"For All Else Perishes"
In the fantastic movie ‘The Return of Martin Guerre’, at the end the guy gets burned alive for whatever (watch it!) but my point here is just the great pronouncement by the narrator as the scene pans away from the roasting: “We live by the spirit only, for all else perishes”. Preach it bro! That’s the subject of today’s segment.
More specifically, I was pleasantly triggered by an interesting post from my main Ashtanga teacher David Garrigues. He’s one of the very very few top yogi’s directly certified by the main master of the style in the day. You should sign up for his email to get the full story but here are some spicy snips from today’s post:
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“A student recently wrote me and said now that he was 50 he no longer could practice the way he had the past twenty years.
He said he loved his practice and didn’t want to practice for less time but he simply didn’t know what to do on his mat if he couldn’t practice the more advanced series. He wanted to know what he could do to retain the fire and tapas in his practice now that his body was more limited. I receive questions like this fairly often. The word age can be substituted with injury or tired or pregnant or sick, etc.
Here is my answer.
To continue practicing Ashtanga as I age, I’ve learned to celebrate complexity in simplicity. I’ve become intensely curious about the basic asanas and found many agreeable subtleties and challenges. Contemplating what constitutes right effort or right action when doing standing and basic seated poses or even Plank Pose has helped me discover a rule of practice and life:
the quality of my action counts for far more than merely acting.
This easily overlooked rule is particularly relevant when I consider that often the goal of doing a more advanced pose is just to do it or survive it instead of emphasizing the quality of my efforts. Thinking about my practice on a meta-level where I strategize and reflect upon my actions in order to bring more precision and truth to my actions represents a leap to a more advanced stage in my practice and its application to my greater life. Doing asanas becomes a means to understanding the greater philosophical context for the physical doings of practice.
The last thing he said in the email was that he was sad about his practice. I understand your sadness and I can tell you that for me, at 62 years old, even though there are days I pine for my 35-year-old practice, the discerning consciousness I achieve by delving into the subtleties of the more basic asanas is a more meditative, spirit-filled, and soulful experience that enables me to feel more connected myself and in communion with all life.”
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Wonderful teaching! So I want to comment on this whole topic from the standpoint of martial arts practice. Actually I’m not really talking about normal, athletic martial arts (which I’ve done plenty of) here. I’m talking about my thing, which is Internal Martial Arts (IMA). Athleltic martial arts like climbing in the ring at the Wild Card Club or anywhere in the world for 3 heavy gym sparring rounds with a highly ranked amateur, or the former heavyweight champion of Nigeria, or some super tough Latino street kid, or a member of the USA Olympic boxing team, all of which I’ve done and more, should really be a non-starter after 60. And that’s not due to limitations of speed, power or size etc. It’s due to the fact that at some point it’s better not to take chances with your brain, as that’s essentially what Western boxing is, a method of inflicting and avoiding brain damager. Fun but after 60, if you’ve seen Alzheimer’s patients on the ward - best don’t go there.
Here’s I’m really specifically talking about IMA, in my own practice in particular. This practice is closer to YOGA in some ways, in that it’s primarily self-training, working on yourself by yourself. There are some differences however in that we have non-compliant partner work. But there’s a point of overlap in IMA vs YOGA on this aging issue because there is a touch of athleticism or body demand even in IMA. Not like Judo or Boxing at all, not nearly that physically rigorous because it’s ultimately a non-physical thing (more on that below). But yes there are some demands on the physical if you want to seek them out. For example, you won’t see a whole lot of Tai Chi practitioners much over age 60 doing the Old Frame Chen routine, sampled here:
That was actually filmed when I was over 60. But it’s not the kind of thing most over 60 can or should do in daily practice. So I totally get the point that student was making in email to my yoga teacher above. In yoga there are lots of things that you kind of get (never perfect but) when you first learn them but if you don’t or can’t work them almost daily, you can start to feel them slipping through your fingers. For a really elementary example, there’s a super basic move in Ashtanga called the “seated jumpback”. Even though this is really early in the practice and occurs like 35 times in the First Series, many people find it challenging and even some Ashtanga teachers can’t really do it. I got that early and never had issues with it:
However, I can feel that I’ll lose it at some point. Like when Dave was pulling out rods to defuse the rogue Hal 9000 supercomputer: “I can feel my mind going Dave…” LMAO!
