John started the morning talking about how the days of the week correspond with different planets according to Vedic Astrology. Sunday is the Sun's Day, Monday is the Moon's Day, Tuesday is Mar's Day, Wednesday is Mercury's Day, Thursday is Jupiter's Day, Friday is Venus' Day and Saturday is Saturn's Day. Since today is Thursday we talked about Jupiter. Jupiter is alos known as Guru, or the heavy one. So we talked a lot about the Guru Principle today. It was fabulous day to reflect on studnetship and on our teachers and on the function of being a teacher.
John attempted to lead a strong backbending class this morning but he kept stopping to download other information- mch of it very useful and relvelant and technically delicious but not conducive to backbending like he had planned. It was kind of an interesting lesson in that he became a student of where the group's energy and needs were and he just followed that instead of going where he originally thought he was going to take us.
Many years ago he told me the secret to being a good teacher. He explained to me that every group has an implicit quesiton and an explicit question. He said that a good teacher is able to find out what the implicit questions of the group is and teach to that. I think that is what he did today. He gave lots of details and demos and really clarified some points and people were feverishly taking notes which makes me think that they were hungry for that type of nuts and bolts information.
John is also stressing that he is changing the way he is thinking about the certificaiton process. He used to say that everyone who entered the process would eventually pass and make it to certification. He flat out said that is no longer the case. He said, "Harvard gets 21,000 applicants a year and accepts less than 10%. We are the Harvard of teacher traning. Not everyone will get in." Direct quote. (So you Immersion people who I am making work really hard- just know that I am being so intense is because you need high SAT scores for this process...you really will thank me for it one day! That is, if you live to tell the tale. Kidding.)
Okay then- I practiced with him and the gang at lunch which was fun. (More backbends!) He told some great stories about his healing process over the last year and the clarity that has come to him since. He is really at a kind of different frequency than I have ever seen him. In one way, he is the same as always, but in another way, his focus is quite different and his interest within the same material seems to have shifted. Same stuff but he is presenting it with a different emphasis. So that is cool to just watch and roll with.
Also, Mira, from the Tucson kula was at our practice for a little while getting some help with her psoas and she told this story of John healing her from Valley Fever last year at the intensive. Really it was a remarkable story. I looked at John and said, "Is anyone writing this stuff down?" 30 years from now, this is the stuff of legends so if anyone is out there with a similiar kind of story make sure you are documenting it. (Or do like me-write a book!) Anyway.
The afternoon kind of sped by with a lecture on Ganesh and some forward bends and some Q&A. One cool thing was my friend James who lives in Tucson came by. He was a student of mine years ago in Prescott and is part of the Yoga Oasis family of practitioners now. It was awesome to see him and hear about the direction that his life is taking. There are so many people I am talking to whose dreams are jsut coming true right now. It is really a most excellent thing to watch.
Had a brief talk with hubby and with Anne and now I must post this so I can do some work before bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment