Lately I’ve been reflecting on what many of us refer to as the “old method” of Ashtanga — perhaps influenced in part by Nancy’s passing, and a growing feeling in me that there is something important here that deserves to be remembered and examined more carefully.
When I speak of the “old method,” I’m referring specifically to the way David Williams and Nancy Gilgoff were taught when they first travelled to India to learn from their teacher, and how they transmitted the practice in the early days.
During the recent workshop in Kingsburg, an unexpected and lively discussion emerged around this very topic: how the old method — both in approach and philosophy — differs from much of what has become modern Ashtanga.
What became clear to me is that this conversation deserves more thought and discussion — particularly around aspects of the practice that may, over time, have been reinterpreted, altered, or perhaps even lost altogether.
The old method, as I understand it, was never simply about mastering postures. It was about the process through which the practitioner was gradually transformed by the method itself.
It was about how the postures were approached, the specific patterns of breath and movement, the cultivation of energy, and the effects created through repetition and consistency. The method was at the forefront — the asana providing the framework through which the method could unfold.
This is not an attempt to argue that the old method is superior. But I do feel it is different — and that those differences are worth examining carefully, especially in relation to the sustainability, intention, and long-term effects of practice.
Does this resonate with your experience of practice?
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share a series of reflections exploring what I experience as some of the key differences — differences that are not necessarily better or worse, but significant in terms of the energetic, therapeutic, and perhaps even spiritual effects of the practice.
For now, here is something to sit with:
Are we simply practising a sequence of asanas?
Or are we practising a methodology through which a state of yoga is gradually cultivated?
More to come…