Pattabhi Jois Memorial NYC, June 14, 2009

Entering Urban Zen for P. Jois Memorial

Jois the father

Jois teaching

Videos of Jois

Memorial

Sunday, June 14, ashtangis and the greater yoga community of New York City gathered in Donna Karan's gorgeous Urban Zen space in Manhattan's West Village for an evening of remembrances celebrating the life and legacy of Shri K. Pattabhi Jois. The white space was hung with long yellow scrims that caught the late afternoon light and brightened the windowless space. The black cushions on the floor were strewn with the petals of red roses, and garlands large and small framed sepia-toned pictures of Guruji at the front of the space. Food was served the back--delicious spicy popped rice with chutney, and samosas and chai. Four hundred people had RSVPd. Those who came were a good-looking bunch, with a lean, clean, healthy glow. Many had young children with them.  It was a grown-up yoga community, one that has weathered their initial zeal for yoga and matured into seasoned practitioners. Representing the yoga world were Alison West (Yoga Union), Leslie Kaminoff (Breathing Project), Michelle Demus (Pure Yoga), Hari Kaur (Golden Bridge), Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman (Urban Zen), James Murphy (Iyengar Yoga NY), Carlos Menjiva (Jivamukti), and someone from Bikram yoga. On the walls around the space, photos of Guruji, his family, his students, and his travels over the years played in a continuous loop. After Eddie Stern, Jois' long-time student, director of Ashtanga Yoga New York, introduced the evening, three Hindu priests changed a part of the Upanishads, 18 minutes of piercing, passionate sound meant to disperse the elements back into the world, to help Guruji on his journey. In the background of this austere music, was the sound of children chirping and playing.

"When a great person is born into the world, he affects everyone," said Stern. "Regardless of whether they follow his teachings or not."

Other speakers mentioned Pattabhi Jois' generosity as a teacher, the inclusiveness of his sangha, and his "sympathetic joy"---his availability to all who had even just a flicker of interest in trying yoga.

"He took complete delight that someone was growing through their yoga practice," said John Campbell, long-time student.Ruth Lauer-Manenti, a senior Jivamukti teacher, relayed the story of how she first went to Mysore to practice with Pattabhi Jois. "Sharon Gannon [director and co-founder of Jivamukti] had just come back from Mysore. She was thin, thin, thin. She looked kind of green and she had a dislocated shoulder. She said, Ruth, you gotta go. So I went the next day."

" 'Yes you can' was his message---it's what so many of us took from him," said Lauer-Manenti whose practice helped her to heal from a near-fatal car accident." He always wanted you to do your best, including making it to his birthday every year."

Jois believed---in fact, he lived the idea---that yoga is the science of transformation: 1% theory, 99% practice. Yoga is mind control: controlling your helter-skelter thoughts and practicing love (plus a 2hr, 6-days-a-week, demanding asana practice) instead. As he famously said, "Do your practice and all is coming."

Yoga Licensing Issue: My Update on Yoga Dork

I'm excited to have a guest blog post on YogaDork today! Yoga Dork is one of my very favorite yoga blogs out there, covering yogic issues with sincerity, humor, pizzaz. (Others think kudos are due, too: YD got a great mention in Yoga Journal this month!) Thanks, YogaDork!The issue at hand: as you know, in early May, New York State launched a smack-down on yoga teacher training programs, suddenly requiring them to apply for costly licenses, and to cease and desist services until all paperwork was done. Needless to say, there was a big freak out.Lots has happened since then. To get the latest on the licensing issue, the changing case of characters, and the power of unity in yoga, go to yogadork.com and read my post!Hasta la vista (and watch for more guest posts on YogaDork about the licensing issue).

How Cool: Yoga for the Deaf Foundation

Last week NY1.com reported a very cool story in their "NYer of the Week" column.Yoga teacher Lila Lolling, inspired by the works of Hellen Keller, got herself trained in American Sign Language, and now is one of only 20--that's right, TWENTY--people in the world who teach yoga to the deaf.(Another one is the inimitable Susan "Lippy" Oren. Amazing teacher and salty dog besides.)Lolling is shown in the NY1.com video (that I couldn't   figure out how to import) pounding on the floor to signal poses, waving a fan to wake students up, and even chanting OM with her deaf students. In class at East/West Yoga, the mesmerizing Alex Grey paintings on the walls provide a trippy backdrop.Lolling says that one of her goals is to create a dictionary of yoga poses for the signing community. Her foundation will also provide scholarships for teacher training for the deaf.

One student, Kat Burland, quoted in the article, says, "It's just totally visual, it's wonderful. And because of that I have relaxed and my total health has improved tremendously."

The video is really worth watching. Check it out here. Go NY1!

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois--The Big Memorial

On May 18th, one of the three biggest influences on yoga in the West, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915 - 2009), passed away in his home of Mysore in South India just short of his 94th birthday. This is no longer news. However, the outpouring of memorials and testimonials from every corner of the yoga world continues to be news. (Update, June 8: Pattabhi Jois remembered in New York Mag's Intelligencer section this week, too.)

From BKS Iyengar and his most senior teachers in the US, to yoga bloggers and more Americanized yogis (like Madonna? that link was to a blog called, "Absolute Madonna"), many have been paying homage to this larger-than-life man who not only exerted enormous influence on what has become Western yoga, but liked to shop on Canal Street and wear Calvin Kline breifs.As New Yorker writer, Rebecca Mead, said in her 2000 article, The Yoga Bums, Jois "is perhaps the last person you would expect to own a framed photograph of Gwyneth Paltrow." Jivamukti Yoga School in New York held a fire ceremony the day after his passing, led by the inimitable Manorma, followed by 12 days of continual chanting.

Tidbits from Guruji's biography:

The first Westerner (not an American) studied with Pattabhi Jois in 1964; the first American in 1972. In 1975, Jois and his son Manju made their first trip to America. His web site says that, "Guruji has, for 63 years, been teaching uninterruptedly this same method that he learned from Krishnamacharya in 1927." Tias Little, founder of Prajna Yoga, writes, from a workshop in Antwerp, Belgium: "His passing is indeed a considerable loss to the yoga world, for not only did he have mastery of the yoga asanas and have the shakti to transmit this extremely formidable and rigorous practice to all those who walked into his shala, but he was a master of the language underlying the yogic teachings. ... With Pattabhi Jois' passing not only do we lose a great hatha yoga master, we lose a solid link in the chain of direct transmission of scripture learned by heart."

Eddie Stern, founder of Ashtanga Yoga New York, who invites us all to join next weekend to remember his teacher, writes: "Among the great joys of the last years of his life was that he became reacquainted with his contemporaries, including Mr. Iyengar, Mr. Desikachar, A.G. Mohan, and Swami Dayananda.  In the spirit of the renewed friendships of these great yoga masters, we would like to extend and invitation to you, and to every yoga school in the NYC area, to come join us on June 14th, at 6 p.m., in remembering and celebrating the very great flash of lightening that was Pattabhi Jois.  In doing so, we honor the spirit of yoga which, in the scriptures, is compared to a great tree that provides shelter and shade to all who stand under it."

So here it is. Deets for the Big Memorial in New York: June 14, 6pm at 711 Greenwich Street in the West Village. Please contact Alexandra Seidenshaw (201-259-9933, seidenshaw@mac.com) to RSVP. Everyone will be there. Be there, too! Witness a piece of yoga passing into history. Tasmai Shri Gurave Namah Salutations to that GuruPranamah

YJ Conference a Whole Lot of Fun

Kraftsow teaching

Kraftsow’s Cakra chart

Gary Kraftsow w/ student

When I signed up for the Yoga Journal conference, I was sad knowing that I could only attend one workshop at a time. How to choose? Ana Forrest? Shiva Rea? Rodney Yee? David Swenson? But each one has been so good that I've forgotten any regrets. How could I think of anything else when Gary Kraftsow ---a man with sweet gravitas---is explaining the cakras? Gary Kraftsow Or, when Roger Cole shows us the four ways to stretch a muscle. It's more than interesting, it's riveting. (We did mostly hamstrings, which I've overstretched on this body.) Dive deep, bring up pearls.

