Reprinted from YOGA Chicago     January-February, 2002 Vol. 9, No. 1 (by permission)

Lilias Folan: Onward, Upward, Inward

Interviewed by Sharon Steffensen

Lilias Folan is probably the most well-known yoga figure in the U.S., having introduced millions of people to yoga through her PBS-TV series, Lilias! Yoga and You, which aired from 1972-1992. Now 64, she continues to teach yoga in her Ohio community, leads workshops nationally and internationally, and is a major presenter at yoga conferences. Her 12 videos reflect Lilias' same warm, caring, down-to-earth style that many of us remember from television. We caught up with Lilias Folan last June, when she was presenting at the Midwest Yoga Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and she agreed to schedule an interview.

Q: Over the years, people's reasons for practicing yoga have changed. Why do you think people are doing yoga now?

A: I think that the consciousness of the planet is evolving. People hear that yoga has physical benefits-and that is true-but there is a deeper level of emotional health that is touched by yoga, and we are ready to hear. I think it is as simple as that. We are ready to hear all that yoga has to give to us. It's like reading a novel. The novel has not changed but we have changed, so we are able to hear it differently.

This morning I was reading about karma yoga, releasing the fruits of one's actions and not being attached to the fruits of yoga teaching or meditation. I have read that many times before, but today for some reason I heard it differently. There is an aspect of glamorous yoga that is very athletic, and those who come to those classes are attracted to that style of teaching. But what happens is, no matter what style of teaching you are experiencing now, you are going to change and the change is for the better.

Everybody does downward facing dog. But it is the teacher and the filter of the teacher they have that [determines how] they are going to experience this posture. We have maybe 100 postures that we do out of 900. It is the teacher's guidance, the teacher's filter that it goes through that attracts certain personalities. Some want to touch their toes. Others want to touch the God within.

Q: How has your teaching changed over the years?

A: From the very beginning when I began to study yoga in the mid-'60s, it was taught that everybody did the class the same way. In a class of 50, all were asked to do scorpion or shoulderstand. There were no props. I saw quickly that the middle-aged group couldn't possibly do some of these more difficult poses and they needed to be built up, and that if you have a weak link in your body-If your shoulders are weak or your abdominals are a weak link--it affects the whole body. I saw injuries including injury to myself. The opportunity to teach fell into my lap, and I began teaching after a year of study-much too early by today's standards. But instinctively I knew we had to pull postures apart, understand them, go slowly and fill in the weak links with more flexibility or strength.

My style of teaching that way continues today, but I am much more interested in the emotional body, not just the physical body. I am more confident about talking about the witness self, because it is something that has developed so strongly within me. There is a witness that watches, that judges not, that is in all beings. When that emerges, you are able to watch, listen to your body, watch it, observe it. Then you are able to witness and watch your thinking and your mind, which [for me] is a huge relief. Now I do not have to be at the beck and call of every thought that comes trotting through my brain.

What has changed is [that now I have] more of a feeling of courage. Time is moving on . If I am going to say it, I am going to say it now. It's too important. [My students] may not get a warm and fuzzy teacher sometimes. I am very determined. Your evolvement as a human being is primo, its terribly important. That's one of the reasons why we're here--to evolve. I would not have been able to say that 35 years ago. I wouldn't have understood it. But today I do.

Q: How has your practice changed?

A: I think I practice more. I think meditation is a very important part of the practice. Whereas hatha yoga might have been more [important] years ago, today it is the sitting, the breath work and my hatha yoga practice which, [together, are] so important for the body and for how I behave for the rest of the day--even how I behave in traffic! You put the yoga mat away and go out into the world. That's where the practice is. It's not in the monastery. It is with the family, interactions with other people, coming from your heart, and what that means--not giving lip service.

Q: When you present at yoga conferences, do you take other teacher's classes?

