"(caturanga Dandasana) ...Remain in this stithi for at least ten minutes..."
"(Urdhvamukhasvanasana)...make the effort to practice until it becomes possible to stay in this asana for fifteen minutes."
"(Ardhomukhasvanasana)... As a result of the strength of practice, one learns to hold this posture for fifteen minutes."
"(Trikonasana)... This asana must be practiced for a minimum of ten minutes. However slowly and patiently we practice this this, there is that much corresponding benefit."
"(Mayurasana)...This asana stithi should be held from 1 minute to 3 hours according to the practitioner's capability..... If this asana is practiced every day for at least fifteen minutes, a lot of benefits are achieved."
" (Tadasana)... Stand with arms raised above the head, for fifteen minutes daily. Make this a routine."
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For more on extended stays, my Ashtanga Rishi Series page
'Originally there were five series: Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A, Advanced B, and the fifth was the “rishi” series'.
Ashtanga Rishi Approach
'...Doing a practice of 10 postures for up to 50 breaths is a method of preparing for "advanced series" after one has learned 1st and 2nd. It can be done once or twice a week. One does the "salutations" and then starts going thru the series, holding each posture for as long as comfortably possible. Notice which postures could be held for 50 breaths. The next time you practice this way, the postures which you could hold for 50 are omitted and new ones are added at the end. One gradually works thru the series, dropping and adding asanas, still doing 10 asanas per session. I have gone all the way thru 1st and 2nd this way several times over the years and have found it beneficiall'.
Ashtanga Rishi Series
'Then, once one has mastered all of the asanas, one can practice "the rishi series", the most advanced practice. One does the 10 postures that one intuits will be the most beneficial and appropriate for that day, holding each posture for up to 50 comfortable breaths'.
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UPDATE
In practice
To explore these longer stays, I decided on a 'Rishi series' practice this morning.
Started off with my regular Vinyasa Krama ten minute tadasana routine followed by....
Tadasana : 5 mins rather than fifteen (could have stayed probably for another five but decided not to overdo it first go)
Five regular Surya namaskara's 2 A's , 3 B's
Ardhomukhasvanasana : 10 minutes (have been working on longer stays here for a while, good for waking up the bandhas).
Urdhvamukhasvanasana 5 minutes (amazing how the hips drop on their own as it goes on)
Caturanga Dandasana : 2 minutes only, half a minute rest after the first minute but managed twenty-five breaths).
Trikonasana : 5minutes (two and a half each side then repeated)
Mayurasana: 1 1/2 minutes only ( Kept falling out of it after five to ten seconds, sweaty. Took four goes to reach twenty five breaths - Fiffteen minutes daily…really?)
For the rest of the practice I included some of the longer stays Krishnamacharya recommended to Ramaswami
Maha mudra : 5 minutes each side
Paschimottanasana : 5 minutes
Savangasana : 5 minutes
Sirsasana : 5 minutes
Badha konasana : 5 minutes
…..then on into pranayama, pratyahara and Japa (mantra) meditation.
Good to be reminded that the postures within the Surya Namaskar are postures in their own right and to treat them as such. I may not stay for twenty-five breaths or ten to fifteen minutes each morning but will stay in Ardhomukhasvanasana, Urdhvamukhasvanasana, and Caturanga Dandasana for a good five to ten breaths more often. Trikonasana I've been staying in for longer recently anyway and I've been practicing mayurasana again recently, for the last couple of weeks.
I was wondering, could Krishnamacharya really stay in chaturanga dandasana for TEN MINUTES, and then I remembered the other version pictured in his Yoga Makaranda, where the hands are placed much lower, almost at the hips.
I tried it, really really hard. If Krishnamacharya could hold this posture long enough to have a photo taken in the 1930's then he probably could hold chatauranga for ten minutes.
8 comments:
I just found this video of John Scott and it is quite interesting, particular with regard to the images of K and to Ramaswami's teaching of VK. Notice how John suggests keeping the chin/forehead tucked to the knees when hopping back to chataranga dandasana--Just like Ramaswami instructs it--then on keeping the chin tucked in jalandara bandha (nose gaze). I like also how he asks his students to observe the "American" conditioning of ashtanga practice... lots to the video in the way of "theory"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEFoAQGmgy8
thanks for the link anon, they have some other good JS videos on their channel, will watch those later. Like that about camera drishti. Will have to check where my own head is when I jump back during practice this morning, tend to have my chin down most of the time to lesser and greater degrees since Ramaswami's course
One thing that strikes me here is that in Yoga Makaranda K keeps saying, " look at the picture carefully", "practice just as in the picture". I on't get the feeling there is any camera drishti here or that any of the pictures used were not exactly as he wanted them to be seen as examples of the postures
one minute to THREE HOURS? W H A T ? in Mayurasana, yeah, I see how that would be possible, like in a 100 years! WOW! wow again. I have to say again, wow.
I know, Claudia, think he had the same sense of humour as Richard freem ('karandavasana, may take you two weeks'). I explored these in practice this morning, kind of a Rishi approach, interesting, have updated the post.
Have in mind a project, working through all the other postures in his yogasanagalu list and trying to write them out in the style of the yoga makaranda and Yogasanagalu descriptions (as those come in from Satya). Kind of recreate them.
Thinking the forty odd asana descriptions we already have plus some of the hints from Ramaswami's books should give us an idea of how he would have taught them back in the 30's.
Of course these longs stays are nothing new to Iyengar, one thing at least that he retained.
He's not the only one with a sense of humor about mayurasana. I was just reading in "The Subtle Body" that the first american asana students (in the 1800s) learned 3 poses- lotus, paschimottanasana, and "for the advanced" mayurasana.
Makes me wonder if our western and 21st century bodies are substantially weaker and less flexible than those in the past.
Hi Suzanne. Mayurasana is curious it appears as in hatha yoga prapdika too. in Yogasanagalu krishnamacharya says this
"Most important asanas shirshasana, sarvangasana, mayurasana, paschimatanasana and baddha padmasana must be practiced daily without failure.
Other asanas are practiced according to their convenience as people become proficient".
In Ranmaswami's teaching he has the same essentials except for Mayurasana.
I've always assumed mayurasana is important because the elbows really did in and massage the internal organs.
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