I've also really appreciated the humor here---Judith Hanson Lasater is a firecracker sending hilarious (and too true) comments fizzing and popping around the room faster than a Catherine Wheel. ("I gave up the idea that you could make anyone do anything when I had kids.") She seems to instantly read bodies. Then she instantly---with permission---tells (or shows) the owner what's going on and how to work with it. Trust the body, she says, it's trying to tell you something. (She was able to tell me something about my stuck left pelvis---a puzzle that's eluded me for years.) Also a laugh a minute---who'd have guessed---eminent professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Robert Thurman. Buddha's First Noble truth? Life sucks! How to detach yoga students from their obsession with the body? Tell them to watch The Matrix or Star Trek.

Reasons to meditate on happiness for all beings? "If your enemy was happy, do you think he'd be running around enemying on you? You want him to be happy!" This humor would not resonate as well without presenter's deep knowledge and abiding passion for their subjects. And, I have to think, their fearlessness in the face of dark or ugly news: we're all going to die. They seem to get that, as much as anyone can. We humans are infintessimally insignificant.And their self-driven, but not (seemingly) self-ish desire to know more, be more, grow more, enter more fully into some nourishing mystery seems to help as well. Thurman: yoga's true meaning: to yoke yourself to ultimate reality (nirvana, bliss) and unyoke yourself from limited reality (suffering). The original purpose of asana: to get the body settled for meditation. This is not news. But it was fun to hear it from him. And in case you are wondering, Patanjali agrees with Buddha---life does suck!

MC Yogi at YJ Conference

MC Yogi

MC Yogi 2

MC Yogi Crowd Pleaser

Arrived skeptical, came away kinda impressed. MC Yogi rapped the story of Ganesh to the swaying, clapping, wooping of tired yogis at the YJ Conference in NYC.

Ana Forest Demo at YJ Conference

Ana Forest demo

Ana Forest demo 2

Ana Forest demo 3

Ana Forest asana demonstration: you wish!

Yeeehaw! Cow Girl Yoga

Cow Girl Yoga

Every year there are articles about doing yoga outside. I've written about it, too---as a detractor. B.K.S. Iyengar says we need a clean, open space, free of bugs and other distractions to practice yoga--this often does not describe the great outdoors! Flies and bees buzz around your head, needles and leaves fall in your eyes, creepy crawly things appear from the earth and then swarm your feet. On a New York rooftop, the noise of horns, engines, and shouting is often unnerving. But here's a kind of outdoor yoga I might get into: Cow Girl Yoga! In Montana! Horses! Meadows! Wildflowers! Smell of saddle soap! Big Sky Yoga Retreats in Bozeman, not far from Yellowstone National Park, offers 5 days in the wilderness to "improve your saddle skills" (hello!) as well as your asana practice and overall well-being. Photo by Larry Stanley c/o Big Sky Yoga 

BSYR says, "Imagine a week of yoga and horses - a girl's dream come true. Explore how both can put you in touch with your potential and teach you a lot about yourself. We'll practice yoga, spend time with horses, and kick up our heels in cowgirl-friendly Bozeman." (Sorry, guys. Seems like this fun's for girls only right now.)

First Cow Girl Yoga retreat of the year is May 31 - June 5. Followed by 3 more through the summer, as well as several long weekends. The only downside is the expense ($2,750 for 5 days, plus travel and car rental) and the corporateness of it. It is after all, Cow Girl Yoga™. And you know how the combo of corporate and yoga gives me the willies.

(But then they just go over the edge by partnering with Dude Girl ---an outfitting company for dudettes on horses and yoga mats--!)