A: I am discerning about whose classes I take. But, yes, I think it's terribly important to put ourselves, as teachers, in the back row and put on our student hat and become beginners. I don't always get the opportunity to do the classes I like, but Angela Farmer has been one of my teachers for years-Angela and Victor [Van Kooten]. Cyndi Lee of the Om Center in New York. I enjoy going to many people's classes who don't have a [famous] name. I go and watch them teach and observe. They are wonderful and spontaneous. Someone like John Friend is such a delight. Gary Kraftsow, Judith Lassater--what a joy! Larry Payne, Richard Miller--they are all unique and different. What is fun is to experience and see what their challenges are, [imagine] how I would handle them and watch them handle them.

Q: What books have inspired you?

A: I have hatha books that I keep for my reference--Erich Schiffmann's Yoga; The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness, for example. I keep an anatomy book close by. I am enjoying The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle at the moment and Advaita philosophy by Ramana Maharshi. I can't get enough. I can only read so much because it's so deep. That's where I began, with Ramana Maharshi and the traditional classical spiritual teachers. Those are my roots.

Today there are so many teachers. We must remember that we are here to serve. The rest will follow. But we are here to serve.

Q: If you had three minutes to do yoga, what pose would you do?

A: I would think about something that is seven directions: forward, backward, side, other side, twist right, twist left. The seventh direction is doing it from the quiet, observing, still place. You can sit on the edge of your bed and do exactly that. It's better, however, to get to a yoga class. Yoga videos are there for people to study with. They are not meant to take the place of a class if you have got one. There are many good ones out there.

The seven directions are from the north, south, east, west, above, below and within. I like making teaching healthy and fun and original. Otherwise I would be out of here!

Q: I read that you do the same 90 posturse that you have always done. How do you keep it fresh and stimulating?

A: Everybody says it differently. You add breathing techniques, a variation. There are always postures you don't like to do.

Q: Which ones don't you like?

A: Balancing postures. If I don't practice them, it shows. It makes you feel stupid when you are falling out of it and people near you are not falling out of it. The part that is fun is that when you begin to practice, you see progress.

Balancing poses are remarkable for the little muscles, the wobbly muscles, I call them, the ones that help you in golf, help you to balance on a step ladder, or getting in and out of a bathtub. [Many] accidents are caused by getting in and out of a bathtub. I recommend them for the middle years especially. If we practice before we are in these situations, holding onto a chair, lifting one knee up into stork, lifting one hand up and focusing your attention to the belly or on the floor. Hold five breaths and you've got it.

Q: What are you doing now?

A: I have a teaching schedule. A year ago I said, "No stress." So I take workshops and seminars and I give them at a pace that I want. I come home and enjoy my husband and grandchildren and a little down time. I have five grandchildren. The oldest is 14 and the youngest will be a year. We sit with the grandchildren when we can, both my husband and I. We have a farm in Virginia and we visit that. And I am very much in contact with my yoga friends through the world. We pick up the phone. I have had phone calls from Ireland and England about the [September 11] tragedy from people who care.

Sometimes yoga teachers sponsor me and we become very close friends. That's the beauty of this journey--the community, the satsang. In the past, satsang was sitting at the guru's feet once a week. Not any more. Today the satsang is the telephone and yoga conferences. We are 900 strong sometimes sitting together in one room. We are all of like minds and not everybody is perfect, thank God. We are in a community.

Q: You, like most of us reared in the U.S., were brought up in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Has you study of yoga and your extensive reading in the fields of Eastern philosophy and religions affected your observance of Christianity?

A: Yoga is a science and study of the self, and it never was a religion. It was meant to support our spiritual pathways and indeed it does. Yes, my roots are Christian roots. Somehow I was also born into a great love of all the religious traditions and have respect for them. It's just how I came onto the planet.

When I began in the 60s, yoga was considered "hippie," "flower child," "druggies." This is what people's preconceived notions were. I started out with some of the greats of the yoga tradition. At least I got my feet on the right path.

Q: What is most important to you?

A: It is important to be up and doing. Onward and upward and inward. Remembering that the journey is a couple of hundred miles up a mountain, but it is a million miles inward. It is something that is constantly changing and evolving, but with renewed effort. Now is the time. Renew your intention for your spiritual evolvement. That's what I would communicate to students. There is a lot more to all of this than a ten-minute headstand.

Reprinted from YOGAChicago January-February, 2002 Vol. 9, No. 1 (by permission)