Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama Yoga...at home

In case you don't make it to the end of the post...

Happy New Year

What benefit do you see in adding kumbhaka during intense and difficult asana practice?

I was asked this question yesterday and It's a post I've had planned for sometime, parts of this will be cut and pasted from an earlier draft.

Here's the question in full.

"I'm interested, what is your view on this: most people can't do intermediate series with smooth even breathing, the 'free breathing' Sharath advocates. What benefit do you see, then, in adding kumbhaka? Not just pranayama with kumbhakas, but kumbhakas during intense and difficult asana practice"?

Context: In my previous post this I week I mentioned how having explored Kumbhaka in Ashtanga Primary series over the last year I was now planning on exploring kumbhaka in the Ashtanga 2nd series for this coming year.

Kumbhaka = breath retention, in pranayama they can be long ( mine are average, 20 seconds, long enough to mentally chant the pranayama mantra) but in asana Krishnamacharya seems to be talking of much shorter kumbhaka of between 2-5 seconds, depending on the asana

The question above goes I think to the heart of the matter.

And It's something I've considered.

I used to practice along with Sharath's DVD, the full Ashtanga series in an hour, the inhalation and exhalation are around two seconds for each.

I've practiced with other DVDs, where the practice took a little longer, the time allowed for the inhalation 3-4 seconds, I've been in Led classes with Manju also, where the inhalation and exhalation have been around four seconds each.

Either way, if you want to go through the whole series in less than two hours you have to crack on a bit, the postures keep coming at you, next posture, next posture, bang, bang, bang....

We get used to it of course, practicing on our own we can take it a little more slower, we get fitter, there's more control over the breath, our transitions use up less energy, we become more flexible such that we can ease into the postures more easily, in short, we learn how to conserve energy.

But what happens if you introduce kumbhaka, (breath retention of a couple of second ) into the mix, if we only have the same amount of time available to practice then aren't we're going to have to speed up the inhalation and exhalation once more.

Intermediate series is even more intense than Primary, my friend is right be concerned, do we really want to feed a kumbhaka element into the mix, won't that be dangerous.

It might give us pause to reflect....

Do we have to include a full series in each practice.

It will depend on how much time we have available. Pattabhi Jois suggested that if we have less time available, that we do the Sury's and the last three finishing postures, how much goes in the middle will depend on the time available.

Do we have to move so quickly from one posture to the next?

This is governed by the breath, the movements follow the breath not the other way around. Pattabhi Jois in interviews talked about ten second inhalations and ten second exhalations, even, fifteen, twenty seconds,

So we can move more slowly, we can breath more slowly.

Do we only stay for five breaths in a postures?

In Yoga Mala Patabhi Jois writes for most postures

"...do puraka and rechaka as much as possible".

Pattabhi Jois teaching, notice all those beautifully curved backs, the forehead o the knee for Janu Sirsasana

The first western students mention that in the beginning there were 10 breaths in postures, later 8 before finally coming down to the 5 we currently have in most of the seated postures (this may even be as few as 3 seconds depending on your led class and how much time is made available before moving to the next transition).

So we don't have to rocket through a full series.

We can practice half a series, even a third of a series

We can breath more slowly, long, full, inhalations and exhalations.

We can stay in postures longer.

Practice like this and introducing kumbhaka (breath retention) becomes possible, and remember we're talking short kumbhaka's of generally 2-5 seconds, an extension of the automatic pause between the inhalation and the exhalation and exhalation and inhalation.

Same goes for the Intermediate series, no you wouldn't introduce kumbhaka into your Sharath led intermediate in Mysore but including it in the regular self practice the rest of the week and practicing only half a practice with long slow breathing should be perfectly acceptable.

Except that it's not.

There is no kumbhaka in Current Ashtanga.

I mentioned yesterday that in tweaking the order of the already laid out groupings of asana (Krishnamacharya had already grouped asana into Primary middle and Proficient in his 1941 Mysore book 'Yogasanagalu', the groups closely resembling the current Ashtanga sequences ) Pattabhi Jois seems to have left out Krishnamacharya's use of Kumbhaka.

I put it, perhaps a little too provocatively yesterday,

"Pattabhi Jois seems to have 'tweaked' the order of Primary and Intermediate as well as removing the heart (kumbhaka) from the practice".

I say 'seems to', this is assuming that he was actually taught kumbhaka in asana by Krishnamacharya.

I'd always assumed that Pattabhi Jois had held back the kumbhaka from his teaching, I asked Manju but he was adamant that there was no kumbhaka in asana, that his father didn't practice it and that Krishnamacharay was mistaken.

Now I love and respect Manju, I've taken a week long TT with him in Crete and hope to have the opportunity to do so again but I disagree with him on this, I don't believe it was a mistake.

