Stanislávski

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Sergei Tcherkasski, “ Fundamentals of the Stanislavsky System and Yoga Philosophy and Practice,” Stanislavski Studies 1 (February 2012).

Fundamentals of the Stanislavsky System and Yoga Philosophy and Practice Sergei Tcherkasski

An earlier version of this article was originally published in the magazine Problems of Theatre [Voprosi Teatra] in 2009. For the present publication a number of adjustments have been made to the original text.

In 1930 Stanislavski wrote about his nearly finished book An Actor's Work on Himself in a letter to L. Y. Gurevich from December 23: “In my opinion, the main danger in this book is ‘creation of the life of the human spirit’ (it is forbidden to speak about the spirit). Another danger is subconsciousness, emanation, imanation, the word soul. What if they ban the book because of that?”1 Stanislavski had a reason to be scared. In the late 1920s the process of forcibly turning the Moscow Art Theatre into a model theatre, an element of the official picture of total prosperity started; Stalin’s ideologists were creating “the tower of socialist realism” out of the Art Theatre. A whole committee was gathered in order to read Stanislavski’s book: the manuscript should have been cleaned of everything that did not meet the demands of the materialistic philosophy, of the dialectical materialism. Stanislavski was forced into self-censorship. For instance, it became necessary to get rid of ‘affective’ memory. “Now this term has been rejected and not replaced with a new one”, says the author of the System in An Actor's Work on Himself and exclaims almost grievingly, “But we still need some word to define it”.2 Thus “affective” memory becomes “emotional” memory. In his notebooks Stanislavski even finds “translation” for his principal definition of the goal of dramatic art without using the word “spirit” jeopardized by censorship: “Instead of ‘creation of the life of the human spirit’ – ‘creation of the inner world of the people acting on the stage and conveying the idea of this world through the artistic form”.3 Such compromises made by Stanislavski in an attempt to deliver his most important thoughts and still get the approval of the censors can be found in abundance. At the same time a responsible official of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party A. I. Angarov politely but insistently “instructs” the author of the System: “The more I read your published works and manuscripts, the more I come to the conclusion that by ‘intuition’ you mean artistic instinct… Vague terms such as ‘intuition’, ‘subconsciousness’ should be explained, their realistic content should be displayed, people should be told what this artistic instinct means precisely, how it is expressed. This is one of the tasks of those who explores the aspects of art theoretically”4, explains Angarov to the creator of the science dedicated to the nature of acting. Stanislavski humbly thanks A. I. Angarov for “friendly” advice which he tries to follow (see his letter from 11 February 1937): “In anticipation that during our meeting you will give me detailed explanations about intuition, I cut out this word from the books of the first edition. <…> I agree that there is nothing mysterious or mystical about the creative process and we should talk about that”.5

1 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenij. In 8 vol. M., 1961. V.8. P. 277-278. 2 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenij. In 9 vol. M., 1989. V. 2. P.164. 3 Stanislavskij K.S. Iz zapisnyh knizhek. In 2 vol. M, 1986. V. 2. P. 323. 4 Cited in Dybovskij V. V. V plenu predlagaemykh obstoyatelstv // Minuvshee. Istoricheskij almanah. № 10. M-SPb, 1992. P.312-313. 5 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenij. In 8 vol. V.8. P. 432-433.

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It was in the late 1920s that all or almost all mentions of philosophy and practice of yoga started to disappear from Stanislavski’s manuscripts and published works. According to the beliefs of Stalin’s ideologists, the great man of socialist realism in theatre could not be inspired by the mystical studies of Indian hermits. That is how they started to conceal one of the most important sources of the System. The word “yoga” is already nonexistent in My Life in Art (1926). It is not found in the Russian edition of An Actor's Work on Himself in the Creative Process of Experiencing (1938) either. For the first time it will briefly appear in volume 3 of Stanislavski’s 8-volume collection of works (1955), albeit only in the comment explaining that “the term ‘prana’, borrowed from the philosophy of Hindu yogis, has been replaced with a clearer and more scientific term ‘muscular energy’ or simply ‘energy’”.6 The fourth volume of Stanislavski’s collected works (1957), An Actor's Work on a Role, seems more enriched with the proofs of the connections between Stanislavski’s system and yoga that must have evaded censorship. References to yoga appear three times: while the statement is made that “the only approach to subconsciousness is through consciousness”7, and in two vividly yogic examples: about the hidden work of the cluster of thoughts, thrown into “the bag of subconsciousness”, and about the silly child “who, having planted a seed, pulls it out every half an hour in order to see whether it has put down roots”.8 However, such separate references sound more like particular fragments of Oriental fairy-tales, rather than a methodically grounded account of borrowings from the philosophy and practice of yoga. As a result, the significance of the impact that the yogic knowledge about the nature of man accumulated for centuries had on Stanislavski’s system in Soviet theatre studies was constantly diminished and even concealed. V. N. Galendeyev justly points out: “They liked to say about Stanislavski, especially in the fifties-sixties, that at the turn of the century and during the first (‘decadent’) decade of the twentieth century he supposedly went through a short-lived and not so deep infatuation with the philosophy of Indian yogis and their teaching of prana – a mysterious inner soul substance that serves to make connection between the human soul and the space (or, if we translate this into the language more similar to the early Moscow Art Theatre, the World Soul). It was considered that Stanislavski promptly and successfully got over the influence of the philosophy of distant Hindus and realized it all in the materialistic notion of action where there was no place for any ‘mysticism’”.9 In the present article we are trying to prove the opposite. In 1967 S. V. Gippius publishes his famous collection of exercises The Gymnastics of Feelings, based on Stanislavski’s practice. Although many of the exercises were taken from yoga directly – Gippius points that out in the introductory part of his book – The Gymnastics of Feelings does not contain any substantial analysis of its influence on Stanislavski’s system. The tone of the conversation about yoga as “religious and idealistic philosophic system” is forcedly negative, sometimes even condescendingly ironic. The author is ridiculing the assumption that a human being has an aura, and narrows down prana to “kinaesthesia”.10 And, for example, the phenomenon of “radiation” and “irradiation” Gippius, quoting P. V. Simonov, is mistakenly trying to narrow down to “micromimic”. 11 In the second edition, prepared after the pedagogue’s death in 1981 and actually published only in 2003, the most odious wordings are removed, and a short account of yoga is given is a separate small chapter Yoga. T. Ribot. Traditions of Russian

6 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenij. In 8 vol. V. 3. P. 459. 7 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenij. In 8 vol. V. 4. P. 156. 8 Ibid. P. 158-159. 9 Galendeyev V. N. Ucheniye Stanislavskogo o stzenicheskom slove. L., 1990. P. 105. 10 Gippius S. V. Gimnastika chuvstv. Trening tvorcheskoj psihotehniki. L.-M., 1967. P. 26. 11 Gippius S. V. Ibid. P. 282-283.

