{"id":188,"date":"2009-12-26T06:49:43","date_gmt":"2009-12-26T06:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writeon-yoga.com\/articles\/?p=188"},"modified":"2009-12-26T06:49:43","modified_gmt":"2009-12-26T06:49:43","slug":"martyn-jackson-on-teaching-and-the-direction-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writeonyoga.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/26\/martyn-jackson-on-teaching-and-the-direction-of-yoga\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTYN JACKSON on Teaching and the Direction of Yoga"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Keep in mind that this interview was done in 1988. \u00a0Yoga today has become quite a business in many of the ways that Martyn talked about over 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

Shelley Piser:<\/strong> <\/span>What direction do you think Yoga is going in the West?<\/span><\/p>\n

Martyn Jackson:<\/strong> <\/span>I feel a little nervous about it because I can see I feel that I had very good training at the beginning and I\u2019ve tried all of the years from then on to get yoga, to introduce Yoga as I was taught and not to sell it to people as something pseudo. Not that yoga is going to do this for you or yoga is going to do that for you. <\/span>Yoga will do nothing for you unless you\u2019ve got that self-motivation, unless you\u2019ve got that spiritual ability to be able to go within and not just to do exercises and just get a beautiful body out of it. <\/span>I mean some people, ok they will do that and probably that\u2019s the depth of what they understand yoga. <\/span>Yoga to me is something; yoga is very precious,\u00a0very precious.<\/em> <\/span>I feel through the practice of yoga, and understanding life better that it has pulled me through this sickness that I\u2019ve experienced in the last six months. <\/span><\/p>\n

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SP: <\/span>And it would change the direction of where you are headed now?<\/span><\/p>\n

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MJ:\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, I am sure it will. <\/span>Yeah definitely. If I am invited to other countries, then again I am not going to say, \u201cteach my method\u201d just \u201cteach my feelings\u201d Because yoga is nobodies, yoga is universal. <\/span>Yoga is there to lift yourself to another understanding. <\/span>Because, life is on different levels of understanding and each and every one of us are on different levels. So I am very fearful of the way yoga is going at the moment. \u00a0Although the association is good, the association is there to bring everybody together and get that understanding. But, everyone is fighting each other. <\/span>You know, putting themselves up, as \u2018I am the better teacher,\u2019 \u2018I\u2019m the better teacher.\u2019 <\/span>\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t do this, you shouldn\u2019t do that\u201d<\/p>\n

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You have got to work according to your pupils. <\/span>You\u2019ve got to work according to your feelings. As long as you are devotional to your practice, and then you are closer to the truth. <\/span>If you penetrate with each asana, with everything that you do like In pranayama, if you penetrate deeply then you will get more clarity of what life it\u2019s about and that becomes more truthful and that will give a better understanding. <\/span>And what you experience from a soul, that is truth. You can talk to other people and they will say \u201coh no it\u2019s not that way,\u201d but that\u2019s the way you<\/em> experienced it. If you feel good about it, if you feel, you know if you are doing something that is incorrect, if you are practicing something that you know is damaging then you shouldn\u2019t practice that. Penetrate it to the limit, and then you say, \u2018No, this is not right.\u2019 So you try another way and you feel, \u201cahh, this is it!\u201d <\/span>And if that penetrates you, then you\u2019ve got to bring it together that if there are pupils in your class and you talk to them and then they talk and the way they answer your question, you can see at what level they\u2019re at the moment. <\/span>That\u2019s the important thing,\u00a0knowing what level your pupils are at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n

SP:<\/strong> Do<\/span> you feel that the direction of Yoga is sincere in the way that the association [Iyengar] is driving it?<\/span><\/p>\n

MJ:<\/strong> <\/span>No, I don\u2019t think so. <\/span>I don\u2019t think that they really understand what is happening yet. <\/span>I think there are a few intelligent people like that out there who have the wrong concept of yoga. <\/span>I think they look at yoga as just a few exercises, standing on your head, shoulders and so on but I don\u2019t really feel that they understand the philosophy of yoga. <\/span>This is what I feel myself, personally. <\/span>And I feel a little nervous about the way it\u2019s going. <\/span>There are so many people being drawn to this wonderful art but they don\u2019t look at it. <\/span>They are not feeling, they are not sensing what yoga is really about and I am a bit worried about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

SP: <\/strong>What about for yourself. How does your own method of teaching the asanas which other Iyengar teachers would disagree with or have conflict with?<\/span><\/p>\n

