Book Review. Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor The Art of Vinyasa. Awakening the Body and Mind through the practice of Ashtanga Yoga

Here was my first reaction to Richard and Mary's new book on fb yesterday

Thank you to Shambhala for the review copy of Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor's long awaited 'Art of Vinyasa', my new desert island yoga book. All I'd hoped for and so much more besides, a smart, wry thought provoking...., practice provoking, palate relaxing delight. 

REVIEW

The Look inside feature on Richard website gives you the contents page and the first chapter.

We can see that the book has two parts, Part 1. Foundations and Part 2. Asana. I've been wondering whether the book would be suitable for all practitioners, beginners for example. I suspect that many beginners would read a few pages of the first part, wonder what the hell Richard was on about and skip to part 2 and the asana section. There they would find a nice clear layout of instruction for each asana, numbered by paragraph/instruction point. I think these instructions would be beneficial if not essential for beginners who may well avoid future injuries as a response to reading and following along, right from the start. These are good practical instructions provided by teachers who have been themselves practicing and teaching for decades.

Recently I came across a newly authorised teacher insisting that there were no props in Ashtanga vinyasa, that they go against the intention of the method. Richard and Mary however do include intelligent, responsible prop options throughout the text, for those with injuries, aches and pains or merely working towards a posture.

Richard doesn't have much time for dogma, this is why I've referred to his wry humour, it's the dogma he's gently, even affectionately, mocking occasionally in the text, I find it refreshing.

"It (the Palate-Perineum Reflex) is extremely pleasant and often relieves strain in a pose when we become too dogmatic and attempt to force the body into some contrived ideal form".

It is possible to work safely at a physical level on the postures that make up ashtanga vinyasa, to develop the discipline, focus and attention, this can all be found in part two of Richard and Mary's book and there is a helpful anatomy section included that one might refer to when necessary.

However, to go deeper into the practice then one might return, again and again over the years, however long we may have been practicing, to the first part of the book and there we find a garden of delights.

NOTE: All quotes below in italics are from the text, I've resisted putting page numbers as the text Shambhala sent me was a pre correction proof copy.

My photo choice
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with One Thousand Hands and One Thousand Eyes, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Imagine that you get a job as a model for an artist who’s going to carve a statue of Avalokiteśvara, the buddha of in nite compassion. Avalokiteśvara is to be seated holding the wishfullling gem in front of the lotus  fower ( padma) of the heart, and your alignment must be perfect! All you have to do is sit in that pose and not move.

It takes extraordinary focus to picture what Avalokiteśvara looks like, bringing your attention again and again to rest along the plumb line of your body. Releasing the palate in silent contact with a softening tongue and feeling a smooth, steady breath unfold, you begin to experience all the physical patterns associated with inhaling. You then drop even more deeply in, observing as the breath effortlessly turns around; the exhalation dissolves all those endless forms back to their roots, like petals falling from a flower.  The centers of your ears are directly over the centers of the shoulder joints, so they’re aligned exactly on the coronal plane of the body; your hip joints are centered in that same precise line.  The back of the diaphragm spreads, and you notice that right around the twelfth thoracic vertebra, a radiant point of awareness is forming a warm, vibrant circle. You envision yourself having four arms, but you know not to pinch any of the shoulder blades together or the artist will kick you out and hire someone else as the model. So you drop back into the breath and feel more arms growing—just a few at first, but then an infnite number sprout and reach up out of that warm, vibrant area in the middle of your lower back.  The center of each palm tingles, and you realize you can actually see through the palms as you reach out to all other sentient beings, but you’re not distracted by this visual stimulation. It’s hard work and you start to sweat, but if you release the palate and the muscles in the back of the tongue, your mind clears; you feel an extension along the spine, out through sides of your body, and then up through the crown of the head as if you are growing bigger and taller.  e pose feels easy, steady, and buoyant. You cultivate a vivid sense of concentration and form and, at the same time, the ability to dissolve and let go.

 This is how alignment was taught in ancient times before the study of anatomy and theories of biomechanics and postural alignment became the norm. In those days, alignment was embodied through visualizing deity forms, which brought the  finer qualities of the emotions, sensations, and thought patterns into the breath and body. Artists trained for generations in a highly disciplined manner to reproduce in their sculptures and drawings exactly what sages had discovered to be, through lifetimes of practice and visualizations, optimal forms of alignment. Forms that would facilitate a physiologically awake and open, integrated, and finely tuned state of being that is perfectly suited for contemplative practice. Symbolic representation of this kind of esoteric knowledge followed prescribed patterns and proportions that were described in minute detail so that one could meditate on a deity form and feel correct alignment. In those days, teachers didn’t bother describing the alignment of joints or any of that dry, boring anatomical stuff . Instead, they went right for the source—the deity form—and breathed right into it".

M. asked me why I thought Richard had written a book now when there are so many Ashtanga vinyasa books on the market. I think this is the reason, what Richard and Mary wished to communicate, share....suggest.

Deity visualization is akin to abstract thought, such as exploration of the idea of infnity, but visualizations can be em-bodied to give direct, visceral experience of what otherwise might be a complex construct.

