10 Hand Mudras. Also, Pranayama mudras.

January 10, 2014, 3:12 pm

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One of the major elements of Manju's TT workshop at Kristina's shala in Rethymno, Crete last August, was the adjustment/assist sessions. The groups would switch and change as would those who had taken the course a year or two before and were supervising us, Manju would work the room moving from group to group. 

I remember distinctly the first time I was  adjusted by Areti Karantzikou she had/has the most elegant and graceful of adjustments, she would somehow guide you into  better alignment with the lightest of touches and, for a moment at least, you'd feel as light as a dancer in the posture. 

My own adjustments always seemed clumsy, not just in comparison but in general.

Throughout the week I would occasionally search out Areti and try and catch her adjusting, often though I would catch her in a posture being adjusted herself and I began to notice something about her hands, particularly in binds, the marichi's for example..... was that mudra? 

Not only was she effortlessly binding Mari D but she was binding with a mudra. 

I finally got around to asking her about it.

USING THE MUDRAS IN YOUR PRACTICE

I asked my friend Areti how she's exploring these mudras in her practice

"Yes, I  do mudras with some asanas.... it is something that am working on! It's part of my studies in acupuncture and Chinese medicine. I'm research the relationship between  mudras, meridians(nadis) and asanas.

It is something that I've been doing from the very early on, even before I'd been introduced to Ashtanga, and was practising a different style of yoga. I have the feeling that it came out spontaneously, I don't remember reading about it or anything like that.

It was around 7-8 years ago when I did some Bharata Natyam lessons (Indian dance) that I began to understand the deeper meaning of the mudras and their effect on the body, mind and emotions.

Some information: (but it's something that I like to do... not a general rule...)

The last few years I've tended to practise the 10 hasta mudras + some more, separately (after pranayama, before meditation , holding each and every one of them for 5-8 ujjayi breaths).

When I want to work a specific mudra, I keep it for 10 min.

Also when I do pranayama I perform kechari mudra every time I do kumbhaka.

With asanas: in standing postures, every time I return to samastitihi I prefer to do anjali mudra..it gives me a sense of gratitude and devotion.

In sitting postures (most of the forward bendings, marichyasanas, supta kurmasana, setu bandhasana and urdhva padmasana)  the chin mudra comes out

But sometimes, if I want to increase my energy or to deal with a specific problem I choose another mudra more related to my task".

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This is a post, along with the picture above that I came across recently that Areti had posted on fb.

* Please Note: While doing Mudras the free fingers have to be kept straight.
The 10 Hand posture are explained individually below.

1. Gyan Mudra or the Mudra of Knowledge

Method: Touch the tip of the thumb and the tip of the index or 1st finger together.The other 3 fingers have to be kept straight as shown in the picture.

Benefits:
A. It helps in meditation and concentration and reduces negativity of the mind.
B. It improves memory and with regular practice students can improve grades and intelligence.
C. It aids in alleviating headache, insomnia and hypertension and reduces anger.
Note: For better results do Prana Mudra after this Mudra


2. Vayu Mudra or Mudra of Air

In this Mudra, the tip of the index or 1st finger is touched to the base of the thumb and the thumb comes over the finger with a slight pressure of the thumb being exerted. Rest of the fingers remain straight as in the picture.

Benefits:
A. By the practice of this mudra, all vayu ,that is, air related affections, like Arthritis,Gout, Sciatica,Knee pain,and Gas are relieved. It especially benefits in neck pain and spinal pain.


3. Shoonya Mudra or The Mudra of Emptiness

The tip of the middle finger is put at the base of the thumb and the thumb comes over the finger with slight pressure of the thumb being exerted on the finger as shown in the picture. The other 3 fingers are kept straight.

Benefits:
A. Regular practice of this Mudra helps in reducing ear pain and watering from the ears.
B. If this Mudra is done for 1 hour daily it can benefit in hardness of hearing .
C.The bones become strong and is beneficial in heart disease .
D. It strengthens gums and is helpful in throat problems and thyroid disease.
Precautions: This hand posture should never be done while eating or walking.


4. Prithvi Mudra or the Mudra of Earth

In this Mudra the tips of the thumb and the ring finger are touched together as in the picture. Rest of the fingers are kept straight. Benefits:
A. Regular practice of this Mudra, is helpful in body weakness, thinness and also obesity
B. It improves the functioning of the digestive system and reduces the defiency of vitamins.
C. It gives energy and lustre to the body.


5. Prana Mudra or the Mudra of Life

In this Mudra the tips of the thumb,ring finger and the little finger are touched together while keeping the other 2 fingers straight.
Benefits:
A. It awakens the dormant power of prana gives energy,health . It is beneficial in diseases of the eye and improves eyesight, raises body resistance to disease, reduces deficiency of vitamins, removes tiredness.
B.During fasting it reduces hunger pangs and thirst.
C.In insomnia, doing this hand posture, along with Gyan Mudra, helps in bringing on sleep.


6. Apan Mudra or the Mudra of Digestion

This mudra is made by joining the tips of the thumb, the middle finger and the ring finger keeping the other fingers straight. Benefits: A. Toxins are removed from the body and the body becomes pure. It also relieves constipation, piles, diseases caused by vayu or air, is helpful in diabetes, stoppage of urine,kidney defects and dental problems.
B. It is beneficial in stomach and heart diseases and brings out perspiration.
Please Note: It increases the flow of urine.

7. Apan Vayu Mudra or the Mudra of Heart.

This Mudra is a combination of Vayu Mudra and Apan Mudra. The tips of the thumbs,the middle finger and the ring finger touch each other while the index finger touches the base of the thumbwith a slight pressure. The little finger remains straight.
Benefits:
IT gives the benefit of Apan Mudra and Vayu Mudra as explained earlier.
A. It is helpful in Heart and Vayu diseases and gives health. People with a weak heart should do it daily. It is very beneficial to people who have just had a heart attack.
B. It removes gas from the stomach,aids in asthma,headache and high blood pressure.
C. If it is done 5 to 7 minutes before climbing stairs,it aids in easy climbing.

8. Surya Mudra or Mudra of the Sun

This Mudra is done by touching the tip of the ring finger to the base of the thumb and exerting pressure on the finger with the thumb as in the picture.
Benefits: A. It balances the body,reduces body weight and obesity. It increases body heat and helps in digestion.
B.It reduces hypertension and cholesterol and builds strength.
C.It is beneficial in diabetes and liver defects.


Precautions: Weak persons should not do this hand posture and DO NOT do this hand posture for a long time in hot weather.

9. Varun Mudra or Mudra of Water

This Mudra is made by touching the tips of the thumb and the little finger.
Benefits
A. It reduces dryness of the skin and improves skin lustre and softness.
B It is useful in Skin diseases ,acne and blood defects . It improves facial beauty.
Precautions :Persons suffering from Asthma and respiratory problems should do this Mudra for a short duration only.


10. Ling Mudra or the Mudra of Heat

Close the fist as in the picture.Keep the left hand thumb straight and the rest of the fingers clasped as shown in the picture.
Benefits
A. This mudra increases heat in the body and can cause sweating even in winter if done for a long time.
B. It helps in cold, coryza, asthma, cough, sinus problems and low blood pressure.
C. It dries phlegm.
Precautions : When doing this Mudra please increase intake of water, fruit, fruit juices,clarified butter (Ghee) and milk.
DO NOT do this hand posture for a long duration.


# Concluding Remarks : These are the 10 Hast Mudras which if done regularly, for the prescribed duration and following the outlined precautions will be extremely beneficial to ones health.

Source: Aseem Batra


Areti mentions chin mudra, it's one we're more familiar with perhaps

Chin Mudra (psychic gesture of consciousness) This mudra is used in either seated meditation or pranayama such as ujjayi. The hands rest on knees or thighs facing down. This Gesture has a grounding effect on the mind.The middle finger, ring, and little finger represent the three classic qualities of all of nature (the Three Gunas). The middle finger symbolizes sattva, (purity, wisdom and true understanding) the ring finger rajas, (action, passion and movement) and the little finger tamas, (inertia, lethargy and darkness). Classically the yogi is meant to transcend these states, progressing from darkness into light and from ignorance to wisdom.

Chin Mudra

While looking for a similar treatment with a nice graphic for the chin mudra  I came across this post by Bruce Bowditch.

Mudras for Pranayama

Mudra is a Sanskrit word that translates to “attitude” or “symbolic gesture”. There are many mudras associated with yoga. Those mentioned here are meant to effect the subtle, energetic body and are primarily used during pranayama practice. Their energetic effects also work on a subtle level of the mind and attitude.

(Color illustration by Laramie Sasseville)

With this writing we are referring to mudra as hand gesture, yet any specific position of the body can also be considered a mudra if the intention is to influence the mind /body connection on an energetic level. Mudras are part of a system in meditation whereby energetic circuits within the network of “nadis” are linked to enhance pranic flow (see kundalini shakti and pranayama).

We’ll be discussing a few key mudras here and how they influence and enhance pranic flow during pranayama or meditation.

*Mudras should be held in a relaxed way without tension.

Vishnu Mudra (hand gesture of Lord Vishnu) This is one of the hand gestures used to alternate the breath through the nostrils during Nadi Shodana (see pranayama). In this mudra the right hand is used as it is associated with giving while the left is associated with receiving. However if for whatever reason you need to use your left hand during practice that is fine. The thumb and fingers rest lightly just above the nostrils so very little movement is needed to close each side during practice.

 Vishnu Mudra

Chin Mudra (psychic gesture of consciousness) This mudra is used in either seated meditation or pranayama such as ujjayi. The hands rest on knees or thighs facing down. This Gesture has a grounding effect on the mind.The middle finger, ring, and little finger represent the three classic qualities of all of nature (the Three Gunas). The middle finger symbolizes sattva, (purity, wisdom and true understanding) the ring finger rajas, (action, passion and movement) and the little finger tamas, (inertia, lethargy and darkness). Classically the yogi is meant to transcend these states, progressing from darkness into light and from ignorance to wisdom.

Chin Mudra

Jnana Mudra (psychic gesture of knowledge) In Jnana mudra the hands are placed on the knees in seated meditation with the palms facing up. This mudra gives a feeling of spaciousness and has a subtle uplifting effect on the body and mind. In both Chin and Jnana mudra the connection made by the thumb and index figure is said to create a kind of circuit by connecting the terminus of certain nadi thus re-circulating the body’s vital energy.

Jnana Mudra

Chinmaya Mudra (gesture of awareness) This mudra is said to influence the prana in the thoracic area of the body.

Chinmaya mudra

Aadi Mudra (primal or first gesture ) This mudra is made by curling the fingers around the thumb making a very light fist. It has a soothing influence on the mind and is said to positively influence breathing. Aadi mudra can be very useful in savasana at the end of asana practice to quiet the nervous system.

Aadi Mudra

Brahma Mudra (gesture of all-pervading consciousness) This mudra is done and the fingers wrapped around the thumbs and the knuckles of both hands pressed together. The hands are then lightly pressed against the pubic bone. Brahma mudra helps to stimulate a full breath in pranayama practice.

Brahma Mudra

Bhairava and Bhairavi Mudra (fierceaspect of Shiva and Shakti) When the right hand is placed on top it is the Shiva aspect, Bhairava. When the left is on top it is Bhairavi, the Shakti aspect; consciousness and manifestation.

Bhairavi Mudra

Prana Vayu Mudras (vital air gestures, not pictured) In the science of Ayurveda the qualities of the “five elements” or pancha bhutas of earth, water, fire, air and ether are connected to and represented by prana vayus (see The Five Pranas and Chakras). These energies are symbolized by the five fingers of the hand; the thumb represents fire, the index finger is air, the middle finger is ether and the ring finger is earth while the little finger is water.

The following five mudras are thought to directly influence the “five vital airs” or prana vayus in the physical body. With each mudra, the corresponding vayu is believed to be stimulated and bring a unifying effect to the various pranas.

Prana Mudra- Tips of middle and ring finger touch the tip of the thumb.

Apana Mudra-Tips of the index and middle finger touch the tip of the thumb.

Samana Mudra- Tips of the ring and little finger touch the tip of the thumb.

Udana Mudra-Tips of the index, middle, ring and little finger touch the tip of the thumb.

Vyana Mudra-Tips of index, middle, ring and little finger touch the tip of the thumb. (same as Udana)

Any of these mudras can be done during meditation with the mind fixed on the particular area of the body were the corresponding vayu is meant to reside. Bringing our conscious awareness to specific areas of the body helps direct the prana.

(Line drawings copyright 2009 Bruce Bowditch)

References-Prana, Pranayama, Prana Vidya by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

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GUEST POST: Finally Achieved full lotus - Khoi Kevin Pham

January 12, 2014, 9:55 am

≫ Next: Did Pattabhi Jois' teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series, if so where is it?

≪ Previous: 10 Hand Mudras. Also, Pranayama mudras.

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I noticed an update on fb from a friend who has recently found himself able to get into full lotus.

"New resolution for this year: being completely comfortable in full lotus pose. It took quite a long time but it just happened with yesterday morning practice, sooner than expected actually".

This is a challenging asana for many and I know it can often feel disheartening but we can't rush it or we'll damage our knees, so hard to be patient sometimes. What we can do is work on the external rotation of our hips, focus on Janu sirsasana and the konasana's but especially make the most of the standing sequence, everything happens in the standing sequence, we should never feel it's something to get over and done with so we can move on to the 'real asana', the standing sequence is as real as it gets......

I thought a 'success' story might be welcome and asked Khoi Kevin Pham if he would say something more about the process of working towards padmasana, how long it took etc. Here's his generous response.

It's there but not there yet  It takes quite some preparation to carefully get into the pose then once in it's not fully comfortable yet... Need more practice 


I wish that I kept a good blog about this journey like you do so well. Everyone's body is different so I can only speak for my case.

One year and half ago, my hips, thighs and hamstrings were pretty tight: when in half lotus, my knee pointed up to the ceiling and was at least 16 inches off the floor such that some friends look at it and call the situation "pathetic"

In the first year or so I struggled with sharp knees pain, limping, tried different techniques, frustrated, disappointed, stop/start/skip, going around in circle and moving nowhere ...

Chuck Miller probably said it the best

"there are is good hard work and there is stupid hard work" 

...and my first year can be categorized as the latter  That being said, I would not disregard as wasted because it triggered for a drastic change on how I had been approaching it that finally led to about 6 months ago a sort of "breakthrough" where I don't feel any pain after the practice, uncomfortable during practice yes but no pain after and that is so so nice

I would say many factors contributed to it:

1) it takes time and practice to finally understand the theory learned and advise gathered from various sources, what works and what does not for me

2) come into realization that no one else understands my body better then myself because some day's  it's  my outer thighs that I need to work on and other day it's the opposite inner thighs that I need to relax

3) develop more awareness on what I'm doing and what I'm feeling

4) learn to let go and let go of any time frame attachment and simply enjoy the practice

5) the body was being transformed so the process takes time and patience. I didn't even bother trying to put myself into full lotus everyday; once in the blue moon, I would try it to see... then it happened a few days ago to my surprise, where I can feel some degree of easiness and relaxation while in the pose

I would say that once one sorts out whatever tightness/blockage remaining in the lotus pose and along with the breathing, one should feel like Patanjali said asana is "steady and comfortable posture".

UPDATE

Oh and this too on the same theme from Maya over at her blog Mayaland Feb2011

Anyway.  Now we turn to other fast breaking yoga news, namely this: I have, finally, at long last, gotten into a FULL LOTUS.  Not since I was seven and made entirely of rubber has this been possible.

Obviously, this is not a nice tight, pretty padmasana.  It’s a kind of scrunched, barely there, knee-doesn’t-like-it padmasana.  That right foot is just about to be sucked under, haha.  But that’s okay.  Just the fact that that left foot can get up on the thigh at all is so exciting, evidence thatchange is occurring, even at glacial speed (I’ve been at this a year and a half now).  Woo hoo!

When I started, not even half-lotus was possible.  Lifting either foot off the floor was excruciating in the knees.  Any kind of lotus at all seemed ridiculously unattainable.  But here I am.

Give it another year and lotus might go from possible to even actually enjoyable.   Hey.  It could happen.  And my hamstring will be perfect, and I’ll be able to hold Navasana without sinking like the Titanic, and there could be world peace, and free chocolate at the chocolate store—

UPDATE II

So now lotus is possible....what about baddha padmasana?

Here's a post of mine from very early on the blog, August 2008, back when I wrote short posts..... it's so old I even apologise for not wearing a shirt.
The post is on the theme of achieving things that you may have been working on for some time.

Does everything else suffer by focusing on the jump back? EG. Baddha Padmasana

I've thought about posting this for the last couple of weeks but didn't want to risk jinxing it. I've noticed that while I've been focusing on the jump back and this blog, everything else has just started coming together by itself. Marichiyasana C has become easy, D has become closer ( P.S. Just nailed my first Marichiyasana D couple of days after this post, left side only so far). Upavishta konasana has appeared from nowhere. Last week I was able to clasp my hands behind my back in Supta Kurmasana and I find I can get my foot behind my head and almost let go with it staying there. Back bends are stronger, though I still can't imagine being able to drop back (I'm thinking the subject of a sister blog next year).

Best of all this morning I was able to struggle into Baddha Padmasana. I was convinced this would be something I would never be able to manage, just didn't think I was built right for it (but then didn't I think that about Marichyasana C). I found a trick to it. Get into a really tight lotus, feet up higher than usual then reach around with the left arm and clasp left toe, then, and here's my trick/tip, slide your right arm between your back and left arm which enables you to work it down to your toe and clasp (might take a bit of tipping over to the left - see video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHZOQAjzYWc
Apologies for no shirt on this one but couldn't do it with it on, think being hot and sweaty helps).

