Intelligence in Action
Yoga, Feldenkrais, & Self-Mastery
by Graeme Lynn, GCFP, CSTAT
Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. It was collated, coordinated, and systematized by Patanjali. Yoga is so called because it seeks, by skilful means, to unite or 'yoke' the individual soul or atman to Paramatma, the Supreme Self of which the atman is a part. Patanjali enumerates these means as the eight advancing stages of Yoga: yama (moral commandments: non-violence, truth, non-stealing, continence, non-coveting); niyama (self-purification: purity, contentment, austerity, study, devotion); asana (posture); pranayama (control of the breath); pratyahara (freedom from sense-based mind); dharana (concentration); dhyana (meditation); and samadhi (Realization).
In this article, I wish to briefly discuss asana or that part of the yogic system called Hatha Yoga, by which one keeps the body healthy, strong and in harmony with nature, and compare it to the Feldenkrais Method, which accomplishes the same by much different means.
Hatha Yoga addresses the physical body through asanas or complex poses or postures, which are combined together in intelligent sequences and mastered according to a certain prescribed form. This combination and mastery of asanas is the ground of functional health from the yogic point of view. (Organic health is addressed through niyama, purity via right dietary disciplines.) Generally, in the learning and practice of these asanas, some breath control is taught and a certain level of concentration is required. In addition, individuals who take up this kind of practice seriously, usually engage moral and functional self-discipline in most areas of their lives. Some also seek through meditation to disengage their attention from the agitations of emotional reactivity and mind. Unlike typical Western approaches to physical health such as sports fitness, aerobics, circuit training, and calisthenics, Hatha Yoga is thus laudably embedded in a spiritually oriented lifestyle.
In order to master any particular asana, there are a few working strategies used in Hatha Yoga practice. The beginning practitioner is shown the form of the posture, ideally by an experienced practitioner, which form the beginner seeks to duplicate. When one attempts this, of course, one comes up against the limit of one's ability. At this point, one will be directed to reach (beyond oneself), or try harder; release and relax; work with one's 'edge'; breathe through or into the stretch; use certain mechanical assists such as straps or pads and so on to approximate the posture and continue to work with it; or look for where one is holding and work to release that; or use another asana or part thereof to work more directly with the area that is not releasing. In addition, the combination of many asanas works as a whole to facilitate the mastery of individual asanas. All such approaches can be rightly described as direct: that is, one works directly with the form of the asana for the sake of mastery. By continual practice, the body becomes more limber, stronger, and aligned, which is the goal of Hatha Yoga practice. B. K. S. Iyengar, one of the great Yogis of the 20th century, says that, by these means, one 'conquers the body and renders it a fit vehicle for the soul.'
The Feldenkrais Method seeks self-mastery of the physical mechanism through the indirect means of using the complex learning capabilities of the human nervous system and the understanding of the body as a unified process.
The human nervous system is, as we know, an extremely sophisticated learning function. In an experiment done in an American teaching hospital, they took, in one case, a muscle-bound athlete, and, in a second, a stiff elderly man; and, under general anaesthetic, with huge care, moved them into various yoga-type poses with ease. The conclusion: there are no stiff joints or muscles; inflexibility comes from the nervous system. And so, you do not have to conquer the body but learn anew.
From the Feldenkrais Method's point of view, strength is derived from the whole body's musculature working together as one. So, any posture or action is ideally carried out with the conjoint use of all six hundred-odd muscles of the body. This conjoint use of all the muscles necessarily implies that those muscles not being used in the moment of action are spontaneously released or controlled. This ability to release those muscles not in use is the essence of flexibility, which is not thereby gained by work against oneself but rather by learning a unified coordination or 'self-organization'. Alignment comes from using the skeleton to support the body, which alignment is achieved and felt when the large muscles learn to do the large work and the smaller muscles, the refined work.
Movement is composed of a combination of basic functional patterns: bending, arching, twisting, turning, side-bending, sitting, standing, walking, reaching, and so on. What organizes or coordinates these movements is the nervous system, the greatest part of which is concerned with the sensorimotor functions, that is, self-sensing and moving. Clarified self-sensing is the very ground of right movement, because the sensorimotor nervous system is designed as a cybernetic-like feedback circuit, so that as self-sensing improves, movement likewise improves, and vice versa; that is, as self-sensing becomes truer, movement becomes harmonious with one's physical structure (thereby, by-passing pain) and rightly conformed to the mechanical requirements of the surrounding world (and so, maximally effective). The senses that we seek to re-educate and refine in this method, in order thereby to improve movement, are the senses of balance, articulation, felt movement, tissue pressure, tissue tension, and pain, the senses of embodiment, of the bodily self. Such refinement of self-sensing then facilitates improved self-organization in movement.
In the Feldenkrais Method, one explores, by one's own participation, basic and complex functional patterns through carefully designed movement sequences, and then synthesizes them in interesting ways such that one comes to feel oneself more completely, and thence to move more effectively. (These movement explorations also take strategic advantage of various neuromotor reflexes, which indirectly mobilize and integrate parts of a pattern, and so, parts of the body, by evoking the whole pattern.)
Take, as an example, the yoga pose, paschimottanasana, or sitting forward bend, which could be described as a forward bend at the hip-joints, the legs maximally straightened, the spine harmoniously lengthened, the forehead resting on the knees, the hands grasping the feet. From the musculoskeletal point of view, the muscles and joints of the spine, shoulder girdle, hips, knees, and ankles must all be capable of maximal flexion or extension; and one can 'work' to stretch oneself into the pose. From the point of view of awareness and control, one can playfully explore the patterns of flexion, extension, and twisting through sophisticated movement sequences, which will clarify (to awareness) how and where one bends, extends, and twists, and how one can do so in an integrated, harmonious manner. Such learning of a unified process of twisting indirectly lengthens the flexors and extensors; and learning of integrated flexing and extending clarifies the bodily means of forward bending. And behold, the asana is much more easily achieved! And this is accomplished playfully, because the necessary attitude brought to the learning process is one of exploration or play. This, in fact, is one of the hallmarks of the Feldenkrais Method. Instead of working on oneself - in real contrast, one is playing (with oneself).
The above description greatly simplifies the nature of a lesson in the Feldenkrais Method. The Method involves a complex of learning strategies, one principle of which is that the whole is the greater than the sum of its parts, or that from a combination of intelligently designed events 'emerges' a greater whole. Thus, not only will a lesson involve a greater complex of strategies but also it will achieve a greater emergent whole than merely a more easily accomplished movement or posture.
Of course, the interim goal of Yoga is, like many Eastern approaches, withdrawal from the body as a step towards union with the Paramatma, which is conceived as 'within and above'. Westerners, by contrast (and the Chinese and Japanese, to some extent), value bodily life. Yoga thus tends toward stillness whereas the Feldenkrais Method sees life as process and seeks mastery of that life process, what Feldenkrais called a potent self. However, from any spiritual aspirant's point of view, this idea of a potent self or power in life could be rightly regarded and used as the very strength that one requires for making the body a fit vehicle for the soul.
To schedule lessons, please contact Graeme in Toronto, Ontario, at 416-964-7026, or click to email.