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!