Pinnacle Yoga, 99 Crosman Ter, Rochester, NY (2025)

04/14/2025

THIS IS MOUNT EDGECUMBE

It is located on an island off Sitka Alaska, and I think this is the view from town.

I probably first read about Mount Edgecumbe many decades ago in a poem or essay by Gary Snyder. Maybe it was some other writer, but whoever it felt it was maybe the most magical or mystical mountains in North America.

I often include a mountain meditation in my practice, and it’s often this one. I begin with a mental image of the mountain, feeling expansiveness, then go inside where it’s about solidity.

In yoga meditation we’re often instructed to move down out of the head, into the heart space, and it recently occurred to me that Edgecumbe is the perfect image for that. Wikipedia points out that it looks like Mount Fuji. I think it looks like Mount Fuji with the peak removed, exposing more of the crater. With a blanket of snow around the shoulders and direct access to the crater, the satisfying image helps me move easily into the body.

04/10/2025

My teacher, Francois Raoult, is celebrating 50 years of teaching yoga this June.
And he's already looking forward to his centennial!

There is a gathering Friday night, June 13 followed by a weekend of practice. Pre-registration is necessary and it may be pretty full already. But give it a try if you're interested.

Thank you, Francois, for you teaching and guidance.

12/30/2024

HOLIDAY RESTORATIVE
New Year's Eve morning

I'm offering a restorative class tomorrow morning to prepare you for whatever you're planning tomorrow evening.

9:30 to 11:00 (or later).

Relaxation and probably a little movement before.
$15 for non-regulars.

The photo is me in savasana in 2007. I think I still have that shirt.

Peace.

12/04/2024

LIVING IN TIME

It is often said that the present moment is all there is. That the past is gone and the future is not here yet. The intention of this statement is to bring us into the present moment, to be fully aware of what is happening now, rather than thinking about dinner or that stupid thing you said five years ago. More importantly, it emphasizes that anything you want to do can only be done in the present.

But the statement is also misleading. I consider it a sort of linguistic trick: the past “was,” while the future “will be” or “might be,” but only the present “is.” Voila—the only thing that “exists” is the present.

Of course, we live in time, and that being the case, ignoring the past and the future is not a good policy. Our current situation is the result of the past. As the common dictum has it, “We may be done with the past, but the past is not done with us. In fact, it isn’t even past.”

The yoga view is similar. The Yoga Sutra is largely about time, and insists on its reality. As
Sutra 4.12 says, “The past and the future have real existence.” The difference is whether they are currently manifested. In his classical commentary on the Sutra, Vyasa emphasizes that “All the three aspects of a thing are objects of knowledge.” Which in everyday terms is pretty obvious.

The mechanism is called karma. Everything we have ever done or experienced has left its mark—memories in the widest sense—and will affect us in the future. The traditional Indian view is that this did not begin with you, but is the result of a continuity going all the way back to the beginningless beginning of time. It’s the past that has made us what we are.

As for the future, one of my favorite sutras, 2.16, says, “Future pain is to be avoided.” A more literal rendering is “What is to be avoided is suffering that has not yet arrived.” The word is anagatam, meaning “not come.” I think of it like a train. The suffering is on the way. It really exists—if you look down the track you can see it—but since it’s not here yet you can avoid it. Step off the tracks.

The way to avoid the approaching trainwreck is not to deny the pain but to acknowledge all the past hurts (and joys, for that matter,) in a calm manner, and find a way to prevent them from continuing to cause suffering.

We live among joys and sorrows throughout our lives. The pain you suffered and the pain you have caused: that time someone hurt your feelings, what you said in response, that time you betrayed a friend, that person you injured in an auto accident, that thing you failed at. They all happened.

Through awareness and knowledge, yoga is a means to prevent the past from causing future harm. Ultimately, you realize you’re okay.

The good part is that while past pain is the problem, yoga tells us that it is also the solution. It is the accumulation of past experience that can teach us that there is more to us than our experience, that at our core we are free.

Of course this is all just philosophy. Practically speaking, the point is to understand the past and accept it calmly and honestly. And then to work equally calmly and honestly for a good future.

10/06/2024

Autumn is underway.

This year's fall session goes all the way to Dec. 18, with a couple weeks off.

Enjoy the fall foliage!

