Thursday 6.30p Intro: Week 4 (Mar 26, 2009)

Focus: No new poses for this week. Review and refine prior three weeks to catch up new students who were absent last week. Refer to last week’s notes for details. Add navel back and lift up, with pubic plate lifting in all poses.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutra II.48, the effects of asana.
See Tuesday 4.30p MS: Week 3 (Mar 17, 2009), Tuesday 6.30p Intro: Week 3 (Mar 17, 2009), Thursday 6.30p Intro: Week 3 (Mar 19, 2009), and Tuesday 6.30p Intro: Week 4 (Mar 24, 2009) for first four parts of the discussion.

As translated by BKS Iyengar:
PYS II.48 From that arises immunity to the pairs of opposites.

Tatah dvandvah anabhighatah
then - dualities - cessation of disturbance

None of the pairs of opposites exist as body, mind and soul are one. Then the perfection of asana puts an end to dualities and the differentiation between body, mind and soul.

The Yoga Sutras conceive reality as dualistic, or divided into two parts: God, and everything else that is not God. [PYS II.17-18] Included in that “everything else” is what we call “mind and body.” What we commonly call “mind” is, more properly, “consciousness,” an all-encompassing term that includes three aspects of the mind. Our consciousness not only reflects the light of the soul, but is also colored by every other mundane thing we encounter, such as compliments and insults. When we react to these mundane things we experience the pairs of opposites such as hot and cold, or, as the Bhagavad Gita says, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, and victory and defeat [BG II.38].

This sutra describes the result of the prior two sutras on asana. Unless and until asana practice is perfected, duality exists: We lose our firmness when we feel weak or shaky in the pose; we lose our equanimity and benevolence when in pain [PYS II.46].

Relieving physical back pain or headaches by practice of yoga asanas is relatively easy. But, if we lack resolve [the prayatna, effort, of PYS II.47], despair can set in. It is a more pervasive form of suffering, that signifies self doubt [PYS I.30] or even the fear of death [PYS II.9]. Yoga practice helps relieve these afflictions by purifying our consciousness so that we are able to remains as calm as a still lake when confronted with our difficulties [PYS I.33].

Dualities cause duhkha daurmanasya angamejayatva svasaprasvasah [PYS I.31 described in the Tuesday 4.30p MS: Week 1 (Mar 3, 2009) class]. Duhkha is pain, which leads to daurmanasya [despair]. When the mind becomes weak, the stability of the body disappears, causing a “nervous breakdown”, or what Patanjali termed “shakiness inside” [angamejayatva]. Then the breathing becomes disturbed [svasaprasvasah] and fear sets in. To reverse this destructive cycle, B.K.S. Iyengar suggests working backwards through the sutra by first stabilizing the breath to stabilize the body. When the body becomes stable, the mind is pacified. When the mind is pacified, the pain lessens.

Perfection in asana means that, through skilled practice, we understand the effects of our actions in the pose. When performed correctly, standings not only bring flexibility, but also support the spine — which calms the nervous system. Skilled practitioners find that inversions more directly pacify the mind, backbends bring clarity, and forward bends bring rest. The insight that comes from this skill demonstrates that if we retain calmness, clarity and composure, we will not merely react to all the stresses and strains of daily life, and these dualities will lose their ability to disturb us.


Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Tadasana/Samasthiti

2. Tadasana (Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana)

3. Tadasana (Gomukhasana arms)
a. Ardha Gomukhasana arms
b. Full Gomukhasana arms

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.

5. Utthita Trikonasana
a. Left heel at the Rope Wall, holding the lower wall rope as above, move the right buttock towards the wall to lengthen the right leg.

6. 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.

7. 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.

9. Vrksasana
a. Take the right knee to the wall to drop the right hip and to open the right inner groin.
b. Inserted after Virabhadrasana II, Trikonasana, and Parsvakonasana to experience result of opening right groin towards the right knee.

10. Utkatasana

11. Virabhadrasana I
a. With Urdhva Hastasana arms, press wrists into Upper Wall Rope to lift the pubic plate and sternum.

12. Parsvottanasana (hands on chair seat, head on brick on chair seat)
a. Pull right hip back, left hip forward.

13. Baddha Hasta Uttanasana
a. Omitted for time.

14. Chair Sarvangasana
a. Next week add Wall Ardha Halasana and Wall Ekapada Sarvangasana. New students repeat Chair Sarvangasana.

15. Savasana
a. Trifold blanket beneath head. Feet and calves on chair seat.