The Heart of Yoga, TKV Desikachar

General Notes

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What makes my father’s yoga teaching so unique is his insistence on tending to each individual and his or her uniqueness. 

 

If we respect each person individually, it means we will always start from where each person currently is. The starting point is never the teacher’s needs before those of the student. Sometimes asanas, sometimes prayer, sometimes you need to stop doing yoga. I must create a path where each student can find his or her own way to yoga. Each student is not the same today as they were yesterday. The person does not need to be tailored to yoga, but the yoga needs to be tailored to the person.

 

Yoga will lead to unity with god and making wiser. 

 

Everything starts from the breath. Need to work on breathing with students for a while before starting the practice.

 

There is one rule to follow: if we need rest, take it.

 

If you force the body you get pain.

 

State of mind linked with quality of prana. Try to allow prana to be free within but keep it in the body and not flowing out. The healthier a person is the more prana is flowing and less is leaking. 

 

Prana enters the body when there is movement and a positive change in the state of the mind. Prana enters but takes a lot of it and time to alter the mind.

 

Without prana there is no life. 

 

When you use fire via inversion to burn apana, more room for the flow of prana is created. 

 

 

 

Breath ratio adjusted to individual needs. Usually exhale longer but not always. Need to adjust it to you. 

 

Pratyahara calms our senses. Because the mind is so focused that the essence follows it. 

 

Dharana means to hold. Hold the focus in one direction. Find one point and focus on it to prevent the mind from wandering.  

 

Create the banks for the river.

 

Illness is an obstacle on the road to spiritual enlightenment.

Each of my students must find his or her own way in yoga.

  

The breath is a wonder drug.  

An intelligent approach to your practice involves being clear about the various aspects of the asana that you want to practice and knowing how to prepare for them in such a way to reduce the negative or undesirable effects.  

It is not enough to jump if you want to fly. Taking an intellect approach means working step by step.

Yoga is never simply a psychical practice. It makes someone wiser, more able to understand things than they were before.  
Yoga Sutra - highest text by Patanjali.

 

Yoga Sutra is the highest book that one must always re-read. I also like the Yoganjalisarma.

 

 

Yoga Sutra recommends three ways to climb the ladder of yoga. First, tapas (heat or cleanse). Second, study or investigate and get to know ourselves (svadhyaya). Third, quality of action (not outcome), also known as love of God (isvarapranidhana).

To be a Sannyaskn you must give yourself to the higher power, god.

There is no yoga between one and a million. It is between two, the teacher and the student.  

We are no magicians.  

You must always remember what the teacher has told you, not what you read in a book or what he spoke of in class.

A guru is someone who can show me the way, not someone who has a following.

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Yoga means to come together or to unite or to attain what was previously unattainable.

 

There are no prerequisites to yoga. The actions should come from our yoga but not in order to make our yoga work.

 

The purpose of yoga is to unify the body, breath, and mind. To come together. 

 

Postures (asanas) have two important aspects: steadiness/alertness (sthira) and remaining comfortable (sukha). Asanas bring body, breath, and mind together.

 

Practice asanas progressively. Gradually achieving steadiness, alertness, and overall comfort. Accept ourselves just as we are; as a foundation for growth. 

 

Observing the body is the first step towards changing uncomfortable or ineffective habits.

 

Man desires objects when tender in age, enjoys them when young, seeks yoga in middle age, develops detachment when old.  

 

Food must first be offered to the Lord. Eat half-full. End by drinking pure, clean water.

 

The first stage of our yoga practice is to consciously link breath to movement.

 

Yoga is the practice of observing yourself without judgment. We are both observer and what is observed at the same time.

 

If we do not pay attention to ourselves during practice then we cannot call it yoga. We are not creating something for others to look at.

 

Our practice does not return us to exactly the same place where we started because our practice has changed us.

 

Counter poses or pratikriyasana balance the negative effects of a previous posture.

 

We start our practice with simple postures and gradually progress.

 

In dynamic practice we repeat the asanas again and again with breath.

 

In static practice we hold the pose for a certain number of breath cycles.

 

Dynamic movements allow our body to get used to the position gently and gradually. It is always better to practice an asana dynamically first, before attempting to hold it.

 

Without body, breath, and mind we can hardly claim that what we are doing is yoga. Yoga is not an external experience. 

 

We try to be as attentive as possible to everything.

 

Balance—sthira (steady alertness) and sukha (lightness and comfort). Gradual progression through class from where you are to where you want to be but slowly and safely starting and ending at different points. Don’t want to climb up a tree you cannot get down from.

 

Counter poses are important to relieve the negatives—e.g. to ensure no vertebrae damage after headstand. Always do simplest counter pose to relieve your tension.

 

Combination of sukha (comfort and lightness) and sthira (steady alertness). Occurs gradually (krama). Body can only gradually accept an asana. We must breathe into it and benefit slowly from it.

 

We know the body better and we can adapt to different situations.

 

Breath clears blockages and waste (apana). The mind becomes ready for deep meditation.

 

Agni - fire of life, can be tilted according to how we practice. 

 

Nadi Sodhana, breathe in one nostril out the other using hand mundra to block nostrils, not done with cold.

 

Sitali, done using tongue to cool body. Sita means to cool. Helps us collect the mind.

 

Kapalabhati - chest breathing with force to expel mucus or cleanse self.

 

Bhasriika - bellows, breathing from the abdominal like a pair of bellows. Clear the nasal passage. 

 

12 seconds in or 12 seconds hold. Can count on the finger pad if helpful. 