Yoga alignment can and usually is approached from the point of view of classical anatomy, physical form, and biomechanics. And this is good. We look at similarities and diferences in the structure of bones, muscles, and interconnected patterns of breath and movement. Visualization bridges a gap in understanding movement between what happens in the mind and what happens in the body. As we breathe and move in and out of postures, we simply allow a visualized form to rest in the background as a subconscious context from which to experience whatever actually arises as feeling, sensation, or thought.  e visualization provides a reference point for our experience so we can be there with full attention.

Between the externally oriented perspective of studying form and movement from a classical anatomical perspective and the more abstract perspective of visualization lies another method for insight into alignment and form.  That is an understanding of the internal forms of the practice. Each of these perspectives is important and may be an effective means of establishing a context for understanding our practice. Merging visualization, abstract thought, and classical anatomy through an embodiment of the internal forms gives a full understanding of form and alignment.  This really is what the Ashtanga Vinysa system of yoga is all about: taking a multidimensional view of what happens when we practice yoga. Cultivating the simplest of circumstances in a context of open-minded awareness and a full range of movement, we invite the yoga practice to unfold like a  flower in bloom.



Richard goes on here to introduce BREATH, DṚṢṬI, BANDHAS and MUDRA



Also THE NĀḌĪS

By bringing awareness to the nuances of alignment that are revealed through the internal forms of practice, we discover a gateway to understanding the nāḍī system, part of the innermost structure and scaffolding of the practice. Nāḍī means“channel” or “little river” in Sanskrit, and from a yogic perspective, the nāḍīs are an intricate system of rivulets of Prāṇa and energy that  flow through and penetrate every area of the body. From a Western perspective, the nāḍī system could be considered somewhat parallel to the combination of the nervous and circulatory systems.  The nāḍīs bring a vibratory quality of breath and awareness to every point of sensation within the body".

and CAKRAS

"Another brilliant aspect of traditional imagery that invites an internalized, contemplative mind, is the cakra system; through this, we meditate on various stations along the central channel that correspond to distinct sensation patterns and perceptual modes. Cakras (wheels) are usually represented and felt as lotus  flowers or padmas.  They are strung together like a garland along the susumṇa  nāḍī.  they are imagined to be sacred spaces ranging in detail from simple geometrical yantras to elaborate maṇḍalas, temples, islands, and whole worlds populated with gods, goddesses, and (potentially) all beings. Cakras or padmas function to capture and absorb our attention fully and then to balance and deepen our insight into the actual nature of what we are experiencing. Each petal or segment of every cakra needs to be interlinked with its complementary opposites and then with its deeper background.

Smooth ujjāyī breathing introduces the natural vinyāsa of the attention to balance and illuminate the cakras. Evenly illuminated, brought to life and vibrancy, they open into the middle path of the susumṇ  nāḍī at the center of each padma where the nectar from the root of the palate can be felt. In normal distracted breathing, it is likely to feel as though half the petals are wilted while others are overinflated. But with mindful ujjāyī breathing practice, there is a sense of calm alertness within the body and mind, and the garland along the central channel feels alive, awakened, and evenly innervated".


My quotes are long but I felt it was important to give a clear idea of how Richard approaches subtle body, it's an approach I too have found appealing, not to abandon traditional imagery altogether in favour of a modern western supposed correspondence but rather seeking to understand the intention behind the traditional visualizations, not to get lost in them, but to employ them with discernment. It's a neat trick if you can pull it off, for the most part I feel that Richard does and it's perhaps why I/we are drawn back to him. We know intuitively that there is something to this practice we engage in each day, something deep and profound, more than the sum of it's parts, an untapped potentiality perhaps. With Richard we perhaps feel somewhat closer to catching a glimpse of what that might be.

At some point I started searching through the book for the pranayama section there isn't one, I was surprised at my reaction. In the past I might have felt frustrated, disappointed but if we can attain some small measure of what Richard is indicating is available to us in our asana practice then Pranyama holds less of it's allure. Besides, Richard has a pranayama courses where he is able to go into more detail than here, I've taken the course it's excellent.
I relish my pranayama practice, Richard reminds me to relish my asana practice also, I had begun to forget.

Below: Ashtanga Pranayama. Richard Freeman with Pattabhi Jois 1989 from the Advanced Series video see links at the end of the post.

"TRUSTING THE PROCESS
We may harbor a lot of resistance toward dropping in and practicing from an internal perspective.  The fear of feeling—deep inside the body— certain things like infnity, impermanence, emptiness or the fact that there is no ultimate frame of reference, can be terrifying. Yet it is for this very reason that the practices emphasizing the internal forms are so important and why we must take them slowly and work at them with great patience and kindness toward ourselves.  This is why a teacher encourages beginning students simply to have a direct experience within their own bodies of what it actually feels like to take a full, deep inhale and a smooth, long exhale, and why approaching these internal forms directly through  asana practice is vital".

