10/12/2025
Asanas Are Not Shapes to Become
體式不是你要成為的形狀 {中文在下方}
People often ask me, “So… what kind of yoga do you teach?”
They expect a label or a lineage — hatha, vinyasa, alignment-based, restorative, Ashtanga, Iyengar… Something familiar, something they can categorize, compare, or file neatly into a mental drawer.
But my relationship to practice—and therefore teaching—no longer fits easily into that kind of answer.
When I visited the D. T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa this November, I saw a calligraphy work of his. It read: “麻三斤 (three pounds of flax).”
Three pounds of flax is a famous Zen koan—
A monk once asked Master Tozan:
“What is the essence of the teaching?”
Tozan replied:
“Three pounds of flax.”
It is said that D. T. Suzuki would respond to that question in the same spirit, sometimes using three pounds of flax, other times ordinary objects, even luxurious or holy ones.
All knowledge, philosophies, or techniques are only tools that guide you back to experience reality as it is.
Yoga practices, for me, are these kind of tools. I often feel that I’m not really “teaching yoga.” I’m trying to help people find their way to practice—and that difference matters.
I don’t teach any system. I see asanas not as shapes to become, but as tools to practice—to meet what is happening in the present moment.
We might try techniques that I’ve found useful, but we don’t mistake the techniques for the essence of what we’re learning.
人們常常問我：「所以……你教的是哪一種瑜伽？」
他們期待聽到的是標籤或派系── 哈達、串聯、正位、修復、阿斯坦加、艾揚格.... 一些熟悉、可以分類、比較的名字。
但我與練習（也因此與教學）的關係，已經無法再輕易被這樣歸檔。
今年十一月我在金澤的鈴木大拙紀念館，看見大拙的一幅書法作品，上面寫著：「麻三斤。」
「麻三斤」是一則著名的禪宗公案。
一位僧人曾經問洞山禪師：「什麼是教法的本質？」
洞山回答：「麻三斤。」
據說鈴木大拙也常以同樣的精神回覆這個問題，有時說「麻三斤」，有時是其他平凡的物件，有時則是奢華或神聖的東西。
所有知識、哲學、或技巧都只是工具，指引你如實的經驗當下。
對我而言，瑜伽練習就是這樣的工具。我常覺得自己並不是在「教瑜伽」；我所嘗試做的是協助人們找到他們自己的練習──而這之間的差別非常重要。
我教的不是任何系統；我認為體式並不是我們要成為的形狀，而是練習的工具──幫助你與當下相遇的方法。
我們也許會一起練習一些我覺得有用的技巧，但不會把技巧誤認為我們真正在學習的本質。
