The Misfits of Ashtanga

This past month I have been teaching heaps and meeting new yogis in the Aberdeen community, sharing a simple message: practice the misfit asanas, the challenging ones. Don't skip them.

If you practice every day, approach what you have been taught with genuine effort and the practice in turn will take you all the way towards understanding the last three limbs of ashtanga - dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). 

Patanjali calls these last three limbs of ashtanga, a complete form of integration, Samyama. 

The last three limbs come when there is no more wondering or questioning what we are doing in the asana. It is required that we have already done all our work and research and we are able to invite a quiet depth to seep into our practice.

If you are not practicing every day or very often, the misfit asanas will urge you to quit and fidget and fumble instead of experiencing samyama. 

One of the ring leader misfits in the primary series - Janu Sirsasana C - is the posture that most people who are learning ashtanga simply skip. Others are a trifecta of difficult lotus-based asanas - Marichyasana B, D and Garbha Pindasana. These also get specifically left out because they are not easy, nor do they feel good for the first few years of practice.

Work on the difficult asanas that you may want to  overlook. If we are incapable of disciplining ourselves to attempt the challenging asanas, then there is no way that we will understand samyama. 

Without daily effort, how can we expect to advance or be more comfortable in the asanas that are alarming, if we don't go play with them every day?

Daily practice is the backbone of ashtanga yoga. Place practice as a priority over theory and study. You can do all the research you want - watch youtube and videos of pros all over, take workshops and go see famous yogis talk and demonstrate. But if you don't get on your mat and try, by yourself in your kitchen or in the Mysore room - samyama will definitely not happen.

I urge practitioners - whichever asana you are working on - first and foremost, try it every day. Why not spend a little bit more time working on what you are NOT good at and master that challenging misfit asana that is giving you grief? It may be giving you the right lesson you are needing to learn.

Here is my misfit asana - Sayanasa. Don't be fooled, I am not quite there, here I am falling out of it. Maybe in a few more years it will be easier. Well it took four years for that other misfit asana, Janu Sirsasana C to feel good, why would this one be any easier?

Patanjali outlines a perfect remedy for us on 'how-to' attain the riches of yoga. The crux of this method is practice: practice done for a long time, without a break, and with effort. If we can practice the feel-good asanas along WITH the misfit asanas with effort and with devotion, then one day we will understand all of the limbs of ashtanga yoga, including samyama. 

Thank you Aberdeen, for inviting me to teach at the The Yoga Spot, Love Yoga, and at Mo Yoga. A huge thank you to Michele, Rebecca and Mo for inviting me into the community and giving me the opportunity to share my love for ashtanga. And may samyama seep into your practices, dear Aberdeen yogis! And to the yogis beyond Scotland, too!


*Teaching Update:

5 October Chanting and Philosophy class Yoga Spot - 10:30 am

Week-long Mysore intensive at Love Yoga October 14-18

Ashtanga Yoga Edinburgh week intensive October 21-25.

Please Practice Padmasana

I was told earlier in the year by one of my teachers to sit in Padmasana as many times as I could throughout the day. I have been doing exactly this - three or four times a day - five minutes to twenty minutes or so every time. 

Jewellea Photography

Sitting still in any position with a ready mind will lead you towards yogic bliss. But padmasana brought me right up close to the five yogic afflictions, also called 'kleshas', or hindrances to yogic practice. These can be painful, impure or colored thoughts - said plainly, these are anything that hold you back in yoga. I have been focusing on the first one, avidya - spiritual ignorance. 

Stillness in Padmasana develops insight into ourselves - notice how it was just sitting still that brought this on - it wasn't while grabbing my heels in urdhva dhanurasana or an advanced posture in the third series - though having a calm mind in these asanas will also lead you towards understanding your avidya.

While you are practicing, try to find stillness at each and every posture (not fidgeting, not looking around, being steady, being calm). This allows you to witness your thoughts so that you can look into what you are day dreaming about. The mind is often comfortable with covering up such thoughts so it goes into auto-pilot and thinks "I am not that", or "I don't think that way" and cleverly replaces the difficult or uncomfortable sensations with something easy to handle instead.

Choosing to remain oblivious to what is holding you back from attaining peace in your life is also avidya. Being 'spiritually ignorant' suggests that you are aware of what is harmful in your life but still you do nothing to change it.

Studying the yoga sutras will inform you that avidya breeds all of the other kleshas, and if we can get straight to the source of our spiritual ignorance - then we will be able to curb the growth of other kleshas. The five kleshas are avidya (spiritual ignorance), asmita (ego), raga (attachment), dvesha (aversion) and abhinivesah (clinging to life or attachment, even fear of death). Click here for a detail on the kleshas.

In our daily practice, there are asanas that befuddle us on a regular basis. Returning back to these places that are uncomfortable is where we are able to learn most about ourselves. For me, Sayanasana is always a battle. I fall some days and others I balance like I am teetering on a dime. I am always taught humility in each of my three successful breaths.

Some days your effort will be rewarded and the results are positive, other days no amount of effort will fulfill what is required to access the inner linings of your mind. The journey of a committed, daily self practice gives you the tools needed to accept this.

Work on those hip openers and healthy knee practices so that you can learn how to fold your legs into lotus - if this is too much for you, then try sitting on top of a block or blankets in sukhasana. Anything to offer space and length in your hips so that when you cross your legs with your heels lining up with your pelvic floor - your knees drop to the floor - this will allow lotus to happen eventually. 

For the auspicious padmasana is worth all your effort towards understanding your own avidya.