Thursday 9.30a Asana I — Week 31 (October 1, 2009)

Focus: “Bodification” of the breath” taught by Geeta and Prashant Iyengar in Pune July, 2009.

Discussion: By the body - working from the root

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. a. “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]

b. Utthita Trikonasana
“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.

c. Uttanasana
“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.”

“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.”

3. Upavistha Konasana

4. Parsva Upavistha Konasana
a. By the breath for the mind: Coordinate the length of the exhalation to match the amount of time it takes the hand to reach and hold the foot. To relieve the fear, reach and hold more quickly.
b. By the breath for the body: At the termination of exhalation, there is a slight bahya, pause. Extend into that vastness, ananta. It brings space in the body as well as the mind.

5. Baddha Konasana
a. Reinforce the spine by lifting the inner buttock bones and pelvic floor.

6. Ujjayi I in Supported Savasana
a. Breath awareness

7. Ujjayi III
a. Slightly longer exhalation towards the infinite vastness within.
b. If you only labor with your body, you will be weaned away from the culture of yoga. So become breath aware. Settle down to orbital breathing between the anterior and posterior body. A few clockwise cycles then counterclockwise cycles in an oval shape without any dents. Don’t jerk the body. Orbits have to have an artistic beauty.
c. Make the orbit of the breath larger and larger, like S-M-L-XL. Then reverse the orbit, making it smaller and smaller. Sustained progression.
d. “The breath should become muscle, skin, bones, tissue, cells, fibers through the “bodification” of the breath.”
[Prashant Iyengar — Pune July, 2009]

8. Anuloma Ia
a. Exhale with both nostrils partially closed. Feel the vibration of the breath on the finger tips.