Sequences

 I find even in smaller groups, say the Iyengar community, I spend so much time disagreeing with most of what people say i could write a blog about it..oh wait..

 I have found sequences to be an odd thing. I have never thought they are owned, I guess they could be considered intellectual property but for me Nope Never has that thought crossed my mind. Once taught if i experienced as a student, heard, read, watched, was told...I have always felt they were something to be shared, like say...yoga

Bikram a few years back decided he owned a sequence and tried to copywrite it, which caused people to put him down because after all you can't own a sequence. Prashant Iyengar stated the below in an interview at the time:

'Vanessa Calder, chairperson, OSYU, said, "One cannot copyright, or own in any manner, an exercise routine."

Traditional proponent of yoga, Prashant Iyengar, son of the legendary BKS Iyengar, also rejected the idea of any form of trademark or ownership over yoga. "We are not teaching a new brand of yoga, though our pupils like to call it 'Iyengar Yoga.' We are following the age-old traditional methods of yoga given by Patanajali. We can't claim ownership or name it separately; this is traditional knowledge, it is eternal, it can't be claimed by an individual," he said.'

and i knew nobody in the Iyengar community who disagreed

But lately...at yoganusasanam Geetaji stated people could not take notes during the event, i thought she was going to end that statement with 'because it is distracting from ones practice' but no she said 'it's stealiing', I literally groaned, now the sequence is a possession, owned ,mine mine mine. I recently heard from someone who said a teacher had stated not to share a sequence they taught, mine mine mine. What were they saying about Bikram at that time, 'darn why didn't I think of that first' since now they are knocking on the same door

I used to email friends sequences i found or wrote down. I then wrote a program and key the sequences in where I can share sequences with those same friends. I have never asked a teacher if i could share their sequences because i have never believed they owned them, this is no different to me then us all meeting for lunch and me saying oh let me tell you what was taught yesterday, it is limited to the lunch group. However through the process of creating the site it took me about 5 minutes to find I don't think like others.

On one side there are the teachers, if you write my sequence down you are stealing and don't share, and on the other are students who also have an amazing attachment to sequences. I have never thought wow that was a great sequence, i will love it and cuddle it and keep it close, it's to enjoy, practice and share that's it, there is no deeper meaning in my heart for it.

I am at a total loss on the sequence thing. If you share a sequence you still have it and it has not been diminished in any way, I have also never thought oh now that i have seen a list of asanas on a piece of paper i never need to attend a class by that teacher since that experience is exactly the same as the other, so it doesn't affect the teacher in any way that i can see.

I have heard Laurie Blakeney say she didn't care if people wrote/shared sequences because she didn't own it, it's not hers. Arunji has also stated that what he teaches is not his, as they both have said, it all comes from Guruji. I believe lately there is some shift from this.

so I put my program on the web to make sharing with a small group of friends easy and when i pay for the site they constantly ask me if i want ,for just a little more they could move it up in the google search hits and I always say NO I don't want it found, they are usually a little surprised..'uh you don't want your site found' and i reply NO while thinking 'you have no idea'