Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

injury became one of my greatest asana teachers. I learned that, though my L5-S1 lumbar disk had degenerated completely, I could compensate by increasing the intervertebral space with internal leverages and torques and by strengthening the spinal muscle column. In 1976 I met and hosted B.K.S. Iyengar in Los Angeles, and his instruction confirmed and expanded greatly on my own discoveries about the internal dynamics of asana.
    Doctors had told me to stop practicing yoga and said I would always have back trouble. Surgery was suggested. I continued with my practice and within a couple of years I regained nearly all of my flexibility and strength on my own. Ten years later I relearned the lessons of the body when I got too involved in the construction of our retreat center and re-injured my back by foolishly carrying lumber and ninety-pound bags of cement. This time, however, I was able to cycle through the injury in a few weeks instead of years by following the principles I had learned with the earlier injury.
    I used to be hesitant to discuss these experiences with students. I was concerned that they would be disheartened with yoga and they might conclude that if teachers and advanced students received injuries, yoga must be flawed or detrimental. But I found that the reverse wastrue. Students were inspired to see how healing was possible, to realize that no one is beyond the possibility of error or injury, and to be reminded that we all are human. There is no magical technique or practice that will keep us free from harm, injury, or physical problems. Any of us may exceed our limits, push too hard. Holding on to the ideas that we are practicing magical or perfected techniques is what puts us to sleep. It is staying constantly alert and vigilant that will guide us in the right direction.

Sympathetic Resonance
    Healing and wellness also have components similar to tuning the strings of musical instruments.
Sympathetic resonance
is the phenomenon where one plucked string will also cause others strings in the area that are in tune to vibrate. When we are sick or injured, other old injuries and problems tend to resonate with the current one and get set off again. For example, if you hurt an ankle, an old neck injury may start bothering you. Fortunately, the converse is also true. When you have a problem or injury and do what feels good with a practice that gets your energy moving, you will set up a
healing resonance
that helps the injured areas come back into alignment and wellness. By creating a strong enough field of well-being and mental intention, you can bring the whole body into this beneficial resonance.
    It is important to trust your inner senses and to learn to listen and respond. You must be very careful not to push too far into painful areas during early or acute stages of an injury—to stay in back of the edges of pain until you are more confident. Competent teachers can demonstrate these abilities to some extent, but they cannot actually teach them to you. You must learn them for yourself. It is not difficult, though; just begin by listening and tuning in.
    Dealing with injury is not that different from the way you should approach your entire yoga practice. Listen and respond to guidance from the body’s intelligence, assisted by the knowledge and informationas well as the techniques and modalities you have learned, in order to create a process that accelerates healing of the body.

Causes and Prevention of Injury
    Injuries have many possible causes. Increasing awareness of these causes will aid in prevention. Here are several of the most common types of injury, and ways to avoid what causes them.
Accidents
    We are all subject to unexpected injury. Yoga practice not only helps prevent injuries, it also trains us to accelerate healing. The following story shows how yoga makes the body far less prone to injuries. Once, when learning to ski, I came down a beginner’s slope next to the lift lines. Watching the people in line and not paying attention to my skiing, I caught the edges of my skis in a wide snowplow and my feet and legs went out sideways until they were in wide, standing straddle splits. It looked like I would split in half and the people in line gasped. But I was flexible, and had even done the straddle splits that morning, so I was able to readjust my legs, aim the skis together, and pull back into the proper position as I skied by the line of shocked-looking people at the lift. My body had just