*

Many are familar with Richard Freemans's use of strange visualisations, Kidney wings, Cobra hoody etc. Here he explins why he employs this sādhanā bhāṣā, practice language


"During the Italian Renaissance, an understanding of human form came to life as great artists of the time became anatomists, peeling back the skin of dead bodies and dissecting corpses to study the intricacies of form and structure in fine detail. Some, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, were inspired to explore and broaden their understanding of the body in action, and their art became infused with a level of realism never before imagined.  Their direct study of anatomy, merged with their innovative imaginations and artistic skill, transformed the face of art forever. As a yoga practitioner, fusing together a knowledge of anatomy with the art form of your imagination—deeply feeling movement and sensation, along with patterns of connection and breath—may not make you the Michelangelo of yoga, but it will add a uniquely clear means of inhabiting your own skin.
To begin experiencing our own subtle anatomy, it is helpful to have studied classical anatomy and artistic renderings of the body so we have a general idea of the landscape of human form. Imagining our own structure as an overlay to clear images of anatomy, while focusing on feelings and sensations as they arise, provides an embodied, broad-spectrum experience of the subtle body. In this context, it is helpful to establish a vocabulary specifc to these elusive layers of understanding. Doing so is referred to as sādhanā bhāṣā, or practice language. Every group or school (and ultimately every practitioner) has a unique and ofen abstruse sādhanā bhāṣā  ; words images, and myths that give us markers of understanding and serve as memory cues so we may easily return to and build on the insight that inspired the vocabulary".

Richard includes thirteen of these '...visceral visualizations that describe internal form of the practice'.  Some I remember from the five day intensive I took with Richard in London a few years back and have stayed a part of my practice ever since, others are new to me. As well as reading them here some pop up in Richard's led videos and apps in the context of practice. See also this post, my part transcription of Richard's backbending workshop at the Ashtanga yoga confluence a few years back to see how these concepts apply to practice http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2012/03/richard-freeman-ayc-backbending.html


Mūlabandha

Releasing the Palate
Psoas Line
Cave of Sacrum
Kidney Wings
Psoas Buttons
Gaṇeśa Belly
Cobra Hood
Skin Flow
Holding the Tail of a Serpent
Feet Reflecting Pelvic Floor

Palate-Perineum Reflex
Plumb Line 


Here's an example of one of the above, the shortest.

"Cave of Sacrum
Awareness of the cave of the sacrum is another way of beginning to feel the pelvic  floor, Mūlabandha, and the lower under-belly version of Uḍḍīyāna Bandha.  The sacrum, to which the coccyx is attached, is set in the sacroiliac (SI) joints in the back of the pelvic basin. Together, the sacrum and coccyx form a contour that resembles a deep cave—almost a separate chamber—below the overall abdominal cavity.  The bladder, rectum, and uterus or prostate are housed in this area of the pelvis.
To feel and articulate the pelvic  floor, we need to develop a sense of emptiness or spaciousness, a suction sensation in this cave, as if we had spooned its contents back and up toward the lower lumbar vertebrae.  is feeling depends on having some feeling of tone in the pelvic  floor muscles attached to the coccyx—as if we were holding the coccyx in place to provide stability so we could scoop the spoon of the mind back and up along the front surface of the coccyx and sacrum to “clean out the cave.” Cultivating this cavelike feeling under the belly helps to fully integrate the internal form of nearly all poses and the movements between them.

Energetically the cave of the sacrum is the origin, the womb, and meditating there allows you to relax into the great irreducible mystery beyond thought. Be aware that clean and healthy bowels, as well as some of the less popular and strange kriya (practices) in hatha yoga, facilitate this ability to sense the cave of the sacrum. Most of these esoteric practices, like the ability to suck water up the anus, are actually rooted in train- ing the same muscles of the pelvic  oor that establish a sense of the cave of the sacrum. Overzealous practitioners are sometimes tempted to take the kriyas—like anything extreme or strange—too far, practicing the exercises to excess or believing they are the answer to everything when in fact they are simply another type of perspective or tool among many for connecting to the subtle layers of awareness in the body."



My advice is to read through these then find one or two that make the most sense at this time and tentatively introduce the concept into practice, play with it, explore it, before introducing another and so on. Trying to introduce them all at once may be bemusing and result in a shallow appropriation, we're in this for the long term aren't we, this is a lifetime practice, "Why you hurry?" was I believe the saying.

As mentioned Richard includes a short Anatomy section as reference


"Classical anatomy complements and greatly informs visualization and the idea of vinyasa in yoga practice.  This chapter includes a limited selection of anatomy topics that are of particular relevance to yoga poses and internal forms. Hopefully this basic information will serve as a springboard to deepen your ongo- ing study of anatomy."

Here are a couple of pages to give an idea of the approach.

Part two Asana

Richard and Mary take a surprisingly unconventional approach to the order in which they present the asana as far as Ashtanga vinyasa is concerned. I was delighted, it reminded me of Srivatsa Ramaswami, Krishnamacharya's student of 30+ years, approach in his books. Asanas are grouped together by type rather than their position within a series (although this is of course included in the Appendix). 

And not just Primary asana either, Richard and Mary present all the postures from Primary and Intermediate series, they also weave in a couple from Advanced series.

"For Aṣṭāṅga Vinyāsa practitioners, the simplest and possibly the “only” way to consider the poses is from the perspective of the order in which they appear in the traditional sequences: Sūrya Namaskaras, the standing poses, the specific series, and the  finishing sequence.  This is good. But we can also gain understanding by examining the postures in terms of some of their common features, regarding them as twists or backbends or balancing poses. Looking at postures in terms of the overall category into which they fall is informative in terms of alignment for any practitioner, and for Aṣṭāṅga practitioners, pulling poses out of the usual sequence can be a good practice for shifing perspective.

 This book presents the poses  first in detail within “families” to show the underlying patterns of breath and movement that tie them together. It also gives the traditional sequences as a quick reference. All poses found in the Primary and Intermediate series and a small number of other poses that demonstrate a particular form or idea are included. Some can be-long to more than one family. Yoga is a  fluid,  flowing, evolving system of breath, movement, and form, forever resisting our need to categorize it yet bene ting from our attempts to do so".

