Pose and Repose
In his eloquent and moving keynote speech Thursday evening, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar charted for us the evolution of his practice, describing how it progressed from the outermost layer (the annamaya kosha, or physical body) to the most inward, subtlest level (the annandamaya kosha, the body of bliss).
Earlier that afternoon, senior Iyengar teachers Mary Dunn and John Schumacher treated about 50 intermediate level students to a master class, "Integrating the Sheaths of Being," designed to help us pursue that same evolution in our practices.
Though Mary and John approach yoga with obvious devotion, they also injected levity that reminded us not to take ourselves too seriously.
"Guruji is a hard act to follow," John noted as he began class. Mary chimed in that John would need to add quite a few tufts to his eyebrows to come near Guruji even in that respect.
(If you aren't familiar with the astounding Iyengar eyebrows, check out the cover of his magnificent new book from Rodale Press, Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom. In fact, check out the book anyway; it just might change your life.)
John and Mary's playful exchange echoed Guruji's message that, though we should work hard on our asanas, we should always keep as a touchstone the lightness and freedom that are meant to be the core and the outcome of yoga practice.
Throughout the class, John and Mary provided precise and powerful directions to help us fully engage in the poses.
In Tadasana (Mountain Pose), for instance, they told us to:
Touch the skin of the inner big toes and the inner heels together ("NOT just the ankles, but the inner heel skin");
Lift the toes from the floor (NOT just the easier-to-lift big toes, but all of them equally; "Don't show preference for one toe over another!");
Draw the skin of the sole back from the ball of the foot to the heel;
Lift the arch of the foot back toward the shin;
Allow those actions to travel up the legs and through the pelvis to provide a lift to the side walls of the chest and the upper sternum--and then to consciously reinforce that lift;
With the arms at the sides, stretch down EQUALLY through all 10 fingers and both sides of the wrist, while simultaneously
Lifting the upper arm bone up and back into the shoulder joints so that the arms support the lift of the chest, just as the legs support the pelvis.
And that's probably not a complete list: It's likely I've forgotten a few steps!
When we came out of the pose, a powerfully built man asked, "With all these strong muscular actions, how do we know when we're working appropriately and when we're overworking and creating tension?" Shouldn't we relax a bit from the maximum possible intensity of muscular contraction?
John's answer: "'Relax' is a ... well, it's a word that's neither here nor there. It's neither pose nor repose." Instead of thinking of relaxing to avoid overwork, John and Mary suggested, we should do "full action" with "full freedom"--in other words, engage all the actions of the pose without allowing that to create hardness and harshness in the breath, in the diaphragm, in the temple skin, or in the core of the body. Pose and repose at the same time.
They suggested that a key to maintaining this internal quietude is to learn to act not just from the first sheath of the body, but also from the next deeper sheath, the pranamaya kosha--the body of energy.
John and Mary reminded us that the legs and arms are two of the karmendriyas, the organs of action. They are meant to work fully but in such a way that actually creates more lightness and openness in the flow of prana in and out of the body--and also creates ever greater quietness in the jnanandriyas, the organs of perception (smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing).
Throughout the class, John and Mary continued to coach us in key physical actions of the pose, exhorting us toward complete focus and engagement. But at the same time, they reminded us to attend more and more deeply to our experience, turning our awareness inward toward the manamaya kosha, the mental body (the level of the intelligence, which that is seated in the head); the vijnanamaya kosha, the wisdom body (the level of intellect and wisdom, which is seated in the heart); and finally, the anandamaya kosha, the bliss body which is our Self, the core of our being that is also our connection to the entire universe.
For a much more comprehensive and wiser treatment of this approach to yoga, I urge you to read Mr. Iyengar's new book.
Here's the sequence that John and Mary used to guide us inward:
Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute)
Baddha Guliasana (Bound Fingers Pose; hands interlaced, palms stretched up to face ceiling, arms straight overhead alongside the ears)
Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II)
Trikonasana (Triangle Pose)
Uttitha Parsvakonasana (Intense Side Angle Pose)
Parsvottanasana (Intense Side Stretch)
Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose)
Baddha Hasta Uttanasana (Intense Standing Forward Bend with each hand cupping the opposite elbow)
Sirsasana (Headstand)
Janu Sirsasana (Head-to-the-Knee Pose)
Parivrtta Janusirsasana (Revolved Head-to-the-Knee Pose)
A brief, easy Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)
Chatushpadasana (Four-Footed Pose; also often called Setu Bandha Sarvangasana or Bridge Pose)
Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand)
Halasana (Plow Pose)
Sukhasana (Easy Pose); sitting quietly with eyes closed for a few moments.
I left class feeling as though every cell in my being were vibrating joyfully--as though perhaps I had touched momentarily into the bliss body that lies deep inside us all.
