Asana, the bodily follow, is probably the most recognizable of the eight limbs of yoga. Should you point out “yoga,” most individuals will routinely image an individual in some lovely, flexible place. However, after all, yoga is far more than simply asana. There are seven different limbs of yoga within the system of Ashtanga Yoga. (Right here, Ashtanga Yoga refers back to the conventional which means of the eight-limbed path, fairly than Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, the system developed by Okay. Patabhi Jois.) As well as, there are various different types of yoga that don’t embrace postures.

Within the context of the eight limbs, asana comes third, after yama and niyama. The primary two limbs present a stable basis for the remainder of the follow. They instill wholesome intentions in order that our follow can bear healthful fruit. As well as, they provide us pointers for residing a sleek life.

As a result of asana is the most well-liked facet of yoga, it’s also probably the most misunderstood. Western practitioners, who grew up on rigorous train, usually follow asana within the context of that acquainted paradigm. Once we consider train, we consider ideas like competitors and private bests. Consequently, we affiliate the flexibility to do acrobatic poses with being “superior.” However in keeping with the yoga sutras, mastery of asana is a totally totally different factor.

The Asana Custom

The phrase “asana” means “seat.” It actually refers back to the sitting posture. The unique function of working towards yoga asana was to help the physique for the pains of sitting meditation. This contains not solely the bodily physique, however the physiological techniques as effectively. Particularly vital is the nervous system.

Once I studied in India with B.Okay.S. Iyengar, one factor he mentioned caught in my thoughts and has helped information my follow. He mentioned that we follow asana to create a peaceable, calm surroundings for the thoughts. When the physique is relaxed, the thoughts can extra simply be relaxed.

Three of the 196 yoga sutras describe asana. All are within the second pada, or chapter. Right here they’re (from Alistair Shearer’s translation):

1. 2.46: The bodily posture ought to be regular and comfy.
2. 2.47: It’s mastered when all effort is relaxed and the thoughts is absorbed within the Infinite.
3. 2.48: Then you’re not upset by the play of opposites.

So let’s break this down. As with different posts on this Yoga 101 sequence, my descriptions right here can be brief and candy. If you wish to delve deeper, decide up my guide, Aware Yoga, Aware Life.

Sutra 2.46: Alistair Shearer’s translation makes use of the outline “regular and comfy.” Different translations of this sutra describe asana as “agency and gentle,” “regular and straightforward,” and different such reverse qualities. For me, this says that balancing effort is the important thing. Steadiness implies a energy, stability and dedication. Consolation implies ease and calm. Steadiness with out consolation can create rigidity and tightness. Consolation with out steadiness can result in sloth and heaviness. So we stability the 2 in each pose.

Sutra 2.47: This sutra is essential for understanding the intention—and the facility—of asana follow. Discover that it doesn’t outline mastery by way of what our our bodies can or can’t do. There’s nothing about pushing additional or mastering fancy poses. In reality, it implies the alternative. In contrast to aggressive sports activities, the place we continuously push our edge, asana asks us to chill out our effort. Once we can chill out effort in our poses, as an alternative of “doing” the pose, we begin to “be” the pose. In that present-moment expertise of the interior course of, our minds are absorbed within the Infinite. Anybody, with any physique sort or bodily capacity, can obtain mastery in asana.

Sutra 2.48: Flexibility, energy, tone, stress reduction—these are the qualities most frequently listed as the advantages of asana follow. And it’s true; common practitioners usually report these advantages. However these are merely facet advantages to the true function of follow: to have the ability to meet the ebb and move of our lives with equanimity. Once we follow with steadiness and luxury in thoughts, we stability our nervous system and domesticate mind-body calm. Once we chill out effort and let go into the moment-by-moment expertise of asana, our minds change into spacious and clear. By creating this state, we’re in a position to method our lives’ ups and downs with extra grace. I don’t learn about you, however I feel that is a unprecedented declare for a bodily follow.

So by means of the instrument of our personal bodily our bodies, we are able to contact into spacious equanimity that expands outward into our on a regular basis lives off the mat. That is the aim of asana. It prepares our body-mind for meditation, however it additionally helps us combine the meditative state into all our bodily pursuits.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third guide is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.