My name is Kim Ruby. I live in Los Angeles, I'm a yoga teacher, and I'm in medical school at USC.
The purpose of this website is to provide info on yoga, back pain, and Dr. Sarno's approach to treating what he calls TMS, or "Tension Myositis Syndrome." And any other stuff I feel like adding.
And it's called Tar Pit Yoga because I live by the La Brea Tar Pits.
I should mention that I've had instruction from a variety of yoga teachers over the years, but the most useful training I've received has come from my Zen practice. The goal of both Zen and yoga is the same--it's awareness. I've been studying with Joko Beck at the Zen Center of San Diego since around 2000, and I've learned more about "spirituality", "samadhi", and "enlightenment" from that meditation practice than I've ever learned from doing asana. So my approach to yoga is probably quite different, due to the heavy influence of Joko's style of Zen practice.
It is much more useful to be a yoga practitioner, rather than a yoga scholar. It's fine to study classic yoga texts, but you only get the benefits of yoga through direct experience. That means, of course, that you shouldn't take anything that you read here about yoga as gospel. Use this website as a basic introduction, but start practicing and you'll see how it works for yourself. And if you have a chance to work with a really good teacher, do so.
When I first started studying Zen with Joko, I thought that she was going to explain it to me, step by step. And I figured that since I'm reasonably intelligent, I'd quickly be able to "get it"--I'd be able to understand how the mind affects the body, I'd figure out this whole Dr. Sarno/TMS thing, and I'd be rather enlightened to boot. However, Joko didn't explain much of anything to me. She told me that I needed to sit daily, I should meet with her frequently, I should start doing sesshins (meditation intensives) if possible, and practice would make more sense as time went on. After a couple months, I was thoroughly frustrated because it didn't feel like I was making any progress. Her advice was that I'd just have to trust her for a while and keep practicing. It took me 2-3 years to see for myself that she really knew what she was talking about, and to see that I've just scratched the surface. So please don't try to follow the Eight Limbs of Yoga like a recipe because the awakening process is not exactly linear. There are big ups and downs, periods of boredom, and it takes a long time. It's definitely worth it, though.
The Eight Limbs of Yoga1. Yama and 2. Niyama
These sort of sound like the ten commandments. You won't suffer eternal damnation if you don't follow them, however.
Yama consists of nonviolence, truthfulness, nonstealing, chastity (or at least "sexual responsibility"), and noncovetousness. They are essentially guidelines that can be summed up with the common proverb, "Do no harm."
Niyama consists of practices to promote personal discipline, including cleanliness of mind and body; fervor or tenacity for the practice; study of the self; and surrender to God. I'm not a fan of the wording of that last bit, since I'm not religious. If anything, I'd drop the last one and really emphasize the one before it: "study of the self." With a good yoga practice, you don't try to change your behavior in order to follow some spiritual ideal. (You're fine just the way you are.) Instead, you just learn to watch your thoughts and behavior. After a lot of self-observation, you'll begin to see how you may be hurting yourself or others, and you'll figure out what the appropriate action is.
Click here for 3. Asana.