By
Ansgar Schoeberl ©
Stability
Dynamic
Stillness
Body
Breath
Mind
Sensation/acting
Emotion/feeling
Thought/thinking
Abhyasa
Vairagya
Viveka
Asana
Pranayama
Pratyahara
Body
Space
Breath
Asana
Mudra
Pranayama
… Body, Breath & Mind in Asana
Books on Demand
To my Parents
&
Teachers
These texts came through between 2003-08 as part of a intensive practice period, and I used them so far as a textbook for the workshops. My gratitude goes especially to Max, Nicole and Gal who have helped a great deal at that time to get it into shape.
Now, thanks to the professional and friendly help of Saleema, here on the beautiful island of La Palma, we formated it into a booklet ready for publishing.
It is not a general work on Yoga but a specific text for a particular approach through personal practice. To investigate into, experiment with, and understand that, which can be investigated, experienced and understood – the person. Personal understanding versus ideal imitation which is the hidden factor behind many yogic styles. I revised the texts several times to make them more accessible, but I was cautious not to dilute the content in favour of easy reading. The many fotos serve for the coffee table-book aspect to lighten up the density of the content.
I did not add a glossary as I tried to be careful with sanskrit terms and used only those (explained through context) which I deem important for practical yogic philosophy and which are almost impossible to translate without loosening part of their meaning. So I left them in their original purity, either to be remembered or forgotten.
Certainly it is not a book to propagate or argue for Yoga but to inspire those on the free path of personal practice. Some chapters may be difficult to deal with and there is a need for patience and goodwill on part of the reader. Anyway, if inspite of that they fail to inspire and ignite curiosity, there is no reason to hang on to, but better to put or throw them away. So much said, here it comes …
La Palma, Feb. 2013
Ansgar Schoeberl
BOOK I
METAPHYSICS
Introduction
Part 1
Freedom from the person & personal freedom
The ashtangic unfoldment
The Practice of Ashtanga Yoga
Kriya Yoga
The Practice of Kriya Yoga
Part 2: Inquiry into the known
Pratiprasava – stability, dynamic & stillness
Part 3: Kaivalya, Prakriti & Purusha
Abhyasa
Vairagya
Viveka
Nirodha
Part 4: the one, the two & the three
the gunatic trinity within our yogic unfoldment
Establishing an engagement
Mudra or from the ideal to the real
BOOK II
PHYSICS
ASANA: Sthira, Sukham & Ananta-Samapatti
Part 1
Dynamic of Asana
Sthira, Sukha, Ananta-Samapatti
& Dvandva anabhigata
Hips, shoulders & spine – the structural trinity
Vinyasa or the cycle of circles
The yogic muscle
Part 2
On Stages And Awareness
Sukhasana
Conclusion & transition
PRACTICE
MUDRA: Bandha, Kriya & Ujjaya
Part 1
The laws of personal unfoldment
The vital Spaces & the dance of their Shakti
Bottom & top
Sense of direction
Part 2: Bandha, Kriya & Ujjaya
Mula Bandha
Nabhi Bandha
Kapalabhati Kriya
Uddhiyana Bandha
Nauli Kriya
Bhastrika Kriya
Ujjaya
Jalandhara Bandha
Conclusion & transition
PRACTICE
PRANAYAMA: Puraka, Kumbhaka & Rechaka
Intro
Part 1: Pranayamas
Sahaja-, Visama- & Sama-Vritti
Anuloma & Viloma
Nadishodhana
Part 2: Kumbhaka
The dynamic of Kumbhaka
Part 3: Prana & Space
The threefold unity of gunatic qualities
Cosmogony of Prana
Prana & five prana-Vayus
The combustion of prana & apana
A little note on udana, samana & vyana
Conclusion & transition
PRACTICE
BOOK III
TRANSPHYSICS
ABHYASA OF PRATYAHARA
Intro
On Pratyahara
Part 1: Manomaya or the myth of the mind
Part 2: Mind, senses & perception
Part 3: More on Pratyahara
Letting stillness happen and presence arise
Evolving & resolving
Cosmic conclusion
VAIRAGYA OF NI-YAMA
Intro
Part 1: Yama
Part 2: Niyama
Pratipaksha bhavana
Kriya
Part 3: Saucha - Purity
Santosha - Contentment
Tapa - Svadhyaya - Ishvarapranidhana
Tapa
Svadhyaya
Ishvarapranidhana
Conclusion
VIVEKA OF SAMYAMA
Intro
Samyama
Samapatti
APPENDIXES:
The Prajnaparamita - Heart Sutra
Quotes
At some moment in our yogic journey, after having spent time practising the various invented and patented Yoga systems developed by individuals and institutions, promising and certifying the wonderland of yogic names and forms, there might arise an inner urge to rediscover the origins of our practice. To discover that source from where the various systems and techniques have emerged.
»I believe that every student of Yoga should not only read but actually study the Yoga Sutras. It is an excellent way of delving into the metaphysics and the spiritual practice of Yoga. All too often, western students want to bypass the philosophical aspect of Yoga and get on with its practice. But it is impossible to practice Yoga authentically without first having grasped its metaphysics. Conversly, Yoga metaphysics will not reveal its full depth to someone who stays aloof from the practical disciplines. … The Yoga Sutras offer a wonderfull oppurtunity to expose oneself to the condensed wisdom of centuries of spiritual experimentation and to allow one of the great adepts of that tradition to inspire one’s personal practice of Yoga.«
- G. Feuerstein; ›The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali‹, p.7/8 -
Yoga, never aiming at becoming a systematic tradition or institution, defines itself through the personal experience and understanding of its practitioners. It is a living testimony of inspired and free-minded seekers who are motivated by an inner urge and curiosity for Self-exploration and understanding without relying on promises and expectations. Learning through teachers and teachings to trust in ourselves, we are reconfirmed by our own practical experiences. Such a yogic lineage sustains itself through individual dedication and living example, rather than through tradition and hierarchy. Quite contrarily the wisdom coming from understood Yoga practice is a conducted lifestyle based on inner maturity, instead on outer authority! It should eventually free us from institution and authority and enable us to live according to our own truth, naturally and harmless. »Yoga is to be known by Yoga. Yoga is the teacher of Yoga. The power of Yoga manifests through Yoga alone. He who does not become careless, negligent or inattentive, he alone rests in Yoga and enjoys Yoga» (as is stated by Vyasa, the mystical commentator of yogic and vedic lore).
From where does the desire arise to name and classify our Yoga practice, insisting on qualifying subtitles, when our nature and essence rests and reveals in and through Yoga itself? Is it expectancy caused by insecurity and lack of clarity regarding our personal understanding of Yoga and its path? Don’t we trust in the natural potential of Self-motivated yogic practice? Or is it pointless obsession with certain styles and techniques, showing that we don’t link to the bigger picture and stumble along between backaches, blocked nostrils, minute attempts of stillness and wishful thinking?
The objective of this text is to inquire into our threefold persona of body, breath & mind, our potential qualities of stability, dynamic & stillness and our personal traits of sensation, emotion & thought. By developing a personal practice of Asana, Pranayama & Pratyahara within their metaphysical context of Abhyasa, Vairagya & Viveka, we may understand our personality as it is and access the yogic maxim of Nirodha – the right cessation of wrong identity.
Because of the infinite variety of personal constellations and individual tendencies Yoga is abundant in possible ways to access the cultivation of its practice which is the common feature of all yogic endeavours. The practice of Abhyasa culminates into the intuitive understanding of Viveka which expresses in the right attitude of Vairagya. Thus the system in itself (or as it is) is Yoga and the numerous technical approaches offered are employed for cultivating a personal yogic practice: Abhyasa, the physical and personal link for the metaphysical and transpersonal truth of Vairagya & Viveka – refining, merging into and revealing each other.
»We hear today about different kinds of Yoga: Raja-Yoga, Hatha-Yoga, Jnana-Yoga, Laya-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga and Karma-Yoga. These are all modern terms. They were not known to ancient Yogis and if some of them occur at all in old literature, their use is purely incidental and not indicative of a separate and exclusive technique. The standard text-book on Yoga, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra makes no mention of them. Certain aspects of the practice of Yoga have been needlessly apotheosized and elevated to the false dignity of separate sciences, without paying heed to their interrelations.«
- ›Philosophy of Gorakshnath‹; A.K. Banerjea Delhi 1988 -
Life is defined through relationship which always has a complementary and controversial dual nature. Yoga as union always means the understood relationship of something relating to something. Relating to Yoga is the active attempt of fusing encountered paradigms into one understanding that transforms perceived diversity into unified perception. The complexity of theory dissolves in the simplicity of practice and as practice matures and complexifies it dissolves in the simplicity of the teachings. Complexity and simplicity follow and interact (being in relation) with each other in the pattern of the sinuscurve – simplicity complexifies and complexity simplifies … simple complexity and complex simplicity – until they merge in personal integrity.
Philosophy is the reasonable domain of speculation which gets expounded in metaphysical theories and confirmed in physical practice. The use of yogic theory is to give us the right mental frame why and how to approach practice.We need a bit of theory to get a picture and lots of practice to fill it up; to correlate and reconfirm practical experience with expounded theory strengthens our conviction and gives faith. It lies in the self-revealing dynamic of Yoga that the experience encountered in practice contains and reveals the concept expounded in theory. Theory widens the scope for practice and our practice confirms the truth contained in the teaching. The physical insight we perceive in our practice, finds its counterpart in metaphysical comprehension and gives true conviction within and without.
