SPEAKING OF TAMAS...
The Three Obstacles to the Practice of Yoga-Asana
"The obstacles to becoming an adept yogi are sleep, laziness and disease.
"One has to remove these by the root and throw them away in order to keep the body under one's control, to control the senses, and to make the prana vayu appear directly in the sushumna nadi....."
-Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
I personally have the hardest time finding the right balance of non attachment & ego gratification via asana. I'm either striving relentlessly or I don't give a fuck.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I can't really say I'm LAZY, if I'm doing my 3rd, but I do the least possible & am (lately) happy with that. Not "excited" granted, but satisfied enough.
Yes, but you are getting up and doing it. That is the key, I think.
ReplyDeleteThe non-attachment will come too, I bet.
As Chandra Om says, some of us need a little more Sita (to stop striving) and some of us need a little more Ram (angry determination).
I've got too much Sita now :)
ReplyDeleteBut... right, I'm doing it. Chris said a couple of times that if I really wanted to "get anywhere" with asana, I'd focus on four: Sirsasana, Sarvangasana, Halasana and Padmasana.
I heard what he was saying, the point of it, but at the time I was still hooked on the idea of linear progression.
Sounds like a transition from Bhogi to Yogi.
ReplyDelete(According to Dharma, the main postures are Headstand, Shoulderstand, back stretch, backbend, spinal twist, Padamsana, Sukhasana and Maha Mudra).
Ah there you go - he's pretty much in sync with my personal hero.
ReplyDeleteRamaswami's (faccording to Krishnamacaharya) are Maha mudra, Paschimottanasana, shoulderstand and headstand, a considerable period in each is advised.
ReplyDeleteFunny how, despite what we do every morning, which causes everyone else to think we're mad we still feel lazy. So much more we know we could be doing. More we could study, even longer pranayama and meditation, more work on our yamaniyamas and especially on controlling our senses, which way is the cave again....
I love it when they agree on the main potures. Most teachers who learned from a Guru do. (What drives me mad is intermediate-level students who come to my class after studying newer "styles" of yoga and can do handstand - but have never learned the first thing about headstand. Oy!).
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean re; lazy. At some point we have to practice the niyama of santosh (contentment). Hopefully, soon.
Dharma says, "Once you can control what goes into and what comes out of your month, you begin to control a little bit the the mind."