 

Sometimes equal time in and out. Other times twice as long out as in. 

 

The Bandhas

 

Need to be taught by instruction. 

 

Jalandhara Banha—neck and upper jaw. Head is pulled back, neck is stretched, chin is lowered.

 

Uddi yana Bandha—between diaphragm and floor of pelvis.

 

Mula Bandha—between naval and floor of pelvis.

 

 

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Practical tips

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Mantra something that can bring mind to a higher plane. 

 

Some people need more blood to head so headstand is good. 

 

Breath to movement.   Breath from chest not stomach.  It stretches the spine and straightens the back. 

Practice must be both soft and gentile (sukha) and firm and steady (sthira).  Need counter poses.  Need to warm up certain muscles before going deeper.   

Important to understand purpose behind every asana.

Most important part of breathing is exhalation. 

Inhale when expand, exhale when contract.  Inhale always on backbends including cobra/up dog.

 

Match length of breath to postures

 

Move the chest and abdomen, not just abdomen when taking big breaths from the diaphragm

Your breath is your best indication if you are doing yoga correctly not how deep you go into any given asana. 

Begin where you are; warm up at the start; make sure you know a counter pose before doing the pose; practice dynamically before holding it every time; counter pose immediate after main pose; simpler counter poses than main pose

Notice where there is tension as you go through your first moves.  Make it your goal to alleviate this tension over the course of yoga.

 

Breath is always an important early warning system.  If you are out of breath then stop the sequence and rest. 

 

Retention of the breath after inhalation allows you go deeper from the chest (e.g., into back bend)

 

Retention of breath after exhalation allow you to go deeper from the abdomen (e.g., forward fold)

Always rest when short breath.
 

Order of postures: Standing first, then those lying, then those on back, then inverted (for inner cleansing), then those lying on stomach, and finally sitting or kneeling postures. 

You can bend deeper or less deep to adapt your actions to the pose and go deeper or less deep.

 

You can also adapt the breath. 

 

 

Lists

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States of the mind:

1. Ksipta: like a drunken monkey swinging from branch to branch

2. Mudha: mind is like a heavy water buffalo. Eating too much or too little sleep

3. Viksipta: normal state, mind moving but lacks consistency and direction

4. Ekagrata: mind is clever and has direction

5. Nirodha: final level and focused on itself and merges with objects. 

 

9 obstacles of focus (antarayas)

1. Vyadhi or illness

2. Styana too heavy from over eating

3. Samsaya - doubt

4. Pramada - haste

5. Alasya - resignation or exhaustion

6. Bhrantidarsana - ignorance or arrogance

7. Avirati - distraction

8. Alabdhabhumikatva - Afraid of taking another step

 

Overcome:

1. Teacher

2. Find others who have suffered and learn about them

3. Look for cause within self and in the dreams

4. Meditation on an object

5. Isvara pranidhana. No English word for Isvara, like God but more. 

 

Types of Yoga:

1. Jana: knowledge

2. Bhakti: to serve

3. Mantra yoga: Ram.

4. Raja yoga: “King” who is always in state of enlightenment. 

5. Karma: the way we act

6. Kriya yoga: Unity of Tapas, Svadhaya, and Isvarapranidhana

7. Hatha, Kundalini, and Tantra. All share idea of getting prana into susumna (not just ida and pingala). A snake must be burnt with fire and then the prana flows. Raja is also the way in which prana rises upwards.

 

Breaths:

1. Ujjayi.

2. Nadi Sodhana (alternative nostril)

3. Sitali (cooling via tongue as a tube)

4. Kapalabhati (skull breath, to create lightness) = pulsing from chest. 

5. Bhastrika (bellows via one nostril at a time firmly) 

For 4 & 5 not too many and follow with slow breaths with long exhales.

 

5 types of prana: udana-vayu (throat); prana-vayu (chest region), samana-vayu (central region including digestion), apana-vayu (elimination function), and vyana-vayu (distribution of energy). Book only focused on prana-vayu and apana-vayu.  

 

Yoga is one of the six darsanaa, or ways to see. The other five are nyaya, vaisesika, samkhya, mimamsa, and Vedanta.

 

Accurate perception is vidya. It contrasts with misperception or avidya. Avidya comes from four areas: asmita (ego), additional or wanting too much (raga), rejection (dvesa), and fear (abhinivesa). These stand in the way. Yoga decreases the effects of avidya so that true understanding can take place. We notice avidya’s absence better than its presence (we feel better when it is gone).

 

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Definitions

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Advaita or non-dualism has two parts. A and dvaita. You have to start with dvaita (dualism). 

 

Yoga = come together or unite. To be one with the divine.

 

Misperception (avidya) comes from raga (repeated yesterday), dvesa (change for change’s sake), abhinivesa (fear), and asmita (ego).

 

Ujjayi - Sound, throat concentration, deeper and longer. Two advantages: 1. Deeper practice 2. Alarm if not practicing correctly or low on energy. Breath is the clearest signal of quality of practice. 

 

Dhyana: moving in one direction like a quiet river.  Sense of I.

 

Samadhi: ‘to merge’ we become one with something, or someone, else. Lose all identity, profession, family history, etc.

 

Samyama: Unity of above states.

 

Kaivalya: continuous Samadhi.

 

Mantra - Something that can bring a person’s mind to a higher level.

 

Bhakti - devotion to god.

 

Svadharma, your own dharma or you own way. Don't try to do someone else's dharma or trouble might happen.

 

There is something deep within us that is not subject to change, but we must see it (purusa or drastr).