Day 7

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FOUR PARAMETERS OF VINYASA YOGA

In the Yoga Sutra; asana practice is explained in book II, sutras 46 and 47. Tiramulai Krishnamacharya and Srivatsa Ramaswami’s interpretation of these two sutras are quite illuminating and very practical.

Ramaswami, (a student of Krishnamacharya's for over 30 years) states that there are four main parameters of Vinyasa Yoga Asana practice: steadiness, relaxation (comfort), smoothness of breath and vigilant focus on the breath.

​Sthiratva:​ steadiness

​Sukhatva:​ comfort

​Prayatna-shaitilya:​ Smoothness of breath

​Ananta-samapatti:​ Unwavering focus upon the breath

BKS Iyengar’s translation is different:

prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam

Perfection in asana is reached only when effort ceases, instilling infinite poise and allowing the finite vehicle, the body, to merge in the seer.

Source: English translation from Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (B.K.S. Iyengar)

I’d invite you to focus on your breath as well as being some effortlessness and receptivity and see what happens...

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Question to T Krishnamacharya:

Q: How long should a person stay in an āsana every day?

A: A person must stay in any one āsana for at least fifteen minutes.

Do your daily asana.

Day 4

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Vinyasa

To place in a special (appropriate) way.

Good day ya’ll, 

The next few posts will deal with Vinyasa Krama Yoga.  The style of yoga Krishnamacharya taught, based on yoga, that is often misunderstood.

Vinyasa is a Sanskrit word meaning something which is done in an art form. To place in a special way (artistically). Vinyasa is a term used in Indian music and dance and other various art forms including yoga.  Certain parameters and variations are involved in the concept of vinyasa.  (In regards to asana practice, vinyasa, is a little more involved.  I’ll get into that in another email!

vi - variations 
ni - in a special way
asa - to place

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“Krishnamacharya’s  teachings, the vinyasa method included assessing the needs of the individual student (or group) and then building a complementary, step-by-step practice to meet those needs. Beyond this, Krishnamacharya also emphasized vinyasa as an artful approach to living, a way of applying the skill and awareness of yoga to all the rhythms and sequences of life, including self-care, relationships, work, and personal evolution.

Desikachar, Krishnamacharya’s son, an author and renowned teacher in his own right, has written, “Vinyasa is, I believe, one of the richest concepts to emerge from yoga for the successful conduct of our actions and relationships.” In his book Health, Healing, and Beyond, he gives a subtle yet powerful example of how his father attended to the vinyasa of teaching yoga. Krishnamacharya, to the amazement of his private students, would always greet them at the gate of his center, guide them through their practice, and then honor the completion of their time together by escorting them back to the gate.

The way he honored every phase of their session—initiating the work, sustaining it and then building to a peak, and completing and integrating it—illustrates two of the primary teachings of the vinyasa method: Each of these phases has its own lessons to impart, and each relies on the work of the previous phase. Just as we can’t frame a house without a proper foundation, we can’t build a good yoga practice unless we pay attention to how we begin. And just as a house is flawed if the workmen don’t finish the roof properly, we have to bring our actions to completion in order to receive yoga’s full benefits. Vinyasa yoga requires that we cultivate an awareness that links each action to the next—one breath at a time.”

- Shiva Rea

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If you’ve have enough yoga reading for today, stop here.
If you want a little more info, Ryan also wanted to include this:

Vinyasa also may be setting an intention and taking the necessary steps toward reaching that goal.

Here’s a story from Krishnamacharya’s Yoga Makaranda:

One more example — consider the case of a mango tree. Let us assume that there are plenty of fruits in it. Let us also assume that the owners of the tree have given us permission to pluck and eat the fruits. Yet with all this, if we did not move from our present place, or even if we did move, supposing we didn’t go to the location of the mango tree, or supposing that we did go but did not make an effort to climb it, or supposing that we did climb the tree, but did not reach out to pluck the mango, or supposing that we did reach out, but that we did not bother to pluck the fruit, or even if we plucked the fruit, if we did not bother to taste its juice — without consuming the juice of the divine nectar, how can we know the taste of the fruit? This is never possible.

The pleasure of tasting the fruit far exceeds that of climbing the tree or plucking the fruit. There is no need to emphasize this. Yet what can we say about one who, on reaching the tree, without even plucking the fruit, immediately laments that he has not tasted mangoes and refuses to go back to the tree? Without effort can anybody ever achieve anything?

Similarly, even in the matter of yoga, unless it is practiced with complete faith, no benefit will be gained. In any endeavor, there should be a totally dedicated effort until the completion of the action in order to achieve the benefits of the action. Likewise, there is no doubt that until yogabhyasa is done with the same attitude, practiced every day at the same prescribed time and place, one will not obtain the expected benefits of the action.

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