Modern Yoga Practice from the perspective of the Embodied Self:

A Study of the Lived Experiences of Chilean Iyengar Yoga Practitioners

Bárbara Ayala Hannig

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of

MA in Anthropology of Health and the Body in the 21st

Century

Department of Anthropology

Goldsmiths, University of London

17 September 2012

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ABSTRACT

This research focuses on the practice of Iyengar Yoga, one of the most popular

forms of modern postural Yoga in the West. After presenting a brief description of

Modern Postural Yoga in general and Iyengar Yoga in particular, I review an

influential discursive approach to Yoga practice that considers it as a form of

complementary and alternative medicine. Although not focused exclusively on

Yoga practice, I consider worth discussing this approach, since I will argue that

albeit providing a critical analysis of the socio-cultural context in which Iyengar

Yoga is developed, its conceptualization of the body and the embodied self are

fairly limited. Based on a critique of the discursive approaches to the body, I will

present a phenomenological study of the practice of Iyengar Yoga in Chile.

Through the analysis of data collected in interviews and participant observations

with Chilean Iyengar yoga practitioners, I aim to explore the bodily dimension of

the Iyengar body techniques and the ways in which practitioners’ experience the

practice. I will conclude discussing the possibilities of this study of Iyengar

practice, showing that it complements the discursive approaches by allowing an

exploration of embodiment and its potentialities for subjectivity.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My warm gratitude to Annita, Tere, Ross, Nico and Pato

for supporting my journey

between desire and detachment

between abhyasa and vairagya.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

5. Introduction

8. Literature Review

16. Theoretical Framework

18. Methodology

22. Findings

34. Discussion

37. Conclusion

39. Appendixes

43. Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION

Postural Yoga practice has become increasingly popular in the last ten years in

Chilean urban contexts. The theme’s recurrence on national media and its

diffusion across different settings of practice such as gyms, health centres,

schools, colleges, community centres, private companies and so on, has

contributed to locate ‘Yoga practice’ as a known topic within popular culture.

Thus, students usually choose to ‘try’ the practice being previously recommended

to do so by friends, acquaintances and colleagues who have themselves

experienced its benefits, or directly by their doctor or psychologist who suggests it

as a form of complementary therapy for physical and emotional issues. Among

these practices, Iyengar Yoga method has been one of the most prominent, both

in terms of the number of its practitioners and its institutional spreading through

the country.

As a practitioner of the Iyengar Yoga method in Chile during the last 8 years, I

have been able to observe its process of expansion and legitimization. Chilean

situation is fairly similar to what is happening in other South American countries

(especially in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay)1 and in many European and North

American countries during the last decades. The growing popularity of modern

postural Yoga in the contemporary Western world has attracted the attention of

numerous scholars across the humanities, social and biomedical sciences.

Early analyses of postural Yoga focused on the classical Yoga texts (mainly

Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras and Hatha Yoga Pradipika) (Smith 2007). However, as

anthropologist Benjamin Smith emphasises: “a social and cultural analysis of the

practice of modern postural Yoga necessarily involves a study of Yoga practice and

the embodied experience of its practitioners” (2007:30-31, my emphasis). This

idea seems to be increasingly shared by scholars interested in the study of

1 Considering the lack of research on Yoga practice conducted in South America, this information

comes mainly from formal and informal interviews with South American practitioners and with

relevant figures within Chilean Yoga community (personal communication with Rishi Joseph and

Claudia Díaz, owners of YogaMukti Centre, 10 July 2012).

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modern Yoga, but it has not been translated into empirical research where the

literature about Yoga practice itself is scarce.

Acknowledging this, I propose a qualitative research focused on the embodied

experiences of Chilean practitioners of the Iyengar method. Using data collected

through interviews with 9 Iyengar practitioners, and through my own engagement

as an Iyengar practitioner and teacher, I will attempt to understand the popularity

of Iyengar Yoga in Chilean context from the perspective of the embodied and lived

experience of the practitioners. I will use phenomenology as a theoretical and

methodological orientation to explore the role of embodiment within the

practitioners’ experiences. In this sense, my research question will be: What does

Iyengar Yoga actually offers to those Chileans who regularly practice it?

I will start by outlining the practice of modern Yoga and its postural forms,

particularly the method of Iyengar Yoga. Then, I will present one of the most

influential approaches for its critical study within the social sciences: discursive

studies focused on the examination of complementary and alternative medicine

(CAM). Although not centred exclusively in Yoga practice, they include it as part of

a wider set of technologies, knowledge and practices aimed at the government of

individuals in contemporary societies. I will discuss this approach, considering its

possibilities and limitations in relation to the study of Iyengar Yoga. Together with

recognising its contributions for critically assess the socio-cultural context in which

Iyengar Yoga is developed, I will discuss its limitations in the conceptualization of

the body and the embodied self. Building on an already existing debate within the

field of body studies (cf. Blackman 2008), I will argue that these shortcomings are

the result of a limiting conceptualization of the body as a passive and malleable

object.

Afterward, I will present the culturally inflected phenomenology that served me as

theoretical framework and the methodological strategies that I used to develop

this research. In the section about findings I will try to describe both the bodily

dimension of the Iyengar body techniques and the ways in which practitioners’

experience the practice. In the discussion of the findings I will return to the

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literature review attempting to demonstrate how a phenomenological analysis of

the practitioners’ embodied experience can contribute to discursive analyses by

exploring new aspects of our embodiment that otherwise may remained

unnoticed. By the end of this dissertation I hope to have shown that a

phenomenological study of Iyengar Yoga practice opens up the possibility to

explore embodiment and its potentialities for subjectivity, an issue that is widely

absent in discursive approaches to CAM.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Modern Yoga and its Postural Forms of Practice

Within the emerging field of Yoga studies it is widely recognised that

contemporary forms of Yoga are the result of a transnational process of cultural

exportation, syncretic assimilation and acculturation between the East and the

West, particularly India and Europe (Newcombe 2009). In this sense, modern Yoga

should be regarded as a multiple and heterogeneous object of study that includes

“a vast range of embodied practices and a diversity of ideas about the meaning of

these practices” (Newcombe 2009:986). Despite this heterogeneity, the term

‘modern Yoga’ will here be defined as the “disciplines and schools which are, to a

greater or lesser extent, rooted in South Asian cultural contexts, and which more

specifically draw inspiration from certain philosophies, teachings and practices of

Hinduism” (De Michelis 2007:2).

Beyond the variety of possible linguistic, conceptual and performative usage of

the term ‘Yoga’, it could be argued that in the West, particularly in English-

speaking countries (where most of the studies have been conducted), ‘Yoga’ is

commonly understood as “the performance of Yoga poses (asana) within a

classroom format, or the same type of practice performed at home with the help

of books, audiovisual tools, or on the basis of one’s memory and knowledge of the

subject” (De Michelis 2007:3). In fact, this description coincides closely with the

practice of one of the most disseminated forms of Yoga across the West, namely

‘modern postural Yoga’ (ibid.). The latter, also known as Hatha Yoga, started to

develop from the 1920s onwards and since then have become increasingly

influential, particularly through the schools established by B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi

Jois and TKV Desikachar (De Michelis 2007). These forms of Yoga are characterised

by the practice of postures (asana) and breathing techniques (pranayama), with a

particular emphasis on the physical and mental aspects of the experience of the

practitioner.

