10 More Questions about Yoga answered!

Here are the most recent 10 questions I have picked to answer:

Q1. How long do you practice yoga each day?
Answer: About 10 minutes.

Q2. WHAT! Why not an hour?
Answer: The benefits of yoga are cumulative. Ten minutes daily is an hour every six days. It is far better to do ten minutes a day than an hour every six days.

Q3. But how do you stay fit with a ten minute yoga practice?
Answer: In the West, we think of yoga as a substitute for exercise. It is not. I ride my bicycle for 15 miles each day. It is so lovely! The caterpillars are everywhere right now. I also walk a lot. Yoga is not a substitute for an active lifestyle.

Q4. How is your approach is very different from all the other schools of yoga in America.
Answer: The yoga I teach invokes the 4 yogic cycles. We work with breath, movement, energetic movement of prana or life-force, and relaxing deeply into the asanas or postures.

Q5. If 10 minutes of yoga practice is sufficient, why teach a one-hour class?
Answer: In class you are under careful supervision and plenty of personal attention. When you practice on your own, your attention may wander after a while. You reach what the economists call diminishing returns very quickly.

Q6. How many postures should one perform and how often?
Answer: I would suggest 3-4 postures performed on a daily basis and yoga class at regular intervals to deepen the practice.

Q7. Other yoga classes are getting longer and longer. Two hour classes are now common. Answer: Students are told to make yoga their life, practicing for hours each day. By what authority do you contradict their advice?
Answer: I have absolutely no authority to contradict any other approaches. I am merely stating what I know of yoga through years of personal learning and practice. It is an inner knowing.

Q8. Why do you not follow any known school of yoga or why do you not create your own school of yoga and name it?
Answer: The so called schools are all made-up by teachers looking to organize. To institutionalize. The great Philosopher Krishnamurti used to joke about people finding the Truth and then the Devil helping them organize it. Forget about schools. Forget about trademarks. Yoga is free and can not be contained. My teacher is unknown in the West. He is very difficult to find even in India. That is how it should be. Everything else is what the ancient yogis called maya, or illusion.

Q9. What is your favorite posture?
Answer: Sitting comfortably cross legged on the floor.

Q10. Why practice yoga?
Answer: Only because it is so much fun! As Vanda Scaravelli (a great teacher who refused to create a school of yoga) said, yoga is like taking a refreshing shower!

A refreshing shower that keeps you young and beautiful and gives you the best sleep possible at the end of the day.