Kumbhaka is everywhere in Krishnamacharya's first book Yoga Makaranda (1934) we find he went even further in his second book Yogasanagalu (1941) and put it in table form.

In both books we find the Vinyasa Count for each asana

We find instruction for long slow full breathing, 'like the pouring of oil'

We find the breath controlled at the back of the throat

We find practicing inhalation and exhalation as much as possible in a posture

We find long stays in postures suggested

We find bandhas indicated

We find the asana grouped into Primary, Middle and Advanced postures, the order strongly resembling the current Ashtanga series (except perhaps for the Advanced group).

We find the appropriate kumbhaka, whether following the inhalation or the exhalation clearly indicated for the majority of postures

We find all of the above elements in Pattabhi Jois' presentation of Ashtanga, current Ashtanga, except the last one, except for Kumbhaka.

Yes, the breath may have speeded up. Yes, the stays in the postures may have become shorter and yes, the inhalations and exhalations may have become quicker since Pattabhi Jois wrote Yoga Mala in the 1950's but kumbhaka never seems to have been included in Pattabhi Jois' teaching.

Quite the opposite in fact

In Pattabhi Jois' Yoga Mala, for Navasana we find

"The vinyasas that follow have been specified earlier. While coming into the state of this asana, never do kumbhaka, that is, never hold your breath".

Shirsasana

"In addition, the entire body should be kept erect and rechaka and puraka performed deeply, without kumbhaka".

And most explicitly in the section on the surynamaskaras

"Aspirants should know this method, which is best learned from a Guru. They should also note that kumbhaka, or breath retention does not occur either in the Surya Namaskara or the asanas.".

What to make of this. If we follow the lineage we should follow Pattabhi Jois' teaching on this but we have Krishnamacharya's texts, we can go directly to the source and kumbhaka is everywhere in these texts and they were manuals, he wanted us to practice this way, we also know that he continued to include kumbhaka in his later teaching.

Or we can ignore the texts, ignore all mention of kumbhaka and it will be lost.

I don't really know about parampara or lineage, I do know that my teacher Ramaswami studied directly with Krishnamacharya for 33 years and that I was privileged enough to go through Krishnamacharya's works with him line by line in the classroom, vinyasa by vinyasa in the studio.

I know too that Ramaswami continues to teach because he believes that aspects of Krishnamacharya's teaching have been neglected and may end up lost (perhaps he's disappointed that I focus on this aspect of Krishnamacharya rather than on those he himself might stress, perhaps he's bemused too that I continue to explore Ashtanga rather than sticking with Vinyasa krama (for me though they are the same thing)).

I think my research has highlighted that there was no early and late Krishnamacharya, he didn't change (not really) but perhaps how we practice his Ashtanga did. And perhaps that's fine, perhaps Pattabhi Jois was right to take the practice in the direction he did, perhaps he was never taught kumbhaka or neglected this aspect in his own practice and decided to do without it.

However his teacher, someone he revered, who's teaching he insisted he was following, made kumbhaka central to the practice, put it into almost every asana in his first book and then went so far as to put it right there in a table in his second book (written in kanada, Jois' mother tongue).

How clear did he have to make it that this was an essential element of practice. Personally I think the use of bandhas and the control of the breath at the back of the throat, also the drishti makes no real sense without it, it's as if everyone is present at the wedding except the bride.

We know Krishnamacharya continued to teach kumbhaka throughout his life and we have his early books for heavens sake, we have Pattabhi Jois' teacher's books. If Krishnamacharya ever did study and memorise the Yoga Korunta the essence of it is most likely found right there in Yoga Makaranda ( and remember Krishnamacharya supposedly wrote it in the space of a couple of days). We have primary texts, right there, we have what he wanted to communicate about the practice, what he considered most essential, he wanted us to know and practice this stuff.

OK, why do I think kumbhaka is so important, such that I explore it in my practice every morning as well as going on and on about it here (apart from the fact krishnamacharya laid great stress on it)?

What benefit, as my friend asked, is there in adding kumbhaka..?

Kumbhaka....., it's is where it all happens, that moment of stillness between the inhalation and exhalation, the silence, peace, it's timeless, does feel like that sometimes and I'm really only beginning to explore this. It's in the kumbhaka that we can perhaps more fully explore internal drishti, we bring our attention to different chakras, not pretty rainbow chakras but areas of the body that the Rishis of old found most interesting to focus their attention.... or we can visualise effulgence in our hearts, we can float mantras, chant them mentally on the inhalation on the exhalation and then allow them to just be in the space of the kumbhaka.

If your of a religious frame of mind it's probably in the kumbhaka that you find god.

