Category: Yoga

Yoga Sūtras: my favourite sūtra-s (1)

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The above photo is from an 18th-century manuscript archived and preserved at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and shows Yoga Sūtra-s II.1 and 11.2, which are highlighted with an orange-saffron powder. The Yoga Sūtra-s are said to be the work of the semi-divine sage, Patañjali.

About the Yoga Sūtra-s

The two sūtra-s shown in the picture are embedded within Vyāsa’s commentary, which is known as the Bhāṣya (commentary). The whole of the Yoga Sūtra-s is like this: sūtra and commentary alternating with each other in a stream of beautiful symbols and ideas that are logically arranged. Together they can be referred to as the Yoga teachings of Patañjali, or Patañjali’s Yogaśāstra.

The term sūtra, from the Sanskrit root sū (which is cognate with the English word sew), literally means a thread and basically refers to a pithy philosophical statement. The English equivalent for sūtra is probably “aphorism”. The intention of the sūtra format is to pack as much information as possible into the fewest number of words. And, the 195 succinct sūtra-s were constructed to be a teaching manual their various meanings to be explored and unpacked within the teacher-student relationship.

These opaque aphorisms of Patañjali’s may have been complied in the first few centuries after the Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar (who died about 2,000 years ago). The Yogasūtra-s is the text that sets Yoga apart as one of the six orthodox philosophies (darśana-s) of the Indian wisdom traditions.

In this article, I select some of my favourite sūtra-s from the first part of Patañjali’s Yogaśāstra.

Yogasūtra I.2

This Yoga Sūtra is the crucial one (lakṣaṇa) because it sets out the quintessence of Yoga. The essential nature of Yoga, according to Patañjali, is:

yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ |

Yoga is the ability to direct and focus mental activity | [1]

In other words, the goal of yoga is to achieve a state of being where the Mind (citta) is such that it cannot be distracted either by itself or by external stimuli. The ever changing states of the Mind (vṛtti) – desires, emotions, thoughts, ideas, hopes, fears etc – are silenced (nirodhaḥ). When this happens, Patañjali says that our True Self (draṣṭā or puruṣa) separates from identifying with what’s been happening in the mind and finds itself in its own nature of pure unchanging conscious. This is the ultimate purpose and aim of the yoga practices of the Yoga Sūtra-s: to unjoin the Observer (puruṣa) from that which is Observed (prakṛti).

“But, I thought that yoga meant Union?” I hear some of you ask.

In other contexts, Yoga can indeed mean Union. In Patañjali’s Yogaśāstra, however, the end point of path of yoga is that the Seer (draṣtar) ceases to identify with the Seen (dṛśyam) and what follows is Liberation.

That said, there is a sense in which Yoga can mean “to join”, because to achieve this unjoining requires the yoking of the mind “exclusively toward an object and sustain[ing] that [purpose] without any distractions.” [4]

I like to think about this sūtra alongside two other really important definitions of Yoga found in the Bhagavad Gītā [VI.23; II.48]: (1) yoga is the separation from the union with pain – duḥkha-saṁyoga-viyogam; and (2) yoga is perfect evenness of mind – samatvam. [3]

I use this sūtra as my guiding star: is what I am practising or teaching taking us in the direction of YS I.2 (and its related sūtra-s YS I.1 and YS I.3-4)? If it appears to be doing that then continue, if not think again.

Yogasūtra I.7

It is the sūtra on thinking that I come to next. We live in a world where fake news, misinformation etc mushes along confusingly with truth and reliable information. This is a problem if we are trying to live better lives: how do we know what we know? Should we base our lives on right or wrong knowledge? How can I tell fact from fiction?

Patañjali reminds us in this sūtra that Right Knowledge (pramāṇa) has its roots in proper evaluation of sense perception, logic and testimony from honest reliable witnesses.

Right Knowledge is a particular way that the Mind (citta) functions (vṛtti).

The Sanskrit reads:

pratyakṣa-anumāna-āgamāḥ pramāṇāni |

Correct knowledge is the fruit of directly perceived experience, inference or reliable testimony | [2]

The modern Wellness industry, which includes all forms of activities branded Yoga, is very innovative and contradictory. Fame, power and money can drive these mutations as well as kindness and compassion.

How can we tell what is real yoga from pseudo yoga? How do I know what to practice?

T Krishnamacharya, the father of modern yoga, gave this advice: if a yoga practice can be located in the Yoga Sūtras (which text is itself an āgama – reliable testimony that is based on proper evaluation of sense perception and good robust thinking), then it was safe to say that the practice was an authentic form of yoga.

However, the Yogasūtra-s, he also pointed out, were not a complete list of yoga practices. So, even if you can’t find the technique in the Sūtras it may still be good yoga, especially if it links us with the essence of Yoga discussed earlier.

This sūtra, it seems to me, invites us to engage intelligently with our practice and with the world. For instance, we would be less taken in if we understood common logical fallacies we make and hear every day. Think how much time would freed up to experience the world if we could spot bad thinking?

Yogasūtra I.12

If YS I.2 answers the question “What is Yoga?” then this sūtra answers the question “How do we attain the state of Yoga?”

Patañjali’s answer comprises just two words: (1) practice and (2) dispassion.

abhyāsa-vairāgyābhyāṁ tat-nrodhaḥ |

The mind can reach the state of Yoga through practice and detachment | [4]

The Mind (citta) can take us to two basic directions. The first and most common one is towards the prison of endless pain caused by our attempts to satisfy all our bodies’ desires in the form of its pleasure seeking and pain avoidance demands. Patañjali describes this in YS I.4 and other places in the Yoga Sūtras.

But the Mind can also flow in the opposite direction towards its elevation as described by Patañjali in YS I.2 to 3.

We should practise (abhyāsa) yoga with all seriousness every day and for a long time with the best teachers in your locality if we are to make progress on the path of Yoga, because unless we get lucky and win the equivalent of the True Happiness lottery (with odds of several billion to one) we’ll never make it.

Practising in this way is not enough, though. We need to practise with the right attitude: vairāgya or (in English) dispassion, renunciation, detachment etc.

When we practise we should learn to give up everything that could be an obstacle on the path of Yoga. For instance: illness, apathy, anger, greed, delusion, etc.

All of us have skipped our early morning practice at some point or other because the desire to do something else (for example, to stay in bed, drink coffee, cuddle our partner etc) wins out over our desire to work on ourselves through the practices of yoga.

Yogasūtra I.33

Patañjali’s Yogaśāstra does not envisage us having to live outside society to make progress along the yoga path. My next choice of sūtra is about the development of our character and certain virtues. To be a yogi means to have a tranquil mind (citta prasādanam) and to be kind and compassionate no matter the circumstances.

maitrī-karuṇā-muditā-upekṣāṇāṁ sukha-duḥkha-puṇya-apuṇya-viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātah-citta-prasādanam |

In daily life we see people around who are happier than we are, people who are less happy. Some may be doing praiseworthy things and others causing problems. Whatever may be our usual attitude toward such people and their actions, if we can be pleased with others who are happier than ourselves, compassionate toward those who are unhappy, joyful with those doing praiseworthy things, and remain undisturbed by the errors of others, our mind will be very tranquil. [4]

TKV Desikachar’s combination of translation and commentary expresses the meaning of YS I.33 perfectly.

Each aspect of this sūtra can be cultivated or practised. One suggestion could be to sit and visualise how we would feel, think and behave in each of the situations described by YS I.33. Can we imagine how we would maintain a tranquil mind no matter how the people around us are behaving?

Yogasūtra I.37

It is only quite recently that I have come to the view that yoga is also about the refinement of our characters. There are a number of sūtras that suggest this. We have already discussed YS I.33, and we can add YS II.30, which list the yamas (the principles of respect for others) many of us already know about.

vītarāga-viṣayaṁ vā cittam |

When we are confronted with problems, the counsel of someone who has mastered similar problems can be a great help [in calming the mind] | [4]

It is an interesting and fruitful exercise to think about what our own values might be as we become more accomplished yogi-s. The more we know what they are and align them to the way we live and conduct our lives the greater our sense of wellbeing and mental stability; the better our relationships.

One way to start with working with this sūtra is to think about other people, whether living, dead, real or fictional, that you admire and list their virtues. Can we imagine what someone would be like if they were successful in practising yoga? Next we could list the things that we desire for ourselves. These two list often don’t start off as be the same. However, over time and through contemplation we find that the two lists get better and merge.

Finding a personal teacher can be very helpful in this regard. I can tell you that I am very grateful for my own – very patient – teacher, who has helped my cultivate patience and calmness among other qualities.

Yogasūtra I.38

Most of us will turn to our mats and practise āsana-s (postures) and, maybe, prāṇāyāma (breath control), to bring stability to our minds. Some of us go further, and use mantra (sound) and dhyāna (reflection or meditation).

Patañjali makes several other suggestions aimed at calming and stabilising the way the mind twists and turns from one thing to the next.

I’ve picked YS I.38 as one of my favourites because everyone seems to be yawningly tired all the time and that can’t be good for our sense of wellbeing nor our ability to live life to the full. Without adequate sleep practising yoga, like any other endeavour, becomes harder and less effective.

svapna-nidrā-jñāna-ālambanaṁ vā |

Mental stability also flows from the consciousness in dream and deep sleep | [1]

It is from sound restful and naturalistic sleep that insight into some of our problems can come, and from that arises mental stability and the sense of wellbeing.

Coda

For this article, I could have picked any or all the sūtra-s from the samādhi pāda of the Yoga Sūtra-s because they are so good. I trust that my little selection from the first part of the Patañjali’s Yogaśāstra was of interest. We need to know what Yoga is and how to get there. This is no easy task and compassionate Patañjali offers insight and many varying practices, suitable for different personality types, that actually work. Yoga practice is so much more than āsana (yoga’s system of postures).

