What is pashki?
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2.What is the relationship between pashki and yoga?
The idea of achieving some kind of spiritual transformation through physical movement is not unique. Other than pashki, the most refined form of this is probably the system devised by the yogis of India. The similarities are striking: many of the movements of yoga are inspired by nature or by animal poses (everyone seems to know Downward Facing Dog, and there is actually one called the Cat Pose). More advanced yoga teaches about something called the ‘subtle body’, apparently a form of the soul or spirit, which is generated from seven ‘energy spirals’ along the body, called chakras. It is easy to see parallels with pashki, which talks about six energy centres, or catras, that give rise to the ‘Mau body’ or cat-formed spirit.
The evidence is that there was much crossover in the development of these two disciplines, right down to the terminology used. The key difference, however, is equally striking. Whereas yoga seeks to develop the body in order to transform the soul, pashki goes a step further – with the transformed soul feeding back into the body to take effect in the physical world. Such is the theory. It is just one of several explanations as to how pashki practitioners can achieve what they do.
3.Is there a link between pashki and parkour?
Parkour, or free-running, originated in France, when a group of young athletes decided not to walk along the ground when they could just as easily leap from place to place over rooftops, bridges, bollards and other urban features. The results are certainly spectacular, and from a distance they can certainly look like students practising pashki (a pashki master simply wouldn’t be seen at all).
As to the passing similarity of the names, my own belief is that this is merely a coincidence (as the root languages of the two words are completely different). It may be that the inventors of this cult sport had some passing knowledge of pashki, or that they had merely heard of it and subconsciously mimicked the name when describing their own invention. Yet parkour, for all its breathtaking spectacle, is rigorously controlled and rehearsed – quite different from the free-flowing pashki. And that is ignoring the more mysterious elements such as Mau whiskers, dark-seeing and claws.
