Street Yoga

I started to take up yoga in May this year on a mission to improve flexibility and fitness: a form of cross training to counterbalance my stamina building and muscle building exercise routine (marathon training, trekking, swimming, trail running, free climbing, etc.) But in yoga I discovered something more than flexibility. I found my own thoughts and fears. Jung called it introspection: exploring my yin and yang, my id and my ego; the forces within you that are also in conflict at the same time.

In the beginning I would get frustrated if I couldn't get into a pose, or I could not balance, or even be able to do simple things such as take a lunge. I remember looking around at the other students to see how I was doing compared to them: "Good, I seem to be able to do this pose better than them" or, "Shit, why can s/he do this and not me?". And although I continued to improve and work hard at my yoga, it continued to be one of conflict -- love and hate, pride and envy.

Until I met the Street Yogis.

Every evening when I exit the toll gates of Musashikosugi Station, I encounter a group of youth engaging in free style dance practice that can only be described as a fusion of break dancing, yoga, and raw energy. The Street Yogis get together, stretch, move to the music as they please (almost in a trance), but most of all they are disgruntled youth that are united, and the way that they express their fear, anger, love, and loneliness is to practice this strange type of free style yoga on the cold floors of the station entrance.

No mats, no expensive nike wear, just their bodies and pure soul.... They are united, and flow as one.

Perhaps I need to learn a lesson in life, one which I have forgotten through cynicism and age... These Street Yogis taught me to be at peace with myself, to reach enlightenment, and to move to the next level in my yoga practice....

Sometimes the answers that you seek are so simple.

the emperor's position, street yoga style

(post script: after meeting the street yogis, I met Dan and Ken who are my current mysore style teachers of Ashtanga yoga. Without the street yogis, I would not have met Dan and Ken. Thank you, street yogis, for guiding me to where I am today.)