Is Mysore Full of Type A Ashtangis Trying To One Up Each Other?
New Mysore Blog to Follow, Stories of Spontaneous Combustion by Gabriela.
So, before the silence started, people were gathered on the steps to the rooms and introducing each other. One woman told me she was a hatha yoga teacher and I told her that I practiced yoga too.
“What kind?” she asked.
“Ashtanga,” I said.
“Ashtangis are dicks,” she replied.
I think I jumped a little. What a strange thing to say before starting Vipassana. In my mind, I thought of all kinds of comebacks, surely generating a load of fresh new samskaras. My favorite one was “Oh yeah? well hatha yogis are losers.” I imagined a street fight between an Ashtanga mara and a gang of other yogis.
Shanna Small
Shanna Small has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga and studying the Yoga Sutras since 2001. She has studied in Mysore with Sharath Jois and is the Director of AYS Charlotte, a school for traditional Ashtanga in Charlotte NC. She has written for Yoga International and the Ashtanga Dispatch. Go here for more information on AYS Charlotte. For information on workshops, please e-mail shanna@shannasmallyoga.com.
