Asana: Posture Practice

Asana: Posture Practice

by Hannah Greenstreet

The third limb of Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga is asana. The Sanskrit word asana translates as the verb “to sit”, a simple, yet profound posture. In this seated state, we have the opportunity to explore the depth of the mind and draw on the fabric of truth in order to experience yoga's ultimate aim of self-realization.  Asana is often more loosely translated as posture practice. Although asana practice is what the Western world thinks of as the entirety of yoga, there is a comprehensive and vast world of yoga that reaches far beyond our physical bodies. Patanjali, the author credited with the Yoga Sutras, mentions asana in only two of the 196 sutras. Within these two sutras, Patanjali conveys the need for each posture, or asana, to be both steady and comfortable (II.47).  In this way the practice of all asasna has the power to prepare the body and mind for the latter and more internal limbs of yoga, including long periods of seated meditation.  These two qualities open up the possibility to remain seated for long periods of time in order to allow the mind to reveal its innermost workings, struggles, desires, needs, and inherent goodness. Without inviting the patience of sitting in silence and being steady in focus, the mind will continue to turn reality into fiction, or chitta vritti (I.2).

In order to discover this balanced state of steadiness and ease, it is essential that we reach past our individual being and merge with the infinite and divine. In our practice of asana we must also allow forced effort, tension, and stress to fade away from the pose so that we can be content. This requires a motionless ease – a blending of relaxation with the subtle but strong concentration of the mind. It is not about becoming passive, checked out or avoiding reality. Rather, this state of tranquility, although contrary to the majority of society, is radiant in consciousness and transforms the negative messages of the mind to a positive light of truth in our existence. Initially we cultivate this razor's edge union through a series of postures linked with breath.  The field of sensation offered by the body and breath become a tether for the mind, harnessing it's energy to the present moment.  With consistent practice, the mind and body are able to remain in this harmonious state of spacious attention for longer periods of time and assuming a formal meditative seat comes naturally.  By being able to achieve this state in both formal seated meditation and yoga asana practice, we offer ourselves freedom from the boundaries of our mind and liberate to the infinite spirituality that permeates into our lives and throughout our community.

This sacred posture is a practice in itself, exceeding a series of postures that compose a class or home practice. It is an artistic map of something bigger than ourselves; the chance to slow, steady and reassure ourselves that we are important, good enough, and a small (very small) part of the whole. In this posture, we find the sensations and awareness to observe the negative, positive and in between. Therefore, asana and meditation are synonymous, exposing the root of our suffering and inviting the space to find the solution. And somehow, although this is an individual and personal experience, it drives connectivity and unity with others and those who have come before us. It is without judgment, without explanation, and without performance. The experience is the complete embodiment of purity in the present. It is a simple choice to take a simple seat and simply observe…may you enjoy! 

Ishvara Pranidhana: Surrender to God

Ishvara Pranidhana: Surrender to God

by Beau Boucher

Ishvara Pranidhana culminates the Niyamas, those things we should do. Practice of the previous Niyama, Svadhyaya, leads to the realization that divinity is present within each one of us. Ishvara Pranidhana is the practice of surrendering to and dedicating yourself to that divinity. Divinity is known by many names throughout the world, and by even more throughout history- for simplicity lets say God. The practice of yoga then, is the science of God realization. Yoga is a science. Often in the yoga world there is the implied notion that science is materialistic and devoid of spiritual value, but science is not the enemy of God. Science is God explaining God to God through the phenomenon of the human nervous system. Chemistry, physics, mathematics- these are the languages of God.

    

Yoga is often defined as union of the body and mind, or individual consciousness with universal supreme consciousness. The fact is, God is already here. God is already inside each one of us, and when you shift your perception in this manner, the whole world shifts with you. Yoga asks us to adopt the inner attitude that the person or individual is not doing anything. That everything one does comes from God, and belongs to God. Every breath, every action, every moment, is a divine movement of the eternal. As long as you think of yourself as a person, you'll see persons everywhere, but once you relinquish the personal, then you'll see the universe everywhere, you'll see God everywhere. In yogic philosophy, the practice of adoration and devotion to God is referred to as Bhakti.