My current thinking, and something I'm really only just beginning to explore (those pretty rainbow chakra books turned me away from the cakra model until quite recently), is that Krishnamacharya was using kumbhaka in asana to focus the citta (awareness) at different cakra's. Or rather that the focus of attention on the cakra happens during kumbhaka but it's the choice of asana that is the focussing lens and directed at a particular cakra. So certain asana would be better than others for focussing awareness (citta) on a particular cakra. Many of the asana descriptions in Yoga Makaranda mention the benefit gained as relating to a particular cakra associated with that asana.

Here's a nice, concise example

38 Gandabherundasana (Figure 4.86, 4.87)

This has 10 vinyasas. The 6th and 7th vinyasas show the asana sthiti. The first picture shows the 6th vinyasa and the second picture shows the 7th. In the 4th vinyasa, come to caturanga dandasana sthiti and in the 5th vinyasa proceed to viparita salabasana sthiti. In the 6th vinyasa, spread the arms out wide, keeping them straight like a stick (like a wire) as shown in the picture. Take the soles of both feet and place them next to the ears such that the heels touch the arms and keep them there.
Next, do the 7th vinyasa as shown in the second picture. This is called supta ganda bherundasana. In this asana sthiti and in the preliminary positions, do equal recaka puraka kumbhaka. Keep the gaze fixed on the midbrow. This must not be forgotten.
Benefit: Goiter, inflammation of the glands of the neck and diseases due to mahodaram will be destroyed. The visuddhi and brahmaguha cakras will function correctly and this will take the mind to the state of savikalpa samadhi. Pregnant women should not do this.

For me, Krishnamacharya made kumbhaka the heart and soul of the practice.

I'm not really religious, not so spiritual perhaps but I find stillness there, the practice makes more sense for me with kumbhaka in it's place.

But perhaps you have a different view, I'm sure you do, on what constitutes the 'heart' of the practice, I'd be interested to hear what you feel it is.

UPDATE
I liked this comment to this post

Anonymous31 December 2013 19:07

Hi Anthony. What I've learned from my teacher in this tradition is that the teaching is not to forcefully hold the breath. No matter the length of time spent at the juncture between what we call inhale vs. exhale, the issue is that it should be like you are still inhaling, or like you are still exhaling. We are "at the top of our breath", still inhaling, yet 'not', exactly. This key being it's 'as if' we are still inhaling (or exhaling, which is a little trickier). This is how the breath remains smooth and steady, like oil pouring, even though it seems the oil is simply a vapour. So perhaps Jois took a strident position, to ensure that no clutching, no forceful holding, is employed as a misunderstanding. Leading to harm in one's system.
Does this make sense as a way to view 'both' stories about breath 'retention'??

UPDATE 2

A friend just sent me these two pages from Simon Borg-Oliver's book. I reviewed Simon's Book on an an earlier post , looking at his 'nine bandhas, yes nine

The nine bandhas (yes Nine) in the APPLIED ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGA of Simon Borg-oliver and Bianca machliss

from The Book is APPLIED ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGA by Simon Borg-Olivier
MSc BAppSc (Physiotherapy) & Bianca Machliss BSc BAppSc (Physiotherapy)

My friend is perhaps concerned that I might corrupt the youth, that someone new to Ashtanga, might listen to some of this and try and introduce kumbhaka into their fledgling Ashtanga practice. She's probably right, as stated above you can't just introduce kumbhaka into a fast paced ashatnga practice, current practice seems to have taken a different trajectory.

You could slow down certain sections though, try it on one or two postures where your breath and heart rate are nice and calm ( Krishnamacharya instructed Ramaswami to take a mini savasana if ever his breath became short or his heart rate fast).

Truth be told, probably not many get to the end of posts like this, my stats are great for jump back and backbend posts but drop through the floor for posts like this. So really, nothing to fear.

Here's a video of what a Krishnamacharya Ashtanga practice might look like with Kumbhaka in it's rightful place. This is just a short section of the two and a half hour practice that pretty much followed the current Ashtanga series but with the instructions for the asana found in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda. It's slow ( it doesn't necessarily have to be THIS slow) and I imagine very few find it watchable to the end let alone wish to practice like this, but perhaps I'm wrong....

Slow might be the new black, remember that 'slow cooking' movement a while back.

In the video I'm on the right practicing a Yoga makaranda inspired Ashtanga, my friend Oscar on the left practicing Vinyasa krama. I really wish we had one of oscar's Ashtanga students practicing current Ashtanga along side us to contrast the three approaches but also show up much of what they have in common. The Video was shot the day after the recent Krishnamacharya workshop I gave at Oscar's Yoga studio, Yoga Centro Victoria, Leon, Spain. I'm hoping to be presenting a similar workshop at Living Yoga Valencia at the end of January (dates to be confirmed. I'll also be teaching three classes at the Yoga Rainbow festival in Turkey at the beginning of May.