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The Method of Iyengar Yoga2

The method of Iyengar Yoga is a specific form of postural Yoga created by Indian

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar and which has become “arguably the

most influential and widespread school of Modern Postural Yoga worldwide” (De

Michelis 2005 in Lea 2009:75). Drawing on his own experiences of a deep

engagement with Yoga philosophy and practice, B.K.S. Iyengar has developed a

sophisticated and systematized body of knowledge which includes detailed

descriptions of asana and pranayama techniques, their physical and psychological

benefits and the religio-philosophical underpinnings of the practice.

His teachings started to spread beyond India in 1954 when he first visited Britain

and taught a small group of practitioners (Lea 2009). Since then, his method have

become widely known through his various publications and participations in

international media, but also because of the creation of an international

programme for teacher training and accreditation (Lea 2009) which has allowed

the expansion of Iyengar’s teachings across 71 countries until now.

As a form of modern postural Yoga, Iyengar practice is based on the performance

of bodily postures (asana) and, to a lesser extent, breathing techniques

(pranayama)3, giving a clear emphasis to the “orthopraxy of postures” (Newcombe

2009:987). However, what distinguishes Iyengar Yoga from other forms of postural

Yoga is the way in which it draws special attention to the movement´s precision

and body’s alignment. Thus, the method prioritises quality over quantity of

movement and therefore encourages practitioners to hold the postures for longer,

in contrast to other Hatha Yoga methods.

Iyengar´s particular interest in the ‘correct’ performance of asana and pranayama

techniques relates directly with his ideas about the importance of health within

Yoga practice. Having himself experienced the therapeutics effects of Yoga

practice, Iyengar highlights the relevance of having a healthy body-mind in order

to explore beyond the physical dimensions of the practice. Concerned about the

2 More information about the method in appendix 3 and 4.

3 This has to do in part with the importance of having a certain preparation and expertise in the

practice of asana before exploring pranayama techniques. Iyengar Yoga classes are usually

distributed in 3 weeks of asana practice followed by 1 week of pranayama.

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importance of maintaining a healthy body to practice Yoga, he developed

alternative techniques by creating and using various ‘props’ (such as blankets,

blocks, belts and chairs) aimed to improve the embodied understanding of poses

and therefore to help gaining a better alignment and a deeper access to asana’

experiences and mental and physical benefits (Newcombe 2005:308). Props are

also commonly used to help people with specific physical, medical or remedial

conditions. By emphasising the quality of movement, the practitioner learns how

to work within her or his own limitations and to perform the postures in a safely

way without the risk of physical injury.

Nevertheless, Iyengar’s insistence on the orthopraxy of asana and pranayama

goes beyond the physical and mental benefits. As Lea have noted, the practice is

intended to serve as a path to enlightenment, “beginning from the materiality of

the physical body and working inward through the less immediately tangible

‘subtle’ bodies” (2009:76), in order to explore the authentic self and its essential

divine character. However, it is also worthy to remark that while the spiritual and

philosophical underpinnings of Iyengar Yoga are described in most of Iyengar’s

books, the oral transmission from teacher to student that take place within classes

does usually not include such depth of interaction.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Government of Individuals:

Yoga and Power

CAM has been generally characterised as practices that empower through a

discourse of holism, nature and authenticity that is usually contrasted with the

objectification and disempowerment methods of biomedicine. Nonetheless,

recent critical approaches have started to question the actual function of CAM in

the contemporary Western health context, asking whether these kinds of

practices are really liberating and empowering, or if they are another form of

power derived from hegemonic disciplines such as biomedicine.

These approaches, usually inspired in Foucault´s work, characterize CAM as

disciplinary practices where health is transformed “into a set of daily, internalised,

often pleasurable body practices bound up in personal identity work” (Barcan

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2008:15). In this sense, rather than being a rejection of biomedicine, CAM is

interpreted as a “new type of surveillance where the vigilance of external bodies

is supplemented to greater or lesser degree by self-monitoring, self-

‘management’, self-surveillance” (ibid.). CAM is perceived as a new and more

insidious form of power, “since it is pleasurable and seemingly freely chosen”

(Barcan 2008:18).

Discourses about holism, self-knowledge, authenticity, enhanced health and

responsibility inherent to these practices of self-making would be revealed as

producing a particular kind of autonomous subject, making us unsurprisingly

efficient, useful and ‘docile’ bodies, and therefore aligned with economic and

politic regimes. Following this perspective, it would be possible to infer that the

‘weekly Yoga class’ (mentioned as an example in Barcan’s analysis of CAM) could

be characterised as a prime example of investing in depth (searching for the inner

self through working on the outer body) and “of a widespread uptake and

internalisation of an injunction to manage one’s own health, which not

incidentally serves the efficient economic management of populations” (Barcan

2008:17).

Moreover, these approaches allow understanding CAM as both medical and

consumer practices. As Barcan says, “they are a form of surveillance medicine that

is also bound up in the individualism, hedonism and narcissism of consumer

culture, whose insistence on a healthy, youthful and ideally beautiful body gives

rise to a range of what Mike Featherstone (1991:182) calls ‘body maintenance’

techniques” (Barcan 2008:19). From this, it is possible to conceptualise postural

Yoga practice as a way of enacting modern ideals regarding individualism,

hedonism and narcissism, as it has been suggested for activities within the

alternative and complementary health context and the holistic and spiritual milieu

(cf. Aupers and Houtman 2008, Heelas 2006).

A similar critique of CAM is made by Fadlon (2004), who based on her

ethnographic study of CAM’s narrative and imagery of the body, argues that

rather than constituting a discourse of resistance to biomedical hegemonic power,

CAM is becoming part of it. By looking at the post-modern context of hyper-reality

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and at the new technologies and concepts emerged in contemporary biomedicine,

she shows that the notion of a ‘dematerialized body’ is not exclusive of CAM but

forms part of the cultural changes that point toward blurring the physical body’s

boundaries and addressing the virtual bodies (ibid.). In this sense, she argues that

CAM’s discourse of holism, empowerment and its notion of a dematerializing

body defined by energy do not represent a form of counter-culture or resistance

to biomedical narrative of the body, but rather a new mode of medical

surveillance, with paradoxical implications for the patient who has been

“empowered as a consumer while being further objectified by the medical gaze.

Others are still speaking for him, this time in terms which extend the scope of

medical control – from body to mind to the elusive fields of energy” (Fadlon

2004:84).

From these perspectives, it could be inferred that together with CAM, postural

Yoga practice (and Iyengar as part of this) would not be liberating practitioners,

but constraining their liberty by aligning their subjectivity with dominant cultural

discourses and economic and political interests.

These analyses of CAM provide a critical reading of the political, cultural and social

dynamics of the context in which this practice is ‘welcomed’, and offer an

understanding of the ways in which they are internalised through discourses and

practices. They reveal the connections between the inner and social world by

stressing the power mechanisms involved in the production of modern forms of

subjectivity. In this regards, postural Yoga practice would be an exemplary

instance of a self-making practice in the service of the promotion and production

of individuals oriented towards autonomy, freedom, responsibility and self-

knowledge. Thus, Yoga practice would be aligned with the logics of domination

through the production of an autonomous and free subject, responsible for

his/her life and wellbeing.

Barcan (2008) and Sointu (2006) have taken these approaches into account in

their analysis of the rise of the use of CAM, therefore pointing toward the

connection of these practices with contemporary changes in the conceptions

about health, the increasing medicalisation of life, the valorisation of a particular

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kind of self defined by autonomy and responsibility, the intertwinement of health

and fitness in consumer society, among other dimensions. This is undoubtedly

useful to be considered for any analysis of postural Yoga practice. However, by

looking at the wider picture in which alternative and complementary health

practices raise, these analytical perspectives only provide possibilities for a

general reading of Yoga practice, without being able to analyse the specific body

techniques and the embodied experiences through which this practice works and

makes sense to Western (and Chilean) practitioners.

