Yoga 101: Asana – The third Limb

Asana, the bodily apply, is probably the most recognizable of the eight limbs of yoga. In the event you point out “yoga,” most individuals will mechanically image an individual in some stunning, flexible place. However, in fact, 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, slightly than Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, the system developed by Ok. Patabhi Jois.) As well as, there are various different types of yoga that don’t embody postures.

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

As a result of asana is the most well-liked facet of yoga, additionally it is probably the most misunderstood. Western practitioners, who grew up on rigorous train, typically apply asana within the context of that acquainted paradigm. After 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 response to the yoga sutras, mastery of asana is a totally completely different factor.

The Asana Custom

The phrase “asana” means “seat.” It actually refers back to the sitting posture. The unique goal of training yoga asana was to help the physique for the trials of sitting meditation. This consists of not solely the bodily physique, however the physiological methods as effectively. Particularly necessary is the nervous system.

Once I studied in India with B.Ok.S. Iyengar, one factor he stated caught in my thoughts and has helped information my apply. He stated that we apply asana to create a peaceable, calm atmosphere 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 needs 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 collection, my descriptions right here might be brief and candy. If you wish to delve deeper, choose up my ebook, 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 comfortable,” “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 pressure 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 apply. Discover that it doesn’t outline mastery when it comes to what our our bodies can or can’t do. There’s nothing about pushing additional or mastering fancy poses. The truth is, it implies the alternative. Not like aggressive sports activities, the place we continuously push our edge, asana asks us to calm down our effort. After we can calm down 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 kind or bodily potential, 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 apply. And it’s true; common practitioners typically report these advantages. However these are merely facet advantages to the actual goal of apply: to have the ability to meet the ebb and movement of our lives with equanimity. After we apply with steadiness and luxury in thoughts, we stability our nervous system and domesticate mind-body calm. After we calm down effort and let go into the moment-by-moment expertise of asana, our minds turn out to be spacious and clear. By creating this state, we’re capable of 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 apply.

So by way of the instrument of our personal bodily our bodies, we will 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, nevertheless 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 printed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook 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 Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.