    

To practice Bhakti is to practice Love. This means you keep your attention on love- you think about love, express love, respond to any gesture of love from your environment- and most importantly, you radiate love. Love is a force, like electromagnetism or gravity. What is gravity? It has no mass and is invisible, yet it's a known force that shapes the fabric of our reality. Love, as well, is a force that shapes the fabric of our reality. Love has the ability to rearrange the atoms of one's face into a smile, to cause the release of beneficial biochemicals throughout the body- love has the power to heal. It's known that if babies do not receive love and affection they have a strong chance of developing psychosocial dwarfism. This means if love and affection are absent, regardless of nutrition, the child's body will not utilize Human Growth Hormone even though it is present. This means that without love - the infinite intelligence that builds the human body from a single cell to trillions of cells, loses motivation. Without the force of love from another human being, divine consciousness is rendered incapable of organizing atoms into a healthy child. Love is not a metaphysical abstract concept- love is a tangible force, and once you create a vibration of love around you, you inevitably attract loving relationships and the ability to heal others simply with the vibration of your presence. Ishvara Pranidhana is the practice of radiating love in all directions at all times- for if God is everywhere, if God is infinite- then so too must be our love and devotion.

Svadhyaya: Self-Study

Svadhyaya: Self Study

by Amrito Cross

This month’s theme and the fourth niyama is Svadhyaya: the study of sacred texts, or self study.  Most of us have been trained that the way to improve our experiences is to get other people and circumstances to change.  Have you noticed that this doesn’t work?  That’s because they are our experiences, and the common denominator in all of them is ourselves.  If we keep being the same – same thoughts, feelings, words and actions – we will keep having the same experiences.  Self study is about looking in a mirror and observing the light of our true Self, as well as noticing the habits and patterns of the small self, personality or ego identity.  The more we know our higher Self, the more we can observe our small self with neutrality and compassion, noticing the habits of thinking, feeling, speaking and acting which are no longer serving our highest good.  This simple awareness is the first step in making a change.  This is freedom.

If looking in the mirror for self-awareness is our intention, then anything and everything can be the mirror, from studying sacred texts, to interacting with a grocery checker, your partner, family or friends, to paying taxes, dealing with an illness, working, asana practice or riding your bike.

Often, the first habit to overcome in order to allow self study, is the habit of thinking that what’s bothering us is to do with something external.  Try this experiment: next time you’re upset, stop, take a deep breath and ask yourself what you’re upset about.  In the middle of your answer, interrupt yourself, and say, “No it’s not that.  I’m upset because of the way I’m looking at this.  How can I look at this differently?”

Tapas: Discipline

Tapas: Discipline 

by Beau Boucher

Tapas, the third Niyama, is translated literally as “to burn.” What does Patanjali mean by burn, what are we burning, and why are we burning it? When we incorporate the concept of Tapas in our Sadhana, our lifelong practice, we burn on two levels: physical and mental. The practice of yoga gives us an opportunity to manipulate and ultimately transform both of these dimensions. Gary Kraftsow refers to the process of yoga as: a process of self-awareness that leads to a deeper sense of self-understanding, and through this self-understanding we enter the process of self-transformation. What Gary describes is the process of burning, just like Nataraja dancing the destructive Tandava in order to bring forth new creation.

    

We can illustrate this metaphor of burning a little more clearly if we take a look at yoga classes. Lets divide yoga classes into two categories, Yin and Yang. Yang being the more active, sweaty classes and Yin being more relaxed, calming classes. Yang classes give us a chance to purify the physical body, remove toxins, develop good posture and healthy movement patterns, increase muscle and decrease fat, strengthen every system of the body, find focus and balance, and just generally feel good in our skin. In Yang we burn away and eliminate undesirable things on the physical plane. In Yin we have time to contemplate, to observe- and naturally we move more into the mental aspect. Yin is a practice of acceptance, patience, observance, and non-reactivity. Yin gives us an opportunity to take inventory of our mental space, a chance to become aware of those things that are no longer serving us, and to throw these negative patterns into the fire and allow them to dissolve. As J. Krishnamurti put it, “the highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement.”

