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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Yoga Practice in Good and Bad Times
“Your toothache is impermanent, but your non-toothache is also impermanent. With that insight, you look at birth, death, old-age, ups and downs, suffering, and happiness with the eyes of a sage, and you don’t suffer anymore. You smile, no longer afraid.” – Thich Nhat Hanh The Sutras does not say that, “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of life.” It says that “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. ” The world turns, burns, rises and falls. Teachers come and go, hamstrings tear and heal. In yogic terms, the gunas will keep interacting with prakriti and, while I play in this world, I can’t stop it.…
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Yoga Sutras For Modern Day Life: Yoga Was a Science Way Before It Became a Workout
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2:19- The stages of the Gunas are specific, non specific, defined and undefinable. Defining the Sutra I spoke about the Gunas in previous posts. A simple way to look at the Gunas is that they are the characteristics of nature. In this verse Patanjali talks about the stages of nature. Be forewarned my Yoga Sutra purist friends, I am about to seriosuly oversimplify this. Undefinable: Pure potential. No definable form. Example. Pre big bang. The second verse of Genesis in the Bible, “And the earth was without form, and void.” Defined: Slightly more manifested but still hard for the average person to interact with. Example: Right after…
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Yoga Sutras For Modern Day Life: The Wise Man’s Relationship with Pain
Yoga Sutras of Patanjli 2:15 To one of discrimination, everything is painful indeed, due to its consequences: the anxiety and fear over losing what is gained; the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings; and the constant conflict among the three gunas, which control the mind. Defining the Sutra: The wise man understands pleasure and pain are interconnected. Patanjali gives 3 reasons why pleasure leads to pain: Fear of loss Chasing pleasures Fluctuations between the Gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas Modern Day Application: Simple examples of this Sutra can be found on our mat. Fear of Loss Are you afraid of losing the ability to do a pose? Do…
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Yoga Sutras For Every Day Life: Do Yogis Need To Sleep?
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Sutra 1:10 The mental modification supported by cognition of nothingness is sleep. Remember that we are still in the portion of the Yoga Sutras that many scholars feel is for, lack of a better word, the advanced ones, called Samadhi Pada. This portion is for the ones who are at a point where they are contemplating the nature of existence. Don’t get lost in the section. I will be covering the portion that is geared more to the every day practitioner but I wanted to go in order. We have established earlier in the series that, Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.…
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Check This Out: Ashtanga Yoga is Not Hatha Yoga
Guy Donahaye wrote an awesome post this morning on Ashtanga and Hatha Yoga. For the original article, Go here Ashtanga Yoga is not Hatha Yoga There has been much debate about the origin and development of Pattabhi Jois’ system of asanas over the years. There has been much less interest in placing his asana system in the context of ashtanga yoga as a whole, or indeed, the yoga darshana as a whole. Guruji used to say that his teaching was “original Patanjali Yoga.” What are the implications of this? Modern scholars have been quick to assert that the practice of asanas did not appear until about 1000 years ago in…
