Thursday 9.30a Asana I — Week 34 (October 22, 2009)

Focus: Focus: Review and consolidate standings from Week 14 syllabus, with an emphasis on Virabhadrasana III, hip and shoulder blade actions. Keep the brain cells passive, quiet, and innocent while “intelligizing” the body to purge its tamasic ignorance, as taught by Geeta Iyengar in Pune July, 2009. See Tuesday 6.30p Intro — Week 34 (October 20, 2009) for details.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.14, 17; What is Yoga Practice?
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras set the time frame and commitment necessary to reach enlightenment: According to Patanjali, “When continued for a long time over the span of one’s life and practiced without interruption in a devoted way, with earnestness, attention, knowledge and devotion, the practice becomes firmly established. In other words, practice is not easily overpowered by agitations.” [PYS I.14]

This ultimately leads to samadhi, as Patanjali describes several sutras later: “Abhyasa and vairagya (practice and detachment) develop four types of samprajnata samadhi: self analysis (vitarka), synthesis (vicara), bliss (ananda), and the experience of pure being (asmitarupa).” [PYS I.17]

BKS Iyengar characterizes yogasana as the “arrow” and describes the soul as the “target,” the destination. The stages of samadhi are the map that lead towards that destination. The path is called nivrtti marga, “absence-of-agitations path” because “samadhi is citta vrtti nirodha (cessation of the agitations of the mind).” [Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.2] Thus, stopping the vrttis — the agitations, fluctuations, or oscillations — of the mind is the purpose of samadhi.

Although the stages of samadhi progress from lower to a higher stages, BKS Iyengar’s concepts apply to every stage of yoga sadhana, practice. The concepts that takes the practitioner from the periphery towards the source, the path of nivrtti marga, are:

1. vrtti nirodha, from less stable towards more stable (asthira -> sthira)
2. from the effect to the cause (karmaphala -> karma), from the known to the unknown
3. from gross to subtle (sthula -> suksma), from external towards internal
4. from tamas and rajas towards sattva

These concepts, drawn from Patanjali and the tradition of Samkhya philosophy, are applied to asana and pranayama practice. Asana can be taught; meditation cannot, BKS Iyengar reasons.

1. Invocation in Swastikasana
a. Geeta Iyengar, 7-4-09 quotes.

2. Tadasana/Samasthiti
a. Paschima Baddhanguliyasana arms to take the shoulder blades down towards the tail bone and lift the sternum chest.

3. Tadasana - Urdhva Hastasana - Uttanasana (10 X)

4. Utthita Trikonasana (2 X)

5. Utthita Parsvakonasana

6. Ardha Chandrasana

7. Parsvottanasana

8. Virabhadrasana I

9. Virabhadrasana II

10. Virabhadrasana III

11. Parivrtta Trikonasana

12. Parivrtta Parsvakonasana
a. Omitted for time.

13. Prasarita Padottanasana

14. Uttanasana
a. Baddha Hasta arms
b. Concave
c. Extended, holding ankles
d. Hands on floor

15. Adho Mukha Svanasana
a. Omitted for time.

16. Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

17. Paripurna Navasana

18. Virasana (Parvatasana arms)
a. Omitted for time and emphasis.

19. Sitting poses
a. Omitted for time and emphasis.

20. Salamba Sirsasana I

21. Sarvangasana Cycle
a. Salamba Sarvangasana I
Geeta Iyengar, 7-20-09 quotes.

b. Ekapada Sarvangasana
Geeta Iyengar, 7-20-09 quotes.

c. Parsvaikapada Sarvangasana
Geeta Iyengar, 7-20-09 quotes.

d. Halasana
Feet on chair seat.

e. Chair Karnapidasana
Omitted for time.

22. Supta Padangusthasana I
a. Omitted for time.

23. Forward Extensions
a. Omitted for time.
Dandasana
Urdhva Hasta Dandasana
Padangusthasana Dandasana
Paschimottanasana
Janu Sirsasana
Paschimottanasana

24. Savasana (5 min)
Geeta Iyengar, 7-20-09 quotes.