Edit- Seems that video has got lost but this one form a few days later works and shows some of the other baddha padmasana options 

But what's all this about Baddha Padmasana doing in a Jump Back blog? Point is, focusing on the jump back doesn't mean everything else has to suffer, they'll come along nicely on their own. Also it goes to show that the little tips/tricks/suggestions can make the difference and that something you begin to think you'll never be able to do will just surprise you one day. Like the jump back
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Did Pattabhi Jois' teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series, if so where is it?

January 14, 2014, 12:02 am

≫ Next: What is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, there really is nothing to fear, no really.

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Following on from the Krishnamacharya Primary series and Intermediate series and the subtle rearrangement of postures from his Yoga Makaranda (1934) and Yogasanagalu (1941), I was asked if I had a similar treatment for the Advanced series coming, if there was a Krishnamacharya Advanced Series practice poster in thew works.

Well no, not really, I'm not convinced the Advanced postures are best suited in a series or were ever intended as such but rather as optional extensions or perhaps substitutions for postures in the previous groups/series.

I remember Manju saying that these days he practices part of Primary, part of Second series and a couple of postures from Advanced series, 'just to feel I've still got it'. That struck me as quite a wise approach. It's similar to one I've been using in my own practice. In Vinyasa Krama the postures just keep progressing within the different groups of postures. So in the Asymmetric series we will move from Janu sirsasana's all the way up to leg behind head postures found in the Ashtanga 2nd series and then from the 3rd and 4th series. You practice just as far as you're able, eventually the more challenging postures become doable or more approachable.

In my own practice, I would go through my Ashtanga Primary and then, after the janu's add a couple of leg behind head postures before continuing on with the series. If you also practice 2nd series you may well be doing something similar by including the dwi pada sirsasana,  the both legs behind the head, entry to supta kurmasana ( Manju frowns at this approach btw, too much strain on the back of the neck).

In my Ashtanga 2nd series after Kapotasana I will often add the third series kapotasana variations. it seems natural to do so.

This is an alternative approach to introducing the more advanced asana rather than approaching these postures as a set series, it has the benefit of working up to the more challenging posture, of preparing for it with the primary of intermediate postures rather than jumping straight in.



It does seems to be more in keeping with Krishnamacharya's intention in Yoga Makaranda and Yogasanagalu.

If Pattabhi Jois, Krishnamacharya's student, had taught a two year course at the Sanskrit college then there probably wouldn't be an Advanced series anyway.

There's the classic Jois'ism that 'Primary series is for everybody, 2nd series for teachers and Advanced series for demonstration'. And we can see how useful the advanced postures are for getting your name around the circuit, for self promotion. "Come to my workshop, here's me in a ten minute Paschimottanasan" doesn't cut it as well as here "I am in a handstand version of kukkutasana".

Do we need the Advanced series? It's fun to practice but hard work (bit of extra tapas-never a bad thing), but it seems to me, and I know I'm not alone in this, that everyone is stuck in a cycle of the next posture, the next series.... approaching 3rd or 4th just as they did their Primary and 2nd series, the same emotional breakdowns at durvasana as at eka pada sirsasna, or at kandasana as when first approaching badha konasana ( puts my own hand up, yep that was me "WHY can't I get this pose", thankfully I'm now a little more chilled about it, it'll come....or not).

And I'm serious about this, I struggle with it myself. I feel I'm doing interesting work trying to go ever deeper within Primary and my Second series, exploring Krishnamacharya's original instructions from Yoga Makaranda, written by the way at the time he was teaching the young Pattabhi Jois. And yet part of me keeps thinking that perhaps I should get back to my Advanced A and B, that I'm losing those postures through lack of practice and I'm not getting any younger, perhaps when they've gone they've gone for good this time.

But what if we dropped the Advanced series altogether, and here I probably alienate the last of my Ashtanga friends. What if Sharath stopped teaching it, if in Mysore you just practiced Primary and Intermediate and nothing else. So you practice Primary three days a week, Intermediate three days a week for the next ten, twenty, thirty years perhaps occasionally filtering in an advanced posture here and there as merely a natural extension of a posture, how would that be?

But then from what I hear most long term practitioners drop most of the Advanced series postures anyway.

Perhaps the Advanced series, the next series, the next posture is a distraction, dropping it might encourage us to explore the earlier series in new ways, a return to Krishnamacharya's original approach, to the asana instruction in Yoga Makaranda, an 'Advanced' approach to Primary series perhaps, more subtlety, more sophistication. Good news for those who perhaps never see themselves practicing beyond Primary series anyway, a going inside rather than outside to the next, next, next.

Every time I see a teacher busting out their Advanced moves these days I wonder at the effect on those working on the primary postures. Is it inspiring in the right way or rather most helpful way. Does it make us think we have to get the next posture rather than go deeper into the one we have, How many postures do we need. Sometimes we wonder why there are only a handful of postures in the Hatha Yoga Pradipka and other old yoga texts, why don't they show all the other asana,why are they hiding them from us. Perhaps it's that they had just moved on, got passed all that.

Sure there are 84, 000 asana but perhaps we only need ten and a handful of variations.

There is something going around at the moment attributed to Sharath, who supposedly at a conference suggested that the West has only imported 5% of Yoga, asking the question what about the other 95%.

I feel like shouting out asking politely "If that is indeed the case then what have you and your family been doing for the last forty years"!

Why have we only imported 5%, is it perhaps the strong asana focus, the structure of the practice.

Ashtanga's greatest strength, that sense of progression that it's thought keeps us interested may well be it's greatest weakness.

I'd like to ask Sharath what his plans are for the next forty years, how does he propose to encourage us to explore the other 95%.

I know there are some teachers reading this, do you just go with the student, give the student what they want, more candy or rather what you believe they need. Do we really need 3rd series, 4th, 5th....?

UPDATE

Next step here is a for a follow up post, to look at how and where the Advanced asana could be introduced as options/extensions/substitutions into the Primary and Intermediate series, to bring them into play other than as a distinct series.

Of course I only have to look as far as Ramaswami's Complete Vinyasa yoga Book for this, it's all there. Krishnamacharya had done the work already. Just need to pick it all out and put it back into the Ashtanga context.

It's an alternative, an option for those who have no interest or expectation of approaching or beginning a full Advanced series but would like to extend certain postures or areas of practice into more advanced asana.

This approach too was part of the tradition.

Appendix

Here are some of the postures from Yoga Makaranda rearranged into Primary series order

Below are the Intermediate or Middle group asana from the table in Krishnamacharya's second book Yogasanagalu (1941) you can see some slight differences in the order.

With a little rearrangement we can see how the postures in this group closely match those of the current Ashtanga Intermediate series.

Exploring Krishnamacharya's early approach to these asana is something I've begun working on more seriously this year. See this post

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

We can see a difference in the layout of the table in Krishnamacharya's Yogasanagalu, there are I think clear sub routines in the Primary and Middle group that appear to be intuitively linked, one posture progressing into the next. That's not the case with the proficient asana group, they seem to be more thrown or lumped together

Below is a first draft of a Proficient 'group' practice sheet from an earlier post a couple of years back. I hesitate to call it a series as I suspect it wasn't intended to be practiced as such, this raises questions regarding how we practice currently practice advanced postures

This is sheet for my own use, to bring the yogasangalu table more alive and make it more... visual something for me work from and explore in practice. The pictures are all old ones I had on file, some better than others, some at the very beginning of approaching a posture. I'm still not sure of many of the versions of the posture referred to in the list ( there are some confusion over which version of a posture Krishnamacharya was intending as some postures have different names), it's a working document, hopefully from this something more accurate will develop.

* I didn't have 39. Trivikramasana(supta) 40. Trivikramasana (utthita) on file, the pictures here are just a reminder. 51. Suptakandasana is a sketch based onDavid Williams from His Complete Syllabus poster, it's a posture I've never tried and am probably still a way from realising.

Asana Table first four pages from Krishnamacharya's Yogasanagalu 

...and here's Satya Murthy's translation of the asana lists.

The Primary and Middle series are pretty close to the Primary and 2nd series taught now in Mysore. A few 2nd series asana are missing from the Middle sequence but most of these turn up in the Proficient series. I seem to remember David Williams writing or saying in an interview that originally there was just Primary, Intermediate and Advanced series asana, the Advanced postures later being ordered into Advanced A and B series ( and then later again into 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th series.

Proficient series correspondence with David Williams Ashtanga Syllabus

Advanced A Series

1-9, 13-20, 37, 39-41, 53, 

Advanced  B Series

21-28, 30, 35, 38, 42-45, 47-51, 55-56

2nd series

10-12, 29, 31, 33, 52, 54

?

34, 36, 46,

Yogasanagalu was written in 1941, Krishnamacharya continued to teach at the Mysore palace until 1954 so we might expect that the Asana list we have here would have been tweaked and played with a little, it may well have ended up even closer to the Ashtanga syllabus we have now.

It seems pretty safe to argue that this is the original Ashtanga syllabus.

Appendix 2 

This is a short paper I wrote for Ramaswami at the end of his TT course, he included it in his August 2010 Newsletter , Guess I was asking the same question back in 2010, perhaps it was the first time I began to ask it.

ANTHONY HALL 

the non- teaching,   'teacher in the class', 
wrote the following paper, reproduced in toto 

Asana Madness : 

Yoga Sutra III-37 
te samadhi vupasarga vyutthane siddhaya; 
For those interested in the ultimate samadhi these siddhis are 
impediments even though for a distracted mind they are yogic 
accomplishments YS III-37 

This sutra refers back to previous sutras describing such remarkable 
siddhis as gaining the strength of an elephant III-24, enormous mental 
strength III-23, knowledge of the universe III-26. Here though I want 
to consider this sutra in relation to advanced asana accomplishments. 
While not perhaps a siddhi, is there not a sense, where the attaining 
of ever more complicated and challenging asana might be considered an 
impediment to yogic development. 

I came to Vinyasa Krama via Ashtanga (here Ashtanga relates to the 
practice associated with Pattabhi Jois )and while many senior Ashtanga 
teachers will stress 'it's not about the asana' there is a tendency in 
Ashtanga practice to fall into the trap of asana madness and become 
fixated on the next posture, the next series. I've been guilty of this 
myself, I moved on to 2nd series quite quickly and then 3rd, I seem to 
remember I even tried a few 4th series postures. One of the reasons I 
became interested in The Complete book of Vinyasa Krama (available 
from all good bookstores) was that it covered a vast number of asanas 
and appeared to offer an approach to the more complicated postures 
through variations and postures that might be considered as 
preparatory, staging post, poses. 

A curious thing happened as I began to practice Vinyasa Krama, despite 
having the freedom to try any pose without fear of the Ashtanga 
police, the more complicated and challenging postures began to lose 
their star quality. A long stay in Paschimottanasana or a spread leg 
seated subroutine began to feel as challenging and satisfying as Purna 
Matsyendrasana. I noticed I tended to feel more grounded in this 
slower, deceptively gentle practice. Although the breath is stressed 
in Ashtanga especially Jois' Yoga Mala (on almost every page) it 
wasn't until I practiced Vinyasa Krama that I began to fully explore 
the breath and bandhas as well as the feeling of truly stretching 
through a pose as opposed to a mere nodding acquaintance. So the 
fixation on the 'next' asana, on the ever more challenging posture 
might indeed be seen as an impediment to finding the benefits inherent 
in the more subtle poses and sequences. 

Recently the question was raised on the Vinyasa Krama TT course, 'What 
should I teach for my first Vinyasa Krama Class?''Tadasana sequence', 
came our teachers reply. Pregnant silence. Everyone, other than our 
teacher perhaps, saw the problem. Tadasana isn't sexy. Used to the 
adventurous routines found in most modern yoga classes, the 'never the 
same vinyasa class', Tadasana sequence might seem a little....bland? 
And yet this is a shame because the sequence has been a revelation, 
I've probably learnt more about yoga through this sequence over the 
past month than in all three of the Ashtanga series I had practiced 
previously. 

And yet Vinyasa Krama, as I mentioned before, includes a vast number 
of postures and variations, it's one of the facets that originally 
drew me to system. Is asana madness, then, encouraged? There's a 
difference. In Ashtanga there is the desire to complete the series and 
then perhaps begin the next. In Vinyasa Krama the key word is Vinyasa 
(variation). It's not so much a question of the next posture but of an 
alternative posture. Vinyasa Krama seeks to exercise and access every 
muscle and organ of the body. As an example, take the deceptively 
simple Tadasana sequence again, three hasta (hand) variations change 
the focus of the stretch from the thoracic to the cervical and lumbar 
regions. 

Maintaining interest is also recognised as an important element of 
sustaining a lifelong practice and the large number of postures, 
subroutines and sequences help towards this. While there are some key 
postures that you are encouraged to practice everyday it is also 
suggested that you add additional, supplementary sequences, as many as 
time allows, so that you cover the majority of the poses available to 
you within a week or so. 

Vinyasa Krama does include some vary challenging postures, some found 
in the advanced A and B Ashtanga series, what of these, can't these 
lead to asana madness, fixation on a posture that can be an impediment 
to your practice? Challenging postures, I would argue, have their 
place, they can add spice to your practice and help maintain interest 
but they also focus the mind intensly, although perhaps no more so 
than a simple balancing posture. They can also allow you to access 
deeper organs, in Purna Matsyendrasana the heel is forced ever more 
deeply into the body than in a half lotus variation. I remember only a 
few months ago writing a possible daily practice schedule that 
included most the four and five star postures, this seems ridiculous 
to me now. In vinyasa Krama the 'challenging' postures inhabit a 
different environment they are features of interest in a landscape as 
opposed to ledges on a rock face. It is this environmental difference 
that helps me to avoid the asana madness of postural fixation that 
was, I now consider, an impediment to my yoga practice. 

We might take this further by considering that while challenging 
postures are put into context through the use of Sub-routines and 
sequences, asana too is contextualized through the importance our 
teacher and his before him have placed on pranayama and meditation. 
Where the challenging postures gain evermore importance as 'gate 
keeper' poses in systems like Jois' ashtanga, in contrast, their role 
becomes less significant in Vinyasa Krama where asana itself is placed 
on an equal footing with pranayama and meditation. 

Thank you so much for a wonderful course that has been everything I 
had hoped and so much more besides. 

Respectfully 
Anthony Hall 

What is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, there really is nothing to fear, no really.

January 16, 2014, 12:13 am

≫ Next: Kino 4th series (and also 3rd) uncut and unedited, no not the pretty one, the gritty one.

≪ Previous: Did Pattabhi Jois' teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series, if so where is it?

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I've become more aware recently of how many yoga practitioners and potential yoga practitioners are put off by the thought of practicing Ashtanga, quite frankly many run a mile.

Often they have an  image of Ashtanga as fast paced, dynamic, frenetic, obsessive, impossible postures that are fixed in stone and must be practiced perfectly before you can progress (to the next posture), it's thought of as hot, sweaty and perhaps even a little... culty.

Often of course this is also an image of the practice that brings some to Ashtanga, but I digress.

Ashtanga can be approached like that perhaps, and hey if your young 9or even not so young) and are wanting a fast paced fitness practice then this approach may be just the thing for you, actually, in the beginning, it suited me for a while to practice Ashtanga this way myself.

But it is perhaps a mischaracterization of Ashtanga or at least the intention behind Ashtanga

Ashtanga can be practiced fast paced, we often see it demonstrated that way, but that perhaps is because it IS a demonstration, less time on the video tape or only half an hour to give an idea of as many postures as possible and perhaps also there is an aspect of trying to impress you, or at least show you what the body is capable of.

But it's what the body is capable of... through yoga asana practice, through, dedication, devotion, concentration, a focus on the breath....

Krishnamacharya, Pattabhi Jois' teacher stressed time and time again that the heart rate shouldn't increase ( if it does, take a mini savasana) and that the breath rate should slow,  asana should be steady and comfortable.

In daily practice, Ashtanga tends to be practiced more slowly than is presented in demonstrations See my page on Mysore rooms around the world,.

Krishnamacharya indicates in his 1934 book Yoga Makaranda that it should be practiced even more slowly, the breaths are long, slow, full, 'like the pouring of oil', there are longer stays in many postures.

In recent Ashtanga the sequences are more fixed than Krishnamacharya seemed to have originally presented them but even here, in certain shalas, practice rooms around the world we find teachers giving modifications to postures, going with the intention and gesture of a posture and moving you forward with the advice to keep working on the posture your struggling with. Vinyasa Krama is perhaps the art of this approach.

I tend to breath quite slowly, my own practice is based on the original instruction Krishnamacharya gave for his 'Ashtanga' practice in Yoga Makaranda so I tend to only have time for half a 'series' before moving on to my finishing postures and some pranayama, perfectly acceptable.

Many are actually practising Ashtanga and don't realise it, in a gym or studio perhaps and going under a different name we can still find Krishnamacharya's influence. In fact many of the classes presented in some studios around the world have more in keeping with Krishnamacharya's original presentation than we find in some hard core exclusively 'Ashtanga' shala's.

The movements are linked to the breath, they follow the breath and the breath is intended to be slow, no fast paced practice here.... unless you feel like it, but then that's your approach, your practice and doesn't necessarily reflect the intention of the practice, it is though an option available.

There are crazy challenging postures but most of them are in the Advanced series intended for demonstration, not necessarily for daily practice unless that's an area you particularly wish to explore.

Some more challenging postures have found their way into the first series, personally I'd recommend dropping them and reintroducing them later. Marichiyasana D for example. Krishnamacharya put that posture in the Intermediate postures but it ended up finding it's way into Primary series, there are some good reasons for doing so, there are a lot of postures that prepare you for it but just as Pattabhi Jois would introduce the reverse triangle postures, the deep twists, back into the opening standing postures only once you had completed the series I'd recommend doing the same with Marchi D or any other particularly challenging posture.

Hot and sweaty? The room actually shouldn't actually be that hot, it should be comfortable, we want our body nicely warmed up and there will be some sweat but it shouldn't be excessive. I tend to turn the heat down in my practice room half way through my practice, no doubt many teachers do the same as a room fills up.

