Yoga 101: Asana – The third Limb

Asana, the bodily apply, is essentially the most recognizable of the eight limbs of yoga. In the event you point out “yoga,” most individuals will robotically image an individual in some stunning, flexible place. However, after all, yoga is way 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, relatively than Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, the system developed by Ok. Patabhi Jois.) As well as, there are numerous 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 stable basis for the remainder of the apply. They instill wholesome intentions in order that our apply 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 side of yoga, it is usually essentially the most misunderstood. Western practitioners, who grew up on rigorous train, usually apply 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 accordance with the yoga sutras, mastery of asana is a very 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 programs as properly. Particularly vital 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 surroundings for the thoughts. When the physique is comfortable, the thoughts can extra simply be comfortable.

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 must be regular and cozy.
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 might be brief and candy. If you wish to delve deeper, choose up my e-book, Aware Yoga, Aware Life.

Sutra 2.46: Alistair Shearer’s translation makes use of the outline “regular and cozy.” Different translations of this sutra describe asana as “agency and delicate,” “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 stress and tightness. Consolation with out steadiness can result in sloth and heaviness. So we steadiness the 2 in each pose.

Sutra 2.47: This sutra is essential for understanding the intention—and the ability—of asana apply. 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 actual fact, it implies the alternative. Not like aggressive sports activities, the place we consistently push our edge, asana asks us to loosen up our effort. Once we can loosen up effort in our poses, as a substitute 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 capability, 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 usually report these advantages. However these are merely aspect advantages to the true function of apply: to have the ability to meet the ebb and stream of our lives with equanimity. Once we apply with steadiness and luxury in thoughts, we steadiness our nervous system and domesticate mind-body calm. Once we loosen up effort and let go into the moment-by-moment expertise of asana, our minds develop into spacious and clear. By creating this state, we’re in a position to strategy our lives’ ups and downs with extra grace. I don’t find out about you, however I feel that is a unprecedented declare for a bodily apply.

So via 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, but it surely additionally helps us combine the meditative state into all our bodily pursuits.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book 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 folks sextet Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.