References:

[1] From Bernard Buanchaud’s The Essence of Yoga: Reflections on the Yoga Sūtras, translated from the French by Rosemary Desneux

[2] From Frans Moor’s Liberating Isolation: the Yogasūtra of Patañjali

[3] From Edwin F Bryant’s The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali

[4] From TKV Desikachar’s The Heart of Yoga: developing a personal practice

Yoga in Poetry

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Poetery can inspire yoga practice
Photo by Steve Johnson from Pexels

Over the course of more than 20 years of studying and practising yoga, I have noticed how ideas found in yoga also blossom like wild flowers everywhere. It seems that the aspirations we call yoga are innate and find expression in all kinds of places and times. These notions – like dance, music and art – come into being simply because we are human. As humans we naturally have an urge to flourish and be the best we can in this one life we have before us. These universal ideas express themselves repeatedly in different times and different places. In this article I look at some of the connections between yoga teachings and some of my favourite life-affirming poetry.

Lost in thought: the ordinary state of living

Louise Glück wrote a lovely poem called Nostos in the 1990s and it ends with these provocative words:

We look at the world once, in childhood.

The rest is memory.

I like to think that Glück is telling us that, while we might think we are living in the real world, we are actually only living in our recollections of the first time we experienced it. Only in childhood, when everything is new do we really pay attention, do we really see the world as something to be observed, something to be experienced.

After those early discoveries we become blasé: done that, seen it, got the T-shirt. We stop seeing the world as it is and ‘see’ it as we suppose it and those impressions of the world are heavily influenced by our memories of our first few encounters.

One goal of yoga is to return to Seeing the Cosmos as it is and not as we imagine it but as it really is.

“In order to discipline the mind, we need to develop a mental practice that clearly reveals the distinction between the nature of Jīva [that which experiences] and Prakṛti [that which is experienced] [2]

[See also, for example, YS I.2-3]

The one you hurt the most

Yoga, one might also say, is a collection of techniques to transcend the suffering (duḥkha) of daily life, one source of which is the way our untrained minds operate. Our minds have the quality of craving pleasure and avoiding pain and thus causing actions that lead towards or away from these two experiences. Those actions have consequences. Karma, from the root kṛ – to ‘do’ or ‘make’ – refers not only to an action but also to the reaction it produces (unpleasant or pleasant in accordance with the original act) either today or tomorrow.

EJ Koh wrote this beautiful poem about suffering existence. It’s called My Father in His Old Age.

There is a Korean belief that you are born

the parent of the one you hurt most. Watching

my father use chopsticks to split chicken katsu,

he confesses that I may be the reincarnation

of his own father. We finished our waters in silence

and walked home chatting about who to blame

for where we are. He says, the present is the revenge

of the past. Revenge goes too far, I argue. And

in our unhappiness, we both want to know

we cannot pay enough. Pain becomes meaning.

After this life, I fear I’ll never meet him again. [1]

Those words: the present is the revenge of the past might go too far but they seem to capture the essence of the concept of karma and its link with duḥkha. And there is a hopeful suggestion that the Cosmos may be offering us a way out, a second chance, so to speak, to live in harmony with life: you are born the parent of the one you hurt most.

What a wonderful invitation to make recompense by being kind and compassionate Now, as, for example, a parent prioritises love for their child (see also, e.g., YS II.35).

Breaking the spell of ordinary thinking

Yoga requires effort, tapas, to break out of the confines of everyday thinking and cultivate a peaceful and attentive mental attitude. What keeps us in our torment is our own self-created sense of self, asmitā. Yoga suggests we relax this sense of self, and open up or trust, īsvarapraṇidāna, to that which is not us.

For instance, the practice of reminding ourselves that everything is impermanent has the effect of focusing our attention on what really matters and īsvarapraṇidāna gives us the confidence to say Yes to what the world has to offer us on its terms not ours. That’s one of the things I get from William Stafford’s 1998 poem called “Yes”:

It could happen any time, tornado,

earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.

Or sunshine, love, salvation.

It could you know. That’s why we wake

and look out – no guarantees

in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning,

like right now, like noon,

like evening.

When we deliberately set out to see things in this surprising way – imagining the worse that could happen – we are using a Zen-like yoga technique called pratipakṣa-bhāvanam. Its goal is too disrupt the grip that harassing negative thoughts can have on our minds by applying some reflective reasoning, dhyāna. Our minds can become calmer and clearer, sattva, knowing that the present moment has wonders of its own and worrying about tomorrow is just an unproductive use of the here and now.

Naomi Shihab Nye expresses a similar idea in her poem The Art of Disappearing to help her prioritise Life’s tasks. The ending is a mantra, of sorts, and one I invoke in one form or other many times to help me make better choices and focus on what really matters when we have but a single lifetime to squander or make good use of.

When they say Don’t I know you?

say no.

When they invite you to the party

remember what parties are like

before answering.

Someone is telling you in a loud voice

they once wrote a poem.

Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.

Then reply.

If they say We should get together

say why?

It’s not that you don’t love them anymore.

You’re trying to remember something

too important to forget.

Trees. The monastery bell at twilight.

Tell them you have a new project.

It will never be finished.

When someone recognizes you in a grocery store

nod briefly and become a cabbage.

When someone you haven’t seen in ten years

appears at the door,

don’t start singing him all your new songs.

You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf.

Know you could tumble any second.

Then decide what to do with your time.

I just love the suggestion that one should bring to mind the image of greasy sausage balls on a paper plate just before deciding to give up some of your time for a friend’s mediocre piece of work. And it isn’t because we don’t love them – of course we do – it’s just that the really transformative and inspiring stuff is a rare thing.

Yogic mindfulness

Everyone has heard of mindfulness as a way to meditate or to relax and be present to things as they are. Yoga has been offering mindfulness practices for a very long time. In yoga we can call mindfulness practices smṛti-sādhana, literally the “practice of recall”. This is the yoga technique of repeatedly bringing to mind what it feels like to experience the sattva I mentioned earlier.

Coleman Barks has done a beautiful translation of the Sufi poet, Jalaluddin Rumi’s poem The Guest House. This poem, like the others I have selected for this article, is worth learning by heart because reciting it whenever one wants or needs, helps in the transformative process of smṛti-sādhana.

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

What we can find when we engage with this poem is a way to reduce the influence of restless and over energetic thoughts and feelings or ones that bring us down. Many of us have an inner critic who appears to have taken to loving us with dark thoughts. Rumi is suggesting we return our inner critics ‘love’ with the love of acceptance and gratitude. When this happens tranquility, sattva, begins to dominate and the present moment can be experienced as a wonder.

Turning old failures into sweet honey

Yoga has many ways to help transform our lives. A central concept is that, deep down, in a secret cave located somewhere in the heart, we are already perfect. This is a tremendously important and powerful thought: we are already perfect. We can spend far too much time fretting that we don’t measure up to others or to ourselves.

It is true that somehow, somewhere on the journey from the perfection within us to the ever-changing world things appear to go wrong. But we don’t have to torture ourselves needlessly about these failures. We should learn from our mistakes and act skillfully and with compassion.

We can have confidence, śraddhā, that there is a treasure of wonder within each of us, at times feeling like a sacred spring, or honey or the sun at the centre of our Being.

It can take poetry to convey what lies ahead of us on the pathways of yoga.

In Antonio Machado poem, translated by Robert Bly, Last Night As I Was Sleeping, we getting a stunning glimpse of this inner perfection.

Last night as I was sleeping,

I dreamt—marvelous error!—

that a spring was breaking

out in my heart.

I said: Along which secret aqueduct,

Oh water, are you coming to me,

water of a new life

that I have never drunk?

Last night as I was sleeping,

I dreamt—marvelous error!—

that I had a beehive

here inside my heart.

And the golden bees

were making white combs

and sweet honey

from my old failures.

Last night as I was sleeping,

I dreamt—marvelous error!—

that a fiery sun was giving

light inside my heart.

It was fiery because I felt

warmth as from a hearth,

and sun because it gave light

and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept,

I dreamt—marvelous error!—

that it was God I had

here inside my heart.

For the bhakti yogi the last few lines hint at the Yoga – or union – of the personal ‘spirit’ with the ‘divine’. For those like me who are drawn more to the ideas of sāṃkhya yoga, this poem also brings out the idea of Yoga as being the separation of consciousness, puruṣa, from matter, prakṛti, or, putting it another way: awaking from the daytime sleep we think of as normal wakefulness.

These poems – and others like them – have the power to jolt us into finding connections with yoga wisdom and insights. They also remind us that the yogi, like the poet, is a keen observer of Life. I have given you a few possible connections. There are many more to be discovered.

References:

[1] https://thisisejkoh.com/poems/

[2] T Krishnamacharya’s commentary on Yoga Sūtra I.12

Yoga & Sleeping Well

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Photo by Paul Stollery on Unsplash

“How refreshing it is after a good night’s sleep!”
– TKV Desikachar [1]

We all know this from our own experiences. And we know how difficult it is to get a good night’s slept and this is probably due to the way our modern environment, society and economic system works.

Think about how much harder it is these days to say when work actually starts and finishes. For many of us it is no longer the case that we start a 8 or 9 in the morning and finish 8 or 9 hours later. Smart devices, linked with feelings of insecurities and or the desire to advance one’s career, have blurred the lines between work and play, and work and home life.

These days it is easy to start looking at work emails when we wake up, as we travel to and from work as well as last thing at night.

If you think about it work doesn’t satisfy all our needs. In fact, it can’t. We need to have time for family, friends, community and for to ourselves too.