Ashtanga means eight limbs, it's become associated with asana practice but Krishnamacharya stressed the other limbs, the other aspects of yoga practice. Pranayama for example, the breathing practice. Krishnamacharya wasn't encouraging extream pranayama practices, holding the breath for excessive periods of time, we're not training to be free divers here, some of the pranayama practices don't include any retentions of breath, it's a gradual process, as with the asana, a building up of facility.

Krishnamacharya would also stress the meditative aspect of yoga.... Asana practice and pranayama clean the room ( the body ), what's the point if we don't then live in it, i.e. engage in some form of meditative practice. There are many kinds of meditative practice the familiar concentration practices in a meditative posture but it might also suggest chanting or the study of relevant and interesting texts, there are different options depending on our tastes and inclinations, and these of course may change as we continue with our practice,

Ashtanga is a yoga practice, it's seeking to prepare you for these mediative practices, to be able to concentrate, focus more effectively, there's no point having a frantic asana practice and then collapsing afterwards, we are aiming to be more satvic, more calm, peaceful, steady.

But of course, for now, a wilder practice might be what your looking for, perhaps your young with an excess of energy you wish to burn, Krishnamacharya did teach asana to the young boys of the mysore practice, perhaps he brought that aspect out somewhat,  perhaps your approaching Ashtanga as a fitness practice, it's possible to do so, Yoga for the three stages of life, but that isn't the only aspect of the practice we should be aware of or indeed necessarily the original intention or the full scope of the possibilities of practice that Krishnamacharya left to us.

*

This of course is only one Ashtangi's view of Ashtasnga, there are as many as there are those who practice it.

Kino 4th series (and also 3rd) uncut and unedited, no not the pretty one, the gritty one.

January 17, 2014, 12:43 am

≫ Next: Still places on my January 14-26th (NEXT WEEKEND) Krishnamacharya Yoga Workshop in Valencia. ALSO details of my April workshop in Ulm.

≪ Previous: What is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, there really is nothing to fear, no really.

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There's a new video of kino going around fb this morning, one of those beautifully shot videos filmed around the streets and temples of Mysore. There's music, nice angles, great light.......I clicked away a minute or two in, think it was after the lingering shot of the Kino yoga tag on Kino's mat.

I don't like those video's and photo shoots so much, I do like these though, uncut and unedited just split into three.

Here's Kino going through her 4th series

These ties in perhaps with my post about Krishnamacharya and Advanced series from earlier in the week.

Did Pattabhi Jois' teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series, if so where is it?

I have a post coming on how to filter those advanced postures into your regular primary and or 2nd series when your proficient enough.

In fact while we're at it here's Kino's 'average Monday morning Advanced A

Still places on my January 14-26th (NEXT WEEKEND) Krishnamacharya Yoga Workshop in Valencia. ALSO details of my April workshop in Ulm.

January 18, 2014, 12:15 am

≫ Next: Guidelines for practice

≪ Previous: Kino 4th series (and also 3rd) uncut and unedited, no not the pretty one, the gritty one.

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Still places I hear on my Krishnamachrya' Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga Workshop in Valencia, Spain - January 24-26th. that's next weekend.Contact  Living Yoga Valencia, for details on booking.

Details of the workshop below also detail on my workshop in Ulm, Germany 5th and 6th of April

and also the link to the Yoga Rainbow Festival in Turkey where I'll be teaching three classes.

They say things come in three's ( although just heard and it may well be four).

I've been invited to bring my Krishnamacharya Ashtanga and Vinyasa Krama workshop to Valencia, Spain Jan 24-26th at the invitation of Living Yoga Valencia, really looking forward to it.

There will be a talk on Krishnamacharya's Ashtanga on Friday evening, two workshops on Saturday, the first on Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda Primary series


The second on Krishnamacharya's Vinyasa Krama as taught by Ramaswami Srivatsa inc. pranayama, Pratyahara and meditation, an integrated practice.


PLUS, an extra session on Sunday, a full Vinyasa Krama class.

Q and A at the end of each session.

The workshop will be in English but translated into Spanish

Contact Cosmin at

Living yoga Valencia

https://www.facebook.com/living.yogavlc

***************************************************************

UPDATE More details

This workshop should be appropriate to both Ashtangi's and non Ashtangi's

The Ashtanga section will be early an Krishnamacharya approach, long , slow breathing with short retentions.

The Vinyasa Krama section will look at the bow and meditative sequences, similar to the Ashtanga second series backbend preparation.

There will also be a pranayama without kumbhaka in the first session and pranayama with short kumbhaka in the second session.

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Taller de Asthanga Vinyasa Krama Yoga con Anthony Grim Hall
(English/Castellano)

Sala Saltamontes, Ruzafa, Valencia.

Viernes 24 Enero, 19.00h-21.30h:

Presentacion: Krishnamacharya Original Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.
Basado en sus escritos: Yoga Makaranda (1934) y Yogasanagalu (1941).

Sabado 25 Enero:

10.00h: Taller practico.
Krishnamacharya, su primer enfoque a Asana;
Ashtanga, la respiracion, retenciones, largas estancias, metodo Vinyasa.

13.00h-14.30h: Pausa de comida

14.30h-18.00h: Taller practico.
Krishnamacharya, su ultimo enfoque a Asana:
Vinyasa Krama, incluye Pratyahara, Pranayama y Meditacion.

Domingo 25 Enero, 10.00h-13.30h:
Sadhana de Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama Yoga.

Conocido como “el padre del Yoga moderno”, Sri T. Krishnamacharya fue el profesor de Sri K Pattabhi Jois, fundador de Ashtanga Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar, Indra Devi y Srivatsa Ramaswami entre otros.

Anthony Hall es estudiante de Srivatsa Ramaswami que estudio el Yoga con Krishnamacharya durante 33 anos, y de Manju Jois, hijo de Pattabhi.

Anthony ha estado investigando los escritos de Krishnamacharya en su blog “Krishnamacharya’s Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama at Home” y en su practica.

El taller es una ocasion unica de aprender y aprofundisar la practica de Ashtanga Yoga, segun el metodo tradicional
otorgado por T. Krishnamacharya.

Precio: 70 euros hasta 18 de Enero, 80 euros despues.

Imprescindible reservar tu plaza.

Aforro limitado a 20 personas.

Reservas y info:

 fbook Living Yoga Valencia

********************************************************

AND GOOGLE TRANSLATION

Vinyasa Krama Workshop Ashtanga Yoga with Anthony Grim Hall
( Inglés / Castilian )

Grasshopper lounge, Ruzafa , Valencia .

Friday January 24 , 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. :

Presentation: Original Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Krishnamacharya .
Based on his writings : Yoga Makaranda (1934) and Yogasanagalu ( 1941).

Saturday 25 January:

10:00 a.m. : Workshop practice .
Krishnamacharya , his first approach to Asana ;
Ashtanga, respiration , retention , longer stays , Vinyasa method .

1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. : Pause food

2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Workshop I practice.
Krishnamacharya , his latest approach to Asana :
Vinyasa Krama includes Pratyahara , Pranayama and Meditation .

Sunday, 25 Jan, 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. :
Sadhana Yoga Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama .

Known as " the father of modern yoga " Sri T. Krishnamacharya was Professor of Sri K Pattabhi Jois , founder of Ashtanga Yoga, BKS Iyengar, Indra Devi and Srivatsa Ramaswami and others.

Anthony Hall is a student of Srivatsa Ramaswami who studied with Krishnamacharya Yoga for 33 years , and Manju Jois , Pattabhi son .

Anthony has been researching the writings of Krishnamacharya in his blog " Krishnamacharya 's Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama at Home" and in his practice .

The workshop is a unique occasion to learn and aprofundisar practice of Ashtanga Yoga , according to the traditional method
given by T. Krishnamacharya .

Price : 70 euros until January 18, 80 euros after .

Essential to book your place.

Aforro limited to 20 people .

Booking and info:

fbook Living Yoga Valencia

*******************************************************

This will be along the lines of the workshop I gave at Oscar's Yoga Centro Victoria in Leon last month, see this post.

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/behind-scenes-krishnamacharya-yoga.html

*

I will also be teaching three classes along the outlines above at the Yoga Rainbow Festival in May
http://rainbow.yogafest.info/turkey/yoga-rainbow-cirali/


There may be something else in the pipeline in Europe around the end of April, watch this space.


UPDATE - ULM , GERMANY 5-6th April

here are the details of the April workshop, it's in Ulm, Germany

EXPLORING KRISHNAMACHARYA WITH ANTHONY 'GRIMMLY' HALL IN ULM

W5.-6.4.2014 (ULM)

Lehrer: 

• Anthony Hall

ANTHONY GRIM HALL

 Anthony Grim Hall began practicing Yoga in his early 40’s, unfit, overweight and with minimal flexibility. He taught himself through books from the local library ( they just happened to be Ashtanga books) and later from videos. A year later he began a blog ‘Ashtanga jump back’ to share his progress, “…the idea was to try to capture the moment when an asana first became possible and in this way be able to show the process, what worked, rather than just to present the finished product”. Progressing relatively quickly to Ashtanga Advanced series and looking for ever more asana to practice Anthony came across Ramaswami ( a student of Krishnamacharya for over thirty years) and his Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga, outlining the approach to Yoga taught to him by Krishnamacharya. Although the book contained a vast range of asana it also stressed the long slow breathing and a more flexible approach to practice. Anthony attended Ramaswami’s teacher training and in the next few years sought to find consistency between the Ashtanga and Vinyasa Krama methodologies changing his blogs title to Krishnamacharya’s Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga at Home and writing a companion book The complete Vinyasa Yoga Practice Book. This led to a much more historical focus to his blog and a close focus on the work and methodology of Krishnamacharya resulting in the first full English translation of Krishnamacharya’s second book Yogasanagalu with kanada translator Satya Murthey. Yogasanagalu contained a table that outlined asana resembling closely the original Ashtanga syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams in 1974. “The more I explored the early writings of Krishnamacharya the more the distinctions between Krishnamacharya’s early and later years seemed to drop away. the essential elements of practice are there in Ashtanga and Vinyasa krama as well as the approaches to practice that developed out of the Krishnamacharya tradition”.

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.de/

WORKSHOP CURRICULUM

Saturday

1st session - approx. 3 hours A workshop exploring the ‘original’ Ashtanga of T. Krishnamacharya, Pattabhi Jois’ teacher. This workshop will use the asana table of Krishnamacharya second book, Yogasanagalu (1941) to rearrange the asana outlined in his first book, Yoga Makaranda, and provide us with an ‘original’ Ashtanga Primary Series. Using this familiar sequence we will explore the approach to asana that Krishnamacharya outlined in Yoga Makaranda (1934), the long slow breath, ‘like the pouring of oil’, the appropriate kumbhaka’s (breath retention’s) indicated for each of the asana, the longer stays in certain postures, the employment of bandhas as well as the vinyasa method (counted movements linked to stages of the breath). The intention is to make this workshop accessible to any level or style of asana practice.

LUNCH

2nd session - 1 hour A talk on Krishnamacharya and ‘original’ Ashtanga vinyasa, exploring the question of consistency in his teaching from his early to later years.

3rd Session - 2 hours Pranayama workshop.

Exploring Krishnamacharya’s approach to pranayama(s) Followed by Q. and A.- Krishnamacharya/developing a home practice

Sunday

1st session - 3 hours Vinyasa Krama workshop.

Exploring the approach to asana taught to Srivatsa Ramaswami by Krishnamacharya over a period of thirty years form the 1950’s to 80s. Where Ashtanga tends to be (mostly) fixed sequences Vinyasa Krama has a more flexible approach to asana. However, the asana are still grouped into subroutines and sequences for learning the relationships between individual and groups of asana. This allows us to take a key asana and see postures that lead both up to that asana and might be employed as preparation, as well as postures that lead on from the chosen asana allowing as to develop it further or make it applicable to other areas of the body. It also allows us to modify our practice, giving us a ‘tool chest’, once the subroutines of asana are learned it is then possible to construct a practice based on any appropriate rearrangement of the subroutines. It can be seen that the Ashtanga series, for example, are just such arrangements of subroutines.Throughout the workshop we will be noting how elements from Saturday’s workshop, Krishnamacharya’s approach of the 1930’s is consistent with his later teaching, the long slow breath, longer stay, kumbhaka’s and employment of bandhas are all found in vinyasa Krama.

2nd session - 2 hours Developing a home practice. Krishnamacharya taught an integrated Yoga practice. This session will be a led class that will employ an arrangement of subroutines and certain key (‘essential’, ‘to be practiced daily’) asana followed by pranayama ( introduced in the 3rd saturday session), pratyahara ( sense withdrawal) and a short meditation. Followed by Q. and A.- Krishnamacharya/developing a home practice

STUNDENPLAN

Samstag - Sonntag
Saturday -
09:00 - 12:00	Exploring of the 'original' Ashtanga of T. Krishnamacharya
13:00 - 14:00	talk Q&A
14:00 - 16:00	Exploring T. Krishnamacharya's approach to Pranayama
-
Sunday -
09:00 - 12:00	Vinyasa Krama
13:00 - 15:00	Developing a home practice followed by Q&A

*

Guidelines for practice

January 20, 2014, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Introducing advanced asana into our Primary and Intermediate Series, suggestions for each asana in the Advanced A and B series in the original 1974 Ashtanga syllabus,

≪ Previous: Still places on my January 14-26th (NEXT WEEKEND) Krishnamacharya Yoga Workshop in Valencia. ALSO details of my April workshop in Ulm.

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This is intended as advice for Zazen practice but perhaps we might find much of it applicable to other forms of practice....

ZAZEN YOJINKI: NOTES ON WHAT TO BE AWARE OF IN ZAZEN

by Keizan Jokin zenji (1268-1325)

translated by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi and Yasuda Joshu Dainen roshi

[excerpted from the Treasury of Luminosity, also published in "The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza" second edition, edited by John Daido Loori roshi, Wisdom Publications, 2004]

Sitting is the way to clarify the ground of experiences and to rest at ease in your Actual Nature. This is called "the display of the Original Face" and "revealing the landscape of the basic ground".

Drop through this bodymind and you will be far beyond such forms as sitting or lying down. Beyond considerations of good or bad, transcend any divisions between usual people and sages, pass beyond the boundary between sentient beings and Buddha.

Putting aside all concerns, shed all attachments. Do nothing at all. Don't fabricate any things with the six senses.

Who is this? Its name is unknown; it cannot be called "body", it cannot be called "mind". Trying to think of it, the thought vanishes. Trying to speak of it, words die.

It is like a fool, an idiot. It is as high as a mountain, deep as the ocean. Without peak or depths, its brilliance is unthinkable, it shows itself silently. Between sky and earth, only this whole body is seen.

This one is without compare—he has completely died. Eyes clear, she stands nowhere. Where is there any dust? What can obstruct such a one?

Clear water has no back or front, space has no inside or outside. Completely clear, its own luminosity shines before form and emptiness were fabricated. Objects of mind and mind itself have no place to exist.

This has always already been so but it is still without a name. The great teacher, the Third Ancestor Sengcan temporarily called it "mind", and the Venerable Nagarjuna once called it "body". Enlightened essence and form, giving rise to the bodies of all the Buddhas, it has no "more" or "less" about it.

This is symbolized by the full moon but it is this mind which is enlightenment itself. The luminosity of this mind shines throughout the past and brightens as the present. Nagarjuna used this subtle symbol for the samadhi of all the Buddhas but this mind is signless, non-dual, and differences between forms are only apparent.

Just mind, just body. Difference and sameness miss the point. Body arises in mind and, when the body arises, they appear to be distinguished. When one wave arises, a thousand waves follow; the moment a single mental fabrication arises, numberless things appear. So the four elements and five aggregates mesh, four limbs and five senses appear and on and on until the thirty-six body parts and the twelve-fold chain of interdependant emergence. Once fabrication arises, it develops continuity but it still only exists through the piling up of myriad dharmas.

The mind is like the ocean waters, the body like the waves. There are no waves without water and no water without waves; water and waves are not separate, motion and stillness are not different. So it is said, "A person comes and goes, lives and dies, as the imperishable body of the four elements and five aggregates."

Zazen is going right into the Ocean of Awareness, manifesting the body of all Buddhas. The natural luminosity of mind suddenly reveals itself and the original light is everywhere. There is no increase or decrease in the ocean and the waves never turn back.

2

Thus Buddhas have arisen in this world for the one Great Matter of teaching people the wisdom and insight of Awakening and to give them true entry. For this there is the peaceful, pure practice of sitting. This is the complete practice of self-enjoyment of all the Buddhas. This is the sovereign of all samadhis. Entering this samadhi, the ground of mind is clarified at once. You should know that this is the true gate to the Way of the Buddhas.

If you want to clarify the mind-ground, give up your jumble of limited knowledge and interpretation, cut off thoughts of usualness and holiness, abandon all delusive feelings. When the true mind of reality manifests, the clouds of delusion dissipate and the moon of the mind shines bright.

3

The Buddha said, "Listening and thinking about it are like being shut out by a door. Zazen is like coming home and sitting at ease." This is true! Listening and thinking about it, views have not ceased and the mind is obstructed; this is why it's like being shut out by a door. True sitting puts all things to rest and yet penetrates everywhere. This sitting is like coming home and sitting at ease.

Being afflicted by the five obstructions arises from basic ignorance and ignorance arises from not understanding your own nature. Zazen is understanding your own nature. Even if you were to eliminate the five obstructions, if you haven't eliminated basic ignorance, you have not yet realized yourself as the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. If you want to release basic ignorance, the essential key is to sit and practice the Way.

An old master said, "When confusion ceases, clarity arises; when clarity arises, wisdom appears; and when wisdom appears, Reality displays itself."

If you want to cease your confusion, you must cease involvement in thoughts of good or bad. Stop getting caught up in unnecessary affairs. A mind "unoccupied" together with a body "free of activity" is the essential point to remember.

When delusive attachments end, the mind of delusion dies out. When delusion dies out, the Reality that was always the case manifests and you are always clearly aware of it. It is not a matter of extinction or of activity.