    

So we can think of Tapas, or this burning, as a process of transformation. We develop self-discipline, overcome obstacles, and make sacrifices for the greater good. We burn away our negative attributes, in order to become the highest version of ourselves, strong enough to not only take care of ourselves, but to have enough strength to help those around us. Every time you step to your mat, you can think of Tapas and know the reason you're stepping into the fire is bigger than yourself.

Santosha: Contentment

Santosha: Contentment

by Laura DeFreitas

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”  A culture raised on the grass-is-greener principal, in a country indoctrinated in the church of hard work dogma, is it any wonder that while we hurriedly prepare for life’s next big event and advertisers magnify this sense of longing in us, the second niyama, santosha or contentment, is constantly just out of reach. Yoga reveals the path to the innate calm and abiding stillness that we are. 

Patanjali states in Sutra 2.5, “Lacking self-awareness, one mistakes that which is impermanent, impure, distressing and empty of self for permanence, purity, happiness, and self.”  This ignorance weds us to a perpetual wheel of suffering.  We think we are free but in truth, we spend vast amounts of energy clinging to that which gives us pleasure and avoiding that which puts our pleasure at risk or we see as repulsive.  Further, we expect our preferences to be a source of eternal bliss yet their achievement is often anti-climatic or disappointing and, without much ado, we are off striving after the next “if only” key to supreme happiness. Yoga philosophy tells us that all things are inherently neutral.  In truth, the full spectrum of sensation, energy, emotion and thought are simply exquisite feedback mechanisms aiding us in our journey to become sensitive and effective caretakers of our being.  It is our personalized labels that color experiences in a way that makes them appealing or repulsive and keeps us spinning.  All this maneuvering to between pleasure and avoidance shows up as the physically feeling of gripping in the body.  The first nine months of my relationship was long distance.  Each time my boyfriend and I would have the chance to see each other there was a simultaneous clinging to the joy of being together and a tense defense against the unpleasantness of our inevitable parting.  Seeking and avoiding are expensive uses of our energy that result in the failure to appreciate the moment.  Yoga Nidra teacher, Richard Miller, offers that in order to set energy free to experience the moment, we not only agree to ride life’s waves but we actively welcome them.  As Bob Marley put it, “Some people feel the rain.  Others just get wet.”  We can always trace our emotional disturbances back to ourselves and thus, we keep ourselves out of contentment we so desperately seek. 

The 13^th century mystic poet Jelaluddin Rumi expresses this coalescence of extremes:

Out beyond of ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.  I’ll meet you there. 

When the soul lies down in that grass,

The world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn’t make any sense.

Finding and remaining in this place of equanimity is simple but not easy.  As with most things, it takes consistent practice over a long period of time. Each time we step onto the yoga mat we have an opportunity to cultivate contentment by genuinely listening to the many cues our body/mind offers and choosing to honor that feedback by modifying or intensifying the pose as appropriate.  This is done without comparison to what the pose looked like yesterday or in anticipation of what it will look like tomorrow. The balance of effort and ease in any given yoga posture is a constantly changing dance with the breath. Quoting the late master teacher Pattabhi Jois, “Yoga is an internal practice.  The rest is just a circus.”  An advanced practitioner hovers on the cusp of his or her intelligent edge of sensation - a place that is neither too much nor too little.