07/30/2024

REST OF SUMMER SCHEDULE

After most of July off, here is the PY schedule for the rest of the summer.

Classes at the usual time, Wednesdays and 9:45.

Two Wednesdays with NO class from now through September:
August 21 and September 18.

See you all soon!

07/01/2024

(I was sure I had posted this weeks ago, but apparently not.)

INTEGRAL YOGA HATHA

Integral Yoga is the system created by Swami Satchidananda, born 1914, and the organization’s headquarters is at Yogaville in Virginia.

My first yoga experience other than some reading in college was like a six-week session in Boston in 1976. I remember a quiet, low-light place and a calm atmosphere, but not much about what we did during classes. We probably did some chanting; otherwise my clearest memory is rubbing the hands together to create heat and then cupping the eyes with the palms. My only other Integral Yoga contact was a weekend at Yogaville about 2011, but as I was at a mindfulness workshop I had little interaction with the IY students.

Like most “older” yoga styles, Integral has a strong devotional component and emphasizes a healthy lifestyle. This twenty-four page booklet in small format (copyright 1979) is a brief introduction to the hatha component, barely touching on ethical or life-style elements.

It covers—
- Eye movements, including the cupping I mentioned.
- Sun salutation.
- Nine asanas—with an emphasis on backbends (no dog pose!).
- Six optional poses plus savasana. Triangle and nataraja are the only standing poses.
- Three pranayamas.
- A few chants.

Being so small, this booklet can only give the barest outline of the Integral Yoga approach to asana, and anyone wanting to go beyond a basic hatha practice would have to look farther. Still, for me it’s interesting to see what they include and what they don’t include.

07/01/2024

POPULAR YOGA: ASANAS
by Swami Kuvalayananda

Originally published in 1931, this is by far the oldest book I’m posting about. The author, Swami Kuvalayananda, is considered one of the first people to investigate the effects of yoga scientifically.

In a way this book does not belong in this group. It is not an introductory text, but a complete presentation of the physical aspects of yoga, grounded in both science and philosophy. In that sense it corresponds to Iyengar’s Light on Yoga.

By the way, the title does not mean the book is about poses people like. “Popular yoga” means yoga for the average person, as opposed to yoga devotees. Kuvalayanda distinguishes between yoga for “physical culturalists” and that for “spiritual culturalists.” In her History of Modern yoga, Elisabeth de Michaelis calls the former “modern postural yoga.”

The book begins with a thirty-page discussion of anatomy, which is followed by descriptions of nine “meditative poses” and sixteen “cultural poses.” The anatomical section feels both old-fashioned and pedantic, but it is good to remember that it was originally written for an Indian lay public close to a hundred years ago.

Kuvalayananda’s interest in the physical effects of yoga practice is seen in his comments on the “Therapeutical Advantages” of each pose. Many of them have to do with flexibility or digestion.

The Kaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center, which he founded, still exists in Lonavla, a resort town between Pune and Mumbai. The grounds have an old-fashioned Indian institute feel, and they are still doing research into various aspects of yoga and health. When I visited, the person I spoke with was not particularly friendly. My guess was that they aren’t used to having people wander in off the street, but when I told them I wanted to buy a couple books they became much more welcoming.

Popular Yoga: Asanas is interesting primarily from the historical point of view. It is definitely outdated, but even so it is worthwhile to consider the contents in their own right.

06/14/2024

Richard Hittleman’s INTRODUCTION TO YOGA

I had never heard of Richard Hittleman when I picked up his Introduction to Yoga at a garage sale some years back. It turns out he was a well-known (for the time) television yogi in the 1960’s and 70’s.

According to Wikipedia, Hittleman was a student of the famous master Ramana Maharshi, and his goal was to realize God (=atman) through “meditation and other yoga techniques.”

Introduction to Yoga is a mass-market paperback, copyright 1969, which covers asana and breath techniques. It describes 31 elementary poses and techniques, followed by over twenty intermediate ones, with generous illustrations. Other aspects of yoga are covered in other Hittleman books.

My overall impression of this book is sixties weirdness. The costumes, the style of photography, and the models’ general appearance are from a different time. The female model in particular looks like some alien seductress from Star Trek (did they have such characters on Star Trek?).

