Monday 4.30p Intro — Week 8 (April 20, 2009)

Focus: Continue to review and refine standings from Week 4. Add Adho Mukha Svanasana, Uttanasana, Padangusthasana from Week 5, and work more on Sarvangasana.

Note new poses for this week are in bold face.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.3, What is Yoga?
See Thursday 6.30p Intro — Week 6 (April 9, 2009) for the first part of the definition of yoga in PYS I.2. PYS I.3 completes the definition of yoga. The result of citta vritti nirodhah is the awareness of the unextinguishable soul as the source of life.

PYS I.2 Yogah - citta - vrtti - nirodhah
Yoga is the cessation of the movements of consciousness.

PYS I.3 Tada drastuh svarupe - avasthanam
Then the Seer dwells in his own state.

When the citta vrittis are stilled and silenced, they can no longer distort the true expression of the soul. Revealed in his own nature, the radiant Seer abides in his own true splendor.

PYS I.4 At other times the Seer appears to identify with the movements in the consciousness.

Yoga or bhoga — why do we exist?
To understand Yoga Sutra I.3, we jump to the final sutra, which states that liberation is the result of the fulfillment of the purusarthas and the transcendence of the gunas. The purusarthas are the fourfold aims of life: duty, wealth, enjoyment, and freedom from worldly pleasure (PYS IV.34). It is our duty, both as young schoolchildren and as yoga beginners, to learn — which requires tremendous discipline. As householders we require wealth, so we must work to support our families and contribute to society. Enjoyment of health and well-being, both in yoga and in our everyday life, is the result of our discipline and work. Liberation is the ultimate aim; overcoming suffering results from the wisdom that comes from our understanding the purpose of life and adhering to yogic discipline.

How does yogic discipline stop the citta vrittis? The citta, consciousness, and its gunas, qualities, exist eternally to serve the Seer, for both bhoga, enjoyment and experience of the everyday world, and liberation through yoga, says Patanjali (PYS II.18). These experiences leave an imprint on our consciousness. We may recall seeing a car that we’d like, or a meeting with an important person. This is how the citta becomes colored by the vrttis of the external world. Sometimes these vrttis are useful in our quest for liberation, sometimes not. For example, although a dependable car is useful to take the children to school or to get to work, cars themselves inconveniently break down and require time and money to repair. This pulls us away from our duties and work.

However, when the intelligence moves inwards, from the periphery of the body towards the core, external involvements lose their capacity for attraction. Then, when influenced by only a trace of rajas, the citta is inclined towards duty, spiritual knowledge, vairagya (detachment) and sovereignty, or the ability to independently accomplish righteous acts, despite impediments. When the citta is purged of rajas and tamas and becomes totally sattvic, the result is the splendor of samadhi. Two things happen to the citta in samadhi. First, citta realizes that it is not the Seer, or the soul (PYS IV.22). Second, citta is attracted by the magnetic pull of the Seer, its source (PYS IV.26). The citta is then no longer attracted to the vrttis and bhoga. It is the citta vritti nirodhah of Yoga Sutra I.2.


Seer and the Seen
To understand Yoga Sutra I.3, one must know that the soul is the Seer. By contrast everything else is the Seen, including the citta. Citta tends to be very rajasic; it moves quickly. Our aim in yoga is to be more sattvic, more reflective. The “Seer’s light reflecting in the mirror” analogy explains the Seer and the Seen:

1. The rays of the Seer’s light shines on the “mirror” of the “inward face” of the buddhi. The Seer’s light is reflected by the buddhi, casting light on the other parts of the citta, allowing them to be “Seen.”

2. Avidya, spiritual ignorance, occurs when the citta then assumes the “mirror” of the buddhi — which is also the Seen — is, itself, the source of the Seer’s light, just as when the mind may mistakenly assume that the moon “shines” instead of reflecting the light of the sun. This avidya is the root cause of all suffering (PYS II.3).

3. A secondary level of confusion also ensues when the “outward face” of the buddhi, that which faces the citta and the senses, and acts as the faculty of discrimination, commingles the citta vrttis with the reflection of the Seer.

In other words, when the citta is involved in the external world, the Seer appears to be identified with the citta vrttis. “Then the Seer dwells in his own state” means that the buddhi realizes that the soul remains unencumbered, alone. The Seer is liberated from its mistaken identification with the citta vrittis and the buddhi, in a state of citta vritti nirodha.


Heart Center — abode of the soul
A less literal, more poetic interpretation of Yoga Sutra I.3 once used by B.K.S. Iyengar of Yoga Sutra I.3 that I find conveys more of an emotional impact is: “Then the soul rests in its original abode.” In this translation, “original” captures the feeling of, and emphasizes, the soul’s natural state, unencumbered by citta. “Rests in its ... abode” complements its unaltered state with the implication that subsequent effort will not be required, as the need to move neither exists any longer nor satisfies any desire since the citta vrittis have been stilled. “Abode” also suggests that its home, too, is a safe and natural haven.

The soul rests in the seat of the heart, but not the physical heart (PYS III.35). That’s why when we do the asanas, we focus on keeping the chest open. The asanas are a means for the buddhi to penetrate, to seek the soul. When we invert, the heart is above, and the head below. The heart dictates the terms, and hence buddhi becomes conscious of the soul, while the citta vrittis of the brain are pacified.


What is not Yoga? Everything else.
The state of consciousness described in Yoga Sutra I.4 offers a contrast to samadhi: As citta becomes involved with, and “colored by,” the perceptions and emotions of everything around it, the vrttis draw the citta away from silence. In this pain and confusion there is a lack of wisdom and it appears as if the soul is agitated, identifying with the citta vrttis.


Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Bolster Adho Mukha Virasana (CF)
a. Insert a crosswise blanket folded in half lengthwise to relieve menstrual cramps both front and back. Asanas relieve cramping more efficiently than the heating pad or remedies because they are more discriminating and sattvic. The remedies cover up the pain but make the mind very dull, tamasic.
b. When the buddhi, the intelligence, is yoked to the Self, the yogini frees herself of the pain of duality. When the body is aligned with the Self, it is skill in action. See Asana — aligning the body with the Self [Thursday 6.30p Intro — Week 6 (April 9, 2009)].

2. Tadasana/Samasthiti

3. Tadasana (Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana)
a. Keep the abdomen and throat back to keep them sattvic, else they will become rajasic, increasing cramping pain.

4. Tadasana (Paschima Baddha Hasta arms)
a. Spread from the sternum to the shoulders and roll open the shoulders. This rajasic action removes the tamasic heaviness and bring lightness and mobility to the chest and spine. This results in greater clarity, making the mind sattvic.
b. Keep the abdomen and throat back to keep them sattvic, else they will become rajasic.

5. Tadasana (Gomukhasana arms)
a. Omitted for lack of time.

6. Virabhadrasana II
a. Swap first prior to Trikonasana to get freedom in hips without the challenge of stiff hamstrings.
b. At Trestler for cramping. Lift up the tamasic trunk by pressing down the arms onto the top barre. Connecting the femur into the socket supports the pelvis and is sattvic. When combined with the legs, firm and rajasically lifting, it spreads the lumbar and makes the mind more sattvic, thus relieving the dullness and rajasic pain at the lower back.

7. Utthita Trikonasana
a. Repeat the actions as above. It charges the legs, making them more rajasic, to support the spine.
b. Elevate the right hand on a brick to charge the spine from the tail bone to the crown of the head.

9. Utthita Parsvakonasana

10. Virabhadrasana I
a. Turning the trunk, do not bend the left knee. Convert tamas to rajas . Using the intelligence, “fill up” the inner back knee to straighten it, then turn the inner calf out. Then strongly, rajasically, lifting the front and back thigh, pull up the entire thigh into the hip socket. Connect it so that, with only sattvic intelligence, you can easily lift the pelvis. This makes a heavy, tamasic, pose lighter, more sattvic. Then the mind becomes more sattvic.
b. Bend the right knee. With Urdhva Hastasana arms, press wrists into the Upper Wall Rope to lift the pubic plate and sternum.
c. Menstrual: Do only for 15 seconds to learn actions.

11. Utkatasana
a. Omitted.

12. Parsvottanasana (hands on chair seat, head on brick on chair seat)
a. Pull right hip back, left hip forward.
b. Lift the skin of the right posterior knee up towards the right buttock bone to move the hamstrings with it.

13. Chair Kurmasana
a. Preparation for Padangusthasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana hip movement.
b. Thighs on chair seat, bend forward from the hips, head on bricks, and hands on floor.

14. Padangusthasana (feet apart)
a. From Chair Kurmasana, hold the big toes and stand up.
b. Keeping the hips flexed, stretch from the back of the knees up to the buttock bones, and take the weight onto the toes.

15. Uttanasana (hands on floor, feet apart)
a. From Chair Kurmasana, after holding the back rung of the chair, hold the big toes and stand up in Padangusthasana.
b. Then put the hands on the floor, stretch from the back of the knees up to the buttock bones, and take the weight to the frontal heel.

16. Adho Mukha Svanasana
a. Hands turned out 90° at wall. Stretch from the back of the knees up to the buttock bones, and stretch the inner armpit towards the hip.

17. Sarvangasana Cycle
a. Wall Ekapada Sarvangasana
Get more on top of the shoulders and walk the feet up the wall. With the left foot on the wall, straighten the right leg vertically towards the ceiling. Then repeat on the other side.

b. Salamba Sarvangasana
Straighten both legs.

c. Chair Karnapidasana
Knees on chair seat.

d. Menstrual: Supta Baddha Konasana

18. Forward Extensions
a. Adho Mukha Swastikasana (forehead on chair seat)
Head on chair seat, hands up holding the arms of the chair. Relieves pressure in the head from Sarvangasana.

b. Paschimottanasana (forehead on chair seat)
Substituted for Paschimottanasana to provide more support and rest. Legs wide apart in Dandasana for greater hip mobility, holding the chair arms to keep the chest open, rest the forehead on the chair seat.

19. Savasana
a. Blanket beneath head.