4

Avoid getting caught up in arts and crafts, prescribing medicines and fortune-telling. Stay away from songs and dancing, arguing and babbling, fame and gain. Composing poetry can be an aid in clarifying the mind but don't get caught up in it. The same is true for writing and calligraphy. This is the superior precedent for practitioners of the Way and is the best way to harmonize the mind.

Don't wear luxurious clothing or dirty rags. Luxurious clothing gives rise to greed and then the fear that someone will steal something. This is a hindrance to practitioners of the Way. Even if someone offers them to you, to refuse is the excellent tradition from ancient times. If you happen to have luxurious clothing, don't be concerned with it; if it's stolen don't bother to chase after it or regret its loss. Old dirty clothes should be washed and mended; clean them thoroughly before putting them on. If you don't take care of them you could get cold and sick and hinder your practice. Although we shouldn't be too anxious about bodily comforts, inadequate clothing, food and sleep are known as the "three insufficiencies" and will cause our practice to suffer.

Don't eat anything alive, hard, or spoiled. Such impure foods will make your belly churn and cause heat and discomfort of bodymind, making your sitting difficult. Don't indulge in rich foods. Not only is this bad for bodymind, it's just greed. You should eat to promote life so don't fuss about taste. Also, if you sit after eating too much you will feel ill. Whether the meal is large or small, wait a little while before sitting. Monks should be moderate in eating and hold their portions to two-thirds of what they can eat. All healthy foods, sesame, wild yams and so on, can be eaten. Essentially, you should harmonize bodymind.

5

When you are sitting in zazen, do not prop yourself up against a wall, meditation brace, or screen. Also, do not sit in windy places or high, exposed places as this can cause illness.

Sometimes when you are sitting you may feel hot or cold, discomfort or ease, stiff or loose, heavy or light, or sometimes startled. These sensations arise through disharmonies of mind and breath-energy. Harmonize your breath in this way: open your mouth slightly, allow long breaths to be long and short breaths to be short and it will harmonize naturally. Follow it for awhile until a sense of awareness arises and your breath will be natural. After this, continue to breathe through the nose.

The mind may feel as if it were sinking or floating, it may seem dull or sharp. Sometimes you can see outside the room, the insides of the body, the forms of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. Sometimes you may believe that you have wisdom and now thoroughly understand all the sutras and commentaries. These extraordinary conditions are diseases that arise through disharmony of mind and breath. When this happens, sit placing the mind in the lap. When the mind sinks into dullness, raise attention above your hairline or before your eyes. When the mind scatters into distraction, place attention at the tip of the nose or at the tanden. After this rest attention in the left palm. Sit for a long time and do not struggle to calm the mind and it will naturally be free of distraction.

Although the ancient Teachings are a long-standing means to clarify the mind, do not read, write about, or listen to them obsessively because such excess only scatters the mind.

Generally, anything that wears out bodymind causes illness. Don't sit where there are fires, floods, or bandits, by the ocean, near bars, brothels, where widows or virgins live, or near where courtesans sing and play music. Don't live near kings, ministers, powerful or rich families, people with many desires, those who crave name and fame, or those who like to argue meaninglessly. Although large Buddhist ceremonials and the construction of large temples might be good things, one who is committed to practice should not get involved.

Don't be fond of preaching the Dharma as this leads to distraction and scattering. Don't be delighted by huge assemblies or run after disciples. Don't try to study and practice many different things.

Do not sit where it is too bright or too dark, too cold or too hot. Do not sit where pleasure-seekers or whores live. Go and stay in a monastery where there is a true teacher. Go deep into the mountains and valleys. Practice kinhin by clear waters and verdant mountains. Clear the mind by a stream or under a tree. Observe impermanence without fail and you will keep the mind that enters the Way.

The mat should be well-padded so that you can sit comfortably. The practice place should always be kept clean. Burn incense and offer flowers to the Dharma Protectors, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and your practice will be protected. Put a statue of a Buddha, Bodhisattva or arhat on the altar and demons of distraction will not overwhelm you.

Remain always in Great Compassion and dedicate the limitless power of zazen to all living beings.

Do not become arrogant, conceited, or proud of your understanding of the Teachings; that is the way of those outside of the Way and of usual people. Maintain the vow to end afflictions, the vow to realise Awakening and just sit. Do nothing at all. This is the way to study Zen.

Wash your eyes and feet, keep bodymind at ease and deportment in harmony. Shed worldly sentiments and do not become attached to sublime feelings about the Way. Though you should not begrudge the Teachings, do not speak of it unless you are asked. If someone asks, keep silent three times; if still they ask from their heart, then give the Teachings. If you wish to speak ten times, keep quiet nine; it's as if moss grew over your mouth or like a fan in winter. A wind-bell hanging in the air, indifferent to the direction of the wind—this is how people of the Way are.

Do not use the Dharma for your own profit. Do not use the Way to try to make yourself important. This is the most important point to remember.

6

Zazen is not based upon teaching, practice or realization; instead these three aspects are all contained within it. Measuring realization is based upon some notion of enlightenment—this is not the essence of zazen. Practice is based upon strenuous application—this is not the essence of zazen. Teaching is based upon freeing from evil and cultivating good—this is not the essence of zazen.

Teaching is found in Zen but it is not the usual teaching. Rather, it is a direct pointing, just expressing the Way, speaking with the whole body. Such words are without sentences or clauses. Where views end and concept is exhausted, the one word pervades the ten directions without setting up so much as a single hair. This is the true Teaching of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors.

Although we speak of "practice", it is not a practice that you can do. That is to say, the body does nothing, the mouth does not recite, the mind doesn't think things over, the six senses are left to their own clarity and unaffected. So this is not the sixteen stage practice of the hearers [the path of insight or darsanamarga into the four noble truths at four different levels]. Nor is it the practice of understanding the twelve nidanas of inter-dependent emergence of those whose practice is founded upon isolation. Nor is it the six perfections within numberless activities of the Bodhisattvas. It is without struggle at all so is called Awakening or enlightenment. Just rest in the Self-enjoyment Samadhi of all the Buddhas, wandering playfully in the four practices of peace and bliss of those open to Openness. This is the profound and inconceivable practice of Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors.

Although we speak of realization, this realization does not hold to itself as being "realization". This is practice of the supreme samadhi which is the knowing of unborn, unobstructed, and spontaneously arising Awareness. It is the door of luminosity which opens out onto the realization of Those Who Come Thus, born through the practice of the great ease. This goes beyond the patterns of holy and profane, goes beyond confusion and wisdom. This is the realization of unsurpassed enlightenment as our own nature.

Zazen is also not based upon discipline, practice, or wisdom. These three are all contained within it.

Discipline is usually understood as ceasing wrong action and eliminating evil. In zazen the whole thing is known to be non-dual. Cast off the numberless concerns and rest free from entangling yourself in the "Buddhist Way" or the "worldly way." Leave behind feelings about the path as well as your usual sentiments. When you leave behind all opposites, what can obstruct you? This is the formless discipline of the ground of mind.

Practice usually means unbroken concentration. Zazen is dropping the bodymind, leaving behind confusion and understanding. Unshakeable, without activity, it is not deluded but still like an idiot, a fool. Like a mountain, like the ocean. Without any trace of motion or stillness. This practice is no-practice because it has no object to practice and so is called great practice.

Wisdom is usually understood to be clear discernment. In zazen, all knowledge vanishes of itself. Mind and discrimination are forgotten forever. The wisdom-eye of this body has no discrimination but is clear seeing of the essence of Awakening. From the beginning it is free of confusion, cuts off concept, and open and clear luminosity pervades everywhere. This wisdom is no-wisdom; because it is traceless wisdom, it is called great wisdom.

The Teaching that the Buddhas have presented all throughout their lifetimes are just this discipline, practice, and wisdom. In zazen there is no discipline that is not maintained, no practice that is uncultivated, no wisdom that is unrealized. Conquering the demons of confusion, attaining the Way, turning the wheel of the Dharma and returning to tracelessness all arise from the power of this. Siddhis and inconceivable activities, emanating luminosity and proclaiming the Teachings—all of these are present in this zazen. Penetrating Zen is zazen.

7

To practice sitting, find a quiet place and lay down a thick mat. Don't let wind, smoke, rain or dew come in. Keep a clear space with enough room for your knees. Although in ancient times there were those who sat on diamond seats or on large stones for their cushions. The place where you sit should not be too bright in the daytime or too dark at night; it should be warm in winter and cool in summer. That's the key.

Drop mind, intellect and consciousness, leave memory, thinking, and observing alone. Don't try to fabricate Buddha. Don't be concerned with how well or how poorly you think you are doing; just understand that time is as precious as if you were putting out a fire in your hair.

The Buddha sat straight, Bodhidharma faced the wall; both were whole-hearted and committed. Shishuang was like a gnarled dead tree. Rujing warned against sleepy sitting and said, "Just-sitting is all you need. You don't need to make burning incense offerings, meditate upon the names of Buddhas, repent, study the scriptures or do recitation rituals."

When you sit, wear the kesa (except in the first and last parts of the night when the daily schedule is not in effect). Don't be careless. The cushion should be about twelve inches thick and thirty-six in circumference. Don't put it under the thighs but only from mid-thigh to the base of the spine. This is how the Buddhas and Ancestors have sat. You can sit in the full or half lotus postures. To sit in the full lotus, put the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh. Loosen your robes but keep them in order. Put your right hand on your left heel and your left hand on top of your right, thumbs together and close to the body at the level of the navel. Sit straight without leaning to left or right, front or back. Ears and shoulders, nose and navel should be aligned. Place the tongue on the palate and breathe through the nose. The mouth should be closed. The eyes should be open but not too wide nor too slight. Harmonizing the body in this way, breathe deeply with the mouth once or twice. Sitting steadily, sway the torso seven or eight times in decreasing movements. Sit straight and alert.

Now think of what is without thought. How can you think of it? Be Before Thinking. This is the essence of zazen. Shatter obstacles and become intimate with Awakening Awareness.

When you want to get up from stillness, put your hands on your knees, sway seven or eight times in increasing movements. Breathe out through the mouth, put your hands to the floor and get up lightly from the seat. Slowly walk, circling to right or left.

If dullness or sleepiness overcome your sitting, move to the body and open the eyes wider, or place attention above the hairline or between your eyebrows. If you are still not fresh, rub the eyes or the body. If that still doesn't wake you, stand up and walk, always clockwise. Once you've gone about a hundred steps you probably won't be sleepy any longer. The way to walk is to take a half step with each breath. Walk without walking, silent and unmoving.

If you still don't feel fresh after doing kinhin, wash your eyes and forehead with cold water. Or chant the Three Pure Precepts of the Bodhisattvas. Do something; don't just fall asleep. You should be aware of the Great Matter of birth and death and the swiftness of impermanence. What are you doing sleeping when your eye of the Way is still clouded? If dullness and sinking arise repeatedly you should chant, "Habituality is deeply rooted and so I am wrapped in dullness. When will dullness disperse? May the compassion of the Buddhas and Ancestors lift this darkness and misery."

If the mind wanders, place attention at the tip of the nose and tanden and count the inhalations and exhalations. If that doesn't stop the scattering, bring up a phrase and keep it in awareness - for example: "What is it that comes thus?" or "When no thought arises, where is affliction? - Mount Meru!" or "What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West? - The cypress in the garden." Sayings like this that you can't draw any flavour out of are suitable.

If scattering continues, sit and look to that point where the breath ends and the eyes close forever and where the child is not yet conceived, where not a single concept can be produced. When a sense of the two-fold emptiness of self and things appears, scattering will surely rest.

8

Arising from stillness, carry out activities without hesitation. This moment is the koan. When practice and realization are without complexity then the koan is this present moment. That which is before any trace arises, the scenery on the other side of time's destruction, the activity of all Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors, is just this one thing.

You should just rest and cease. Be cooled, pass numberless years as this moment. Be cold ashes, a withered tree, an incense burner in an abandoned temple, a piece of unstained silk.

This is my earnest wish.

Introducing advanced asana into our Primary and Intermediate Series, suggestions for each asana in the Advanced A and B series in the original 1974 Ashtanga syllabus,

January 20, 2014, 11:44 pm

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''...these days I seem to be less and less interested in exploring the Advanced postures preferring to explore Krishnamacharya's approach to the breath, particularly his use of kumbhaka,  in postures mostly from his Primary group".

In an earlier post this month I posed the question 'Did Pattabhi Jois' teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series and if so where was it'. I had shown that the Primary and Middle groups from the asana table in his 1941 book Yogasanagalu corresponded closely with the Ashtanga Primary and Intermediate series we have now, but what about the table of advanced postures, it appeared to be more of a 'lumping together' of asana rather than suggesting any sequence.

Krishnamacharya doesn't seem to have followed fixed sequences. Although there appears to have been intuitive progressions of primary and middle asana subroutines that most likely corresponded to our current practice it was unlikely they were fixed in stone. It was Pattabhi Jois who seems to have formalised the different levels of asana in to, originally, four sequences, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A and Advanced B and this seems to have been necessitated by his being invited to teach a four year yoga course at the Sanskrit college. Had the course been three or two years the practice we have today would most likely have been significantly different.

So if Krishnamacharya had no Advanced A and B series how would he have approached these more challenging asana?

Manju Jois mentioned on a recent workshop I attended in Rethymno, Crete that he practices some of Primary, some of 2nd series and a couple of postures from Advanced series.

It seems likely to me that this would have been how Krishnamacharya would have approached the practice of his more proficient students.

There is an often intuitive development of asana in Krishnamacharya's approach, we can see this in the layout of asana in the Primary and Intermediate groups. We find Marchiasana A B and C following each other in the Primary group, but the more challenging Marchiasana D appears in the Intermediate group, Marichiasana E, F, G and H, more challenging still,  turn up the proficient group.  It seems likely that as the student progressed they were given more advanced variants of the Marchi posture. This is similar to Pattabhi Jois' early approach to parivritta trikonasana, the reverse triangle posture we all practice in the standing sequence. On visiting the USA in the early 80's Pattabhi Jois was supposedly shocked to find beginner students practicing the posture, he had listed it under the fourth year (Advanced B in the 1974 asana list he gave to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams). A compromise was found and for a time one would wait until they had learnt all of primary series before being taught the twisting posture when it would then be reintroduced in it's 'rightful' place in the standing sequence.

Below is the list of proficient asana from the Advanced A and B sequences, the 3rd and 4th years in the 1974 original Ashtanga list. The pictures are mostly my own often take around the time I first gained some semblance of the posture, they are in no way to be taken as indications of how the posture should be performed, some of these I practice with more facility now, others I have lost completely as I have focused on other aspects of Krishnamacharya's practice, his use of kumbhaka for example..

I've tried to indicate how we might introduce more advanced postures into our Primary and Intermediate series practice as we become more proficient. We do this already of course, we introduce the full finishing sequence once we've learnt Primary series up to Marichasana B, we introduce drop backs after completing full Primary, bakasana as an exit in Primary once we have gained more strength, the dwi pada sirsaasana entry to supta kurmasana once we have learnt that posture in 2nd series.

What becomes interesting as we introduce postures this way is that we start to see the Vinyasa Krama sequences that Ramaswami presents corresponding to how he was taught by Krishnamacharya in the 1950s-80s.

In Vinyasa Krama, in the Asymmetric sequence for example, we find a similar progression through subroutines that we have in our Ashtanga Primary series. We find the Triang Mukha eka pada paschimottansana and janu sirsasana's, ardha badha parma paschimottanasana followed by the marichiasana subroutine, we then move into the leg behind head posture, eka pada sirsasana found in Ashtanga 2nd series but then move on to the more advanced series leg behind head options, Durvasana for example.

In Vinyasa Krama we would add the more advanced extensions as we gained proficiency with a previous variation of a posture, each posture can be seen as a preparation for the one that follows or an extension of one that proceeds it.

It is suggested then that occasionally introducing progressively more advanced variations of postures into a core practice most likely characterised the approach taken to asana practice by Krishnamacharya in the Mysore years 1920s-1950 when he was teaching small and large groups of students but that it was also the method he employed in his later small group and one to one teaching. The construction of fixed series, particularly Advanced A and B by Pattabhi Jois, in response to the demands of a four year course structure, was a departure from Krishnamacharya's approach. Both approaches to advanced asana have their benefits as well as their drawbacks

Obviously caution is advised as is common sense, we do not just practice an advanced posture because it's there, we have to consider where we are with a proceeding posture before introducing a more advanced variation. There are benefits though. In Ashtanga Intermediate series there is a nice build up of backbends leading to kapotasana but no preparation for the first leg behind head posture. In the Krishnamacharya Krama there would be plenty of preparation through the less challenging asymmetric postures before taking our leg behind our head into the more advanced hip opener. This follows through each of the Vinyasa Krama sequences

Below I've suggested where the advanced posture might follow on from postures in the primary and Intermediate series but often in Vinyasa Krama there would be even more preparatory postures in between. This is how I've included these postures in my own practice although these days I seem to be less and less interested in exploring the Advanced postures preferring to explore Krishnamacharya's approach to the breath, particularly his use of kumbhaka,  in postures mostly from his Primary group.

Many Ashtanga practitioners have no interest in progressing to 3rd second series, it was supposedly only for demonstration after all, some have no ambition perhaps for second series either however they may well have gained proficiency in certain areas within the Primary sequence. This approach allows as to add more challenging asana where we feel confident and comfortable and appears to be in line with Krishnamacharya's original teaching way back when he was teaching the young Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, it is an approach in line with 'the tradition'.

NB: The intention of this post is not to encourage anyone to run off and practice advanced postures before they are ready to do so. The argument is that there are certain areas in our practice in which we are stronger than others, more proficient than others, and these can be explored further, should we see benefit in doing so, by introducing asana from Krishnamacharya's proficient group. This seems to have been Krishnamacharya's original practice back when he was teaching pattabhi Jois in Mysore as well as that he taught throughout his life and the approach taught to me by Krishnamacharya's student of over thirty years, Srivatsa Ramaswami.

