Sequences for the week and other thoughts about the 8 limbs of yoga

It's the fourth week of the month, where the pedagogical focus of Iygengar public classes is pranayama. What is pranayama you might ask? Literally, the word means something like extension of prana or energy. Breath is one manifestation of prana, but the scope of prana is pretty much all pervasive.

Patajali has five sutras that talk about Pranayama directly (though there are sutras in the list of meditative techniques that are clearly talking about pranayama).

Pranayama is the 4th limb of yoga, it comes after yama, niyama, asana. It is the first limb where any temporal distinction about the order of practicing the limbs occurs.

Patanjali writes (I am using Edwin Bryant's translation here), "When that (asana) is accomplished pranayama, breath control (follows). This consists of the regulation of the incoming and outgoing breaths" (ii. 49).

How does one know when asana is accomplished? When the effort to to it becomes effortless according to BKS' translation (or by the relaxation of effort and absorption in the infinite, according to Edwin's translation).

Or perhaps when one is not afflicted by the dualities of the opposites" (II.48).

That sounds like a pretty high starting point and in a sense it is, but I've also been taught that basically, start pranayama when you have some daily asana practice well established.

One of the biggests lessons I took from my recent studies with Swati Chanchani is that all asana is a preparation for pranayama, or differently put, one should look at asana from the perspective of developing a pranayama practice, so is the spine straight, are the hips level, how to the arms and legs work to faciliate the necessary openness in the hips to sit straight and the necessary openness in the chest to breathe well and overall the presence of mind to begin focusing on the breathe.

As an aside, at a recent Patricia workshop, Patricia asked us to paraphrase the sutras in our own words and the one I had was ii.49. I sort of jokingly paraphrased it as "when your asana practice is good enough, then you can start worrying about the breath."

Patanjali goes onto explain the parts of the breathing process is 11.50 and 11.51 and then he outlines the effects of pranayam, "then the covering of illumination is weakened and the mind becomes fit for concentration" (11.52-53).

Another way of thinking about pranayama is that it is a bridge between the outer work of yama, niyama, and asana and the inner work of concentration, meditation, and samadhi. Maha Mudra perfectly symbolizes this transitional state in that it is both a pose and a pranayama. so today in class we'll work again toward Maha Mudra, vanquisher of death...

Here's the sequence from Monday at San Marcos and the further development of it for class today listed in bold. Just FYI San Marcos class is all levels including beginner and Castle Hill is in theory Level 2-3, though there are a couple beginners in there as well.

Arm work (UH, UB, Paschima)
AMS
Goumukasana full pose.
AMS
some work at the bar to open the chest
AMVrk
PM prep
PM
Sirsaana
Chair Dwi pada
setu bandha
Sarvangasana, walking up the wall, working toward Sarvangasana II
Maha Mudra
savasana legs in chair

Off to do some morning yoga with Jeff before a busy Tuesday begins.