Comments on: YogaDork Interviews Kate Churchill and Nick Rosen of Yogamentary Film ‘Enlighten Up!’

By: this is my real yoga « linda's yoga journey

this is my real yoga « linda's yoga journey — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:38:10 +0000

[...] all the yada yada about how old yoga really is (see discussion in comments), the name-branding of yoga and the Show Biz Yogi Lifestyle (TM of [...]

By: "I don’t know how old yoga is and neither do you" — part 1 « linda's yoga journey

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:37:46 +0000

[...] yoga REALLY is. elephant journal wrote about it here, Nick Rosen of the movie Enlighten Up! created controversy at YogaDork’s house when he said that the asana thing is only about 100 years old, and I added my two rupees here. The discussion about this question ran hot and heavy in the [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:26:18 +0000

When people say ‘yoga is only a hundred years old’ what they seem to be saying is that the physical exercises, as we know them today, most commonly associated with yoga in the west – not necessarily the philosophy, of course – are of that age. As they – in good portion – come from Krishnamacharya.

And the whole line of reasoning that “you can’t know they’re not thousands of years old” is true, but unprovable. So kind of rendered moot if you’re trying to discuss ‘the true’ yoga or the verifiable history.

What there is textual evidence for is that many common postures today were recorded as early as the mid 1800′s – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sritattvanidhi – [so 200 years] – and, in fact, Krishnamacharya cited this work in his first book. However there is also textual evidence he incorporated maneuvers from British gymnastics texts into his yoga as well. Yoga is ever changing and syncrestic, but Krishnamacharya influences arguably the majority of asana practices today through his students. And Krishnamcahrya’s yoga asansas appears to be a mix of older hatha traditions, exercises from the Sritattvanidhi, exercises from Indian wrestling and from gymnastics practiced by the colonists.

A good text on this is “The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace” by S.J. Sjoman. Yoga Journal did a good writeup on it here – http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/466?print=1

By: 5,000 years? « Cocco Yoga

5,000 years? « Cocco Yoga — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:40:30 +0000

[...] seek historical accuracy as well. Waylon Lewis at elephantjournal, Kate Churchill and Nick Rosen on yogadork, and Sadie Nardini at huffpo all have interesting posts about how old yoga might be. Hopefully, [...]

By: Sarath

Sarath — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:05:28 +0000

I have read the post and was surprised to see this particular quote about B.K.S. Iyengar combining yoga poses and hindu practices. All I can say is that my grandmother’s grandfather was a yoga practitioner and he used to do asanas, pranayama and meditation which he learnt from his guru. I do not know the details about his practice but it certainly points to a tradition more than 100 years old. Oh, and yes, he passed away in the late 40′s.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:39:12 +0000

welcome oh mysterious commenting one! so glad you found YD and that you’re on the way to finding your yoga path.
this theme is actually Thesis and it’s great to work with, I can attest.
please come back and visit often…the #yogadork community is an awesome bunch, and fresh perspectives & conversation are always welcome… even off-the-cuff, heat of the moment remarks
Thanks Bob for being the ever gracious gentleman you are and introducing the cyber sangha! You rock.

@yogadork on twitter

By: commentator

commentator — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:09:57 +0000

Thank you Matt and Bob:) I need to remain anonymous for now, but this blog is a great resource! I will google the gurus and where to find them (I knew most of them) and I am working on my own blog in the meantime. I’d like it to resemble this one. Anyone know which template, how to get started, is it wordpress? You can e-mail me for now. Blessings and namaste! A

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:47:44 +0000

Commentator,
My apology appeared above as comment #24:

“For what it is worth, I apologize to Nick for my off-the-cuff #1 comment (and name calling: “Shallow Hal” was uncalled for) . . .”

I don’t know where else you might be reading this, but let me serve as a warning to others that if you comment unskillfully in the blogosphere, your comments can be picked up and repeated (via syndication technology such as RSS) like digital bad karma!

Again, apologies to any and all that were offended by this.

Best wishes,

Matt

By: Bob Weisenberg

Bob Weisenberg — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:21:45 +0000

Hi, Commentator.

Glad you signed up for notifications so we can communicate this way.Thanks for all your additional thoughts.

If you are interested in more of the Yoga blogosphere (I don’t know how many of these you are aware of already, so I’ll just throw them all out) I recommend Yoga Journal Community, Elephant Journal, and the blogs listed on this YogaDork site and the bottom of my website.

Plus Twitter is very good for short communication under the tag #yogadork. Facebook is excellent for collecting and communicating with Yoga contacts, but there aren’t many group discussions there.

Bob Weisenberg
http://YogaDemystified.com

By: commentator

commentator — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:05:39 +0000

Thank you both! I googled Nick Rosen Yoga to see where things had picked up in the subject’s journey since I only saw the DVD yesterday. I related to his quest and I am on the same path and wanting to leave my job and NYC, I wondered if he was still in Colorado or had become a yoga teacher, what not, and found the NR: mama’s boy and yoga sponger comment and this article-that’s why I wrote NR, I didn’t want this to be picked up by a google search, now it may. And Matt, I saw no apology for that, just “Shallow Hal.” He has taken many name calls, Svasti too (whose amazing blog I just read, but let’s not ever cycle abuse) and never bowed down to that realm. On a good note, I think I decided to do my second yoga teacher training in India! I left the first because it didn’t click with me (OM), I thought my teacher was, as the one yogi said “dirty katie”, but others liked her. She wasn’t for me. My sister has been begging me to join her training in India but I was so put off by the “yogis” I’d met in that circle (I have a different spiritual practice), but after watching the film I realized. I just have to find a right teacher for me ( a non-offensive one, or several!) and all humans are just messengers of the message of G-d, the messengers can be off. I think there is still good to be found on the mat, and the messengers can of course be flawed. Me too. We are all flawed but let’s be conscious when we stray to the animal realm. It is a hard issue because as I wrote before we have warts and all and negativity, but I like the way Nick has handled it-with objectivity-and no name calling. A second good, I found this blog, which I bookmarked and like a lot. Last: I would love a list of these gurus and where to find them, especially the one who told Nick to “go fuck yourself”, he seemed amazing:)