I’ve pondered how likely the Fight Club quotes would relate to the practice of Ashtanga yoga. And, unsurprisingly they are not that different.

Consider the rules:

  1. The first rule of mysore class is – you do not talk about Mysore class.
  2. The second rule of mysore class is – you DO NOT talk about Mysore class.
  3. Third rule of mysore class, if someone yells Stop!, tell them to breath and go deeper
  4. Fourth rule, only one person to a mat.
  5. Fifth rule, one pose at a time, yogis.
  6. Sixth rule, no ego, no separateness.
  7. Seventh rule, poses will go on as long as they have to.
  8. And the eighth and final rule, if today is not a moon day, you have to practice.

Also, the similarities between the effect of yoga and the effect of Fight Club.

After mysore class, everything else in your life got the volume turned down.

And how you feel once you really connect with yourself in a pose…

And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.

The essence of Fight Club rings true with the practice of yoga:

Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing. Mysore class isn’t about winning or losing. It isn’t about words.

And then of course, there are the physical ‘openings’ which occur in both Fight Club and Mysore Practice:

I got in everyone’s hostile little face. Yes, these are bruises from mysore class. Yes, I’m comfortable with that. I am enlightened.

Fight Club Tyler Durden inadvertently sums up Ashtanga:

Sometimes all you could hear were flat, hard packing sounds over the breathing, or the wet choke when someone caught their breath… you weren’t alive anywhere like you were there. But mysore class only exists in the hours between when mysore class starts and mysore class ends. Even if I could tell someone they had a good practice, chances are I wouldn’t be talking to the same person – who you were in mysore class is who you attempted to be in the rest of the world. A yogi came to mysore class for the first time, their ass was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks, they were carved out of wood.

Happy carving!