I wanted to share a couple of examples of Richard's presentation of asana in the book, here is one featuring Richard....

... and another featuring Mary. 

Note in this example the prop option and also how an Intermediate series posture follows one from Primary.

Hanumanasana from Advanced series, for example finds it's way into the text.

And here's Richard demonstrating Karandavasana just so I can link to my old 2009 Richard Freeman fourteen day karandavasana challenge post.

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2009/04/richard-freemans-14-day-day.html

There are a lot of Ashtanga books these days, this one from Richard and Mary jumps straight to the top of my list. Shambhala sent me a PDF proof, I'll still be buying the print copy from Amazon.jp as soon as it beomes available so I can attack it with a hi-lighter and pencil.

If I were to recommend three modern Ashtanga/Yoga books to buy it would probably be these

Art of Vinyasa - Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor
Ashtanga Manual - David Swenson (especially for the home practitioner)
Yoga Mala - Pattabhi Jois

Also these from Krishnamacharya at some point for context, they are available on my Free Downloads page
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/free-downloads.html

Yoga Makaranda - Krishnamacharya
Yogasanagalu - Krishnamacharya

I also highly recommend Srivatsa Ramaswami - Yoga for the Three Stages of Life, not Ashtanga but so closely related.

See also my yoga Reading list http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/yoga-reading-list.html

I'll leave you with Richard in Savasana

LINKS

 Here's the link to the book on Richard's website as well as his other book Mirror of yoga , DVDs, apps etc.

http://www.richardfreemanyoga.com/books/

There is a Look Inside 'The Art of Vinyasa' feature on the above page

http://en.calameo.com/read/00003925725deed0bd709

It's already available direct from Shambhala direct and from Amazon around the end of the month (29th December?). Postage could be expensive from Shambhala but they also have an ebook option. I imagine it will be available on Kindle from Amazon also.

My copy is an ebook/pdf, the print is a little small so if Kindle allows you to increase the font size that might be a benefit although you can of course zoom in on the ipad. Both kindle and Amazon are searchable of course which is useful especially for this review, Richard is using sanskrit diacritic marks however which makes searching tricky.

Although I've been sent this free ebook copy I'll still be buying it in print, so I can attack it with a highlighter and pencil.

Here's the book on Shambhala's excellent website, you could have on your ipad as an ebook today.

http://www.shambhala.com/the-art-of-vinyasa.html

NOTE: Supposedly there is a live interview with Richard and Mary about the book being streamed on Shambhala's facebook page. Monday Monday Dec 5th at 7 MST?
https://www.facebook.com/ShambhalaPublications/

Videos

Richard Freeman with Pattabhi Jois 

Interview: Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor

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Guna Physiology - Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami December 2016

December 2016 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Guna Physiology

 I am planning to go to India for three months from mid December. During 2017 I have scheduled two main programs . A 100 hour TT Vinyasakrama Yoga program which I will be doing in Chennai (Yogavahini, Feb 2017), Sydney Australia (Yoga Institute, April 2017) and Montreal, Canada (Oneyoga Sep 2017). I will also be doing a 50 hr Bhagavatgita for Yogis program at Chennai (Yogavahini Jan 2017) and  Los Angeles (LMU Aug 2017). A couple of shorter programs are also scheduled. A 5 day program of Core Vinyasakrama (Omyoga New Delhi Jan 2017) and a weekend Samkhyakarika program in Chicago (Chicago Yoga Center Sep 2017). For more details 

www.vinyasakrama.com/Events

Guna Physiology

सत्वं लघु प्रकाशकं इष्टं उपष्टम्भकं चकञ्च रजः

गुरुवरणकमेव तमः प्रदीपवच्चार्थतो वृत्तिः

satvaṁ laghu prakāśakaṁ iṣṭaṁ upaṣṭambhakaṁ cakañca rajaḥ

guruvaraṇakameva tamaḥ pradīpavaccārthato vṛttiḥ

The usual way  of describing prakriti or universe/nature is by the characterization of the constituent three gunas, satva rajas and tamas. Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta all subscribe to the three gunas view of the Universe. In Bhagavat Gita the Lord goes to great extent to describe the manifestation of the gunas in different evolutes of prakriti. Iswarakrishna in his immortal work Samkhyakarika describes the gunas succinctly. Satva is lightness or buoyancy at the physical level and clarity or illumination at the mental level. Rajas is excited activity at the physical level and restlessness at the mental level. Tamas though is feeling of heaviness at the physical level and engulfing  darkness at the mental level. These three work in unison like a oil lamp or a candle with a wick functions. 

The Gita goes into great detail to describe the functioning of the Gunas in various aspects of  human activity.  I have written about it in an earlier article. The Gita urges everyone to become Rajasic if one is tamasic, then become satwic from being Rajasic and ultimately transcend all the three gunas. The Yoga system helps to achieve this goal systematically, sequentially. By asanas and pranayama according to yogis one can bring both Rajas and Tamas under control and then slowly strengthen the satvic aspect of one’s personality possibly by meditation

The gunas at the physiological level are related to the condition of the nervous system. There are two of them, the central nervous system, and the autonomic nervous system which again is made up of the parasympathetic and then the sympathetic nervous systems. The dominance of one of these systems leads to the preponderance of one of the gunas. The parasympathetic of which the vegas is an important part  is usually associated with low energy, phlegmatic, dominance of Kapha dosha and supports tamas. A high tone of this system is known as vegatonia could lead to some functional disorders.  It is katabolic. While vegatonia can be reduced by pranayama, many times one finds that the participant is so much low in energy that he or she would not be able to do any form of yoga. So if Tamas is very dominant one would like to increase Rajas so that one can start the process of yoga. Just as Lord Krishna would say ‘become rajasic if you are tamasic, one would do something to get some energy flowing. How to do that?