In what follows, I will argue that Foucauldian approaches’ limitations have to do

with their disembodied character, which leads to leaving aside and unattended

the role of embodiment and subjective and live experience within those practices.

It is precisely this dimension that I will argue deserves to be in the centre of an

analysis interested in understanding how Yoga becomes significative and

meaningful for Western practitioners. I will support my point through a recent

debate within the interdisciplinary field of body studies.

Discursive approaches to the body inspired in structuralism or post-structuralism

have been criticised by scholars from various disciplines, particularly those coming

from a Foucauldian tradition which has been far-reaching within humanities and

social sciences, providing a platform for moving from the conceptualization of a

“naturalistic body” to a “socially constructed body” (Blackman 2008:27). These

approaches have been criticised for reducing the body to a passive object of

discourse or social determinism, foreclosing not only its capacities as embodied

agency but also its biological potentialities (Blackman 2008:28-29). Using Shilling’s

words, “the body is affected by discourse, but we get little sense of the body

reacting back and affecting discourse” (1993 in Blackman 2008:28).

What is at stake here is the problem of the embodied agency. Concepts such as

the ‘docile body’ conceive the body as inert mass and detach mind and body in a

dualistic view where social processes have dominance over the thinking body

(Blackman 2008). Foucauldian inspired works and its limitations regarding the

exploration of the embodied agency have been, for example, emphasised in

relation to the study of body maintenance. Sociologist Nick Crossley argues that

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these approaches “often reify practices of modification as ‘technologies’ or

‘apparatuses’, ignoring the active role of embodied agents in these practices”

(2004:41). As Barcan (2008) argues, Foucauldian inspired works tend to be

paradoxically quite disembodied, despite locating the body at the centre of their

analyses. Due to its conceptualization of the body as effect of discourses, it does

not give much insight about the lived and embodied experiences.

Similar critiques were developed within anthropology of the body, where the

pervasive presence of semiotic and symbolic approaches has been criticised for

reducing the understanding of embodied experience to cognitive and linguistic

models of meaning (Csordas 1999a, 1999b). Anthropologist Michael Jackson was

one of the first to point out the shortcomings of the representational approach to

the body, arguing that the “subjugation of the bodily to the semantic is empirically

untenable” (Jackson 1989:122). He demonstrates through his ethnographic work

in relation to the Kuranko initiations that the meaning of body praxis is not always

reducible to semantic and cognitive operations. Csordas (1993) endorses Jackson’s

critique arguing that reducing meaning to a sign reinforces a Cartesian pre-

eminence of mind over the body, the latter understood as passive, static and

inert.

Embodiment and Yoga Practice

Considering the disembodied character of discursive approaches and their

primacy within social sciences and humanities in general, as well as the existence

of little empirical research focusing on modalities such as embodied feelings,

sensations and engagements with the world (Brown et al. 2010:493), an

increasing number of academics from different disciplines have started to explore

and call for more embodied ways to look at the body’s complexities and capacities

that could complement the already significant volume of discursive studies on the

body (Blackman 2008, Barcan 2008, 2011, Brown et al. 2010, Crossley 2004,

Csordas 1990, 1993, 2008, Shusterman 2008).

Based on the aforementioned, I argue that in order to develop a comprehensive

understanding of modern postural Yoga practice it is necessary to complement

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the previous approaches with an exploration of the embodied experiences of the

practitioners. Regarding this, a phenomenological approach is helpful in that it

allows exploring the lived body and subjective experiences in relation to Yoga

practice.

The present study focuses on the embodied experience of Chilean practitioners of

one of the most popular and worldwide known forms of postural Yoga practice:

the Iyengar method. Using a phenomenological approach, I explore the role of the

lived body and the body techniques in the process of embodied transmission,

incorporation and making-sense of the practice of Iyengar Yoga. The data was

collected through interviews with 8 individuals who sustain a regular practice of

Iyengar Yoga, mostly attending collective classes in specialised centres4. I also

used my own involvement as an Iyengar practitioner and teacher as an important

source of information to explore the more embodied and less discursive aspects

of the experience.

My hypothesis is that Iyengar Yoga practice opens up the possibility for the

cultivation of the mind-body relationship and therefore for the development of a

conscious exploration of the embodied self. That practical engagement with one’s

embodiment enables the practitioner to gain access to new forms of bodily

experience, particularly to those that are subjectively and bodily felt as liberating.

After outlining a brief theoretical and methodological framework, I will present

findings and discuss its possible implications relative to the literature review.

4 In Chile the practice of Iyengar Yoga is taught in various settings (gyms, health centres, schools,

community centres, private companies, etc.) and in the format of collective and individual classes.

Some participants combine collective practice with a personal practice at home. This is promoted

by Iyengar method, especially when practitioners have developed some experience.

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This work adopts phenomenology as a crucial tool to complement the insights

offered by the aforementioned approaches. A phenomenological approach allows

exploring what remains unexplored in those perspectives: the lived body and the

embodied self. By doing so, this work follows a growing number of scholars who

have turned to phenomenology in order to get a comprehensive understanding of

the body’s capacities and its central role for subjectivity (cf. Barcan 2008,

Blackman 2010, Crossley 2004, Csordas 1990, 1993, 1994, 1999a, 1999b, Jackson

1989, Legrand and Ravn 2009, Morley 2001, Pagis 2009, 2010a, 2010b, Persson

2007, Sarrukai 2002, Sobchack 2010, Throop and Murphy 2002).

Without denying the body’s biology and materiality or its potential as an object of

social processes and structures, phenomenological accounts emphasise the

existential condition of the body by understanding it not as a mere object –

whether natural or social- but as a subject that “is necessarily, not just

contingently, embodied” (Jackson 1989:119). Thus, the body is no longer

construed as representation but as being-in-the-world and, therefore, as the

ground for subjectivity and intersubjectivity (Csordas 1993, 2008).

As Csordas argues, such an approach distinguishes between the body and

embodiment. The former understood as a biological, material entity and the latter

conceptualized as “an indeterminate methodological field defined by perceptual

experience and by mode of presence and engagement in the world” (Csordas,

1999a:182). While recognizing that we have bodies –as objects-, the

phenomenological approach highlights that “there are multiple modes of

embodiment, and it is the modulations of embodiment that are critical for the

understanding of culture” (Csordas 1999a:181-182). From this perspective, studies

are no longer focused on the body per se, but on the different modes of

embodiment and styles of bodily objectification that provide relevant information

to understand better culture and self.

Csordas’ approach establishes embodied experience as “the starting point for

analyzing human participation in a cultural world” (Csordas 1993:135). It proposes

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a cultural phenomenology “concerned with synthesizing the immediacy of

embodied experience with the multiplicity of cultural meaning in which we are

always and inevitable immersed” (Csordas 1999b:143). Thus, body, culture and

self are conceptualized as inter-related both as bodily phenomena and as the

product of ideas, symbols, and material conditions (ibid.).

This approach offers me a productive theoretical and methodological framework

for my own anthropological research about Iyengar Yoga practice, since it allows

me to investigate the intricacies of the lived experience of the Iyengar Yoga

practitioners in relation to their culturally and embodied selves. This is of

particular relevance, since it allows overcoming a traditional critique attributed to

phenomenology, namely, that its analyses remain in the level of the individual and

subjective point of view, being therefore criticised as “an account largely devoid of

historical and sociological content” (Turner 2008:52). In Csordas’ words,

“embodiment need not be restricted to the personal or dyadic micro-analysis

customarily associated with phenomenology, but is relevant as well to social

collectivities” (1993:137).