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Realism. It starts with the confession that “yoga, the ancient Indian philosophic system, served as a stimulus to the creation of certain exercises” 12, and further text contains a number of yogic theses and exercises with their sources specified. However, even here the readers are told that, judging “by Stanislavski’s last notes concerning training, his exercises of 1930s were already free… from the mysticism of yoga”13. Thus even this book, largely based on yogic training, did not contain a serious analysis of the connections between Stanislavski’s system and yoga teaching. It still is not found, in my opinion, in Russian theatre studies today. Although creators of every other website about yoga – being proud of the famous people who practiced hatha yoga – mention, among others, Stanislavski, “whose system is known to be based on yoga [my italics – S. T. ]”.14 Who knows that? On what is it based? This statement is by all means just an advertising move rather than a reflection of the real knowledge, accumulated by modern theatre scholarship. Absence of the understanding of the interrelation between Stanislavski’s system and yoga teaching leads to a succession of serious problems in theatre pedagogy. Professor L. V. Gracheva, an acclaimed expert in actors’ training, justly points out that without the knowledge of the deep yogic basis of certain exercises their goals become simplified, and their content – vapid. Here is an example she provides: “The exercise ‘listening to the sounds’ is almost always done in the first semester. However, its performance is often misunderstood: it is suggested that the ‘poor’ student listens to all the sounds in the room and outside of it, and the one who afterwards manages to name more sounds than his colleagues is supposedly more attentive. This exercise has ancient Zen roots, it was born from the sound-based meditation and its meaning was not in the ability to remember the biggest amount of sounds, but in ultimate concentration: a change of consciousness where the sounds filled the consciousness; not only were the sounds listened to, but also the distances between them. It is a very difficult exercise, demanding a certain degree of preparedness, and we offer it to newcomers who are in the first year of their studies. Naturally, the exercise quickly turns into a rather boring game, it is not absorbed and, above all, does not give results”.15 This and many other examples prove that today, when a hundred years have passed since the time when Stanislavski started to fertilize the system with ideas found in yoga, it is necessary to examine what the system really owes to ancient Indian philosophy and practice. Unfortunately, although certain statements about the fundamental and long-term influence of yoga on Stanislavski started to permeate literature on theatre quite a while ago16, the palm in the research of this subject belongs to foreign authors. Among substantial works we should name articles by William Wegner17, Andrew White18 and chapters from the books by Mel Gordon19,

12 Gippius S. V. Aktyorsky trening. Gimnastika chuvstsv. SPb, 2007. P. 290. 13 Ibid. P. 292.

14 On the website <http://yogaclassic.ru/post/2128> we read: “Not only Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru engaged in Hatha Yoga, but also the former US President John Kennedy, and in the Soviet Union – Konstantin Stanislavski and others. The Nobel Prize laureate academician Ivan Pavlov also had a positive attitude towards yoga.” 15 Gracheva L.V. Psihotehnika aktera v processe obucheniya: teoriya i praktika. Dissertaciya na soiskaniye uchenoj stepeni doktora iskusstvovedeniya. SPb, 2005. P. 34-35. 16 Polyakova E.I. Stanislavskij. M., 1977; Chernaya E.I. Kurs treninga fonacionnogo dyhaniya i fonacii na osnove uprazhnenij Vostoka. SPb, 1997; Silantyeva I., Klimenko Y. Akter i yego Alter Ego. M., "Graal'". 2000. Author would like to express his gratitude to L. D. Alferova for attracting attention to the latter work and for reading and discussing the first version of the present article. 17 .Wegner, William H. The Creative Circle: Stanislavski and Yoga// Educational Theater Journal, 28:1. 1976. P. 85-89.

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Sharon Carnicke20 and Rose Whyman.21 Many of the theses from the works by Carnicke, White and Whyman have been used during the work on this article. However, the main source is certainly the literary legacy and practice of K. S. Stanislavski himself.

Yoga in Stanislavski’s practice.

Stanislavski was introduced to the teaching of yogis in 1911. This moment is recorded in detail in the chronicle of his life. Let us turn to the memoirs of actress N. A. Smirnova about her vacations with Stanislavski’s family in Saint-Lunaire in the summer of 1911. She says that their everyday conversations “by the deep blue sea” – during which Stanislavski tested his thoughts about the system on the listeners – were often attended by N. V. Demidov, the tutor of Stanislavski’s son. Not surprisingly, this medical student of Moscow University who studied Tibetan medicine at St. Petersburg Russian-Buryat school of P. A. Badmayev, doctor of the Tsar’s family22, listening to Konstantin Sergeyevich “once told him: ‘Why would you want to invent exercises and search for the names of the things that had been named long, long ago. I will give you the books. Read Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga. That will interest you, because many of your thoughts coincide with the things written there.’ Indeed, Konstantin Sergeyevich got interested and it looks like these books provided proof and explanation of many of his own discoveries in the sphere of the psychology of creative work on stage”.23 N. A. Smirnova is right in her conclusions. Having returned to Moscow, Stanislavski indeed acquired Ramacharaka's book Hatha Yoga. Yogic Philosophy of the Physical Well-Being of Man translated and edited by V. Singh (St. Petersburg, 1909) and thoroughly studied it which is proved by the copy, held in the Museum of the Moscow Art Theatre. However, according to certain sources, Stanislavski might have got acquainted with the ideas of Indian philosophers before. If we trust A. L. Fovitzky, yogic techniques caught Stanislavski’s eye as early as 1906, when he used some of them in order to increase concentration of attention while performing Astrov in Uncle Vanya during the tour in Hamburg. It was then that Stanislavski “found a hint in the practices of the wise men of the Buddhist religion—and thenceforth he required his actors to practice long psychophysical exercises as a means of cultivating concentration of attention… Following the teachings of Oriental metaphysics, his followers strove to visualize the elusive ‘ego’—to live, while on the stage, the life of the spirit and to become acquainted with strange phases of spiritual life”.24 Apparently, in Stanislavski’s acquaintance with the philosophy of Hinduism a certain role was played by L. A. Soulerzhitsky whose knowledge of Oriental spirituality was quite good, partly thanks to his familiarity with the practice of Dukhobors. It is after reading his notes on the two-year epic about the transportation of the members of this religious sect to Canada Stanislavski

18 White, Andrew. Stanislavsky and Ramacharaka: The Influence of Yoga and Turn-of-the-Century Occultism on the System // Theater Survey 47:1, 2006. May. P.73-88. Author of the present study considers it a pleasant duty to thank Andrew White for providing a copy of his article. 19 Gordon, Mel. The Stanislavsky Technique: Russia New York, 1987. P. 30–37. 20 Carnicke, Sharon. Stanislavsky in Focus: An Acting Master for the Twenty-First Century, 2nd Edition Routledge, 2008. P. 167-184. Author of the present work also had a chance to listen to the presentation of Sharon Carnicke at the symposium Stanislavsky in Finland in April 2009 where both of us delivered papers. I am pleased to express my appreciation to her for the most interesting scholarly discussions that followed. 21 Whyman, Rose. The Stanislavsky system of acting: legacy and influence in modern performance. Cambridge University Press, 2008. P. 78-88. 22 Grekova T. Tibetskaya medicina v Rossii// Nauka i religiya. 1988. № 8. P.11. 23 Cited in Vinogradskaya I.N. Zhizn i tvorchestvo K.S. Stanislavskogo. Letopis' v chetyreh tomah. M. 2003. V. 2. P. 291-292. 24 Fovitzky, A. The Moscow Art Theatre and Its Distinguishing Characteristics. New York. 1923. P. 42.

