Demystifying The Yoga Sutras: Lesson No. 2

Our second Sutra Class brought our band of seekers together again with some new faces added to the mix.  Kquvien herded us through the first fourteen Sutras in an effort to take in more of these Sutras or threads in one sitting.

What shall we sew with these threads? Well, it’s always an interesting question to ask.  Nuance from translation to translation provides us with more appreciation for each strand’s specific texture and strength.

We talked about earlier guidebooks on Yoga (somewhere between the 6^th and 15^th century AD) like the Hatha Pradipika by Swami Muktibodhananda, which ---while providing an extensive guidance for the practice of yoga its temporal directions are are geared more to a specific time and place:  Choose a house near a kind king; make sure the house isn’t close to where tigers live; create a dung floor.

On the other hand, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, written much later around 500 BC provides timeless advice and ever-applicable guidance based on the human condition. His Sutras are short pithy aphorisms that could be memorized quickly, yet each meaning grows as you deepen your practice.  Kquvien adds, "Patanjali's Sutras are more like 'Tweets' some of them are not even full sentences."   

Patanjali is quite clear in his Sutra 1.2 “Yogah cittavrtti Nirodha” that Yoga is all about mastering the mercurial nature of the citta or consciousness, which is composed of the Manas (mind), Buddhi (intellect), and Ahumkara (ego or prideful sense of self).  

As BKS Iyengar says in Light On the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, controlling the thoughts is the vehicle to get us to the atman (soul/our highest self).  It is the path to unifying us from our Prakrati (material world/skin self) to our Purusa (spiritual world/highest self) But as Iyengar explains Patanjali knew the only way that unification could occur was if we could restrain the incessant vibrations of the consciousness.

Yoga student and instructor, Lee Barrineau gave a wonderful image to compare the vrittis or fluctuation of thought waves to how we can’t see through a lake or ocean in turbulent water.  The water has to be calm before you can see the bottom clearly.

Kquvien brought out some fine points on Patajali’s Sutra 1.1 Atha Yoganusasanam – Now we begin.  The word Atha or now is like the thesis statement.  Be present. Be in the now.  We are being guided to be present and in the now to focus on Sutra 1.2 Yogah cittavrtti nirodha, stilling our thought waves.  It doesn’t take long (a millisecond max) to see that this is no easy task.

Seeds of thoughts seem to be everywhere in our head –some scattered, some buried, others sprouting from other seeds of thoughts. Iyengar Certified Intro Level II instructor, Chris O’Brien explained that we have a choice what we are going to do with those seeds.“What manifests depends on what tapas we put around it.”  Tapas is a kind of burning discipline.  Therefore, if we put a fiery discipline around stilling the thoughts we can burn the seeds and gain better control over our thought waves.

This is where Kquvien says the Yamas and Niyamas come into play.  When we are compassionate to others and to ourselves. When we practice non-violence with others and ourselves.  Kquvien cuts to the chase: “Just don’t act like a jackass.” When we follow that simple advise, we don’t have to second-guess ourselves. We can avoid guilty and painful thoughts. That knocks out a heck of a lot of vrttis in one pop.

So you can see how the Yamas and Niyamas help to retrain the vrttis but there are all kinds of vrttis and some don’t initiate in the mind. Kquvien explains these are known as Snaus or vrttis that are instigated by physical obstacles.  My knee is sore, which is making my hip hurt, which is making it impossible to think straight. As you can see the vrttis are rampant.  Basically, anything drawing a veil over the purusa is a vrtti.

Patanjali’s Sutra 1.3 Tada drastuh svarupe avasthanam talks about once we can restrain all the vrttis, then we can dwell in our own splendor. 1.4 follows that at other times we are going to identify with the vrttis. We are going to luxuriate in them and become our thoughts: I am fat.  I am ugly. I'm stupid.  I'm a genius.  I'm a hunk of burning love. 

1.5 vrttaya pancatayyah klista aklistah says the movements of consciousness are five-fold they may be known or unknown, painful or non-painful. 1.6 explains they are caused by correct knowledge, illusion, delusion, sleep and memory: Pamana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah. 1.7 – 1.11 goes through a deeper description of the five different kinds of fluctuations of consciousness. 

1.12 Abhyasa vairagyabhyam tannirodhah: practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness. Practice must happen to build strength and attain detachment and freedom from desires. The study of consciousness and stilling it takes practice Abhyasa -which is more a mechanical practice, which later becomes anusthana, which implies a more devotional dedicated practice.

Henry Hibbert brought up the idiom, ‘Practice makes perfect’ which is so right and  I'd like to add that it's important to keep in mind that ‘practice makes permanent’.  So it’s good to refer back to what Chris said that what we manifest depends on the tapas (rigorous discipline) we put around each and every seed of thought.

1.13 tatra sthitau yatna abhyasah let’s us know that practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations and practice is an effort. It is a constant refining of the mental muscle. So we see how yoga is like tuning our mental and physical self, which brings us to a finer point:  Alignment.

