While the ancient texts are valuable and interesting for some, they can often be interpreted in a way that serve more to confuse and confound rather then be of any practical use. Going about the activities of ones daily life is spiritual practice. Performing asana or studying ancient texts is only so good as it helps us in the effort of living. Reality is spirituality.
An authentic practice of Hatha Yoga takes place only in the context of ones life. The process of doing an asana is indicative of the process by which we live. In a pose, there is an amount of working the body that, with the breath, is appropriate in the given moment. The asana, and its benefit, will come about gradually without any injury or negative repercussion. If one is doing more then enough, the body will strain, the mind will tense, and the desired result is actually impeded. If one is doing less then enough, little or no action takes place. The same is true in Life. There is an amount of doing: jobs, apartments, relationships, all the things we do to make Life what we want it to be. There is also an amount of not doing, of just leaving it alone and not trying to make it any different then it already is. When we can find the balance between doing and not doing, Life is progressing and we are able to enjoy the endeavor. Some days you do more, some days you do less. It all depends on how you are feeling and what is happening in your life situation. “Advanced” practice is having the awareness to determine when enough is enough.I cannot agree more - in fact, I was having a conversation online with members of my World of Warcraft guild about the recent success I had just yesterday teaching at the local Lululemon.
(Yup, I play WoW.) One fellow described how he wasn't very good at all because his hamstrings are chronically tight and painful. I told him that pain is a warning, and that any instructor worth beans would encourage him to be gentle in any area prone to chronic injury, and that it is vital that HE HIMSELF not do anything to hurt himself. You can't put responsibility for your own body in someone else's hands - they can guide you, but if you are not ready to climb the mountain, then don't. You are the one in power.
I then described the idea of playing with one's edge - the place where stretch of exertion works right at the edge of your limits but not pushing past it into pain. Dabbling along the edge is where we seek growth past our current boundaries, but to maintain integrity of the whole, you must still care and defend them. Those edges are not just contained in our physical world but also emotional and mental.
I reminded him that he is not deficient as a person because of the limitations of his hamstrings - and while he LOLed, it is something that I have seen too often among my peers on the mat, practitioners who get down on themselves for not being able to do this or that pose. The same struggle happens with people getting motivated to workout or be active - they get down on themselves for not doing it before and so they feel bad and don't get themselves out the door at all. It too is an edge worth redefining.
So I encouraged him to seek a teacher in his city that he trusts (because one simply cannot assess somebody over WoW chat), and reminded him to be gentle with himself and his body as he explores new territory.
Safe journeys!