These days, fitting in a bit of time at the gym or on the yoga mat and fun with family and friends is most likely achieved by cutting down on the amount of sleep we allow ourselves. We deceive ourselves into thinking that a nightcap before bed will help us to sleep and that regular cups of coffee will get us through the day. Self-medicating on evening sedatives (alcohol) and on morning and afternoon caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate) is not an uncommon recipe applied to allow life to go on normally without reducing the quality of our thoughts, feelings and actions.

It turns out that this is not true. Sleep is important.

If you want to be successful at yoga – at anything, for that matter – don’t negotiate away the 8.5 hours of sleep opportunity we need each and every night.

T Krishnamacharya explained, in his introduction to Yoga Makaranda, that

if we do not get the stipulated hours of sleep, “then our physical and psychological nature (svarūpa) will totally be destroyed” [2].

If you have read Matthew Walker’s 2017 book Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams, you may have been shocked to discover that modern science is also telling us that undervaluing the importance of sleep has serious consequences on the length and quality of life. It turns out that:

“the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep.” [3]

I’ve learnt a lot about the importance of sleep from this book. Most importantly, we must sleep between 7 and 9 hours each and every night, without exception, to avoid the harm sleep deprivation causes us.

With less than 7 hours of sleep you can objectively show under performance in ALL systems of the human body. To paraphrase, Matthew Walker:

Sleep is the very foundation upon which we build our lives

If we want to live long, happy, healthy and fulfilled lives we MUST give ourselves the opportunity of getting 8.5 hours of sleep each and every night at the same time each day.

T Krishnamarchya repeated the same wisdom almost 100 years ago: “From sleep, one gets physical health and agility. Further, it is not an exaggeration to say that both the body and the mind get rejuvenated by sleep.” [2]

The Yogasūtra of Patañjali – my turn-to text for many questions on yoga and its practice – has an interesting sūtra [YS I.38]:

svapna-nidrā-jñāna-ālambanaṁ va

which translates roughly as:

Mental stability can arise from reflecting on the experiences that come from dreams [svapna] and deep sleep [nidrā].

It comes in the section that presents a range of methods that calm and realign or stabilise the functions of the mind.

There are many esoteric points to be made about this sūtra, but it seems to me that the very first experience or knowledge of dreaming and deep sleep we have is that of having good nights and bad ones. When we sleep badly our minds are far from stable the following day. We all know how rubbish we are when we don’t get enough sleep. The more sleep deprived we are the more disturbed are minds become.

I feel that our modern digital culture disconnects us from what it means to be deeply human and replaced it with something that glitters like gold but isn’t. The greater connectivity to knowledge, its almost indistinguishable opposite: fake news, and to distant people and communities are mixed blessings that can take us away from what really matters in life.

If Shakespeare is someone to go by, then we know that our ancestors knew the value of a good night’s sleep. Look what happened to Macbeth.

Shakespeare points out in six lines the benefits of sleep as “chief nourisher in life’s feast”, “Balm of hurt minds” and how the lack of sleep contributes to Macbeth’s mental deterioration:

Me thought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep,’ the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

Macbeth (2.2.46-51)

Again, modern science is showing the importance of sleep and pointing out what happens when you don’t get enough.

In the short video that follows, Matthew Walker lists some of the awful results routine lack of sleep has on our health span, which can be shorter than our life span.

Lack of sleep:

  • will actually prevent your brain from being able to make new memories
  • will lead to an increase in your risk of going on to develop dementia in later life
  • will age you by almost a decade in terms of that aspect of virility and wellness.
  • impacts your immune system. So after just one night of four to five hours of sleep, there is a 70% reduction in critical anticancer-fighting immune cells called natural killer cells. And that’s the reason that we know that short sleep duration predicts your risk for developing numerous forms of cancer
  • impacts your cardiovascular system because it is during deep sleep at night that nourishes your heart
  • gives a 200% increased risk of having a fatal heart attack or stroke in your lifetime

It seems that we can be awake for about 16 hours before needing about eight hours of sleep to repair the damage of wakefulness.

“Wakefulness”, says Matthew Walker, “is essentially is low-level brain damage.”

In this context, it may be reassuring to know that taking up and maintaining a suitable daily yoga practice, which often is simple and easy to do, improves sleep duration and quality. In my experience, improvements in sleep is one of the key benefits reported by people taking up yoga. From a wellness point of view, giving sleep its proper value and priority should be the cornerstone of any strategy to improve quality of life.

Notes & References:

[1] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p.161

[2] T Krishnamacharya, 1934. Quotation is from p.44 of the Yoga Makaranda: the nectar of yoga. Originally published in the Kannada language in 1934. Revised English translation by TKV DEsikachar with the assistance of ER Ramaswamy Iyengar, 2011

[3] Mathew Walker, 2017, Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, p. 164

Yoga & the workplace

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Is there a business case for yoga classes in the workplace? I set out to try and find an answer to that very question. I started by phoning a good friend of mine who has been teaching corporate yoga. That’s yoga in the workplace.

Both of us have experience with teaching yoga in the workplace. But there are a number of challenges to teaching yoga in this context. I’ll get to those later.

In the meantime, yoga is said to be good for employees because it can:

  • reduce stress and tension
  • increase energy
  • help increase strength and overall fitness
  • help reduce neck, shoulder and back pain
  • improve focus and concentration
  • improve posture
  • improve relationships with colleagues

But businesses are there to make profits. So what’s in it for businesses if they pay for their staff to attend yoga classes? As another friend of mine has pointed out whenever I mention any form of compassion in the workplace:

“Michael, businesses are not therapy clinics! They exist to maximize profits. So what if their employees get stressed in the process of making loads of money for their directors and shareholders?”

Is my friend being too cynical, I wonder? I think we can say that there are some benefits of yoga for businesses and employees. Yoga in the workplace can:

  • boost productivity
  • reduce health care costs
  • improve staff retention
  • reduce absenteeism
  • make the workplace feel more humane

While the above all sound honky dory and obvious, I know there is a problem with this analysis.

Why is it that business meetings start getting booked at the same time as yoga classes are supposed to take place? As an employee, you simply can’t decline a meeting request because you would like to practise yoga on your firm’s premises and your lunch / rest time.

Why is it that senior business leaders, who approve the spend on yoga classes for staff, don’t themselves attend those yoga classes?

Do colleagues really get on well enough with each to practise yoga together in the company board room?

Why is it that the people who really champion yoga in the workplace don’t themselves attend?

And why do businesses only give these sort of wellness initiatives short periods of time to prove their value before wanting to try something else?

My feeling is that businesses, like the rest of us, don’t get what yoga is really about.

There is a quotation attributed to the American master yoga teacher, Gary Kraftsow, a student of TKV Desikachar’s, which tells us something crucial about yoga’s true purposes.

Gary explains that:

“The way I was taught, yoga is more about managing and transforming our thoughts, emotions, and behavior than about stretching our hamstrings. And the real work of yoga is about mastering our minds, not mastering handstand.” [1]

When expressed in these words, it’s easier to understand that Yoga is about the Mind. And that realisation should then make it easier to see that Yoga is in fact a school of meditation, for meditation is all about the mind. If yoga is really about managing and transforming our thoughts, emotions and behaviours, then yoga is also about skill action.

This last point is actually a famous definition of yoga found in the Bhagavad Gītā:

“Yoga is skill in action”

Yoga’s practices lead to people with greater skills, especially clarity of thought and insight.

But, I hear you say, isn’t that what every business wants: employees who are skilled in action? Yes, it is. So why this focus on stress reduction and better posture while sitting at a desk?

While researching this article, I came across many stories of CEOs who practise one form or other of the meditative arts.

For instance, I came across Bill George. According to Wikipedia, Bill George started his career in the United States Department of Defense. Then served as a senior executive of Honeywell and Litton Industries. In 1989, he joined the American healthcare giant, Medtronic, as president and chief operating officer. He is a full professor at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. He has also served as executive-in-residence at the Yale School of Management. Bill George also serves on the boards of directors of Exxon Mobil, Mayo Clinic and Goldman Sachs. He has also sat on the boards of Novartis AG and Target Corporation.

According to the Financial Times, who interviewed him in 2012, he started meditating in 1974.

Bill George is an advocate for bringing meditative practices into business, and has written articles on the subject for the Harvard Business Review. He told the Financial Times in 2012 that:

“The main business case for meditation is that if you’re fully present on the job, you will be more effective as a leader, you will make better decisions and you will work better with other people. I tend to live a very busy life. This keeps me focused on what’s important.” [2]

I also came across international management guru, Laurens Van Den Muyzenberg, while researching this article. He interviewed many business executives in the Asian Tiger economies for the book he co-wrote with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Leader’s Way, which was published in 2008. His research tells us what the real business benefits are for fostering meditative practices as a key business skill. Business leaders and managers who practise meditative arts like yoga exhibit:

  • increased ability to deal with a crisis
  • better decision making
  • better relationships with people directly reporting to them
  • the need for fewer meetings
  • better execution of decisions
  • more creativity
  • high levels of enthusiasm for the work they do [3].

This is really very interesting to me. What it suggests is that yoga teachers should not just be bringing yoga mats into board rooms. Yoga mats and the āsana-s (yoga postures) with which we are so familiar encourage the view that yoga is only a form of excercise. Given the limited amount of time available in the workplace to activities that do not obviously look like work, yoga mats / āsana-s are much more suitable for other situations, usually outside the work place. They are generally good for helping one to reduce stress, and increase the functional efficiency of the body, for example, by reducing back and neck pain.

