See perhaps my earlier posts
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| Ramaswami's Vinyasa Krama TT Course LMU 2010 |
Picture above a vinyasa of Durvasana from the Vinyasa Krama One leg sequence
Did everyone catch this excellent post from Jason at Leaping Lanka
ASHTANGA APHORISMS
Everyone seems to have their favourites as well perhaps as some they'd rather not think about.
EG. Talking about "your practice" is the only sin worse than not practicing.
A good point, here's one of my own
Bloggers talk about their practice so you don't have to.
In that vein and given my earlier post on surrendering up/ letting go of Ashtanga, what am I practicing now.
To be honest it's not that much different before I let go of Ashtanga. You may remember that I got on that long slow, inhalation and exhalation kick of 8-10 seconds each with Kumbhaka ( breath retention), found in Yoga Makaranda ( and in some of Pattabhi Jois' interviews minus the kumbhaka). That slowed the practice down so much that I had to practice less asana, again in line with Krishnamacharya and Jois. First I cut the Ashtanga series into half and then into three as well as dropping some of the asana from Standing one day and practicing those dropped the next while dropping something else.
In a sense it's still modified, by the book (Yoga Makaranda/Yogasanagalu/Yoga Mala), Ashtanga.
Sort of.
Still, I decided to let go of Ashtanga and focus on the Vinyasa Krama I was taught by Ramaswami, I'm feeling obliged to pass on the teaching more, so should be practicing it more in turn, exploring that teaching further.
"Studying (swadhyaya) and teaching (pravachana) are important duties, they are Tapas, indeed Tapas---Sage Naka, son of Sage Mudgala (Maudgalya) from Taittiriya Upanishad of Yajur Veda"
Ramaswami Srivatsa
So current practice....
Mornings 5:30Am
There's still a familiar structure,
Standing( warm up)
Central practice
Finishing.
I start off with an opening mantra
108 rounds of kapalabhathi
light pranayama no retention
Standing
5 minute Tadasana sequence with some hand and harm variations
Surynamaskara - Kind of, this is actually the postures of Sury A and B but staying for three to five breaths at each stage and including the appropriate Kumbhaka from of Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda
Surynamaskara with mantra
Trikonasana ( long stay)
Another changing daily triangle and on one leg subroutine.
Finishing
Shoulderstand preparation postures
5 min Shoulderstands
Counterposture
10 Min. headstand ( second five minutes with vinyasas)
5 min shoulderstand with vinyasas or halasana subroutine
maha mudra 5 minutes each side
Baddha konasana
baddha padmasana
Yoga mudra
Savasana ( listening to Ramaswami's 10 minute chant from LMU)
pranayama
Pratyahara
Japa mantra meditation.
Central practice
I've decided to alternate around back bending to bring my kapo back up to scratch.
One day will have a strong Asymmetric Subroutine focus
The following day will focus on Bow and meditative Subroutines ( kapo comes in meditative sequence)
Next Day will be Seated subroutine focus
and the next Backbends again with Bow and Meditative Subroutines
Then begin the cycle again with an Asymmetric focus aiming to practice the subroutines that were missed out the first time around.
As well as the basic focus of the central practice, Asymmetric, backbends and seated I include paschimottanasana, urdhva Danhurasa, drop backs, Mayurasana as well as slip in some different lotus
postures. and the occasional arm balance or two
One day a week will have a strong Supine subroutine focus.
And that's about it. pretty simple once your familier with the subroutines, flexible in that you can do more or less subroutines allowing you to include some long stays. It has a clear structure and many of the subroutines are famillier to Ashtanga, the Janu sirsasana say or the Marichi'. The Bow and Meditative days are pretty much an extended version of first part of Ashtanga 2nd series up to kapotasana.
Main differences from standard Ashtanga?
The breath is low really slow, 8-10 seconds inhalation, 8-10 second exhalation, kumbhakas where appropriate, the gaze tends to be down much of the time and I jump back only between subroutines rather than every posture.
Evenings 6:pm
I'm exploring something a little different. I'm curious about Prashant Iyengar's Alph and Omega of Trikonasna book and want to explore that this year. The plan was to just practice a long trikonasna perhaps preceded by a different posture or two to see the effect, followed by my usual longer pranayama practice.
This turned me on to Iyengar though ( and tidying up my alignment for these longer stays I'm into lately) and so I'm practcing along with one of John Schumacher's audio classes for twenty minutes or so (reminds me a little of Richard Freeman but without the Jokes and metaphors ) followed by the trikonasana then moving on to pranayama.
Was thinking...
Alignment (eventually) filters into Ashtanga to help you get into an asana
Alignment in Iyengar is to stop an asana from collapsing (gradually) in on itself
Alignment in Vinyasa Krama settles in ( to a degree) from long slow breathing.
Just throwing that out there and wondering ( mulling it over ) to what extent if any it might be true,partly true or just plain nonsense.
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UPDATE. March 2013
Since moving upstairs to the new shala, practice has changed again.
Mornings tend to be a Vinyasa Krama approach to the first part of Ashtanga 2nd series (up to kapo).
Kapalabhati
Pranayama no kumbhala
Ten minutes tadasana sequence from Vinyasa krama, long slow 8 second inhalations and 8 second exhalations with mantra.