This view is shared by other scholars within humanities and social sciences. In

relation to CAM, Barcan has argued that phenomenology can introduce a critical

social perspective and contribute by “allowing us to ask why certain kinds of

bodily experience might be valued by particular kinds of person or in particular

social contexts, and what kind of person these practices might in turn help to

produce” (2008:23).

From this perspective, human experience is never regarded as merely individual

and subjective, but as grounded in a bodily being-in-the-world and embedded in a

material and cultural world (Csordas 1993, Jackson 1989). Thereby, the words

‘individual’ and ‘subjective’ are no longer opposed to the ‘social’ and ‘objective’

world, opening up a possibility to overcome traditional dualisms within Western

thought –such as individual/social and subject/object- and exploring the

intricacies between what has been fragmented as a multiplicity of bodies (cf.

Scheper-Hughes and Lock 1987).

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METHODOLOGY

Social scientists engaged with research on embodiment and bodily practices have

started to recognise the challenges involved in the process of exploring and

analyzing embodied experience, knowledge and meaning. The methodological

questions of how to access and record the data and, to a lesser extent, how to

analyze them are central issues in this discussion. The problematic status of these

questions refer to something like a gulf between language and embodied

experience (Brown et al. 2011, Crossley 2007, Samudra 2008), which has to be

dealt with, and hence approached in a researchable and academic way. As Brown

et al. points out, “the lived immediacy of the phenomenological body is

nevertheless always paradoxically deferred or partially absent from our analyses,

its felt, sensuous, a-symbolic character eliding efforts to fix it definitively within

any given analytic frame” (2011:496). In this respect, traditional methods for

academic research have been considered insufficient, as they tend to focus on

representation and discourse. There is a need for creating new methodologies

opening up the exploration of sensible experience through the attention to other

senses beyond sight (Brown et al. 2011, Samudra 2008). The idea of a gulf

between language and embodied experience does not mean it is impossible to

research the latter in an academic (and therefore linguistic) way. It rather

indicates that scholars studying bodily practices and kinaesthetic cultures should

be creative and flexible while developing non-dualistic forms of accessing and

recording the sensual and sensible aspects of embodied human life.

Following Csordas, to work in a paradigm of embodiment is not to study anything

new, but to address familiar topics from a different standpoint, from “a

methodological attitude that demands attention to bodiliness even in purely

verbal data such as written text or oral interview” (1999a:184). Thus,

“embodiment is neither about behaviour nor essence per se, but about

experience and subjectivity, and understanding these is a function of interpreting

action in different modes and expression in different idioms” (ibid.).

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Considering the latter, rather than using well-established and traditional

methodologies, this research develops more embodied ways to engage and work

with the lived experiences of Yoga practitioners. The data I collected emerged

mainly from two sources. First, my own engagement with the Chilean Iyengar

community, as I have been a Yoga practitioner for 8 years and a Yoga teacher for

five years, the last of these being actively interested in the study of the cultural

transmission of embodied knowledge and meaning through practice5. Second, the

reports of other Iyengar practitioners that were invited to share with me their

experiences in relation to their Yoga practice in the context of interviews and

written communication.

As to the first point, in 2011 I started making field notes and recording audio in

Iyengar classes, workshops and teacher training courses in Santiago, Chile. To be

part of the Iyengar community and therefore gain access to a closer observation

and get rapport with my consultants were some of the benefits of participating

actively as an Iyengar practitioner. However, I found that perhaps the greatest

advantage was to be able to explore my somatic and sensual experiences during

the practice and use them later in the process of interviewing other practitioners.

In this regard, my engagement as a researcher could be defined as a form of “thick

participation” by which cultural knowledge was recorded first in my body and only

later translate into words to be compared with other practitioners’ experiences

(Samudra 2008). As Geertz’ thick description, this form of participation draws

attention to details, but they differ in that while the first focuses on interpreting

social discourse, thick participation “centers on sharing social experience. The

communications of the body can be verified even when not encoded into

language because they work in practice” (Samudra 2008:667).

In relation to the second point, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 9

Chilean Iyengar Yoga practitioners during July and August 20116. My aim was to

5 To become interested in researching a particular body technique in which oneself has been

involved as a practitioner is something that happened not only to me but to many scholars

studying embodiment and kinaesthetic cultures (cf. Crossley 2004, Lea 2009, Leledaki and Brown

2008, Newcombe 2005, Popovic 2012, Samudra 2008, Smith 2007, Strauss 2004). 6 All interviews lasted between one and two hours and were recorded and later transcribed (in

Spanish) for the analysis. For more information about the participants, see appendix 1 and 2.

20

explore their experiences in relation to their Iyengar practice, hence I only used

open-ended questions as suggested themes. The data obtained through these

interviews was useful as they provided interesting accounts on social, physical,

psychological and also ‘spiritual’ effects of the practice. The accounts were

nonetheless insufficient regarding embodied and sensual experiences from which

those effects emerged. Similar to what Samudra (2008) described about silat

practitioners’ reports of their kinaesthetic experiences, I found that while my

consultants could easily talk about how Iyengar Yoga practice helps them in their

lives, their verbal reports became usually inhibited when reaching more embodied

aspects of their experience –moments normally characterised by interruptions in

their discourse.

In relation to these insights, I used thick participation to explore ways of

translating my participatory understanding of the shared experience of Iyengar

practice into communicative data. For that, I focused on developing the reflective

skill of exploring, identifying and naming the sensory impressions and memories

derived from my somatic and kinaesthetic experiences as an Iyengar practitioner.

Translating my sensory impressions was particularly relevant for this research on

Yoga practice, since Iyengar is not so much about the (visible) movements and

forms of the body, but about the (invisible) things that are done with the ‘internal’

body, being able to explore mindfully the inner and subtle sensations within the

body-subject7. Based on this new material generated during the first months of

2012, I invited the same participants to have a new conversation about their

experiences as Iyengar Yoga practitioners8. During the following interviews

(conducted in May and June 2012) I shared this sensory vocabulary with them.

That proved to be a valuable starting point from which they could begin to explore

and translate their own lived and felt experiences into sensible descriptions,

allowing for a somatic dialogue between their accounts and mine. Their initial

accounts (first interviews in 2011) became richer in somatic and sensual contents

7 Similar to what happens in silat practice (Samudra 2008:673), this exploration towards the

interiority of the body is not available to the beginner; it is rather something that develops through

regular practice. 8 Contact was made via email with six participants. They were offered the options of a phone or

written interviews.

21

and details. Furthermore, I agree with Samudra’s point about how sensible

impression “allows entry to other people’s internal experiences and leads to

taking their reports seriously” (2008:674). Thus, my sensory communication was

an essential tool to begin a shared exploration of the embodied meaning of usual

words reported by practitioners and somewhat difficult to explain, like

‘connection’ and ‘balance’.

22

FINDINGS

Iyengar’s pedagogy of somatic learning

During Iyengar classes, the teacher guides the practice following a particular

sequence of postures. She/he uses verbal commands, visual demonstrations and

verbal and bodily corrections to instruct the students on what to do and how to

do it. After introducing the name of the asana to be performed, she/he

demonstrates it by performing it and

giving verbal indications (see right

photograph9). Afterwards, students

practice the same asana while the

teacher repeats verbal instructions,

adds new indications and makes verbal

or bodily corrections if needed (see left

photograph).