It is done by improving the tone of the sympathetic nervous system. A low tone of the  sympathetic and a high tone of parasympathetic , this imbalance leads to extreme lack of energy and laziness or tamas with disastrous long term consequences. How to improve the tone of the sympathetic?

Yoga comes out with a unique procedure or karani called sirsasana or head stand. If one would stay in sirsasana for a required amount of time,  the viscous cerebrospinal fluid slowly empties into the periphery of the brain. There are ventricles or openings in the brain and in the third ventricle in the recess is placed the pituitary gland. In sirsasana, the CSF fills this ventricle and exerts some pressure on the gland which helps to slightly increase its hormone secretion. It empties into the surrounding CSF. Then when one comes out of the pose, the hormone gets into the circulation and stimulates the adrenal gland. The adrenalin so produced excites and improves the tone of the sympathetic  nervous system. This will help to bring in some rajas and energy to the yagabhyasi. So if one is extremely tamasic such people will lack the energy and motivation to do pranayama to remove tamas. When I was studying with Sri Krishnmacharya, for a period of time I used to go for my asana classes in the evening after work. I used to feel tired especially in the hot humid Madras conditions. If he sees me very tired he would ask me first thing after the prayer to stay in headstand for a while. It used to be very relaxing for the whole body, the joints and the tired muscles. At the end of the sirsasana practice one would feel relaxed and little more energetic and can go on to do the asanas and vinyasas.

But then there are some who have high sympathetic tone or what you may call Rajasic or pitta dominated. Such people will have to use up the extra energy and asanas in general are supposed to help in reducing or utilizing the extra energy. 

‘Asanena rajo hanti says an Upanishad‘. There is another important asana which will help in reducing the rajas by improving the tone of the parasympathetic of which the vegas is an important part. The vegal nerve emanates from the occipital region of the brain The back portion of the brain is on the ground in Sarvangasana and the CSF is supposed to empty into the fourth ventricle which is in the occipital region and stimulates the vegas nuclii. So a proper balance between Sirsasana and sarvangasana would bring about the required equilibrium between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems or bring about a parity between Rajas and Tamas physiologically.

Ultimately Yoga requires one to improve satva as it is the most desirable quality. The procedure that is used by Yogis to suppress Tamas and simultaneously increase satva is pranayama. Satva indicates a proper functioning of the brain and the central nervous system whereas Rajas and Tamas may be related to the functioning of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. It is an ingenious approach of yogis to increase satva or bring the central nervous system under good control. Breathing is usually under involuntary mode. Sympathetic acts during inhalation and the parasympathetic is active during exhalation. So normal breathing is involuntary. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord and is responsible for out thinking and all activities we do voluntarily including meditation. In voluntary breathing which is pranayama, the breathing is brought under the central nervous system-- there are two centers of breathing one voluntary and the other involuntary. By doing pranayama, the yogi is able to work with the central nervous system and increase the dominance of satva. Pranayama on one hand helps to reduce tamas and increase satva, as Patanali puts it “ tatah kshiyate prakas aavaranam and dharanasu ca yogtataa manasaH”

So Tamas Rajas and Satva dominate the three nervous systems the parasympathetic, the sympathetic and the central nervous system. And the Hatayogis bring about the required changes of the gunas by manipulating the tone of the three systems by unique yogic procedures of Sarvangasana Sirsasana and Pranayama.

http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasa-krama

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Simon Borg-Olivier interview, the Bohr effect and why it can be beneficial to breathe less plus the healing benefit of kumbhaka

In two recent fb posts Simon Borg-Olivier quoted a couple of sections of our interview from a couple of years back. I find It's hard to read anything more than a few lines on fb so thought I would re post here.

I will include the full video below but see this post for the full transcription

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/05/interview-with-simon-borg-olivier.html

"Here is part of the (edited) interview my friend Anthony Grim Hall did with me when he asked me the following questions about breathing and pranayama in posture in movement (1.43 in the video posted in full at the end of the post).

In this interview I talk a lot about the benefits of breathing less than normal (hypoventilation) as opposed to what many people do in exercise and modern yoga which is to breathe more than normal (hyperventilation):"

ANTHONY: Does it make sense to you that Kumbhaka (holding the breath) can have a healing effect?

SIMON: Yes definitely, there are many benefits that can be attributed to various types of breath retention or Kumbhaka. There are several different ways you can do a kumbhaka and each of them will have a different effect. You can hold the breath in, you can hold the breath out, and you could hold the breath partly in, you could also get a similar effect to kumbhaka just by not breathing very much at all. You could also get a similar physiological effect from kumbhaka by breathing very very very slowly, for example by continually inhaling for 2 minutes. Breathing very very slowly would look to someone else like you are not breathing at all. It is important to note that deep breathing and all breathing in fact is moderated by how much air comes in and out of you every minute. This is called your minute ventilation. All of these factors have physical and physiological effects.