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invited ‘Souler’ to become his assistant. The meditative practice of Dukhobors which resonated with Oriental practice undoubtedly influenced Soulerzhitsky. There is an opinion that Soulerzhitsky introduced Stanislavski to morning meditation about the upcoming projects of the day which was a part of Dukhobor practice: they used to sit in a relaxed position and in their thoughts, step by step, imagine and visualize how they would fulfill every task of the day that was forthcoming.25 Of course, such meditation is not necessarily connected with the Yogic practice. However, it is worth pointing out Stanislavski’s similar descriptions of an actor’s mental journey in the process of ‘perceiving the role.’ In Working on the role. Woe from Wit an actor imagines the circumstances and tasks of his role and, ‘dreaming about the role’, enters Famusov’s house, meets people there and even establishes contact with them.26 Anyway, if evidence about Stanislavski’s early interest in yoga is fragmentary and is partly a guess, the fact that Stanislavski started to use yoga after 1911—the year he got acquainted with Ramacharaka's Hatha Yoga—is beyond doubt. The territory for the introduction of ancient Indian practice to actors’ education was the First Studio where, according to E. I. Polyakova, “improvisations were alternated with readings from Hatha Yoga”.27 There this book is passed around and becomes required reading. A curious letter by E. B. Vakhtangov has been preserved in which, in May 1915, he was asking the students: “There is one more request. Take 1 ruble from the box office. Take it under my name. Buy Ramacharaka's Hatha Yoga. And give it to Ekzemplyarskaya on my behalf [Vera Ekzemplyarskaya was the student of the First Studio—S.T.] She should read the book attentively and it is necessary that in the summer she does all the exercises from the part on breathing and on ‘prana’”.28 Vakhtangov also demands a report from Ekzemplyarskaya herself: “When you have read Hatha Yoga, write to me. Please”. 29 Memoirs of Boris Sushkevich a participant of the studio about one of the rehearsals in 1912 (in this case he is talking about Chekhov’s short story The Witch) give us a picture of how the ideas, found in the book, were realized in practice: “In the space of the Studio on Tverskaya, in a very small room six-seven cubicles—in the literal sense of this word, like on the beach—are built. In each cubicle a couple is sitting: a clerk and a witch. They all rehearse simultaneously and do not interfere with one another. It is forbidden to speak loud. When the sound bursts out, it is incorrect. They only look at one another and whisper something… it was forbidden to release even a little sound”.30 Sushkevich is not capable of saying it loud (his memoir was published in 1933), but what he has described is nothing but a yogic exercise on prana emanation. More liberal in her expressions was another actress of the First Studio, Vera Soloviova (1892—1986). Already in the Unites States, she recalled: “We worked a great deal on concentration. It was called ‘To get into the circle.’ We imagined a circle around us and sent ‘prana’ rays of communion into the space and to each other. Stanislavski said ‘send the prana there—I want to reach through the tip of my finger—to God—the sky—or, later on, my partner. I believe in my inner energy and I give it out—I spread it”.31 And Michael Chekhov, who later became a follower of Rudolf Steiner’s theosophy, claimed that “the philosophy of yogis was perceived by me quite objectively, … without any inner

25 Gordon, Mel. Ibid. P. 31-32. 26 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 9. P. 72-85. 27 Polyakova E.I. Teatr Sulerzhickogo: Etika. Estetika. Rezhissura. M., 2006. P. 184. 28 Vakhtangov E.B. Sbornik. M., 1984. P. 211. 29 Ibid. P. 212. 30 Sushkevich B.M. Sem momentov raboty nad rolyu. L., 1933. P.11. 31 Gray, Paul. The Reality of Doing: Interviews with Vera Soloviova, Stella Adler, and Sanford Meisner // Munk, Erica, ed. Stanislavski and America. New York. 1964. P. 211.

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resistance”.32 For example, Chekhov regarded emanation as one of the most important devices of an actor’s psychotechnique. Let us quote just one excerpt from his exercises. It is taken from On the Technique of Acting and is almost identical to V. Solovyova’s memoirs about Stanislavski’s training at the First Studio: “Start emanating your activity from your chest, then from your stretched out hands and, eventually, from you whole being. Send emanations in different directions …”.33 M. Chekhov paid a lot of attention to such work with prana emanation, and Beatrice Straight, his student during the American period, described Chekhov’s exercises on radiation as “beaming an aura… in an almost mystical sense”.34 Exploring the tri-unity ‘consciousness—body—soul’ in the creative state of an actor, training at the First Studio was above all dedicated to spiritual aspects. Primacy of the spiritual guidance over the purely technical training was connected, in the first place, with the personality of L. A. Soulerzhitsky. Not for nothing did Alexei Dikiy, a participant of the studio note that Soulerzhitsky “was not a director in the usual sense of the word” and that “his influence on the production was realized through spiritual ‘prompting’.”35 And Stanislavski recalled that his assistant dreamt that together with him they would “create some kind of a spiritual order of actors”.36 And, when the time will come for the former participants of the studio to start teaching themselves, they will remember the lessons of ‘Souler.’ For instance, Richard Boleslavski (1889—1937), who, together with another participant of the First Studio, Maria Ouspenskaya (1876—1949), founded the American Laboratory Theatre (The Lab), in his pedagogy also “stressed the actor’s spiritual training as the most important part of the work, and… developed a series of what he called ‘soul exercises’…”.37 Ouspenskaya herself continued doing yoga for her whole life and became a participant of The Self-Realization Fellowship, founded in 1920 by the author of the book Autobiography of a Yogi , Yogananda (1893–1952), whose efforts helped to introduce yoga to many people in the Western world.38 Another participant of the studio, Valentin Smyshlyaev (1891–1936), a friend of M. Chekhov, director of Hamlet in the Second MKhT and knight of the templar Order of Light, also preserved the interest in Oriental esoterics through his whole creative life. The author of this article already had a chance to write about his extraordinary destiny in the book V. V. Smyshlyaev. The Teacher of my Teacher, because in Smyshlyaev’s directors’ studio at GITIS (the State Institute of Theatre Art) my teacher, Professor of Directing at LGITMIK (the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography) Mar Vladimirovich Sulimov studied. 39 In short, the experience of being introduced to yoga in the First Studio remained with many participants for their whole life and probably was unavoidably passed along to their students. Having entered the pedagogy of Stanislavski and Soulerzhitsky in the First Studio, yoga was successfully applied by Stanislavski later—in the practice of developing students of the Second Studio (created in 1916) and Opera Studio (created in 1918), as well as the actors of the Moscow Art Theatre itself. Stanislavski’s notebooks from the season 1919-1920 contain a considerable amount of notes about the use of hatha yoga during the studies which were practiced on the same level with Swedish gymnastics, exercises on rhythm, Duncan’s gymnastics, speech training, and muscle release. Diversity of external exercises was balanced with Stanislavski’s strict demand:

32 Chekhov M.A. Literaturnoye naslediye. In 2 vol. M., 1986. V. 1. P. 107. 33 Ibid. P. 260. 34 Cited in Hirsch, Foster. A Method to their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio. Cambridge. 2002. P. 347. 35 Dikij A.D. Povest o teatralnoj yunosti. M., 1957. P. 214. 36 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 1. P. 437. 37 Hirsch, Foster. Ibid. P. 63-64. 38 White. Andrew. Ibid. P.80 39 See Tcherkasski S.D. Valentin Smyshlyaev–akter, rezhisser, pedagog. SPb, 2004.

