The term ‘advanced students’ is kind of a misnomer, if one defines ‘advanced
students’ as those who can grab their heels in chakra bandhasana or hold a
handstand without support. As teachers of yoga the definition or interpretation
of what is an ‘advanced student’ has a great bearing on the experience of
yoga for our students.
On a purely physical level, after two years of regular practice, I would expect
to see from students the kind of results one would expect to see from people who take up
some form of exercise e.g. increased strength and stamina, but also flexibility,
which most forms of conventional exercise overlook. An increase in body
awareness and maybe a bit more confidence, both on and off the mat. But to
try to measure the advancement of a student by asana alone would be
missing the point completely.
There are 6 series of Ashtanga Yoga, each
series including more advanced asana, but most students will never complete
the Primary Series. But this does not means that students practicing Primary
are any less advanced that those practicing sixth. It just means that the ‘edge’
of the person practicing sixth has moved quicker/further than the student practicing
Primary. It means they have to practice more advanced asana in order to
reach their edge. It doesn’t mean they’re any more of an ‘advanced
student’.
The classic texts state that asana practice is purely a means to enable the
student to be able to sit comfortably for a long time in order to meditate. If
one’s hips and hamstrings are tight and one’s concentration is lacking, sitting
still for long periods of time is unlikely to happen. So one could say that if one
were proficient at asana, then sitting would be easy, which would easily
enable meditation. But it is not just about stilling the physical body. You could
be the most flexible person in the world, but if your mind is not still and focused when sitting, what is the point? Gymnasts can perform amazing
physical feats, but one would not say that makes them ‘advanced yoga
students’. A friend of mine worked as a porter in a hospital and says that some
of the best yogis he’d ever met were completely paralyzed, unable to move any
part of their body.
The more I think about yoga and meditation and the more people I talk to
about it, meditation in this day and age is absolute absorption in anything,
where time and space cease to exist; painting a canvas, playing a violin,
carving a piece of wood, even doing crochet! Hartranft calls meditation
“interiorisation”, the shifting of perspective away from externality toward an
interiorised point of view. From the outer world of people, things,
relationships; to the inner world of the attentional processes with which the
external is seen. Or more specifically, interiorisation is the growing sense that
awareness is not seeing an object per se, but instead observing a
consciousness representing an object. (Hartranft, 2012: 13) Once one gets to
this point, we’re getting nearer to being ‘advanced students’.
This interiorisation is a realisation and complete acceptance and
meshing with the matrix of the external world, which is a more inclusive and
comprehensible concept of the state of Samadhi, for the western mind. Once one feels
intimate with their external environment and realises their connection to every
other sentient being on the planet, compassion arises and with compassion
comes unconditional love, this is true yoga (union) and this is what ‘advanced
students’ experience.
The skill of the teacher is to accommodate and nurture each individual student and
their unique development whilst remaining true to the wisdom shared by
Patanjali. In my opinion, one can only measure a student’s knowledge and understanding of yoga
by the actions of that student once they step off the mat.