The numbering system below is the same as that found on the'original' Ashtanga syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams in 1974 and supposedly the same as that formalised by Pattabhi Jois when he began teaching a four year course of Yoga at the sanskrit college in the early 1940s.

Introducing Advanced A asana into Primary and Intermediate Ashtanga Series

Postures 1 and 2 come up early in the Vinyasa Krama asymmetric series corresponding to the first few postures of primary series, Vishwamitra is a nice preparation for the leg behind head postures

The following leg behind head postures 3-7 can be considered extensions of the Asymmetric postures early in the Primary series, i tend to rotate them rather than include all  in one practice.

I will occasionally include urdhava kukutasana as an alternative to utpluthi at the end of the practice, most of the arm balanced 8-12 can be slipped into your practice at any point, this is nice in winter when you want to keep the heat up.

I  tended to include Viranchyasana after Marichiyasa D in Primary series, often including Mari E,F,G and H although perhaps not all in the same practice

I  still tend to include Viranchyasana B after Janu Sirsasana C whenever I practice Primary

Purna Masyendrasana is of course an extension of the 2nd series ardha matsyendrasana and can be included immediately afterwards, I sometimes include these in place of marichiyasana D

The two backbends 16-17 found in 3rd series are natural extensions of the 2nd series kapottasana, it's particularly appropriate to include them here given the preparatory postures that begin 2nd series.

Because of the long slow breathing approach I take to practice I will often tend to practice only half a series, if it happens to be the first half of 2nd series then I will often extend the backbend work bringing in the next two backbends as well as the preceding two after kapotasana.

Alternatively I will introduce more back bending to counter all the forward bends in Primary including 19 as a variation and extension of urdhva dhanurasana and 18 as a headstand variation.

Yet another arm balance that can be included anywhere and in any series

A variation we can include before or after the regular dhanurasana in 2nd series

I like to include 22-23 in primary series before the dwi pada a sirsasana entry I take to supta kurmasana in primary series. in Vinyasa Krama they come after Janu sirsasana and before the eka pada sirsasana, the first leg behind head posture.

More dhanurasana variations that can be included as extensions to regular dhanurasana early in 2nd series especially if you feel you require more preparation leading up to your kapotasana.

Viparita salabhasana appears in the vinyasa krama bow series as an extension of the shalabhasanas we find early in 2nd series, this can be extend even further in 25, utthana shalabhasana and perhaps with 26 although I tend to include 26 after pincha mayurasana either in place of or proceeding karandavasana. 

The advanced hip openers 27 and 28 strike me as the culmination of all the hip opening work we find in primary series and I continue to work on developing them there.

A natural extension of the leg behind head work found in second series. As we become proficient in eka pada sirsasana we can extend the posture into 29, buddhasana as well as into the forward bending version kapliasana.

Two more extensions of kapotasana, more challenging because of the reduced stability, explore them after your regular kapotasana.

An extension to Supta hasta padangusthasana found at the end of primary series, it's natural to explore it here. Kino MacGregorhas an excellent youtube video on this posture.

An extension of pinch mayurasana

CAUTION: This mandala is a highly challenging posture, an extension of all the twisting postures you have practiced, exception proficiency in twisting postures is advised to reduce risk to straining the neck.

One leg squats appear in Vinyasa krama in the on one leg sequence this is an extension of vrikasana, in Ashtanga we might explore it after Ardha badha padmottanasana, the strength it brings to play in the quads pays dividends in working towards kapotasana. Before beginning one leg squats be sure you have a good deep utkatasana and perhaps try the posture holding onto the wall or a chair to protect the knees.

In Derek Ireland's Primary series CD he includes work on hanumanasana as well as samakonasana after the prasarita subroutine in the standing sequence, this practice does not seem uncommon, it's where I've begun exploring my own hanumanasana again.

Introducing Advanced B asana into Primary and Intermediate Ashtanga Series

Simhasana was supposedly a favourite posture of Krishnamacharya I often include it after pindasana as an alternative to matsyasana

It's not uncommon to practice handstands in the surynamaskaras, although often frowned upon, we can take this further to extend the legs further over our heads into vrikasana. Handstands can be practiced anywhere inside and outside of our regular practice, once we have a lotus we can explore folding into lotus in handstand just as we do in the 2nd series karanadvasana but in forearm stand 

Tic tocks or tacs are commonly introduced after we are able to drop back and come up to standing from Urdhva Dhanurasana as well as have a comfortable and stable handstand, as long as those elements are in place what series we are on seems less relevant.

Extensions to the Marichiyasana from primary series, G and H presuppose facility with the leg behind head postures I'll occasionally slip one in after Marchi D or as a substitution.

I tend to include yogasana in place of garbha pindasan on less sweaty days, the arms fold around the knees rather than going through the legs

The picture below is of a long stay in badhakonasana, Bhadrasana is similar but without the feet turned out and could be included in place of baddha konasana C

Siddhasana is my pranayama and meditation posture of choice

There is some confusion here as to which posture is referred to, I believe it is that in the first of the pictures and can be practiced whenever you have a comfortable lotus, as your back bending progresses in 2nd series so will your adhomukha padmasana. Some care with padma mayurasana needs to be taken as without the legs stretched out in regular mayurasana there is less of a counterbalance and there is the danger of a face plant. The approach here in the advanced series version is to lower down on to the arms from handstand, it's actually easier to do this in the padmasana version that regular mayurasana. lowering into parma mayurasan I can manage on a good day, into regular mayurasana, not so much.

Include bhujangasana after your shalabhasana in 2nd series or as Ramaswami recommends between shoulder stand and headstand. David Williams has said he takes five breaths in upward facing dog to balance out all the forward bending, bhujangasana might be an alternative.

An advanced 'hip opener', explore it after baddha konasana or perhaps janu sirsasana C

Derek Ireland includes Trivikramasana in the on one leg sequence in standing on his primary CD, he includes samakonasana along with hanumanasana after the prasarita subroutine, again on his primary CD, I've started to do the same.

16-18 are wonderful postures and we shouldn't have to wait until the advanced series to practice them, use them as alternative pranayama or meditation postures or bring them in and around your kapotasana. parivrttasana A and B can be employed just before kapotasana as extra preparation, 16 can be brought in after kapotasana as a resting pose while we bring the breath back to steadiness after such a challenging posture.

18-19 can be brought into our standing sequence as extensions. In Vinyasa Krama there is a one leg squat version of Dighasana which is excellent preparation for kapotasana.

Introduce Natajarasana into your standing sequence after Utthita ska padasana once your backbends have started to developed, the foot can be held up with a towel in the beginning.

An extension of your drop back into urdhva dhanurasana, this posture is found in Advanced B but is practiced in Mysore once you have begun 2nd series.

An extension of hanumanasana that you may have been working on in your standing sequence after prasarita. Here the back leg is bent bringing the foot up as we reach back to take hold of it. We need a stable hanumanasana and to have progressed in our back bending postures.

Once our back bending has developed in 2nd series we can explore this headstand variation.

An arm balance that can be introduced anywhere and in any series once we have a comfortable lotus.

Krishnamacharya would recommend we spend 15 mites each day in tadasana at the beginning of our practice

An extension of the mayurasana found in 2nd series and can of course be included there.

Another extension of our 2nd series backbend postures that can be included as an extension or substitution.

This reflects Pattabhi Jois' early approach to parivritta trikonasana, the reverse triangle posture we all practice in the standing sequence. On visiting the USA in the early 80's Pattabhi Jois was supposedly shocked to find beginner students practicing the posture, he had listed it under the fourth year (Advanced B in the 1974 asana list he gave to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams). A compromise was found and for a time one would wait until they had learnt all of primary series before being taught the twisting posture when it would then be reintroduced in it's 'rightful' place in the standing sequence.

Advanced hip opener, makes sense to practice it in primary series following all the hip opening work but perhaps after we have also included some of the more proficient leg behind head postures. I've never actually tried this posture, only the single leg seated version hog dandasana.

This is curious, we jump through or rather around lifting one arm to go under the arm rather than between the arms. I'd forgotten all about this 'asana', it could be practiced anywhere I imagine assuming you have a strong jump through but why you would want to is beyond me.

Again, handstands can be introduced anywhere, especially on those cooler winter months when we want to increase our body heat, the picture shows both legs bent but here one leg should be straight.

This is a deep backbend that I've never worked out the best way to approach, my best attempts have been at a padmasana version of udhava dhaurasana then try to bring the hands down to the toes, Iyengar seems to do a drop back version from up on the knees in padmasana.

These headstands, listed by Pattabhi Jois in the Advanced series, are now found at the end of 2nd series but could of course be included at the end of your primary series once your headstand has become stable enough.

The last posture of Advanced B, Manju Jois introduces this at the end of his primary series along with the forward bending version.

For more on Advanced version of shavasana see this link to Eddie Stern's AYNY http://ayny.org/perfect-shavasana.html Ramaswami recommends taking mini shavasana's whenever our heart or breath rate increase too much.

APPENDIX

See this page for the original 1974 Syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williamas

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/p/original-1974-ashtanga-yoga-syllabus.html

'Original' 1974 Ashtanga yoga Syllabus

The 'Original' Ashtanga yoga Syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams by Sri K Pattabhi Jois in 1974 Mysore

"In fact, David and I had no idea that there were two separate series until the end of that first four-month trip, when we were leaving, at which point Guruji gave us a sheet of paper with a list of the postures, which were listed as Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A, and Advanced B. At this point he told us to practice one series a day, and only once a day".
 from Ashtanga Yoga as it was (The long and the short of it )  Nancy Gilgoff

many thanks to Anon for passing it along and especially to Nancy for giving permission to post it this morning and share with the community at large.

Available as pfd download from googledocs
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7JXC_g3qGlWRzZWOUltVnh3RFU

See my earlier blog post on Nancy's article
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/dear-nancy-yoga-as-it-was-nancy-gilgoff.html

also here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/dear-nancy-breath-in-73.html

and here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/dear-nancy-head-updown-jalandhara.html

See this page for Asana lists including the 1941 table found in krishnamacharya's 1941 book Yogasanagalu

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/p/asana-lists.html

or the post for just the yogasangalu asana table

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/complete-asana-table-from.html

This is one of a series of posts on Krishnamachrya's approach, see also

Did Pattabhi Jois' teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series, if so where is it?

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

New poster Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda asana in Ashtanga Primary Series order

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Mark Singleton's Krishnamacharya - Gurus of Modern Yoga (2014)

January 22, 2014, 4:00 pm

≫ Next: Dr. Norman Sjoman workshop 1st-2nd Feb, a few places still remaining. ALSO his other UK dates

≪ Previous: Introducing advanced asana into our Primary and Intermediate Series, suggestions for each asana in the Advanced A and B series in the original 1974 Ashtanga syllabus,

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I just came across a chapter on Krishnamacharya written by Mark Singleton and Tara Frazer in Gurus of Modern yoga, so far I think it's only out on Kindle, the hardback and paperback to follow later this month. An interesting read as ever but I have some questions/concerns. After my rant there are some more details on the book from the publishers including the full content.

Chapter 4 (first part)

T. Krishnamacharya, Father of Modern yoga

Mark Singleton and Tara Frazer

The Krishnamacharya section begins by looking at the areas below and I'd like to take a closer look at them perhaps coming back to the later topics in another post. Throughout I've referred to Mark Singleton as 'Singleton' and for some reason that seems a little abrupt, curiously more so than referring to Krishnamacharya as Krishnamacharya however, using 'Mark' throughout felt a little too familiar. It might seem that I take exception to a lot of what Mark has to say about Krishnamacharya in this chapter, just as I have with many of his conclusions in Yoga Body however I appreciate both his book and this one and the dialogue he engenders. 

Lets look at the first few topics. 

Introduction

Life

Teaching principles

Krishnamacharya on the Guru

Rammohan Brahmacari, The "Yoga Guru"

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Mark Singleton states that Krishnamacharya's reputation is "...largely due to the enormous influence of several of his students at the global level as well as the energetic proportion of his teachings by family members and the organisations founded in his name". He lists, BKS Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi but focuses for much of the article on Krishnamacharya's son, TKV Desikachar, and grandson, Kausthub Desikachar.

"TKV Desikachar along with his son, Kausthub Desikachar, founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga and Healing Foundation (KYHF), specifically to provide training and regulation of teacher and therapists working in the Krishnamacharya tradition. In recent years TKV Desikachar's involvement in the KYM and KYHF has become minimal, apparently due to health issues. the management of these organisations largely fell to Kausthub Desikachar, who has enthusisatically  promulgated the legend and teachings of his grandfather. The establishment of the KHYF with it's bold mission statement and international ambitions heralded a major shift in pace and style that gained many new recruits but also saw established devotees, teachers, and students distancing themselves from the organisation. On October 2012, Kausthub Desikachar stepped down from the KYM and KHYF due to allegations of sexual abuse (see my blog post Varying allegations of sexual, mental and emotional abuse against Dr. Kaustaub Desikachar). Some months later, however two new organisations emerged out of Chennai: the Sannidhi of krishnamacharya yoga and Yoga Makaranda, The essence of yoga, which promotes the teaching of Kausthub Desikachar."

Singleton argues that Krishnamacharya's later teaching are indistinguishable from the interpretation and meditation of those teaching by Desikachar

It is this continuation of the idea of Krishnamacharya's early and late teaching that I find so problematic. In several places Singleton refers to Krishnamacharya's Chennai years as his 'mature teaching' however Krishnamacharya was 50 when the famous 1938 documentary was shot in Mysore, being 50 myself this year I'm pleased to hear that I'm not so 'mature' after all.

In the section on Krishnamacharya's Life Singleton makes the claim that Krishnamacharya was complicit in the creation of his own 'myth', he refers to it as 'mischievousness'. I have had my own suspicious with regard to how long Krishnamacharya actually spent with his guru in Tibet, seven and a half years seems almost too much of a cliche. There is much that doesn't add up, I've discussed it in this post. Singleton  quotes a story where TKV Desikachar is supposed to have said that he continued the seven years in Tibet story to honour his father.

Singleton goes even further and questions whether Krishnamacharya studied with his Guru, Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari, in Tibet at all presenting the argument that perhaps he studied with his Bramachari, if at all, in Southern India.

Later however Singleton focuses on the Guru idea, this is after all the remit for the book. He brings out something interesting, the suggestion that the Guru plants the seed which germinates within the student eventually perhaps bearing fruit. The argument is that for all Krishnamacharya's innovations they all go back to the seed planted in him by his teacher  Ramamohana Brahmachari. If we follow this argument then all Pattabhi Jois' modifications are a result of the seed planted in him by Krishnamacharya, the same I imagine goes for Manju Jois, Sharath, Nancy Gilgoff,  David Williams, David Swenson, Kino and perhaps even Beryl Bender Birch (power yoga).

Singleton also of course questions the fabled Yoga Korunta as I too have done here, suggesting that Yoga Korunta actually just stands for 'yoga book', he suggests that this may well be another of Krishnamacharya's own compositions like the Yoga Rhyassa, where the story goes that  Krishnamacharya was somewhat divinely inspired to write it after a dream back when he was 16. Yoga Rahasya was published in the 1980's

Singleton characterises Krishnamacharya's Mysore years by reference to the 'dynamic jumping style' he taught, familiar to us now as Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga Vinyasa, this fits in with the image painted in Singleton's earlier book Yoga Body, presenting Ashtanga as being influenced by the fitness craze of the time. 

For me this is a misrepresentation of Krishnamacharya's teaching in Mysore, on this blog I've shown how Krishnamacharya's teaching of this period, as presented in his own book Yoga Makaranda, instructed long slow breathing, long stays, kumbhaka (breath retention), a linking of movement to the slow, not fast, breathing... there is even a focus on the chakra's all within the practice of asana. 

Singleton refers to dynamic sequences and yet I have also shown on this blog how Krishnamacharya preferred related groups of postures (Yogasanagalu 1941) rather than fixed sequences. Singleton continues to focus on the jump into and out of a posture but this is merely one element of a transition from standing to the posture and back to standing where each movement is linked to an element of the breath and where at the end of most inhalations and exhalations there is the suggestion of the appropriate breath retention. The jump through and back, is often performed slowly and gracefully and this seems more in keeping with Krishnamacharya's presentation of other aspects of his approach to asana. Krishnamacharya's asana is closer to pranayama and/or meditation, limbs which he also encouraged in the Mysore years,  rather than to the fitness craze of the time. 

That said Modern day Ashtanga is often but not always practiced at a faster pace than Krishnamacharya seems to have indicated in Yoga Makaranda, the stays in the postures are shorter, kumbhaka has been dropped altogether and the jumps in and out of the postures do often seem to be performed with the focus on athleticism. This perhaps has more to do with the temperament of the western students perhaps and the longer fixed sequence that Pattabhi Jois introduced based on Krishnamacharya's asana groups than Krishnamacharya's own methodology. 

But perhaps Pattabhi Jois did take his cue from the lessons Krishnamacharya taught to the boys of the Mysore palace where perhaps a faster pace was taken to keep the attention of the young boys. However Krishnamacharya was also said to keep the boys in a postures while having them chant also 'the boys' were not Krishnamacharya's only students. Indra Devi, mentioned by Singleton, can hardly be said to have a dynamic style of practice and yet she was a student of Krishnamacharya at this time as were the patients who would come to see the Maharajah's influential Yoga teacher for consultations, surely he was not teaching them the 'dynamic style' but rather perhaps his slower version of his methodology.

The Krishnamacharya section continues with a treatment of the topics

The "Krishnamacharya lineage",  Sri Vaisn avism and the Spriritual Master

Relogious Universalism

Reading and Writing tradition.