Detailed instructions and specific corrections are directly related with the

importance attributed by Iyengar method to the bodily alignment. Indications and

adjustments aim at helping the student achieve a

‘correct’10

alignment of bones and joints when

performing the asana. The emphasis on precision in

movements and bodily actions is highly linked with

the role played by health within the Iyengar

method, since correct alignments are believed to

enhance physical and mental benefits provided by

asana. The particular emphasis on alignment and

precision is expressed by the use of a great deal of

9 All photographs used with the permission of “Yogamukti” and “Estudio de Yoga”. Both centres

are located in Chile. 10

As it will be explained later, the knowledge of what is a ‘correct’ alignment in Iyengar Yoga is, to

certain extent, experienced as something that combines the external-objective knowledge and the

internal-subjective embodied feeling.

23

biomedical sciences language. Teachers continuously use anatomical terms to

refer to body’s parts (muscles, joints, organs, etc.) and physiological references to

explain the technique and benefits of a particular pose11

.

An example of this can be seen in the photograph below, where practitioners

learn to perform Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose). In order to ‘reach’ the pose

students have been guided by the teacher who indicates the distance between

legs, the position of feet, legs, arms and trunk, and finally the flexion in one of

their legs and the rotation of their head in order to achieve the final form of the

asana. Nevertheless, all these instructions are accompanied by indications on how

to do the correct alignment:

how to position the sacrum,

how to work with the hips in

order to ‘open’ them (which

is one of the most important

actions of this particular

pose), etc.

Bodily consciousness in Iyengar Yoga Practice

As described earlier, Iyengar teachings attempt to communicate not just what to

do but also how to do it. In the words of an interviewee, Iyengar method may be

described as “action with control”. To perform a particular bodily actions is as

important as knowing how to do it. In other words, Iyengar body techniques

promotes a form of mindful bodily action by asking the practitioner to consciously

pay attention to her/his own body while doing actions that are increasingly more

complex as the practice progresses12

.

11

Practitioners’ accounts reveal that the use of biomedical knowledge is a powerful way to

legitimate Iyengar Yoga practice. For many practitioners, that knowledge proves that Iyengar Yoga

is not an esoteric practice, but something well grounded on scientific knowledge. 12

Iyengar is not the only practice that inculcates the ability to maintain attention during periods of

physical and mental challenge. This process of turning inwards the normal, outward orientation of

the practitioner’s attention has been described as characteristic in Hatha Yoga practice in general

(Henrichsen-Schrembs and Versteeg 2011) and in Ashtanga in particular (Smith 2007).

24

In this respect, the emphasis on alignment goes beyond the ‘correct’ performance

in biomedical terms, pointing toward the development of a bodily consciousness

through practice. In fact, the importance attributed to the sequence and

instructions aim to promote the cultivation of a particular mindful and sensible

disposition that allows the practitioner to be “opened”13

to his own embodied

experience. In this context, language is central, because it conveys the necessary

instructions while also allows for an exploration of one’s own somatic and internal

experience, therefore enabling the recognition of the embodied experience not

only from outside by exteroception (e.g. through vision and touch), but from the

inside by interoception and propioception.

The bodily self-awareness developed through practice is essential. As any

beginner may realise, the types of actions required for each posture are not a

matter of copying the teacher’s movements or manipulating the body as if it were

a subordinate object in relation to the mind. Instructions such as “rotate the

biceps and deltoids from inside to outside creating space for the neck” (common

for many postures, e.g. Adho Mukha Svanasana) seem as incomprehensible for

most beginners, not just because they often do not know what those anatomic

terms mean but also because they are not able to actually do the action14

, i.e. to

transform the thought or image of the upper arm’s rotation into the embodied

movement. Thus, practitioners promptly recognise that Iyengar practice require

some kind of embodied knowledge that is never achieved just by thinking. This is

illustrated in the following vignette15

:

“Throughout the process I progressively understood each single

action. All those words slowly gained a clear shape: initially these

were actions that I quite did not understand, or when I was able to

understand them, I did not know how to put them into practice.

13

The expression ‘to be opened’ is used here in the sense that Latour (2004) does in his paper

“How to talk about the body”. This means to be opened to be affected by the body’s experience. 14

The difficulty is increased by the fact that most of the actions are totally different or even

opposed to the habits adopted by our bodies in everyday life. 15

All vignettes were translated by me from Spanish to English. The practitioners’ names are

fictitious.

25

Eventually I was able to put the words into practice, but never all of

them at the same time. During practice, it often happened that I

would finally understand the command as well as the muscle I had to

move and the way to do it. I would then immediately notice my body

performing those actions. Consciousness over my body became

increasingly stronger. That includes the actions that I am not able to

fully perform with the required precision or intensity. Now I

understand why I can't perform these movements as well as the sort

of strength and stretching that are missing" (Marie).

Every practitioner travels from a starting point where the teacher’s indications are

non-sense or, at least, inaccessible in practice, towards an embodied process of

inhabiting his own body by representing and sensing it, until the moment where

verbal indications move from the cognitive understanding to an embodied and

practical comprehension. This process happens by means of regular practice,

where bodily work is never just a work of the ‘body’ as separate from the mind,

but of a mindful embodied agent, who has to pay continuous attention to his own

bodily being-in-practice. As her/his somatic attention is trained and sharpened by

means of practicing, the student’s ability to feel and sense his own body increases.

The student then becomes able to gain new embodied understanding that

enables him to sense new parts (normally subtler and inner) of her/his body and

consequently work on them in ways that were previously inaccessible. Hence the

possibility of controlling the body seems intimately connected to the

understanding of one’s embodiment. That is promoted by a kind of attention

which is less about observing or thinking about the body from an analytic

perspective, and more about a form of somatic engagement where attending to

one’s own body involves a ‘turning inwards’ (Henrichsen-Schrembs and Versteeg

2011, Smith 2007) and an exploration of one’s whole embodied being.

Iyengar practitioners work not upon their bodies but from within them, since they

perform mindful and embodied actions which are the result of a negotiation

between teachings communicated through discourse and technique, and one’s

26

personal assessment of these by exploring and taking into account the sensible

experience that emerges from one’s own lived body. Likewise, Iyengar bodily

techniques promote another kind of dialogue by developing a practice where the

relationship between mind and body is cultivated (Leledaki and Brown 2008,

Yuasa 1987). By fostering this interplay, it enables both the mindful will to enter

the flesh and the flesh to be expressed and experienced as subjectivity. Within the

practice’s process, the flesh ‘reacts’ to the mindful attention not only by

performing certain movement, but more importantly by enabling the practitioner

to live a particular embodied experience.

A New Form of Embodiment: The Exploration of the Embodied Self

The bodily consciousness developed through Iyengar practice leads to discovering

a new form of embodiment. Together with experiencing physical changes (better

posture, increasing flexibility, relief of tension and pain if there was any,

improvement in physiological processes such as sleeping, breathing, etc.), the

practitioner is confronted with the awakening of a ‘new body’ by feeling new

bodily parts, new possibilities for its movements and unknown details of its forms,

qualities, depths and asymmetries. This becomes a powerful discovery particularly

in contrast with their previous form of embodiment, which could be

characterised, following Leder (1990), by the notion of ‘absent body’. In this

sense, I quote anthropologist Michael Jackson whose account of his own Iyengar

Yoga practice speaks for itself:

Until I was in my mid-thirties, my awareness extended into my body

only to the extent that I grew hungry, experienced lust, felt pain or

weariness, and did not resemble that somatotype of popular

advertising. My body passed into and out of my awareness like a

stranger; whole areas of my physical being and potentiality were

dead to me, like locked rooms. When I took courses in hatha yoga

(under Iyengar-trained teachers) it was like unpicking the locks of a

cage. I began to live my body in full awareness for the first time,

27

feeling the breath, under my conscious control, fill my lungs,

experiencing through extensions and asana the embodied character

of my will and consciousness. (1989:119)

Jackson’s words clearly express the new form of embodiment that emerges

through practice. The participants’ accounts show that they develop a new

relationship with their bodies where these are perceived as more than mere

physical and biological entities. The non-dualistic character of Yoga practice allows

them to work with their bodies as physical object, and at the same time to realize

in an embodied way the body as a source of subjectivity. The interviews reveal

that the objectification that Iyengar method entails are not opposed to the

subjective experience of the lived body. In this sense, this practice offers a

paradigmatic example of a kind of experience that allows accessing the embodied

self within the perception of one’s own physicality, demonstrating what has

already been argued within phenomenological research (Legrand and Ravn 2009).