Yoga Beneath the Whale

AMNH Whale

Not news so much as---wow!Take Adrianna Gyorfi, 23, entry level exhibitions travel coordinator at the American Museum of Natural History. Just got to New York. Landed a job. Doing yoga. Well, doing yoga beneath a multi-ton plaster cast of a life-size blue whale, hung from the museum's ceiling.

Care of the New York Times:

"Among her job’s perks: yoga beneath the museum’s famed suspended blue whale."

Here it is. Imagine: nose to nose.

Adrianna says: "I came here and I’d taken four yoga classes in my life; I’m not a Zen sort of California resident. I got a museumwide e-mail and signed up for yoga classes. We had it in the Hall of Plains Indians, but when we couldn’t have it there, we had it under the whale. That was amazing. It was after-hours and very relaxing."

After hours and extra super beyond terrestrial. Oceanic!

Upper East Side: Hands Off the Crackberry

Pure Yoga May 2009

Stress levels on Upper East Side are rising, the NYTimes reported on Friday. Impulse buying is down, as is luxury shopping. And while yoga is doing quite fine, thank you, bad behavior in classes is on the rise. Put that crackberry down, Suzie! The NYTimes reports from Pure Yoga, the Asian-inspired yoga boutique owned by Equinox Fitness: "Ms. Demus has been battling a growing number of people trying to check their BlackBerrys and take cellphone calls in the middle of yoga sessions. Her instructors “gently” tell them to switch them off and perhaps take a break from their worries. “It’s great for them to realize that the world will continue spinning,” Ms. Demus said, “if they let go for an hour.”Image: Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Or maybe it's the space-ship lighting at Pure Yoga making them frantic?

Ocean Breezes for Navy Lady

Paula Puopolo in old flight suit in her Florida garden

Photo Credit: Mackenzie Stroh

Phew, this one's heavy--with a happy ending.

From the Wall Street Journal. In the early 1990s, Paula Puopolo was a trained anti-submarine helicopter pilot rising through the ranks in the Navy. Impressive.In September 1991, she accompanied her boss to a military convention at which 200 fellow aviators---as a part of a sketchy hazing ritual---ambushed her as she came out of the elevator. They passed her from man to man, groping and fondling her in a drunken, testosterone induced hysteria. (Oh no!)Puopolo's complaints did not see justice done---in fact she was transferred and ignored until she went to the press. This was the early 1990s, remember. The military wasn't so willing to deal with sexual harassment and assault. Paula Puopolo meditating in her Florida garden, wearing her old flight suit. Military career ruined, Puopolo sued for damages. Though she ultimately won the case and a respectable settlement, Puopolo spent much of her life in tears, taking prescription pills. She suffered the defense attorneys' slanderous accusations as well as the hostility of her home town and naval comrades. That's when she started doing yoga. “I figured if I could trade 10 seconds thinking about my hamstring for 10 seconds worrying about the trial, it was a good swap,” she says. As the trial progressed, her yoga sessions grew longer: “It became a 90-minute window in the day when I didn’t cry," says Puapolo, in the WSJ.

Eventually, in 2008, she used money from the settlement to open Ocean Yoga whose mission is "to empower our students to find and explore their path to health and well-being so they may feel better through safe, compassionate yoga teachings. "Something she knows about first hand, I'd say.In fact, she says yoga---inspired by John Friend's Anusara Yoga---helped her stop taking medication and eased her anger at the attackers.  “The philosophy opened me up to the idea that I could really stop hating so much stuff.” “Everybody’s got a story, everybody’s got something that really deeply informs the way they move for the rest of their lives,” she says. “In yoga you can work through the story to your benefit, you can use it to rise up. But in the Navy, those events? Tough s—, keep moving.” "In teaching yoga she says she does much the same thing as she did in the military---strives to be "a good leader and to get the best  from the people around her."A tough row to hoe, but lucky students of Ocean Yoga.Hari Om Tat Sat, Paula.