What Van Den Muyzenberg and George seem indirectly to suggest is that yoga teachers might better address the real concerns of business leaders and managers by bringing zafus with them and teaching the yoga arts of prāṇāyāma (attention to the breath) and dhāraṇā (meditation).

The Yoga Sūtra-s and other primary yoga texts, have also something important and useful to say about business ethics, and corporate governance.

Imagine how the effectiveness of businesses and the well being of the people businesses employ and deal with might improve, if leaders started and ended their working days with 15 minutes of seated yoga practices? Or, if there was a monthly exploration and discussion of yoga philosophy, psychology and logic?

How radical would it be to give an experienced yoga teacher an office for a day or two each week and allow business leaders, managers and employees half an hour of one-to-one time to evolve a tailored yoga programme for true personal development.

Yoga is in the business of personal transformation. Business is about transforming stuff too. One meaning of the word Yoga is, in fact, business, enterprise and work. Some would point out that Yoga was not designed to make employees better servants of industry but rather to set them free or to develop peace, love and connection. This is probably true. But Yoga is very much about reducing suffering. It is possible to think about the goals of Yoga and Business as complementary, at least up to a point.

Yoga teachers can’t tell a business leader or manager how to do their job. However, what they can do is help people to improve the way their minds work. To remind them that they have the wherewithal to find the necessary wisdom and courage to make difficult decisions. To encourage confidence in the face of difficulties and to understand the role compassion plays in the long-term authenticity, integrity and success of a business.

There is some evidence from those who practise meditation / yoga and who are in senior positions in business around the world is strikingly pointing towards meditation as a way to develop the various abilities to do the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way. Those decisions, often quite tricky with serious consequences, can be made easier when supported by meditative practices such as yoga.

Business like yoga, it might be said, can both be seen as Skill in Action, although their ultimate goals are different.

References:

[1] I have tried to find the source for this quotation but can’t find it anywhere. But I like it very much and it seems to me to be just the sort of thing Gary Kraftsow might have said.

[2] Financial Times article published 2012 – https://www.ft.com/content/d9cb7940-ebea-11e1-985a-00144feab49a

[3] The benefits listed come from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Laurens van den Muyzenberg’s 2008 book, The Leader’s Way, p39f

[4] Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Yoga and Food

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I am practising a little light fasting today, and to keep my mind off food I’m alternating writing about it and practising āsana-s and prāṇāyāma-s.

Here, then, is a good opportunity for me to bring together some of what I have discovered over the years about yoga and food.

1. Yogī-s tend to follow a moderate diet

The Bhagavad Gīta (VI.16) tells us that yoga is not for those who over eat or for those who don’t eat enough.

Long fasts are off the to-do list, then, as are snacks!

In hard-core yoga circles, there is a well known formula regarding eating and it goes like this:

A moderate diet (mitāhāra) is rich in foods that provide stability and strength to the body, satisfying three-quarters of one’s hunger, by filling the stomach with two parts food, one part liquid and leaving one part empty

[Haṭhayogapradīpikā (‘HYP’) I.58].

2. What we eat influences the functioning of the mind

I met a chap a few years back, big into yoga, who rather hoped he didn’t have to become a vegetarian to practise yoga when he signed up to train as a yoga teacher. He rather liked a good Sunday roast and couldn’t see himself giving up meat. He ate meat everyday, more or less.

I met him again several years later on a yoga study weekend and was surprised to note he was eating vegetarian. Really? I asked him. And he explained that the change had come about gradually and not on purpose. He felt better in mind and body when eating a plant-based diet. He still eats meat, but mostly it’s a vegetarian diet for him.

My guess is that yoga practices, done regularly, generally have a calming, soothing effect upon the practitioner’s mind and this in turn leads to a greater sensitivity and clarity about who we are, what we are really about and how we want to live.

We become aware that foods influence us in different ways and that some foods echo the positive effects of yoga practice.

There is a Sanskrit word for this and it is Sattva. When we practise yoga, Sattva begins to predominate in an individual resulting in the Sattvic qualities of wisdom, lucidity, detachment, happiness and peacefulness appearing.

3. The link between food and the mind is ancient

The Chāndogya Upaniṣad, possibly composed in the earlier part of 1st millennium before the Roman Emperor, Augustus, says annamayaṁ hi saumya manaḥ, which means something like:

As is the food, so is the mind

Indeed, the subtle link between certain foods and the quality of Sattva is well known.

The Bhagavad Gīta (XVII.8-10), which was composed around 2,500 years ago, tells us that for those people who tend towards this Sattvic state of being (and that is just about everyone who loves and lives yoga), find agreeable those foods that promote life, strength, health, happiness and satisfaction.

Those foods are not stimulating (Rajasic), like bitter, sour, salty, excessively hot, pungent, dry or spicy foods.

Neither are they heavy (Tamasic), like foods that are stale, tasteless, putrid, over processed or going off.

They tend to be foods that are savoury, smooth, firm, hearty and pleasant to the stomach. They are mostly plant-based foods with a little dairy, especially ghee (clarified butter).

In short, Sattva promoting foods are light and nourishing, and they support us not cause us difficulties. From my own experience, some dishes that include meat or fish can be Sattva. Often these are slow cooked with plenty of vegetables.

4. The power of compassionate eating

Yoga offers us an enlightened way to living and one based on non-violence (ahiṁsā). This non-violence or compassion extends, ideally, to all beings, whether human or not. It follows therefore that killing an animal for food is contrary to this aspiration of compassion to all living beings.

I mentioned that a little dairy in the diet promoted Sattva. The milk being collected, in traditional Indian living, from the cow after its calf has had its needs met. The milk is shared between calf and humans, with the calf taking priority. In other words, the calf has not had to die for us to collect the milk, as happens in the West.

The ancient commentators on Patañjali’s Yogasūtra-s, discuss the possibilities that arise when one practises non-violence and this, of course, extends to whether one nourishes one’s body at the expense of another creature’s life.

Violence of every colour diminishes through holistic yoga practices, that is, those that go beyond the yoga exercise system commonly experienced by most of us in the West.

Again, it is a result of the emergence of the quality of Sattva that can happen when you practise yoga regularly and whole-heartedly over a long period of time.

You are not forced to become vegetarian to practise yoga: that would not be a compassionate approach. You should not be criticised for eating whatever you eat for the same reason.

A ‘superpower’ – Siddhi in Sanskrit – develops in someone for whom non-violence / compassion is firmly established and that Siddhi is that hostility disappears in others (YS II.30 & 35).

There is a lovely story of a famous yogī, commonly known as the Buddha. His cousin, Devadatta, was so jealous of him that he unleashed a mad killer elephant on the Buddha. Being so deeply established in compassion (which is the highest form of non-violence), the Buddha radiated loving kindness to such an extent that the elephant could feel it. Just a few steps before it was about to crush the Buddha, it stopped in its path and calmed down.

4. A balanced approach to Plant-based eating

I used to identify as a vegetarian (sometimes as a vegan) only to discover that when on holiday in some parts of the world it meant eating one thing and one thing only. No matter the restaurant, the vegetarian option was spaghetti with tomato sauce. OK, I’m exaggerating, there was also pizza with tomato topping and a green or mixed salad. Yes, I’m still exaggerating, but you get my point that the options can be limiting and not particularly healthy. In fact, it seems to me that the meat eaters get a better selection of vegetables than the vegetarian.

At home, my family and I predominately eat vegetarian or vegan. When we go out, half my family will choose a meat option. I might choose the meat option too – but one that comes with vegetables, because I love eating them. I’ll do this because the vegetarian choice is often more Tamasic than a fish/meat option.

I also discovered that some people, people I really loved, held my dietary stance secretly against me because it seemed a political statement being forced upon them. It was also a faff and a worry for them cooking for me. I woke to the idea that my vegetarianism was, for some at least, a form of hiṁsā – violence. I now accept meat dishes offered by others when doing otherwise would cause upset or offense.

Restricting one’s own diet can be a form of violence to oneself. A friend of mine, also a yoga teacher and longtime vegetarian, needed an operation. Her recovery was not as quick as she expected. After much reflection, she came to the realization that she had to re-introduce meat into her diet to enable her body to repair and heal. It worked. And now she listens to her body, which mostly desires plant-based food and every now and then a little meat.

5. What’s my approach to eating

Over the years, I’ve noticed that my approach to eating has not been the same. It’s been ‘normal’ up until I was 20 when I gave up meat as part of a Lent fast. It was at the end of that fast, while eating a sirloin steak that I realised that I preferred the energy and lightness (Sattva) that comes from plant-based foods to the heaviness (Tamas) of meat.

I eat plants 98% of the time. Lots of different sorts, although today’s supermarkets restrict the range of vegetables.

The 2% allows me to eat meat if I am unwell – it’s difficult to dismiss the healing powers of a well made organic chicken and vegetable soup. The 2% also allows me to eat eggs and cheese and allow my friends to be more relaxed about cooking for me. I can eat out and not be forced to eat vegetarian foods that are Tamasic or Rajasic.

More recently, I have become more willing to understand how animals reared for food suffer.

My food choices happened when I was ready to make them.

If you think what or how you eat is making you ill, please seek some professional advice. Some advice is advisable if you find that your a ready to change you diet to support you better.

Bibliography

TKV Desikachar’s The Heart of Yoga

Eknath Easwaran’s translations of The Bhagavad Gita and The Upanishads

Frans Moors’ translation of The Yoga Sūtras

AG Mohan’s translation of Haṭhayogapradīpikā

On not taking yoga too seriously

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Photo by Peter Forster on Unsplash

The following reflections on the lighter side of yoga appeared on my Facebook page during 2017

What is the Secret of Yoga?