The prominence attributed to the lived experience during the practice helps the

practitioner perceiving Iyengar Yoga (both its discourse and techniques) as a

method that, along with providing the necessary knowledge for developing a

safety practice (in terms of physical and mental health), offers space for a

personal exploration of one’s embodiment and self. In this sense, rather than

being perceived as a foreign doctrine, Iyengar Yoga practice is experienced as a

source of infinite tools for embodied self-knowledge. An example of this is

revealed in the way the practitioners experience asana. Reports show that,

beyond the technique that defines the ‘correct’ performance, what is most

important is to explore one’s own lived and kinaesthetic experience in order to be

able to work from this within the asana. In this regard, the asana is more than the

image or form that is portrayed in books or that can be seen in the teacher’s

demonstration; it is a sensible exploration of one’s ‘inner’ body16

. Thus, the

practitioner draws attention toward her/his body not just to achieve the expected

16

See Sarukkai’s (2002) work on the experience of the inner body in Hatha Yoga practice.

28

physical form, but more importantly to attend to her/his own embodied

experience within the posture.

Since asana is an experience of the embodied self, it is not static but changes in

relation to the practitioner’s mental, emotional and physical states. Thus, the

experience appears as a dynamic process, where the engagement with one’s

embodiment transcends the technical and biomedical indications of what is

regarded as the correct performance. In the account of two practitioners:

“I visualize it [her body], from bones and muscles, to skin and organs.

I connect with a range of sensations produced by the asana. I see it as

a different journey every day. Even if I repeat exactly the same

sequence, the challenges are always different. Occasionally new

layers of difficulty are added, perhaps due to tensions that were not

there the day before. There are also days in which either mind or body

intercept one’s pursuit. Other days, when things seem to be on one’s

side, the body frees itself, the mind no longer floats and one is able to

enter a wonderful interconnection state” (Sandra).

“Asana practice is something totally alive. It is even more alive as I

practice more. When I practice, there is generally a sensation that I

want to reach something else, go deeper, penetrating even more with

the intelligence of my body. It does not always feel good. When I have

a lesion I am very frustrated, especially when I don’t understand

what’s happening to me, and that brings the worse out of me. Then,

when I understand my mistakes, the sensation is more one of

tenderness and love toward the injured part of me” (Ana).

Making (Embodied) Sense of the Practice

These accounts highlight the fundamental role of subjective experience in making

sense of the practice, something which had already been noted at the New Age

practices of the holistic milieu (Heelas 2006, 2008, Henrichsen-Schrembs and

29

Versteeg 2011, Newcombe 2005) and at alternative and complementary health

practices (Barcan 2011, Sointu 2006). This study found that the participants

associate different meanings with the practice according to their own

experiences, and that these meanings tend to change in relation to the moment

of their life in which they practice. In general, Iyengar practice seems to be

valuable because it offers exactly “what I need”.

It is worth mentioning that despite personal differences, all participants coincide

in recognising Iyengar Yoga as more than just a physical practice. All of them

describe their experience in terms of transformations involving physical, mental

and emotional aspects. Some of them even indicate that Iyengar Yoga has

radically changed them, transforming them into totally new persons.

A phenomenological approach explains those transformations. If we conceive

embodiment as the existential condition for the self (Csordas, 1990) or as being-

in-the-world, we may understand that Iyengar body techniques can produce

changes not only in the physicality of the body and the way the practitioner

relates to her/his embodiment, but also in the way she/he experiences and

perceives others and the surrounding world. Moreover, Csordas’ (1993) notion of

somatic modes of attention helps us understanding that Iyengar practice both

cultivates a conscious somatic attention towards one’s own embodiment and

enhances the ability to attend to the embodied presence of others, hence

potentially changing one’s sensory engagement with the world.

The previous discussion raises the question of how it works in the context of

Iyengar bodily practice. How does the work upon the body transform the self? As

described earlier, Iyengar practice offers an access to experience the body’s

subjectivity while working on its physicality. This means that performing asana

involve encountering both physical limitations and challenges and mental and

emotional constraints. It involves realizing the way in which our mind and body

connects or disconnects from each other and what our mental, emotional and

physical ways of being are. The practice brings awareness to all these aspects that

would otherwise remain unconscious. In this sense, it implies an exploration of

the lived body in its complex biological, cultural and subjective constitutions. Thus,

30

exploring and working with the challenges and difficulties encountered within the

practice is experienced as a form of embodied knowledge that is meaningful

beyond the concrete time and space. Iyengar practitioners live their embodied

practice as a process of self-knowledge and self-development that enable them to

live better.

Next, I will demonstrate that these transformations in the embodied self should

be understood in relation to the experience of the lived body that Iyengar

techniques promote rather than simply a result of the inscription and

reproduction of contemporary discourses upon the body. In this sense, the role of

the body is not metaphorical but rather concrete as it enables the exploration and

expression of one’s subjectivity through the body’s physicality.

Empowerment Through Wellbeing

Health is the first and perhaps the most obvious dimension in which the

practitioner experiences the effects of the practice. As Sointu (2006) has argued in

relation to CAM, the kind of health offered by Iyengar Yoga practice cannot be

reduced to the biomedical or physiological level, since it involves various aspects

of the embodied being. In this sense, even though most practitioners explained

they initially look for relief to physical or emotional problems (mainly chronic pain,

depression and anxiety), eventually they also find motivations to continue

practicing. The therapeutic function of Iyengar Yoga offers more than emotional

and physical health. Practitioners experience the practice as a source of wellbeing

and a tool that prepares them to live better everyday life. The practice empowers

them by offering practical knowledge about how to take care of the physical and

emotional health by means of cultivating somatic awareness. The focus on

performing asana in a healthy and safety way by continuously working and

adjusting the posture according to one’s own embodied experience rather than to

external rules is experienced as a search for developing and improving other

aspects of the self. According to a practitioner: “There is something about the

practice that marvels and challenges me. That is the fact that one has to perform

31

poses and try to do them the best way possible. I feel that is something worth

applying to other dimensions of my life” (Juliet).

Two notions appeared frequently in the practitioners’ discourse referring to self-

development: balance and alignment. During the interviews, I discovered that

these terms were used not so much in a metaphorical sense but to express their

concrete experience of wellbeing. Their accounts reveal that balance and

alignment sought between body’s parts when performing the asana become an

experience of alignment and balance between the aspects of their embodied

selves. Alignment is lived as the process of introducing order in one’s subjective

life. This order is not perceived as static and predetermined, but as a dynamic

balance between the different aspects of the self (mental, emotional, physical,

relational and spiritual). This dynamic balance is thereby conceived as changing

and dependent on one’s own subjective being, taking different embodied

meanings according to one’s experience. For some, alignment and balance has

made them more tolerant and kind with others; for others to be less sensitive,

emotional and perfectionist. In the accounts of two practitioners:

“Through my bodily consciousness I find my soul and I polish my

character, softening, wakening, accepting, invigorating... My body is

the vehicle to perfect myself. With Yoga I encounter the deepest part

of me, I see the good, the bad, the feminine, the masculine, I seek

balance and approach day by day the interior silence that brings

absolute peace. I feel that in various aspects I am better every day”

(Sandra).

