“The Āsana are presented in
Vinyāsa Krama, the way it was
taught to children in the Yoga Śāla.
This should not create the impression
that T Krishnamacharya taught
in this manner to everyone.”
– TKV Desikachar Introduction to Yoga Makaranda
Dhyānam is the art of cultivating
a continuity of presence within
the activities in the psyche.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 2
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Keywords – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Questions – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Reflections – Collected & Collated into Chapters
TKV Desikachar Yoga Sūtra Quotes – Collected & Collated into Chapters
T Krishnamacharya Yoga Sūtra Quotes – Collected & Collated into Chapters
We see ourselves within a mirror
reflecting the opposing fluctuations
of Rajas Guṇa and Tamas Guṇa.
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 15
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Keywords – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Questions – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Reflections – Collected & Collated into Chapters
TKV Desikachar Yoga Sūtra Quotes – Collected & Collated into Chapters
T Krishnamacharya Yoga Sūtra Quotes – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Short and Longer Term prerequisites for
Bakāsana or Parśva Bakāsana
include:
Utkaṭāsana
Adho Mukha Śvanāsana
Caturaṅga Daṇḍasana
Nirālamba Śīrṣāsana
Viparīta Vṛkṣāsana
Link to Series: 108 Postural Practice Pointers
Short and Longer Term prerequisites for
Eka Pāda Uttāna Mayūrāsana
include:
– Dvi Pāda Pīṭham
– Sarvāṅgāsana
– Halāsana
– Śalabhāsana
– Dhanurāsana
Link to Series: 108 Postural Practice Pointers
“The whole process of observing
others and observing oneself
is entirely different.
Often we confuse the two.
Ideally, when we observe others,
we should forget about ourselves.
– TKV Desikachar 1981
4. Thus, with these two aspects there can be a lot of variables.
For example, using or not using the breath in Āsana
practice can be either a voluntary or involuntary aspect.
Thus, if you are not used to using the breath in an Āsana
and its quality is affected involuntarily, then we must apply
a voluntary action to improve or sustain the quality of the breath.
Or, if we are used to using the breath, the way we use it
can become fixed and unchanging – an involuntary effect.
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Viniyoga of Practice Planning Principles
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Practice Planning and Practice Theory Questions
3. Also, certain steps have to be taken to avoid, anticipate
or compensate for the effects of the involuntary response.
This means certain steps have to be taken to consider the
voluntary intention and a potentially involuntary response.
From this, we can evolve certain suggestions with regard
to anticipating potentially unconscious practice patterns.
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Viniyoga of Practice Planning Principles
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Practice Planning and Practice Theory Questions
This particular eStudy Module consists of nine 121 live video meetings to facilitate a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student.
It introduces the student, through an online teaching dialogue, to the primary principles and essential teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar on the application of Āsana techniques and theory.
“The primary purpose for Āsana is to take us towards Yoga,
rather than just taking us towards more and more Āsana.“
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It is open to all except complete beginners and offers an opportunity for any Yoga Student, teacher or trainee teacher from any Yoga background to develop and deepen their personal Yoga practice and study through learning to look into your Āsana practice with greater awareness.
It offers an in-depth approach to the Application of Āsana, through an experiential appreciation of the core teachings that underpin the Art of Āsana Practice, either for personal development or, if relevant, to enhance professional skills. It is also a prerequisite to further work in the 121 Online Viniyoga of Āsana eStudy Modules Two to Five.
2. Thus, this means these effects can also apply to our
attitudes whilst working habitually in a particular Āsana.
For example, an involuntary response as a result of memory.
So we can have a blindness, in that we are unaware of the
position of the arms, legs, or body, as well as in our attitude.
Thus, we need to at least apply movements voluntarily
in our efforts to influence the qualities of the Āsana.
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Viniyoga of Practice Planning Principles
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Practice Planning and Practice Theory Questions
1. As well as the consideration around the use of
Āsana dynamically or statically, there is also,
depending on our background to Āsana practice,
the voluntary effort and the involuntary effects.
According to the impact of this in the background,
certain voluntary intentions can, often unconsciously,
trigger certain involuntary, multilevelled responses.
