I went for a yoga philosophy class 2 weeks ago. The teacher, Nerisima, is a little old Indian man, who expresses himself simply and coherently (ie accent not that strong) in English. This is key in teaching something as abstract and complex as philosophy. In addition to philosophy, he always teaches Transcedential meditation. His sister, Jayashree, has a PhD in Sankrit and teaches at the local university.
Nerisima and Jayashree run a non-profit organisation with various projects to preserve old Sanskrit texts written on banana leaves. Many yoga students go for their chanting classes. Sanskrit is a language which works on positively affecting the chakras (or energy centres) in the body via the syllables used. Hence, proper pronunciation and enunciation is very important.
Nerisima teaches philosophy Monday to Fridays, for an hour each morning. He’s been going through the Yoga Sutras which is arguably THE text for yoga philosophy. Having missed all the previous classes, I was pretty much lost in translation ie blur like sotong. I was also a bit sleepy, since I had been up since 3.30am and was lacking any caffeine intake.
This is what I picked up from the class:
1) Being a yogi doesn’t mean that you do not experience emotions and desires, especially negative ones … it’s more about If and How you choose to display them ie the concept of Control.
2) Nerisima also said, it doesn’t mean that expressing negative emotion is bad. If you get angry at a child for something they have done wrong, they learn what they shouldn’t do.
My conclusion after the class … Roger Federer is a Yogi.
Now, wait .. before you roll your eyes and go ‘Aiyo’ … hear me out …
I don’t propose to know much about yoga philosophy but I do know a lot about tennis and Roger Federer. And Learning = applying something new to something you already know?
To illustrate point 1):
In his teens, Federer had a bad temper. He smashed rackets (ala John McEnroe) etc. As he matured, he became cool and unflappable (like Bjorn Borg), displaying very little emotion on court.
So, obviously he feels emotions. He’s just learnt to control them.
Point 2):
In the recently completed US Open tournament, Federer was been noted to display more emotion, releasing shouts of frustration, pumping his fists after a good shot etc … basically very un-Federer.
His explanation was that the release of emotion relaxed him, made him less tense and allowed him to focus on his play. This is what he said in an interview after he defended his title:
“I felt in control all the way. So I didn't have to go, sort of crazy, emotionally, which was good. I could save energy and stay very concentrated for the entire match today.”
Writing this update has led me to draw another conclusion …
Marat Safin should pick up yoga! Maybe I should volunteer to teach him.
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