Bhakti

In the Conclusion Singleton focuses on the suggestion that Krishnamacharya is taking on an almost saint like status, that Krishnamacharya is considered the creator of modern yoga, 'the man who in the 1920's and 30s turned yoga into what it is today', he seems troubled by this. Personally I think he has nothing to worry about, in my own writing on this blog I've noticed my stats go down on the Krishnamacharya posts, but up on those mentioning Sharath, Pattabhi Jois or anything to do with back bending , I imagine that stats on the  blogs in the Iyengar tradition do much the same. There is some interest in the 'teacher's teacher but not perhaps as much as Singleton seems to suggest, despite perhaps the best efforts of the Desikachar family and the KYM.

For me Krishnamacharya is , for now, as far back as we can go directly in the Ashtanga vinyasa tradition ( the methodI practice myself). If a text turned up written by Ramamohana Brahmachari then I would probably focus on a close reading of that text and see what it offered me to explore in my practice. As it is, the first texts in the Ashtanga Vinyasa tradition we have are Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda (1934) and his Yogasanagalu (1941). In these I find all the elements, although many have been neglected,  of  Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga Vinyasa just as I do those of  Desikachar. Mohan and Ramaswami.

It bothers me not the least that the Yoga Korunta might never have existed or was just one 'Yoga Book' among many nor am I that concerned whether Krishnamacharya studied in Tibet for seven and a half years with his guru or with several yoga teachers in different parts of India. I love the stories of him stopping his heart but suspect that it was merely impressively slowed. But I do trust my teacher Ramaswami and the love and devotion he still bares for Krishnamacharya and that counts for a lot. 

What I most care about though is the raising of my arms slowly and with the breath and the idea that in the suspension of the breath at the end of the inhalation I might just see God...or the absence of God.

Tomorrow I'm off to Valencia to present a workshop on Krishnamacharya

I believe there are still some places available.

Here are more details on the rest of the book from the publishers.

The first collection of cutting-edge essays on the phenomenon of gurus in modern yoga.
Each essay represents an important facet of the modern yoga guru phenomenon.
Within most pre-modern, Indian traditions of yoga, the role of the guru is absolutely central. Indeed, it was often understood that yoga would simply not work without the grace of the guru. The modern period saw the dawn of new, democratic, scientific modes of yoga practice and teaching. While teachings and gurus have always adapted to the times and circumstances, the sheer pace of cultural change ushered in by modernity has led to some unprecedented innovations in the way gurus present themselves and their teachings, and the way they are received by their students.

Gurus of Modern Yoga explores the contributions of individual gurus to the formation of the practices and discourses of yoga today. The focus is not limited to India, but also extends to the teachings of yoga gurus in the modern, transnational world, and within the Hindu diaspora. Each section deals with a different aspect of the guru within modern yoga. Included are extensive considerations of the transnational tantric guru; the teachings of modern yoga's best-known guru, T. Krishnamacharya, and those of his principal disciples; the place of technology, business and politics in the work of global yoga gurus; and the role of science and medicine. As a whole, the book represents an extensive and diverse picture of the place of the guru, both past and present, in contemporary yoga practice.

Readership: Scholars and students of South Asian studies and yoga.

Table of contents
Note on Transliteration
Introduction - Mark Singleton and Ellen Goldberg
Part One: Key Figures in Early Twentieth-Century Yoga
Chapter 1: Manufacturing Yogis: Swami Vivekananda as a Yoga Teacher - Dermot Killingley
Chapter 2: Remembering Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: The Forgotten Lineage of Integral Yoga - Ann Gleig and Charles I. Flores
Chapter 3: Shri Yogendra: Magic, Modernity and the Burden of the Middle-Class Yogi - Joseph S. Alter
Part Two: The Lineages of T. Krishnamacharya
Chapter 4: T. Krishnamacharya, ''Father of Modern Yoga'' - Mark Singleton and Tara Fraser
Chapter 5: ''Authorized by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois'': The Role of Parampara and Lineage in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga - Jean Byrne
Chapter 6: B.K.S. Iyengar as a Yoga Teacher and Yoga Guru - Frederick M. Smith and Joan White
Chapter 7: The Institutionalization of the Yoga Tradition: ''Gurus'' B. K. S. Iyengar and Yogini Sunita in Britain - Suzanne Newcombe
Part Three: Tantra Based Gurus
Chapter 8: Swami Krpalvananda: The Man Behind Kripalu Yoga - Ellen Goldberg
Chapter 9: Muktananda: Entrepreneurial Godman, Tantric Hero - Andrea R. Jain
Chapter 10: Stretching toward the Sacred: John Friend and Anusara Yoga - Lola Williamson
Part Four: Bhaktiyoga
Chapter 11: Svaminarayana: Bhaktiyoga and the Aksarabhraman Guru - Hanna H. Kim
Chapter 12: Sathya Sai Baba and the Repertoire of Yoga - Smriti Srinivas
Part Five: Technology
Chapter 13: Engineering an Artful Practice: On Jaggi Vasudev's ISHA Yoga and Sri Sri Ravi Shakar's Art of Living - Joanne Punzo Waghorne
Chapter 14: Online Bhakti in a Modern Guru Organization - Maya Warrier
Part Six: Nation-Builders
Chapter 15: Eknath Ranade, Gurus and Jivanvratis (life-workers): Vivekananda Kendra's Promotion of the ''Yoga Way of Life'' - Gwilym Beckerlegge
Chapter 16: Swami Ramdev: Modern Yoga Revolutionary - Stuart Sarbacker
Index
The specification in this catalogue, including with

Dr. Norman Sjoman workshop 1st-2nd Feb, a few places still remaining. ALSO his other UK dates

January 29, 2014, 6:47 am

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Just a reminder that Dr. Norman Sjoman is coming to the UK next month, Feb 1st and 2nd, it should be quite something, all this squeezed into two days,

2 Asana practice classes, 2 pranayama session, four lectures, 2 Q and A's

I'm looking forward to going.

I just checked and there are still a couple of places if your quick.

Here's the link to the workshop page at Vinyoga Coventry (more info about Vinyoga Coventry at the bottom of this post)

http://www.yogacoventry.com/yoga-workshops/yogaexpo1-nsjoman/

He is also presenting another couple of workshops around the country

One at Urban City Yoga in Leicester and one at Free style Yoga Project with Mark Freeth in Tunbridge Wells, links to the websites below:

http://www.yogacoventry.com/yoga-workshops/yogaexpo1-nsjoman/ 
http://www.urbancityyoga.co.uk/pages/workshops
http://www.freestyleyogaproject.com/workshops/

Here are the details of the Coventry workshop

An Exposition of Yoga with Dr N. Sjoman
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:

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

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 / Satsangns1_hyp

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.

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 I came across a recent interview with Norman here at Priya Thomas', Shiver's up the Spine

Photos - Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama session from my Valencia Krishnamacharya workshop.

January 30, 2014, 12:35 am

≫ Next: My Krishnamacharya Workshop at Living Yoga Valencia last weekend

≪ Previous: Dr. Norman Sjoman workshop 1st-2nd Feb, a few places still remaining. ALSO his other UK dates

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"...when you play that low Bb, you’re simultaneously hearing the entire series of notes shown above, but they’re actually more felt than heard, since the majority of the sound you hear is from the fundamental, or bottom note in the series, whichever note that might be". from HERE

This morning I was practising Krishnamacharya's 'original Ashtanga Primary series', and as I slipped my hands under my feet for pada hastasana I had a flash back of the tittbhasana B from this weekend's workshop in Valencia. I was reminded too that my friend Rachel Musson had recently mentioned/recommended 'saxophone overtones' on my flute long tone in asana post. Vinyasa Krama is like this, when you learn the sequences (although once learned you don't necessarily practice them as full sequences) each posture seems to carry an echo or ghost image of all the other postures, a slight shift in your visualisation and you can feel in muscle memory the subtle shift each posture requires (Rachel, overtones are usually the harmonics above the note, what is it when you can hear those below as well? UPDATE: Rachel says she's heard them described as shadow tones). I found this an exciting thought.

Here are some pictures of one of the sessions from last weekends Krishnamachary's Ashtanga and Vinyasa Krama workshop hosted by Living Yoga Valencia in Spain.

The workshop consisted of
Session 1- a  talk on Krishnamacharya
Session 2 - Krishnamachary's Yoga Makaranda Primary group
Session 3 - Vinyasa Krama workshop
Session 4 _ Led Vinyasa Krama class (integrated with pranayama, pratyahara and meditation).

Thank you so much to Cecilia Cristolovean for popping by for the third session to take some photos and catching something of the feel of the class.
Here is her website
http://cecillephotography.com/

Thank you Andreea and Cosmin for inviting me and to everyone who turned up and practised with such commitment.

My next workshop is 'Exploring Krishnamacharya with Anthony 'Grimmly' Hall in Ulm 5th- 6th April 2014 (Ulm)

and then the Yoga Rainbow festival in Turkey 3-9 May, 2014 

There may well be something else that I'm getting quite excited about in the pipeline.

Another post to come over the weekend of the whole trip and with more photo's but here I want to highlight Cecilia's photography.

My Krishnamacharya Workshop at Living Yoga Valencia last weekend

January 30, 2014, 10:30 pm

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≪ Previous: Photos - Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama session from my Valencia Krishnamacharya workshop.

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Here are some more pictures from on and around last weekends Krishnamachary's Ashtanga and Vinyasa Krama workshop hosted by Living Yoga Valencia in Spain. thank you to Andreea, Cecilia Cristolovean and M for the photo's.

Arriving at Living Yoga Valencia

Krishnamacharya presentation

Context

My friend Enrique who comments here occasionally and also came to my Leon workshop

Cosmin translating the Krishnamacharya presentation.

Andreea and Cosmin who make up Living Yoga Valencia, such wonderful hosts, thank you

practicing in our bedroom morning the first morning

The first session was based on Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda asana in Ashtanga Primary Series order

The second session a Vinyasa Krama workshop http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

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http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/ Thank you to Maria for translating throughout the workshop

http://cecillephotography.com/

http://cecillephotography.com/

Cosmin's coconut pancakes

...this and the next few pictures are from the final led Vinyasa krama session

...with apologies to Manju who argues that the feet should go above the head not behind it - bad habits

pratyahara

Caharming cafe on the beach, Cafe bonbon (espresso with condensed milk) and the best pineapple and coconut carrot cake... though I only got a bite

Valencia  city beach

missing Valencia already, hopefully return soon.

Thank you to Cosmin and Andreea of Living Yoga Valencia for hosting the workshop and looking after M and I so wonderfully, Maria for translating, Cecilia Cristolovean http://cecillephotography.com/ for coming and taking such excellent pictures on the third session, everyone who came to the workshop and gave so generously of their effort and attention and to M. for coming with me for this one and making this workshop particularly special.

See my previous post for the black and white set of Ceclia's photo's

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NEWS

This weekend I'm going Dr. Norman Sjoman workshop 1st-2nd Feb, a few places still remaining. ALSO his other UK dates

My next workshop is 'Exploring Krishnamacharya with Anthony 'Grimmly' Hall in Ulm 5th- 6th April 2014 (Ulm)

and then the Yoga Rainbow festival in Turkey 3-9 May, 2014 

...and there may be something else in the pipeline on and around Easter that I'm quite excited about...

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I'm available between now and the end of May to present this workshop in Europe.

After Turkey I will be moving to Japan to join M. who is going on ahead next weekend.

4 in 1 - I love this picture. I'm fat. Practice has shifted. Dr. Norman Sjoman's workshop

January 31, 2014, 3:56 pm

≫ Next: GOD-HEAD February Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami

≪ Previous: My Krishnamacharya Workshop at Living Yoga Valencia last weekend

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I love this picture

It's from the Valencia workshop last weekend ( see previous two posts for more pics). If there is one image that sums up Ramaswami's presentation of Krishnamacharya's Vinyasa Krama for me, it's this movement from tadasana that echoes through so many of the other sequences. Seeing, out of the corner of my eye, the room follow my movements, Ramaswami's movements, Krishnamacharya's....

...and I'm probably saying "stretch, stretch, stretch", smiling inside as I hear Ramaswami's voice in my head.

Did he hear Krishnamacharya in his each time he repeated it to us?

In Leon it was the headstands, looking around the room and seeing Ramaswami's movements in sirsasana, feeling that I was sharing this, passing it along if only a small part of all he shared with us. It makes me want to share more, to be able to do his teaching more justice.

Teach only what you know..... so far so good, don't stray from that path... that way be dragons

I can't think of it as teaching, sharing then, sharing my own practice of what Ramaswami taught to us, just that, does he, my teacher,  think of it the same way I wonder.

And besides, it's the practice that teaches, the practice of the practice.

And the talk on Krishnamacharya, it's just my reading, what do we know really.... I wonder how much his sons and daughters really know of that enigmatic man, their father.

Go to the texts, the primary sources, what did he actually write, what did he want to share but even there we have to speculate on the context, what  can we really know.... and we can only teach what we know, share then, a reading one interpretation, one among many.

Stretch, stretch, stretch, readings are like this also.

And yet it's exhausting, draining, distracting from my own practice ( that this is a practice, the practice is still seeping in) and I keep telling myself that come May when I follow M. back home to Japan, I'll retire, go back to exploring my own practice, turn it all off the blog, fb....

Who am I kidding, a corner has been turned and I've shared a little, just a little, smilingly (on the inside) repeated stretch stretch stretch and the room has done just that, something, a little something,  has been passed along.

That's the job.

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I'm fat

OK not really fat but a little heavier than I have been for sometime. I've let the discipline slip a little. When did that happen? Since last summer I think, little by little, the three months of Kidney stone related nonsense, softening my practice, exploring Krishnamacharya's slow primary, slight over indulging on and around Christmas, the disruptions.....

I can feel it in the binds, there's a little bit of a belly there and I can see it in my sarvangasana, hello old friend, nice to see you, I hope this is a short visit...

First reaction? Time for a month of full-on Ashtanga, a not untypical reaction perhaps but why Ashtanga, it's not the practice not really the practice but the discipline around the practice, eating better, eating less. Krishnamacharya had a lot to say on this, eat what you need then feed the crow.

So here's a challenge, much interesting than the chakrasana challenge... to get back to my fight (practice) weight on a Vinyasa Krama practice ( although with Friday Primary obviously, Krishnamacharya's slow Primary). You raise an eyebrow, don't think it can be done? That's because you don't know your Vinyasa Krama, have a softly softly view of that practice, Ramaswami made us sweat and more than once, why do you think he has those mini savasana's in his tool box.

In the Red corner tipping the scales at 80.1 kilos, me now.

In the Blue corner, me then (LMU 2010) 74.5 kilos

Actually 74.5 was the lowest I've been, probably too low, that was brought on by practicing Intermediate series in the LMU stairwell at 5am before heading on over to Ramaswami's three hour asana class each morning via the coffee stand. breakfast lunch, dinner and tea tended to be a couple of handfuls of cereal and a swig of milk.

77.7 kilo then, my regular comfortable practice weight, when the binds are effortless and my jump backs float like a butterfly...

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Practice has shifted

The focus is moving away from asana or rather behind the asana...

Shadow tones, shadow asana...

What was Krishnamacharya up to in his Yoga Makaranda asana descriptions, that pranayama in asana, the moving of prana, the drishti focus on the chakra model?

I can't make sense of it intellectually so have to go inside, not enough to hold those kumbhakas, have to get down and dirty with the prana model, the chakra's, play with them myself...what were those yogi's up to when they built and tweaked the model, what did they notice, what was Krishnamacharya rediscovering in his own practice?????

Prana it is then, chakra it is but not the pretty rainbow coloured ones, onnggg ongggg ongggg ongggg

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Off to Coventry early tomorrow morning for Dr. Norman Sjoman's workshop

I really don't know what it's going to be like, hadn't even thought about the asana element but am getting excited about it. ‘opening’ and posture deepening techniques????

Perhaps this gives a clue

Yoga Touchstone

Yoga Touchstone has a section of essays and a section of pictures.

The essays draw on a deep traditional knowledge of the original texts that has been tempered through actual practice and the study of practice traditions.  The historical ground for this has been cleared by Sjoman in his earlier book The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace.  The essays draw also on theories of movement that are slowly supplanting the reductionist ideas of the body, the legacy from anatomical art and science.  The results are enriching – it leads to unique interpretations of Patanjali’s sutras and concepts that are prominent in metaphysical knowledge systems.  Sjoman’s work is learned and fresh.  His insights cannot be neglected or dismissed. 

The pictures in the book of Sri Dattatreya are equally refreshing.  These photographs are not illustrative although they surely serve as illustration for asanas.  They are unique in the world of yoga. They are part of a landscape speaking a language of transcendence, beauty and place. 

Here's the schedule for the weekend

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 / Satsangns1_hyp

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

GOD-HEAD February Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami

February 1, 2014, 2:30 pm

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Greetings from Chennai, India. For 2014.

It was nice talking to the participants of the Yoga Therapy program of my friend Saraswathy Vasudevan in Chennai. I spoke about how yoga is called a sarvanga sadhana. Very nice group.
I am scheduled to teach a weekend program at Ananda Ashram in New York State in April. I am scheduled to teach for a week at One Yoga in Canada, thanks to our friends Ryan Leier in May. In May-June I plan to teach for about two weeks at Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga, venue London and Wells, UK. In June I may teach a weekend workshop in Miami, Florida. Then there is the 200 Hour Teacher Training Program at Loyola Marymount Uniiversity between July 7 and Aug 9th 2014. In September I will be teaching at Yoga Chicago for a week. In October I may probably go to Sausalito/SanFransisco for a week, maybe. I am also contemplating doing the 200 hr Yoga Alliance registered Vinyasakrama Yoga Teacher training program in India for five weeks.