An Embodied Self Open to the Otherness

From the aforementioned, it is possible to understand the non-dualist character of

Iyengar Yoga practice, since it produces an experience of integration between

32

inner/outer and mind/body17

. The process of attending and exploring one’s

embodied experience during the practice has been described as a ‘turning

inwards’ (Henrichsen-Schrembs and Versteeg 2011, Smith 2007). However, it is

important to highlight that this going inward does not lead to an experience that

could be interpreted as subjective and individual as opposed to objective and

social. Similar to what happens with the twofold mind-body within the practice,

Iyengar Yoga offers a phenomenological experience of one’s own embodiment

where the inner and outer body appear as a dynamic and permanent interplay. To

see and touch the body from the outside through exteroception is not opposed to

sensing and feeling the body from the inside through interoception and

propioception18

; they are rather combined in the somatic experience developed

within the practice. Therefore, the practitioner’s exploration of their somatic and

subjective experience does not lead to a separation of the embodied self and the

world. On the contrary, practitioners experience Iyengar Yoga as a time and space

to connect with themselves as well as with others and the surrounding world.

The particular somatic modes of attention cultivated within Iyengar practice offer

both the possibility of experiencing the ‘depths’ of one’s own embodied being and

an embodiment characterised by openness and interdependence to otherness.

Attending to one’s own bodily sensations was experienced by the practitioners

attending to the body´s situation in the world rather than as an isolated object.

Thus, far from experiencing the practice as a journey trapped in themselves and

their own world, it was experienced as openness toward developing a more

embodied relation with others and the world. In agreement with Csordas’ (1993)

views on attention and sensory engagement in the constitution of subjectivity and

intersubjectivity, the practitioner’s accounts suggest that the particular modes of

attention consciously cultivated within Iyengar practice should be characterised as

particular forms of attending “to” and “with” one’s own body. Those participating

in this study reported their experiences of attending to one’s own body as

intertwined with the experiences of attending with one’s body. Participants

17

Integration has to be read as inter-dependence, but not as a unity where differences disappear

transforming them into monism. 18

Knowing and sensing are not opposed in practice, as suggested by Mol and Law (2004).

33

describe the experience of Iyengar practice as the development of a new form of

embodiment through which they become much more aware of their sensory

engagement with the world. This is best exemplified by describing the sensory

engagement required and encouraged by the teacher’s adjustments and the use

of props during the practice (see photographs below). Both the use of props and

the bodily adjustments leads to the practitioner’s body to a physical encounter

with an Other (human or not) that has something to teach him. The teacher’s

verbal indications accompany these

encounters encouraging the practitioner’s

body to be opened to be affected by these

others (props or other’s bodies). Thus, the

practitioner progressively learns that being

touched by these others is both to adjust his

external body and to face the encounter that

‘communicates’ particular forms of

embodied knowledge according to the

quality of touch (if it is by pushing,

modelling, softening, etc.). Props are not just

used for an orthopaedic function, but as a

means to transmit practical knowledge in a sensible way. The teacher’s body has

the same function when adjusting the practitioner’s pose, since the corrections

attempt not only to correct the body’s

external form, but to promote a

somatic attention that goes through

the external body boundaries.

34

DISCUSSION

In the previous sections, I attempted to show that an analysis of Yoga practice

from a culturally inflected phenomenological perspective offers new possibilities

to researching and conceptualizing the experience of Iyengar practitioners and the

role played by the lived body. Like Smith, I consider that such a study provides

valuable information of “aspects of our embodiment that otherwise have

remained predominantly conceptual” (2007:41). In this context, I will turn to

discuss the findings in relation to the literature review previously presented.

The results presented above demonstrate that Iyengar Yoga practice is more than

just a form of power. By shedding light on what discursive and Foucauldian studies

have ignored, the phenomenological approach offers an exploration of the more

‘messy’ and complex reality in which embodied agents negotiate social discourses

and power.

Yoga as a ‘turning inward’ that ‘opens’ the subject

Contrary to the interpretation of Yoga practice as a narcissistic (related to

pleasure) and individualistic form of spirituality, therapy or consumer practice,

this study reveals that Iyengar Yoga is perceived as a form that connects both to

oneself and the world. The development of a bodily consciousness does not only

open the body for one’s own pleasure but also to be more aware of a potential

sensory engagement with the world. Most practitioners mentioned how the

practice has introduced a lot of changes in their relation with their embodied

selves (at the level of discourse and embodiment), and consequently in their

relation with others. Following Heelas, Iyengar practitioners’ experience could be

characterised as “relational individualism” (2006:228-229), in the sense that

rather than producing isolated and privatised selves, the practice of Iyengar is

perceived as a form of connecting with one’s self while being relational.

35

Not an ‘enterprising self’19

but an embodied balance

The experience of balance is grounded in the physical actions that have to be

integrated within the bodily practice, and from there develops into a wider

sensation that involves the whole embodied being. That is a dynamic balance, in

which the practitioner is always in ‘movement’, searching, exploring, sensing,

knowing.

However, the centrality of this experience goes even further, introducing

dynamism by confronting the self with duality. Duality means that the quest for

self-development is not infinite and that together with the search for perfection

(within the pose, within oneself) it is also necessary to accept the present. In

asana practice, balance is felt by integrating force and movement with stability

and ground. In the exploration of the embodied self, it is lived as the desire for

experiencing, learning and developing but also as encountering one’s self in the

present world. Thus, Iyengar Yoga promotes interplay between self-improvement

and self-acceptance. That particular form of balance introduces some relevant

nuances to the image of the “enterprising self” proposed by Rose (1992). For

instance the idea of self-understanding and self-improvement are challenged by

experiences in which there is nothing to be understood at the level of

representation (or at least it is unthinkable and unspeakable), and in which the

self is perceived as mobile rather than the seat of an autonomous enterprise.

The differences between the actual experiences of Iyengar practitioners and a

Foucauldian approach to the practice –in this case a governmental approach– do

not imply that there are no connections between the two. In fact, this study

confirmed the presence of discourses about inner authenticity and holism in

Iyengar Yoga teachings and in the practitioners’ accounts of their practice.

However, I agree with Barcan’s (2008) remark on the importance of looking at the

intersections between these discourses and other spiritual traditions that

promote a conceptualization of the self as diffuse, intercorporeal and potentially

indistinguishable from other selves. Even though I found no explicit presence of

any kind of religious or spiritual teachings within Iyengar classes in Chile, some

19

See Rose (1992).

36

participants’ reports point toward similar experiences while practicing Savasana

(Corpse Pose). A participant describes it as “a total surrender of the body to

vacuum, vacuum that is also fullness... Sometimes it feels as being part of the

whole, as energy, the body disappears, it feels as if the body had no limits” (Ana).

Another says: “I feel like I was disappearing, as if there was no body or the body

was part of the floor... I feel my conscious breathing, what is happening and the

disconnection of language... it is like a connection with the nothing, but without

anxiety... I feel that Savasana has the mark of humility, of being nothing” (Daniel).

In summary, Iyengar Yoga practice produces a self that is more mobile, open, and

flexible. Instead of being compelled to self-development, the self is inspired by

this search, feeling the desire to experience the process rather than seeking

specific results.

