Saturday 8.30a Asana 1 — Week 40 (October 3, 2009)

Focus: Chakras, koshas and cells taught by Geeta Iyengar in Pune July, 2009.

Discussion: annamaya kosha becomes pranamaya kosha
(See below.)

The fear complex
Geeta Iyengar has often scolded us in class for giving less than our maximum, in effect “protecting” ourselves by reducing our participation during class out of the fear that we may not have sufficient endurance to finish class. This tamasic behavior also crops up during the semi-annual Yoga St. Louis Intensive. The fear often peaks on the third day, when students realize that, although they have already practiced for five hours that week, the intensive “is not over yet.” Upon acceptance of a longer daily practice, their available energy is increased.

1. Invocation in Swastikasana
a. Soft, slow, smooth inhalation. Soft, slow, smooth exhalation. The energy, prana, that you generate through the inhalation and the exhalation should reach even the remote areas of the body. Sit erect to create space, height, width, and depth to drench every area of the body with the breath.

b. From the inner cellular body, you have to keep yourself open because the cells are receptacles that receive that energy.

So let that annamaya kosha [physical sheath] of the body become completely a pranamaya kosha [energetic sheath], as though every cell of the body is receiving that energy.

If the nerve fibers fluctuate anywhere, or get inflated, the energy will get sucked up by those nerve cells. Don’t deflate them, as though the air is taken out from those areas, [else the prana will leak from them].

c. Quietly and silently, lift from the outer body, as the subtle body settles deeper into the core, the inner sheath, where it can remain restful.
[Geeta Iyengar — Pune July, 2009]

2. Upavistha Konasana

3. Parsva Upavistha Konasana

4. Baddha Konasana

5. Utthita Trikonasana
a. “Outer hip, deeper inside. Skin to muscle, and muscle to bone, so that it feels and nourishes that area. Bring it inside.” Outer hips in to stabilize pelvis and lengthen spine, else the pose becomes tamasic.

b. “This muladhara chakra is the base. If the base works, the other things begin to work. You can’t catch the chakras somewhere midway.... You have to know the base of the action. Using the name of a chakra [merely] explains its involvement. We may not use the name of the chakras, “That is muladhara, that is svadhistana, etc.” But I may say, “Move the buttock inside — muladhara. Or say, “Open the pubic bone to the navel — svadisthana. Open the sternum, navel band completely to the sides — manipuraka.”
[Geeta Iyengar — Pune July, 2009]

6. Utthita Parsvakonasana
a. Same actions as above. If breathing is restricted, the right femur has not been brought into the socket enough.

7. Parsvottanasana
a. Head on chair seat.
a. Same actions as Trikonasana

8. Uttanasana
a. Shoulders on blanket on a chair.
b. “Back thighs well open. Make space. You can’t push all the weight onto the hamstrings... Extreme top end of the outer thigh, bring it closer, towards the center... in a pincer action — as if the outer thighs are jamming into the inner edges of the body. And then exhale and take the head down. Don’t allow the muscles to spin out from that region, because it breaks the skin fiber to come out. That’s why it rests on the inner walls of the skin.”
[Geeta Iyengar — Pune July, 2009]

“Stretching” the back thighs connotes an aggressive mechanical action whereas “opening” has a less forceful feel. We hold the breath when “stretching” but tend to breathe normally when “opening.”

9. Savasana