GOD-HEAD
Many faiths say that God made man in his image. Conversely one may say that if you want to see God with a form He would have a human form-- a person or purusha Many Puranas .depict God in the form of a human being, as parama-purusha (Super-man) even as the upanishads talk of the ultimate reality as formless, yet He is depicted as having different forms. Subsequently the agamas gave various human forms to God so that devotees can worship with concrete form rather than try to image and meditate based on the way God is described in the puranas. The puranas by depicting God as a super human being with very charming stories about Him, were able to depict God as person so that many devotees would be able to relate to the Lord more easily. Those charming stories all attempt to bring out the auspicious qualities of the Lord as just, compassion, guide, a peer--the puranic god one can empathize with. They help bring God from heaven to one's own home. It is easy to consider many of these --like Krishna, Rama, Siva—as a fried, philosopher, guide. The same Krishna who played pranks with Gopikas and his mother Yasodhara became a Guru to his friend Arjuna and gave very sane advise which is considered to be universally and eternally valid.

But God created other beings from the lovely polar bear to the annoying Madras mosquito. When I was young I used to spend some good time with my father's friend Harihara Iyer. Though he had no formal training in Indian philosophy, he had such a grasp of several aspects of the tradition he could breathe a lot of life into ordinary sayings of the scriptures and smritis. He would say something on these lines. God created the entire universe with thousands of species. If human beings think of God having a human form what about other beings say a buffalo. If a Buffalo were to know God how will it visualize Him, as a buffalo a super buffalo.

Since the Lord created so many beings why not God have forms of different species. Some upanishads refer to the formless Lord manifesting in different forms. Many Puranas have depicted God in different forms. Take the case of the most beloved of them all, Ganesa. Ganesa. plump and with that elephant head is the chosen deity (ishta devata) of millions of people. Ganesa has endeared himself with some lovely stories and episodes that can be found in puranas. He is said to represent the Prithvi tatva or the earth principle. There is an interesting story about how he got an elephant head. There are also further charming stories about how he outwitted the more mobile brother Shanmukha by resorting to a simple procedure as paying respects to the parents by circumambulation. Equally fascinating is the story about how he wrote down the whole Mahabharata as dictated by sage Vyasa, the episode giving details about how each one kept the other in check by certain preconditions. All these stories, the several beautiful forms of Ganesa dancing, eating a sweet (modaka) have endeared Him to millions. Small shrines for Ganesa in almost all the temples in India make Him always available to communicate with. People participate in Ganesa festivals with great enthusiasm, love and reverence. All these attempts make God accessible rather than a viewing as a distant entity.

Hanuman or Anjaneya with the famous head of monkey is another popular deity who again finds huge following. He is the chosen deity for many yogis who give considerable importance to yamaniyamas especially Brahmacharya. Yogis have designed a few asanas after him like Haanumanasana, Anjaneyasana with a few artistic vinyasas or variations. Hanuman could mean one with a prominent jaw. Hanuman was considered the son of the deity Vayu and Anjana. He is therefore known as Vayusuta and Anjaneya. One reason why Anjaneya is worshiped is to remove the obstacles and sorrows one experiences inevitably in life due to afflictions of the planet Sani or Saturn There are several stories as to how Sani affects everyone directly for more than 40% of one's life and indirectly also. Orthodox people dread the arrival of the sani afflicted period like when it occupies the 12th, 1st, 2nd, 4th,and 8th houses in one's horoscope or birth chart. There is no one who can escape the afflictions of Sani it is believed. Even Lord Siva is said to have suffered at the hands of Sani albeit for a short period of time (muhurta). There are very few temples for Sanaischara or the slow moving Saturn. So what can one do? Worship Hanuman instead. How does worshiping Hanuman help prevent Saturn's afflictions?

In the Ramayana Lord Rama takes his army mainly made up of monkeys of Kishkinda of Sugriva. To cross the Indian Ocean to reach Lankapuri of the demon Ravana, all were busy getting building materials and constructing the bridge. Anjaneya the strongest of all was carrying huge boulders for the work. But it was time for Sani to afflict Anjaneya, Sani does not bother to wait. So he approached the busy Anjaneya and told him that it was time for the Sani period for Anjaneya. Anjaneya asked him what will happen if you afflict me? You will lose everything including your home, be separated from your family. Anjaneya said, “No Problem” I have no family, I have no possessions, and my home is my Lord Rama's feet. Then Sani said, “Ok, I will affect one part of your body and after the stipulated period, I will leave. Can I get into your knee so that you will suffer from arthritis”. Anjaneya said, .not now as I have to work to complete the construction of the bridge across the ocean.' Ultimately Anjaneya let Sani get into his head as he did not want to think much while doing the basically hard manual labor. Sani got into the monkey head. Sani to his dismay started feeling huge pressure as Anjaneya was busy carrying mountain sized rocks and sometimes smashing the rocks on his head to break them to smaller pieces for the construction work. Instead of bothering Anjaneya, Sani started feeling the same misfortune others experience when he afflicts them. With the pain unbearable, Sani cried out to Hanuman and wanted to get out of his head. Anjaneya agreed but on one condition. The condition was that Sani should not afflict any of Anjaneya's devotees. Sani agreed immediately, he was such pain that he would agree to any condition at that time. We know now why Hanuman has so many devotees. Hanuman Chaleesa is a very popular prayer chanted by hundreds of Anjaneya devotees. Sundara Kanda of the Ramayana contains the grand episode of Hanuman leaping over the Indian Ocean to Lanka in search of Rama's wife Sita. This portion is called Sundara Kanda, chanting of which is said to remove all obstacles and recovery from absolutely hopeless situations. It has about 2800+ slokas or verses and it takes close to 10 hour to chant it. I have chanted this section and was recorded by my recording company Sangeetha which is still available in India in a twin volume package.

Hayagriva is said to be the Lord Himself with a horse face and a human body. He is said to be the repository of all vedic knowledge. My Guru used to chant a verse in praise of hHyagriva as a purva santi in many theory classes. Narasimha the man lion avatara of the Lord is another popular deity form worshiped. And of course our dear friend, philosopher and guide, Patanjali an incarnation of Adisesha himself and an aspect of the Lord, is said to have a human body but a thousand cobra hoods(heads).

Norman Sjoman's Workshop in Coventry last weekend - practice notes

February 3, 2014, 11:15 pm

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An Exposition of Yoga with Dr N. Sjoman
http://www.yogacoventry.com

This isn't the Norman Sjoman workshop blog post I want to write, it's going to take a some time before I can write that one, enough to say that it was intense, physically, intellectually and whatever form of intense full-on pranayama practice elicits.

Surface, lets skim across the surface.

There was asana practice, it wasn't Ashtanga that's for sure, there was little to no breath focus as we moved in and out of the postures, first this one, get up, then that one but inside the asana certainly a focus on breath as tool.

Norman is interested in the movement within an asana, that will require a post all of it's own.

At times it reminded me of applied Vinyasa Krama, there were certainly some kramas, related postures placed artfully. I'm sure Norman used the word krama at one point.

It was closer to Iyengar and Norman Sjoman did study with Iyengar for a number of years in the great mans house back in the 60's, before the institute was built and things changed. It's not just Ashtanga it seems that lost it's innocence somewhat (some might call it naivety ) with it's blooming popularity.

So a strong Iyengar influence then, filtered through Norman's forty years of practice and teaching.

There was some serious cranking going on

Saturday night in an fb post I wrote

"I think I'm broken"

Norman adjusts like a chiropractor, there is.... extreme apprehension as you hear one yelp, groan (even scream) after the next and you know he is coming ever closer ( and this was a roomful of dancers too,there is a performing arts course at Coventry Uni, tough girls). Even when your alignment is not so bad, a "good" will be followed by CRANK. I think I get relatively deep into my backbends and twists, I've been practicing a number of years now but Norman will crank me in a third again.

Perhaps I was in the pose quite deeply but probably in all the wrong places.

I need to practice, to reawaken some of the things that came up over the weekend, I think I will understand them better as I enter the postures again, this morning. I took the day off yesterday, an unofficial moon day. I ache all over, my back feels sore, tender, but the muscles not in the sense of any damage done. Legs ache too from toe to groin and interestingly and something I'm most proud of, I can feel my obliques, I didn't know I had obliques. There were some the triangle postures where Norman was talking about an opening up of the abdomen, I think may have come from there, either that or from the pranayama.

At the end of the post I'll list the asana we practiced, it's a curious list. The second day he seemed to throw in the kitchen sink, some more advanced postures, perhaps as spice to the other asana that he focussed on more closely.

The talks were interesting of course, the first, Saturday,  on his 40 years plus in studying Sanskrit and yoga. As I mentioned he was there with Iyengar when Iyengar was teaching out of his house but later he was also already living in Mysore when Norman Allan came to town. He has some stories.

Norman talked about his first book The Yoga tradition of the Mysore palace and it's (first) reception among Ashtangi's, the horror and vilification as they felt their ancient practice was being presented as a revivalist. All Norman felt he was doing supposedly was suggesting that the main influence on Krishnamacharya's yoga came from the Mysore palace and the old yoga texts in it's library. Several time he referred to Krishnamacharya practice as being strongly influenced by literature, by descriptions of practice in the ancient texts, there certainly is that thread in it, versed in sanskrit himself, Krishnamacharya seems to have combed the old books for all he could find on yoga practice.

Norman stressed that though he seems to have questioned the source of the Krishnamacharya asana tradition he also sought to 'save' asana rather than dismissing it's emphasis in yoga practice altogether but that this was somewhat overlooked in the furore that greeted his book.

There is something of the trickster to Norman I suspect, perhaps he got it from Iyengar, but it's not a bad trait.

It is perhaps this focus on asana as revelatory knowledge that  justifies the inclusion of asana in Norman Sjoman workshop and it's place in our own practice. He wants to argue that Iyengar has a 'dynamic' focus on asana (or used to) initiated by introspection while Krishnamacharya and Jois followed a linear tradition orientated on accumulation. Personally I suspect that both possibilities and temptations are inherent in all asana based systems. I think of Krishnamacharya Yoga Makaranda and his long stays, the long slow breath and his focus on kumbhaka in asana, surely there was introspection here.

I've just renamed my blog, Overcoming asana, the overcoming of individual asana as well as the overcoming of our fixation on asana, the objectification of asana as well as the method, tradition or lineage in which we find ourselves. I'm thinking here of the dangers of asana as obstacle, but then that's not new, that danger is well documented from within each tradition, however the temptation is ever present.

The second talk, Sunday, was on the Yoga Sutra's, mostly Norman read sections from his new book Yogasutrcintamini in which he seeks to situate the Yoga Sutras in a wider tradition rather than as a single authoritative text. It's a wonderful book and I want to devote a post to it but here's a taste...

Norman's books are available from black lotus books http://www.blacklotusbooks.com/publications/gate.htm

After the talk on both Saturday and Sunday, Norman presented pranayama sessions. On my recent workshop I was asked by my hosts if I thought I had perhaps gone a little far in my inclusions of Kumbhakas in my own 20 minute sessions of teaching pranayama, I had built up to them lengthening the inhalation and exhalation then adding first one then the other short kumbhaka before lengthening them just a little bit. I wondered if they may have been right, did i go to far. Norman however jumped right in, long inhalations and exhalations, long kumbhaka's of around fifteen to twenty seconds for each stage at the end we were practicing nadi shodana at I think 30 second inhalations and thirty second exhalation, very intense. the pranayama sessions ran for longer than an hour, it was a quite full-on pranayama practice. I'm typing this very quickly now because I'm looking forward to going upstairs and practicing it just like that here at home. It was intense, challenging but also inspiring. The first day I opened my eyes to notice that many had given up half way through and were in the is savasana's already but on the second day almost everyone seemed to stick it out to the end, inspired rather than turned off by the challenging approach.

And that probably sums up Norma's workshop

It was intense, challenging but also inspiring.

He is also presenting another couple of workshops around the country

One at Urban City Yoga in Leicester and one at Free style Yoga Project with Mark Freeth in Tunbridge Wells, links to the websites below:

http://www.yogacoventry.com/yoga-workshops/yogaexpo1-nsjoman/ 
http://www.urbancityyoga.co.uk/pages/workshops
http://www.freestyleyogaproject.com/workshops/

Appendix 

I was asked which asana Norman presented in the workshop, so here's a list. I'll write more about his approach to these later but for now I'm dying to go practice,

Workshop notes: NB this is just how I remember it the order might be slightly wrong and I may have forgotten a couple and I may well have got the ratio's wrong for the pranayama but it will give a rough idea of how I remember it ar least.

Norman was joined by Sheryl who demonstrated most of the asana

Saturday Day 1 of 2

Asana Session 2 hours
Sirsasana 10 min
Sarvangasana 20 minutes inc. leg lowering etc
Halasana's
Side bend, equal distribution, toes slightly pointing in
Utthita Trikonasana
Parivritta Trikonasana
Utthita Parshvakonasana
Parivritta Parshvakonasana
Prasarita Padottanasana A
Parshvottanasana
Digasana's
Ustrasana - lifting the thoracic,
Dropbacks
Janu Sirsasana 35 degrees, pelvis level
Paschimottanasana
Savasana

Lunch

Talk about Norman's Sanskrit and yoga studies

Pranayama 1 - 1/2 hours followed by a long savasana
Ujayii
Nadi shodana, adding kumbhakas one by one
Making each stage longer
20 sec inhalation and exhalation
Then 30 second inhalation 30 second exhalation
Bumble bee pranayama
Long savasana.

Sunday, Day 2 of 2

Asana session 2 hours

Sirsasana 10 min
Sarvangasana 20 minutes inc. leg lowering etc
Halasana's
Vasisthasana
viswamitrasana
ardhabaddha vasisthasana(?)
Utthita Trikonasana
Parivritta Trikonasana
Utthita Parshvakonasana
Parivritta Parshvakonasana
Prasarita Padottanasana A
Parshvottanasana
Ustrasana
Dhanurasana
urdhva dhaurasana
viparita shalabhasana
Janu sirsasana
paschimottanasana
ekapadasirsasana
dwipadasirsasana/yoganidrasana
mayurasana
savasana

lunch

Talk 2 hours - Yoga Sutras (and shastras)

Pranayama session  1 - 1/2 hours followed by a long savasana

Ujayii
Nadi shodana with kumbhakas 15  seconds each stage
20 sec inhalation and exhalation 20 second puraka kumbhaka
Then 30 second inhalation 30 second exhalation no kumbhaka
Bumble bee pranayama
Long savasana.

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Iyengar's Library (picture) and posts on Prashant Iyengar's books.

February 6, 2014, 10:53 pm

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Iyengar's Library, I've been looking for an actual picture of this legendary room for some time, thank you R.

 re Janu  Sirsasana

"... While holding the feet with the hands, pull and clasp the feet tightly. Keep the head or face or nose on top of the kneecap and remain in this sthiti from 5 minutes up to half an hour. If it is not possible to stay in recaka for that long, raise the head in between, do puraka kumbhaka and then, doing recaka, place the head back down on the knee. While keeping the head lowered onto the knee, puraka kumbhaka should not be done. This rule must be followed in all asanas". 
Krishnamacharya - Yoga makaranda (1934)

"...Next, doing rechaka slowly, place the forehead or chin on the knee of the outstretched leg, and do rechaka and puraka fully as much as possible; this is the 8th vinyasa". 
Pattabhi Jois Yoga Mala 1950s

Once we slow down our Ashtanga a little (a lot), bringing it in line with Pattabhi Jois' Yoga Mala and especially Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda we have perhaps more time to explore the asan. I mentioned in my previous post on Norman Sjoman's workshop that we can bring attention to the movement within the asan. I'm not talking about the vinyasa, the movement into and out of the asana but the subtle movements within the asan itself, the physical, mental, emotional and perhaps spiritual movements, more to come on this with another post I'm working on based on Norman Sjoman's writing.

"...In Yoga Touchstone and Dead Birds, I have made a case for movement being the vehicle of access to consciousness. Movement, in the form of asanas, with their particular movement sequence, becomes the object/subject of introspective meditation.

Patañjali’s definition is in striking contrast to the dogma of modern postural yoga. Modern postural yoga uses the āsana object as the aim or goal of yoga. Breath and awareness are only adventitious adjuncts to the āsana. It goes much further than this. Āsana can be a means to access our own consciousness. This is indicated in Patañjali’s definition by the words anantasamāpattibhyām. The whole definition thus indicates attention to the objective (if only by releasing our grip on it) and awareness of the

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subjective. Thus āsana is accomplished by transiting from the objective element to the subjective keeping them both in the sphere of awareness. This can be compared to the Śaivites nime􏳐a and unme􏳐a. (See Netratantram 8.8 under YS2.29)

To be even more specific, it is possible to experience this directly in advanced āsanas, in moving āsanas such as viparītacakrāsana where one must allow a certain body/mind

awareness and at the same time abandon that – the matter of hanging on and letting go at the same time. These ideas are presented in more detail in Yoga Touchstone and Dead Birds".

Norman Sjoman Yogasutracintamani p219

Listening to Norman reminded me a little of Prashant ( I need to explore the differences as well as any similarities) and I've been revisiting my earlier posts and his books. I was also sent a few pages from a book of his transcribed lessons, Tuesdays with Prashant. I'm supposed to be getting rid of books not buying them but I couldn't resist this and there was a good price from Yogamatters.

I'd love to go to Pune and study with him but my understanding is that you have to have been an Iyengar student for eight years, he does come to Europe occasionally though I understand, typical, just as I'm moving back to Japan (May).

Tuesday's with Prashant

Prashant applies his experiments of practice to sequencing his classes. Tuesdays with Prashant is the transcription of an entire year of classes. RIMYI closes for the hot months of the Indian climate during April and May. The classes begin in June and progress to a climax in April of the following calendar year. This word-for-word transcription gives the reader the opportunity to ascertain the depth of thought brought to the instruction. Each day has a preface describing the climatic conditions and a list of the asanas taken. No matter how intently we all attempt to write notes after class, or even if we write as an observer while he is teaching, we never get it all onto the page. This 255-page compilation is a true work of Bhakti yoga edited by Vibha Kale. 
Intro above from here

Have a look at this online article by prashant Iyengar also A class after a class 

Some earlier posts on prashant Iyengar's books.

from 27 December 2012

A peek into Prashant Iyengar's Chittavijana of Yogasanas

Quite intrigued and excited by this big little book by Prashant Iyengar, a phenomenology of Asana?

