Meaning
Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is a set of sequential movements combined with breathing and energy exercises. This type of yoga helps strengthen the body and spirit.
The Ashtanga Vinyasa style includes the eight steps of classical yoga.
Vinyasa, simply put, is a link. Ashtanga yoga is a dynamic practice consisting of postures (asana) and breathing (pranayama).
How to prepare for Ashtanga
To practice yoga, it is not necessary to have prior spiritual practices. But since Ashtanga Vinyasa is an active dynamic complex, it is necessary to acquire at least minimal physical training. You should do some stretching, endurance, and strengthen your muscle corset in advance. Practical yoga classes involve performing asanas that develop and strengthen muscles. Only through a strong body will the student learn to focus his thoughts.
When comprehending the first stage, you just need to think about worthy behavior and not commit rash actions in life.
A beginner will learn:
- concentrate sensations on points of the body;
- learn to maintain a meditative state;
- control your breathing when doing exercises.
Training in a special exercise based on the first stage of Ashtanga yoga is useful. An object is mentally selected, concentrating thoughts on it, and all information about this object and its characteristics are listed. You should think for so long until the desire ends. In the next exercise, for the same amount of time, turn off all thoughts. These simple exercises are good preparation for mastering the next stage - understanding the capabilities of your body.
Attention
Focusing on the points is especially important when doing vinyasa. Attention can be concentrated on the following points: navel, tip of the nose, area between the eyebrows, fingers and toes, palms, apex (palate).
Directing attention to the points contributes to the best development of practice.
Stage 5.
Pratyahara
. “Pratyahara is, as it were, the imitation of the senses by the mind by removing them from the corresponding objects” (sutra 54).
This stage is transitional from external to internal practices. It consists in the fact that the practitioner stops reacting to the objects of the senses, transferring attention to the awareness of internal processes. In everyday life, the opposite process is more common, when feelings control the mind, which to some extent contradicts our spiritual nature. The important aspect here is not to suppress feelings, but to take control of them and turn your consciousness inward. It is for this that it is necessary to properly master the previous four steps so that the outside world does not disturb you either physically or mentally. Then comes the awareness of the depth hidden in us, not comprehended by the mind, where all the answers are, and which can be known in samadhi.
Who can do it
Ashtanga yoga is difficult to master and is well suited for people who have good strength, flexibility and endurance. It should not be practiced by people who have serious problems with the health of the spine or joints.
For beginners, it is better to start mastering Ashtanga yoga with the Sun Salutation complex. This complex exists in two forms: Surya Namaskar A and Surya Namaskar B. Complex A will be easier and it is better to start your practice with it.
Sun Salutation A consists of twelve interconnected poses. Each pose smoothly replaces the other. Be sure to breathe properly and concentrate. Before performing, check out the photographs of this yoga complex.
The history of Ashtanga yoga
Indian philosophy arose in the 15th–10th centuries BC. During this time, called Vedic, Indian sages wrote 4 sacred books, called “Rigveda”, “Atharvaveda”, “Samaveda” and “Yajurveda”. These teachings gave rise to many schools and one of them is the school of yoga, and the avoidance of popularity of practical exercises made it a secret.
The systematizer of yoga, Patanjali (2nd–1st centuries BC), collected the knowledge of sages that existed much earlier. His work “Yoga Sutra” is an exposition of the philosophy of yogis. The author consistently described the path represented by 8 steps. Pattabh Jois, a student of the hatha school discovered by Sri Krishnamacharya in the mid-20th century, gave birth to a new school - Ashtanga Yoga.
Over 2,500 years of existence, many new schools and directions of yoga have been created with a common goal - to help in knowing one’s own “I” and finding harmony with nature.
Start of classes
To make learning Ashtanga yoga easier, follow the recommendations below:
- Patience is the basis of training. In this type of yoga you cannot jump from one level to another. It is necessary to start a new level only after completely mastering the previous one.
- We perform all exercises slowly and leisurely.
- We increase the duration of practice gradually. Start with fifteen minutes a day and gradually increase your workout time to one and a half hours.
- It is important to breathe deeply and correctly. Be sure to immediately get used to performing asanas in parallel with breathing.
- Don't overestimate yourself. Increase the load gradually.
- Listen to your body. Pain in the spine and joints should not be allowed. If you feel discomfort, be sure to pay attention to it. It is possible that you are doing the asana incorrectly. Understand the technique of performing the pose again to avoid unwanted injuries.
Stage 2.
Niyama
- a vow towards oneself. According to Patanjali, there are also five of them: saucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, isvara pranidhana.
Shaucha
- purity. “From purification comes indifference to the body and detachment from others” (Sutra 40). Such fruits are achieved by maintaining purity on three levels: body, speech and mind. Accordingly, to observe shauchi at the body level, it is necessary to regularly perform ablution, practice shatkarmas (six cleansing actions), eat clean food, wear clean clothes, clean the house; at the level of speech - do not use foul language, structure your speech correctly, get rid of parasitic words; at the level of the mind - stop the uncontrollable flow of thoughts, try to think about good things, control everything that is going on in your head. “By the practice of mental purity one attains the capacity for cheerfulness, one-pointedness, control of the senses, and vision of the self” (Sutra 41). Compliance with this principle contributes to the health of the body, environment and mind, which leads to minimizing distractions during practice.
