.

The next 200-hour training (PDF) is set to start on February 19, 2010, and ending on October 24, 2010. The program includes the studies of Yoga Asanas, Pranayama, Anatomy (gross and subtle body), Sanskrit, the Yoga Sutras, and the Art & Business of teaching yoga.

There’s an open house scheduled for Friday October 23

  • 5:30 – 6:00 PM – Meet and greet
  • 6:00 – 7:00 PM – Presentation

Teachers Theresa Elliott, Kathryn Payne, and Paul Bubak will be there to answer questions. If you have any questions for someone who went through the training, let me know (I might be a bit biased :) ). You might also want to check out my article on choosing a yoga teacher training program.