Spontaneous yoga in teacher training

Over my 30-year yoga journey my greatest teacher has been the body. Learning to trust this teacher arose (appropriately enough) spontaneously during my early years living in a Zen monastery.

Monastery life was anything but spontaneous. Posture and alignment were rigidly emphasised, in sitting as well as in movement and even in the simple acts of daily life. I lived with the other young monks in the meditation hall so there was almost no privacy.

The intense practice was causing my system to open up energetically. My body started developing an overwhelming urge to release and move. I had to hide in the bathroom, among the trees, anywhere I could be unseen and let it happen; and happen it did. I was amazed at the precision of the impulse in my body, moving me in exactly the way it needed for release. And the journey continues. From then till now a thread of this spontaneous movement has been continuously part of my life.

I’ve found for myself that this moving from the inside-out complements perfectly the outside-in approach of more formal yogic alignment work. In fact, I think of it as a source of alignment. In discussing the relationship of these two approaches, Wisconsin yoga and meditation teacher, Betsy Rabjor writes: “Yoga is thought to have originated from spontaneous movements happening to long-time meditators. In other words, the yoga poses came afterwards as a tool or technique to hopefully get the awakening result.”

Over the years, I’ve experienced a powerful healing aspect to this spontaneous work and I’m not the only one. In the Journal of Authentic Movement and Somatic Enquiry (2012/01/02), psychotherapist and yogini Joan S. Harrigan writes that this practice will, “purge and purify the subtle system from toxins…I’m talking about negative thought patterns. In a time of trauma or life shock, what we experience around that goes deep into our system. It is stored in our molecules; it is stored in our muscles; it is stored in our organ systems.”

In his book, Buddhist Yoga, Japanese author Rev. Kanjitsu Iijima describes this practice, calling it “Divine Exercise”, writing: “This is the most authentic yoga exercise.”

In the modern world perhaps the most prominent practitioner of spontaneous yoga was Swami Kripalvananda (1913-1981). Known to spend 10 hours a day engaged in this practice, he discussed how this work tended to interiorise: “This spontaneous dance has two phases: external and internal. At first, the dance has external movements. Gradually these movements cease until there is complete stillness, externally. Yet the dance continues inside.”

I’ve found that this kind of practice is not only transformative but opens wellsprings of deep joy. In Japan, my Zen teacher took me to Iwatakisan, a mountain about 10 km from our temple where the famous seventeenth century Zen master Hakuin spent almost two years in solitary retreat.

Writing about this time, Hakuin notes: “How many times did I jump up and jubilantly dance around oblivious of all else…As for sitting, sitting is something that should include fits of ecstatic laughter…brayings that make you slump to the ground clutching your belly. And when you struggle to your feet after the first spasm passes, it should send you kneeling to earth in yet further contortions of joy.”

Hakuin describes how in the early stages of his retreat, many fearful experiences arose. But through continuing the practice these feelings resolved and he reached a point where for the rest of his life he never again felt fear. Zen master Shinzan, my teacher, as a young monk practiced in a similar way alone on this mountain and he wanted me to experience it too.

In our Zenways yoga teacher training we include a period of spontaneous yoga every day. We’ve found it gives the new teacher access to a source of renewal and inspiration that is truly inexhaustible. I recommend you explore tapping into the wisdom and vitality of your body. In embarking on this journey here are some tips that others have found useful: