Our third pranayama class was taught tonight by Rajalaxmi. Rajalaxmi is a regular asisstant to Geeta, she is also one of the teachers who often travels with the Iyengar family. Now she is one of my favorite Pranayama teachers. Not because she taught difficult digital pranayama, not because she was poetic, not because she was funny. She was clear, kind, calm, her instructions were effective.
It is so interesting the effect a teacher can have on a student. If a teacher is calm during Pranayama some students may find this boring, they may fall asleep. Some students may enjoy a more upbeat voice, one that commands they sit up straight! I guess it really depends where you are at that moment in time. Tonight, this is what I needed. Nurturing.
Pranayama can do magical things when done properly. When done incorrectly, one can have adverse reactions. I am no stranger to latter. When I was in High School I was diagnosed with asthma. I was often sick as a result of allergies and the inability to breath fully. I had always wanted to be a runner, a hiker, some sort of athlete, but just the thought of running made me tired. Upon starting yoga, moving to a dryer climate and a better diet, the asthma symptoms did improve. A few years ago the symptoms returned, and once again I feel as though I am at a disadvantage when practicing Pranayama.
Tonight however was a different story. Rajalaxmi began class with instructing us how to sit. For at least 10 minutes we sat with cupped fingertips, rolling our upper shoulder bones back, keeping length in the lumber. She remained calm, I remained calm. We did a few rounds of supine Pranayama and seated Pranayama. We then ended with the white blanket folded in a way I had not seen stuffed right under the top of the thoracic spine. For one of the first times in a few days, my breathing began to calm, my chest felt a little loose! It was a very simple practice of Ujjai 1,2 and Viloma 1,2, but they felt so clear and calm for the first time in a very long time. No anxiety, no breathlessness, no sweaty palms.
There is a sutra I thought of after Pranayama tonight. Sutra II.4. Not because of it's actual meaning, but because in Light on the Yoga Sutras there is a paragraph following II.4 that I think is so beautiful. It is how I feel when Pranayama goes well, I am at peace, I feel very clear, and I can see myself for who I am becoming through the practice of Yoga. It goes like this:
..."In daily life, however, we are very much aware of the upper surface of the lens, facing outwards to the world and linked to it by the senses and mind. This surface serves both as a sense, and as a content of consciousness, along with ego and intelligence. Worked upon by the desires and fears of turbulent wordly life, it becomes cloudy, opaque, even dirty and scarred, and prevents the soul's light from shining through it. Lacking inner illumination, it seeks all the more avidly the artificial lights of conditioned existence. The whole technique of yoga, its practice and restraint, is aimed at dissociating consciousness from its identification with the phenomenal world, at restraining the senses by which it is ensnared, and at cleansing and purifying the lens of citta, until it transmits wholly and only the light of the soul." -Light on the Yoga Sutras by B.K.S. Iyengar
It is so interesting the effect a teacher can have on a student. If a teacher is calm during Pranayama some students may find this boring, they may fall asleep. Some students may enjoy a more upbeat voice, one that commands they sit up straight! I guess it really depends where you are at that moment in time. Tonight, this is what I needed. Nurturing.
Pranayama can do magical things when done properly. When done incorrectly, one can have adverse reactions. I am no stranger to latter. When I was in High School I was diagnosed with asthma. I was often sick as a result of allergies and the inability to breath fully. I had always wanted to be a runner, a hiker, some sort of athlete, but just the thought of running made me tired. Upon starting yoga, moving to a dryer climate and a better diet, the asthma symptoms did improve. A few years ago the symptoms returned, and once again I feel as though I am at a disadvantage when practicing Pranayama.
Tonight however was a different story. Rajalaxmi began class with instructing us how to sit. For at least 10 minutes we sat with cupped fingertips, rolling our upper shoulder bones back, keeping length in the lumber. She remained calm, I remained calm. We did a few rounds of supine Pranayama and seated Pranayama. We then ended with the white blanket folded in a way I had not seen stuffed right under the top of the thoracic spine. For one of the first times in a few days, my breathing began to calm, my chest felt a little loose! It was a very simple practice of Ujjai 1,2 and Viloma 1,2, but they felt so clear and calm for the first time in a very long time. No anxiety, no breathlessness, no sweaty palms.
There is a sutra I thought of after Pranayama tonight. Sutra II.4. Not because of it's actual meaning, but because in Light on the Yoga Sutras there is a paragraph following II.4 that I think is so beautiful. It is how I feel when Pranayama goes well, I am at peace, I feel very clear, and I can see myself for who I am becoming through the practice of Yoga. It goes like this:
..."In daily life, however, we are very much aware of the upper surface of the lens, facing outwards to the world and linked to it by the senses and mind. This surface serves both as a sense, and as a content of consciousness, along with ego and intelligence. Worked upon by the desires and fears of turbulent wordly life, it becomes cloudy, opaque, even dirty and scarred, and prevents the soul's light from shining through it. Lacking inner illumination, it seeks all the more avidly the artificial lights of conditioned existence. The whole technique of yoga, its practice and restraint, is aimed at dissociating consciousness from its identification with the phenomenal world, at restraining the senses by which it is ensnared, and at cleansing and purifying the lens of citta, until it transmits wholly and only the light of the soul." -Light on the Yoga Sutras by B.K.S. Iyengar
Your light is shining.
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