In Yoga the emphasis is clearly on practice and not on a war of theories. Experimental understanding through personal practice instead imposed knowledge through imagined theory. Not to fall into the pit of philosophical complacency, neither to identify with the complacent kicks of rushing adrenalin or cerebral suppressions. We do get regularly acquainted with yoga-scholastics which are either fashionable simplified and turned into pop-art prose, or so heavily analyzed and academically complexified, that they manage to split the original and essential relationship between Yoga theory & practice and deprive it of any empirical personal access. A wise practice is abhyasic in its effort, vairagyic in its attitude and the resulting vivekic flashes of insight are highly inspiring when found and confirmed in the teachings and in daily life. Put in a nutshell it is in the vivekic transcendence of personal contradictions and conditionings where Yoga reveals itself. The key lies in the attitude (Vairagya) of how we approach and pursue our practice (Abhyasa) in particular and our life in general. Yoga has no answer but dissolves the question.
Freedom from the person means personal freedom from the false notion that we are confined within the limits of body, breath & mind. To be free from our personal claim means also to be free for personal unfoldment. We use Asana for freedom from the body and for bodily freedom; Pranayama for freedom from the breath (the vital body) and for vital/organic freedom; Pratyahara for freedom from the sensual mind (the mental body) and for mental freedom. Freedom happens through understanding and understanding brings freedom from false notions. Thus we use Asana to understand the body, Pranayama to understand the breath and Pratyahara to understand the sensual mind. Freedom from and for the selfclaimed identity of our personal re(du)ality. »This false identification is the cause of all man’s ills. The means to terminate his suffering is by way of self-absorption, by withdrawing and demolishing all pseudo-identities, until the Self is ›excavated‹ from all the manifold layers of psycho-mental debris.« - G. Feuerstein, Y.S. 1989, p.11-
Yogic practice is always a practice of nirodha or cessation in its respected field – the cessation of wrong identities and their limiting restrictions: The practice of Asana is the cultivation of asanic qualities within the body in order to cessate sensational identity and freedom for sensation.
The practice of Pranayama is the cultivation of pranayamic qualities within the breath in order to cessate emotional identity and freedom for emotion.
The practice of Pratyahara is the cultivation of pratyaharic qualities within the senseobjected mind in order to cessate sensual identity and freedom for the senses.
And in its higher practice Yoga turns into the cessation of personic identity in total through Dhyana, which is the yogic maxim of ›chitta vritti nirodha‹ (Y.S.1.2) and into complete freedom for personal expression.
Our personal choice and emphasis of practice varies due to individuality and environment; the empirical borderlines between body, breath & mind (from a practical as well as from a personal viewpoint) are really quite vague and from a wider perspective they merge, revealing diverse aspects of one integer whole. It is for the sake of our limited understanding that we divide them and give them a gradual ›step by step‹ appearance. In the actual experience they single, mingle and unfold in the always bigger picture.
A well performed Asana may bring one straight into the steady realm of onepointedness. Prolonged subtle and free breathing can immerse one into states of deep absorption and concentration. Mindful stillness naturally slips into meditation, while a strained effort for meditation is often nothing more than a poorly performed posture.
The compositional proportions of these techniques depend upon our individual capacity and need for personal experience. The cocktail which liberates one keeps the other in bondage as in the old story of medicine and poison. The art of measuring and mixing to make it positively potent wants to be discovered by ones own effort and expertise.
Yamas & Niyamas are the source as well as the destiny of the ashtangic process and the paths of Bahiranga and Antaranga are their respective means.
The path of Asana is the practice of stability, exposing and overcoming sensational distractions of the person – the body in the body.
The path of Pranayama is the practice of dynamic, exposing and overcoming emotional distractions of the person – the breath in the body.
The path of Pratyahara is the practice of stillness, exposing and overcoming mental distractions of the person – the mind in the body.
These three angas constitute Bahiranga or our personal practice of Kriya-Yoga. They weaken our neurotic afflictions and cultivate transpersonal experience and insight (Y.S.2.1-2). As the body holds the breath and gives space to the mind, so stability holds dynamic and gives place to stillness. The gross refines into the fine and merges into the subtle. Sattvic mental stillness is the personal harmonisation of rajasic-respirational dynamic and tamasic-bodily stability.
This refined still space of the mind is the elemental transition into all-pervading silence and in the transpersonal space of consciousness it is the domain of Antaranga (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi). Their combined path or Samyama is the practice of prakritic knowledge and purushic understanding. By truly understanding this ego-ic union with our person (Samyoga), we may dispel our ignorance (Avidya) with the discriminative knowledge of Viveka, which liberate us into the all-one-ness of the Self. Freedom isolated from bondage, which is Kaivalya (Y.S.2.17/23-26).