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“Nota bene once and for all. Every physical exercise should be motivated in advance or justified by an inner psychological action or task”.40 In The Plan of Further Operatic Exercises (1920, October) we find the following instructions on muscle release: “Create (in oneself) an unconscious observer of freedom. At first sitting, lying (hatha yoga), then standing”.41 Further, in a few pages: “During muscle release there are two moments: a) release (recall) of prana and b) sending it. Prana (in Hindu—‘heart’) releases (is being released) in order to act, to use this energy. How and what to use it for? Firstly, in order to support the body’s centre of gravity in different positions; secondly, in order to act not only with the body, muscles, eyes, ears, all the five sense, but with the soul as well”.42 However, in the most detailed way the connection with yoga can be traced in the notes for the classes with actors of the Moscow Art Theatre. Analyzing the plan of Stanislavski’s lesson with the Moscow Art Theatre actors from 13 October 1919, Rose Whyman has paid attention to the fact that it contains a hidden synopsis of Hatha Yoga. 43 In an extensive quotation, following the British scholar, we will italicize and mark with square brackets the parallels between Stanislavski’s text and chapters of Ramacharaka’s book, the main source of Stanislavski’s knowledge about the theory and practice of yoga.44 So Stanislavski writes: “We will be dealing with the art of experiencing. <…> The elements of this creative state: a) freedom of the body (muscles), b) concentration, c) effectiveness. I am starting with muscle release. Teaching about prana. a) Prana—the energy of life, is taken from the air [Chapter XX. Pranic Energy], food [Chapter Х. Prana Absorption from Food], the sun [Chapter ХХVII. Solar Energy], water [Chapter ХII. Irrigation of the Organism], human emanations. b) When a man dies, prana goes under the earth, with worms, into microorganisms [chapter ХVIII. Small lives of the body], c) I, I am—not prana. It is what unites all the pranas into one. d) How prana enters blood and nerves through teeth, chewing of food. How to breeze, to perceive unboiled water, sun rays. How to chew and breathe in order to absorb more prana (to chew food so well that you drink, not eat it) [Chapter Х. Prana Absorption from Food]. Breathe; six heartbeats—breathe in; three heartbeat—hold the air; and six heartbeats—to breathe out. To reach up to fifteen heartbeats <…> [Chapter ХХI. Pranic exercises]. Sitting exercises. a) Sit and name the place which is strained. b) Release so that ultimately you can freely move your neck etc. c) Do not stiffen in immobility. Listen to the movement of prana. d) Prana moves, shimmers like mercury, like a snake, from the base of the hand to its fingers, from the hip to the toes. e) The role of the toes in a walk. Hoisting up the hips; the role of the spinal column. Exercise: swinging of a free as a lash leg from the hip and simultaneous raising and lowering on the toes. Same with the hands, same with the spinal column. f) Prana’s movement is created, in my opinion, through the inner rhythm [Chapter ХХI. Pranic Exercises]”.45 Coincidences between the texts are indisputable and in some places are a hundred percent identical, including even the counting numbers (six—three—six—fifteen) suggested for breathing in—out and holding one’s breath.

40 Stanislavskij K.S. Iz zapisnyh knizhek. In 2 vol. M, 1986. Vol. 2. P. 209. 41 Ibid. P. 209-210. 42 Ibid. P. 213-214. 43 Whyman, Rose. Ibid. P. 83. 44 The edition we have access to – “Ramacharaka. Hatha Yoga: jogijskaya filosofiya fizicheskogo blagosostoyaniya cheloveka”, 2nd edition, M., 2007 – sometimes contains quite awkward translations (the translator’s name is undisclosed), therefore in such cases we provide references to the web resource: Ramacharaka. Hatha Yoga [Electronic resource] – <http://readr.ru/yog-ramacharaka-hatha-yoga.html#page=1>. 45 Stanislavskij K.S. Iz zapisnyh knizhek. In 2 vol. M, 1986. Vol. 2. P. 220-221.

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Thus, although Stanislavski does not speak directly about Pranayama, the division of yoga that teaches the techniques of controlling prana, nor does he use this word, his notes reveal a serious study of the concepts of yogic practice. He is boldly using Pranayama exercises in order to tune up the creative state of an actor and genuine communication. Moreover, Stanislavski’s fascination with yoga only increases in the first post-revolutionary years, in the period when his research interests turned to the external technique of an actor and to the exploration of deep connections between the psyche and physics of the creative actor. Stanislavski studies yoga especially in the process of working with actor-vocalists in the Opera Studio of the Bolshoi Theatre. As is well-known, the turn of the system’s creator toward opera was not accidental. Stanislavski was attracted to opera since his early years. This interest was stoked by singing lessons that he took both in his youth and in later years. It is also known that he had a research interest in the principles of the work of Chaliapin whom he considered a potential model for a drama actor as well. However, the realization of Stanislavski’s intention–to teach opera actors in a new way–coincides with his study of yogic principles of rhythmic breathing which for the yogis is the key to managing prana. Not surprisingly, in 1920, in the wake of his interest in the connections between the rhythms of breathing and processes of attention, interaction and communication (and, on a broader scale,–the creative state on the stage), caused by his work with singers, Stanislavski takes notes on the book by Olga Lobanova, based on the principles of yoga and titled Breathe in the Right Way.46 And the conversations of Stanislavski himself in the Opera Studio in 1918—1922 reveal new parallels between the system and yogic principles. They are recorded by the young singer Concordia Antarova (1886—1959), who subsequently—perhaps, not by accident—was destined to engage seriously in esoteric practice and become the author of the novel Two Lives, which was, in its own right, a carrier of yogic wisdom.47 In the notes of the attentive student we sometimes find a short story, attributed to “one Hindu sage” (the comparison between a non-disciplined mind to the movements of a drunk monkey)48, sometimes a “Hindu proverb” (a lesson, taught to a student in reply to the question about the solution for a creative problem and urging to rely upon one’s subconsciousness, then there is a frequently used by Stanislavski image of the “pocket of subconsciousness”).49 Antarova’s notes were published in 1952, and there is a good reason to assume that during Stanislavski’s actual lessons at the turn of 1920s the actual word “yoga” was heard much more often than in the book. However, even if the word “prana” is not used, it is clear that the initial exercise described of the slow, “breathed-through” up to the tips clenching and release of the fingers of the hand, establishing connection between the rhythm of breathing and concentration, is connected with the flowing of “prana”.50 Stanislavski’s demand addressed to his students has the same message: to learn “turning your thought into some kind of a fire ball”.51 It was in the Opera Studio that the yogis’ statement about breathing as the foundation of life met Stanislavski’s belief that rhythm is the foundation of creative work in theatre. Addressing opera

46 Vinogradskaya I.N. Ibid. V. 3. P. 135. 47 M. Strizhenova wrote about the esoteric novel by K. E. Antarova Two Lives (Dve Zhizni, M., 1993-1994): “As an Indianist, I am greatly impressed by the author’s subtle and deep knowledge of the peculiar life of this great Oriental country, its ancient wisdom, yoga and venues of the secret esoteric societies of Himalayan Shambala.” See Strizhenova M. Konkordiya Antarova // Enciklopediya sovremennoj ezoteriki (Elektronnyj resurs). <http://ariom.ru/wiki/KonkordijaAntarova>. 48 Antarova K. E. Besedy K.S.Stanislavskogo v Studii Bolshogo teatra v 1918-1922 gg. M., 1952. P.73. 49 Ibid. P. 100. 50 Ibid. P. 73-74. 51 Ibid. P. 74.

