About Vinyasa Yoga

Essence of Practice

Synchronization of breath, flowing movement and focused mind along with the life-energy harnessing practices of Bandha creates a moving and mindful meditation.

The essential core of this dynamic practice is Breath. Breath that is slightly modified to create a resonance and is called Ujjayi Breath. Ujjayi Breath assists in the Yogic purpose of psycho-emotional integration and freedom.

The second core component of practice is the inner-body work of the life-energy harnessing mechanisms called Bandha which assist one to cultivate core strength, rest mind fully in the body and allow deeper conscious connection to the gravitational and expansive forces of the universe.

The third essential component is the conscious gaze called Drishti. This helps one to work more fully internally and helps with the process of freedom. Learn more through coming to work with Christopher and Friends about these essential components, how to cultivate them and how they actually work.

The movement practice begins with breath, bandha and drishti all centered in samasthitti and from there flowing through the two sun salutations which themselves contain the essential information of the practice.

This powerful, dynamic practice balances strength, flexibility and stamina as well as leading to a focused and concentrated mind.

Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, reincarnated through the teachings of Krishnamacharya and Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois, is a system of Hatha Yoga related to the practices of the Nath lineage as well as following the teachings of Patanjali.

Reasons for Practice

It is very good to remember the deeper reasons for Yoga practice;

1. To open the heart and keep opening it.
2. To cultivate awareness.
3. To resolve one's own difficulties with problematic residual seeds (samskaras) in own's own unconscious and move into greater potential.
4. From here to help others do the same.
5. To connect more and more deeply to the manifold principles of intelligence (Gurunam) or wisdom and the principles of unobstructed compassionate energy or love and to manifest these in life.
6. To awaken to the wondrous truths of consciousness and see the delicious humour, joy and purpose of our life.

Ujjayi Breath

The word Ujjayi may be translated as upwardly victorious. Victory, being over the conditioned personality or commanding self. Victory, being over the pathological, narcissistic egoic structures created through survival oriented mind function. The word ujjayi is also sometimes translated as psychic. The breath has resonance from the throat, is soft and deep and acts as the key metric for the practitioner to feel the balance between Ha (sun, effort, yang) and Tha (moon, receptivity, yin). This wonderful sound of the breath also acts also as the primary and universal mantra.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit, the ancient root language of all the Indo-European tongues is a complex contextual language not easily translatable into English. The sounds of the Sanskrit letters are considered to be vibrations of the universe itself. A good way to begin to understand Sanskrit terms is to seek the conceptual and contextual aspects of the words.

The Primary Series

The Primary Series of the Ashtanga Vinyasa system is actually called Yoga Chikitsa. This term means Yoga Therapy and it gives a clue as to what the practice is about. Yoga Chikitsa is a way to heal, focus and clear the body-mind. The practice aligns, opens and strengthens on all levels from the skeletal, through the muscular, to the organs and also begins the process of clearing the flow of the life-energy system. Yoga Chikitsa consists of the flow through Sun Salutations, 16 standing postures and 28 sitting postures with their variations and transitions followed by 19 postures of the finishing sequence completing with savasana where one takes rest.

The Second Series

The Second Series is called Nadi Shodana, which translates as 'life-energy channel purification', though it can also be translated as 'nervous system purification'. Nadi Shodana continues the work begun in Yoga Chikitsa taking clarity and strength deeper into the core of the body. This practice is begun upon a reasonable level of free flowing Yoga Chikitsa practice. Nadi Shodana consists again of sun salutes and standing postures followed by the 27 postures variations and transitions and completing with the finishing sequence and savasana.

Other Series

There are also other series of asanas originally two now divided into four. These are collectively known as Sthira Baga (poise and grace). Most people call these the ‘Advanced Series' , they certainly can be fun but advancement is deepening in kindness and awareness. Peace.

Mantra

Meaning mind expansion and mind protection. Breath is the original mantra of life-force, it is common to almost all life (anaerobic bacteria etc, are the exclusion). The inbreath receives and is inspiration, it opens and lifts. The outbreath descends and closes the body, it is expiration. We begin life with inspiration and sound and we end life with expiration and sound. The beginning and the end, the receiving and the letting go. It is all there in every breath. This is the sound we listen to as we practice. The sound of the balance of Ha and Tha, of Siva and Sakti, the yang and the yin. The nature of the breath through the practice informs us of our state. How smooth and soft and full and balanced is our breath? What is ragged or fast or anxious breath telling us? Listening to the breath is our main Mantra.

To take the practices of Vinyasa Yoga (or any other style) of the mat and connect outward to all of life we often begin and end the practice with chanting. The beginning chant will remind us to connect to all the principles of intelligence in the universe, to remember the reasons for practice and to connect to the lineage, the stream of practitioners through space and time. The finishing chant helps us to collect all the wonderful energy we have cultivated and offer it out for the greatest good of one and all beings.