A man travels thousands of kilometres to find a world renown yoga guru, who lives in a cave on top of a high mountain in India, in order to find out the Secret of Yoga. Having overcome many obstacles and delays on his journey, he finally arrives at the mountain and finds the yogi sitting cross-legged outside his cave.

“O wise guru, please tell me the Secret of Yoga” petitioned the man.

“Ah, yes! I know the answer to that question,” replied the guru.

“It is a purple yoga mat; that is the Secret of Yoga. You know, the ones you can buy for £29.99 at the sports shop; cheaper if you get them in the sales. But it has to be a purple yoga mat.”

“A purple yoga mat? I trekked all this way to find out the Secret of Yoga and you tell me it’s a purple yoga mat!” exclaims the man with much frustration.

The guru smiles. “So maybe it’s not a purple yoga mat.”

[Posted 12 March 2017]

The story of two wolves

Every moment of our lives, from one second to the next, Life continually offers us difficult choices.

One evening an old yogi was telling his granddaughter about the battle that rages inside people over these choices.

He said:

“Child, the battle is like that between two wolves who meet in a forest clearing. Only the wolves are in our hearts and our minds. Both seek happiness.

One is Ignorance, and while he has some good times, he also suffers from a compulsive need to act, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity, shame, guilt, resentment, false pride, and arrogance.

The other is Serenity, and while she has some bad times, mostly she experiences tranquility, fulfillment, joy, peace, love, trust, kindness, benevolence, truth, and compassion”

The granddaughter thought about this for a moment and then asked her grandfather:

“Grandad, in the end, which wolf wins the battle?”

And he replied:

“The one you feed”

And they both started laughing.

[Posted 5 July 2017]

Yoga joke

There’s a sure fire way to live to a ripe old age – do headstand on a beach for a hundred years.

[Posted 24 July 2017]

Three yogis

Three yogis are meditating silently in a remote mountain cave.

One day they hear a sound outside the cave and six months later the first yogi asks:

“Did you hear that goat?”

The silent meditation continues for another six months before the second yogi replies:

“That wasn’t a goat; it was a sheep!”

The silent meditation continues for another six months before the third yogi retorts:

“If you two don’t stop arguing, I’m leaving!”

[Posted 23 November 2017]

Yoga Sandwich Bar

To supplement her earnings as a yoga teacher, a friend of mine is thinking of opening a Yoga Sandwich Bar with the strap line: “I can make you one with everything”

[Posted 6 December 2017]

On practising yoga

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Photo by Christian Sterk on Unsplash

The following thoughts on yoga practice appeared in my Facebook Yoga page during 2017.

Yoga should leave us feeling good

Śrī T Krishnamacharya held the view that ‘Āsana should not be an aṅga bhanga sādhana.’

Aṅga means ‘limb,’ bhanga means ‘to disrupt’ or ‘to be harmful’ and sādhana means ‘practice.’

What this means is that yoga should not be a practice that disrupts the harmony of the body, breath or mind. More broadly, that the practices we undertake should be useful for the whole body and not just for parts of it. Whatever we practise should support us and not do the opposite. It should leave us feeling good, relaxed and alert: sattva.

‘Consequently, using asymmetric āsanas to work on both sides of the body independently was important in his approach.’ Krishnamacharya considered running to be aṅga bhanga sādhana. While running, as an exercise, generally helps heart and lungs and other parts of the body, it can be harmful to ankles, knees and hips. Gary Kraftsow has ‘seen people jogging along the freeway in heavy traffic at midday under the hot sun without a hat.’ Mad dogs and English men, eh?

I am always astonished to hear of friends of friends who have run several marathons in the desert. Extreme sports are quite popular today. It’s a great accomplishment to be sure, but I wonder at what cost to the integrity of the body?

I have heard of cases where a yoga practice included 108 rounds, four times a day, of kapālabhāti – a breathing exercise meant to cleanse the system and involving short and fast breathing done while moving the tummy in and out – that left the practitioner suffering insomnia and anxiety (too much rajas). Essentially, he had applied excessively, a good piece of yoga technology in the wrong way and was paying the price. Why did he do it? Because he had read it in a yoga book.

Unless we can find a competent teacher with whom we can work with regularly, we should consider very carefully the consequences of the choices we make in developing our own practice.

[The quotations are taken from one of Krishnamacharya’s important students, A. G. Mohan’s book, “Krishnamacharya: His Life and Teachings” (p. 27) & from one of TKV Desikachar’s student’s, Gary Kraftsow’s book Yoga for Wellness (p.133)] [Posted 8 January 2017]

The benefits of practising yoga

Yoga can keep you feeling young.

As a form of exercise that can be enjoyed at any age, the intelligent application of yoga practices help maintain the joints, and muscle tone and control. As we age joints and muscles can degenerate and tighten. Yoga can help to work against this tendency, which is made worse by modern lifestyles that involve using cars, lifts, and sitting for long periods of time.

Yoga can improve the shape of the spine which in turn leads to upright and younger looking postures and gait.

Yoga’s emphasis on good breathing can maintain chest muscles and respiratory health.

Yoga, when established as part of one’s daily routines encourages mental well being.

You get to the point in your practice where eating the wrong foods, smoking and drinking to excess simply become pointless. Yoga practices make you feel good and help you choose healthy foods.

Circulation can improve as can blood pressure.

Positive emotions stay around longer and states of anxiety and depression are less common and less intense. The deeper practices of yoga can make us less fearful of ageing and disease.

Sleep improves. Tiredness, fatigue and lethargy diminish.

Wisdom and contentment develops.

Yoga is not a cure all; it’s not a quick fix. In fact for some, it may not cure a thing.

However, research on those over 60 who have been practising yoga daily for 10 or more years generally have a noticeably better quality of life and a more youthful way of living.

[Posted 2 September 2017]

The personalised yoga practice

Having a personalised yoga practice, one we can do for ourselves each day, is about helping us to become more successful in our personal lives. It is about re-integrating body, vitality, intellect, personality and emotional heart. It’s about optimising our health and happiness.

Over time we become more intergrated and balanced. This natural harmony, even as it is developing, will have a positive influence on those around us. In a way our personal practice becomes a support and benefit for others.

[Posted 12 January 2017]

The power of practising regularly

The mind is undoubtedly fickle and difficult to control … but it can be controlled by abhyāsa-vairāgyābhyām, practise and non-attachment [to the fruits of practising]. [BG VI.35 – see also YS I.12]

I was reading today’s Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram’s FB post – a friend of mine drew my attention to it (thank you Chris!).

Interestingly, their Research Department suggests that 76% of people who practise yoga for therapeutic reasons at least 5 times a week, gain at least 60% relief from symptoms.

In other words, the intelligent application and practice of yoga can improve the quality of life for many people.

[Posted 28 August 2017]

On yoga philosophy

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The following collection first appeared on my Facebook page during 2017.

Clouds of confusion

Question: Why do we have so many problems in life?

Answer: The Yoga Sūtra suggests that it is because our minds experience almost constant Avidyā – “a false state of understanding”.

Problem: Avidyā feels like its opposite Vidyā – “a true state of understanding” [1]

Avidyā grows each time we act without thought, without careful attention, mechanically, blindly etc. Bad habits of thinking, speaking and doing develop. Those actions are bound to our [false] sense of who we are. They are super-charged by our likes and dislikes and a profound fear of death.

It is hard to train the mind, “which goes where it likes and does what it wants” [2], always in search of pleasure, a quick fix, an easy option, a way to gain some advantage over someone else, etc

Consequence: “An unruly mind suffers and causes suffering” [2]. Yes, it causes suffering to ourselves and to others. Poor you; poor them!

Solution: train the mind – for example, through yoga, especially meditation, because “a well-trained mind brings health and happiness” [2].

The mind needs to be trained to focus, to pay attention to one thing at a time. Learning the Periodic Table by heart, while a laudable achievement, is not the sort of mind training I am talking about. I mean, train the mind to focus on the here and now. That’s hard, by the way, but the effort is worth it.

Don’t do this just for yourself though. Imagine the benefits to those we live and work with. Imagine the benefits to those you lead, to family, friends, work colleagues … your goldfish.

Imagine a home or workplace where everyone practised a meditative routine for 15 minutes everyday. Imagine the benefits:

* better leadership

* better team work

* respect

* mutual support and collaboration

* enhanced sense of well being

* a happy and healthy planet for your goldfish

* etc

* etc

* etc

[Quotations: [1] TKV Desikachar, 1980, p.5 of his lectures on the theory and practice of yoga: “Religiousness in Yoga” [2] Page 46 of Eknath Easwaran’s 1985 translation of the Dhammapada. I was using the 2007 version.] [Posted 1 May 2017]

Now

“Now” is the first word of the Yoga Sūtra-s. Now is “atha” in Sanskrit, and “atha’ has many meanings. Sometimes I think of the word as an invitation to be truly conscious of reality in the present moment and to stop thinking.

It is, of course, difficult to stop thinking, but we can become less fussy about what we think and to welcome each thought as if it were something special.

I found this poem earlier this month (or maybe it found me), which got me thinking about the first word of the Yoga Sūtra-s and being present to our thoughts:

“This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.”

[The Guest House by Jeladuddin Rumi, from Rumi: Selected Poems, trans Coleman Barks with John Moynce, A. J. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson (Penguin Books, 2004)] [Posted 10 March 2017]

The world exists

The world exists in order that it can be experienced. This is what the great yoga pundit, Patañjali, tells us. The world also exists for the purpose of liberation (YS II.18 & 21).

We will get the sense of what this means by making an effort to notice and step away from our thoughts. Our thoughts and our feelings, while clearly part of the world, form an enchantment that stops us experiencing Real Life.