Santosha
- satisfaction. The practitioner needs to be satisfied, otherwise he may develop complexes, various mental disorders, depression, etc. A dissatisfied person will not be able to achieve success in meditation, because... the mind will constantly demand what it wants and lead the yogi away from practice. Therefore, people often come to yoga who are well-realized socially, who have already become disillusioned with samsara (worldly life) and understand that all this is an illusion that does not bring real satisfaction, that true satisfaction lies in the absence of desires and passions.
Tapas
- asceticism. “By the practice of asceticism, defilements are destroyed, and perfection of the body and sense organs comes” (sutra 43). Extreme attention is paid to this principle, since it is impossible to advance on the path without austerities. It is through asceticism that development occurs, overcoming, making mistakes, being disappointed, a person begins to discover new reserves in himself at all levels, becomes more resilient and stable in practice.
Svadhyaya
- self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-education. In order to change and develop ourselves, we need to understand who we are, what our current level of development is, where we are going. We incarnate in this world for development, to accumulate experience. In my opinion, the most appropriate model of behavior for this world is as follows: our universe is a school, our life is a lesson, the people around are teachers and we are students here.
It is possible to correlate the concepts of “self-awareness” and “self-education” through the prism of studying ancient texts. For example, in his lectures Andrey Verba often mentions that by studying the Lotus Flower Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma, the Mahabharata or the Ramayana, we can remember who we really are. The fact is that the events described in these works took place a very, very long time ago, a lot of living beings were involved, and, given that any living being is constantly reincarnated, there is a high probability that we took part in these events in past incarnations. events. For example, they sat and listened to the Dharma preached by the Buddha. Thus, remembering where we were going in all past incarnations and what we already know (we just forgot), we won’t need to spend a lot of time gaining previous experience, but we can safely move on, minimizing mistakes. In other words, observing svadhyaya leads to understanding one's purpose.
Ishvara pranidhana
- submission to God, humility. It's all in God's hands. Whatever happens, everything happens exactly as it should. Otherwise, if we are not happy with something, it means that we put ourselves in the place of God, we believe that there was a mistake up there, that is, thereby we allow ourselves to doubt the perfection of God (the Higher Mind, the Absolute). Humility indicates that a person understands that Higher powers are creating ideal conditions for his development. Therefore, no matter what happens: happiness, failure - everything is designed to accumulate experience. Frequent failures in life indicate failure to complete lessons, indicate the need to reconsider one’s own behavior, lifestyle, thoughts, etc. It is important to understand that ishvara pranidhana does not imply shifting responsibility for what is happening to God. You can compare the relationship with the Almighty with the relationship between a student and a teacher: the teacher gives the student a task, but how it will be completed, what the student will take away from this lesson and what the student’s gratitude will be to the teacher for the knowledge gained depends only on the student, but praise or sending to revision depends on the teacher.
If a person usually gets acquainted with the next six steps in the context of yoga, then everyone is familiar with yama and niyama; it’s just that, as a rule, people have a different name: moral and ethical standards, commandments, etc. And we observe most of them, one way or another, and not because it is written somewhere or otherwise we will end up in hell, but because it is impossible to exist in this world any other way. These rules or vows are natural for a person and, if he does not fulfill them, it is only due to his ignorance due to a thick coating of darkness.
Practice effect
Regular practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga helps to get rid of six human vices: envy, greed, laziness, anger, ignorance and desire. The mind is cleared, the body becomes stronger and more resilient, and stability appears in the nervous system.
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The body is cleansed on the physical and energetic levels.
All muscle groups develop. And through power yoga you can achieve good physical shape.
Relieves stress and negative thoughts. Makes a person more calm and balanced.
Improves the functioning of internal organs. Has a beneficial effect on the health of the spine.
There is no room for weakness and uncertainty in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. It involves a lot of hard work on yourself, requiring considerable physical effort.
Stage 1.
Pit
- a vow towards the outside world. Patanjali identifies five vows: ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha.
Ahimsa
- non-violence, non-harm. At first glance everything is clear, do not kill, do not harm, treat others the way you would like to be treated. However, in reality it turns out that everything is not so simple. We use leather products, some still eat animals, and even just by saying an unkind word, we can cause immeasurable harm. At the same time, we often confuse what is actually beneficial and what is harmful. Sometimes it seems that by feeling sorry for someone, we are showing compassion and mercy, thereby not harming such a person. Although it is possible that this particular person needs to be told harshly that it is time to stop complaining and whining, and start seeing the positives in the problem.
One of the criteria for determining what to do can be an understanding of what your words or actions will lead to: development or degradation. If you regret, and the person does not draw conclusions, and next time comes again to be listened to and pitied, then this is degradation. Ahimsa is broken. If, after a reprimand, a person understands that really, why is he whining and whining, and takes it and changes the situation, then this is development. Thus, you helped and, despite the outward rudeness, did not violate ahimsa. Unfortunately, not everything in life is so straightforward, and it is necessary to develop a subtle perception of each individual situation. However, you can start striving to keep this vow from small things, for example, becoming a vegetarian, saving water, not being rude to people, etc.
It is very difficult to practice ahimsa, but it is important to understand that this is, first of all, the desire to get rid of hostility, the development of compassion and mercy towards all living beings, as well as the absence of evil intentions, that is, every action, word or thought should be for the good.
Satya
- truthfulness, abstinence from lies and self-deception. To tell the truth. The question is often asked: “What to do if you have to choose between truthfulness and ahimsa. For example, do you know for sure that if you tell the truth, someone will die from it?” In this case, one must proceed from the karmic consequences. For lying, as they say, for the good, the karmic consequences will not be as long and terrible as for the death of a living being, therefore, most likely, it will be more correct to violate satya than ahimsa. But, again, everything is not so simple, if by violating satya, you create an illusion for centuries, following which many and many living beings will be shrouded in darkness, then perhaps it is more correct to violate ahimsa.
Asteya
- honesty, non-stealing, non-appropriation of someone else's property. Be honest both with yourself and with others. According to the commentaries on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the fruits of observing asteya are clairvoyance and intuitive awareness. That is, it is the ability to see things as they really are. It would seem that everything is also clear, don’t steal, don’t take someone else’s, but, unfortunately, in our time, perhaps everyone as one does not comply with this principle: prices are inflated, only a few pay taxes, and in general taxes are also inflated and where are they going? in the end, that's a big question. In a society of parasites and consumers, it is extremely difficult to figure out what is true, what is a lie, where you are honest and where you feed the demons. These are precisely the results of the widespread violation of satya. On the one hand, we can justify ourselves by the fact that we were put in such conditions, on the other hand, it is still necessary to try as much as possible not to aggravate the current situation, to try to create an honest society, starting with ourselves.
Brahmacharya
- sensual (carnal) abstinence. In my opinion, abstinence should be carried out in the same way as shaucha (see below) at the level of body, speech and mind. Brahmacharya is not just renunciation of physical contact, but also control of behavior, speech and thoughts. This is an important aspect of yoga practice, especially at the beginning. Since a practitioner who is not established on the path, if he does not take control of his sexual energy, can quickly end yoga and go in a completely different direction. In other words, he will be distracted and constantly drain the accumulated energy through the lower centers. The svadhisthana chakra is responsible for lust and lust - this is the second chakra from the bottom. When practicing yoga, we tirelessly raise the level of energy and make every effort to realize this energy at higher centers, but if we constantly “drain” it, then progress will come much more slowly, if at all. According to Patanjali, one who is established in brahmacharya gets rid of the fear of death.
Aparigraha
- non-acquisitiveness, non-accumulation, non-acceptance of gifts. What is meant here is that a yogi should not have anything superfluous. This is partly due to the fact that we spend our energy maintaining any thing that belongs to us. The most striking example is a car, imagine that you have three of them. How much energy is needed to service them, and this does not only mean direct participation, perhaps you have a personal mechanic and the like, but they also need to be paid something, so you will need to work more to earn more. Same with any other thing. All the things around us exist due to our energy, and it doesn’t matter whether they are expensive or cheap, large or small. Surely, many have noted that once you throw out the trash, your soul somehow feels lighter, precisely because the uncontrollable outflow of energy decreases.
In addition, a person, one way or another, begins to identify himself with the matter around him. Qualities such as greed, selfishness, and attachment may begin to develop. All these qualities are obstacles on the Path. A yogi must calmly part with both people and things, leaving only the most necessary.
Materials used
- Articles about schools “The Way to the West - modern schools of hatha yoga” and “The Way to the West-2. Modern schools of hatha yoga" Ilya Zhuravlev and Olga Bulanova 2003
- Bikram yoga: websites of Bikram Yoga clubs and article by Tatyana Turaeva: “Bikram yoga - take care of your heart!” on the website www.wildyogi.info
- Online sources of Ashtanga posters: Ernest Bisaev
- www.purnavinyasayoga.blogspot.ru
- book by Shandor Remete “Shadow Yoga Chaya Yoga”, Adelaide, 2006
Contraindications to Ashtanga yoga
Complex vinyasa exercises should be approached consciously and carefully. People with musculoskeletal disorders and problems in internal organs should not practice yoga. In addition, it is not advisable for non-flexible people to choose this style. The mobility of individual complexes does not recommend performing them:
- pregnant women;
- with herniated intervertebral discs;
- with a history of head injuries;
- with chronic diseases;
- after operations;
- with elevated body temperature and patients taking strong medications.
Such activities are completely prohibited for people with heart disease, back injuries and other serious illnesses.