Beginning and ending the practice with the Ashtanga Mantram and the Mangala Mantram creates the context in which the practice can occur. Mantra in this context acts as a vehicle to frame the practice within the trans-personal. You can find the translations of these mantras on this site.

Bandha

Bandha, is the concept of locking and unlocking to harness flow of prana as life-energy within the body. Specific muscles within the pelvic floor, the abdomen and the neck are used isometrically to create the bandhas. The bandhas within the practice create core stability around the centre of gravity, which is the source and origin of movement. This area is also the source and origin of the movement of the breath, it is where the inbreath rises from and where the outbreath returns. Moola bandha, the root lock is the connection to gravity, the earth and earth energies, moola means the root. Uddiyana meaning upward flying is the connection to the upward energies, anti-gravity, out to the cosmos. Jalandhara bandha, the chin lock seals the upper end of the energy vessel of the body. All three bandhas operate on the diaphragmatic divisions between areas of the body where energy and tension are often negatively held.There is a positive charge up in the atmosphere and a negative charge on the earth, this leads to a flow of bio-electro-magnetic force, prana, or chi as life energy through our bodies. How we manage our energies in the energy play of each asana and through the transitions of the practice is deeply connected to how we work with Bandha. Poor use of Bandha can lead to energy dissipation and fatigue. Bandha allows the rerouting of this life energy to move in a new direction thus unlocking the life-energy potential of the body-mind.

Drishti

Drishti can translate as gaze, however it may be useful to view it conceptually as conscious attention. This attention has three prime qualities; the first is focus, the second is awareness, the third is softness. These qualities are used to activate the mirror of drishti which both looks outward to the external gaze reference point and inward to the inner realms of cognition, emotion and body sensation. The outer gaze reference points connect with different energy centres. The effective use of drishti allows the awareness of the connection between all the aspects of the inner and outer worlds.

Chakras

The life-energy centres called charkas are seen as connecting the five sheaths or koshas of the body. In the physical body these chakras are reflected by the presence of glands and centres of nervous tissue. The chakras are cleared and energised as one progresses through the Vinyasa Yoga practices.

Vinyasa

Vinyasa composed of two Sanskrit derivatives Vi (as a prefix means special or in a special way) and Nyasa (means placement) so Vinyasa means ‘special placement'.

The concept of Vinyasa Krama (krama meaning steps) suggests that one aspect of Vinyasa is the special and appropriate individual steps taken as the process of exploring and mastering each asana. These steps though related for each person are also completely unique for each individual and their development.

Vinyasa also denotes the conscious and therefore special engagement of the full Yogic breath as the root of movement. Breath comes before movement, no breath and you are dead! Movement is thus completely synchronized with breath. The inhale naturally works with upwards and outwards movements, the exhale naturally works with downward or ventral closure movements. Thus the movement and breath are placed in synchrony and in a special, conscious way.

Ashtanga

Ashta-anga literally means the eight limbs. It is not eight steps but limbs and as limbs in a living organism are joined to a body and help that body be mobile, so the limbs of yoga help the yoga become vital and real. The limbs are normally described as:

1. Yama
2. Niyamas
3. Asana
4. Pranyama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

Yamas and Niyamas

The Yamas and Niyamas are observances and precepts that allow the practitioner to focus their energies on deepening inner awareness and the experience of truth whilst resting in impeccable relationship that promotes well-being for all.

Yamas are:

1. Ahimsa or non-violence.
2. Satya or truthfulness.
3. Asteya or non-theft.
4. Brahmacharya or sustaining mindfulness of the Transcendent Totality and continent celebration of relationship.
5. Aparigraha or non- grasping.

In some ways focusing on the positive meanings of these translations may be helpful. Kindness, Truth-full-ness, Sharing, Wise use of resources, Generosity.

The Niyamas are:

• Sauca or purity
• Santosha or contentment
• Tapas which is translated as heat (in the practice) that burns off impurities.
• Swadhyaya or self study, this means using practice, teachers and the study of texts to deepen ones awareness of ones own true nature
• Ishwara pranidhana, literally means surrender to the supreme spirit.

Lots of issues may be raised around how one deals with these concepts. The practice itself will lead you to where you need to be. These things happen as you practice.

Being as kind as possible in any given moment is Yoga, perhaps an on-going process. Being kind includes not forcing oneself or others to adopt particular ways because someone or other deems them more righteous. As incarnate beings we consume life-form to remain alive ourselves. Creating a balance and allowing as much kindness, reducing the amount of destruction we personally are responsible for and yet remaining open to those who behave differently is a profound way of being.