Depending on how much air you breathe per minute and which muscles you keep active or relaxed the benefits can be positive or negative. perhaps surprisingly for most people the most positive effects are seen when we breathe as little as possible, which is the essence of pranayama.

ANTHONY: When you say breathing very slowly do you mean long slow inhalations or do you mean just breathing regularly but very softly?

SIMON: You can do either. If I had to do a graphical analysis, say you put time in the horizontal axis, and amount of breath on the vertical axis.

For example, If I do what many people consider deep full breathing while sitting quietly at rest I could take a deep full breath in (inhalation) for 3 seconds and deep full breath out (exhalation) for 3 seconds and that is ten full breaths per minute. On a graph this will look like the graph goes up and down a lot, most people will get a a bit dizzy because this will bring less blood to the brain and the will seem to be many ‘fluctuations’ in the breath. But if you read most hatha yoga texts they say you need to still the fluctuations in the breath to get yoga.

So, if I do a kumbhaka after each part of the breath - inhale, hold the breath in, exhale, hold the breath out - the holding the breath will look like a straight line on the graph and there is then no ‘fluctuations’ in the breath. I can hold my breath in for about 6 minutes, which is average in world terms and the world record is about 10 minutes i recall.

But I could simulate that straight line, where there are minimal fluctuations in the breath, by just doing a very little breath in little breath out. On my graph, from a distance, a little breath in and a little breath out would look like a straight line. Physiologically, it has the same effect as kumbhaka.
In Sanskrit, in Yoga terms, that’s really what is Kevala Kumbhaka is. It’s what happens when you’re meditating. You feel like you’re not breathing at all, but actually if you study if you study a meditating person with a machine you find they feel like they are not breathing at sometimes but they are actually making very small breaths in and out that mostly are invisible and inaudible breath.

ANTHONY: Why does kumbhaka and meditation have a similar physiological effect as a very large inhalation and/or a very large exhalation?

SIMON: Holding the breath in or out for a long time and meditation have similar physiological effects because they both will build up carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is one of the main effectors in the physiological effects of kumbhaka. You can also get high levels of carbon dioxide, not just from holding the breath in or holding the breath out, but also by not breathing very much. So when we meditate we don’t breath very much, it’s a very little in breath, a very little out breath. So because the air is not exchanging much, you’ll actually start building up carbon dioxide. Therefore, on a physiological (energetic) level, one of the best ways of getting the positive effects of carbon dioxide build up is by doing meditation. You often hear of people who have cured themselves of cancer, by doing meditation. On a physiological level one can speculate that the increases in health from someone, say who has had cancer, may be because of the increases in carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is necessary to be present for oxygen to be deposited into cells via the Bohr effect.

ANTHONY: Can you explain the Bohr effect in simple terms’ and how it implies that when you exercise for many reasons it is essentially best to breathe as little as possible.

SIMON: The Bohr effect very simply would say that if you have oxygen which is carried on Haemoglobin, the red pigment in blood, and it’s travelling through your blood, it might come to say, your big toe, and would say "I’ve got oxygen, does anyone here in the big toe want oxygen?" And all the cells in the big toe will say, "yes I want oxygen", and before it releases its oxygen to the big toe’s cells, the Haemoglobin will say … “show me your carbon dioxide”. And if the big toe cells have no carbon dioxide then the Haemoglobin (in fact it is oxy-haemoglobin) will not release it’s oxygen. It will just travel off somewhere else. You need the local presence of carbon dioxide for oxyhaemoglobin to be able to release it’s oxygen and make it accessible to cells. This is the Bohr effect.

So, when there are high levels of carbon dioxide there’s a lot more deposition of oxygen into cells, and if there are low levels of carbon dioxide, you might get increased blood flow, but you might not get entry of oxygen into cells. When oxygen enters cells, you get much better healing, and also, you get much more energy. So for example a cell can run off glucose, glucose is a simple sugar, and glucose is used as the fuel to be ‘burnt' (or metabolised) for that particular cell, will get two molecules of ATP, the energy source of the cell, for every one glucose ‘ urnt'. But, if you burn glucose in the presence of oxygen you get 38 molecules of ATP, so it’s 19 times more energy can be generated in the presence of oxygen. Funnily enough cancer cells don’t function with this oxygen method, they don’t work on the aerobic pathway, they only have anaerobic metabolism happening (burning sugar without oxygen). So it’s not to say that the presence of oxygen will kill cancer cells, or the absence of oxygen causes cancer, but rather healthy cells, will not do very well, and cancer cells will do very well, in low levels of oxygen. Whereas with high levels of oxygen, healthy cells do very well, and cancer cells don’t necessarily do very much better than normal. So cancer, sometimes, is said to be helped if you can get more oxygen into your cells, and one of the ways of doing that is by putting it in a high CO2 environment, and one of the ways of generating high carbon dioxide is using either kumbhaka or minimal breathing which is Sanskrit terms is Kevalya kumbhaka, which is the type of breathing that happens when you sit in meditation. On a graphical level that’s a little breath in a little breath out little breath in little breath out, which looks like a straight line. Same as if you inhaled, held the breath in, looks like a straight line. But to simulate a straight line also, you could do a very slow breath in. If I inhale fast, the line goes up dramatically, but if I inhale slower, the line goes up slower still. If I inhale and I take one minute to inhale, the line goes up so slowly, that from a distance it looks like a parallel line and so very slow inhales, of say one minute for an inhalation would simulate kumbhaka on a physiological level.