When: Sat 1st & Sun 2nd Feb 2014, 10.00am – 6.00pm

Where: ICE, Parkside, Coventry CV1 4NE

“this is an opportunity to get an accurate and detailed exposition of yoga by one of the most knowledgeable specialists in the field”…

About Dr Sjoman

Dr N Sjoman has a PhD in Sanskrit, a Sahitya degree (traditional Indian Pandit degree) and an honorary Doctorate in Yoga from the Japanese Yoga Association.
He is the author of THE YOGA TRADITION OF THE MYSORE PALACE, AN INTRODUCTION TO SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC, YOGA TOUCHSTONE, DEAD BIRDS and recently YOGASUTRACINTAMANI (some of these authored jointly with Sri Dattatreya). The editor of A SOUTH INDIAN TREATISE ON THE KAMA SASTRA, he has also published various articles on Patanjali and other subjects in learned journals as well as various articles on art, both Indian and Western.
He was a student of B K S Iyengar for a number of years and has taught yoga all over the world.
For some of the programme he will be accompanied by one of his long term students Shelly Goldsack and by Ervin Menyhart, senior teacher of vinYoga.

The first day, Saturday, will start with an asana (posture work) workshop, where Dr Sjoman will share his techniques of opening the body, freeing up energy flow and finding more depth in the poses. The lecture that follows in the afternoon will reveal some very interesting findings about the origins, history and philosophy of yoga. A rare opportunity to see the subject in the light of four decades of research by an expert in the field. After a short break Dr Sjoman will introduce some traditional Pranayama techniques – the purpose, methods and benefits of learning to control your breath. The day will close with a satsang, where you can ask Dr Sjoman to explain more closely any yoga related points that interest you.

The second day, Sunday, will also start with a posture workshop, further exploring alignment, energy and depth with Dr Sjoman. Like on Saturday, the content will be adjusted to the group’s needs and abilities. The lecture in the afternoon will focus on the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. The most quoted (and misquoted) work on yoga, here you can hear a detailed analysis and exposition by a Sanskrit scholar and Indian scripture specialist- see the Sutra as they are… Another Pranayama session will follow, this time more linked to the ‘meditative state’ of the mind, exploring the relationship between body and consciousness.

Programme:

Sat 1st Feb:
10.00am-12.00noon – Posture Work Part 1 – Led Asana technique class, with tuition in Dr Sjoman’s ‘opening’ and posture deepening techniques
12.00noon-2.00pm Lunch break
2.00-3.30pm Lecture 1. – Yoga Research Overview – Dr Sjoman’s 40 years of yoga research and practice, the Sanskrit language and the yoga scriptures
4.00-5.30pm – Traditional Pranayama – purpose, techniques and benefits
5.30-6.00pm Questions & Answers / Satsang

Sun 2nd Feb:
10.00am-12.00noon – Posture Work Part 2 – Led Asana Class, with tuition in Dr Sjoman’s ‘opening’ and posture deepening techniques
12.00noon-2.00pm Lunch break
2.00-3.30pm Lecture 2. – The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali – an in-depth look at the origins, the philosophy and the misconceptions surrounding this definitive scripture on yoga
4.00-5.30pm – More on Traditional Pranayama + The Meditative State
5.30-6.00pm Questions & Answers / Satsang

Fees:
Single posture or pranayama workshop – £20
Both posture workshops or pranayama sessions – £35
Single lecture – £25
Two lectures – £45
Satsang – free if you attended the lecture or class, otherwise £10
One full day programme Sat or Sun – £55
Whole two day programme Sat & Sun – £100

Please note that it is best to do this workshop with an empty stomach – have your breakfast before 8.00 am, so you have time to digest it before we start.

Places are limited, and will be allocated on 'first-come-first-served' basis. Full workshop bookings have priority for places.

"Dark Rudra" original on canvas and paper, Norman Sjoman

It happened the usual way things happen for me. I read something curious and then the thought of it grew, generating questions that then fractured and multiplied, interrupting my routines, populating my peripheral vision. I owe this particularly pleasant detour to Canadian painter, writer, yoga teacher and Sanskritist Norman Sjoman who I’m told was living in Argentina at the time I managed to make contact with him. See, I was on a mission to sequester myself (very successful on the isolation end of things) with the books I needed to read for my final comprehensive exam when I re-read Sjoman’s lovely book, The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace, in which he wrote the following:

"I feel that the only possible way of communicating any meaningful sense of justice is through one's personal sense of order, one's aesthetic."

So of course, this seemed an unusual pronouncement to make. I mean, not that the statement itself is hard to understand, but that Sjoman had decided to open his discussion of the hatha yoga traditions of the Mysore Palace with this note to his readers seemed out of the ordinary. What was his concern with the aesthetic?