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Viniyoga of Practice Planning Principles
Āsana Mudrā & Prāṇāyāma
– Collected Practice Planning and Practice Theory Questions
Explore What is Yoga via the Art of Viniyoga
through 121 Online eStudy Modules for
Yoga or Chant Practice and Yoga Texts
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With the advent of video technologies, I accepted to teach individual students Yoga lessons online, but solely within a one-to-one context. From a decade of experiencing this medium as a tool for transmission, I found it offered a valuable means of both working individually, whilst offering a worldwide communal access to the Yoga teachings accumulated from my decades-long studentship with TKV Desikachar. From this process, I am now offering online modularised programmes in both Yoga Practice Techniques and Associated Yoga Texts. However, this also means that all the online Modules are facilitated solely through one-to-one meetings and live discussions between us. From within this shared setting, we can mutually explore the chosen topic together and a personalised relationship can arise, supported by extensive student workbooks adapted from my live small study group modules. This way, we proceed with each step being taken in accordance with the student’s understanding live-linked in present time to the teacher’s guidance. As such, all the online sessions do not require viewing any pre-recorded video or sound files, nor accessing any downloadable material to be viewed remotely in one’s own time. Furthermore, as within the more customary Indian student-teacher learning paradigm, there is no advance reading nor homework, only the immediacy of the sharing inspiring a sense of reflection that follows on from the live connection. Here assimilation is the aim, in terms of a sustained holding onto the theme of the session. To support this intention, our sessions can be recorded solely for your own personal reference. Plus, as the Module progresses there is space at the beginning of each session to allow time for a review and to accommodate any questions or observations that may have arisen between the meetings. Finally, there is no written work to be completed either before or after our meetings, nor will there be any course completion credits offered. The priority instead is the sense of a continuation, realised through the aim of individual tuition, reflecting the fundamentals of T Krishnamacharya’s and TKV Desikachar’s teaching. Namely, transmission occurs through the shared experience of the teacher and the student through one-to-one meetings, whether for developing a personalised Yoga practice, engaging in reflective study or refining teaching skills. |
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– Modular programmes offering an individualised progressive pathway |
Dhāraṇā has three distinct, cyclical phases,
from a placing of awareness on the focus,
to an awareness of observation wandering,
to a re-placing of awareness on the focus.
Link to Series: 108 Dhāraṇā Practice Pointers
Our relationship with
Food can be too much,
too little, or wrong.
The same could also be
said for Āsana Practice.
Link to Series: 108 Postural Practice Pointers
“A human being is made up of the three Guṇa:
Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
All three are important and have their respective roles.
The role of the Rajas Guṇa is to initiate action.
Every function of the body and action of the person is
because of the operation of the Rajas Guṇa.
Even breathing requires the action of the Rajas Guṇa.
In all his teachings, my father would always insist on action.
As long as a person is alive, the three Guṇa will exist in his system
thereby making action not only necessary but inevitable.”
– Yoga Sūtra on Stress – An interview with TKV Desikachar
The aim of this Series, and its companion page (Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Study Questions), with its Sūtra by Sūtra guided study question within a parallel flow, is to progress through a themed reflective journey across the four chapters or Pāda that comprise the Yoga Sūtraof Patañjali.
On this page, a word will be listed as a symbol for a specific verse or set of verses as we progressively traverse each chapter. It will offer an exploration, via a link to the Saṃskṛta Glossary, of all the connected quotations and posts, collated from within the website these past 12 years, to invite the reader to form their own opinion as to what is implied.
On the companion page, a question will be proffered as a reflection and inquiry into a single verse. Here each verse in the text will be explored successively, via a link to its translation, word-by-word breakdown and added commentaries collated from the website, again to invite the reader to form their own opinion as to what is implied.
My wish is to offer an insight into the spectrum of Yoga teachings received from T Krishnamacharya mainly via TKV Desikachar, in terms of both breadth and depth.
108 Yoga Sūtra Study Word Pointers – 12
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Keywords – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Questions – Collected & Collated into Chapters
Paul’s Yoga Sūtra Reflections – Collected & Collated into Chapters
TKV Desikachar Yoga Sūtra Quotes – Collected & Collated into Chapters
T Krishnamacharya Yoga Sūtra Quotes – Collected & Collated into Chapters
“The practices dealing with the body and the
breath are known as Āsana and Prāṇāyāma.
They are interlinked, in Āsana the body is
the focus and the breath serves this focus.
In Prāṇāyāma the regulation of the breath is the focus,
the body is prepared adequately via Āsana for this
regulation to materialise without any resistance.”
– TKV Desikachar Madras 1996
“Krishnamacharya’s understanding of Cikitsā
or Yoga therapy and the arrangement and
sequencing of postures, along with modifying
the posture and using different breathing
patterns, plus the use of sound and different
Bhāvana or mental foci was profound.
This allowed for many possibilities to be
offered, for a great number of students
with problems, from a range of relatively
few postures and breathing techniques.”
– TKV Desikachar Madras 1996
