|
Luke Meyer on Bikram Yoga
-
- John LeKay.
How and when did you discover Bikram yoga?
Luke Meyer. With how far this whole yoga trip has gone, I often wonder if
it isn't that Bikram yoga discovered me.
Esoteric speculation aside, here's the scoop:
-
- I was living in
Houston, Texas after a drug addled tour of Eastern Europe had left me homesick
and disillusioned. I really couldn't believe that with all my tattoos and talent, and my sheer capacity to consume mind altering
chemicals, that I wasn't famous in Budapest or Prague. Go figure...so me
and my girl at the time aimed for the most American part of America we could
think of. No more mineral water, no more not understanding words, no
more cold weather and certainly no more shitty drugs. We wanted sun,
English, beer, and strong, close to the border of Mexico, old fashioned, hard
drugs. Houston fit like a glove. It must've been only a few
months after getting there that we had already entangled ourselves into a fine
mess of a life. Squatting on an acquaintances couch, working day labor,
and, I would speculate, just a few nights away from a big O.D. I say big,
because the small ones were frequent and handled in-house with the trip to the
cold shower and a slap in the face. The start of the actual yoga classes was somewhere close to five or so years
ago. The journey probably began in another life...
-
-
-
JL. Can you tell me about
some of the psychological , spiritual and physical benefits of practicing Bikram
yoga and how you apply these benefits in your daily life?
LM. One of the obvious
benefits from Bikram yoga is just feeling good. This yoga has been proven
to reduce chronic pain in many areas that people in our stress filled lifestyle
find common. Many degenerative diseases and conditions become reduced and
in many cases remitted. Simply put, if you feel good physically, it will
make it a lot easier to be fit and open emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Now, it is not to say that someone who has physical limitations, illness or
injury cannot be well and balanced in an emotional, mental or spiritual way, but
really it is a lot less likely. Back when I started the yoga, due to
my recently relinquished, but nonetheless toxic lifestyle, I was beginning to
suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. When I woke up in the morning with
excruciating pain in my back, legs, hands and feet, do you think I was in any
way pleasant to be around??? no way. Now I am absolutely a-symptomatic
- no pain - no swelling. I'm usually in a pretty
good mood too...
But beyond that, there is the idea of
self study and realization. After practicing, especially Bikram yoga for
some time, the practice becomes a mode of self inquiry, self healing and self
actualization. I say especially Bikram because of the nature of practicing
the fixed series, over and over again. A friend of mine once said that advanced
yoga does not mean doing necessarily any "harder" or "fancier" postures.
Advanced yoga is deeper, more inquisitive work within any, even the same
postures. Simply by repeating the series over and over, as we do in Bikram method, one is automatically given the chance to do just that. I no
longer study postures. I study myself in the asanas. I examine my
way of being, who I am choosing to be, what is my overall nature, what is my
subtle nature. Where am I being absolutely authentic and beautiful, and
where am I being less than honest, and selling myself short. The asanas
become simply a medium through which I experiment being me, and from which I can
divine information to use to my advantage in my life. What triggers anger
for me right now? How can I better surrender to circumstance that is
beyond my capacity to control? How can I take greater responsibility for
myself? Do I seek comfort over exploration? What conditions trigger
me becoming lazy? What conditions inspire me? All of these types of
questions apply very easily to your life. After a time, even your day to
day life becomes a method of self inquiry, self study. It becomes a 24
hour a day, moving meditation, where the questions revealed in ones life and
practice are eventually answered and replaced through ones living and practicing
meditation. It becomes self perpetuating, even self creating and realizing
after a time. Every day answers a new question and reveals ten more.
Realization is an infinite process, it is a path, not a destination. You
do not become fully realized. You become fully realizing.
LM. Bikram says, "Yoga is the most
amazing, biggest subject in the whole world. It is the only subject where
the subject is not also the object. The object of yoga is not yoga.
The object of yoga is you, and you are infinite." And really, if you can make it
regularly to and through a Bikram yoga class, one of the most intense classes
around anywhere, then anything else will be a piece of cheesecake. I mean
how could a traffic jam even begin to compete with you hanging your torso upside
down between your legs, which are on fire, with streams of salty sweat pouring
up the nose and into the eyes, and trying to hear the instructors word over the
heartbeat pounding in your ears, 45 minutes through a 90 minute class... nothing
will be able to touch you. Again, to quote my teacher...
"Do my yoga everyday, and you will
become bullet-proof, money-proof, sex-proof, distraction-proof, everything-proof
and become like super-human, a holy yogi...."
