Nearly 75 yogis gathered at the Urban Zen Center last Thursday for class with longtime Ashtanga yoga teacher Richard Freeman. Freeman and his wife, Mary Taylor, return to Urban Zen this weekend to lead the yoga philosophy portion of the Urban Zen Integrative Therapist Program.
“Tonight we will explore the internal practice of Ashtanga yoga,” Richard began. “We will align inside, so that even when you are old, or even when you are on your death bed, you can do the pose. It may look like this…” (nothing happens, the room laughs) “…but you will be doing the pose, perfected, the ultimate experience of samadhi,” he says, skillfully raising an eyebrow, and only half kidding.
Though our asanas on Thursday were visible beyond the mind’s eye, Richard lived up to his promise and helped us refine each pose with precise anatomical cues and vivid imagery. We discovered that we had golden tails extending from coccyx to earth, kidney wings that spread across the back and beyond, buoyant hearts, and cobra hoodies (my favorite) fanning up and over our crown and palette. With an inhale, we swam our limbs through space; with an exhale, awareness traced the spine.
The tradition of Ashtanga yoga, transferred to the West by the late Pattabhi Jois through Freeman and others, is a vigorous sequence not for the faint of heart. With a room full of varying levels of experience, Richard broke down each pose and pattern with generous instruction. We began with Surya Namaskar, warming up the body from the inside out. Arms spiraling upward, lifting the gaze, we soared forward and arched back, linking each movement with breath. This prepared us for standing poses like Trikonasana, Revolved Trikonasana, Parsvakonasana, and Revolved Parsvakonasana. Richard took us deep, offering long holds with space to explore the intuitive romance between inhale and exhale, pubic bone and tail, sitting bone and earth.
To come out of each pose, we exhaled “to a point,” emptying completely. This planted our foundation–feet, sitting bones–deeper into the earth, allowing our torsos to rise on the inhale with greater ease.
As each pose dissolved into stillness or into the next, its effects were palpable: a residue remained. This was one of Richard’s central and also subtle teachings. We were reminded that every movement, every breath, leaves a residue (“shesa” in Sanskrit). As Richard put it beautifully: “With each inhale, we explore the residue of the exhale; with each exhale, the residue of the inhale. The inhale retains the best of the exhale. The exhale, the best of the inhale.”
After a few backbends and some seated poses, we settled into a sweet Savasana. At the end of the night, Richard left us with a simple message: “Don’t go and try to write all these things down, hoarding them…” he cautioned. “The more you try to hoard the teachings, the more they will run away. But do the practice, feel the teachings in your body, and they will be eager to greet you.”
Related posts:
- RICHARD FREEMAN
- Richard Freeman Public Class
- Ashtanga Vinyasa with Richard Freeman
- Richard Rosen Original Yoga: The Forgotten Practices of Hatha Yoga
- RICHARD ROSEN ORIGINAL YOGA: The Forgotten Practices of Hatha Yoga
