Thursday 6.30p Intro: Week 3 (Mar 19, 2009)

2 new students for March-April session
Focus: Consolidate and add Chair Sarvangasana
Note new poses for this week are in bold face.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutras II.47, the definition and effects of asana.
See Tuesday 4.30p MS: Week 3 (Mar 17, 2009) and Tuesday 6.30p Intro: Week 3 (Mar 17, 2009) for first two parts of the discussion.


PYS II.47 Perfection in asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached.

Prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam
effort - relaxation - infinite - assuming original form

Prayatna saithilya: effort - relaxation
Interpretations of the second sutra on asana vary. The translations that rely on Vyasa include his statement that both prayatna saithilya, “effortless effort” and ananta samapattibhyam, “merging with the infinite”, are necessary requirements for perfection. Vachaspatti Misra, commenting on Vyasa, ascribes both of these as the means that result in perfection.

I prefer B.K.S. Iyengar’s logic: rather than stating that perfection is attained as a result of “ceasing the effort” — another interpretation of prayatna saithilya — he states that the yogin is “firm in his postures when persevering effort is no longer needed.” In other words “effortless effort” is a sign that one is firm in asana practice. Iyengar’s means are the same as in dharana, etc. — “focusing of attention on a chosen point or area within the body.”

With prayatna saithilya,“effortless effort,” we encounter the same apparent contradiction as with sukham in regard to asana expressed in PYS II.46. Without effort, how can one transform and purify consciousness? No activity, however worthwhile, is effortless at the outset. Beginning yoga practice is like starting a new job: The first day leaves you exhausted just learning where everything is and remembering the names and habits of coworkers.

Even those, such as Swami Hariharananda Aranya, who adhere to “relaxation of effort” do not imply that asana is painless:

“Practice of asana cannot be perfected unless some amount of pain is born in the beginning... This will disappear with the practice of relaxation....”

Perhaps at the simplest level of practice, it is more useful to substitute “breath” for “effort” to warrant “relax the breath” as the appropriate means to relieve tension. And, again, as we saw in the discussion about sthira — stabilizing body and mind in PYS II.46 — so does the effort to tame the breath bring the same equanimity.

Employing “effortless effort” can also help unravel another aspect of overworking in a pose. Each part of the body has its own dharma, duty. Pain, despair, shakiness, and labored breathing [PYS I.31] can occur from compensatory patterns that ensue when those duties are renounced. The remaining burden then becomes too great to bear on the other parts of the body. Only with the insight and equanimity that come with relaxed breathing are we able to distinguish the underlying cause from its symptom.

One of the reasons for the various interpretations of prayatna saithilya in this sutra is due to the lack of agreement about what constitutes asana practice. If one is only describing Savasana, even beginning pupils can be taught to relax and do less. If one is describing Swastikasana, sitting with simple cross legs, it is incrementally harder because modern students do not have the ability to sit erect on the floor for a long period of time. Correct support, such as sitting up on a bolster often relieves back pain, which because it is less taxing, requires less effort to sustain equanimity. More difficult poses require additional discipline, experience, and insight to sustain a stable mind.


Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Tadasana/Samasthiti

2. Tadasana (Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana)

3. Utkatasana from Urdhva Hastasana
a. To keep the spine erect, as in Tadasana, the more you bend at the hips, the more you must descend the buttocks towards the floor and move the navel back, else the waist will protrude forward, possibly causing back pain and making it difficult to breath. Keep the weight back, on the heels.
b. Not stretching from the armpits, and side ribs, straight up, towards the ceiling, will further exacerbate the waist protruding forward. Press the Urdhva Hastasana wrists into an imaginary wall rope to move the navel back and descend the buttocks. The spine receives the action of the limbs.
c. Each part of the body has its own dharma, duty. Pain from compensatory patterns occurs when those duties are renounced and remaining burden is too great to bear on the other parts of the body.

4. Virabhadrasana II
a. Swap first prior to Trikonasana to get freedom in hips without the challenge of stiff hamstrings.
b. Left heel at the Rope Wall, holding the lower wall rope, make the left side the stable side, so that the right side becomes more mobile. Extend the inner left leg towards the Rope Wall while bending the right knee.
c. Turn the right leg out more to bring the right femur more into the socket. Connecting the femur into the socket supports the pelvis, trunk, and spine.
d. Ascend the right inner ankle, knee, and thigh. Lift the right pelvic rim up, off of the thigh, to bring more freedom to the hip joint when bending the right knee. Keeping that up, then sit the right buttock down.

5. Utthita Parsvakonasana
a. Left heel at the Rope Wall, holding the lower wall rope as in Virabhadrasana II.
b. Repeat the actions as above, the sit the buttock down to take the right hand to the floor.

6. Utthita Trikonasana from Utthita Parsvakonasana
a. To straighten the knee, lift both the kneecap and the back thigh up, away from the knee as in Tadasana, to make the knee light. Don’t just collapse into the back knees.

7. Vrksasana
a. Stand in Tadasana, feet together, and press down the inner edges of the feet more to counteract the tendency to not press them down as much as the outer edges.
b. With the back to the wall for stability, place the right sole on the left inner thigh and counteract the tendency to lean to the left by continuing to press down the inner edge of the left foot. Inject the left outer thigh into the bone, and bring the left femur into the socket to further press back against the right sole.
c. Open the right inner groin towards the right knee.
d. Next week take the right knee to the wall to drop the right hip and to further open the right inner groin.

8. Calf Stretcher Tadasana (on inverted chair seat)
a. Facilitates turning open the calves more in Virabhadrasana I.

9. Virabhadrasana I
a. With Urdhva Hastasana arms, wrists at Upper Wall Rope. Turn the left foot in more: Come on the left toes, raise the left heel up, and turn it out more to turn in the left leg, hip and waist. Lower the heel to the floor by stretching the calf.
b. Press into the Wall Rope to lift the pubic plate.
c. Second iteration: Turn the left inner thigh, and inner calf from the inside out (internal rotation of the limb).
d. Left hip as far forward as the right, as in Parsvottanasana.

10. Parsvottanasana (hands on wall, right foot up on brick)
a. Pull right hip back, left hip forward.
b. Straighten left inner knee. Keeping the left shin back, turn the left calf from inner towards outer to bring the left hip forward.

11. Baddha Hasta Uttanasana
a. To straighten the knee, lift both the kneecap and the back thigh up, away from the knee, to make the knee light.

12. Chair Kurmasana
a. Preparation for Prasarita Padottanasana.
b. Thighs on chair seat, bend forward from the hips.

13. Prasarita Padottanasana
a. Hands on bricks, concave back. Spread the inner knees apart, away from each other to press the outer heels down into the floor.
b. Head on brick or floor, extended spine.

14. Chair Sarvangasana

15. Savasana
a. Trifold blanket beneath head. Feet and calves on chair seat.
b. Release the muscles and allow the mind to penetrate inwards towards the vastness of the soul.