Asana

There's a lot of debate in the "yoga" world lately about asana. Mostly around all the Instagram posts of everyone and their brother posting photos of themselves in asanas, hard ones, easier ones, many upon many handstands. All of which seems to many that it demeans the yoga practice down to a set of asanas, rather than the deeper teachings that are there and meant to be behind the practice of moving through postures and and breathing.

Personally I had heard of yoga in the 80's while watching That's Incredible. They would occasionally have a skinny, little Indian man curl himself up and get into a clear box so we could see him and be amazed that he stayed in there in an extremely awkward position for the entire show and so my interest had been peaked in my teens. But upon actually beginning to practice in late 1999 and early 2000 I quickly realized there was much more to it than just moving the body and trying to breathe while I did so, that in doing this there was energy awakened and awareness coming about every aspect of myself including my thought patterns and noticing which things were serving me still and which no longer were serving me. So to understand what was going on a bit more I bought some books and read the philosophy behind the yoga practices I was doing.

I still don't think I got it for many, many years. I was practicing they physical discipline of Ashtanga Yoga for 8 years before I decided to leave it for another physical discipline in the Hatha Yoga lineage, but also I took up Kundalini Yoga, which used physical means to achieve energetic goals, but this time I could feel the energy move and clear out areas of my body, physically and subtly. So when I came back to Ashtanga Yoga as a physical discipline almost 4 years later I was able to feel and get the same results but was also feeling my body come back into a better physical state as well.

Now I've traveled to Mysore, India to study with the current lineage holder of this practice and in doing so I encountered Indians in their own culture for the first time, and the one thing I can say about them that's affected me more than even the asana practice I experienced over there is the level of faith they have. They just surrender to the now all day, every day. Where we Westerners seem to always be struggling to find happiness or something more in life, they are content with the way things are and move through life with much less worry and anxiety. Life is accepted the way it is, they are happy no matter what's thrown at them it seems. So this affected me and made me take to the yoga differently than I would when I was at home, with much more surrender and contentment in where I was, not looking to where I was going all the time. Once you find peace where you are, you open up the door to where you're wanting to go anyway in my opinion.

The Ashtanga Yoga practice of asanas is very intense, there is a certain breath for each movement to be followed, there is a certain place to gaze with your eyes as you move through each posture, there is even a set sequence of postures to follow, one harder than the last, not to be changed. But the approach to these things can be different. I used to push and in the pushing would harm myself. Now I surrender and its still hard but in the surrender I'm finding peace and within that peace is the deepest connection I could ask for. So now after my asana practice, and sometimes during, I'm finding myself in a still place. I've seen it called the still point or zero point, in Sanskrit it's called Shuniya which is the experience of absolute stillness within and without. It is the oneness with all things, it is the zeroing out of anything that keeps you from experiencing your divinity. And lately after practice I've been able to reach this place, this deep inner space that I can observe everything going on and feel not of it, but still be in it and not apart from it.

It's a good place to be. You feel happier when you're there, less easily agitated over small things, more calm and decisions are easier to make and thinking becomes more clear and open, less judgmental. I can also more quickly notice when I'm not there and that is a good thing too.

So, asana to me is a part of my sadhana (daily practices that lead to connecting spiritually, to yourself and to others). I know there are many in the East who poopoo asana saying we don't need it, we should just be able to sit and achieve this state of being, and maybe as I get older and move through more and more asana practices I will need it less or eventually not at all, but practicing for me is healing my nervous system so less worry and anxiety is there throughout my day. It's a burning off of the rough edges that are still held over from my previous life of drinking too much and worrying about everything. I do think people can have fun with them and use them for things other than connection, that's not really why I use them but many do and post about it on Instagram lol, btw I'm not on Instragram so only see posts as they also post onto Facebook. I do have a few friends in the Ashtanga community who post on there incessantly bit many of them type very strong and encouraging words about an aspect of yoga that has been cultivated through their asana practice, so that I don't mind and the others I try not to mind as well. It's all yoga and it's all affecting people where they are and where they are is most likely not where I am and so it's good just as well.

Hope that wasn't too much rambling, have a great day, feeling love and sending it your way!

Random thoughts...

Now, I don't believe anything is random really so I guess I named this entry that because there are many things going through my head right now and I'm planning on touching on some of them randomly, depending on what comes up while I'm typing. I tend to write things stream of consciousness-wise anyway but it's been quite a while since I wrote and have been having trouble each time I sit down to type the past two weeks or so, so we'll see what comes out.

