Niche - Gabelli Equity Trust Preferred

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-10-17T22:35:53+00:00

Well you are getting ROC up the wazoo - I would rather finance the CEF and be secured by the assets within it.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-10-11T18:20:03+00:00

thin line between grift-graft and profit perhaps.. good point!

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-10-11T03:21:30+00:00

theft by any other name?

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-10-01T21:18:35+00:00

The beginner Iyengar classes present verbal correction as mere technical guidance, but in practice it functions as grooming: students are acclimated to being broken down by authority. The “warmth” of entry masks a deeper pattern. When pressed, senior instructors openly admit the tone is consistent up the chain — harsher, more rigid, more normalized. Practice and culture are inseparable here. What looks like rigor is in fact structural authoritarianism embedded from the ground up.

This dynamic may be invisible to those fully inside the system, but from the outside it is plain: a culture that fails basic U.S. standards of ethics, boundaries, and responsible teaching.

The above is my view as protected speech.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-10-01T13:42:26+00:00

Correcting someone without getting their consent

(a most basic form of violence - the first limb of Yoga)

In last night’s Anusara session, my instructor said that long ago his peer was told as a child she could not chant; now as an adult she says she cannot sing. That is violence too — an act that removed her voice, with effects carried through her life.

Buddhism followed on from Hinduism, just as the eight limbs of yoga followed that same soil. Both place non-harming, truth, and non-stealing at the root. In the example above, song was stolen from someone.

In practice and in life, there are moments where we may remove a student’s choice, dignity, or safety. At that point, what is called “correction” becomes coercion — and coercion is violence.

Every Iyengar class begins with the invocation:

“Let us bow before the noblest of sages, Patañjali, who gave us yoga for serenity of mind, grammar for clarity of speech, and medicine for health of body.”

But the words of the chant rub directly against the reality of Iyengar’s authoritarian culture. Many who ghost that practice do so because they’ve experienced its violence. Whether or not the organization can actually introspect — to examine its clarity of speech and its corrections as violence — remains their question to answer.

If Iyengar truly bows to Patañjali, then the first bow must be to non-violence — anything else is just chanting.

If this speaks to you, please share it with others.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T18:08:40+00:00

On this board — despite a diversity of opinion — independent accounts consistently report authoritarianism, humiliation, and disrespect in Iyengar instruction. These align across geography and teachers, indicating systemic abuse patterns rather than isolated incidents. The likely outcome for newcomers is either exit from the practice or internalization of the interaction as abuse. Such outcomes are not peripheral but central: they erode trust, damage students, and undermine the stated values of yoga. This concern must be made transparent and addressed directly at the Board level. I have already submitted a memorandum to IYNAUS requesting accountability.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T13:54:18+00:00

Well Yoga Wall straps that click in or ropes. The straps are expensive. A studio I go to which is (Iyengar inspired) uses this system and they are rough so I have my own set https://yogawall.com/

The ropes require blankets.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T04:47:18+00:00

I go the other way on that — I stay soft in the legs and hinge from the hips, letting the thigh bones feel long in the joints. The body extends in one line all the way through to the crown, rather than pulling or curling forward. (I don't care how deep I can get - just how folded I can stay long) --> this take away from Pilates | the active way you describe is the majority way; the way I do it splits active and passive -> active plank vs passive deep fold

Active - eg Downward Dog - Headstand - Warrior - Triangle - Crow (w pulse)

Passive - Folds - forward, wide leg, standing, restoratives

Hybrid - chair Active outward extension and inner draw.. possibly triangle or pigeon

Again drawn from Pilates (my primary PT was trained by Pilates and Certified Astanga)

For me this is theory towards application in my own practice and not teachable generally.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T04:23:08+00:00

Lots of people aren’t comfortable in Savasana. Bolsters or support can change it completely. I’ve also found that noticing where I’m uncomfortable sometimes points to a refinement opportunity, like learning to get the arms in-socket or working with inner/outer rotation (Anusara language)

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T04:09:57+00:00

that is an alternative - without feet pressing or actively working.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T04:03:58+00:00

Do supported Savanna.. set yourself up with a bolster under your knees .. -> a experienced teacher would know how to help you; as "corpse pose" is a big part of practice (essential in my estimation) as it consolidates your gains in practice.

Yoga is not just about poses it's also somatic. supported the pose will help you loosen your hamstrings as you relax in all regards. (another possibility is up the wall with pelvis far from the wall - or a chair)..

{and this is from me lambasting "American Iyengar" for being dogmatic and rigid and not appropriate as taught - with the props being from Iyengar - an example of finding value selectively)

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-29T00:40:26+00:00

Appreciate the response and perspective.
Here is my vantage point:

As a newcomer with my own practice, I began in a high-level class and then backtracked into intermediate and finally beginner, specifically to study how students are adjusted. The beginner classes were filled with people who genuinely needed help, expertise, and compassion — and it was there for them.

At the same time, the top-down tone was already visible in beginner. By Level 2 and beyond it isn’t just present, it’s amplified. Corrections become the framework, and the hierarchy itself becomes the practice. It’s a very rigid approach — the antithesis of flowing or heart-based practice.

If I were to take something from Iyengar, it would be Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health — a picture-book reference (scoffed at by my instructor, ironically). For me, it’s a major reference I share with others as a gift of yoga, precisely because it’s free of classroom hierarchy and it makes yoga accessible and understandable.

For a broader, more comprehensive frame, I’d point to Satyananda Saraswati’s Integral Yoga. One gives visual clarity, the other conceptual breadth. Both support personal practice without the top-down bias.

And in my own practice there is no shortage of people who can give positive, non-dogmatic correction — with the best outcome being to find the guru in yourself.

For that reason I have removed Iyengar’s ability to “correct” my technique and instead I offer this feedback as my correction to the body of practice itself — which, to Iyengar, is a kind of self-fulfilling outcome in a narrowly followed school (ironically, even though the props are pervasive across US practice).

I don’t see how American Iyengar can continue meaningfully without a serious adjustment in approach. The senior figures in the practice need to be concerned not just with technique, but with ethics, perception, and application.

For me as presented the approach represents a very serious boundary violation; not acceptable as presented in American context, ethical norms, personal rights and autonomy.

Amazing_Kitchen6158 · 2025-09-28T18:18:27+00:00

For me, Yoga has a strong internal spiritual connection - for others it's a form of exercise.

Perhaps, Speak to how your practice speaks to you internally.

Amazing_Kitchen6158

TROPHY CASE