Anthony Gary Lopedota
Has been a great honor to interview Anthony Gary Lopedota, one of the most important yogi in the world. Thank you very much for your time and inspiration.
You are one of the persons in the world who practices all the series (with the old advanced A&B) , i was reading a bit that you had some private sessions with Sri K Pattabhi Jois, i would love you to explain to me a bit about this experiencie with Guruji.
Anthony:I had four hour privates for about two months. It was the best time for me, really almost 4 months with a quadriplegic girl there for about two months. What I gained was imparted with his sincere touch every day and watching him work with the young girl with such inspiration and willingness to do whatever it took to bring about positive change. As much as i love and respect Guru Ji, I truly believe that we ( the yoga therapists ) have the ability to take the practice to a new and more healing level, maybe not more healing for all but definitely for some who do not respond to the ashtanga practice verbatim. I learned that we need to think outside the box form KP Jois who definitely thought outside the box. I will be coming out with a short video of a vinyasa series that addresses brain function, hemisphere balancing, addressing learning disabilities like dyslexia. Guru Ji's genius came a lot from his passion and love. When I would discover something that worked well with the practice and discussed and shared it with Guru Ji, he would get excited and showed me a lot of support and trust. I am sure that my injuries and challenges with my body are all blessings in disguise, it is no accident that doctors, therapists and clinicians have often felt like sharing their wisdom with me. Guru Ji and I would sit and drink coffee after class. He was so humble and yet very self assured. He believed in what he did. Those yogis that are inspired to learn and incorporate other body therapies are the next generation of this lineage. The fundamentalist approach is not in line with what KPJ did in his life or we would be doing exactly what Krishnamacharya taught.
You discovered that many injuries are the result of poor nutrition. And you applied a therapeutic form of ashtanga,do you think that ashtanga can be practiced for all of our lives.
Anthony:Ashtanga yoga puts an extraordinary amount of repetitious strain on the connective tissue of the body. If a person’s connective tissue is breaking down because of poor nutrition and acidic life style, the result will be an eventual and certain break down of the body. One could continue practicing the latter limbs of Ashtanga yoga but the asana practice would be a waste of time and would merely accelerate the breakdown of the articulating surfaces and the surrounding connective tissue. Guru Ji stopped his asana practice earlier than a lot of us would even consider. He continued with daily shirshasana and padmasana during pratyahara, pranayama, dharana, dyana, samadhi practice/experience.
why did you begin to practice yoga, and how much time did you spend with Guruji studying?
Anthony:Wow, never counted before, I believe it was eight times the longest being three times in Mysore at 3 to 4 months each.I was always attracted to yoga, martial arts, healing. It came natural to touch people in a healing way and ashtanga, like no other yoga, is practiced in that way. I remember touching and massaging relatives at gatherings when I was 9 years old and remember counseling in a spiritual manner when I was 5. Blessed to be born blind by California standards and sickly as a child, the path of healing and healer was carved out for me.
When I was fourteen, yoga became an interest as well as martial arts; actually judo was my first practice when I was 12. At fifteen Paramahamsa Yoganada, Allan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Wilhelm Reich, Swami Ramacharacha, and many other authors became my interest and salvation. Yoga was in my stars.
Do you think you've finally taken mula bandha in full control in the physical and energy sense to control the prana?
Anthony:As my body, subtle and gross adjusted to Ashtanga Yoga, it went through many changes some were quite radical. At one point when Brad Ramsey and I practiced together, this being after many private pranayama classes with Guru Ji, I started having convulsions. While I was sitting in padmasana doing pranayama, my body(torso) would start slamming forward so that it hit the floor with great force and total disregard for what my physical body was going through. This was an electrical response on the most subtle level of ida , pingala, sashumna nadi cleansing/reorganizing., although it looked anything but subtle. Good thing Bradley had my back. He was good at not emotional response and added only positive support. Other yogis when I explained this to them became quite scarred for me. Not everyone is cut out to meet Shiva. Later in my practice which has included three 40 day fasts in my life so far ( hand full of food and as much water as I wanted every day with some variation but not on the amount of solid food. All three times my weight ended up leveling off at 125#s.). It was during one of these fasts that the breath stopped during pranayama. I actually got scarred when I noticed and that ended the experience. Our prana and mullabanda develop at different rates. My mullabandha is quite developed but my prana is a bit behind. I have always had vices that are not yogicly pure if you will. The truth is, with grace we may have the control of both in the necessary situation and that is all that matters. Trying to cultivate siddhis is part of the egos arrogance.Siddhis naturally acquired and expressed are divine.