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singers, Stanislavski points out: “Music, being in agreement with the rhythm of your breathing, i.e., with the basis of your whole life on earth, should increase your concentration, bringing your whole being into harmony. Music should unite in its rhythm your thought and your feeling and bring you into what we call the state of true inspiration, i.e., the awakening of your intuition or subconsciousness”.52 In front of an opera singer Stanislavski puts the task of “putting one’s physical and psychological characteristics in the existing rhythm of the composer”, and in front of a drama actor—“to carry in oneself a composer as well”, “to create a rhythm for oneself”, without which “your role is nothing”.53 In both cases an actor’s rhythm of living and, especially, the rhythm of his breathing on the stage, acquire paramount importance. And Stanislavski spends a lot of time giving basic explanations of the principles of breathing, explains the connection between correct breathing and attention, correct breathing and physical culture of an actor. “Using the simplest examples of physical action we need to attract his (student’s–S.T.) attention to the invariable analogy: calm breathing—healthy thoughts, healthy body, healthy feelings, easy to focus; wrong rhythm of breathing—disturbed psyche, feelings of pain and total attention deficit”.54 These thoughts certainly have something in common with yogi Ramacharaka’s statement that consciousness, body and emotions are unified by the thread of breathing and, in addition to the physical benefit of the practice of correct breathing, “the spiritual power of a man, his/her happiness, self-control, clarity of mind, morality and even spiritual development could be significantly increased through reasonably applying The Science of Breathing in practice.”55 Thus, realization of the influence of yoga practice on Stanislavski’s system sheds new light on Stanislavski’s search in the art of opera, and partly unveils one more reason for his belief in the necessity to research the general laws of the actor’s existence in opera and drama, as well as in the fruitfulness of coeducation for drama and opera actors. This idea will be further developed in the work of the Opera and Drama Studio in the middle of the 1930s. Although Stanislavski most fully studied and applied yoga in the first period of the development of the system, he never left these exercises during his whole life. As the term “prana” was becoming less and less ideologically acceptable, in the 1930s Stanislavski started to replace it frequently with the word “energy.” However, in his practical work he still used the term “prana” and, more importantly, yogic principles themselves. For example, he did that in the production of Boris Godunov in the Opera Studio. According to P. I. Rumiantsev, working on the already performed opera (rehearsals of the scene between Marina Mniszech and Rangoni in November 1934), Stanislavski speaks a lot about the connection between an actor’s plasticity and ability to have the prana “flow.” Here are his remarks for the female performer: “In order to look like a Tsarina you need the method I am going to tell you about. No half-gestures are allowed. Starting from the root of your arm (from your shoulder) you let the movement of prana (muscular energy) through the length of your arm. Fully turn your arm and gradually release tension starting from your finger tips. Remember: the main thing is in your fingers. If “mercury”-prana is “flowing” along your hand, your legs, you will always be plastic. Dancing and gymnastics will not secure plasticity, unless you get the inner sense of movement. It is necessary that, while you are walking, the energy streams through all of your vertebrae and right into your feet. You should search for this stubbornly. Then you will be plastic… Exercise your hands, fingers. Fingers are the eyes of the body… Try moving, sitting so that prana flows through your body all the time.

52 Ibid. 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. P. 58. 55 Ramacharaka. Hatha Yoga. 2nd edition. M., 2007. P. 77.

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When you walk, walk as far as the tip of your thumb. The rest of your body is totally free. Remember that the back plays a great role in plasticity. “Flowing of prana” should also be done in the spinal column…”.56 Citing these statements, P. I. Rumiantsev outlines the invariability of yogic components in Stanislavski’s rehearsing and pedagogical practice for many years: “In fact, these instructions reiterate initial exercises for plasticity which Stanislavski had conducted almost fifteen years before with young studio members. He constantly reiterated these demands with regard to all of the actors-singers, no matter what characters they embodied … (the italics are mine. – S.T.)”.57 At the rehearsal of The Cabal of Hypocrites by Bulgakov on 4 May 1935, explaining and showing, in detail and vividly, a typical bow of Moliere’s era, Stanislavski points out: “Bear in mind that you will never be able to take a bow unless prana is released after every movement. Plasticity of movement is impossible without prana. You should necessarily release all the prana. … You will draw this prana from your heart and pour this prana around”.58 A. White, comparing two texts by Stanislavski from the middle of the 1930s, provides the most important proof that in that period the ideas of yoga remained an integral part of the system. One text is the familiar Russian edition of An Actor’s Work on Himself in the Creative Process of Experiencing, approved for printing in 1937, and the other—the manuscript of that same book, sent to the translator E. Hapgood with the note “the final version for America” which is now preserved in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In the Russian edition (chapter “Communication”) we read: “How to call this invisible path and method of mutual communication? Radiation and irradiation? Emanation and imanation? Since we do not have any other terminology, let us settle on these words, considering that they graphically illustrate the process of communication that I am to tell you about. The time is near when the invisible currents which are of interest to us now will be studied by the science, and then a more suitable terminology will be created for them. For the present let us settle on the name worked out by our actors’ jargon”.59 And in the corresponding chapter of the “American” typescript of 1935 Stanislavski’s statement is more clearly defined: “I have read what the Hindus have to say on the topic. They believe in the existence of so-called prana, a vital energy, a force that gives life to all of our body. According to their notions, the main supply of prana is located in the solar plexus, from where it is sent out to every organism”. 60 Let us note for the future that here Stanislavski loosely quotes Ramacharaka. And, although notes for the third and fourth volumes of the first edition of Stanislavski’s collected words are telling us that at the end of his life the author of the system rejected the concept of prana, “uncritically borrowed from bourgeois philosophy” (here the French philosopher Ribot got his due) and, having rejected yoga, moved on to a scientific terminology and world view, the conclusion is that after his fascination with yoga in the practice of the early period of the system Stanislavski subsequently rejected it are premature. The fact that even in 1935— twenty years after the experiments of the First Studio—Stanislavski writes and speaks about prana, means that he still considers the principles of yoga the constituent part of the system and the elements of the creative state of an actor.

56 Rumyancev P. I. Stanislavskij i opera. M., 1969. P. 407. 57 Ibid. P. 407. 58 Stanislavskij repetiruyet: Zapisi i stenogrammy repeticij. Sost. i red. I. N. Vinogradskaya. M., 1987. P. 427. 59 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 2. P. 338-339. 60 Stanislavskii, typescript of Rabota aktera nad soboi, Chast’ I, Okonchatel’nyi dlia Ameriki [An Actor’s Work on Himself, Part I, Final Draft for America], the Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood Papers, T-Mss 1992-039, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Series II: Translations, 1930–1973, Box 7, Folder 6, chap. 10.9.

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The memoirs of B. V. Zon about Stanislavski’s rehearsals in 1933 have preserved for us one more remarkable proof of that. The work on The Maid of Pskov by Rimsky-Korsakov was taking place in Stanislavski Opera Theatre, and Zon took notes: “A very interesting suggestion was made by Konstantin Sergeyevich to the performer of the role of Mikhailo. Hold out your hand to Olga. Fully. So that the hand called, emanated the call. (And in my direction.) Earlier we naively called that ‘prana’”.61 What forced Stanislavski to throw this “aside” in the direction of a young Leningrad director who was attending his rehearsals for the first time (but attending them upon the recommendation of faithful people and really interested in the system)? Maybe an acute need for passing (outside? for posterity?) from his gala exile in Leontyevsky Lane the most important information about the principles of his work? V. N. Galendeyev is right: “On the threshold of non-existence a man, especially a person of significance, voluntarily or involuntarily thinks about the main things, the things that are demanded by the not yet exhausted spirit, and goes back to the most thrilling subjects. Doubly so, if these ideas and subjects have not yet been molded into something complete and harmonious, into a spiritual testament. Stanislavski in the last years of his life more and more often turned to the subject of the spirituality of word, movement, silence of an actor (italics are mine.–S.T.)»62. V. N. Galendeyev connects these problems (unfortunately, without naming them directly) with yogic thoughts about the outpouring of the particles of the soul (i.e. prana) through the sounds of speech. However, the text of the paragraph in Stanislavski’s book which he refers to, is transparent: “Do not you feel,” Tortsov addresses his disciples, “that through the vocal waves the particles of our own souls go outside or inside? All these are not shallow, but spiritually substantial sounds of vowels which give me the right to say that inside, in their heart, there is a piece of the human soul”.63 According to Stanislavski, it turns out that the atoms of speech contain the atoms of the human soul! Thus, meditating on “the soul of the sounds” and its means to emanate, about the plasticity of movements which “cannot exist without prana”, Stanislavski even in the twilight of his life continues the dialogue with yoga’s ancient and eternal knowledge about the man, his body and soul. It seems that the present overview of the use of yoga in Stanislavski’s work is enough in order to draw a well-grounded conclusion about the significance of yoga theory and practice in the establishment and development of his system.