Contentment also requires a healthy dose of surrendering to the great many things in life that we cannot control.  There is a paradox to contentment: the more we seek it or need it to look a certain way, the more it eludes us.  It is easy to feel happy when life is going our way but what about when chaos abounds?  Discontentment is the illusion that there can be something else in the moment.  There isn’t.  The moment is complete exactly as it is.  The paradox of contentment allows us to appreciate what we have and to fall in love with our life.  Next time you are feeling bored, depressed or overwhelmed consider making a gratitude list.  Whether mental or hand-written, list everything you are grateful.  From the moon and stars to the shoes on your feet nothing is too small.  I have a gratitude jar.  In it are little reminders of life’s fullness that I will review at the year’s end.  Practicing gratitude cultivates the fertile soil for contentment to take root by keeping us centered in the joy and abundance of our life. Contentment is like a tall tree so rooted in the Earth no storm can topple it.  

Saucha: Cleanliness & Purity

Saucha: Cleanliness & Purity

by Laura DeFreitas

Before we begin our study of the second limb of yoga, niyama (personal observances), let us review the five facets of the first limb of yoga, yama (universal observances). The yamas acknowledge that we are social creatures living in a world full of other life forms. The five yamas invite us to see past our individual needs in order to consider the needs of the collective. Ahmisa (non-violence) turns us from harming self and others through the cultivation of kindness and compassion.  Satya (truthfulness) turns us from lies and half-truths to expressing our individuality and authenticity.  Asteya (non-stealing) turns us from theft to developing new skills and abilities.  Brahmacharya (non-excess) turns us from greed to a balanced appreciation of pleasure and joy.  Aparigraha (non-hoarding) turns us from attachment to intimacy without possession. These five universal disciplines form an inner compass that guides us into harmony and right relationship with the universe and its inhabitants.  The niyamas on the other hand help to develop our relationship with ourselves by shifting attention from a social focus to an internal focus through the study of five personal observances.

The first niyama, is saucha. The saucha is a twofold process that includes cleanliness and purity.  Cleanliness is a process of external scrubbing that affects our outer appearance. Purification cleanses our insides and affects our internal essence.

Often external cleanliness is defined by environment.  Soil outside the yoga studio is Mother Earth’s magic; inside the studio its just plain dirt!  The four walls of the studio create a boundary that defines it as a safe and sacred space devoted to self-inquiry and study.  Cleanliness might manifest as studio etiquette that includes anything from a pre-practice hygiene regimen to “propasana,” the mindful replacement of props after class.  

Yogic philosophy places great emphasis on both external cleanliness and internal purification. Saucha is important in the yoga tradition because a great energy lies, mostly dormant, within each one of us.  This is the energy of consciousness or the True Self.  We have all felt glimpses of this energy and linger in the residue of its movement.  I call them “ah-ha” moments.  My teacher, Richard Freeman, refers to them as aesthetic experiences: moments when beauty captures us in wonder; moments when love and gratitude fills our eyes with tears; moments when a deep sense of knowing guides us from within; moments when life-force electrifies the body; moments when contentment fills us with ease and well-being.  Yoga students spend a lifetime searching for enlightenment when in fact it is always there waiting, slightly obscured, and just beneath the surface of a very dusty lens of awareness. Making ourselves available for these moments of Truth, is the work of saucha.  As we cleanse ourselves from the heaviness and clutter of physical and mental toxins we gain clarity and increase our ability to meet each moment with integrity and freshness.

Yogis have developed many elaborate purification practices many of which seem bizarre and uncomfortable by today’s standards.  Fortunately other, more approachable, purification practices exist. Yoga asana (posture), breath techniques (pranayama), meditation (dhyana) and the following of an ethical system such as the yamas and niyamas purify our vessel physically, mentally, emotionally and energetically. Cleansing need not be weird or extreme.  It can be as simple as drinking more water and setting aside quite time to process unfinished business. Cleansing also means being transparent with ourselves.  It means we neither hide nor cling to our thoughts and feelings so we are able to witness the fullness of the moment by allowing it to be as it is.  Deborah Adele offers, “ (saucha) asks us to subtract the illusions we impose on the moment, it also asks us to gather ourselves together so that our whole Self shows up.” Saucha invites us to make full and honest contact with the moment so there is nothing lost and no regrets.