JL.
Where did Bikram’s method of the fixed sequence of 26 poses derive
from and the amount of time each position is held? What is the benefit
of performing the exact same pose twice?
LM. The
derivation of Bikram's series began with his work in Tokyo. In the
tradition of age old Hatha yogis, Bikram was seeing "patients" with a
variety of conditions, injuries and illnesses. For each one, he would
"prescribe" a posture or postures in order to stimulate healing or growth in
whatever particular area ill affected. This method was effective, but
obviously had its limitations as far as the amount of people one yogi could
deal with in a day. After seeing the high incidence of physical and
mental imbalance in the west, Bikram knew he needed a way to treat more
people at a time. So he devised his series, a system of postures that
are scientifically arranged to move the body from one pose to the next, each
warming and preparing for the one that follows, and in such a way that by
the time you get to the end of the class every single system in the body has
been addressed, cleansed, stretched, oxygenated and overall put back into a
direction of relative balance right down to a cellular level. There
have been refinements over the years, such as the addition of heat (when
Bikram first started using the series he was in Hawaii, so there was little
need for artificial heat), but for the most part years and years and
millions of cases have proven the effectiveness and sustained benefit from a
regular practice of this method. There are literally as many testimonials
as to the effectiveness of this yoga as there are people doing it.
Everything from dealing with stress or depression, to weight issues, to
chronic degenerative disease such as diabetes and arthritis. For more
on this, go to
www.bikramyoga.com
and check out the testimonials...
LM. The timing of the
series is specified as well. Often what happens in a yoga posture is
the movement increases, or restricts blood flow to a particular area of the
body, even to a specific organ. By holding, and then releasing and
pausing we create what is known as the tourniquet effect, where the
resulting flood of oxygen and nutrients in the form of blood flow works to
deeply cleanse and heal the bodies less accessible tissues and organs.
Pause and repeat
makes this effect even more profound, as usually the second set of a given
posture, the body is more prepared, warmed and ready to do a little deeper
stretching, a little more compressing, a little further cleansing, and
accordingly a little more healing and regeneration.
As always in the
class there are multiple levels upon which we are operating, and the two set
system offers us another advantage. The simple process of repeating
the same posture immediately over again in the series allows us to take the
depth of our work in the posture to a new level, and perhaps see the
posture, and thereby ourselves in a new light, a unique perspective. I
describe it like this. Imagine you were to watch a short film, paying
close attention to how the film made you feel, what you liked, what was
funny and so forth. Then as soon as you finished, you rewound the
movie, reflected for a moment on what you got out of it the first time, and
then watched it again. Assuredly the things you would notice, feel,
see and even hear would be very different. After a time of practicing
this, one could even steer ones perceptions within the process towards
seeing and feeling things that we first would have never even considered
finding in the film. It transforms the simple act of watching the film
into a medium of self examination and realization. In this way the
class is again a perfect introduction to a way of meditation and self
inquiry.
JL. What are the reasons
and advantages of practicing yoga in a heated room as opposed to other yoga
practices in which many of the rooms are air conditioned? Also why the
carpet and mirrors?
LM. Practicing in heat offers a few distinctions, some of them
especially advantageous to beginners. First and foremost is the warming
and loosening of muscles and supple tissues such as fascia in order to prevent
injury or over stretching, as is more likely for an inexperienced person with
cold muscles and low body awareness in a cool environment.
The heat increases circulation,
speeding the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to all of the bodies cells,
promoting efficient healing and new tissue growth, even in some areas that are
ordinarily considered to be irreparable when damaged, such as the knees.
Heating the room also provides for a medium of removing toxins through profuse
sweating. The skin is the bodies single largest elimination organ, though
in our current, climate controlled environment and sedentary lifestyle, it is
rarely used. The brunt of the burden of detoxifying the body ends up on
the liver, lymph nodes, and the colon. Especially considering the
higher level of toxins being generated both externally, via pollution and things
like processed foods, and internally, via stress and things like depression, our
elimination system needs all the help it can get! Toxins building up in
our bodies create vicious cycles such as mutation (cancer) and chronic
degenerations such as Alzheimer's and arthritis.
The most important element of the heat
is a little less easily explained and grasped, because it is much more
individual and abstract. Heat is simply the addition of a form of
energy. More energy ups the stakes, so to speak, and accelerates catharsis on
every level. View anything that happens in the class on the physical
plane also to be a beautiful metaphor for what happens on the esoteric, or
metaphysical level. The two things are after all indivisible, they are the
same thing. That is why I have come to call Bikram yoga a uniquely "wholeistic"
practice. It approaches the whole being. The physical things become
manifest on many other levels. Just look at the few we have already
listed, and view them in this way. Increased flexibility (becoming more open),
increased circulation (greater flow of life to all of the being), detoxification
(letting go of inhibiting patterns). I am sure this list is
customized for each of us and the unique intuitive experience that each of us
has or will have in doing this yoga over time.
