Śikśana - Discovery is an Attitude
This post is the second in a series about why we do certain practices at different stages in our life according to various Yoga and Ayurveda texts. My understanding of this is based largely on how it was taught by Sri Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar and then passed down to my teachers, Chase Bossart, Dolphi Wertenbaker and Guta Hedewig.
My previous post was a general overview of the three main stages of life/practice (śikśana, rakšana and adhyamika) and the fourth possibility of therapy (cikitsa) which might happen at any stage if there is illness or injury. It is a nice, neat framework for understanding where the emphasis might be in an individual’s practice depending on the context of their life. But, as we know, things don’t always line up so neatly. I think this is especially true when it comes to śikśana (pronounced sheekshana) practices.
If you look in a Sanskrit dictionary, you will see that one could translate the word śikśana as discovery or learning. This is why it is appropriate to fold it into the bramacari (student) stage of life. But, as anyone who has been injured knows, we can learn a lot about ourselves when our bodies are not working perfectly. Our limitations can be our greatest teachers. Is it possible to have an attitude of discovery or śikśana doing a practice that is cikitsa?
For me, the answer is clearly yes. But that “yes” throws a wrench into the whole system. That yes invites a world of other possibilities including that someone doing a physically challenging practice, what we would call śikśana, might have a cikitsa attitude about it (I share more below about what that could look like).
Things are getting complicated! But are they really? Maybe things - us! - are being liberated instead.
The Yoga Sūtra shows us that what is liberated is our seeing. An attitude of discovery is really important in this process - I’m pretty sure that it can’t happen without it. Throughout the Yoga Sūtra, we are pointed to the need to recognise, see into and shift our harmful patterns as a way of liberating our seeing. This is the heart of kriya yoga (YS II.1). The first sūtra of the second chapter tells us that we need to make an effort to shift, be aware of the patterns of mind that arise as we make this shift and not assume that we know how it will all turn out. If we approach practice with an air of curiosity, this becomes an invitation for something new to happen - we create a field where discovery can occur. For me, this gets to the heart of śikśana.
For years, I practiced Ashtanga Vinyasa in a way that was more cikitsa than śikśana even as I was wrist binding in supta kurmāsana and chasing after those fancier intermediate series postures. If I am honest, my primary focus was on making sure that the teachers could see me creating the shape of my most advanced posture so they would give me permission to move on to the next one in the series. Setting aside how messed up that whole system is, the point is that my attention was externally focused and centred on seeking praise and affirmation from my teachers. What was happening internally was a distant second in priority. It may not surprise you to hear that I sustained several injuries during that time. So, although I was doing śikśana versions of postures, my attitude was very narrow. There was not much space for discovery as most of my experience of the practice was centred on what my teachers noticed or didn’t notice each time.
I share this not to beat myself up about it. I was simply bringing my patterns that I used - often quite successfully - in life to my yoga practice. One could even make a good case that I was drawn to Ashtanga Vinyasa because is allowed me to strengthen these patterns so easily. We all do. It is impossible to suddenly compartmentalise certain patterns that are deeply ingrained (and often serving a very useful function in our life) just because now we are “doing yoga.” And thank goodness for that! It is exactly because we bring this mind or attitude to all that we do, including yoga practice, which makes it a place were we can safely discover new possibilities within us.
Lest you think that I believe only cikitsa practice offers us this opportunity, rest assured that I not what I think. There is a skillful way to use strong āsana and forceful prānāyāma ratios to create discovery experiences. It is what the Hatha Yoga Pradipika is all about! But most of us in our rakšana (maintenance) stage of life are not prepared for what that brings up. We need a slower process with time for recovery and rest. In my next post, I will talk more about rakšana, the stage that most of us reading this are likely to be in.