The attitudal practice of Ni-Yamas is the passive unfoldment of Vairagya.
The personal practice of Bahiranga is the active unfoldment of Abhyasa.
The transpersonal practice of Antaranga is the potential unfoldment of Viveka.
Kriya-yoga is the journey from Samyoga or the personal union with our ego-ic identity to Yoga or the freedom of Kaivalya, where the Self abides and shines in the all-one-ness of its glory – the union between the Self and the Same. The implied action of Kriya (from ›kri‹ – to do) is the dismantling of the person. It is a process of dis-identifying with the perpetuating layers of our personic being and their sensational, emotional & mental claim of our body, breath & mind. Kriya means letting go the insistence of being confined and limited into our personality. This happens externally through intense practice (tapa), internally through self-relation (svadhyaya) and intuitively through transcendence and understanding (ishvarapranidhana) – impersonal development at personal risk.
The practical experience of the infinite range within our finite personality might drive us to the limits of comprehension and make us wonder to whom all those experiences belong: Who is there when we step beyond our personal limitations? Who do we meet when we have rid ourselves temporarily from the burden of our personic identity? What is there when we translucify that misty space which qualifies the mind to be the source of ourselves? Where is then the personality and its idea of going beyond? In the total clarity of understood being we mingle and single within and without in all-pervading space, understanding the emptiness of illusive reality and the fullness of real illusion: the ishwaric experience – from jiva to Shiva.
»M: Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know.
To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.
Q: What does it mean to know myself?
By knowing myself what exactly do I come to know?
M: All that you are not.
Q: And not what I am?
M: What you are, you already are. By knowing what you are not, you are free of it and remain in your own natural state. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly.
Q: And what do I discover?
M: You discover that there is nothing to discover. You are what you are and that is all.
Q: But ultimately what am I?
M: The ultimate denial of all you are not.«
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, ›I am That‹, p.24 -
Tapas: the practice of Abhyasa: the personal practice of Asana, Pranayama & Pratyahara.
Svadhyaya: the practice of Vairagya: the unfolding attitude of Yamas & Niyamas.
Ishvarapranidhana: the practice of Viveka: the transpersonal maturity for Dharana, Dhyana & Samadhi.
The ashtangic pattern is a two-dimensional unfoldment, culminating in temporal samadhic states and stages and is the blueprint of successful yogic endeavour. The trinity of Kriya symbolises the three-dimensional expression of the whole or totality encompassed, culminating in samadhic cessation of our ignorance (Avidya) and hindrances (Kleshas) and showers the understood freedom of Kaivalya upon us.
»It is the ignorance of the known that creates the fear of the unknown. It is the ignorance of the bondage that creates the illusion of freedom.«
- Vimala Thakar, ›Totality in essence‹, p.16 -
Body, breath & mind woven of the same cosmic fabric are stirred into life by pranic/gunatic motivation. They reveal our underlying personic patterns or vrittis, which have their source and destiny in the self-conscious totality of our person the Chitta. Into this organic/pranic interwoven web (body, breath & mind) we want to inquire and investigate: to understand, integrate and eventually let go of its limiting identity. The schism or duality which Yoga wants to transcend is not to be found between body and mind, matter and energy or the physical and the psychic. They are essentially formed from the same stuff, Prakriti or the worldground, constituting our tri-gunatic personality in gross, fine and subtle manifestations. The real and meaningful duality is to be found between our personality complex and that what makes us selfaware; between Prakriti & Purusha. To understand this primal duality, we need to experience deep and profoundly the compact unity of the ›known‹ (Prakriti) the empirical and personal. By truly understanding the known, the ›unknown‹ (Purusha) will reveal its Self; this is yogic inquiry or Yoga-vichara. The vairagyic attitude and abhyasic effort merge into a vivekic understanding of who we are not – body, breath & mind – but enable us to be, to express and to live out our indivi(sible)duality. Abhyasa & Vairagya represent the two wings on whose body our personal practice soars up to the heights of Viveka.
Dealing in Bahiranga with our personality and exposing it to be the tridal phenomena of body, breath & mind, which manifests in gross and subtle ways but always moving along the same gunatic-pattern of stability, dynamic & stillnes, symbolised through Asana, Pranayama & Pratyahara. Eventually this inner journey or involution towards the source of our Self opens to a ›higher‹ form of Abhyasa, the transpersonal practice of Dharana, Dhyana & Samadhi on the Antaranga level.
From the stability of the body in Asana, via the dynamic of the breath in Pranayama, into the stillness of the mind in Pratyahara.