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Some posts here from Simon's excellent blog on breathing less

https://yogasynergy.com/?s=breathing+less

Full video

The full transcription is on the earlier post here

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2014/05/interview-with-simon-borg-olivier.html

NOTE:  "I have apologise that on the video at 7:30 - 7:45 I made a mistake in what I said - I actually meant to say "The only way to ensure oxygen gets to the cells is by increasing CO2" and by not by decreasing CO2 as in unintentionally spoke - thank you Mick Lawton for pointing this out.

And here's a more recent interview with love yoga Anatomy, two anatomy geeks chatting

And the corresponding page

http://loveyogaanatomy.com/interview-with-simon-borg-olivier/



See also perhaps, some of my earlier post on Simon's work.

The breath: Simon Borg-Olivier made me fall in love with asana all over again.

Interview with Simon Borg-Olivier: Breath, Kumbhaka, Bandhas in Ashtanga and vinyasa Yoga. Yoga Rainbow Festival 2014

Just enrolled on Simon Borg-Olivier and Bianca Machliss' Essentials of Teacher Training Yoga Fundamentals Online course

The nine bandhas (yes Nine) in the APPLIED ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGA of Simon Borg-oliver and Bianca machliss

Simon and Bianca's website and online courses

https://anatomy.yogasynergy.com/

and their quite excellent blog

https://yogasynergy.com/blog/

About Simon

https://yogasynergy.com/about-our-teachers/simon-borg-olivier/

Simon own page

http://simonborgolivier.com/

This page includes links to online courses including two new ones, one of pranayama and another on 84 Postures for Strength, Flexibility, Fitness and Longevity. there is also talk of a new book and online course on Ashtanga.

http://simonborgolivier.com/products/

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Question: Was the Ashtanga Vinyasa count developed merely to test the boys of the Mysore palace?

Above Krishnamacharya's Yoga school for the boys of the Mysore palace, set up in 1933 by Krishnamacharya's patron the Maharaja of Mysore (photo from Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda pub. Mysore 1934).


Schools tend to have a syllabus, exams (diploma's)...., don't they?


"In 1935 having cleared the Primary, Elementary and Advanced diploma course in yoga he (BKS Iyengar)  stood first in 98% marks".  (Leap of Faith 12:33).  See my previous post


How do you test yoga for a diploma?

Pattabhi Jois' daughter Saraswati mentions that the examination Krishnamacharya gave her in 1975 was based on the names of the asana as well as the vinyasa's to and from them. Krishnamacharya supposedly asked her to do Navasana say, and then asked her the number of vinyasas and which vinyasa she was in at the time etc. Here's the video in which Sarawaswati mentions this, there are two mentions in the first fifteen minutes. (see THIS post).

Was this perhaps Krishnamacharya's approach to testing the boys of the Mysore Palace including BKS Iyengar in 1935.  For the Primary, Intermediate and Advanced  diploma might students not be asked to present asana from the Primary, Intermediate and Advanced groups and tested on the corresponding vinyasa count.

If this was  indeed the case then Krishnamacharya would have needed a syllabus, especially as )according to Iyengar) it appears Krishnamacharya spent very little time actually teaching the boys of the palace himself.

Krishnamacharya was it seems often in a side room teaching other patients and dignitaries on a one to one basis. Krishnamachary's assistants, like the young Pattabhi Jois, would have led the boys through their paces in preparation for their exams and demonstrations. These assistants would surely have required some kind of syllabus on which to base the hour long classes and prepare the boys for their exams.

QUESTION: Did Krishnamacharya develop the 'Table of asana' included in the 1941 edition of his book Yogasanagalu, as a syllabus on which to prepare and test the boys of the palace? 

The table is grouped into primary, middle and proficient asana corresponding to the  levels of the diploma(s) Iyengar referred to.

The table included the vinyasa count for each asana as well as indicating the state of each asana,, also the appropriate kumbhaka as well as a related benefit of the asana.

See the appendix below for the full table of asana as well as Pattabhi Jois' four year diploma syllabus.

Krishnamacharya also makes a point in his earlier book, Yoga Makaranda (Mysore 1934), published the year following the opening of the school, of indicating the vinyasa count and stressing the state of the asana.

Upon leaving Mysore and the school environment, Krishnamacharya seemed to give less, if any, stress to the vinyasa count although he suggested to Ramaswami that the Vinyasa Krama was implied.

If we formally begin and end an asana at samastithi and every key movement is linked to a stage of the breath then the vinyasa count is indeed implied as is the state of the asana. It's only perhaps in a pedagogic/examined environment that the vinyasa count and state of asana needs to be explicitly stated.

Now teaching on a one to one basis, Krishnamacharya had no more use perhaps for the regimented count on which he was earlier to base group classes.

Krishnamacharya's assistant Pattabhi Jois seems to have been in a similar situation as his teacher Krishnamacharya had been earlier, upon being asked to present a four year course at the Sanskrit college for the older boys. He needed a syllabus and a manner of testing, this too seems to have been based on the vinyasa count.

When Pattabhi Jois started to teach western students he gave a four year syllabus to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams that seems likely to have been the syllabus on which his earlier four year Sanskrit college course was based. The syllabus included the vinyasa count but not the count for the actual state of the asana.

