Hi all
Can anyone tell me why ashtanga shouldn’t be practiced with background music? It makes the practice so much more fun yet I’ve noticed that none of my practice DVDs seem to have any background music. Can someone give me a sensible explanation on why this is so?
Thanks!
Yonita
If I were putting together a practice DVD of anything, I wouldn’t include sounds that weren’t part of the subject matter, just to give my customer options. For instance, someone practicing in a thin-walled apartment might want to play the DVD at very low volume, in which case having no audible competition for the verbal instructions is beneficial.
I’ve also seen on this forum folks voice the opinion that, when they practice asanas, they don’t spare any of their attention to something external like music; their fun is in exploring the pose and observing their physical, mental, and emotional states. It makes sense to me that some particular tradition or school of yoga might decide to encourage this by avoiding background music, but I don’t know enough about ashtanga to say whether they do this or not.
We don’t use music, because it is not the goal to make the practice fun. Fun means that your mind is giving the practice some kind of value, but the goal in the practice is to do it without the activation of the mind. It is moving meditation, you listen to your breath and allow the practice to happen through you. That is the reason why we also do the same practice day after day, not changing the sequence and doing something interesting.
When you have experienced meditation in ashtanga practice, then you realize why music and everything else “interesting” is not needed.
Have a great day. Namaste.
Hello Yonita.
While I am not an Ashtanga practitioner or teacher I do have some thoughts/concepts on this to share with you.
The first is our movement away from dogmatic thinking. That thinking usually is associated with “should” and “shouldn’t”. It is not a matter of prohibiting music in this system or that, as you can practice in any way of your choosing. As a teacher and practitioner of yoga I hope that choice is one that moves YOU closer toward the Self, closer toward light, closer to “home”. So you may play music, light candles, burn nag champa - but please do not confuse those things with yoga at all.
The second, is the question begged by your question. And that is “What is missing from a yoga practice that there must be music in order for the student to discover the joy of it?”. The first part of that question is answered by Yoga itself; nothing at all! The second part must be answered by each student for themselves. Though I can tell you from my experience it often is the rampant overstimulation of the nervous system that causes students to crave entertainment in their practice in order to feel anything at all.
In my personal practice I rarely, if ever, have music. The practice is most fruitful when there is only foreground so backgrounds are irrelevant (to me in my practice). Furthermore, I find that reducing external stuff is far more productive for me than adding it.
gordon
Thankyou for your thoughtful responses to my question.
I’d like to think that a diversity of reasons for practicing yoga were allowed. I do yoga because I find fun in it - and silence and calm and relief. I initially turned to it as a refuge from my corporate job and have stuck with it for a plethora of other reasons. Frankly, if I didn’t find it fun, I wouldn’t do it. It would be more productive for me to clean my house an hour each day instead.
While I respect others that pursue yoga for spiritual reasons, I can’t see any reason not to extend that same respect to those that might pursue it to get fit, lose weight or stay looking fabulous - however we may differ from such motivations.
It could be overstimulation of my nervous system that’s causing me to want music… or it could be that I’m from a school of thought that believes no God but that if God exists, then God appears in the form of mountains, skies and music. It’s not that I don’t feel anything without music. It’s just that I feel more when it’s there. Equally, if I could practice where the air smells of trees rather than Beijing traffic, I’d find more joy in the practice.
That said, I will continue to reflect and thank you all 
Happy and fun practising!
Y
I agree with you completely. And I’d like to add the following.
Diversity of reasons for practice is not just allowed. It is necessary. It is that diversity that creates contrasts and contrast is absolutely needed for student discernment. As I state previously, the practice can be any way one wants it.
Asana is also completely appropriate for healing the physical body. While not the purpose in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali it is indeed the purpose in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. However, I try not to confuse by-products with purpose. Ergo for me there is careful thought as to which is which. Though once determined, neither prevents me from pursuing my practice
In Yoga, there is no mandate at all in a belief in G-d. Lkewise there is no religious requisite nor does Yoga suit or not suit this religious belief or that. It merely makes you more available for that which you do believe. So if it is the mountains or fruit, Buddha or Benny Hinn, the practitioner is more available for that.
Namaste,
gordon