DAY 17 : MAY 29
Homework: Pranayama
Simply watch your breath and work on lengthening your exhale and making it twice as long as your inhale.
The next step in Ashtanga Yoga after Yama, Niyama and asana, is Pranayama
Pranayama has two different meanings:
Breath Control - Prana (Breath) Yama (Control)
Life Force Extension - Prana (Life Force) Ayama (Lengthening)
Breath is life.
Krishnamacharya and a student practicing pranayama.
“…the ancients taught that each individual is allotted 21, 600 breaths per day in a life span intended to be one hundred years. We can draw our allotted breaths like a bank account. Through anxiety, short breaths and unnecessary exertion we may overdraw our account - and shorten our lives. Or we may use the breath wisely, with smooth, easy respiration, and store it up: in other words, lengthen our lives… We bring the breath consciously into a daily act of renewal.”
~ Sri T.K.V. Desikachar (Krishnamacharya’s son)
”When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. but when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath.”
~ Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Tomorrow
[Sunday Session]
Exploring The 5 Layers of Self - Pancha Kosha Vidya
with Joshua Ramakrishnan
May 30, 7:00-9:00am PT / 7:30-9:30pm IST
A practice-based approach to help us explore our inner most self: peeling back the layers that cover our true nature and how to transcend them. This workshop will focus on an explorative practice and include a talk on Kosha.