Where we draw our personal boundaries as to what life-form is appropriate for us to consume and what is not is up to our own discretion, development and awareness at that time. Every time we lie or step on the grass, every time we drink water, every time we eat vegetables that have in whatever way had pests kept off them; then we are responsible for the killing of millions of life-forms. We cannot escape this paradox. Being here we have to address the miraculous and amazing sanctity of all life and also the fact that we have to consume it. How to do this? Maybe an attitude of celebration, gratitude and minimizing our personal and collective impact on the planet and its eco-systems is the way forward? Maybe generously offering our own form in due course into the web of life is also a way to responsibly engage in this paradox.

Asana

Asana means seat. Every posture is an asana , a seat. A position in which we can be comfortable and begin the process of meditation. Of course we have to work to get to this point and the work must be a balance of breath, softness and effort. In time the steadiness and comfort of the asana arises indicating some maturity in its development.

Pranayama

Pranayama or literally pranic extension. Prana and mind function are considered to be completely related so Pranayama workd directly on thinking and feeling too. Pranayama is the careful development of the control of prana by use of breath and breath retention. The breath is the vehicle for the prana and so use of breath allows deeper awareness of the pranic aspects of the body-mind. These practices are traditionally only taught once one has a good established asana practice. In a body that is not strong enough these practices are considered to be dangerous.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara is a change in the relationship between awareness, mind as a function of awareness, senses and sense objects.

Dharana

Dharana is concentration practice, the focus of ones awarenessas mind through the sense of self as subject onto a perceived separate object. Within the Vinyasa Yoga practice this is being powerfully developed by the use of drishti, the sound of the breath and the kinaesthetic and mindful awareness of movement.

Dhyana

Arising from the practice of dharana. Dhyana is the beginnings of meditative absorption. This is a step beyond concentration that involves cessation of the subject-object referencing of dualistic conceptual mind. Within the Vinyasa Yoga practice this is touched on by the state of tristana which is the meditative absorption created by the unification of breath, bandha and drishti within the framework of the Vinyasa Yoga method.

Samadhi

Samadhi is pure Yoga. Samadhi as outlined by Patanjali has different levels, fromSamprajnata Samadhi which itself can be subdivided into different progressive steps to Asamprajnata Samadhi - realisation of ones identity as the source of conciousness. The final stage of Samadhi according to Patanjali is Kaivalya or the station of complete and permanent awareness of ultimate reality.

Historical Origins

There are many who discuss the origins of yoga whether it is of shamanic origin or was a practice brought by Aryan invaders or that it was in India already and adopted by the Aryan rulers or even that there was no Aryan invasion and the practice spread with the Indo-European cultures across Europe and Asia. Statues of gods and people in yogic postures have been found from ancient cultures across the planet including Egypt, South America, Ireland and the Caucasus. Evidently yoga is very ancient and by archaeological evidence is found in many cultures.

A famous old Yogi called Vamana is reported to have said

"O Yogi, do not practice asana without Vinyasa"

Vamana is also reported to have said that without Vinyasa the asanas cannot be mastered. So what is Vinyasa? Vinyasa composed of two Sanskrit derivatives Vi (as a prefix means special or in a special way) and Nyasa (means placement) so Vinyasa means ‘special placement'.

The concept of Vinyasa Krama (krama meaning steps) suggests that one aspect of Vinyasa is the special and appropriate individual steps taken as the process of exploring and mastering each asana. These steps though related for each person are also completely unique for each individual and their development.

Vinyasa also denotes the conscious and therefore special engagement of the full Yogic breath as the root of movement. Breath comes before movement, no breath and you are dead! Movement is thus completely synchronized with breath. The inhale naturally works with upwards and outwards movements, the exhale naturally works with downward or ventral closure movements. Thus the movement and breath are placed in synchrony and in a special, conscious way.

Krishnamacharya the modern father of Vinyasa Yoga learnt the art himself from his teacher Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari near Lake Manasarovar in Tibet.

Interestingly the Hatha Yoga practices of the Dalai Lama show great similarity, the first sun salutation is identical as shown in Geshe Michael Roach's book The Tibetan Book of Yoga (2003). Indeed the dynamic asana practices of Tibet were themselves informed by the great Tantric masters and Hatha Yoga adepts Adinath, Matsyendranath and Gorakanath.

Krishnamacharya and Sri K Pattabhi Jois are reputed to have also found an ancient palm leaf document in the Calcutta library, both were scholars of Sanskrit, that outlined the initial four series of what became the Ashtanga Vinyasa method. The original four series are still taught in Mysore by BNS Iyengar and his followers and taught internationally by teachers such as Danny Paradise and others. The famous BKS Iyengar (Founder of Iyengar Yoga) originally practiced these four series as is shown of the video footage of him practicing in 1934.

Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Guruji as he is often lovingly called, transformed the four series into six series. The protégés of Guriji teach these wonderful six series across the world. The many students of Sri K Pattabhi Jois under his guidance are responsible for communicating the Ashtanga Vinyasa system across the planet.

