Yoga with Witold Fitz-Simon

Radiolab: Where Am I?

Witold Fitz-Simon — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:41:13 +0000

Radiolab is an excellent program produced for NPR that features lively and entertaining explorations of scientific and philosophical topics. In 2006, they aired a show about the mind/body connection, and included a fascinating segment on a man who suddenly and permanently lost his kinesthetic/proprioceptive sense. You can hear the entire fascinating program here:

Radiolab: Where Am I?

Startle Response

Witold Fitz-Simon — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:40:54 +0000

If the Alexander Technique is about one thing, it’s about negotiating the startle response. This is a reflex action we, all of us, undergo when faced with an alarming stimulus. It helps us to escape and protect ourselves when faced with danger. Most of us, however, live lives in which life-threatening danger doesn’t happen all that often, yet it is something we still have to deal with in one way or another on a daily basis.

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When Life Gives You Clouds, Make Your Bed Out Of Silver Linings

Witold Fitz-Simon — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:37:18 +0000

When I tumbled over the handlebars of my bike several weeks ago, I remember thinking, as I felt my kneecap get pushed sickeningly sideways by the impact, “Oh no, not my bad knee!” My right knee, the one I fell on, is the knee I tweaked in training when we were practicing lunges in my first term a couple of months ago. It’s the knee I tweaked going into Padmasana (Lotus Pose) without adequate preparation last year. It’s the knee I’m constantly banging into things day in, day out. Could this be a coincidence?

The very first time I had a problem with my knees was in my late twenties. I had been taking Mysore-style Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga for a few months with New York’s premiere teacher of the style. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is an extremely athletic form of yoga developed in the late 1920’s by Yoga guru Tirumalai Krishnamacharya for K. Patthabi Jois. In his book, “Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice,” author Mark Singleton describes the origins of the style in the performances created by Krishnamacharya to promote the physical practice of yoga during the burgeoning cultural renaissance movement in India at the end of the British colonial period. It’s a system of four set sequences of postures that become increasingly gymnastic as they progress. When I was studying at Jivamukti Yoga Center in the mid ’90’s, Ashtanga was all the rage and I followed the herd.

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On Thinking III

Witold Fitz-Simon — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:32:05 +0000

It is really extraordinarily interesting to watch the operation of one’s own thinking, just to observe how one thinks, where that reaction we call thinking, springs from. Obviously from memory. Is there a beginning to thought at all? If there is, can we find out its beginning—that is, the beginning of memory, because if we had no memory we would have had no thought?

We have seen how the thought sustains and gives continuity to a pleasure that we had yesterday and how thought also sustains the reverse of pleasure which is fear and pain, so the experiencer, who is the thinker, is the pleasure and the pain and also the entity who give nourishment to the pleasure and pain. The thinker separates pleasure from pain. He doesn’t see that in the very demand for pleasure he is inviting pain and fear. Thought in human relationship is always demanding pleasure which it covers by different words like loyalty, helping, giving, sustaining, serving. I wonder what we want to serve? The petrol station offers good service. What do those words mean, to help, to give, to serve? What is it all about? Does a flower full of beauty, light and loveliness say, “I am giving, helping, serving”? It is! And because it is not trying to do anything it covers the earth.

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On Thinking II

Witold Fitz-Simon — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:06:50 +0000

Normally the mind gets attached by seeing or hearing something. It is mainly through the eyes and ears that the mind goes out and gathers things to satisfy its desires. Before the mind is attracted to something it sees or hears, you should have discrimination to see whether that object is good for you or not. The mind should not just go and grasp as it wants.

Non-attachment should not be misunderstood to be indifference.Vairagya (non-attachment) literally means “colorless.” Vi is “without;” raga is “color.” Every desire brings its own color to the mind. The moment you color the mind, a ripple is formed, just as when a stone is thrown into a clam lake it creates waves in the water. When the mind is tossed by these desires one after the other, there won’t be peace or rest in the mind. And with a restless mind you can’t have steady practice. When you do something constantly, your mind should not be distracted by other desires. That’s why this sort of dispassion or non-attachment must always go with the practice. Any practice without this non-attachment can never be fulfilled…

The Vedantic scriptures say: “Even the desire for liberation is a bondage.” “Mokshabheksho bandhaha.” Even if you desire liberation you are binding yourself. Every desire binds you and brings restlessness, To get the liberation you have to be completely desireless.

Is it possible to be desireless? No. Actually, it is not possible. As long as the mind is there, its duty is to desire. It seems to be contradictory. But the secret is that any desire without any personal or selfish motive will never bind you. Why” Because the pure, selfless desire has no expectation whatsoever, so it knows no disappointment no matter what the result. But thought it expects nothing, it has its own reward. When you make someone happy, you see his happy face and feel happy yourself. If you have really experienced the joy of just giving something for the sake of giving, you will wait greedily to get that joy again and again.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras, Sri Swami Satchidananda, Integral Yoga Publications