Reflective Asana and Pranayama
Sutras of Practice & Asana
[Note: See accompanying post on bibliography
for full references to works cited]
Five Practice Sutras from Chapter I, Samadhi Pada
All the sutras are about yoga practice, but certain sutras are particularly accessible and clear in their intention. In the first chapter (Samadhi Pada), sutras I.2, I.12-14, and I.20 provide an outline of steady, concentrated, continued practice as the basis for progressing in yoga. They presented here with an implicit aspplication to asana practice, but they originally appear in the sutras in a more general way to define all yoga practices (including meditation).
I.2 yogaha citta vritti nirodahah
Yoga restrains the fluctuations of the mind.
I.12 abhyasa vairagyabhyam tan-nirodhah
Practice and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness
[fluctuations of the mind]. [LOYS]
Sutra I.12 can be understood as a combination of practice and austerity, including the discipline of tapas. More generally vairagya , translated above as “detachment,” can also be understood as “equanimity” — avoiding the turbulence of attachment and anger.
I.13 tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah
Practice is the steadfast effort to still these fluctuations [LOYS]
I.14 sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara asevitah drdhabhumih
Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation for restraining
the fluctuations [LOYS]
I.20 sraddha virya smrti samaghiprajna purvakah itaresam
Practice must be pursued with trust, confidence, vigor, keen memory and power or
absorption to break [this] spiritual complacency [LOYS]
Asana Sutras (Chapter II, Sadhana Pada)
The sutras above provide a view of yoga and how it should be practiced. These principles are elaborated or presented in a somewhat different context in Chapter II (Sadhana Pada) which is devoted to the yoga of practice (kriya yoga).
Chapter II (Sadhana Pada) lays out the foundations of kriya yoga. The practice asanas conclude with pranayama and the transition to pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses). Pratyahara serves as the transition to the meditation limbs and spiritual accomplishments of yoga, which are developed in Chapters III and IV.
The four sutras that explicitly mention asana (II. 29, 46, 47 & 48) are these:
II. 29 Enumerates eight limbs of yoga, of which asana and pranayama are the third and fourth:
Yama, niyama asana pranayama pratyahara dharana dhyana samadhayah astau
angani
Moral injunctions (yama)(, fixed observances (niyama), posture (asana), regulation of breath (pranayama), internalization of the senses towards their source (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana)m and absorption of consciousness in the self (samadhi), are the eight constituents of yoga.
II. 47 prayatna saithilya ananta samapattigbhyam
“Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes
effortless and the infinite being within is reached” [LOYS].
This sounds daunting in the early stages of practice, or in later stages when more challenging poses are developed, but there is a clear distinction between the effort (“donkey work”) at early stages of practice and the repose and centering that is possible in the developed posture. This later stage is the relaxed embodiment of the posture in “Perfection in asana is reached … when effort ceases…” [LOYS, p. 151]
Bryant’s translation is similar: [Such posture should be attained] by the relaxation of effort and by absorption in the infinite
He goes on to say that
“Asana becomes perfect when all effort or strain, prayatna, ceases and the body no longer trembles…and when the citta is absorbed in the infinite, ananta.”
“The essential idea is that by the practice of asana, the body should be so relaxed that the yogi ceases to be conscious it at all, and the mind can thus be directed toward meditation without any bodily distraction of disturbance [Bryant 287-8].
Bryant return to the version of asana as a “stable and comfortable” pose for meditation, but Mr. Iyengar defines this process of perfecting physical postures so that the physical practice itself asana itself can become a form of meditation. This is described in Mr. Iyengar’s commentary on the final asana sutra below:
II.48 tatah dvandvah anabhighatah
‘From then on, the sadhaka [practitioner] is undisturbed by dualities.”
Mr. Iyengar’s commentary:
“The effect of asana is to put an end to the dualities or differentiation between the body and mind, the mind and soul…When the body, mind and souls unite in a perfect posture, the sadhaka is in a state of beatitude…” [LOYS, p. 151].
“…the mind, which is at the root of dualistic perception, loses its identity and ceases to disturb him. Unity is achieved between body and mind and mind and soul. There is no longer joy or sorrow, heat or cold, honor or dishonor, pain or pleasure. This is perfection in action and free in consciousness” [LOYS, p. 152].
Beginning of the Pranayama Sutras
The asana sutras in Sadhana Pada are following by the pranayama sutras , beginning with sutra II.49. Pranayama is to begin when asana has been developed to the point where there is repose in the posture and the practitioner has developed the capacities of concentration and equanimity. This corresponds to the development of the 4th limb of classic yoga, undertaken after progress has been made in asana (the 3rd limb).
This sutra begins with the definition of pranayama:
II.49. Tasmin sati svasa prasvasayoh gativicchedah pranayama”
“Pranayama is the regulation of the incoming and outgoing flow of breath with retention. It is to be practiced only after perfection in asana is attained.”
This is a simple functional definition of pranayama according to its components: puraka (inhalation), rechaka (exhalation), and kumbhaka (retention). Later, kumbhaka is further into bahya kumbhaka (retention/pause after inhalation), and antara kumbhaka (retention after exhalation). Mr. Iyengar’s commentary begins pp. 152-155 [LOYS].
[The pranayama sutras are discussed in greater detail in a separate post]