Francois Raoult Workshop Reflections

It feels as though I have gotten a snow cone off the tip of an iceberg in terms of the knowledge and experience that come with this guy, Francois, my friend Jane's teacher, who traveled to California from his base in Rochetser, New York to give a two-day workshop at the Healdsburg Yoga Studio. He has such a long history of practice and closeness to the source, and remains an ardent seeker. Francois strikes me as a healer first and foremost. He wants people to treat their bodies with kindness and he knows how to teach them that. He is not interested in asana for its own sake.

The theme of the weekend was sitting and standing, with a subtitle that could have been "regressing to progress". There was a slideshow  to contrast modern-people/bad posture with people-who-live-close-to-the-earth/good posture, hence “regress to progress”. Go back to folk ways of natural tadasana spine upon which to build the refinement of asana.

It was a luxury to have only 13 people in the workshop because he treated the sessions more like classes with no fixed agenda, and he improvised quite a bit. Someone requested we work on pincha so we did. He changed his plan for seated poses when he found out we were a room full of bad knees. Coming back to the simplicity and universality of tadasana was the common thread.

He loves to talk. And he's a bit of a clown, sometimes in a sophisticated way and sometimes in a way that almost makes me understand why the French like Jerry Lewis. He was like a little kid describing the Allard workshop he had recently attended, and gleefully referred back to it many times over the weekend when anatomy would come up.

One analogy he made will stay with me. He said that asana is a way of damming up prana in the body, and releasing the dam allows the benefits of prana to be felt.

He says the muscles need equal parts toning, stretching and relaxation. He seems to think minimal toning is optimal.

There was a lot of philosophy that happened along: Patanjali as a renunciate vs. BKS as a moderate....folks who have fled confining religions but glom onto the yamas and niyamas in their most rigid form because they are familiar territory....tofu vs. tantra.

The nuts and bolts of the asana instruction were strict but forgiving, and the exacting detail was a feast for me. He offered modifications for one woman with scoliosis, another with a knee that wouldn't bend past 90 degrees, and for the restoratives he enjoyed facilitating comfort with a blanket here, a bolster there, etc, etc.

He fixed my godawful revolved triangle so that I don't hate it anymore.

As I told Jane, I really do sit up nights worrying what is going to happen when BKS dies. I know there are many great Iyengar teachers around, but without the ability to witness first hand the tremendous humanity beneath Iyengar’s seemingly harsh exterior, my worry is that practitioners will drift away from the structure, throwing out the baby with the bath water. After meeting Francois, I have to say I will worry less, because Francois (and I hope there are others) has that same combination of insistence on form and structure along with an underlying humanity that is his true and most profound nature. When Francois talks about BKS he does so with such love and reverence, but without placing BKS on any kind of pedestal, and really, when you love someone that much as a human being it is more meaningful than the kind of blind worship gurus are offered by students yearning for more than any fellow human can give.

Francois is an independent thinker who loves his teacher at least partly for his lifelong ability to evolve through independent thought. That is a big part of what I don't want to be lost to Iyengar Yoga after BKS dies. I feel so lucky to have been exposed to Francois and gotten some reassurance that the torch will stay lit.

Comments

[sophie]

terrific and inspiring report, Ann!

I just thought I'd throw in this link to the open sky site:

http://www.openskyyoga.com/

Your experience sounds wonderful, on many levels.

[Francois Raoult]

Your text is well reflecting the spirit of my teaching and I thank you for that. To see layers is a sign of a mature practice and clarity of perception. Just few points I would like to clarify:
1 Sometimes words like guys and folks are too casual in the context of yoga for describing students and teachers. Same when a waitress or a sales rep call you honey !
2 "Regress then progress" is more a concept for going back to a beginning stage of an asana, tracing the dysfunction, re-pattern and then progress again on a new path, free of habits or conditioning. Or going back to Savasana, release the nervous system then rebuild from there. Going back to silence before creating a sound. Natural breath before starting Ujjayi Pranayama, playing. Too many people block themselves by going too far, too soon. They are playing the same movie, just faster or louder! Same in psycho-therapy where regression is often needed to clear up old wounds or past karmas. Then true progress can be made. I didn’t refer to a golden age or that we have to let go of technology (like communicating though the Yogalila website for example!) or civilization. Just saying that we can still witness traditional cultures and learn from them in terms of integrity of posture (Tadasana especially), contentment and ergonomics in a working context (sitting, bending forward, carrying).
3 I don’t think minimal toning is optimal. Strength and stamina are needed. I think a lot of people need to release first by stretching, deep relaxation, restorative practice, then can tone where there is weakness. Toning on tension is not optimal. In fact that is what creates a high level of pathology in sports or dance. Pushing without seeing. Yoga always searches for the best saving energy plan and effortless effort (a paradox you have to resolve!)
4 When B.K.S. Iyengar dies, he will live though his legacy and though us by the seeds he planted in our hearts. look at the legacy of Mozart or Einstein....That is how I see reincarnation. That is why great traditions stay alive. They just adapt to the times and change manifestations or names but the essence is.
Namaste.
Francois Raoult.