The question of “What is alignment” has fostered an every growing dialog among Kquvien’s students ever since she posed it to us a few weeks ago.  Chiara Stella, a long-time Iyengar student had given the question a lot of thought and offered that there is an external alignment that we strive for through our asana practice and then there is an internal alignment --both are inter-related and interdependent -and both have to be given constant attention if a sattvic or harmonized state is to be attained.

I like to think of it all as if it is a fine handcrafted musical instrument: like a violin. No matter how long I practice my violin, no matter how well I take care of it, or how talented I become, I still have to tune it every time I play.

Here’s Sutra Class No. 2 – Thanks again Kquvien.  Namaste.

The Woman's Movement That Moved Us Into A Deeper Place of Understanding

The Winter 2012-2013 issue of Yoga International article, "In Loving Gratitude" (click to view) honors four women who are the reason we can enjoy the incredible teachings here in the US. I encourage you to read the article. Interestingly, many of the women brought the practice of yoga to the west on the dictate of their guru in India.

Eugenie Peterson, better known as Indra Devi was the first woman. A society woman by all counts in most circles, Indra Devi traveled the world and was living in China when Krishnamacharya opened the first yoga studio there. Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya as Fernando Pages Ruiz aptly explained in the May/June 2001 Yoga Journal, "...influenced or perhaps even invented your yoga."  He was the teacher for BKS Iyengar [Iyengar], Pattabhi Jois [Astanga] and Krishnamacharya's son, Deskikacher [Vinyasa] -- All men.  In 1937, Indra Devi was accepted as a pupil of Krishnamacharya and soon became known as "The First Lady Of Yoga".  By 1947, Indra Devi had formulated a gentler yoga, which at the time was much more accessible to westerners.  Her teaching won her a huge following of devotees from stars like Gloria Swanson to Kremlin leaders, who referred to her as Mataji, which means mother.

In 1955, Sylvia Hellman was told to go to Canada by her guru to open a yoga ashram. She'd gone to India searching for meaning through the guidance of Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Her search for meaning turned into a metaphor for her yoga teachings.  Known by her disciples as Swami Radha, she opened an ashram and named it after Buddha's wife and krishna's mother: Yasodhara. Most of her early work was with men - but keep in mind the second wave of the feminist movement was just getting underway. After which as shifts began to happen on the political stage, perhaps there was more openness to woman's role on the spiritual stage so more women began to join her ashram. Swami Radha fostered self realization and spiritual leadership in women. In fact, she was one of the few women leaders who placed a woman as her spiritual successor:  Swami Radhananda.

A little under 20 years later, Lilias Folan brought yoga to our livingrooms with her PBS show, Lilas Yoga and You. She continued into the early 90s with her followup series, Lilas! Yoga Gets Better With Age. What's interesting to note about Lilias Folan's teaching is that she taught people she couldn't see. Keeping students safe when you can't see them is quite a feat (ask any teacher) but she claims that after some 500 televised classes, she never once received a letter of complaint about an injury. Of course, that didn't mean she didn't get hate mail. Some said she was doing the work of the devil. Most would call her a saint --- especially those confined to their home for some reason like mothers of newborns. Lilas own experience with yoga began that way.  She was married with two young sons, smoking a half-pack of cigarettes a day (it was the 70s remember), and sought out yoga as a solution to her gloom.  Guess what?  It worked.

Geeta Iyengar is the fourth woman featured in the article and as an Iyengar student, I have to say Geeta embodies a lot of what yoga means to women. Indian to her core, she has devoted her entire life to the study and teaching of Iyengar Yoga. Like her father, BKS Iyengar, severe illness was the motivation, but their unwavering respect for the process and endless dedication to the refinement of every aspect of yoga is like no other. Geeta's personal devotion to the cause of women's mental, emotional, and physical health is astounding. While I struggle with what I hear about the treatment of women in India, Patricia Walden's comments in the write up on Geeta in the Yoga International article brought me perspective. How I interpreted what Ms. Walden, a Senior Advanced Iyengar teacher said is that despite the appearance of being a woman behind a great man, Geeta is a self actualized woman who will stand up for what she believes in. She serves as a unique role model for women. She has found her own greatness in a country where it is not easy to do; and luckily she is willing to share it.

I benefit from her teachings through another woman, Kathleen Pringle, owner of Stillwater Yoga in Atlanta. Kathleen is a woman Georgia should be very proud of. Known as the "Teacher's Teacher" in local yoga circles, she has dedicated over 30 years to the study and teaching of Iyengar Yoga. She spends several weeks a year in India and was recently awarded a higher certification level by BKS Iyengar during her most recent visit.  She is now part of a very elite group known as Senior Iyengar Teachers. As many of my readers already know gaining a Level I Iyengar certification is a very intense process...to be able to say you're a Senior Level Iyengar Teacher...now that's pretty mind boggling actually. There's not another one for miles around, so perhaps you'll want to visit her studio and take a class or two.

If you do you could begin to see the linage of what our yoga ladies have given us as a country.  Perhaps you will even being to understand how they have helped the minds, hearts, and souls of women - and once you do you may find you want to tip your head and thank them.  I know I did.

For more information about Kathleen Pringle and Stillwater Yoga please visit http://www.stillyoga.com/