Norman Sjoman

Norman Sjoman has published on art, art history and the techniques of yoga, and also lectured on these subjects as well as Sanskrit at universities in various countries. Born in Mission City, British Columbia, Sjoman has a BA Honours from the University of British Columbia, a Filosofie Kandidat from Stockholm University. He has a Vidyāvācaspati (PhD) from the Centre of Advanced Studies in Sanskrit at Pune University, a pandit degree from the Mysore Maharaja’s Mahapathasala and a Diploma from Alberta College of Art. Over a 14-year period in India he studied four different śāstras (traditional philosophical disciplines), in Sanskrit, with several individual pandits. From 1970-1976 Sjoman studied yoga under B.K.S. Iyengar. Sjoman has taught yoga in several countries and is accredited by yoga studios in Canada, the Netherlands and Japan. In 1982 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Yoga by the Nippon Yoga Gakkei. At present he resides mainly in Calgary, Canada, while making frequent visits to India,

"Harihara," original on canvas/paper, Norman Sjoman

Europe, Mexico and South America. As a visual artist, Sjoman has illustrated his own books and books by others. He has prepared exhibition catalogues for various artists, including Druvinka, Shehan Madawela, Raghupati Bhatta, and R. Puttaraju. In 2006 Sjoman was invited to the first panel on yoga at the American Academy of Religion in Washington, DC, where he presented a paper entitled Summary of Research on Yoga. In 2006 he presented a monograph "The Yoga Tradition" at India's Lonavla Yoga Institute.

I like to think that like all detours from life’s main roads, this conversation (which is the result of a volley back and forth of questions emailed over great distances) gives you a sense of yoga’s tributaries and alleyways as Sjoman discusses art, poetry and the body in motion...all those things that make the busy pace of the main road that much more bearable. And so using something other than straight lines we build relationships that can sustain more than plans and ambitions: a personal sense of order, a treehouse, an āsana, a fable that happened one day in the backyard.

"Rudra Rajata" original mixed media on canvas, Norman Sjoman

Priya Thomas in Conversation with Norman Sjoman, PhD

"Burnt Rudra" original mixed media on canvas/paper, Norman Sjoman

"I feel that the only possible way of communicating any meaningful sense of justice is through one's personal sense of order, one's aesthetic." - Norman Sjoman

Priya Thomas: Given your quote above, I'd like to talk about your perspective regarding the study of yoga as a discursive enterprise, as a psycho-physical practice and as an aesthetic… knowing full well that you would likely not separate these things. I think readers would be interested to hear your thoughts on the value importance of aesthetics as pertains to yoga, and to hear about your own journey with yoga.

Norman Sjoman: I will try to avoid cheap comments even though the glib answer is endemic to media. I have discussed āsana as a psycho physical practice in Yoga Touchstone and Dead Birds. I will recapitulate some of that. First of all I have proposed dividing āsana into still and moving āsanas there. The idea of still and moving is a concept that dates from the Upaniṣads and describes the world. The word āsana itself means 'still' or 'position' (elaborated in Yoga Touchstone). The Indian term for movement is karma. It accounts for the physical and beyond the physical extending even further than our idea of subconscious (that determines the patterns in our body that limit or control our movement) into previous incarnations. The division of body and mind is artificial and stems from an orientation toward hyper objectivity as part of the metaphysic of scientific discourse and capitalism. We partially recognize this unity in our language with the word ‘emotion’ which literally means out of movement etymologically but we interpret that in terms of fight or flight.

So when we consider yoga, we have to consider the whole psycho-physical apparatus. This has implications beyond the physical – our dreams, our deep sleep states, the dissolution of the body (as happens every night when we go to sleep). In short, the practice of yoga is in reality an exploration of consciousness and this has been indicated from some of the earliest records in Indian thought, particularly in the Upaniṣads and continues almost up to the present in Indian texts.

To turn to art, these states of consciousness are not accessible to the dominating probes of objectivity (we could mention academics and politics here). Therefore, logically, in order to explore them we have to turn to something else – here, art. I think it is clear from the above that in āsana or movement, emotion is often a better means of access than anatomical abuse.

Now, in ancient India there were two forms of truth – satya and ṛta. Satya more or less refers to a form of objective truth and ṛta was something like the truth of the whole moving cosmos. The two do not necessarily correspond and overlap. In the first pāda of the Yogasūtram that occurs after the ability to grasp object and subject (consciousness itself) and discriminate between them; there is the sūtra, ŗtambharā tatra prajñā, literally consciousness or knowledge at that point carries (or is) ŗta, the form of truth that is beyond or the core of objective truth if we accept the above explanations. I might add that ṛta has disappeared as a concept in later Sanskrit. Interestingly enough, this word (ṛta) is the etymological source of our word art. I have traced this in an article in my book Art: the Dark Side. It is usually traced back to Latin which gives an idea of entertainer or street artist. But traced all the way back, we get the sense that the artist is a seer that has access to a higher form of truth. From understanding this, we can extrapolate the attitude we would have to take on the ground.