Yoga in Stanislavski’s Literary Legacy

The understanding of the constant presence of yogic component in the practice of the system’s creator gives us a chance to reread afresh Stanislavski’s principal books, it makes us find yogic “background” in his literary legacy. In many of his works—for instance, An Actor's Work on Himself in the Creative Process of Experiencing—yoga is never mentioned, however, we can see that many of Stanislavski’s pages are virtually permeated by yogic ideas. And in this case G. Christie and V. Prokofyev, authors of the censored notes to volumes 3 and 4 of the first edition of Stanislavski’s collected works, help us a lot. When you read them today, at the beginning these notes seem almost annoying because of their narrow-mindedness in the style

61 K. S. Stanislavskij. Materialy. Pis'ma. Issledovaniya. M., 1955. P. 445. 62 Galendeyev V. N. Ibid. P. 105. 63 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 3. P. 61.

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of dialectic materialism. However, let us pay attention to the Aesopian tactics used in that part of the notes that concerns the teaching of yogis. Having made authorized reservations about the fact that Stanislavski has uncritically perceived the idealistic teaching of yogis and in the late years adhered to the positions of materialism, commentators provide us with extremely valuable information about the origins of the certain parts of the manuscripts on the system, even in those parts where Stanislavski was too cautious to mention his source–the books by yogi Ramacharaka. Let the person who has ears listen! And, following the clue given by Stanislavski’s commentators, it is possible to unravel the whole chain. However, first of all, let us talk in detail about the books by yogi Ramacharaka. In Stanislavski’s private library and archive two of his books are kept: Hatha Yoga. Yogic Philosophy of the Physical Well-Being of a Man and Raja Yoga. The Teaching of Yogis about the Mental World of a Man.64 Translated into Russian and published in 1909 and 1914 respectively, these books, in fact, were written not in a secluded Buddhist monastery or a hut of a yogi-hermit in India, but in bustling Chicago in 1904 and 1906 which, after the World's Parliament of Religions in 1893, became central in introducing the Western world to yoga. They were written by American author William Atkinson (1862—1932), whose name and life circumstances, thanks to his discreetness and frequent use of pseudonyms (no less than ten!), today are mostly forgotten. At the turn of the 20th century Atkinson, a lawyer, writer, attorney, tradesman and publisher, belonged to the list of the most influential authors of New Thought in the early years of this movement. He himself took the path of esoteric knowledge after his miraculous healing at the beginning of the 1890s. During thirty years he wrote more than a hundred books, many of which were published under pseudonyms, and yogi Ramacharaka is only one of them. In the annotation of The Yogi Publication Society it was stated that this series of books about yoga was the result of the collaborative efforts of Atkinson and Brahmin Baba Barat and as a sign of respect it was attributed to the latter’s guru – yogi Ramacharaka. Even dates (1799–1893) and biographical facts of the Hindu sage’s life were included. However, no evidence has been found that Baba Barat or Ramacharaka really existed. Who initiated Atkinson and whether he officially converted to Hinduism – these are also veiled in mystery. Anyway, within ten years after 1903 more than a dozen books by the author Yogi Ramacharaka came out, and to this day they are still in print both in English and in Russian, topping numerous lists of literature on yoga. In this capacity they remain for many people – as for Stanislavski a hundred years ago – an introduction to the systematic knowledge of yoga. The structure of classical yoga goes back to the Yoga Sutras of its founder Patanjali, written (or, to be more precise, compiled from earlier teachings and philosophically grounded) in India in the second century B.C. It consists of eight steps:

Yama (regulations of behavior and moral self-restraints), Niyama (the series of practices on self-purification; following religious rules and

religious instructions), Asana (poses, unifying mind and body through physical exercise), Pranayama (controlling prana – life energy – through rhythmic breathing and

temporary suspension of “the restless activities of the mind”), Pratyahara (gives inner spiritual power, allows to achieve concentration of mind,

increases will power; distraction of feelings from the object of desire),

64 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 8 vol. V. 4. P. 496.

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Dharana (focusing of attention, motivated concentration of mind, melting into meditation),

Dhyana (meditation, inner activity which gradually leads to samadhi), Samadhi (meditation on om, pacified superconscious condition of the blissful

understanding of one’s true nature, nirvana). Sometimes these eight steps are divided into four lower and four upper steps, of which the lower steps correspond to hatha yoga, while the upper steps belong to raja yoga. This implies that the goal of hatha yoga practice is to maintain a developed body for the meditative practice of raja yoga. In a sense it was Stanislavski’s luck that his introduction to the ideas of yoga happened through the books by Atkinson—Ramacharaka. There is no doubt that this interpretation of yoga was adapted for Western readers. It is them who the American yogi addresses, extensively quoting European and American scholars of 19th and 20th centuries, and intentionally not overburdening the readers with the specifics of certain branches and schools of Hindu yoga. He lays out some kind of a generalized yogic tradition, and “does not favor one specific school or philosophy of Yoga, as an actual Yogi might”.65 Let us agree with S. Carnicke that when Jerzy Grotowski, following in Stanislavski’s footsteps, tried to apply yoga to theatrical work on the basis of genuine Hindu texts, he found himself at a dead end. Take it or leave it, the goal of yogic exercises is in the liberation from the Wheel of Suffering, in the avoidance of the reactions to the surrounding mortal life to the eternal absolute. Naturally, at a certain stage this started to contradict the goals of theatre and theatrical expression, because the true yogic “concentration destroys all expression: it’s an internal sleep, an inexpressive equilibrium: a great rest which ends all actions. This should have been obvious because the goal of yoga is to stop […] all life processes [… and to find] fullness and fulfillment in conscious death”.66 It was easier for Stanislavski to master yoga: introducing Western readers to the world of Oriental wisdom, Ramacharaka laid out yoga principles as the basis of the ability to control oneself, as the art of self-improvement, without outlining the true end objective of the reaching of nirvana. And, although Ramacharaka saw yoga as a means to turn consciousness inside oneself, which contradicted the main creative task of the system – to find the means to express the inner feeling externally - Stanislavski managed to customize the yogic idea of “disengaging oneself from the distracting impressions” into the fruitful condition of concentration and attention during the performance. He knew that for an actor the main “distracting impression” which Stanislavski fought so passionately, is the frightening black hole of the auditorium. And in this sense existence behind the famous “fourth wall” seems related to the yogic disengagement from earthly temptations. At the same time Stanislavski understood the difference between his practical tasks and the end objectives of yoga. At the lectures in November 1919 for the actors of the Moscow Art Theatre, Stanislavski outlined: “It turns out that a thousand years ago they [yogis. – S. T.] were searching for the very same things that we are searching for, however, we delve into the art, and they – into their afterworld”.67 Let us once again turn to the notes of Stanislavski’s lessons in the Opera Studio. In his conversations Stanislavski guides the students through “mutual for all of them steps [my italics –

65 White. Andrew. Ibid. P. 82. 66 Schechner, Richard and Wolford, Lisa. The Grotowski Sourcebook. New York. 1997. P. 44. Cited in Carnicke p. 176. 67 Radischeva O.A. Stanislavskij i Nemirovich-Danchenko: Istoriya teatral'nyh otnoshenij, 1917-1938. M., 1999. P. 60-61.

