Asana Kitchen: Bakasana

If there is one idea that you take from this week's blog it is this:

 

B*A*K*A*S*A*N*A

                                                                A*W*A*R*E*N*E*S*S

From David's Ashtanga Journals: Perfect that Single Sacred Asana

"From David's Ashtanga Journals" are unedited excerpts from my ongoing Ashtanga journals.




Greetings,
Fall is in swing here in Philly. At the Ashtanga Yoga School of Philadelphia the heaters are on high as the tapas burns. I would like to thank Dhyana Yoga (Dhyana Vitarelli and John Vitarelli) who have been supporting our school in many ways! Several students from their strong rooted Philadelphia Vinyasa program have taken up ashtanga and I am so happy they are part of our community!!

In the next couple weeks I will begin solidifying my spring schedule and am excited to announce that I will be teaching further south (at Balance Yoga in Atlanta) and north (at Florence yoga in Northampton) ! My teaching is reaching a wider circle of people partly due to you all who enjoy my blog, thank you for continuing to show your support and spreading the DG word! Hopefully this year I will get the opportunity to meet new people and share yoga with many of you.

Now to the goods!

Below are two excerpts from my journals. They were both drawn out of a notebook I used last winter in Mysore. Enjoy!

Excerpt One

Perfect that Single Asana!

The theme or premise is that asana practice is based on a single asana created by breath. That posture could have several names including

Shavasana, Sarvangasana,

Hanumanasana, Samasthiti

Tadasana, Bhairavasana

Mula Bandhasana

Generally speaking in our daily practice we can get sucked in by the lure of our fantasy about the forms of the asanas in sequences. Each asana in the sequence could be thought of as an excursion towards and/or away from that one single asana that is the essence of all asana. In our fantasy of what we will look like and how good it will feel we overextend ourselves in our efforts to achieve what we consider to be the end goal or final pose. Our excursions take us too far away from the center where the skeletal support is, where our breath really does lead the way-- where we make optimal use of our muscles and organs and where our brains are situated properly to minimize reality obscuring ego striving.

For example, to go for a drop back and be unheeding of the position of the skeleton in order to get your hands to the floor is a long term mistake. In the short term there might be a thrill, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of maximizing progress. a feeling like you are working at the edge so you will improve and be an intense student--- (like yoga sutra 1-21 for the intense student--- yoga--nirodah is near). How strict are you going to be? How close to center are you going to stay? How many props (please note: only if necessary and desired and under certain, specific conditions) are you willing to use to remain close to center, close to principles?---We want to explore the foundational principles of the positions and see how those principles will always lead back to that central asana that has so many important names---but actually is unnameable---

--- this is precisely why asana is limb 3 and Samadhi is limb 8--- samadhi is more based around the center, where movement is subtle and stillness reigns---

you have to be sure you are not sacrificing your body to your ego. That you are not going too far in order to compensate for unconscious feelings of unworthiness--- you don't need to use your asana practice to 'prove' you are good and worthy.

and yet don't underestimate the amount of shakti, energy, both physical and mental, that it takes to strike a pose and remain utterly centered in dynamic absorption.

It is ironic that the more gymnastic posture appears to be more difficult---But from an energetic and emotional place, sitting, working with breathing, can be more challenging, require more energy--- because of what will be revealed about you, because of what you will experience about yourself.

Excerpt Two

The World is a Sacrament

Never mind that to many people it is blasphemy. The truth is that you don't need to be inside a church or in some official place to worship God. In fact, I've found that for me being outside, under the sky, feeling the air, seeing the sun, or the sea, or the mountains puts me in touch with God. I've taken to saluting the sun, facing the sun and moving through a set of exercises. I coordinate my movement with breath and I become prayerful. Filled with joyous connection and know a sense of deep peace and belonging. To me the entire world is a sacrament--- everything and everyone everywhere is sacred--- and its up to me to attune to this ever present beauty wherever I may be.

Ashtanga and Diet (pts 2 and 3)

Greetings and welcome back!

Here are parts 2 and 3 of my series on Ashtanga and Diet. If you haven't watched part 1, I strongly suggest you watch it. I have included it in this post for your convenience. I am so pleased to see such a strong and enthusiastic reaction to these diet posts. I have seen amazing progress in students practices once they alter their diet. Even the slightest changes can result in less injury, faster recovery and FULL STRENGTH! I have also added some great diet books on my reading list page of this blog.
Joy and I have bought our tickets for Mysore in January and my one month Mysore intensive in Kovalam! We are looking forward to meeting some new faces and having lunch with some old friends.

Hari Om and enjoy!!

Ashtanga Discussion Room: David, what do you eat?

For years I have been asked what do I eat? Two weeks ago I posted a Ghetto Kitchen on how to make brown rice and gomasio and it occurred to me after the posting that there wasn't enough context for where the rice fits in a Yogic diet and specifically how it can help your daily asana practice. So I created a 3 part video series on Yogic diet and how food can positively and negative effect the Ashtanga practice.

So here is part one. Part one is a discussion room between Joy and I on the Yogic diet. Part 2 and Part 3 take you into a local Philly farmer's market and into a huge corporate supermarket.

I have also included in this post a rudimentary listing and circle diagram attempting to set forth the Yogic Principles and the specific foods that the practitioner should both adhere to and avoid.



Whole Grains

Staples
up to 50% of the diet
(if desired take with gomasio sesame seed condiment)
brown rice
millet
quinoa
buckwheat
fresh ground wheat for chapati's
Whole grain noodles
whole grain, hearty real bread
hot cereals, cream of wheat, sweet brown rice cream, steel cut oats, and occasionally oat bran, instant natural oat meal


Vegetables
(based on what's in season)

1st Tier
Burdock root
carrot
daikon radish
turnip
rutabega
Greens (swiss chard, spinach, kale etc)
cabbage (all variety)
broccoli
cauliflower
winter squash (kabocha, delicata, butternut, pumpkin, red kiri etc)

2nd Tier for use more sparingly for variety, freshness, flavor, texture, color etc
onion
mushrooms
peppers (bell, chili, etc)
summer squash
tomatoes
potatoes
salad


Vegetarian Protein Sources
tofu
seitan
tempeh
beans (adzuki, pinto, chick peas, black etc)
legumes (red lentils, small french lentils, toor dal, split peas etc)
occasional use vegan chorizo, vegan sausage, vegan hot dogs, ready made tofu or tempeh

Oils
high quality sesame oil
extra virgin olive oil organic, first cold pressed
canola oil
ghee

Snacks
whole grain crackers
apples or other select in season fruits
rice or corn cakes

Beverages
spring water
eden soy milk, or rice etc
teas (bancha,herbal, green, black etc)

Sweeteners
organic cane sugar
agave
barley malt
rice syrup
fresh apple cider
fresh seasonal juice

Sweets
dark low sugar chocolate 60% or more of caoco
heathy whole grain, less sweet cookies,
soy pudding, yogurt
juice

Occasional use foods
Cheese
goat
romano or parmesan
soy

Off limit or rare use foods
Animal Protein Sources
if you must then choicely wisely
organic, cage free eggs
fresh fish
organic free range chicken
game

Intoxicating substances
alcohol
marijuana
pain relievers

Dairy products
milk
cheese
yogurt
ice cream
butter

Dairy Substitutes
soy and other grain milks
cheeses
yogurts
margarine

Processed Foods
frozen
canned
packaged
processed
white flour pastries
fried foods
restaurant food
bad oil chips

Sweet drinks
soda
ice tea
vitamin water
juice
coffee
smoothies
Tropical fruits or out of season fruits.

Ghetto Kitchen: Brown Rice and Gomasio

Greetings,
The Ghetto Kitchen with Chef DG is back! In this installment I will be teaching you how to cook brown rice with a pressure cooker (one of two keys to tasty brown rice) and how to make the condiment gomasio (the second key to eating brown rice). The video is self explanatory but if you would like to learn more about the Macrobiotic diet you can email me and I will send you some resources. I truly believe that the practitioners diet is often the final frontier to a strong and fruitful practice.

I hope you enjoy and get to cooking!!!

The Diaphragm is Key!! Don't Forget It. Observe It.

The diaphragm is the main muscle involved in breathing; when you get an experiential feeling of its actions, that knowledge helps you breathe better and thus helps you develop your yoga practice.
You can learn to sense the diaphragms anatomical location within the torso and to follow its contraction (inhalation) and relaxation (exhalation) phases. The diaphragm is a large sheet or dome shaped muscle that resembles a mushroom or a parachute and divides the upper and lower abdomen. It has an unattached gathering of fibers called the central tendon at its top that helps give its dome shape.

It attaches to several sets of ribs and has 'stems' that are called crura that attach to vertebrae along the front of the lower spine. The diaphragm is both a particularly large muscle and a core muscle. This is significant because, being large, its rhythm, actions and movements are quite easy to observe. And considering its deep and central location , the basic observation of its actions can take you far within your self, into the root and center of you.

Here's an image for you to work with: Imagine that your torso is a vast inner ocean. And the diaphragm is a giant jelly fish that is entirely at home floating up and down on the ocean currents within your torso. As you inhale experience its fibers contract, move down, flatten and spread and as you exhale experience its fibers relax, move up, bunch together and reform their dome like shape. Work with this image until you feel that the diaphragm's coming and going rhythm is THE fundamental rhythm within you; feel how central this rhythm is and how when you really tune into it, this rhythm pervades your entire body, and imagine that this rhythm could be the source of all of your movements. Following your diaphragms actions can lead you to discover and activate bandha's. For example, the elusive and challenging practice of mula bandha can be accessed with more ease and more logic when you approach it through observing the movement of the diaphragm. As you watch the rising and falling and expansion and contraction of the diaphragm see how the pelvic floor mimics the diaphragm by lowering and widening as you inhale and then rising and 'bunching' together as you exhale. When you tune into the diaphramatic and pelvic floor actions particularly during exhalation, you can better understand how to effectively 'seal' the pelvic floor in order to 'pull up' and redirect apana vayu. Both the pelvic floor and the diaphragm are horizontal, sheet like surfaces within the torso, one large (diaphragm) and one small (the pelvic floor). These two areas share a synergy, they act symphonically, and tuning into the larger, grosser one helps you tune in to the smaller, more subtle one.

Mula bandha is often defined as 'forcibly pulling up apana vayu' and causing the otherwise downward apanic energy to flow upwards. The upward movement of the diaphragm during exhalation provides you with the means of finding this redirection, the 'against the grain' energetic upward direction that characterizes mula bandha. You can achieve mula bandha by causing your perineum to ride on the coattails of the diaphragm as it ascends the torso when you exhale thoroughly, and there by seal your prana at the root. Following the grosser rhythm of the diaphragm and then the more subtle rhythm of the pelvic floor is what trains you to 'master' your senses, by moving mentally inwards towards center and gaining the ability to discern more and more subtle plays of opposing energetic, skeletal and muscular patterns.

Due to it's ability to help you tune in to Muladhara, the root support at your base, following the diaphragm also helps you to sustain your attention along the central axis from it's earth origins upwards. Observing the vertical action of the diaphragm and its influence on the pelvic floor is the key to aligning your self along the axis known as the pillar of light or most glorious (Shushumna). To be able to sustain your focus along the center line of the body from the base through the crown is one of the rewards of practicing pranayama partly due to observing the diaphragm within your torso and understanding how to optimize its muscular actions. Start by befriending the giant jelly within, see how to shape and guide the movements of this large muscle, and see how that skill leads to awareness of the more subtle physical actions following the breathing patterns all the way to their ends and awakening the the subtle actions of the bandha's.

And here's one more note: because the diaphragm drives the ever repeating cycle of the breath, it has a major role in helping you understand vinyasa. When you study the diaphragm you study vinyasa from a a central vantage point; through breathing you follow the opposing movement patterns that make up the ashtanga sequences. In Ashtanga yoga practice, through combining vinyasa and breathing, you endeavor to generate and to harness the dynamic bio rhythms at the heart of you. That is why Sri K. Pattabhi Jois called Ashtanga a 'breathing and movement system'. The most accessible way to get to the heart of the rhythm of this breathing and movement system is to doggedly follow the actions of the diaphragm and see how those actions translate into vinyasa, into sequences of rhythmic opposing movement patterns.

