On June 16th, B.K.S. Iyengar attended the 2011 China-India Yoga Summit in Guangzhou, China. He met with important Chinese Tai chi and Bagua Kungfu masters, comparing yoga with Chinese physical and spiritual practices. It was one of the most significant cultural exchanges between two civilizations.

From June 17 to 19, Guruji also conducted a 3-day course to give special yoga training. Ten of his distinguished students from around the world assisted including Manouso Manos and Patricia Walden from the U.S., helping to communicate and coordinate between Guruji and the students.

Here Patricia shares her impressions.

Greetings as I return from China. I want to share with you a few precious moments from the extraordinary event that was B.K.S. Iyengar’s historic trip to China. This was the largest group that he has ever taught - 1000 students were expected and almost 1400 were present. In an interview with the Times of India, Guruji spoke of the importance of the event and described it as being the latest step in the thousands of years of cultural exchange between India and China. Chinese speakers likened BKS Iyengar to the Bodhidharma (who brought Buddhism from India to China) and Lao Tzu (one of the founders of Taoism). The Chinese community received Guruji and the senior teachers with overwhelming love and appreciation. Guruji was indefatigable, dynamic and passionate. His teachings were simple yet profound.

At the summit before the conference, Guruji received a rock star greeting at the convention hotel. There were so many students and well-wishers that we were a bit concerned he was going to be trampled!

Before the summit began, there was a day of sightseeing lasting late into the night. The next day a press conference was held where Guruji entered to the sound of the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme! On that second evening, there was a fifteen-course banquet and two hours of talks by yoga teachers from all over Asia.

Guruji talked about the heart continuously and the divinity that lives within it. His words were simple, direct and profound. He closed by telling us to love each other and live peacefully. At the convention he told us how to approach learning: with an empty brain, letting go of our own ideas, with eyes wide open and with heartfelt, attentive awareness.

He began the first day of teaching by holding up a leaf and comparing it to our feet. He was poetic and inspired. He then taught Tadasana, Utthita Trikonasana, Utthita Parsvakonasana, Prasarita Padottanasana and Parsvottanasana. He explained that these are the most important standing poses.

He said, "The brain becomes light when we have good alignment. Our movements should be dynamic, lovely and lively." He ended class with a very deep Savasana.

Guruji was scheduled to teach two hours for each of the first and second days. The first day, he taught all 1400 students for almost three and a half hours. He stood the entire time, and came back halfway through the afternoon class that Birjoo Mehta was teaching (a review of the morning class) to determine if the students were "understanding well." Hard to believe our beloved Guruji is in his 93rd year.

On the second day, he taught for three and a half hours and reviewed the standing asanas from the first class, and then taught Bharadvajasana, Virasana, Parsva Virasana, Marichyasana III and Pascimottanasana. He wove in many of the yoga sutras: I.2, I.14, I.16, II.17 and II.34.

He taught and explained the elements and wove them into his teaching with a special focus on the skin (akasa), both inner and outer. "To work with motion,” he said, “the skin has to be soft." Here's a taste of this teaching: in Bharadvajasana on the back body, the posterior skin moves down. On the front body, the inner skin turns. The skin on the back body should be soft to turn.

On the third day, Guruji's teachings were beyond words during another three and a half hour class. He taught with simplicity, yet at the same time it was subtle and practical. He began by responding to what he observed in the students, saying that some practice for fitness and to be physically attractive and that “This is important, but it’s the beauty of yoga that makes you naturally beautiful.”

“Don’t practice for cosmetic beauty, practice for cosmic beauty. Practice for inner beauty and inner light. When you have inner light you have inner beauty, cosmic beauty. Go from cosmetic state to cosmic state.”

He then began teaching through demonstration by his granddaughter Abhijata. His focus was on how to practice when you are in a mudha (dull) state. He showed supported backbends and supported inversions. For tamas or dullness, he taught to work from the periphery. For a rajassic or over-active state, the same poses done differently. For rajas, you work with the inner body.

Tamas turns to rajas, and rajas turn to sattva. In other words, dullness and lethargy transforms to attachment and activity, and this ultimately transforms to wisdom and peace.

The rest of the class was like a teacher training. He taught five different ways of doing Sirsasana, Sarvangasana and Urdhva Dhanurasana. He taught how to begin working with inversions. It was a very beginner group so he taught from the base in all the asanas, but once again he balanced simplicity with subtlety.

We broke at 1:00 and came back at 3:00 for questions and answers followed by a group photo with all 1400 people. Next came yoga demonstrations and talks. We, the assistants, were honored and garlanded. Then Guruji was garlanded and honored again, and again and again. The Chinese students sang a song about love lasting for ten thousand years. It went right to our hearts. The event was scheduled to end at 6, but continued to 8:30. It was a spectacular event. The Chinese community welcomed us from their hearts and showered us with love.

We are part of an extraordinary lineage, in which the teachings have been passed down to us faithfully.  We have a tremendous opportunity to practice what we have been given and transform our lives.

I return from this experience with joy, fullness and love in my heart.

— Patricia