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S. T. ] of creation, no matter what the epochs and individualities of people are”68, and these steps which should be climbed by “everyone who has dedicated his or her life to the art of stage” are closer to the stages of esoteric moral self-improvement than to the set of shoptalk demands. The first step is concentration, the second—vigilance, the third—fearlessness, courageous creation, the fourth—creative tranquility. And, similarly to the transition to the elevated matters of raja yoga after the first four steps of hatha yoga, after four steps of “working on oneself”, leading to the inner unification of the actor with himself, Stanislavski designates deep artistic objectives. Upward movement continues through the fifth step–“bringing all the powers of one’s feelings and thoughts, transferred into physical action, to the utmost tension”, the precision of heroic action”.69. The sixth step is connected to the cultivating of an actor’s stage attraction, the nobleness that he uses to purify the passions he portrays.70 Here Stanislavski completely in the spirit of Buddhism speaks about “the fatal moments when the human spirit aspires to liberate itself from the passion”.71 And, eventually, “the last step without which it is impossible to live in the art. It is happiness”.72 And this striving for the happiness of creativity as the crown of the process of an actor’s upbringing contains the most significant lesson to future generations and the essence of Stanislavski’s ethical position. His renowned words, written on the day of his seventieth birthday, confirm that the creator of the system himself, having gone through all of the above mentioned steps in the tormenting Salieri’s way of self-searching, enjoyed the happiness of the seventh step in its fullness: “I have lived a long life. I have seen a lot. I had been rich. Then I grew poor. I have seen the world. I had a good family, children. Life has scattered all of them across the world. I sought fame. I found it. I saw laurels, I was young. I have grown old. Death is approaching. Now ask me: where is happiness on the earth? It is in the cognitive process. It is in the art and work, in coming to know the art. Coming to know the art, you come to know the nature, the life of the world, the essence of life, the soul – the talent. There is no happiness superior to that”.73 It is probably not an accident that the arithmetic number of the steps in yoga does not coincide with that in Stanislavski’s teaching, because the yogic eighth step will lead to nirvana, and here is the final discrepancy between the end objectives of yoga practice and the system of acting. Let us note on the way that the above mentioned difficulties in the adaptation of yoga for theatre did not lead to Grotowski’s loss of interest in it. However, the conversation of yoga’s influence on Grotowski, who, choosing the future profession, was debating between Oriental studies, psychiatry and directing, who stated that he “began where Stanislavski finished”, whose appearance after his pilgrimage to India in 1970 changed so dramatically that he would not be recognized not only by his actors but even by his own brother, and who, at the end of his life, wanted his ashes to be dissolved over India which was both far and close to him, – this is a subject of a separate serious conversation.74 However, you will understand how the worldly “reorientation” in the use of yoga became possible, if you only imagine how many people in the

68 Antarova K. E. Ibid. P. 79. 69 Ibid. P. 90-91. 70 Ibid. P. 94. 71 Ibid. P. 96. 72 Ibid. P. 96. 73 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 8 vol. V. 8. P. 324-325. 74 Bashindzhagyan N. Kontury biografii //Ezhi Grotovskij. Ot Bednogo teatra k Iskusstvu-provodniku. M., 2003. P. 24.

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whole world today engage in modified versions of hatha yoga and meditation, mostly in order to maintain their physical shape and to get rid of stress. In earlier years Stanislavski performed the same kind of reorientation of the yogic techniques directed inwards and upwards (only for theatrical purposes). However, among his numerous notes in the copy of Hatha Yoga preserved in the archive of the Moscow Art Theatre, there is a marked paragraph containing a warning for those who regard yoga only as a set of physical stunts or just an Oriental form of physical culture. It seems that Stanislavski understood very well that the most valuable thing for him in yoga was the deep connection between outward physical exercises and spiritual upbringing, the multisidedness of the continuous chain of exercises, pierced by the rising line of self-improvement. This pathos of the continuous apprenticeship is, of course, close in its core to Stanislavski. That is why he thoroughly studied both Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga by Ramacharaka and it was in these books that he found many important positions of the system. Sharon Carnicke draws a number of interesting textological analogies between the works of Stanislavski and Ramacharaka, and our subsequent research partly repeats the thread of her thought. It turns out that many of the system’s images even have their direct analogies in the texts of the American yogi. For example, both authors call the subconsciousness their “friend” who helps in their psychic and creative work.75 Both of them surprise the reader by the fact that subconsciousness occupies 90% of our mental life.76 In addition to that, Stanislavski, without citing the source, directly borrows from Ramacharaka the reference to psychologists Gets and Modsly. 77 For both the sense of upbringing and studying is in the ability to use, in Ramacharaka’s words, “the subconscious thinking, controlled by the conscious mind” and, according to Stanislavski, “the work of the conscious sphere of thinking, undertaken by the order of the sphere of consciousness”.78 Both describe the memory as “the storage” where from the particles of human experience are taken.79 Eventually, they are similar in their striving to grasp the truth in a new way – “not only in its appearance, imperfect and misleading, but in the way it truly is”80, and in the understanding that “the truth of life on the stage is totally different from the truth of actual life”.81 When you are reading Ramacharaka’s books today, you involuntarily come across numerous phrases, images, and separate keywords so well known to us from Stanislavski. Moreover, Ramacharaka’s works “clearly provided Stanislavski with more than conceptual notions and practical exercises: they provided a structural model for what he most passionately wanted: to assist actors in harnessing the creative state”.82 In general, Stanislavski’s system teaches us to harness the creative state in the same ways as “the science of yoga teaches, as the main principle, to your own thinking”83, “teaches to be the master of your own mind”.84 Ramacharaka proposes a consistent programme which, similarly to the books on the system, develops from the spiritual work on oneself to the physical exterior work. Both systems of

75 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 2. P. 436. 76 Ramacharaka. Radzha-joga. Ucheniye jogi o psihologicheskom mire cheloveka. Rostov-na-Donu, 2004. P. 188. 77 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 4. P. 140. 78 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 2. P. 61, 427, 437. 79 Ibid. P. 290. 80 Ramacharaka. Radzha-joga. P. 93. 81 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 4. P. 380. 82 Carnicke. Ibid. P. 173. 83 Yogi Ramacharaka. A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga // Project Gutenberg's (Сетевой ресурс). – <http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13656> 84 Ramacharaka. Radzha-joga. P. 92.

