The best stuff to teach always comes from one’s own
practice, and in yoga experiential knowledge is considered to be the highest
form of knowledge. This is why I’m so
excited to share the techniques in my classes that have so recently come
together for me in the last month and a half.
When I spend time with Edward Clark (//Tripsichore.com),
without fail, I have a new recognition of how lazy I am in my practice. I don’t mean that I’m not doing enough
chaturangas, I mean that I am not using the resources of my body (muscularly,
Pranic energies fueled by the breath, et al) in even the simplest of poses, let
alone transitions. And the truth is that
if I am honest about using everything to breathe my way into poses, the
simplest poses require more effort than doing the hard stuff without the
technique.
The latest epiphany was exerting effort through the back
body to stabilize the torso. This is
particularly effective technique for backbends and pressing into inversions,
but dramatically impacts stability in everything. The Tripsichore breathing methodology is
profound, and there’s so much to the seemingly simple premise of keeping a long
neutral spine through pranayama technique while doing asana.
Edward recently wrote a few words about the muscularity of
the breath. In other words, we should
actually be employing muscular effort to deepen the breath in a way that is
coalescing and consolidating the body as Prana (fueled by the breath) moves the
body through space. The key is not to
“just breathe”, but to use the breath as a vehicle through which Prana is
manipulated, and Edward goes on to say,
“Few people seem to realise the
muscularity of the breath…there is a great deal of physical effort put into a
very precise movement. Ordinarily, I suppose,
we associate this level of effort with large movements…running, jumping…but one
of the remarkable things about yoga is the discovery of what happens when you
put that much effort into something that seems relatively limited….you know,
instead of flailing ones arms or legs around, you put all that effort into
moving the middle of your pelvic bowl a relatively small distance.”
To accomplish this involves a sustained level of
concentration and effort to put some real depth and breadth of power behind the
smallest of movements. As it turns out,
this intensity of focus (dharana) and careful placing of the body through
manipulation of Prana (vinyasa) is what yoga is all about. It’s a very intense process to master this
technique, and I can assure you it’s worth it—repeated effort ultimately
results in formerly elusive magic that makes everything come together to
achieve what you could not do before.
And that, my friends, is better than a Unicorn smelling of fresh baked
bread eating sunshine and rainbows.
To read the rest of Edward’s message on the muscularity of
yogic breathing click HERE
To come to my classes and learn the “Unicorn Techniques”, there
are classes Monday-Thursday 12N and 5:45PM at Seattle Yoga Shala. Email me at lizdoyle@msn.com
and I’ll send you the info. You can also
check out my website HERE: //LizDoyleYoga.com
Riding the mythical beast called Prana,
Liz
Here are the rest of Edwards comments on pranayama:
I suppose it is worth stressing that pranayama and breathing are not really interchangeable terms. Breath is a mechanism through which prana is manipulated. Essentially, any model one produces for what is meant by prana would be likely to include in its definition (though perhaps only tacitly) that it is a way of looking at things that makes them have some kind of coherence. E.g. the model of kundalini being a serpentine energy that arises from some point the base of the spine suggests a place where the movement of energy commences and a path through which it travels. This possibly lends coherence to the movement of the body and/or mental processes that happen when this model is used to interpret experience. Coherence or unity being an alleged aim of yoga…an aim that would include the intentions of a practitioner and the resolution of their actions…could be evaluated then in terms of how well they were able to behave as if they were making prana/kundalini run through their body in a coherent fashion. Breath would be part of this.
It is odd then that a slow and muscular
breath is felt to be a just an optional add-on for most vinyasa practitioners
rather than the place that any movement commences.
Few people seem to realise the muscularity
of the breath…there is a great deal of physical effort put into a very precise
movement. Ordinarily, I suppose, we
associate this level of effort with large movements…running, jumping…but one of
the remarkable things about yoga is the discovery of what happens when you put
that much effort into something that seems relatively limited….you know,
instead of flailing ones arms or legs around, you put all that effort into
moving the middle of your pelvic bowl a relatively small distance.
Apropos injury…one of the compelling
reasons for the use of a slow breath is that it slows the practitioner down
enough to be able to observe when they are getting into perilous
territory. It is hard to breathe slowly
and go into a place where you injure yourself.
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