I bought my copy from Yogamatters in the UK but if in the US you can find a copy here http://iynaus.org/store/books/chittavijnana-of-yogasanas-prashant-iyengar

While your at it you might want to pick up his Alpha and Omega of Trikonasana
http://iynaus.org/store/books/chittavijnana-of-yogasanas-prashant-iyengar

from 19th december 2012

Un-Yoga and Prashant Iyengar's Paradigms of Practice

 “We cannot expect that millions are practicing real yoga just because millions of people claim to be doing yoga all over the globe.  What has spread all over the world is not yoga.  It is not even non-yoga; it is un-yoga.”  The undue emphasis, particularly in the West, on asana as the crux of Yoga dilutes the essence of the spiritual practice and its ultimate goal of moksha".

from a 2005 interview with Prashant Iyengar, son of B.K.S. Iyengar, published in Namarupa magazine

That's not to say that whatever the above mentioned millions do practice, myself included, in all it's modern myriad forms is in anyway bad, but if we're going to make use of the term Yoga then it's good perhaps to reflect on it's wider context and possibilities.

Becoming very curious/fascinated by Prashant Iyengar and what he's up in his discussions of the possibilities of asana.

A friend recently, fondly referred to him as a mad scientist

I'm thinking more Heston Blumenthal

Get a taste of his work through this article from Alan Goode at Yoga-Mandir
https://www.yogamandir.com.au/resource/are-paradigms-practice-necessary

Here's the intro to the paradigms idea from that article.

"Paradigms
Prashant Iyengar has designated seven paradigms of practice to aid the sadhaka. Seven modes in which the sadhaka might act. He names these as

• Learning
• Studying
• Practicing
• Maturing
• Consolidating
• Improving/Becoming profound
• Accomplishing Sadhana

A brief summary of each follows.

Learning. As a learner we adopt a mode of beginner when we practice. Fresh to the experience,
we should be free of expectation in the outcomes.

Studying. We study the asana when we move the focus from the attempt adopt the idealized
stance and apply the asana with a focus upon the dynamic relationship of body, mind, senses and breath.

Practicing. Prashant indicates that to practice is to replicate. When we practice we apply what has been taught in an attempt to recreate and verify experience.

Maturing. In which the sadhaka becomes independent of the environmental factors in practice. A stage in which there is clarity in the practice experience and a capacity to enter that experience at will.

Consolidating. Where the sadhaka diminishes the intensity of effort without diminishing the experience. ‘To lessen the efforts in a way that the effects will not be lessened’

Improving/Becoming profound. To study the subtle aspects within the practice. To develop intense stability in practice so that one observes the energetic aspects. ‘To do this the sadhaka would need to perform Trikonasana with various kriyas focusing on the five Pranas or the six Chakras.’

Accomplishing Sadhana. The transformation of the practice into a meditative process.

These categories are covered more fully in appendix A, where I have attached Prashant’s descriptions of each stage. I note however these should not be seen as progression from beginner to experienced sadhaka. Even the most experienced sadhaka will adopt a mode of learning when encountering a new asana or may return to learn or study something which he/she assumes is known. These are modes of practice that the sadhaka can adopt at any stage or time, with any asana.

Are paradigms a means to address the klesas?
When we look at the seven modes of practice what is seen is a way for the sadhaka to discipline their involvement with experience so that we can address the klesas. Ignorance, (avidya), pride (asmita), attachment (raga), aversion (dvesa), and fear of death (abhinivesa) all serve to entangle us and cloud perception. These, in turn, provoke the five modifications in the consciousness (vrtti). The consciousness

Are paradigms of practice necessary
can move between direct perception (pramana), mistaken identity -illusion (viparyaya), imagination (vikalpa), memory (smrti), and sleep (nidra). This sequence gives rise to the fluctuations in the citta.
By applying these paradigms of practice is it possible to consolidate experience on the level of the consciousness? Is this a system aiming to identify and replicate experiential states within practice to observe the citta? By consolidating the experiences through the paradigms, the sadhaka can then study the reflection of our actions in the citta. The klesas can be identified as they reflect in the citta. The klesas can be studied.
Prashant takes this work further by applying referentials, sequentials, hierarchies etc. His aim is to move from a doing mode to devise a means to systematically study experience.
Whether these paradigms of practice are essential or not will form ongoing discussion and disputation. It is clear however that from working with the paradigms of practice there is a direct and tangible effect in the citta. It is also possible to recreate the experiential modes.
The study of consciousness has begun!"
Allan Goode Pune Dec 07

Needless to say my Christmas reading is sorted.

See also
Yoga - An Integrated Science
A class after Class. - Online version
http://www.iyengar-yoga.com/articles/integratedscience/

Practising alone for the next three months

February 8, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Post Norman Sjoman workshop practice, Backbending, Kapotasana, feeling lighter in arm balances... 108 Viparita Chakrasana's

≪ Previous: Iyengar's Library (picture) and posts on Prashant Iyengar's books.

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M. just sent her last text from the plane before heading off to Rome. A couple of hours there then she'll hop on a connecting flight back home to Japan. The plan is for her to find work, somewhere for us to live, then I can apply for my spouse visa and join her hopefully at the end of May. House seems bigger, emptier and a little colder already.

My Job is to empty the house, sell what I can, give away what I can't and bring over the barest minimum.

Crack open the Japanese books too.

To ship or not to ship, we keep going back and forth between the two. Last time, when we came here ten years ago, we shipped a whole pallet over, mostly books. Nietzsche, our Chinchilla, came over with M. and spent six months in quarantine with us visiting a couple of times a week. Sadly he's no longer with us but his ashes will be coming back with me when I go.

Nietzsche in quarantine ten years ago

All these books, OK I can let go of a lot of them, I have a philosophy reference library on HD now but my Heidegger can't bare to give up on them yet.

English books, I'll be teaching again, I should probably take a little trade craft, it's been a while.

And then the yoga books, I seem to have accumulated a small library, a lot of it can go but what I'd like to keep still amounts to another box.

What comes with me what stays behind???

Attachments....

OK, so just the Primary Heidegger texts, couple of much loved cookbooks, the rarer yoga books, couple of English books that I'm sure to use, M's Buddhist discourses.... can probably get that down to three small boxes sent surface. One small bookshelf in a tatami room, go minimalist

But then what about my goban, my three manduka mats, my sword.... the set of club's M.s Dad gave me,  the few remaining bits of much loved crockery that has somehow managed to survive the last ten perhaps even twenty years....... my Nespresso machine!

Yeah I know, Attachments.....

Still, I can focus on practice more than ever, can go to bed earlier and thus get up earlier for a longer practice in the morning as well as a decent practice in the evening, be nice not to feel I'm rushing one or more of my asana, pranayama or meditation practices.

I just have to worry about food for myself, looking forward to getting more disciplined in my eating again, eat less and simpler... that said M made me a huge vat of Japanese curry before she left.

I'm tempted to quit social media for the next three months, drop out of Facebook altogether and leave the blog to tick over on it's own. On reflection though M. has always liked reading my posts, probably because she was working so much and it was the only way she got to hear what I was up to. So I guess I'll blog, short posts about practice just like the old days.

Post Norman Sjoman workshop practice, Backbending, Kapotasana, feeling lighter in arm balances... 108 Viparita Chakrasana's

February 10, 2014, 12:00 am

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≪ Previous: Practising alone for the next three months

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As I mentioned yesterday a few short posts for M. on practice for the next few months, until I get to join her in Japan. She should have landed around 3am last night (my time). Hope it was a nice flight, love to the family, look forward to seeing them all soon.

I wish I'd recorded the asana sessions on Norman's workshop, amongst the grunts and groans of the long stays and openings there were some real gems. As I mentioned in an earlier post Norman spent six years or so with Iyengar back when he was teaching out of his house, before the Iyengar institute was built.

There are a few things I have a rough memory of that I'm trying to explore and pin down in practice.

This post will be very vague but I suspect I'll be able to make more sense of them with this book, Critical Alignment, by Gert van Leeuwen. Gert was Norman's Sjoman's student and Norman referred to the book several times both in the workshop as we in his own books Yogasutrcintamini , Yoga Touchstone and Dead birds (all available from Black lotus Books).

So in all I'm about to write be aware that I might have got it slightly or completely wrong but if it sounds interesting you might want to take a preview of Gert's book.

In inversions, Norman has you bring the arms a little closer together than I'm used to, In Urdhva Dhanurasana too .

He noticed that I tend to rely on upper body and arm strength, I'm tense supposedly, up high over and around the shoulders, he kept having me relax that area and it does seem to make a difference.

There was more on the pelvis in space, something I've written about here over the years, here though there seems to be a connecting of the abdomen with the pelvis more. He had me take the pelvis a little further back before bringing the legs up in sirsasana. Add that to the relaxing of the arms and shoulders somewhat and it makes for a much lighter more relaxed/balanced headstand.

We did some handstands to warm up on the Sunday and again there was a relaxing of the shoulders and something like a shifting of attention from between the shoulder blades where I seem to have the habit of working, down six inches or so, focus there as you go up. or perhaps it's that your dropping down through the shoulder blades relaxing the shoulders more and that makes it seem like your focusing lower. Post to come on this with diagrams

This was interesting and I'm sure I'm not doing it justice but it seems to make a difference in everything, perhaps its just because focusing a little lower down the back I bunch up the shoulders less. The lotus comes down much more easily in karandavasana and goes up more smoothly too, jump backs feel lighter, flightier...

Following Norman's openings I'm going deeper into my standing sequence especially the triangle postures, I wish I could remember if Norman had recommended relaxing the abdomen or holding the posture more with the abdomen, I suspect the former.

My backbends are OK, they can be relatively deep but I've been lazy, or rather I've been focusing so much on the Krishnmacharya Primary series lately that I've let my 2nd series and my kapo slip. In the picture at the top of the blog I've come down and landed on my heels and settled in to take my ankles. Recently when I've included kapo for the Krishnamacharya middle 'group' but I've been landing on the floor behind my feet and settled for my toes.

This morning my kapo was much better, I landed on my feet and settled in there. I seem to have forgotten how to walk back up them too my heels, which seemed like they might be available again. Didn't want to push it first time back but I imagine by the end of the week.....

So what's different? Norman had us  stretch up through the thoracic region, a stretch higher up the back. I think over the last few years I've focused a lot on protecting the lower back by stretching through the length of my spine, nutating my hips and taking the pelvis as far forward as possible. It's almost as if I've tried to avoid bending in favour of elongating. So now I'm doing the same thing but when I get to the thoracic region I'm, making that stretch along the front of my body more intense which is arching the top of the back somewhat , bringing out my chest (pigeon) and taking my shoulders back.

It feels comfortable, lower back is still protected but I'm getting deeper into my back bends, nice drop backs and Urdhva Dhanurasana ( btw, Norman recommends lifting the heels, very Iyengar) and landing more deeply into my kapo. Still not heels or ankles but they'll come back. best of all it feels a nice place to hang out and breath for a while and see what comes up.

and here's Iyengar, at 94, that's a small clock in front of his face that he uses to time his stays. Anyone know how long he sets it for?

Shelly Goldsack, Norman's assistant on the workshop was doing a lot of work on backbends Sunday morning, including 54 tic tocs or rather the Viparita Chakrasana aspect, supposedly she usually does 108, with Norman giving her the little extra nudge on her knees to take her over. When I did learn to take it back over a couple of years back, after a month of work on it, I thought 'nice' but just a party trick. Norman seems to give Viparita Chakrasana a lot of importance, something to do with the movement of the asana (more to come on this). Thinking I should visit it again.

Actually there were a lot of 'postures' that I had written off as party tricks, enjoyed for a little while but not taken too seriously, arm balances for example. Norman has made me think about these again.

So practice seems to have settled into a general structure of Headstand, Standing sequence, first half of second series, first half of Primary, finishing sequence. Pranayama, meditation.

Exploring this idea of putting the headstand at the beginning, not sure about it but curious.

Standing has a strong Norman Sjoman workshop focus, spending a lot of time on the triangle postures and dropping some of the other Ashtanga standing to make space for the longer stays.

First half of 2nd has a strong Vinyasa Krama Bow and Meditative sequence feel to it

The first half of primary is relatively by the book but trimmed down a little to allow for some longer stays

Finishing, again trimmed down.

So it's Vinyasa Krama with a loose ashtanga framework and Krishnamacharya kumbhaka element but with a strong Norman Sjoman influence.

I'll write a little more the Pranayama  tomorrow.

See my earlier workshop notes on Norman Sjoman's workshop here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/norman-sjomans-workshop-in-coventry.html

*****

Norman Sjoman's European Workshops

Dr. Norman Sjoman will be in Poland next month
at Studio Jogi Yam
https://www.facebook.com/events/567630416659342/

http://www.joga-yam.pl/aktualnosci.html

Termin 8/9 marzec – warsztat jogi  z Dr Normanem Sjoman. Ten warsztat to “okazja do uzyskania dokładnych i szczegółowych informacji na temat jogi od jednego z największych specjalistów w tej dziedzinie”...Inwestycja: dwudniowy warsztat 400 zł przy płatności do 15 lutego, po tym terminie 450 zł, jednodniowy 230 zł przy płatności do 15 lutego, po tym terminie 260 zł. Norman poprowadzi równiez zajęcia 1,5 godz. cena 40 zł, oraz zajęcia jogi masterclass dla grupy 6 osób cena 80 zł. Konieczne wcześniejsze zapisy. Termin zgłaszania na warsztat do 15 luty.

and here at Bandha Works at the end of Feburary

https://www.facebook.com/events/1376177065982826/

Saturday, 22 February 2014
Time16:00 in UTC+01
Description
Téma: Mysore-i jógatradíció

Februárban egy különleges vendég repít vissza minket az időben a maharadzsák világába. A helyszín Dél-India, Mysore városa, az astanga vinyásza jóga újkori hajnala...

Előadó: Dr. Norman Sjoman (Kanada)

Dr. Norman Sjoman neves szanszkrit professzor, aki többek között a “The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace” és a “Yoga Touchstone” című elismert könyvek szerzője. Több, mint 14 évig tanult India különböző egyetemein, az 1980-as évek közepén a mysore-i palotában folytatott kutatómunkát a jóga ászanák történelméről.

A szatszangról:

A rendszeres órákon elsősorban az ászanákon van a hangsúly. A havonta megrendezésre kerülő Bandha Works szatszang célja, hogy kötetlen délutáni beszélgetés és teázás keretein belül az astanga jóga elméletével is foglalkozzunk.


Belépő: 1000 Ft., diákoknak: 500 Ft.

He's also supposedly here at Szczecin 1st and 2nd of March but I can't find anything on the website
http://www.yoga.szczecin.pl/index.php/en

Video's Pattabhi Jois Old Shala 1999, Ashtanga bali Conference 2013 video and kapo heels back.

February 10, 2014, 11:34 pm

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I mentioned yesterday that my kapo was coming back after the recent Norman Sjoman workshop, bringing in this sticking out of the chest/lifting of the thoracic region seems to be making all the difference. I caught the side of my feet yesterday morning and speculated that heels might be back by the end of the week.... make that the end of the day.

Practised Vinyasa Krama Bow and Meditative subroutines in the evening yesterday, got to kapo and managed to catch my heels.... or at least my heel(singular), the right one, left hand kept slipping off  so had to settle for the side of the foot, one of each feels wrong, better to slide of the the heel and balance out but it's been a while and I wasn't letting go of that one heel before I had too. A very quick count of five, no need for Iyengar's egg timer but it's nice to know I do still have that flexibility.

Perhaps that's what really came out of Norman's workshop, however deep I thought I was in a posture Norman would come along and take you in a third again, and without breaking, gave me the confidence to try a little harder.

I've mentioned here before that I'm not too bothered about getting my ankles back or going much further up my calf but the heels do give a nice place to grip onto and draw yourself deeper into the posture to then settle. Will be happy with that, then see about seeking comfort.... and Iyengar's egg timer.

A couple more videos from the series below have been made available by Guy Donahaye 

http://www.ashtangayogashala.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106&Itemid=168 

these two we've seen before but follow the link above for another two.


This one just appeared this morning on my FB feed it's of the Ashtanga Yoga Conference Bali 2013
with Manju Jois / Danny Paradise / Annie Pace/ David Williams / Joanne and Mark Darby/Prem and Radha Carlisi

The music is irritating, I'd suggest turning the sound off but there are some nice voice overs.



My friend Michelle was there who blogs over at Ashtanga Angel, she put up a post on the conference here

The Legend of Ashtanga Yoga

Michelle, was that you above in Prasarita Padottanasana A?

at the end of the video it mentions next year and who'll be attending
Manju Jois/ Danny Paradise, David Swenson, Nancy Gilgoff, Eileen Hall, Prem and Radha Carlisi

Day off today, so can practice a little later, I'm thinking a good old fashion Primary with some extensions into the second half of Intermediate series to balance out all yesterday's back bending, besides there was a beautiful, composed  dwi pada sirsasana in the Bali video that gave me a bad case of asana envy.  I want to explore Norman's Pinca Mayurasana approach too, that relaxing of the shoulders, shifting the attention a little lower and what's that gert has to say about connecting the abdomen to the pelvis, what effect will that have on karandavasana.....

Which Yoga Books to take when I move to Japan in three months?

February 11, 2014, 10:14 am

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Here's a not so fun game.

I'm following my wife M. to Japan at the end of May ( this time for good), so have to decide which books to take and which to leave behind.

The current yoga bookshelf

Which would you keep, which let go...., oh and what's missing, what SHOULD I have on my bookself?

After much agonising I was left with this.

... which means leaving all these behind. Some I have on my iPad, others I figure I can pick up another time, the rest I can do without.

If you'd like these books (except for Melanie Cooper's book - promised to Living yoga Valencia) and can come and collect then you can have the lot for a hundred quid, nice addition to the shala library perhaps.

Reduced down even further I end up with this pile, 13kg on the scales, that would be two boxes and come to sixty quid to ship.