The spell can be weakened, even broken, by asking a simple question: “What is it like to … ?”

I was walking in the woods today. I asked myself “What is it like to be walking among the trees and bluebells, under a sunny sky and with the cool air barely stirring?” For a moment my identification with my thoughts weakened enough for me to know that I could experience the walk in a different, more Real way. I could become aware of that which is Seen and that which Sees.

Louise Glück wrote a lovely poem called Nostos in the 1990s and it ends with these provocative words:

“We look at the world once, in childhood.

The rest is memory.”

These words seem to suggest that only when we really look at the world, as a child might, are we at home (a real place) and not living in virtual world created by memories etc.

So, ask yourself: “What is it like to … ?”

[Posted 23 April 2017]

Three qualities of the world

I was discussing Mind with a friend recently. We took a walk along the cliff paths. Had some peppermint tea. We got talking about Yoga.

The great thinkers of ancient India offer us many ways of understanding the world of matter, which includes Mind. One is the notion of the guṇa-s.

Here, the material world (including Mind) is likened to threads or strands which make up a rope. All manifest reality consists of a combination of three threads or guṇa-s which twist together to make up the ropes that make manifest Reality.

We can use the guṇa-s to describe states of Mind:

Sattva – words like wisdom, detachment, happiness, lucidity, and tranquility can describe this quality of Mind

Rajas – words like hankering, energetic endeavour, restlessness, creative activity can be associated with this ‘thread’

Tamas – one can use words like ignorance, delusion, sleep, lethargy and disinclination towards constructive activity to describe this ‘strand’ of the Mind.

I found these beautiful words from one of T Krishnamacharya’s long-standing students and an associate of TKV Desikachar’s. Ramaswami Srivatsa is an important authority on Yoga today.

Here are those words:

“Heavy tamas depresses the mind

Unhinged rajas disturbs the mind

Uplifting sattva delights the mind

Yogāsana-s, prāṇāyāma, dhyāna

Help sattva come to the fore.”

[posted on Ramaswami Srivatsa’s Facebook page on 15 May 2017][Posted on my Facebook page on 21 May 2017]

Integrating the Many Paths of Yoga

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Spring is a good time to take up the practice of Yoga. But what approach to Yoga can one take? Yoga offers several method to bring clarity and peace to the mind. The Bhagavad Gītā, written in India between 2,200 and 2,500 years ago, identifies 18 different forms of Yoga [1]. That’s a lot to choose from! But maybe one doesn’t need to make a choice.

What sort of yoga do those following the yoga tradition of TKV Desikachar and his father T Krishnamacharya, like me, have to offer others? I have often mulled this over. It is difficult to answer since one can determine that Yoga should be offered to the individual having due regard to her or his uniqueness and direction of life. Since individuals are so different from each other, that suggests that yoga practice will be different too. The Yoga Rahasya has this advice to give yoga teachers and, by implication, students:

One who is learned, who reflects and who has self control, after examining and analyzing the time, place, age, occupation and strength of the student, must accordingly adapt the teaching of yoga (to the needs of the student).

With regard to body structure, some people are heavy, some lean, some weak, some crooked and others lame. Therefore, all āsana-s are not suitable for everyone. [2]

Below is my personal view on the holistic and integrated approach to yoga practice established by T Krishnamacharya, and extended and taught by his son, TKV Desikachar, both of whom placed their knowledge of Yoga humbly at the service of individuals.

This blog post is also an attempt to sketch out what one might expect if one decided to find a yoga teacher teaching in this tradition, whether that be on a one-to-one basis or in general groups. It is the adaptation of the teachings of yoga that is so fascinating and why one could say that everyone can do yoga because there is some sort of yoga that is accessible to everyone.

Yoga can be seen as a destination. But it is also a cluster of different methods. In this sense, Yoga is a process as well as a goal. Let’s look at some of methods of Yoga from which we can build individualised yoga practices.

Haṭhayoga

Someone kindly placed me in the haṭha school of yoga, identifying me as a haṭhayoga teacher. I won’t confirm or deny this claim, of course, but it did get me wondering what banner I thought I practised and taught under. I have been quite content with plain and simple ‘Yoga’ as a working description.

‘Haṭha’ is pronounced more like ‘huta’; we don’t sound the ‘th’ like the ‘th’ in the. Haṭhayoga can mean something like the yoga of effort or forceful yoga, although the component parts of the word, ‘ha’ and ‘ṭha’, tell us that Haṭhayoga has a lot more to do with prāṇā (the invisible force, energy or power, that pervades all parts of our mind, breath and body) than with strong power postures.

The West is dominated by one aspect of Haṭhayoga at the moment and that is postures (āsana). It is a rather watered down form of yoga, even if it can be hard physical exercise in the hands of some, but it is a form that is very popular nonetheless. It seems to fit neatly into a gym-sports-physical-leisure culture. There is little doubt that we should look after our bodies, but I would suggest that Yoga must take care of the body, in a way that is suitable to the individual, as a support to nurturing a clear and calm mind.

As a practitioner, knowledge of all aspects of haṭhayoga, for example, āsana, prāṇāyāma, mūdra, and awareness, is desirable.

Rājayoga

I do study, practise and teach āsana, of course, but I don’t restrict myself to āsana, marvelous though āsana is. The HYP [3] tells us that the purpose of Haṭhayoga is to get to Rājayoga. Rājayoga is most commonly thought of as the Yoga set out in Patañjali’s famous Yogasūtra-s together with the commentaries Vyasa (and others).

Rājayoga is about the stilling the activities of the mind (YS I.2). Many meditative practices are suggested in the Yogasūtra-s. Yoga then can be seen as a school of meditation.

There are other yoga-s besides Haṭha and Rāja, of course. I’m not talking about the modern made up ones, like Doga (that’s yoga with your pet dog) or Tantrum yoga (screaming and stretching for better health). Each traditional form of yoga offers much that is beneficial. I have been taught the value of many approaches to yoga.

The thing to do is to apply what is appropriate from this vast Yoga ‘tool box of techniques’ depending on the level, temperament and constitution of the individual who wants to bring about some sort of positive change. The desired change could be to the benefit of their health, body, lifestyle, relationships, emotions, intellect, ‘Spirit’ etc.

For some, mastery of the body is enough. However, Yoga can go beyond mastery of posture work, whether those postures are done in flowing sequences, individually or with the breath. And Yoga need not involve posture exercise.

One can aspire to master not only the body, but different prāṇa-s (‘energies’), and different aspects of Mind, all with knowledge of the subtle body (nāḍī, cakra, Kuṇḍalinī, etc) and of the nature of consciousness. The last is something that Rājayoga has a deep interest in.

Karmayoga

Yoga should be practised in the form of karma yoga (the yoga or way of action). That is to say we should practise for the purpose of developing ourselves so that we are able to help others (and not just humans). Without the element of taking actions that are ultimately intended for the benefit of others our yoga practice won’t assist us to grow and yoga itself does not progress.

We should look more attentively to the qualities inherent in what we do rather than worrying whether what we do is good, bad or indifferent. And what we do should be for the service of others. The Bhagavad Gītā, echoed by the concept of īśvarapraṇidhānā in the Yogasūtra-s (e.g. YS. II.1), puts it like this:

Those who are motivated only by the desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. When the wisdom of yoga is established, however, all anxiety is left behind. There is no cause for worrying whether things go well or not. Therefore, devote yourself to the disciplines of yoga, for yoga is skill in action. [4]

Easier said than done, I know, but worth remembering before setting out to do something, while doing and after it has been accomplished. For someone aspiring to be a good yoga teacher, commitment to sharing the Yoga teachings is an expression of Karmayoga. It is offering the teachings of yoga to the benefit of others in a skillful way.

Mantrayoga

We can learn to expand our interest and experience to learning how to use Mantrayoga to promote healing and well being. ‘Mantra’ can mean to protect the mind and is therefore a means to protect the person from the vicissitudes of life. Clearly, if you have a body that is not fit for āsana-based yoga, then using mantra-s can be the way to explore yoga.

Chanting (mantra-s) is a rewarding area for personal development. We find our own voice through it and total self-confidence is one of its rewards.

Asato mā sadgamaya |

tamaso mā jyotirgamaya |

mṛtyormā amṛtaṁ gamaya ||

(Bṛhadārarṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28)

Leads us from ignorance to correct perception

Lead us from darkness to light

Lead us from fear to total confidence [5]

We do not need to master our bodies. Mantrayoga brings us into contact with the beauty of Sanskrit language, an area of study and practice in its own right.

If we can hold in our mind on the meaning of a mantra, while chanting it repeatedly, the effect can be very powerful, very beneficial. TKV Desikachar said that chanting gives silence [6]

Bhaktiyoga

For some Bhaktiyoga, or elements thereof, can be recommended. Devotion, especially to the notion of the Divine or a higher principle, can be the path to healing the heart. Everything we do, feel and think is offered as a devotion to a power or principle greater than ourselves. The Haṭhayogapradīpikā tells us that when we eat we should have Śiva, who many take to represent the Divine, in mind. Eating can become an act of devotion for those so inclined.

A moderate diet (mitāhāra) means eating satisfying food for Lord Śiva’s pleasure [HYP I.58]

Jñānayoga (Sāṃkhyayoga)

It might be that the better approach to take is the path of Jñānayoga (the yoga of knowledge). This approach is good for certain types of mind. All knowledge is thought to lie within use. To find it requires meditation, especially on what is and what is not the Self and a teacher. Listening to what the teacher has to say about yoga, the true nature of the Self etc is where one might start and this can lead to studying authoritative texts and meditating on their wisdom.

