What for example would your own personal pranayama practice be like?
Last year I picked up the Original French version of Emergence of yoga, written by Krishnamacharyas 3rd son T. K. Sribhashyam.
Amazon link Emergence du Yoga by Krishnamacharya's Son T. K. Sribashyam
My Review here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/04/emergence-of-yoga-by-krishnamacharyas.html
I took the section on Krishnamacharya's own practice ( apercu (overview?) in French, translated as 'Insight' in the English edition) and turned them into practice sheets and have been practicing them off and on all year
One example - Krishnamacharya own practice?
Quick Review: The Breathing God : Der Atmende Gott. DVD cover translation
REVIEW: Breath of God, Documentary on T. Krishnamacharya
There's a section in Emergence of Yoga titled 'Insight into my Father's practice session', I can't decide if 'insight' here means actual practices of Krishnamacharya as observed by the son or notes written down by the father, or practice sessions that are pretty much the kind of approach and content Krishnamacharya was taking at the time, after a lifetime of study and practice.
Nestled in amongst the integrated asana and pranayama practices is this example of a pranayama session. The book actually has a small chapter containing eleven other pranayama practice sessions. I don't remember this particular Pranayama session being in the original French version, I gave my copy away when the English edition came out so can't check.
It's a pleasure to practice, a nice mixture of pranayama's and I particularly like the employment of mantra's.
Ramaswami taught us to mentally recite a pranayama mantra built on the Gayatri in the kumbhaka after the inhalation,
My pranayama page
....here they are employed at each stage of the pranayama, mentally recite the Gayatri once on the inhalation, four times on the kumbhaka and twice during the exhalation.
I had the Krishnamacharya practice sheets I'd made up last year with me in Crete and practiced them after leaving Rethymno for Agios pavlos, I was looking forward to getting my hands back on the book after I arrived in Japan (I'd shipped my books over). Since arriving I've started working through all the examples of General practice in the order they're presented in the book. Sri Sribhashyam mentions that they are presented pedagogically and it's interesting to see how he's introducing the different elements of practice, alternatives to certain asana (sirsasana for example) more challenging asana, the Kumbhaka's (breath retentions) length of stay, the focal points (fascinating) and here, with Krishnamacharya's own practice, employment of mantra. The same goes for the pranayama chapter, they build up. If you find Krishnamacharya's pranayama session below too challenging for now then you can start with the first couple of pranayama's presented in the book.
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We finally know who the woman in this photo is. Her name is Libbie Mathes and she studied asana and pranayama with Krishnamacharya for four years in the 1960s, this photo was taken in 1963, see her article here
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The pranayama session nestled in amongst the integrated asana and pranayama practice sessions.
Difficult to read the small print?
Gayathri Mantra
Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ
bhárgo devásya dhīmahi
dhíyo yó naḥ prachodáyāt
Chanted quickly the mantra takes five seconds, giving us a a 1:4:2 of five seconds for the inhalation, twenty seconds for the kumbhaka and ten seconds for the exhalation.
Narayana Gayathri Mantra
Aum Naaraayanaaya Vidmahe
Vaasu-dhevaya Dhimahee
Thanno Naaraayana Prachodayath
And because the Krishnamacharya Pranayama session above is quite involved here are the first two sessions from the Pranayama chapter in the book..
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| MY REVIEW HERE http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/04/emergence-of-yoga-by-krishnamacharyas.html |
A link to my own adapted version of Krishnamacharya's "life saving practice' from last year, including a video.
from my previous post
....where I suggest the book is Applied vinyasa Krama
Nice to practice Ashtanga downstairs. Since I arrived in Japan I've been looking more carefully at Sri Sribhashyam book Emergence of Yoga, going through each of the general practices( In the upstairs shala) in the order they're presented ( there are 58 examples of general practice plus the life saving practices featured in the Documentary about Sri Sribhashyam's father Krishnamacharya , Breath of Gods, as well as a number of pranayama practices and insights into Krishnamacharya's own practice). I've been exploring the book over the last year but but it's interesting to go through it practice by practice and see how Sri Sribhashyam introduces Kumbhaka's, a focus on different vital points and longer stays as well as more challenging asana. The structure reminds me of the guidelines to practice presented by Ramaswami. Ramswami encourages us to learn the long sequences presented in his book The Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga to gain insights into the relationship between asana but once we've become familiar with the sequence, the goal is to choose appropriate asana each day along with those key asana we are encouraged to practice each day. Sri Sribhashyam's Emergence to Yoga feels a little like applied Vinyasa Krama, how one might go about teaching and practicing Vinyasa Krama with the added inclusion of the focus on vital points not mention by Ramaswami. There are differences but they seem outweighed by the similarities.
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