Yoga Teacher: Speed Eater!

Cupcake eating contest winner

This is one of those can't-believe-it stories.Yesterday, a gorgeous, long-awaited spring day, Bay Ridge, NY's Ivy Bakery held a cupcake eating contest. Who won? A yoga teacher! How did she do it? Discipline! Focus! Metabolism! The New York Daily News reports: "Nancy Cummings, the first-place winner, said that her role as a yoga instructor gave her what it took to be the champion. "I am disciplined and focused and I can digest them faster," said the slender 31-year-old brunette from Bay Ridge, who dipped each little chocolate cake into a glass of water before shoving it whole into her mouth. "Yoga mama, you are all that and then some. Love the dipping strategy. Raccoon-like!

Love the Pink Jumpsuit

Bette Calman

Bette Calman2

Bette Calman 3

Bette Calman 4

In March 2007, I met Tao Porchon-Lynch, a 93-year old yoga teacher in Westchester. Not only did she teach yoga, she taught it at.... Equinox gym! Where she was a very popular teacher!  I took her class.  Though I could barely hear her whispery voice above the gym's thump-thump-thump, she was fascinating company.

Last week, Tao's contemporary in Australia, Bette Calman, turned up in the news. At 83, Bette is still popping into crow pose, lotus, and headstand. Doesn't she look smashing in that pink jump suit? And--great hair. Above, the honorable Mrs. Calman in peacock pose.London's Daily Mail reports, "While others her age complain about aches and pains, Mrs Calman focuses on getting tough balancing manoeuvres right..... She can also put her head between her knees and hold her ankles, putting her inflexible grandchildren to shame."Oh, those inflexible grandchildren! Call Bikram Choudry posthaste! (Yoga Dork reports on yet another oldy-but-goody--this time a 90-yr old yoga teacher, in Tom's River, NJ.)

Mine and TIME's--Too Close for Comfort?

Last Sunday, in a fit of paranoia, it seemed as if the Yoga Journal blog, Yoga Buzz, had scooped my post on the AskMen.com issue (whether meathead dudes should do yoga).But a friendly note from Yoga Buzz online editor Erica Rodefer clarified that it was just a coincidence. Great blogging minds thinking alike etc etc. Okay, that's cool.However, it quickly became clear that I had sensed the future (putting my yogic skills to work!).On Wednesday, April 15, Time Magazine's article on Yoga and Psychotherpay cited many of my sources and clearly drew from the story structure of the piece I wrote for GAIA Magazine in November 2008!!! ACK!Read and compare:  Mine and Theirs Too close for comfort? I thought so.I'm flattered to be imitated but this goes too far.For now, my complaint has reached the Time Mag health editor and I hope to hear her update on the situation this week. If journalists don't take pains to avoid stepping on each other's toes, what are we doing exactly?[UPDATE: Moving on from the toxicity of the situation, I edited the original post. After the sting faded, there were some interesting meta questions embedded here: journalistically speaking, must mainstream trendspotting rely so heavily on the legwork of others? As a friend pointed out, at what point does one venue's coverage become a stolen idea for another venue? Also implicit here is the question of what happens when yoga bounces into the mainstream? No longer rarified, what are the parameters of representation? To be continued...]

Yoga Clothes Go Starbucks

Yoga Army

After reading Yoga Dork last week, I have to admit that my love affair with LuluLemon must come to an end. It's embarassing. The clothing is so well made, lasts forever, fits well, breathes well, but it's just too trendy. When LLLMN set up shop in NY in 2006 (I wrote about it for TimeOutNY), I knew my time was running out. True to form, they quickly swept the city. As a Canuck, I'd already begun wearing their clothes in 2002, when no one here cared. (Vancouverites cared though; my friends called it attire for teeny-boppers. They couldn't believe I wore it; they wouldn't go near it themselves.) But now it's like I'm a freaking ad. It's just not cool. (And you can't black out that ubiquitous shiny silver logo, I've tried.)