37

CONCLUSION

Liberation and Limitation in Iyengar Yoga Practice

Based on the previous discussion, it is possible to argue that a comprehensive

approach to the contemporary rise of postural Yoga practice should consider both

its social, cultural and politic dynamics and the ways in which the practitioners

experience and make sense of it.

In this work I have pointed to the shortcomings of analysing postural Yoga practice

merely from the perspective of discourse and power. To help overcoming that, I

opted for an alternative approach and presented possible new explanations. This

research found that Iyengar practice is more than just another form of biopower

or disciplinary practice. Adopting a phenomenological approach to Yoga practice, I

demonstrated that there is a significant amount of valuable data and analyses that

can contribute to a more detailed exploration and understanding of the method’s

specificities and potentialities. In this sense, I do not reject entirely the idea that

Iyengar practice can be a form of self-surveillance and disciplinary practice.

However, the central point of this research’s findings indicate that Iyengar Yoga is

much more than a practice aligned to consumer capitalism and/or neoliberal

politics.

So what factor determines if Iyengar will have a liberating or a limiting impact on

its practitioners? Our findings demonstrate that that varies significantly according

to practitioners’ capacity to be opened to be affected physically, emotionally and

mentally. I acknowledge that the experience of Iyengar Yoga is certainly mediated

by the method’s particular discourse and techniques. However, the essential role

is played by the subject and by the way in which she/he relates, explores and

interprets her/his embodied experience.

As previously explained, the practice of Iyengar opens up the possibility to

develop one’s bodily consciousness and by that means to powerfully transform

one’s embodiment. The bodily techniques and methodology used in Iyengar

classes certainly mediates this process of ‘turning inwards’ by attending to one’s

body. However, the potentialities offered by the practice cannot be achieved

38

solely through these elements since it inescapably requires an embodied

engagement of the subject. It is that involvement that allows a real exploration of

the practice’s potentialities for the embodied self.

A practitioner puts into words the experience of Iyengar Yoga as a liberating

practice: “[the practice] requires a disposition to open oneself physically and

internally, when you open your hip, it is not only that... the word space comes to

my mind, in the sense that one explores different spaces every time according to

the physical opening that one has created... to surrender is essential, and that

begins in the physical, release tension... it has to do with breathing especially

where is difficult, and with each exhalation move forward and find space, instead

of retaining the breath and becoming smaller... using the breath to open the range

of physical sensations at the beginning which then are transformed into internal

spaces” (Ana).

Iyengar Yoga enables the practitioner to negotiate social discourses and power

rather than being totally determined by them. In this sense, I follow Barcan’s

stand on CAM, arguing that Iyengar practice looks less like simple enactments of

modern forms of subjectivity (oriented to individualism, hedonism and

consumerism) “than sites of discursive struggle between several models and

experiences of selfhood and corporeality” (2008:24).

Based on the aforementioned, I return to the initial question: what does Iyengar

Yoga actually offers to those who regularly practice it? I found that it is chiefly our

embodiment as existential condition that allows us to make sense of this practice.

The encounter of one’s embodied self and the opening-up of its subjective and

intersubjective potentialities are the elements that render meaning to the

practice.

39

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1: About the sample

The practitioners selected for this research are part of the Iyengar community. I

tried to make the sample as varied as possible in terms of gender, age and

practice levels. I deliberately attempted to include the most men possible in the

sample since they usually are a minority among Iyengar practitioners. I also looked

to interview Yoga students with more than one year experience in the assumption

that they would have enough attachment and commitment to the discipline of

Yoga to make the results of this research meaningful.

Appendix 2: Practitioner’s characteristics

The participants of this study are aged between 26 and 68 years old, seven of

them women and the rest of them men. Their experience with the practice of

Iyengar Yoga ranges from eight years to one year. All of them are highly educated

people, most of them professionals and with a good socio-economic condition.

The majority of them practice Yoga regularly, between 2 to 3 days a week,

although some of them try to practice it as much as they can, aiming to do it daily

when possible.

Most of them practice in the context of collective Iyengar yoga classes given in

specialized centres. Nevertheless, some of them try to reinforce the effects of the

collective practice with personal sessions at home.

Appendix 3: Iyengar Yoga in Chile

Modern yoga practice started its popularisation in Chilean society from late

1990s20

. The first centres are still Yogashala (founded in 199721

) and YogaMukti

20

Before this, there were some classes of Satyananda Yoga by Swami Ekananda, but it was not

something much know, since society was still reticent to yoga since it was associated with religion.

Centro de yoga satyananda niketan, Biografía de Swami Ekananda

http://satyanandayoga.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=21 21

Yogashala Sánchez Fontecilla (YSF) http://www.yogashala.cl/Yogashala_Sanchez_Fontecilla.htm

40

(founded in 200022

), both created in Santiago and offering various styles of yoga

classes, being Iyengar method one of these.

In the lapse of eight years participating within the Chilean Iyengar Yoga

community, I have been able to observe the popularization of yoga practices in

general and the Iyengar method in particular. Being relatively unknown for most

people when I started practicing it in 2004, in the past years yoga became a

fashionable topic within the media, a common product for the health and leisure

market, and a practice offered by a growing number of yoga institutes, health and

fitness centres, schools, companies, universities and private homes. Crucial for the

popularisation of yoga has been a centre called “Yoga a luka” (which could be

translated as “Yoga for a pound”), which made it available for people with lower

economic resources than the historically standard yoga practitioner.

The growing interest in Iyengar Yoga was visible in the rise of students

participating in intense and specialized workshops organized every year by

different yoga centres. Yogamukti was a central reference in this sense, organizing

yearly workshops with advanced and well-known international Iyengar yoga

teachers (such as the Indian H.S. Arun and the Argentinean Paula Tortolano).

With a considerable number of Iyengar yoga practitioners interested in

undertaken a formal teacher training in Iyengar methodology, 2007 can be

considered as the beginning of yoga professionalisation in Chile. Two senior

teachers were sent by B.K.S. Iyengar to Chile to conduct a two-year introductory

course in order to run a first level Iyengar-certified teaching programme. Since

then, at least 43 teachers have acquired Iyengar’s certification to provide Iyengar

yoga classes.

It is also worth noting the creation of the Chilean Association of Iyengar Yoga

(Asociación Chilena de Yoga Iyengar [ACYI]) in December 2011, an organization

aimed to develop the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar, create a network between

Chilean practitioners and Iyengar’s Institute in Pune, India, and protect the quality

of the lessons by processes of examination and certification. It is possible to

estimate that the creation of the ACYI would grant the Chilean Iyengar Community

22

http://yogamukti.cl/historia.htm

41

a higher institutional status than its more traditional and pure yoga counterparts.

In this sense, Iyengar yoga is nowadays not only one of the most popular but also

one of the most consolidated styles in terms of teaching standards.

Appendix 4: Iyengar Yoga Classes

As a consequence to the standardised teacher-training programme developed by

the Iyengars, the ways in which Iyengar classes are taught in Chile are nowadays

very similar to those given in other Western countries. The characteristics that

were described above (emphasis on the sequence of asanas and its alignment and

precision, the use of a specific vocabulary, and the use of props) are also main

features of Iyengar Yoga classes in the Chilean context.

Classes are organized according to the different practitioner’s levels of experience

and in a way in which every week a specific group of postures (standing poses,

forward bends, backbends, twists, restorative poses, etc.) are emphasised,

ensuring that all types of postures are covered throughout the month. Within this

structure, and following technical guidelines, each teacher creates the particular

asana sequence for his or her class.

42

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