The Value of Asanas, Part 2

I wanted to write a follow up to my last post, which claimed that asana practice with breath is a complete system in and of itself. I’m slightly relieved to not have received a mailbox full of death threats- that could be because I don’t have very many readers, or, hopefully, because yogis aren’t really the death threat type. I’m hoping its the latter.

Anyway, I want to get into a bit of my philosophy about why that works for me. You might say to me, after reading that last post:

“But Abby, don’t you know about the eight limbed path? DIDN’T YOU READ PATANJALI?!”

And I would respond, “yes, Virginia, I sure do/did. I’d be a pretty crappy teacher if I didn’t, no?”

A bit of a refresher here: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a brilliant text. If you walk into a bookstore awesome enough to have a whole shelf or more about yoga, 80% of the books there will be based in some way on interpretation and application of these sutras. “Sutra” means thread, or string, just a bit of guidance that we are then instructed to follow and interpret. This means that, no matter how it’s translated, the sutras won’t just lay out an obvious path for you to walk.

The eight limbed path described in the yoga sutras: restraints (do nots), observances (do’s), asana (poses), pranayama (breath work), sense withdrawal (towards meditation), focus on an object (towards meditation), meditation, all towards contentment/enlightenment/liberation. It’s from interpreting these that you get the “everything else” that asana practice doesn’t cover.

I have a deep respect and love for the body, cultivated through study of yoga, martial arts, feminism, and psychology. Pretty much every learning experience I have, academic or otherwise, had has eventually driven me back to the amazing capacity of the mind-body connection. And it’s from that belief that I make that claim. Every time you practice yoga, go for a mindful run, make love, dance, or just sit in a chair and read this is an opportunity to tune into the sensations in your body. You are breathing all the time. Every time you shift your awareness to your body and breath, you learn a little bit more about yourself. And to me, this is the most pure kind of knowledge there is- a stronger truth than any religious text can offer. It’s from this place, I feel, that you can build an entire lifestyle practice. It takes time, maybe years, to learn to access this body knowledge, but it’s from here that you can sense when things are stressful on a deep psychological level. Things like eating habits, relationships, career stuff- all the choices we make in life can be informed, deepened, made meaningful through practice with the body and breath.

I’m thinking this is what the texts, the eight limbs, were made to codify. Knowledge acquired through years of mindfulness and contemplation. They’re an offering to us, available for us to practice with.

So, my beliefs and teaching philosophy in a handy diagram: