The other day in Thailand I was scheduled to teach a class on an outdoor platform in a new Osho centre, and it started raining very heavily, so strongly that the students could barely hear me say that we were going to do the class in a circular, mandala format so that they didn’t get wet as the rain started coming in from all sides over the platform, which was covered on the top, but not the sides.
I had some music planned to play in the class, but the sound of the downpour was quite enough sound in the moment. As I started the class I joked with the students a bit, and told them we were going to do poses in alignment with nature to honour the situation, and that we would take turns in the circle, teaching our favourite pose if it connected to nature. For example a sun salutation (surya namaskar)or the tree, (vrikasana) or crow (bakasana). They thought I was joking.
The class, because of the rain took on a different feel than other classes . Being in Thailand we were actually in full alignment with our own body temperature and the temperature outside. It is a rare day that you are not dripping in sweat doing anything physical in Thailand. As the sun salutations finished the rain came to a gradual stop and the birds started to sing. I began to play the music and the birds started to sing with what actually felt like harmonizing tones with the music, which was the classical flute.
I had the students switch positions in the circle while doing poses. They said they got a full mandala perspective of the jungle which they has never seen before when facing in the direction they normally face when doing a class on that platform. They reported feelings of peaceful being even though they had anxiety at the beginning, thinking I was going to suggest that they teach a pose when in circle.
My theory here, is that the circle of humans creates an energy that mimicks the circles we find everywhere in nature. Shiva eyes in shells, crop circles, rings in the circumference of trees, abalones, circles found on beautiful butterfly wings, etc…It is nature that will give us all signs and signals if we tune in, and ask to receive its gifts.
This can also theoretically explain why many of the poses in yoga are the names of animals. We mimick the movement or physical aspect of the animal, so that we can move with agility, and also so that we understand what it is like to move in animal form. If we are blessed to have a teacher or situation that aligns a practice with nature, the practice can move into an energetic alignment with the moon. Women may feel their cycles shift with an outdoor practice (best done directly on the ground), and men can feel the strength of a practice grow with greater alignment to the yang elements found in all poses.
The Yin/Yang element of yoga can be seen in all poses as they work to balance our bodies. If living a yoga lifestyle, it is common to perform a strong “yang” practice in the morning, while a steady yin style is conducive as the sun wanes into the evening. Two practices per day can balance us even more if we have the time (which we do in Thailand, Koh Phagnan being known for the moon, the crystals in the soil and the home of many yoga schools and teacher trainings.
At the end of the practice I asked the students how it felt to be in a circle during the class. One said she felt more connected to everyone in the class as she could look at everyone, another said she didn’t like it because she wanted her practice to be inward and felt like that didn’t happen in the circle. It did seem, that the power of the group made people more attentive, paying particular attention to how they held their arms and legs in asana.
Mandala yoga holds the concept of the circle as sacred. If you look at the mandalas created by Tibetan monks with sand, they hold the premise of two concepts in spirituality: one being that there is no end, that energy and its source is infinite, and the other is that of detachment. At the end of creating a sand mandala, the sand is blown away; at the end of the day for a yogi, the only constant is change. The instructor changes, the weather changes, the format of the class changes, the body changes. If we act in a detached manner to all of life’s ups and downs, we endure less suffering and more bliss upon accepting the new.
Try yoga in a circle – see what it does for you as a teacher, and as a student. The day we had the circle was the day I had others tell me they were envious not to be in the class as they wanted to participate in the discussion that followed the unique format.
I would love to hear your feedback on doing yoga in a circle, or how doing yoga in nature has connected you more to the outdoors.
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