‘You have no idea what you are asking about!’
Guy Donahaye, author of the Guruji book, has a new blog post up that touches on the inner limbs of Ashtanga.
Via gurumaa.com
This is a part of the practice that sometimes seems to be lost; there’s Guruji’s famous “Practice, practice and all is coming,” statement, plus his “Ashtanga is 99% practice, 1% theory.” Both easily can drive a person toward asana — my understanding is that’s because, for most Westerners, we need to get this life in order before we even can try to go deeper in the next.
Donahaye dispels some myths — “Guruji did teach meditation and mantras on an individual basis to his students, so he was not of the opinion that meditation was a waste of time for Westerners,” he writes — but also notes the following:
Guruji spoke a great deal about practice, but much less often about vairagya. Patanjali says, these two, not just practice, but practice and moving the desire for the external towards an internal goal, will lead to chittavritti nirodhah.
He also suggests that many Ashtanga practitioners move toward a desire or need for a more meditative side to study. “Vipassana is very common amongst ashtanga practitioners and seems to make a very good partner in the connection through breath,” he writes.
As one who still is struggling mightily with meditation — just finding the time is often tough — Donahaye’s post is timely. His likening meditation to “mastery” over a musical instrument strikes a chord (boo ya, I can’t believe I fit that in!). I can certainly imagine that state of mind. Whether that will help me get any closer via meditation is a different story.
Even if it doesn’t, I still say Donahaye’s is a useful post. I encourage you to give it a look.
Posted by Steve
I just attended Srivatsa Ramaswami’s weekend workshop. What we learned on pranayama and meditation was so simple and wonderful. Asana followed by pranayama followed by meditation. (Grimmly’s website obviously has way more information about all of this)
I have found that incorporating just 5 minutes of pranayama and 5 minutes of meditation (on those busy mornings before work), after my morning Ashtanga practice, is the most natural and wonderful way to end the practice and feel settled and at rest.
Apparently this is the way Krishnamacharya taught it to Ramaswami: you do asana to reduce the rajas, and then because you get sleepy after asana practice you do pranayama to reduce the tamas. This gets you ready finally to sit and meditate. There is a reason for this order of things and you can feel how natural it is when you practice this way!