The other day I read an article about the "Three things that deepen your yoga practice" or some such a title, which got me excited because a friend of mine and I have been having many discussions, actually a couple friends and I (you both know who you are), about the silliness going around within yoga these days some of it involving Instagram, some not. And so this article seemed like something I would enjoy reading. I open it up and its talking about Tapas, Svadhyaya and Ishwarapranidana and if you read the sutras or as I'm doing almost daily (to keep up with my homework from Ranjini in Mysore I'm chanting the first two padas of the yoga sutras and a few other scriptures and mantras most days)chanting the sutras you know that the first sutra of the second pada is tapahsvadhyayaishwarapranidanani kriyayogah, which translates that tapas, svadhyaya and ishwarapranidana together form kriya yoga, or the yoga of action. But the article disappointed me in that it only took each of the qualities at their physical level and went no further. In its defense that is probably where most people are and so it touched on things most people could relate too and therefor probably received more shares on Facebook. But I think to its detriment it did this. Since most people may come to their asana practice as only a physical event maybe if it had went deeper it would have brought the idea to more people that the asana practice is so much more than just a physical thing happening, of course it is a physical thing but it can be so much more, if one has the awareness of that introduced to them.

Tapas can be only the physical workout that the asanas provide, but tapas, which roughly translates as "to burn" really means igniting the fire of transformation, or agni in Vedic Sanskrit, which is located around the navel center or solar plexus in the subtle body and can also apply to the digestive process in the physical body. So when you're doing the asana practice if you're thinking of it as detoxification of the physical being, that's taking it a step further, or as igniting that fire within that can burn away the layers of "you" that really aren't you and begin a transformation from the inside out. Now that is something I can and do put myself into daily, transformation, sure of body, but more so of mind and spirit using the body to facilitate aspects of that change.

Svadhyaya is self study, which this article touted as listening to yourself, or getting to know yourself on a physical level. Hearing when the body is at its edge and so forth, which is a really good thing so I'm not disputing that. But also there are deeper levels one can take this idea to. My teacher Sharath says one aspect of svadhyaya is when your teacher mentions something but doesn't really expound upon it, it's your job as a good shishya or student/disciple to go and research that thing so you know what he's talking about for future reference, so literally studying things yourself. But I like the thought of it best as being that deeper level of awareness one can achieve through the asana practice, through pranayama and meditation too, also through observation of the emotions as they arise, paying attention to sensations in the body as it comes up, but most of all noticing how you feel while you're thinking of different things. If you can tell how a thought makes you feel then you'll know when to start to change your thoughts processes to move in a different direction when you're heading down a negative path in your mind.

Ishwarapranidana is surrender to god, or if you're like me and believe that god or the energy of the divine is all that there is in this realm then just surrender, because anytime you do you are surrendering to god, or allowing the universe, or source, or the bigger picture, to take the reigns and when you do that you're allowing things to move in their natural flow and slowly teaching yourself how to let go and go with that. I've written a lot about surrender on this blog, especially in my time in Mysore this past trip so I'm not going to type too much more here on that. But suffice it to say, this one could be considered the most important, for when we're allowing or surrendering we are not identifying with our resistance within and therefor are letting the natural flow of life happen as it should and would work if we weren't always interjecting blocks in its way with the stories in our mind.

So, all that being said, today I didn't do to much in the way of these three lol, I actually slept in later than normal with the intention of practicing after I got up and before I headed out. But last weekend I had practiced on Saturday and so yesterday, Thursday, was my sixth day of practice in a row already and i just couldn't do it, so I just did pranayama and chanted and sat for a bit. Which all felt nice, it's also my one day off of the week so I had plans to see the new Mad Max film and had tickets already to boot, so taking the morning of the asana part of my practice was nice. Tomorrow is the typical day off and Sunday is a new moon, so another day off and yes that means I would've have two days off in a row but I'm okay getting up an practicing tomorrow and then taking Sunday off as well, that will feel good.

I did see the new Mad Max and it was phenomenal, lots of action but with so much heart, I loved it. Then I got out, went and got a smoothie, looked at times and went and saw the new Pitch Perfect film, which didn't hold a candle the the first installment. The singing sequences were great but otherwise it was jumbled and didn't flow well, so you could like it or not depending on what you're looking for.

Also this week I've been thinking of Mysore sooooo much and it seems from the posts I'm seeing on Facebook that many who also go over there yearly are as well, so I'm not alone. I've been dreaming of it and thinking of periodically throughout the day each day and that's making being here hard but oh well, I'm here and need to surrender to that (see above).

Maybe these thoughts weren't so random after all, they actually seem coherent when I scroll back up and look around too. That's great! lol

I hope they've made you think a little bit and if they didn't, that's okay too. I can't affect everyone and the writing is really cathartic for me so I'll be doing it whether it clicks with you or not!

Enjoy your weekend, see you soon, maybe if the rain holds off I'll even see you in the morning at the Tower Grove Farmers Market class I'll be teaching!

Namaste