To unlock the secrets of Yoga, a knowledge of sāṃkhya is recommended. The primary text is the Sāṁkhyakārikā of Iśvarakṛṣṇa. This text describes and defines key yoga terms like duḥkha, puruṣa, sattva, rajas, tamas and so on.

Sāṃkhya says that life is full of dissatisfaction (duḥkha) of one sort or another and of varying intensities, but there is a definitive way to remove duḥkha. It’s not filling your life with nice things, however. There are three kinds of duḥkha to contend with: of ādhyātmika (caused by ourselves), ādhibhautika (caused by others) and ādideivika (caused by nature) [Kārikā I].

Yoga sees four types of duḥkha that need to be dealt with: pariṇāma (change), tāpa (intense regret about what we have done and what we have not done), saṁskāra (inability to change habits that cause duḥkha) and our ever changing mind states [YS II.15]

It is worth reflecting on the nature of duḥkha, because it is central to the Yoga belief system and the Yoga project of reducing or removing it. Have you ever wondered why you can’t maintain a state of permanent happiness? Well, it is because we are up against duḥkha, and Jñānayoga knows all about duḥkha.

Kriyāyoga

Kriyāyoga combines every aspect of Yoga that can be practised. It is simplified into three main areas: tapas (the process of weeding out what is not beneficial), svādhaya (looking into the nature of who we really are) and īśvarapraṇidhānā (action not motivated by outcome).

It is recommended as an approach for many whose minds are not steady enough to tread other paths. Patañjali puts forward this type of yoga as a possible way to practise Yoga (YS II.1-2).

It’s a rich field of yoga. No two practitioners of Kriyāyoga do the same things, but they are all supported by the three pillars of Kriyāyoga.

Aṣṭāṅgayoga

Aṣṭāṅgayoga is the famous eight limbs of yoga as explained by Patañjali in the second half of the Yogasūtra-s. It should not be confused with brands of yoga called Ashtanga Vinyasa or Ashtanga Yoga.

Aṣṭāṅgayoga is a more challenging form of yoga than Kriyāyoga and requires a more settled mind, but it is arguably a more complete form of yoga. The eight components of the practice of yoga are:

  1. Yama: how to behave towards others
  2. Niyama: how to moderate ourselves
  3. Āsana: how to sit; how to practise postures
  4. Prāṇāyāma: how to regulate consciously the breath and why
  5. Pratyāhāra: how to stop being controlled by the senses / outside world
  6. Dhāraṇā: how to concentrate
  7. Dhyāna: how to meditate
  8. Samādhi: how to free oneself from the fluctuations of the mind

Āyurveda

Finally (in my short and incomplete list), we should note that Yoga is allied to Āyurveda, the ancient Indian system of well being. The two systems have co-evolved. The application of yoga to support healing (Yoga Cikitsā) comes in part from its association with Āyurveda.

You can see this in the Haṭhayoga tradition which share Āyurveda terms like the three doṣa-s (biological humours), prāṇa, agni (digestive fire) and dhātu-s (tissues).

Mayūāsana removes all illnesses quickly … and overcomes the imbalances of the humours (doṣa-s) … it stimulates the gastric fire (agni) [HYP I.31]

Haṭhayoga is incomplete without an understanding of Āyurveda’s knowledge of the body.

To sort out problems with the mind, Āyurveda recognises rajas and tamas (which come from Sāṃkhyayoga and Rājayoga) as the main factors of disease and suffering at the level of the mind, and the cultivation of the sattva guṇa as the way to be healthy at a psychological level [7]. It is a very similar concern shared by the Yogasūtra-s (e.g. YS II.18). We can therefore say that Rājayoga is incomplete without an understanding of Āyurveda’s knowledge of the mind.

Closing remarks

Is there a pure path of and to Yoga? Maybe – for some. But for others, like me, different expressions of Yoga provide better support at different times in our lives. The many paths of yoga suggest that we should try to understand the greater yogic landscape. This is especially true, I feel for yoga teachers. The Haṭhayogapradīpikā suggests that:

Haṭha is the sanctuary for those suffering every type of pain and it is the support for those practising every sort of Yoga. [HYP I.10]

We can’t be expected to be masters of all the approaches to Yoga (and I have not listed them all here). Every yoga teacher or student I have ever met are on some sort of Yoga journey, and by definition, they are still evolving their knowledge, skills and experience.

While mapping out the many paths of Yoga can help us see the bigger picture, I would prefer not to reduce the study and practice of Yoga to any of the above labels. Yoga can just be Yoga. We learn what we can and apply that knowledge, experience and wisdom judiciously and for the service of everyone the Universe puts in our path.

I am still quite content with using the plain and simple term ‘Yoga’ as a working description of what I practise, study and teach.

Notes, references & comments

[1] TKV Desikachar, from his 1995 book, The Heart of Yoga, p.135

[2] TKV Desikachar’s translation of his father’s, Nathamuni’s Yoga Rahasya, published 1998 by Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai, India. Śloka-s I-30 & 31

[3] Haṭhayogapradīpikā, I.1 ff

[4] BG, II.49-50

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hEMvA6BWqY, about 23:38 minutes into the video

[6] ibid, about 29 minutes into the video

[7] https://vedanet.com/2014/11/23/ayurvedic-implications-of-yoga-sutras-of-patanjali/

The Principles of Practice

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“What style of yoga do you teach?” is a question I sometimes get asked. Most people don’t ask before attending class, it has to be said, but some do. We all have some preconceived idea about how yoga is done. I’ve listened to and heard about many stories that, in one form or other, beg questions about purpose, style and direction of yoga.

I was in an office of a financial services business some time ago and got talking to two men there about yoga. Both didn’t see any point in taking up the practice of yoga. One, in his mid-thirties, said he was so inflexible that there was no point attending a yoga class; he couldn’t even touch his toes. To prove the point he was a hopeless case, he attempted a standing forward bend. And he was right, with legs straight he could only manage to get his hands as far as his kneecaps. The case of the other, in his mid-fifties, was strikingly different to his younger colleague. Dressed in a pin-striped suit he made his point clear when he sat on a desk and proceeded to fold himself, shoes and all, effortlessly into the best padmāsana (lotus posture) I had ever seen. “I’m more than flexible enough” he told me. I tried to explain that the ability to touch one’s toes or fold one’s legs up really wasn’t the point of yoga, but they had already made up their minds, and that was the end of the conversation.

On another occasion, I heard about a lady who loved her yoga class a great deal. She regularly attended class, skipping very few of them, but always gave the quiet final phase of the class a miss. She developed a cat-like skill for padding out of class without making a sound. Sitting or lying still for 15 or so minutes was something she could not do. If she was doing ‘nothing’ her mind started to race uncontrollably. Looking after the mind was not her thing, at least not during a yoga class.

And, I have been in classes where yoga aficionados of many years’ experience, strong and flexible in their bodies, were not able to breath well whilst practising. Again, looking after the body is conceptually easy. But the breath? Who has heard of the idea of developing the breath and mind through yoga practice? Well it turns out, not as many as you would have thought.

Like it or not, yoga goes far beyond the physical exercise system that develops the well being, health, flexibility and strength of popular imagination. In fact, we should note well that one can successfully practise yoga without ever taking a single posture. That’s a hard idea to get across, but it is true: there are many ways of practising yoga. Notwithstanding this significant point, most of us find yogāsana (the practising of yoga poses) very enjoyable and indispensable. TKV Desikachar held the view that no matter how “beautifully we carry out an āsana, however flexible our body may be, if we do not achieve the integration of body, breath, and mind we can hardly claim that what we are doing is yoga” [1].

So how do we go about this integration of body, breath and mind in the yoga tradition of TKV Desikachar and his father, T Krishnamacharya? How is their yoga different from other yoga traditions?

Here are my choice of eight principles of yogāsana practice that seem to mark out their approach from other methods of yoga, which system of yoga is sometimes referred to as viniyoga. The word viniyoga means something like the proper application of yoga based on the situation and the person. That proper application is governed by many principles of practice. There is no way that I can list them all (partly because the list is long and because I actually don’t know them all), but here are my (current) top eight:

1. Nāma Rūpa Lakṣana:

Āsana is a big deal in the Western yoga world. It’s a fascinating area of study in its own right. Paul Harvey, a student of TKV Desikachar’s, suggests that if we want to understand āsana more deeply we might do well to explore the significance of a pose’s name (nāma), its form (rūpa) and its characteristics (lakṣana) [2].

It is true that different yoga lineages give different names to different poses and that new poses are being developed requiring new names. Postures can be named after animals, famous yogi-s, their shapes and so forth. For me, the way a pose’s name ends also tells us something important about it. Most end in the word āsana (posture), but others end with pīṭham, mudrā or karaṇī, and these indicate connections to how the pose interacts with prāṇa (‘life force’ goes some way to describing what prāṇa can mean).

Each āsana has an essential or ideal form (rūpa), which we try to get to know through practice. These days this is not so easy for various reasons, but it gives us a starting point from which to work.

Then there is the qualities (lakṣana) of each āsana and how they interact (positively or negatively) with each other, which influence how we feel at the end of a practice. For instance, strong back bends and twists should generally not follow one another in a regular practice, because they can cause injury [3]. So knowing something about these three aspects will help deepen our appreciation and experience of āsana and avoid hurting ourselves.

2. Vikṛti:

The rūpa (form) of an āsana should be adapted or modified to take account of the age, lifestyle and interests of the practitioner as well as the place and time of practice. How to adapt or modify āsana-s for the situation and the person performing them is an important principle of āsana practice. Over the years, I have heard many tales of yoga instructors encouraging their students to achieve the classical form of an āsana. I, myself, recall being a freshman in a yoga class (a long time ago now) when a newly qualified yoga instructor (whom I had only just met, and therefore didn’t know what I was capable of doing) put his hands on me and gently pushed me deeper into a pose. I wasn’t expecting this and neither was my body, which was already at the limits of a safe stretch.