Regarding justice, Pablo Neruda said there is no justice in this world. The only justice to be found is in painting, in art where some kind of balance or order is necessary for it to be art and, I might add, there is nothing at stake any more. I think the similarities to yoga are obvious.

Priya Thomas: It takes many years I presume of practice before one gets to the point of considering there to be “nothing at stake” anymore with either art or yoga. For many, this would seem like a place they wouldn’t want to exist either....

Norman Sjoman: Perhaps you have misunderstood my comment here. In the case of art, there is a certain confusion that has arisen with the dominance of economic considerations in our lives. Previously one’s life was not governed by financial destiny. One had one’s space on earth and food and living was not under the control of business excess. When you work outside the fantasy of finance, there is nothing at stake. Your art is for itself. Most artists, excluded from financial reward (which is realized by promotion), practice their art because they want to (that is, emotion, above or the fact that they have no choice). We speak of doctors and doctors. Healers are excluded in a similar way. Yoga has been especially prone to financial liquidation because of its popularity and a somewhat pathetic understanding that it is just about some particular configuration of the body. Indian disciplines demand a lifetime of devotion (translate hard work). There is nothing really at stake because the discipline is only about you if you are fortunate enough to understand that.

Priya Thomas: I'm not sure I misunderstood your question about those for whom the notion of "nothing at stake" is anathema to their purpose in making art or doing yoga. I suppose I was in a way saying that for some, extrinsic motivators do seem to overshadow intrinsic ones. Wherever you look there's an artist or a yogi whose motivations are explicitly extrinsic. This, as you say, may pertain to economic considerations. But my point was that extrinsic motivators (i.e. those things that are at stake) continually appear in people's list of reasons for doing yoga or art. Is the intrinsic mode of being something that yoga can develop over what you call a "lifetime of devotion?" Or are artists (and yogis for that matter) necessarily those fish that swim upstream i.e. against the current? Didn't William Faulkner say, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore”?

Norman Sjoman: I have to reread Faulkner. I have quoted him in Dead Birds as well. Our initial impulse to action is often extrinsic. If we are fortunate, our actions though should transform us in the process. Indian Śāstras (traditional philosophical disciplines) all expect that transformation after which they say, the śāstra itself is meaningless.

Priya Thomas: There is a fair amount of emphasis placed on Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra in contemporary postural practice. What do you make of this text occupying a central position in the perception of a canon?

Norman Sjoman: It looks now like my next book will be coming out, the 'Yogasūtraćintāmaṇi' which addresses this issue. This is a book about the much abused yoga sūtras. What I have done is, using the sūtras as a framework, drawn relevant statements from Indian scholars and yogins of a thousand years earlier - Upaniṣads, Buddhism and so on. These indicate a much older tradition than the yoga sūtras including the spiritual anatomy that is usually credited to the later śāktas. In addition to that I have gone ahead into the tantric and śaiva texts that were created in the thousand years following Patañjali and supply their comments and critiques as well. This enables us to see the yoga tradition as a tradition and place the yoga sutras within that rather than using them as the beginning and end of what is known as yoga. Taking the tradition as a whole enables us to understand this as a spiritual discipline directly relevant to ourselves rather than as some symbol system or mechanical system of authority. I could say more but I restrain myself.

Priya Thomas: You spoke earlier about the word emotion and its etymological relationship to movement. How would you describe yoga's relationship to emotion?

Norman Sjoman: Everyone who practices āsanas seriously has experienced the resolution of an emotional complex connected with a physical or anatomical release or access to movement and vice versa. I have spoke about that in detail in Dead Birds. Indeed, ‘attitude’ is often ultimately more important in the accomplishment of movement than physical preparation. Physical preparation tends to remain in a part of consciousness that is limited by a certain anatomical logic that might give some mechanical access in movement. Anatomy can be considered an ocean but it has boundaries. Emotion gives access to possibilities. In Indian terms, that word can be covered by the word ‘heart’. That adds a different perspective.

Priya Thomas: When did you first get interested in yoga?

Norman Sjoman: I began trying to work with Yoga in Sweden from a book. I heard the word Sanskrit there as well and, when I heard it, I knew that I would study that and began to do so. I did not even know it was an Indian language then. I have felt that the two complement one another. After all, they are both about concentration.

Priya Thomas: What book did you find that guided you to practice yoga in Sweden?

