Do you, as a Yoga student think chanting is too weird?
How about Yoga teachers: do you think it is too complicated or should be off-limits?
"No chanting, just yoga" is what the add for the newest branch of Bulldog Yoga one of the newest studios in Boulder, CO reads.
I wasn't sure what to make of this, not just because the website was slow and it took three tries to get it from giving me 404 responses, but because they quoted Beethoven and made other cool statements about feeling the power of music and about the "physical and mental rewards" that practicing yoga brings.
A studio chain in England called Yoga Convert made a similar statement about Yoga being an uplifting thing, and their version is chant-free.
I don't do a huge amount of chanting in my classes, but since I stared practicing almost 17 years ago, I've always felt that chanting had a natural place somewhere amidst the whole, big picture.
Simple chants, such as repeating "aum" or "aum shanti" do take on meaning to participants, but much of the value in such chanting is, intentionally, physical. I learned this long ago when training in YogaFit Level 3.
There weere at least 30 of us, and we began chanting "aum", and soon, we found ourselves with perfect timing-we chanted in absolute synchronicity. To describe with words the energy we felt would do it injustice; it had to be felt.
Yoga means union-of all things, all energies from all sources, of all people who participate together.
So while we might not do long chants as part of class, let's not lose this important connection.
Please do share your thoughts!
Blessings!