The Vinyasa count seems to have been in the background of Pattabhi Jois' teaching of the western students (he would supposedly chant the count to himself while assisting students into the postures), the count was there on the syllabus but perhaps not stressed or made explicit until he was required to introduce led classes on his tours to the US. Lino Miele and John Scott focussed on the count in the early 1990s and in their respective books

Pattabhi  Jois' own book Yoga Mala, clearly based on Krishnamacharya own Yoga Makaranda, focusses on the vinyasa count  but was originally written in 1959 and not translated until the 1990s

By focussing on the count and making it explicit, the count became perhaps (seen at least as) the central feature of the practice ( the breath is implied by the count ) and following it correctly able to be used as criteria for the growth in authorisation to teach.

Although Krishnamacharya no longer stressed the count in his own teaching, he did employ as criteria when asked to test Pattabhi Jois' daughter Saraswati in 1975.

This is not to say that time focussed on the count isn't beneficial, it' can be beneficial because focus on the count is of course focus on the breath, the count is a tool that can assist us in this, just as the breath too is a tool.

CONCLUSION

For a time, I wondered if the seemingly incomplete Table of Asana presented in Krishnamacharya's Yogasanagalu might suggest a connection to a past text (Yoga Korunta?) or teaching by Krishnamacharya's teacher Ramamohan Brahmacharya. And yet, if this was the case, wouldn't Krishnamacharya have continued to stress the vinyasa count throughout his life. His lack of focus on the vinyasa count after leaving the particular pedagogic situation he found himself in Mysore may indicate that the Vinyasa count was purely introduced to teach large groups of restless boys and further, to test them.

In his later teaching, freed from focussing on a counted framework (series/sequence, however fixed) of asana that all the students could follow, Krishnamacharya could focus on selecting appropriate asana, subroutines and bespoke sequences as well as on the the breath itself (including perhaps kumbhaka). This is a characteristic of his teaching of Ramaswami, AG Mohan and indeed Krishnamacharya's  own son's TKV Desikachar and Sri Sribhashyam. It may well have characterised the private teaching Krishnamacharya conducted in a side room of the palace while Patabbhi Jois led the boys of the place through their places...., it may well have characterised Krishnamacharya's own studies with his teacher Ramamohan Brahmacharya.

It may well be that we have over emphasised the count and sequence(s) in modern Ashtanga, Pattabhi Jois defaulting to the tried and tested option when faced with growing numbers of students, as does Sharath in the large room in Mysore and when faced with the large numbers on his 'world tours'. In the Mysore rooms themselves doesn't the count and even the series perhaps naturally move somewhat in to the background, the focus returning to where it belongs, the student rather than a dogmatic methodology.

Pattabhi Jois' son Manju, generally teaching in smaller, more intimate, environments speaks of returning to traditional yoga. While Manju does still include led classes, his workshops and training tend to be more characterised perhaps by adapting the practice to the needs of the student, Manju stresses an integrated practice just as his father did when teaching him and as Krishnamacharya tended to do in his later teaching as well as perhaps the side rooms of the palace, the asana followed by pranayama and chanting the emphasis being on health, well-being and indeed joy rather than attainment and achievement.

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NOTE: I still consider my practice to be the Ashtanga I first began practicing ten years ago. I've been through a love affair with the vinyasa count, with full vinyasa, advanced series, with approaching my practice fast as well as more slowly, with short stays as well as long. 

The Ashtanga sequence is made up of a number of Subroutines and as such I see no significant difference between it and the Vinyasa Krama I also studied under Ramaswami, other than perhaps with how fixed the approach. 

These days I prefer to practice less asana more slowly, just as Patabbhi Jois suggested as an option in Yoga Mala.



See also
Consistency in Krishnamacharya's teaching

Appendix 1. 

Krishnamacharya's asana table ( yogasanagalu 1941)

See this post for more details

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2012/05/complete-asana-table-from.html

'Therefore, how many vinysas for asanas? Asana position comes at which vinyasa count?  When do you perform rechanka and puraka?  When to do antah kumbhaka and bahya kumbhaka?  What are its benefits?  For yoga practitioners information, it is listed in the table below'. Yogasanagalu

Yogasanagalu Asana table

UPDATE

NOTE: With the translation of Krishnamacharya's second book Yogasanagalu ( Mysore 1941 - 3rd edition with additional chapter 1972) now complete, I'm just putting the finishing touches on a free to download edition of the full text that will be available for personal study on the Free Download page at the top of the blog.

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Appendix 2

The 'Original' Ashtanga yoga Syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams by Sri K Pattabhi Jois in 1974 Mysore

"In fact, David and I had no idea that there were two separate series until the end of that first four-month trip, when we were leaving, at which point Guruji gave us a sheet of paper with a list of the postures, which were listed as Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A, and Advanced B. At this point he told us to practice one series a day, and only once a day".
 from Ashtanga Yoga as it was (The long and the short of it )  Nancy Gilgoff

many thanks to Anon for passing it along and especially to Nancy for giving permission to post it this morning and share with the community at large.

Available as pfd download from googledocs
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7JXC_g3qGlWRzZWOUltVnh3RFU

See my earlier blog post on Nancy's article
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/dear-nancy-yoga-as-it-was-nancy-gilgoff.html

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