More seriously, the asanas themselves are very different, most obviously in the forward bends. Modern approaches tend to avoid rounding the upper back as long as possible. In this book it appears to be all about rounding the back.

In addition, Hittleman’s simple instructions are a world away from the attention to anatomical and physiological detail I am familiar with from Iyengar-style approaches.

This is not to criticize a book and a teacher that undoubtedly helped many people in its day. But things have definitely changed.

An interesting thing to take a look at.

06/03/2024

SIVANANDA YOGA TRAINING MANUAL

Swami Sivananda (born 1887) was a generation older than Integral Yoga’s Satchidananda. Sivananda was the younger man’s guru, and judging by their booklets, Integral Yoga is derived from Sivananda’s system.

Something I read probably three decades ago claimed that Sivananda was the most popular style of yoga in the world. I was skeptical, since as far as I could tell it did not have much presence in the United States, and with the development of flow and similar practices in the West I imagine its overall influence has declined. Still, there were and are Sivananda centers throughout the world.

The Sivananda Yoga Training Manual (copyright 1991) is another small booklet, but at 78 pages it provides a complete overview of the system, compared to the Integral Yoga booklet from the last post. One of the most prominent features of the physical practice is that it starts with twelve two-sided rounds of sun salutation.

Apart from a one-off class in San Francisco in about 2003, my experience with Sivananda came in 2004-2005 in Trivandrum, Kerala, where my wife and I attended class for a few weeks and then, when the class ended, hired a private teacher for a few sessions. As a lazy person, I was always intimidated by the sun salutations, but at the time (I was in my mid-fifties) it was not all that challenging, and I admit that there is much to be said for this energetic warm-up.

The book includes:
- “The Five Points of Yoga” (exercise, breathing, relaxation, diet, proper thinking and meditation).
- Descriptions of two pranayamas, sun salutation, and twelve poses.
- Advertisements for Sivananda books, ashrams, centers, and camps.

After the salutations, the asana section begins with inversions: head stand, shoulder stand, and plough (which as far as I know never come so early in an Iyengar-influenced class). My wife told my that our teacher in Trivandrum appeared impressed by my headstand (shout-out to Francois and Open Sky!).
After these inversions the emphasis is on backbends. Savasana is not mentioned as part of an “exercise” practice, and there are only two standing poses.

The book goes into some detail about the asanas. The most surprising thing is the approach to locust. I learned to lift both the legs and the chest off the floor, with the abdomen solidly grounded. In Sivananda, the chest remains on the floor and the entire back bends upward, so that the legs end up being vertical, or even inclined over the head—a configuration which looks totally impossible to me. It’s similar in the Integral booklet.

By the way, these descriptions of the various booklets are just that—not intended to comment on the value of the booklets themselves (you can put a lot more into 78 pages than 24), or the relative value of the approaches. It’s just a little sampling about what is or has been included in the field of yoga.

In 2004 the Sivananda Centre in Trivandrum was in an older, non-descript building. Today, the website shows an upgraded purpose-built contemporary center.

05/27/2024

BEGINNER YOGA BOOKS

Over the years I have developed a considerable yoga library. Many of my books are practice guides by people like BKS Iyengar, Donna Farhi, and Judith Lasater, who have been some of my primary influences. In addition to plenty of titles about yoga philosophy and history, along the way I have picked a variety of beginner books from other “kinds” of yoga.

To tell the truth, I have little knowledge of what people are writing about yoga these days, but now that I’ve been involved in yoga for thirty-five years I thought it would be nice to take a look back. Most of these are “pre-history” to me, in the sense that they come from the time before Iyengar yoga, Ashtanga, and power yoga began to have an influence in this country.

Here are four of them.

03/21/2024

SUPERMAN

Recently I’ve been paying attention to the upper chest in both practice and teaching: sternum, upper ribs, collar bones.

This is not the most important area for breathing, but we don’t want to ignore it, especially as we’re getting older.

While teaching pranayama the other day the image of the sternum as a Superman emblem came into my mind.

Another man with a mighty torso, BKS Iyengar was noted for his massive rib cage, as well as his powerful pranayama teaching. So when the image came up, I said Why Not?

The fact that Christopher Reeve as a quadriplegic became an expert in upper chest breathing makes the image even more appropriate.

Pinnacle Yoga

04/14/2025

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