Now, just to cement my fears, Forbes announces that Christine Day, former head of Starbucks' Asia Pacific Group, is heading up LuluLemon as CEO, making the standardized latte culture--standardized yoga culture link ultra clear. Uh oh.Forbes says, "Lululemon fits Day’s easygoing personality and seriousness of purpose. And, like the one-time coffee juggernaut, the yoga-centric clothing company focuses on cult-like customer loyalty; thorough, mandatory staff training on new products and customer service; and innovative marketing. "Sigh. Innovative, yes, but just a bit too clubby.Luckily at Easter brunch today I heard about Yoga Army, an LA-based yoga wear company. Only problem is, none of their dresses look like anything I could wear to class. Yoga Army is a "yoga look" for out on the town. "Yoga street," as one of my brunch companions noted. (But how "street" is a red-silk, one-shoulder dress at $594? Or a fringed-leather vest for $200?)Yoga Army was smart: it dispensed with the yoga.Not so for the LA labels Beyond Yoga (at the mind-bending URL, www.iambeyond.com), OmGirl (includes a T with a charity bent), all mentioned in Los Angeles Magazine, March 2009, where lifestyle and yoga creepily creep together.And once-small companies such as Blue Canoe and Hyde (Hyde has product endorsement from Deepak Chopra front and center on their home page) seem to aspire to similar ends as the now gigantic LLLMN---so does that make buying them just the same sin under a different label?(And speaking of labels, the price-tags on all of these organic, single-source, almost edible threads are s-t-e-e-p---no cheaper that the Big Lemon's.) So, what's a non-label-loving girl to do? Take refuge in American Apparel and call that anonymity? Wear Nike like a rebel?

Doga... Done.

I'm suprised that the NYTimes ran the Yoga for Dogs piece: this topic has been done, done, done. That's all I have to say. Doga in Seattle. Photo by Stuart Isett for the NYTimes

Men & Yoga: Lovers, Hater, Boobs

On AskMen.com, the relationship columnist and the fitness columnist duke it out on why men should---or should not---do yoga . It's a real-men-don't-eat-quiche kind of discussion with dumb-ass humour, dude stereotyping, and the assumption that men are compulsively two-dimensional. Both pro- and con- columnists seem to be protecting some faked-up fragile male ego that could be emasculated by words like "teacup" and phrases like, "how do you feel?" All pretty ridiculous considering that yoga was originally conceived by men for men. It just seems like these writers don't actually do yoga. Here's a quote from the pro-yoga, fitness writer Kevin Neeld: "Before we're tarred and feathered by women in leotards and men that own all of Yanni’s CDs, hear us out. We love yoga, but it’s a tool to be used for very specific purposes." Yeah, we know who's the tool here, Kevin. Also: "A well-designed yoga routine provides a great dynamic stretch and muscular activation series to use before other forms of training or just to mix into your day to get you out of a chair for a few minutes." Please don't call that yoga.

The anti-yoga writer, Chris Illuminati, relies on jokes that revolve around 1. getting some and 2. not getting laughed at by the guys. But he does manage to list four reasons why men shouldn't and don't do yoga (Yoga Journal, are you listening?). They are dumb, but they might be a little bit true:1. Real men don't carry mats. Okay, point taken-- I don't like to carry a yoga mat either.2. No man should bend that way. Illuminati writes, "A workout should involve the release of aggression through the movement of weights or the scoring of points." Should is a strong word, Chris.3. There are too many phrases to remember. "Men don't like to think."4. Yoga makes you look like a stalker. "Even if you are 100% interested in actually taking yoga, you will just look like the creepy guy in the back of class who might just be staring at every woman’s backside." Dude, see Ogden (last post).We've got all these issues covered, over here in the yoga world, boys. Which makes me wonder: what are you doing over there at AskMen?Oh, I know. Thinking about boobs."It might be a little more guy-friendly if the instructor said “bend over like you are picking up a quarter” or “react like you just threw your back out and can’t stand straight.” If an instructor is telling me to get in the downward dog after a tittibhasana, I’m just going to lie down on my stomach, because those words conjure up naughty thoughts, creating what is frequently referred to as the “living wood.”

