Yoga Journal recap part deux

The Yoga Journal Conference in Boston was like the speed dating of yoga --well speed dating in a soul-less carpeted hotel conference room at the Sheraton. Nonetheless, it was a great way get a little taste of some of the best (or best marketed) yoga teachers. Here's a quick low-down on the presenters I had the chance to experience.

I started the main conference with the Primary Series led by David Swenson, one of the ashtanga greats. Sri Jois must be keeping it real in Mysore, because the ashtangis seem to be the most grounded of the uber-yogis. You know how some of the superstars slowly evolve into Cher? Not David Swenson or Richard Freeman, with whom I ended the conference. These guys seem to be very sweet and humble. A blissed-out Freeman floated into the packed meeting room as if he'd just come from a 20-hour meditation session and looked at us like a newborn taking in the hospital nursery. He's the kind of guy that you want to spend a couple of hours with chatting about life over a hookah.

One of nicest surprises was Aadil Palkhivala's workshop on healing the lower back. While Gary Kraftsow stuggled with trying to cram a lifetime of knowledge about the chakras into two hours, Aadil managed to address emotion, meditation, nutrition, and asana in his short session. He began the session with the proclamation that all lower back pain is emotional, and to heal it, you must follow your dharma. I'm not quite sure what that means yet, but when I figure out what my dharma is, you can bet your ass that I will be on that bus!

On the last day, we went from a Shiva Rae handstand workshop directly into an Ana Forrest gravity surfing class. What a transition that was --going from trance-dancy, hair flying Shiva energy into the Forrest room which was blazing with fierceness and intensity. Ana's line-up of ass-kicking, black glove wearing assistants sent the message - "hey, I've over-come some massive affliction like heroin addiction or anorexia or something equally heinous, and now your yoga ass is mine!"