Norman Sjoman: The first book I found was one by Ghosh. I have never been able to find that book

again. Then I took some classes with a young French boy who had been in a car accident and had
BKS Iyengar
been severely injured. He had a Chinese physiotherapist who noticed that his movements were similar to yoga and worked with him with yoga. Then I found Iyengar’s book onāsanas. I went to Pune to study Sanskrit and found that Iyengar was there. I went to him for years.

Priya Thomas: Describe your art practice.

Norman Sjoman: I have always been interested in art even as a child. Now, I like to have a number of things in front of me. I dabble with them. With good fortune, one of them will take me and then I work on that exclusively until I am finished. Then I hang around and wait for something else to take me.

Priya Thomas: Why do you think there’s justice in art? Or in yoga?

"Language Mandala," mixed media on canvas/paper, Norman Sjoman

Norman Sjoman: Art requires a certain ‘balance’. That balance is a form of honesty. It’s easy to be tricked or attracted by an extraneous symbol – a flesh flash for example. Yoga, even at a physical level, begrudges absence of balance and alignment. How much more so with the mind? With the breath? With meditation? You can perceive a quiet mind directly.

Priya Thomas: Do you take movement to be a form of art? What constitutes art for you?

Norman Sjoman: I am constrained by the way you put your question. I would consider that movement which rises to ‘art’ (ṛta above) is movement that is part of the space around you pervaded or even formed by your own consciousness. And there is movement that is a fragmentation of that and does not rise to that state. There is a long argument in Indian aesthetics about the conveyance of this state to the spectator and the state of mind of the participant. There are different opinions. It is generally accepted that there is a stimulation of emotions in the spectator that rise up until they transcend the ego fettered mind and become a direct temporary experience of transcendence. The proof of that in Indian thought is the statement we make ‘I was lost in the music and I did not know a thing’. It’s not uncommon. One cannot expect anything less of art. I hope that is revealed in the photographs in Yoga Touchstone.

Priya Thomas: Can you describe the state of mind that arises in making/performing art? Is it akin to a kind of possession? Is it an experience of svarga (loosely translated, a temporary “heaven”)? Is it pratyakṣa (insight) – what is it?

Norman Sjoman: What more is there to say than above? Wallace Stevens has spoken eloquently in this excerpt of “The Man with the Blue Guitar:”

The Man With the Blue Guitar
I.
The man bent over his guitar,  A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, “You have a blue guitar,  You do not play things as they are.”
The man replied, “Things as they are  Are changed upon the blue guitar.”
And they said then, “But play, you must,  A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar  Of things exactly as they are.”

II
I cannot bring a world quite round,  Although I patch it as I can.
I sing a hero’s head, large eye  And bearded bronze, but not a man,
Although I patch him as I can  And reach through him almost to man.
If to serenade almost to man  Is to miss, by that, things as they are,
Say that it is the serenade  Of a man that plays a blue guitar.

III
Ah, but to play man number one,  To drive the dagger in his heart,
To lay his brain upon the board  And pick the acrid colors out,
To nail his thought across the door,  Its wings spread wide to rain and snow,
To strike his living hi and ho,  To tick it, tock it, turn it true,
To bang it from a savage blue,  Jangling the metal of the strings…

IV
So that’s life, then: things are they are?  It picks its way on the blue guitar.
A million people on one string?  And all their manner in the thing,
And all their manner, right and wrong,  And all their manner, weak and strong?
And that’s life, then: things as they are,  This buzzing of the blue guitar.

V
Do not speak to us of the greatness of poetry,  Of the torches wisping in the underground,
Of the structure of vaults upon a point of light.  There are no shadows in our sun,
Day is desire and night is sleep.  There are no shadows anywhere.
The earth, for us, is flat and bare.  There are no shadows. Poetry
Exceeding music must take the place  Of empty heaven and its hymns,
Ourselves in poetry must take their place,  Even in the chattering of your guitar.

VI
A tune beyond us as we are,  Yet nothing changed by the blue guitar;
Ourselves in the tune as if in space,  Yet nothing changed, except the place
Of things as they are and only the place  As you play them, on the blue guitar,
Placed so, beyond the compass of change,  Perceived in a final atmosphere;
For a moment final, in the way  The thinking of art seems final when
The thinking of god is smoky dew.  The tune is space. The blue guitar
Becomes the place of things as they are,  A composing of senses of the guitar.

"Rudra Whispers," original mixed media on canvas, Norman Sjoman

"Tree of Life," original mixed media on canvas, Norman Sjoman

The blue guitar refuses to compose “things as they are,” composing instead beyond them... not unlike an āsana, creating an aesthetic order both emotionally moving and utterly transformative. As Sjoman reminds us, the word emotion means out of movement. As any yogi hell bent on their physical postures knows, movement, so closely linked to order, is also linked to emotion... Who hasn’t had that moment in a yoga class when you could identify a physical location that had become the residence for a particularly stubborn memory? Those in seated meditation will tell you the same, pointing with kinetic precision to the locations of their emotional turbines and the eruptions of anxiety that are regularly diffused, carried by breath into the delicate passages of their wrists or the soles of the feet.