Inappropriate Yoga Guy "Edits" Yoga Journal

To mark April Fool's Day, Yoga Journal sent out a fake press release announcing that Inappropriate Yoga Guy, the crotch-grabbing, breast-oggling liability called Ogden, would be installed for a 6-month editorship at Yoga Journal, the giant of yoga magazines. Of course, it's a traffic-driving spoof to get a younger demographic on to the magazine's site. It's also an ad for the 5-part web series on Odgen at the helm at YJ. View the laugh-out-loud trailer here:Beginning last Wednesday, the first episode of the series is available on the YJ Web site. See episode 1 here. ( See episode 2 here!) Notable excerpts from the YJ press release: "Tough times demand creative solutions. In a surprise move that is already rocking the magazine industry, Yoga Journal Magazine announces it has hired Ogden, also known as "The Inappropriate Yoga Guy," as its new editor.Ogden, the YouTube sensation, already has millions of fans who have watched him bumble his way though yoga classes, offending his female classmates and annoying those around him."Anyone who can dream up the cover line 'Yoga and Knives: What Took Us So Long?' is truly a publishing genius," says Patricia Fox, Yoga Journal's General Manager."It's no secret that in this economy, magazines have taken a hit. We are certain that Ogden's unique character and consistent record of thinking outside the box will not only increase revenue, but also bring tens of thousands of new users and readers to our website and magazine."With Ogden's high-jinx now front and center on the ultra-yoga corp's site, maybe we'll see a jump in the number of dudes doing yoga. Or, ahem, checking it out.(FYI about 700,000 more men were practicing yoga in 2008 compared to 2004, according to---you guessed it---Yoga Journal's own demographic studies.)

Enlighten Up! The Quest for a Story

“At teacher preview screenings so far there’s always someone who gets angry,” says Kate Churchill, writer, director, and producer of Enlighten Up! A Skeptic's Journey into the World of Yoga, a yoga documentary that premieres in New York on April 1, 2009.

By teachers, she means yoga teachers.

In 2004, Churchill, a die-hard yogini, chose yoga-skeptic Nick Rosen to go in search of answers to the questions many people ask about yoga: what is yoga? and what can yoga do for me? Kate directs Nick's quest, selecting places to visit, books to read. The journey becomes an accelerated initiation that progresses from first yoga classes in Manhattan to the homes and ashrams of sages worldwide. Both Kate and Nick wonder: will Nick shed his skepticism?

While there is also a lot of laughter at the teacher screenings, Churchill says, some yoga teachers think the film is superficial. “They think the movie is belittles yoga.”

You just want to say, lighten up folks.

Personally, I found the device (skeptic against believer) effective—and probably the best way to make yoga appealing to non-enthusiasts. Still, I wondered why Churchill didn’t make a documentary of herself searching for these gurus?

Churchill, who began making documentaries for TV in 1995, is a long-time yoga practitioner (4x a week under normal conditions, every day under stress). However naively (she says herself), some time before 2004 she wanted to find a truly enlightened being. This yogi would be the last word in yoga and would put her on a direct path to samadhi, or as the Buddhists call it, nirvana: enlightenment.

When the opportunity to make a film arose, she considered it a chance to find that being. The only tiny little teensy-weensy obstacle would be shaping her own quest into a compelling story, while using something -- or someone -- else as a subject that everyone could relate to.

When Nick Rosen, a 29-year old journalist, agreed to be her guinea pig, and executive producers (who she had met while practicing yoga in Boston) already on board, Churchill began what became a 5-year odyssey.  It wasn’t what she’d bargained for.

I spoke to Churchill on a Friday afternoon, a few days before the April 1, 2009, premiere (see interview following).

For full disclosure, I will say that Nick’s interview with Iyengar, the Indian sage, basically sums up my feeling about yoga (you can get the spiritual benefits from the physical practice; benefits come slowly for some, quickly for others, there is no rush, keep practicing) which gave me a warm fuzzy, feeling inside.

But I also had a few problems with the film. First, why was Kate being such a bitch to Nick? He seemed willing enough and, for a skeptic, pretty reflective. "We've been throwing around the word 'transformation' a lot," he says. A reasonable comment. (The yoga world often does toss out big concepts without defining them or even understanding them.) Still, Kate's not pleased.

I also wondered how any newbie would deal with such a fast-track to the yoga stars. In my first six months of practice, I was just happy I could do chaturanga with a herd of other sweating yogis. Flying around the world to meet the most influential men in yoga today could set the stakes freakishly high for anyone.

Lastly, I wanted to know more details from Nick himself about how his journey might have affected him—or not—in the long term. The film ended on a weak note. (post script, April 15 Nick writes his commentary on Huffington Post.)

Within the world of yoga documentaries and commentary, Enlighten Up! isn’t as acerbically insightful as Yoga, Inc, John Philps’ 2006 documentary on the entertaining contradictions of the yoga business. It isn’t as earnest as Gita Desai’s 2006 documentary Yoga Unveiled nor as funny as gentle mockeries from The Onion (see below), or McSweeney’s, nor as freakish as some of the stuff on YouTube such as  Kung Fu vs. Yoga.

But I enjoyed it. It was a humanizing look at a couple of impossible questions: What is yoga? We can’t really tell you. How can it work for me? You’ll have to find out for yourself.

© Copyright 2009, Onion, Inc.

Interview with Kate Churchill, writer, director, producer, Enlighten Up!

Yoga Nation: What benefit did you think you would get from Nick’s journey?

  Kate Churchill: I believed I was going to be exposed to encounters with these enlightened masters. In yoga, there’s a lot of talk of coming to a sense of peace and transformation—jivan mukti, liberation of the soul—I was caught up in the promise of yoga: if I could find the right practice I could get all these great benefits. At the same time I wasn’t on the line—the camera was pointed at someone else.

YN: At some point, it seemed you felt you had to push Nick to get him to say meaningful things. For example, later in the film, in India. What happened?

KC: In the beginning, I really thought this is going to be amazing to have this guy who is a challenge to yoga—he’s a really good writer and researcher—who would press hard and investigate. He’d bring his investigative skills to it—dig into and find great stuff. It began as a journey of mutual inquiry.

But through the journey, my expectations made me more and more antagonistic to Nick. I became more wound up and agitated about what was happening. Nick became more determined to cling to his own identity.

The relationship became more conflicted. I was not getting what I wanted.

At the time, we were learning really great lessons from yogis about letting go, about how no one else can tell you what to do, you go on your own trip. Yet there we were muddling along ignoring them.

YN: How does Nick think yoga affected his life? He doesn’t say much about it at the end.

  KC: What we tried to do with documenting this story is to ask, well, how do you think he changed? It’s open to debate. We like to let the audience decide.

YN: But the possibility of change runs throughout the film. I was wondering what Nick himself thinks of how he changed.

KC: Nick has said at other screenings that it’s inevitable when you step out of life and take a journey that it impacts you in many different ways, even in ways you can’t even recognize. I think the biggest was in starting to accept his mom….

He had a knee-jerk rejection of any spirituality. He associated it with his mom— she’s a healer. He moved more towards accepting his mom’s work instead of automatically dismissing it. He became more accepting of various practices that others are doing.

YN: How did making this film affect your yoga practice?

KC: When I started this film, I was bound and determined to find the one yoga practice that would work for me. What I realized is that no one practice that would work for me. No one had the ability to tell me what to practice, and I couldn’t tell anyone else what to practice either.

I had to go with whatever practice or teacher worked for me—and I couldn’t tell anyone else what would work for them either.