MJ:<\/strong> <\/span>OK, that again comes into the medical side. <\/span>When I was younger, I always wanted to be a doctor. I was always wanted to be dealing with bodies and sometimes with the book system by Mr. Iyengar. <\/span>I am not saying he\u2019s wrong, he\u2019s not wrong at all because he is working very systematically but myself, I am not frightened to change them around. <\/span>As long as I work in a systematic way: <\/span>arms, shoulders, trunk, leg, lateral abdominal, and dorsal. I am still being effective with the whole body. <\/span>I won\u2019t follow a shoulderstand after headstand, not right away. Or I\u2019ll probably do a headstand at the beginning of class so that they are more stable at the beginning. <\/span>But occasionally I\u2019ll put a headstand at the end of the class to test their stability.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>If I\u2019m a teacher, I\u2019ve got to be creative myself, I can\u2019t rely on my teacher to be always around with me. <\/span>I love my teacher so much that his presence is there, and if I don\u2019t, if I am not satisfied with my teacher, I will talk with him about that. So he can give me suggestions. <\/span>But the day comes when you\u2019ve been, if a good teacher has taught you and you go back to him occasionally so that you are revitalized and you become creative yourself. <\/span>And then you\u2019ve got to begin to take over and your teacher goes his way and you go yours. You\u2019ve got to develop your method also. <\/span>As long as the basics are there. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like dancing. You do your classical dance and that\u2019s a foundation and that\u2019s a bank of knowledge as you\u2019re going along you can be creative, you can create another movement that you\u2019ve never did within the classical movement. So you can bring that new movement that you have brought. It\u2019s not a new movement at all. It is only because of your practice that you\u2019ve raised to another level and then you\u2019ve put your creation, otherwise you\u2019ll never improve. <\/span>You\u2019ll be at your teachers level. I mean you\u2019ll probably be better then your teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n

SP<\/strong>: <\/span>So this, in a sense, is a confinement that the Iyengar associations are creating?<\/span><\/p>\n

MJ: <\/strong>I\u2019ll give you an example now. <\/span>I did everything religiously that Mr. Iyengar taught me. <\/span>I wouldn\u2019t mention a word that hasn\u2019t been mentioned by Mr. Iyengar. I did that for about twelve years, especially with my Pranayama. <\/span>Religiously I would sit at a quarter to four in the morning, I had all of my things laid out all of the time. <\/span>No one else would ever enter that room; no one else would go into that room and touch. Twice a day I would do that. <\/span>I would sit for two hours solidly and practice my pranayama as I was asked to do and shown how to do in India with him. <\/span>Then, one day, I said, \u201cMartyn you are not progressing, you are getting your breath under control alright, but you seem to be stuck in the mud. <\/span>So, why not listen to your body and do what it wants to do instead of listen to Mr. Iyengar all of the time, because you are an individual, he is an individual. <\/span>His book is a guide, a textbook, just to give you guidance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what gets people mixed up. <\/span>They get the book and think that they must stick religiously to the book. <\/span>But that\u2019s wrong, that means that you\u00a0are going to stale-mate, you are not going to improve at all. <\/span>OK? Although you are teaching, You\u2019ve got a level of teaching for a certain level of pupils. But you\u2019re not growing yourself. <\/span>Your pupils are going to get to yourself and they are going to leave and feel that they can\u2019t get any more from you. <\/span>Understand? <\/span>So you\u2019ve got to be creative yourself and your teacher should respect that. <\/span>That\u2019s what I want. <\/span>I want pupils that will come to my level and then say, right, and pursue something more. <\/span>And still end up friends and able to communicate. God forbid for anybody to stay at one level. <\/span>I want to see somebody that I\u2019ve trained or assisted in training that\u2019s reached that sky-high, reached limit if possible. <\/span>That\u2019s if we can get that<\/span><\/p>\n

SP:<\/strong> There needs to be a new generation coming up.<\/span><\/p>\n

MJ:<\/strong> <\/span>Yes, this is right. But you must watch this Americanism and I am not saying that against you and it is the English as well. <\/span>But it starts in America. <\/span>It starts in California unfortunately, you know? <\/span>And there are people that mis-represent their teacher. They don\u2019t really understand. <\/span>I don\u2019t care how much I am talked about because people talk about me and I always get one more followers, you know, because people will come to me just to see who this person is. And then I teach in a certain way and they either hate me or love me. <\/span>Like Mr. Iyengar, they either hate or love him immediately, but that shouldn\u2019t be our concern. <\/span>Our concern is working the person; each person that comes to us as we feel that they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why I don\u2019t like to take General classes, because you can\u2019t give each individual what they need.\u00a0 <\/span>All you can give is just a general guidance and that doesn\u2019t suit everyone. Just one person in that class might be getting something out of it. <\/span>You\u2019ve got to have that individual practice. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to have that individual eye-to-eye contact you know. <\/span>Even if it is for just ten minutes at a time, that is worth two hours. <\/span>Five minutes in a class with eye-to-eye contact and just that little assistance is worth two or three hours every day. <\/span>That\u2019s what I feel bad about in taking big classes. <\/span>You\u2019ve got to have the big numbers to pay for the rent unfortunately. <\/span>If society was to say \u201cOK this is your life and you are doing a lot of good,\u201d if they were to say, \u2018Now look, we\u2019ll get a center for you, just a small center for you, and we\u2019ll look after you. <\/span>You\u2019ll have no worries of finance.\u2019 And I wouldn\u2019t ask for anything. <\/span>That\u2019s how I would love to teach. <\/span>I would love to teach where I didn\u2019t have any responsibilities financially, emotionally and all I want to do is to be there to serve. <\/span>And that\u2019s what I\u2019d like.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9shelley piser 2009<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keep in mind that this interview was done in 1988. \u00a0Yoga today has become quite a business in many of the ways that Martyn talked about over 25 years ago. Shelley Piser: What direction do you think Yoga is going in the West? Martyn Jackson: I feel a little nervous about it because I can see I feel that I… <\/p>\n

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