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| A young Pattabhi Jois in Kapotasana with his teacher, Krishnamacharya on top
One of the many things that I am realizing about the Ashtanga yoga practice after years of progressing slowly through the series, is that there are these significant hurdles set out that one needs to confront in order to move further and to absorb the practice fully. These are "gateway" postures that in order to learn, requires us to examine the foundations of the asana and set out on a path for deepening the posture correctly, over time. Marichyasana D, for example, looms large in the primary series as a posture which will we have to come to terms with in one way or another. Part of that coming to terms is understanding our own bodies, what we can do, what is safe to do and how much to push without causing the strain or injury that is the antithesis of the practice of yoga. You make peace with where you are on that day and challenge yourself to forge ahead on the path, one step at a time, one breath at a time.
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| Beata Skrzypacz in Kapotasana, photo by Tom Rosenthal
Lately, that hurdle for me is kapotasana, full pigeon. I'm not a natural back bender, like so many of my students - those dancers and former dancers who think nothing of dropping back into jaw droppingly deep back bends! I came to yoga late, after years of construction work had wracked my spine. At the time I started yoga, I was seeing a chiropractor 3 times a week just to stand up straight without pain. That was a long time ago, but still, I am having to reshape this bag of bones with great care and patience - and persistence. In my home practice, I see that pigeon from a ways off, many postures ahead and my mind will jump forward, already creating the anxiety and fear that makes any posture impossible to perform. This has been a process of confronting those fears and letting go. I always see Guruji's smiling face in my memory, him standing on my knees in badha konasana and leaning over my shoulder laughing, saying, "Why fearing?" (At the time I feared I might never have a deep voice again!) The smile and the disarming laugh created the trust in me that allowed the posture to happen. (There's a lesson for life in there which I will leave to you to figure out.)
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| Graeme Northfield being assisted by Pattabhi Jois, Mysore 1982 |
"We may notice the flow of the kleshas at any point, from avidya through asmita to abhinvesha. Placing attention on the vritti pattern, we trace the vritti back through the flow of the kleshas, resolving the suffering we are experiencing back through ego into fundamental ignorance. Those kleshas that have manifested as chitta vrittis, those aspects of our suffering we more easily name, such as the anger we may feel when our ego is challenged or the frustration that arises when we cannot get something we are attached to having, these more blatant kleshas can be dissolved by practicing dhyana or meditation on the immediate mind state that is arising. So again, we see that the entire practice of yoga, the path to liberation in fact, is to get to the root of whatever is presenting itself."
(page 170)
Guruji believed that it always came back to the practice. "You do." He would say. The simple instruction urging us on to move, to keep going, to face one's fears by simply trusting in the practice and in the breath. The real practice of yoga then is not "achieving" a certain posture but moving ahead on the path with courage and an openness of heart, with trust and a clear-eyed awareness of the present moment. "No fear."
A thanks for the pics and video:
Thanks to Jill Manning for the inspiration for this post!
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