Unfortunately, as with many wonderful systems and traditions, people with low levels of personal development (blue meme- see Clare Graves and Ken Wilber's work on Spiral Dynamics) can create an ego position about ‘their' practice and fall into the fundamentalist view of right way and wrong way, with there being only one right way. This unfortunately happens to people in the Yoga world as well! So some ‘blue meme' practitioners denigrate as ‘Yoga Criminals' other teachers and practitioners for changing the practices to make them work for the people in other cultural or physical contexts that they work with, exactly as Guruji, BKS Iyengar, Krishnamacharya and all great teachers do.

Today the Iyengar and Bikram schools are all seeking exclusivity and trademarking ™, their practices. It is now not possible to study with Guruji and also with other teachers. As a student of the Iyengar system one can be asked to leave if one is found practicing or teaching any other way. The various internal dynamics of many Yoga schools do not show much evolved love! Sometimes the dynamics seem to be more about power, authority, control and politics. Those in authority seem to love authority. It is possible that for writing this, I will be seen as a Yoga Criminal by those who hold such fundamentalist views.

Today however, Vinyasa Yoga crosses the realms of; fundamentalist practitioners; the practitioners of the four series; the practitioners of the six series; the teachers from the lineage through TKV Desikachar who teach individualized variants of Vinyasa practice; then there is as Shiva Rea has called it the ‘bastard child of the Vinyasa lineage' Vinyasa Flow. Vinyasa Flow is a playful jazz style that works with feeling, mood, various forms and the spontaneity of the moment and creativity to cultivate a free spontaneous practice. So from the more rigid form to the more free form; Vinyasa Flows.

The Reasons for Practice

It is very good to continue to remember the deeper reasons for practice;

1. To open the heart and keep opening it.
2. To cultivate awareness.
3. To resolve one's own difficulties with problematic residual seeds (samskaras) in own's own unconscious and move into greater potential.
4. From here to help others do the same.
5. To connect more and more deeply to the manifold principles of intelligence (Gurunam) or wisdom and the principles of unobstructed compassionate energy or love and to manifest these in life.
6. To awaken to the wondrous truths of consciousness and see the delicious humour, joy and purpose of our life.

Why People Come?

Everyone arrives in a yoga class from a combination of three things. The first is desire. Desire for healing, wellness, fitness, flexibility, for a beautiful body and also to feel good.

Another factor is sometimes difficulty. Here we find a practice that can open us up, heal us, help clear up our difficult views and show us more of who we are!

A third factor is coming through intelligence, seeing that other people get so much out of it and wanting some of this good thing, or hearing good reports.

Well of course we can find all of these things and they are all side effects of the practice.

The deepest reason to practice is to more deeply know who we are, Yoga practice will help us, if we allow it to. Tension in the body may be the protection of an identity, a vision of a self that doesn't exist except in the mind. Finding this experience through practice we release the tension and open into a new person, eventually to let this fall away and grow again and again.

As we grow we rest deeper into our essential beauty and goodness, the sparkling essence which is the secret of who we all are. The space of the practice can help us to allow this to arise more and more.

The deeper awareness of the connections within us of the realms of mind, emotion, body sensation and connection to all that is; on a totally experiential level leads to a greater sense of unity and harmony. The body-mind becomes the gateway to the transpersonal realms of connection to all that is. It is the only gateway we have!

An appropriate sitting practice can powerfully deepen and accelerate this journey. However in the beginning it is working towards sitting, towards getting the knees down to earth and the spine straighter and more flexible is the work to be done. This is the work of Yoga Chikitsa.

Pre-Cautions

Those who work with me will know to take good care of knees, to work with alignment in standing and to cradle the knees as one works towards the half lotus, thus to concentrate the energy of the work into the hips. Working wisely with the spine, allowing the breath to open the spine, using the breath within the postures to remain dynamic and flow into opening. Keeping the ventral spine long, the heart space open is the beginning to developing this flexibility.

Be aware of your wrists as you develop the use of the hands as ways to connect with earth. Always keep the fingers fanned out when working hands to floor and connect the experience of the bandhas and the hands so the whole structure is involved. It takes time for the wrists to grow in strength and function so work well and wisely and remember the wrist magic to clear wrists and keep them free!

As ever focus on the breath, good use of the bandhas and intelligent internal awareness fostered by the drishti gives us protection within the practice.

Yoga Practice is best taught in small groups with plenty of individualised teaching within the group. This is the traditional way that Yoga was taught and has come to be termed Mysore style.

Talk-throughs come from the advanced counted practice and are potentially dangerous as they cannot give people the individual and specific guidance that they need to help them effectively work with their strengths and weaknesses, abilities and needs.