Followed by A Yoga Makaranda approach to sun salutation, seeing each stage of the sequence as an asana in itself with the appropriate kumbhaka.
Vinyasa krama Bow sequence'ish
Vinyasa krama meditative sequence'ish
Dropbacks
Paschimottanasana
Shoulderstand/headstand sequence
Maha mudra/Baddha konasana/baddha padmasana
Pranayama
Japa Meditation
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Evening
Krishnamacharya's Primary group (taken slow 8 second inhalations and 8 second exhalations with mantra and kumbhakas where appropriate/indicated), some long stays and some additional asanas from K's Intermediate and proficient group.
See this post for tables and practice sheets.
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/complete-asana-table-from.html
Visit The ongoing Yogasanagalu (1941) Translation Project page for the translation we have so far.
Yogasanagalu ongoing translation page
'Therefore, how many vinysas for asanas? Asana position comes at which vinyasa count? When do you perform rechanka and puraka? When to do antah kumbhaka and bahya kumbhaka? What are its benefits? For yoga practitioners information, it is listed in the table below'.
Yogasanagalu
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Yogasanagalu ongoing translation page
'Therefore, how many vinysas for asanas? Asana position comes at which vinyasa count? When do you perform rechanka and puraka? When to do antah kumbhaka and bahya kumbhaka? What are its benefits? For yoga practitioners information, it is listed in the table below'.
Yogasanagalu
Yogasanagalu Asana table
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Notes
Kumbhaka
Antah kumbhaka (purakha kumbhaka) = retention of the breath after inhalation
Bahya kumbhaka (recaka kumbhaka) = retention of the breath after exhalation
Ubhya kumbhaka = retention of the breath after both inhalation and exhalation
*In the Primary group above kumbhaka is indicated explicitly in only three postures, baddha padmasana, uttanasana and sethubandasana. In the earlier Yoga Makaranda (1934) however, kumbhaka is indicated other primary postures. This may be that while learning the Primary asana we may forgo kumbhaka in most of the primary postures until gaining familiarity and a degree of proficiency with those asana when we would then begin to work in the kumbhaka. this may be made clearer as the translation continues.
Kumbhaka (mentioned explicitly) in the Yoga Makaranda Primary asana
Tadasana (here implies samasthiti )- purakha kumbhaka
Uttanasana -purakha kumbhaka (we can perhaps presume that all the uttanasana variations would also include antha kumbhaka EG. padahastasana, parsvauttanasa
na, prasaritapadauttanasana.
Ardha baddha padma uttanasana - recaka kumbhaka
Urdhavamukhssvanasana - puraka kumbhaka
Adhomukhssvandasana - recaka kumbhaka
Paschimottanasana - purkha kumbhaka (recaka kumbhaka implied ?)
janusirsasana - purka kumbhaka & Rechaka kumbhaka
Upavistakonasana "recaka kumbhaka is the central principle for this posture"
badhakonasana - recaka kumbhaka
Suptapaddangusthasana- recaka kumbhaka
utthitahastapadangusthasana - recaka kumbhaka
Bhujapidasana - recaka kumbhaka
marichiyasana - recaka kumbhaka ?
Pictorial representation of the table (made up of my old file pictures ).
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Krishnamacharya's Primary group (Incomplete ; made up of pictures from his Yoga Makaranada).
Original table
3 comments:
Hi Grimmly, great post. Re: alignment thoughts... I completely agree with the ashtanga alignment thing; get the practice off the ground, in a 'just do it' fashion, once 'the practice' is there, the alignment can follow and refine the postures so you can then think about advancing through the series. I'd agree with the Iyenga approach although I haven't done any, it looks like it makes sense, long holds require precise alignment. Unfortunately I cannot comment on VK approach as I'm not sure what the underlying philosophy of VK is ( I thought it was similar to Ashtanga but obviously not..) And yes, you should start teaching VK, get a workshop sorted in Oxford!!! I'd come!
Underlying philosophy of Vinyasa Krama, hmmmmm...
hard to put it in a box and I'm not sure it's even a style or approach to yoga necessarily, reaaly it's just how Krishnamacharya taught Ramaswami. It's an integrated practice, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, meditation worked at together along with the yamaniyamas.
The asana are taught in their vinyasas, a key asana with appropriate (for you) preparatory asana preceding in, variation of the key asana to explore as well as perhaps extensions of the asana. This subroutine might be practiced as part of a fuller sequence or in combination with subroutines from other sequences depending on the plan for the day in line with your perceived needs for that practice.
The movement into in and out of the asana follow the breath which is long and slow and full. the movements in and out of an Asanas might be repeated several times, deepening the posture each time. The key idea with regards to the asana is that over a period, of a few days say, we will be accessing all areas of the body, improving the flow of blood to every cell ( thus the variations, vinyasas, of the different asana, the little differences enabling you to reach a slightly different area of the body). But asana is working in conjunction with the pranayama, pratyahara, the asna calms the accumulated rajas, pranayama the tamas putting you in the most satvic state for meditation practice.
How's that....put it in a box haven't I.
I think the underlying philosophy of Vinyasa Krama is perfection and mindfulness of movement and breath. Slow and unhurried breath and movementbuilds concentration. And brings us into a more of a subjective state of practice. Yes I think the mastery of breath eventually lends itself to alignment in that the perfect breath will require the perfect alignment. Thanks Grimmly
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