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a53 12/30/06 - Half the resolution is optimism
a52 12/23/06 - As the solstice turns
a51 12/16/06 - Shopping for Person X
a50 12/09/06 - My dinner with Joni
a49 12/02/06 - Want quirky sex? Turn to fiction
a48 11/25/06 - For whom the biological clock ticketh
a47 11/18/06 - Eviting trouble
a46 11/11/06 - More information, less reading
a45 11/04/06 - Slogans over sentences
a44 10/28/06 - Avid consumers, or just crazy?
a43 10/21/06 - Road Rage on Information Superhighway
a42 10/14/06 - The State of Student Activism
a41 10/07/06 - $4k Cat Is Nothing to Sneeze At
a40 09/30/06 - Housing Party Collapses
a39 09/23/06 - TiVo Tyranny -- The Latest in Self-Loathing
a38 09/16/06 - What's Do-ing in Fashion
a37 09/09/06 - Gentlemen, Start Your Clocks
a36 09/02/06 - Celebrating Labor -- by Working
a35 08/26/06 - JonBenet Wasn't the Only Victim
a34 08/19/06 - Jack FM May Be Annoying, But Jill's an Airhead
a33 08/12/06 - The Upside of Marrying Down
a32 08/05/06 - The Dope In All Of Us
a31 07/29/06 - Sweating Your Way to Enlightenment
a30 07/22/06 - Can't Get Enough Baby Talk
a29 07/15/06 - Behind Batwoman's Gayness
a28 07/08/06 - I'm with Google
a27 07/01/06 - Sadists in stilettoes
a26 06/24/06 - Coulter's a satirist -- really?
a25 06/17/06 - Models hawking model homes
a24 06/10/06 - Eyesores of L.A.
a23 06/03/06 - Lies, damn lies and marriage statistics
a22 05/27/06 - The Madonna diet
a21 05/20/06 - Goodbye to you, Mr. Smiley
a20 05/13/06 - Men with weak chins
a19 05/06/06 - Man of our dreams
a18 04/29/06 - Kaavya's so not happy ending
a17 04/22/06 - Guilty moms, the next generation
a16 04/15/06 - Major decisions for minors
a15 04/08/06 - Surveying the cultural manscape
a14 04/01/06 - Hedgehog nation
a13 03/25/06 - Sticky family values
a12 03/18/06 - Love 'em, hate 'em or clean the house
a11 03/11/06 - Middle school confidential
a10 03/04/06 - Crowding out a right to choose
a9 02/25/06 - Who's the idiot now?
a8 02/18/06 - Zillowing hits you where you live
a7 02/11/06 - The No-Om Zone: Yoga for Winners
a6 02/04/06 - Wrestling with the 'Heidi' effect
a5 01/28/06 - Harassed, or just bummed?
a4 01/21/06 - Public radio, private lives
a3 01/14/06 - Throwing the book at reality
a2 01/07/06 - A breakthrough called 'Brokeback'
a1 01/02/06 - Evolving resolving
 
     
The No-Om Zone: Yoga for Winners
February 11, 2006
FEEL THAT restorative energy coming from downtown L.A. this weekend? It's not another real estate development project. It's the sacred sway of the third annual Yoga Expo, a convention encompassing many forms of yoga and featuring a competition: the International Yoga Asana Championship, a.k.a. the Bishnu Ghosh Cup.
I know what a lot of you are thinking: gauche, indeed! Yes, there is something rather un-om-like about performing a series of asanas ( postures, for all you philistines) and being judged on "proportion of the body" and "steadiness of execution," not to mention "dress, style and grace." But anyone who thinks that yoga is noncompetitive is living in a dream world (or possibly on the east side of L.A.). After all, what is it if not a daily or weekly chance to compare our bodies, attire and style of sticky mat with those of people who might have a nicer car than we do but can't hold a crow pose worth jack?
I know, I know. I've got some toxic chi running through me. I can feel, at this very moment, the mystical force of all you traditional yogis running to your computers to tell me I don't get it and how, furthermore, the Yoga Asana Championship, organized by the controversial Bikram's Yoga College of India (headquartered right here on La Cienega Boulevard), is a karmic travesty.
Bikram yoga, which is practiced in 105-degree heat and involves 26 postures performed in the exact same order in every class (and in front of a mirror!) is sometimes regarded as antithetical to traditional yoga. Its founder, Bikram Choudhury, has spent a fortune in legal fees franchising his studios and attempting to copyright the postures. Hardly an ascetic swami, he's known for his fleet of Rolls-Royces, the gold watch he wears with his Speedo when he teaches class and a pedagogical style that involves sitting on a throne and hurling insults at students.
As opposed as I am to Speedos on anyone other than Olympic swimmers, I must admit that of all the forms of yoga I dabble in, Bikram is my favorite. Granted, it's monotonous, smelly and tends to offer unwelcome views of people's cellulite and back hair. But there's something about perspiring with strangers to the point of total saturation that makes you feel connected to the universe in a way that gentler yoga just doesn't.
You know how feeling dizzy or nauseous can often be a lonely, alienating experience? Not in Bikram, where nearly everyone feels sick and some even faint or throw up! To see the vulnerable pallor of queasiness on a classmate's face as she runs frantically for the bathroom (or, once in my case, the flower bed outside the studio) is to glimpse humanity in its purest form. To see someone doing this in a thong is even more intense, if perhaps redundant
So I actually enjoy Bikram. But as shows like "American Idol," "The Swan" and "The Bachelor" teach us, things that are merely enjoyed — like singing, looking your best, falling in love (and doing yoga) — are piteously wasted. You have to make them into contests.
I first heard about the Bishnu Ghosh Cup (Bishnu Ghosh, incidentally, was Choudhury's guru) in class last week, when our lovely and insult-free instructor praised us by saying that our standing Dhanurasanas (that's when you kick your leg back and pull it over your head) looked so good that we should enter the competition. I didn't take it to heart at first because that happens to be a posture over which I have as much mastery as the bagpipes, but it did get me thinking about as-yet-unexplored areas of yogic competition, some of which might prove even tougher than the standing Dhanurasana.
How about a prize for finding a parking space near the studio, turning off your cellphone or remembering to use deodorant? These may seem like yoga compulsories, but many a would-be champion has fallen during these preliminary events, and I know for a fact that personal hygiene isn't exactly a dharma among some yogis.
How about a competition that tests your ability to get through class when you aren't in the mood to be there and there is not one sexually attractive person on whom to focus for the whole tedious 90 minutes? How about a no-eye-contact-in-the-changing-room challenge? How about an endurance event measuring the length of time during which a student can maintain a conversation with an instructor about the "master cleanse fast"?
Yoga is all about pushing past your perceived limitations, opening yourself up to new possibilities and compassionately accepting the world around you. That's why competitive yoga is essential. As someone whose ananda (that means "eternal joy," for all you uninitiated plebes) is dependent on winning, even if it means stepping over the drenched, passed-out body of the person next to me, I see the third annual International Yoga Asana Championship as an important step toward world peace — and maybe even eventually an explosion in deodorant sales. Let's kick some self-realization ass.
© Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
 
© 2008, Meghan Daum
 
Meghan Daum Quality of Life Report