Or this kind of thing, levitating Hanumansana (front splits). I can still do this fine but - how much longer (I turn 66 on May 7th, this is my birthday post!)
Even this baby thing Baddha Padmasana from the (easier) ‘Finishing Poses’ isn’t something every over 60 can or should do:
Even in the super-mild form of Tai Chi that I practice and teach there are a few ‘moments’ which people have felt challenging, like my teacher’s teacher doing Snake Creeps Down, this:
I can feel for all that physical stuff above, whether Kung Fu or yoga, will all slip away sooner than later. And while I do feel nostalgic for it, that stuff is strictly marginal for a true student of IMA which I am. Why so? Because in IMA the physical is deprecated. It honestly doesn’t matter much (though it’s fun feel strong and flexible in daily life, I grant that and value it. But in terms of practice goals, all that stuff is totally irrelevant.
Grok this through your head: there is a non-physical and also non-mental power in the human. It isn’t an image or a metaphor or a concept or a theory or a mental hack or a cutesy cultural artifact or a symbol or a philosophy or a religion or breathwork. None of the above. It’s a real power that isn’t strictly mental or physical, but its real. THAT is what we chase!
When Takeda Sokaku was on his deathbed (physically incapacitated, in the terminal ward of the hospital in Tokyo 1943) he told visitors to attack him, in his bed, any way they want. They tried their best and he tossed them all over the room with the merest gestures of his hand. This is real. I experienced it with my own Tai Chi teacher when in his 70’s he underwent a very serious transplant operation. I visited him the day before the operation at UCSF hospital. He was hooked up to oxygen and IV and everything, could barely move in the bed. But he held up his arm and said “Move my arm” HONESTLY I tried everything. I respected him too much to hold back besides it was a teaching moment. I was like 40 years old, strong and fit. I wrenched, pulled, pushed, put my entire body weight on his simple curved/elevated arm (like the Tai Chi post “Ward Off” but lying in the bed). My entire body weight on it! I couldn’t budge his arm 1 cm. Then with an invisible, impalpable gesture - no visible motion in his body or arm - I found myself bounced off the wall of the room. I felt nothing except the sudden impact on the wall. Nothing I could do. No can defend. THAT is what I’m talking about in this post. THAT is our goal in IMA.
Nothing to do with all that physical stuff. But very few people, even as I’ve found advanced yogi’s who can do scropion and elbow-point forearms stands and chakrasana with back ankle or even knee grabs - they have no idea about this power. Yoga makes you feel great and can trigger the flow and glow of kundalini through the spinal nadi’s and spark up your head like a lightbulb. However, that’s not the same thing as this amazing non-physical IMA power.
And at any age you can toss people around with it, regardless of your physical condition. It truly is BEYOND THE PHYSICAL.
Back to yoga though, it’s funny that people feel ‘sad’ about losing their physical practice yet at the same time, yoga people always say “Yoga is just breath”. Well if that’s really the case why not just sit in sukhasana and do pranayama?
Anyway I’m just rambling here. I merely thought this whole ‘aging’ angle is a good probe that can highlight the difference between a physical orientation vs a true nei jing (內勁) - internal power seek! Of course, even with that angle, we never really transcend the eternal wisdom best expressed by Carlos Castaneda:
All paths are the same - they lead nowhere.
Woody Allen said:
Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as meaningless experiences go, it’s one of the best.
So I can say about this amazing internal power thing:
It’s a meaningless experience, but as meaningless experiences go, it’s one of the best.