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training are based on the point that “before a man starts trying to reveal the mysteries of the outward universe, he has to be the master of his own inner world”.85 This knowledge about oneself should be achieved on the level of feelings. Ramacharaka outlines: “The teachers of yoga are not satisfied if the one who seeks initiation creates for himself only an intellectual understanding of his true identity; they insist that he must feel the truthfulness of this notion, realize what his true Self is”.86 That is where Stanislavski’s famous and often repeated statement comes out: “in our language to understand means to feel”.87 Even the titles of the system’s book reflect that very yogic sequence of self-improvement from the inside to the outside: the work on oneself (in the process of experiencing, then – in the process of realization), the work on the role. Even the crucially important word “work” can be found in all of Ramacharaka’s writings: “We should not forget that we have ‘worked out’ in ourselves everything we know. Nothing comes to a lazy or careless person”, he instructs his students.88 Of course, this way of putting the question is close to the creator of the first art theatre in Russia which was born in opposition to the private companies with low standards—born out of his wish “to clear the art from all filth, to build a cathedral instead of a fairground booth”.89 Not by accident the necessity of creative discipline was outlined in both the practical life of the Moscow Art Theatre and its studios of all periods, and in literary works based on the system. “I consider myself obliged to be strict during a collective work as if I were in the military”, stated the kindest Rakhmanov—Souler, the assistant of Tortsov—Stanislavski.90 Among other Ramacharaka’s terms which are echoed in Stanislavski’s system we can also name “an objective”. Yogis also based their work on “spiritual objectives.” Besides that, Ramacharaka enunciates in Raja Yoga “a system of exercises, drills, etc.”91, – Stanislavski creates the system that implies exercising and drills. Ramacharaka shows his students the Path,–Stanislavski outlines that “the ‘system’ is a guide”.92 Absorption into “the objects of consideration and discussion”93, which Ramacharaka considers crucial for successful concentration, will be echoed in an actor’s arsenal as “objects of attention.” The thoughts of a man, as well as a play, are better digested when divided into “pieces.” Like a tree growing in a crevice tailors its form to the size of the crevice through the yogic “principle of adaptation”, actors use “devices” in the given circumstances of the play and production. According to both Ramacharaka and Stanislavski, if “wishing” is not strong enough, neither man, nor character will reach their goal. We can find more and more examples of Stanislavski’s and Ramacharaka’s statements closely agreeing. There is one point where we do not agree with S. Carnicke. Having conducted thorough textological research and having found most interesting coincidences and parallels between Stanislavski and Ramacharaka, Carnicke, being too carried away, sometimes presents the cause in such a way that Stanislavski seems to have followed Ramacharaka in everything. Thus she writes: “Modeling himself on ‘Yogi teachers [who] are constantly leading the Candidates toward [their] goal […] first by this path and then by that one, […] until finally the

85 Ibid. P. 8. 86 Ibid. P. 6. 87 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 1. P. 373. 88 Ramacharaka. Radzha-joga. P. 141. 89 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 1. P. 268. 90 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 2. P. 48. 91 Ramacharaka. Radzha-joga. P. 6. 92 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 3. P. 371. 93 Ramacharaka. Radzha-joga. P. 45.

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student finds a path best suited for his feet’94, Stanislavski tells his directing students three month before his death that, ‘One must give actors various paths. One of these is the path of [physical] action. But there is also another path [… that starts from] feeling’ ”.95 Stanislavski’s thoughts, expressed (lets correct Carnicke a little) in the conversation with the graduating students of the Director’s Department of GITIS on 15 May 1938 probably are not just “modeling oneself on an example” of the yogis or replicating the statements from Ramacharaka’s book, read two decades before that. Rather, Stanislavski is drawing conclusions of the long path of a researcher that included the dialogue with numerous resources among which yoga was one of the most important, but not the only one. The main thing is that in those final years Stanislavski approaches the overcoming of dichotomies, characteristic of the Western mind, and gives preference to the method of etudes in which analysis and realization, inner and outward, psyche and physics of the actor-creator are holistically merged. Of course, Ramacharaka’s books were not the only source of information about yoga and esoteric teachings for Stanislavski. In 1916 the Moscow Art Theatre started working on the production of the play The King of the Dark Chamber by the 1913 Nobel Prize winner, Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore. In the centre of this dramatic allegory about spiritual enlightenment there was the image of the enigmatically mystic king who appeared in front of his subjects always under the veil of darkness, and they could only make guesses about his true essence, only believe in his existence. Stanislavski enthusiastically talked about the play, he saw in the production of “a deep religious mystery” possibilities to widen the diapason of the theatre and the acting technique of his actors. “Rabindranath, Aeschilus – these are the real ones. We can not play that, but we should at least try”,96 he write to V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. And, although the production had not been completed (rehearsals ended with the showing of the production’s fragments in December 1918), the work on this material widened Stanislavski’s knowledge about Hinduism and the spiritual values of the East—not for nothing during the course of the work lectures on Hindu philosophy were organized. The fact that these lectures seemed to Stanislavski necessary for practical work outside the Tagore project, confirms the fact that in March 1919 in the conversation with the Moscow Art Theatre actors about the new theatrical forms he advised to invite the Hindu lecturer again in order to continue their conversation.97 However, Stanislavski’s main sources of studying yoga were Ramacharaka’s books, that is why we have mostly concentrated on the comparison between the American yogi’s works and the author of the system. The study of the basics of the ancient Hindu teaching about man, started for Stanislavski in that very 1911, when the system was declared the official method of the Moscow Art Theatre’s work, turned out to be not just “another infatuation of Konstantin Sergeyevich.” It resulted in the long-term and fertilizing influence of yoga on the searches of the author of the system and his students. Many generations of actors during Stanislavski’s life – actors of the First Studio in the 1910s, singers of the Opera Studio in the 1920s, and students of the Opera and Drama Studio in the 1930s – went through the basic exercises of the system based on yoga. Many generations of actors after Stanislavski doing their everyday preparations according to the system, paid tribute to yogic principles, sometimes – thanks to the politics of Soviet censorship in the field of art and culture – without even knowing that. Rephrasing L. A. Dodin, who said that “when an actor performs in the right way, he performs according to Stanislavski, even if he does not like

94 Ibid. P. 71. 95 Carnicke Ibid.P. 173. 96 Vinogradskaya I.N. Ibid. V. 2 . P. 529. 97 Stanislavskij K. S. Sobraniye sochinenii. In 9 vol. V. 6. P. 488.

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Stanislavski”,98 we can claim that when an actor does training according to Stanislavski’s system, he depends upon the centuries-old experience of yoga, even if he has never practiced yoga. Parallel reading of the texts by Ramacharaka and Stanislavski, started in the present article, also gives us a possibility to discuss in a new way the elements of an actor’s creative state – the elements of Stanislavski’s system which are directly connected to yoga teaching. Among them – muscle relief, communication, radiation and irradiation, attention, visions. Special attention should be paid to Stanislavski’s views on the structure of the unconscious activity of man, including his subconsciousness and superconsciousness. It is from Raja Yoga that Stanislavski got the idea of the connection between the creative state and unconsciousness, borrowing the notion of superconsciousness as the source of inspiration, creative intuition and transcendental knowledge. And in the introduction to An Actor's Work on Himself Stanislavski will be pointing at the essential meaning of the chapter Subconsciousness in the creative state of an actor, which for him is “the essence of creation and all of ‘the system.’” The second article which is being prepared for publication in the next issue of this journal will be dedicated to the detailed analysis of yogic elements in Stanislavski’s system; there we will draw conclusions in the present research.

98 Dodin L.A. Intervyu // Izvestiya. 1997. 6 May. № 88.

Stanislávski

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