Āsana-s have both a classical form and a functional one. If we obsess about achieving the classical form we overlook the way āsana-s help to develop, maintain or improve the functional efficiency of the body. In fact, of the two, function is always superior to form. Adaptation and modification of an āsana to facilitate access to the functional value of an āsana for the individual is vikṛti.

The relationship between form and function brings to mind this quirky story about a tailor and his client:

A man tries on a made-to-order suit in a shop just off Saville Row

Man: “I need this sleeve taken in, please, it’s two inches too long!”

Tailor: “I believe Sir will find that if he just bends his elbow like this, the sleeve pulls up nicely”

Man: “Oh yes, so it does. But now look at the collar. When I bend my elbow, the collar goes halfway up the back of my head!”

Tailor: “I would suggest Sir lifts his head up and back. Perfect!”

Man: “But now the left should is lower than the right one!”

Tailor: “No problem, Sir. Bend at the waist and lean over to the left. Now the shoulders are level!”

The man leaves the shop wearing the suit. He walks leaning to his left, with his right elbow crooked and sticking out, and his head held up and back. The only way he can walk is with quick, sharp, sudden movements; his gait very spasmodic and jerky. Just then two ladies notice him.

First lady: “Look at that poor crippled chap. I really feel for the poor guy!”

Second lady: “Yes, but his tailor must be a genius; that suit fits him perfectly!” [5]

We should not shoehorn the person to the āsana. We should always find ways to select and adapt yoga to the individual using a principles based approach rather than a prescriptive one.

3. Vinyāsa Krama:

Like ingredients in a well thought out meal, the components of a yoga practice must be carefully selected and arranged. There must be adequate preparatory and restorative phases to the design of a practice as well as a suitable goal, central idea or core of a practice. The phrase vinyāsa krama means something like ‘to place (-nyāsa) in special (vi-) steps (krama)’. ‘Any thing goes’ is definitely not the way in this yoga tradition. We should not approach yoga practice in a random way. That would be a form of madness like adding pickled herrings to chocolate cake and serving it as a starter in a three-course meal.

There should be a harmony to the way any practice comes together. It should be efficient in delivering the desired effects. We really don’t have all day to indulge our passion for yoga. So, for example, we need not faff about in order to practise paścimatānāsana (seated forward bend). An intelligent and efficient step-by-step plan of action need take just a few āsana-s to prepare for paścimatānāsana (of course, we are not limited to mastery of āsana as our goal) and then one or two to recover from it. For instance, we could start with uttanāsana, and follow that with adhomukha-śvānāsana, ūrdhva-prasṛta-pādāsana, and jānuśīrṣāsana (preparatory phase). We might now be ready for working with paścimatānāsana (core phase). After that we could finish with dvipāda-pīṭham and śavāsana (restorative phase) [9].

4. Pratikriyāsana:

Any āsana or short series of āsana-s used to dissipate ‘stress’ that may have accumulated during our practice and to restore balance to the body-breath-mind nexus is referred to as pratikriyāsana (counter posture). In the above sequencing example for paścimatānāsana, there were two counter poses: dvipāda-pīṭham and śavāsana. Sometimes I imagine that well conceived counter poses are a little like doing the washing up and putting away at the end of a meal. Not doing the clearing up makes preparing the next meal harder and eventually becomes impossible. Any demanding āsana will need pratikriyāsana and we should end a practice with restorative poses. We have to come back to a state of body and mind from which we can “comfortably resume our everyday activities without experiencing any harmful effects from out practice” [4].

The etymology of the word is interesting. “Prati” means counter or against, “kṛ” means to act or to do and “āsana”, as we already know, means posture or pose. If you ask people why they practise yoga you sometimes hear them explain that yoga acts as an antidote to life, restoring them to their true ‘normal’. In other words, the whole practice of yoga can be a counter pose to the hurly-burly of modern life for some. Yoga gives many of us respite from the stressful pandemonium of every day living.

5. Gatiśīla Sthitiśīla:

Āsana can be done dynamically (i.e. going in and out of a pose, gatiśīla) or statically (i.e. staying in a posture for a certain period of time, sthitiśīla). There are some exceptions to this rule of thumb: many inverted and some seated poses are just done statically. Of course, śavāsana (like-a-corpse pose) can only be done by staying in it. Unless you are in a horror movie, corpses don’t lie down then get up only to lie down again with the next breath.

Done dynamically, āsana prepares the body. Flexibility and strength develop by repeatedly going into and out of an āsana. The body accepts an āsana much more willingly and effectively using this process. We learn more quickly which āsana improves functional efficiency of the body and which don’t. The dynamic use of āsana slowly transforms the body by releasing existing and unhelpful patterns of tightness as well as dysfunctional patterns of movement. Repetition helps with circulation, especially moving prāṇa, and prepares the body for static work [6].

When we stay in a posture we get the chance to refine it. Prāṇa can be directed to where it needs to be.

6. Prāṇāpāna Dhāraṇā:

The breath is what joins body and mind. The practice of yoga is much diminished without the involvement of the breath. Desikachar makes the important point that “the correct linking of breath and movement is the basis for the whole āsana practice” [7]. The breath has many characteristics and properties. Two of these relate to what happens when the chest expands on inhalation (prāṇa) and what happens in the abdominal area on exhalation (apāna). The inhale nourishes and the exhale cleanses or purifies us. In yoga we try to lengthen and soften the breath beyond its normal habits. Haṭha yoga (sometimes referred to as kuṇḍalinī yoga) has a particular interest in working with prāṇa and apāna, which we could think of here as types of energy. Haṭha yoga suggests we manipulate these two energies to bring about positive transformation of body, breath and mind [10].

By concentrating (dhāraṇā) on and controlling our breathing during āsana practice we can remain more alert to what we are doing in the present moment and observe ourselves more closely, thus opening the doorway to greater skill in what we are doing during our practice. The breath helps us to be intelligent in our practice [11]. Treating the breath as a teacher can be a good attitude to have. Listen to what the breath has to teach us about our bodies and minds.

7. Bṛṃhaṇa and Laṅghana Kriyā:

The ideas of bṛṃhaṇa and laṅghana come to us via haṭha yoga and Āyurveda (the Indian system for living well / medicine). ‘Kriyā’ means effort or action.

We can connect āsana and breathing in many different ways. For instance, they can be arranged to give a feeling of expansion and openness (bṛṃhaṇa) or to give a feeling of lightness (laṅghana), in both senses of the word. It is relatively easy to feel something of these principles. Many back bends exhibit bṛṃhaṇa kriyā. Think about the Warrior I pose (vīrabhadrāsana) and its tendency to open, lift and energise us, to make us feel more confident. Forward bends, on the other hand, have a laṅghana kriyā or cleansing effect. When we take a seated forward bend, like paścimatānāsana, we might find it easier to let go of stress and tension; we can feel cleaner and more grounded [8].

8. Āgamā:

The yoga tradition passed down to us through TKV Desikachar stays close to reliable sources of yoga theory and practice (āgamā) and uses them judiciously. Yoga teachings are in constant flux, adapting to each generation, place and time. Without āgamā (and a competent teacher), we can lose our way.

There is a story that’s been passed down that T Krishnamacharya used to say that if the yoga technique being taught or practised is mentioned in the Yoga Sūtra-s then it is safe to call it yoga. This might be an apocryphal story, but it rings true. Of course, the Yoga Sūtra-s do not cover every aspect of yoga, so whatever you think you are doing under the banner of Yoga can still be an authentic yoga practice even if not listed in the YS. However, anchoring what one teaches or practises to one or more classical works on yoga is probably a good idea.

When it comes to āsana practice, the YS (YS II.46 – 49) gives us a three-fold analysis of āsana. We are given a definition of āsana, a methodology and a description of the results of practising āsana. A posture must have the quality of firmness and softness. A posture should be done by relaxation through appropriate effort and by meditating on the infinite while the body remains still. As a result of practising āsana one becomes more resilient to the pushes and pulls of existence [12].

9. Closing words

A whole new world opens up as soon as you choose to see yoga as more than a system of exercise. It becomes a way of looking at and experiencing the world in a more skillful and happy way. One can say that Yoga is what happens when body, breath and mind come together to do one thing. Yoga is multifaceted, integrated and holistic in nature. It touches all aspects of our being, which is just as well since we are far more than a body. Yoga is also about transformation and the principles of āsana practice sketched out above represent some of the tools that can help change things and help to differentiate it from other activities like dance and gymnastics.

Notes and references

[1] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p.23

[2] Paul Harvey maintains a treasure trove of material for anyone studying yoga at www.yogastudies.org. The list of principles of practice set out here are based on a list published by Mr Harvey on his website.

[3] There is an interesting article by William J Broad (5 January 2012, How Yoga can Wreck Your Body, The New York Times Magazine), which appears to reveal

[4] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p. 27

[5] Adapted from a joke which appears in Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein’s 2007 book, Plato and a Platypus walk into a Bar, p.70

[6] Steve Brandon, 2013, The vinyasa krama yoga practice manual, p.5

[7] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p.19

[8] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p.38f

[9] This sequence has been adapted from one given by Gary Kraftsow in his excellent 1999 book, Yoga for Wellness, p.29

[10] Kausthub Desikachar, 2016, The Haṭhayogapradīpika, p.41

[11] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p.22

[12] Bernard Bouanchaud, translated from the French by Rosemary Desneux, 1997, The Essence of Yoga: Reflections on the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, p. 131ff

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