As summer approaches, even those who have no interest in yoga slip into circles around campfires, skip stones on oceans and circumambulate foreign cities, collaborating with other bodies as if these compositional forms of breath and movement, these poses, were hardwired into being... as if the movements of the night sky and its fireflies, or even the simulated flickering of the aurora borealis on my screensaver were but choreographic variations on a deeper theme, an infinitely flexible, more mutable order whose essence is perpetual motion.

All of Norman Sjoman's books are available to purchase online through Black Lotus Books.

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ABOUT VINYOGA COVENTRY

Here at Yoga Coventry you will find:

- basic introduction to yoga and its history
- specific details of vinYoga krama, Ashtanga Yoga and other dynamic styles
- guidance on how to get started in learning yoga
- details of yoga classes in Coventry
- yoga workshops and teacher training
and much more.

vinYoga general approach

In provision of yoga Coventry is rapidly growing and evolving, in various forms, through many different methods. Like in most western countries, most studios, yoga schools and classes are almost entirely focused on posture practice, primarily as a form of exercise. The vinYoga methodology is also initiated by posture and movement work, and benefits from the wholesome exercise it provides, but also helps to access further, internal dimensions through self observation. There can be a lot more to yoga than just postures – if practiced with attention and commitment, yoga can have a great liberating power, helping to bring about harmony of body, mind, the emotional and intuitive self.
The posture and movement work is explored, developed and shared in various formats, some more and some less aligned to the Ashtanga Vinyasa method that originated in Mysore, South India. Because of the many benefits they can offer, it is important to open up dynamic yoga forms to a broader audience. To provide this broader access, some lighter practice structures have been developed, modified postures and techniques are employed to suit beginners. In a way vinYoga krama combines Ashtanga Yoga with Vinyasa Krama (krama means method here).
In terms of theory and philosophy the vinYoga approach takes a pragmatic look at concepts from the ‘eight fold path’ described in scriptures such as the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. The methodology is currently laid out along three major practice streams, shown below:

Our three major streams of practice are:

vinYoga krama, or vinyasa based yoga

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, based on the Mysore school of Ashtanga Yoga

Sva Yoga Individual Learning, Private Tuition

The vinYoga composite name indicates a learning and teaching methodology, offeringyoga classes, yoga workshops, personal tuitionand teacher training in Coventry, Leamington Spa, Kenilworth and the wider Warwickshire and West Midlands area. Activities are also developing UK-wide and internationally – workshops and teacher training events in Hungary, more planned for Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland…

The vinYoga krama (method) is not a mainstream, money-led, commercial operation, nor is it aimed to guide any one toward any ‘spiritual enlightenment’. The primary purpose here is to learn, improve and share, through intelligent practice of yoga, for the benefit of all those who come to us.

New Vinyasa Krama Practice Manual with ca lear Matthew Sweeney style layout LOOK INSIDE

BOOKS

We're all Yogi's - Yoga for the Three Stages of Life - how to practice Vinyasa Krama from Ramaswami's Sept 2009 Newsletter

Behind the scenes - Giving a Krishnamacharya Yoga Workshop in Leon

2013 A year in posts - picking out my favourite posts.

Discussion of the rediscovered article Yoga and Therapy by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Also next years practice, Kumbhaka in 2nd series.

Exploring Kumbhaka ( breath retention) in Krishnamacharya's Intermediate 'series' inc. Practice Sheets primary- 2nd series

Did Sri K. Pattabhi Jois leave out the 'heart' of the practice? Or does it's heart lie elsewhere.

MUCHUKUNDA - January 2014 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami

Kumbhaka, some of the science - Simon Borg Oliver and Shandor Remete

Sharath's Advanced A Ashtanga - Full Movie Chile in 1999. No edits or retakes

Manju on Warrior Stance in Ashtanga and a Shandor Remete Shadow yoga article

Sharath - Practice

Bringing my Krishnamacharya workshop to Living Yoga Valencia. Spain 24th-26th January 2014

Param Yoga Spam

'Runways' posters have arrived over at SBP

REVIEW: Men's Yoga Wear ( shorts)

mojo short

prana JD short

The marvellous Sayaka Yamamoto

An email about age - "when and how ashtanga yoga practise needs to be modified?"

My Vinyasa Yoga Practice book NOW in print - Video flick through

Be a New You in the New Year.

BOGO’s Here! Buy 1 Get 1 Half Off

Save 10% off 20 or more books

An Exposition of Yoga with Dr N. Sjoman - Workshop Coventry, UK. Feb 1st/2nd

An Exposition of Yoga with Dr N. Sjoman