Kittens, Monkeys and Mysore

This week, I needed to compose a description of a session I will be teaching in India this December at the amazing Mysuru Yoga Utsava.  The theme of the festival this year is "Pranidhana," which is usually translated as "surrender." The word itself actually means "the act of placing/directing forth or down." Over the centuries, various yogic and religious doctrines have become attached to the word, and I discuss some of that in the clip below.

I am thrilled to have been invited back to Mysore for the third time this year, and I'm eager to see who shows up for my session. The audiences at this remarkable event are always very serious practitioners who are very familiar with the rich tradition and history of both Yoga and India.  Perhaps you'll consider a trek to India to join us there!

Here is the description I sent in:

It’s Really Hard Work Not to Work So Hard

Effort, Discernment, and Surrender in Yoga Practice

Patañjali’s kriyā yoga brings together tapas, svādhyāya, and īśvara pranidhāna: effort, discernment, and surrender. Together they pose an eternal question: “What can we change, what can’t we change, and how do we tell the difference?”

Drawing on the teachings of T.K.V. Desikachar, the traditional “monkey and kitten” approaches to surrender, and decades of exploring these questions through breath, anatomy, and and embodied practice, Leslie Kaminoff will explore with you the paradoxical truth that surrender is itself an act of will.

If we resist the change that is inevitable, we miss the change that is possible.

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