Critics of the heat need to keep in mind that most every yoga promotes warming
the muscles in some fashion or another, either through pranyama or slowly moving
into a series. In Bikram yoga we cut right to the chase after two sets of
pranyama deep breathing, which, when combined with the heat amply warm the body
very quickly. I always like to remind people too, where yoga came from,
and was practiced for time immemorial. That's right, India, where it
is pretty warm as I recall, and most folks a thousand years ago didn't have
AC...
LM.
As far as the carpet, we do it because Bikram asks us to. I would imagine
his logic is simply to keep students from having a sweaty, slippery, hard floor
to work on. The subtle give of the carpet removes any impact one might
have from moving into the postures. I have also noticed in studios that
use hardwood a tendency for the moisture to permeate into the wood and start a
kind of rotting, sweat and wood smell.
The mirrors perform a couple of functions. They first allow the
method of teaching, where one teacher can instruct many (I just taught over 200
in L.A. at the teacher training) many students, with fairly consistent results,
as the way we are taught by Bikram and his staff to teach is in a way that
teaches people to self correct under the guidance of an experienced teacher.
Self adjusting is a very powerful way to repattern our physical and mental
being which is why Bikram teachers very rarely physically move a person into a
posture. We use touch only to draw attention to a location, not to move
it. We understand as Bikram teachers that the process of learning to get
into the posture is more important than actually just being in the posture
itself. To quote Bikram here, " In my yoga, the journey is the
destination..."
Also, while observing ones self
in action and in stillness, one has the opportunity to reflect. Remembering that
this yoga is wholeistic, it would stand to reason that self examination on
an apparently surface level could lead easily to reflections of another sort.
Self acceptance is one example of the many of these type of realizations that
come out of the "reflective" nature of the practice. One has to see who one
truly is in order that one reveal more and more of that person to oneself and
ultimately the world.
The mirrors also allow us as teachers
to really survey the whole room at all times, often seeing one student from
multiple angles, so that we can assure safe and profound work happening in the
class.
JL. What is it like owning the New York Chelsea Bikram Studios and
what advice would you give to someone thinking of practicing Bikram?
LM. Owning a yoga studio is like doing yoga. There are times
that are really hard, and you don't know if you are going to make it, those
times when you see all of the hard work and effort about to slip away. Those are the times
when you really need to focus and breathe, and try to step back and just observe
the self in action and in stillness, knowing that this moment will pass. There are
times when it is blissful and joyful, and a whole lot of fun. There is
stillness and repetition; I have folded about ten million towels and
learned to sit and be patient when there is nothing to be done. Everything
I have learned and observed from this process can apply to any of the other
processes I am in in my life. Indeed it is just one
of the planes on this multifaceted jewel that is me, all with a view to the
center, all reflecting that same purpose and state as well as being a window
into the heart of the matter.
Anything in your life has the capacity
of becoming this process of revealing, but it needs to start somewhere, and a
Bikram Yoga practice is a great starting point.
Do you wish to be amazing? Do you wish to be beautiful? Do you wish to be
strong, balanced, focused? Genuine, integrated, joyful, open, empowered,
clear, fit,
inspired?
Know this, you won't find these things in a book or pill or house or car or even
in another person. You can't find these things because YOU NEVER LOST
THEM.
You already are these things. You have just forgotten somewhere along the
way.
LM.
I am only here to help you to remember, the mirrors to help to remind you, the
postures to help you practice being these things. The yoga is already
there, it is the fire, the desire, the devotion that you will discover in you. It is not
gone, none of it, you will see. Trust me, I was there at the brink and I
came all the way back again. The yoga is already there, it always was, the
yoga is you, your life, your business, your relationships....YOU!!!
Bikram says, "It is never too late, never too old, never too sick, never too
broken, never too alone, never too lost to begin again."
It is not important where you start from, more important that you start.
You are the journey, and you will realize that journey more every day.
One more Bikram quote that I think
sums it all up.
"Every journey begins with the single
step...."
I look forward to meeting you all
soon.
Namaste
Luke.
For more info
about Bikram yoga visit
www.bikramyogachelsea.com
-
Photos
© John LeKay
|
