Book Review - Pandiculation: The Art of Natural Yoga by Dragos Ghitiu

This morning after training we were talking about two different learning styles. One being relatively passive where the student follows a teacher/school and learns in exactly the way those who came before them did. The second is to take a more self-empowered approach where the student owns their learning and uses teachers and systems or any other relevant resources to reach their goals. You could argue that the first method is something of a spent force given the lack of adaptation for the times, but I fully understand the ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ argument. I have always been a ronin and a rebel so only the latter method was ever going to suffice.

For those who like to have a solid library of resources to support their training here is another offering by Dragos Ghitiu. In yet another synchronicity I have recently been focusing on daoyin to deal with some lower back pain. Zhan zhuang’s dirty little secret is that you simply can’t mitigate all of the compression which is an inevitable side-effect of gravity, and some supplementary seated stretching is essential if this is to be a long term practice. I had neglected this somewhat recently. This was also the case when I first went through kundalini awakening and the back trouble the process brought with it was no fun. Of course I was navigating it my own way as laid out in the opening paragraph, and dealt with the side effects of that approach.

This latest volume, like its predecessors is concise (though a little longer that the previous book - The Yi Quan Meta), affordable and is a call to action. Pandiculation (I had to look up the definition!) is one of the most satisfying forms of yoga, and it is entirely intuitive. And this concept sets the scene for what the book is all about.

The author is a physical therapist and this book goes in to some technical detail about how your body works and more importantly how it learns. This detail is very light and easily digestible. There is a very clear description of the role of the fascia, a concept that is overused, underused and misrepresented in internal power training circles. The book begins rather charmingly with an account of the movements of a cat, the consummate yogi. This is something I enjoy watching every day. Once again I am blown away and made to feel somewhat inadequate by the eloquent use of a second language by the author.

After the scene is set in part 1 of the book, part 2 goes on to deliver a ‘Natural Yoga’ routine, working through the joints in turn before going in to some more holistic stretches. Illustrations are presented in the same photo-to-line format as the previous book which is highly functional, the images are alive yet clear.

Towards the end of the book pre-heaven and post-heaven chi is discussed (from a technical Western perspective) without being explicitly mentioned. A nice moment demonstrating truth is truth throughout time and space.

Review by Tim Tynan – Head Instructor W.X.T.B.A. (Review is of the original manuscript)

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