See if you can follow the diaphragm's vertical, up and down actions within the torso, focus on the connection between rhythm in breathing and rhythm in creating actions in your asana's and in your movement transitions. Each time you effectively tune into the deeper rhythms of your breath, you are in a position to have some small epiphany about your movement or your posture at its source. Go into your earth support and along your glorious axis, find the immovable state of the asana, get the spectacular view all through the simple act of tuning into the diaphragm and heartily enjoying your breath!

From David's Ashtanga Journals: Patterns of Change

Greetings!
If you are in the Philadelphia area, Sunday, August 28th, the Ashtanga Yoga School of Philadelphia will be having its opening party. I will be teaching a special class in the late morning and then a potluck will follow.

Today's post deals with the idea of Samskara and how our daily practice is a pressure cooker and an avenue to change these past patterns.

Yoga Sutra 1:18
Another form of thorough knowledge is preceded by resolute practice to completely cease identification with the contents of the mind. As a result, only subliminal impressions remain and their residue has no impact on the mind.





Excerpt One
Make the connection, the crystal clear connection between Samskara, a latent impression or conditioned groove that perpetuates ignorance (Avidya) or illusion (Maya)...and how these translate into the body, into your movement and postural patterns. To become aware of alignment and to adjust your movement and postures according to alignment principles helps you neutralize Samskaras. It helps you replace ignorance and blindness with knowledge and insight.

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that only one in thousands reaches him. It is too easy to remain steeped in Maya, to fail to wake up, to remain unconscious playing habituated roles, dead ending. Never seeing through the veil. What a diligence, a fierce, committed, sustained effort is necessary to see through your patterns. It is a major step to even want to see through, to face your automatic reactions, the nature of which is automatically deficient, unoriginal, painful and ignorant.

The ignorance EXTENDS to the body-that's the point-you can move ignorantly. Ignorance is not confined to behavioral or emotional thinking, failure in relationships, or in love. Maya and Avidya extend to physical movement. Your asana practice can provide a perfect microcosm that shows the impossibility of your predicament. Asana practice can show you how entrenched your conditional patterns are, how difficult it is to change even a little bit, and in the end how unwilling we are to be deeply hurled in the nitty gritty process of real change.

We often practice as though we are not interested in being bothered with the details of our ignorance. We have better things to do--like catch our heels in Kapo or land our set of drop backs for the day. We don't want to be bothered with how we achieve our posture, we are more interested in simply achieving it in any manner that gets results. Deep asana practice requires a high degree of what I call Hanuman like energy-- or animal intelligence that is coupled with human self awareness and reflection. Hanuman is famous for being a nearly unconquerable warrior, for his magnificent strength and agility but also for his learning, diplomacy and erudition. Working for true alignment during your unfolding practice requires you to inhabit the body in an intuitive, animal like way, with reflection and awareness.

Excerpt Two
To some extent developing your asana practice means developing your ability to handle power and force. The depth of asana is partially determined by how energy is set in motion and how much energy is within you in the posture. Distraction, pain, extra weight, unawareness, sudden bouts of lethargy, depression, all serve to dampen the energy that goes into play in an asana. All manners of diversions share the characteristic of dampening life force--Do you see that? To be truly engaged in life, living your dreams, putting your self, your creativity, your love on the line takes tremendous energy.

You have to be able to manage those levels of energy--going into a depression, or eating, or day dreaming about a different life, or thousands of other diversions give you an escape value. If you go and have a beer or smoke a joint or dip into the pint of B and J's, you are temporarily relieved but that relief is not really relief. Because a large source of our panic, desperation, anxiety, loneliness, and unhappiness comes from not attaining the full capacity of our life force.

You can learn to enlarge your capacity to enjoy, process, and transform large amounts of energy within yourself. Do you really need to divert and dampen your energy with old often repeated patterns? Isn't time to really observe, really feel, go through fear, and allow more love to enter into your world? That is what practice is ultimately for so why not let it do its work? Stop interfering, stop standing in the way, let the fire in, the challenge, the risk, let your love in and let it come out.

The practice is there in front of you each day, now do what is necessary to really do it. Do all the advance preparation, arrange your life so that you show up at your best, ready to dive into that special world. That world of posture, breath, sequence of intense concentration and exertion. You've had at least glimpses of what is there for you, now is the time.