Ashtanga Yoga. Gregor Maehle

gained by doing samyama on the heart.¹³

      He also explains how the body can be understood. Medical knowledge, he says,¹⁴ is gained by practicing samyama on the navel chakra. This is how the science of Ayurveda came into being. It should be noted that Patanjali compiled the Charaka Samhita, an ayurvedic text. When we study and practice the ancient sciences today, we need to do this with a feeling of respect and devotion.

      The teachings of the ancient masters have never been declared invalid. They have only ever been added to.

      1. Krishnamacharya the Purnacharya, Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai.

      2. The Yoga Journal, San Francisco, November/December 1995.

      3. Bhagavad Gita III.7.

      4. Bhagavad Gita III.24.

      5. Yoga Sutra II.12.

      6. Maitri Upanishad VI.35.

      7. Vijnanabhairava, trans. and annot. Jaideva Singh, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1979, p. 23.

      8. Yoga Sutra I.41.

      9. Yoga Sutra I.43, quoted from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, trans. C. Chapple, Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1990, p. 53.

      10. Srimad Bhagavad Gita, trans. Sw. Vireswarananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, p. 79.

      11. Frequently used in Indian texts, this word means “the condition of being in action or exercising power.”

      12. A text describing Samkhya, the ancient prototype of all Indian philosophies.

      13. Yoga Sutra III.34.

      14. Yoga Sutra III.29.

      

      Breath

      The most visible aspect of the Ashtanga Yoga system is the different yoga asanas (postures). More important, though, is the invisible content, which consists of three fundamental techniques. These techniques bind the postures together on a string so that they become a yoga mala or garland.¹

      In the Vinyasa Yoga system the body is used as a mantra, the postures represent beads, and the three fundamental techniques form the string that holds the beads together to create a garland of yoga postures. The system is designed to work as a movement meditation, where the transitions from each posture to the next are as important as the postures themselves.

      For the beginner it is essential to learn these three fundamental techniques at the outset. Once they are mastered, the practice will happen almost effortlessly. Without them it can become hard work. The three techniques are Ujjayi pranayama, Mula Bandha, and Uddiyana Bandha. We now focus on the first of these.

      Ujjayi pranayama means “victorious breath” or the victorious stretching of the breath. The term pranayama is a combination of two words, prana and ayama. Ayama means extending or stretching, while prana can have several meanings. It is usually taken to mean inner breath or life force, and as such it makes up part of the subtle anatomy of the body. Other elements of the subtle anatomy are nadis (energy channels) and chakras (energy centers). Sometimes, however, prana is used to refer to the outer or anatomical breath.² In this context pranayama means extension of breath: the adoption of a calm, peaceful, and steady breathing pattern. When the breath is calm, the mind is also calm.

      Ujjayi pranayama is a process of stretching the breath, and in this way extending the life force. Practicing it requires a slight constriction of the glottis — the upper opening of the larynx — by partially closing it with the epiglottis. The epiglottis is a lid on the throat that is closed when we drink water and open when we breathe. By half closing the epiglottis we stretch the breath and create a gentle hissing sound, which we listen to throughout the entire practice. The sound produced seemingly comes from the center of the chest and not from the throat. The vocal cords are not engaged, as that would lead to strain: any humming that accompanies a sound like wind in the trees or waves on the shore should be eradicated.

      Listening to the sound of your own breath has several implications. First and foremost it is a pratyahara technique. Pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga, means “withdrawing the senses from the outer world” or, more simply, “going inside.” This will be considered in detail later. For now it will suffice to say that listening to your own breath draws your attention inward and takes it away from external sounds. This is a meditation aid.

      Furthermore the sound of the breath can teach us almost everything we need to learn about our attitude in the posture. At times the breath may sound strained, labored, short, aggressive, flat, shallow, or fast. By bringing it back to the ideal of a smooth, pleasant sound we begin to correct any negative or unhelpful attitudes.

      To practice Ujjayi, sit in an upright but comfortable position. Start producing the Ujjayi sound steadily, with no breaks between breaths. Give the sound an even quality throughout the entire length of the breath, both inhaling and exhaling. Lengthen each breath and deepen it. Breathe evenly into the rib cage. Breathe simultaneously into the sides, the front, the back, and finally into the upper lobes of the lungs. The rib cage needs to have a gentle pulsating movement, which means the internal intercostals (the muscles between the ribs) relax on inhalation, allowing the rib cage to expand freely as we breathe.

      Our culture tends to focus only on abdominal breathing, which leads not only to a slouching posture but also to rigidity of the rib cage. This is due to the intercostal muscles lacking exercise, which in turn blocks the flow of blood and life force in the thorax and opens the way to coronary disease and cardiopulmonary weakness. The slouching appearance in this area is due to a relaxation of the rectus abdominis muscle, commonly known as “the abs.” This slouching makes the belly soft and promotes abdominal breathing.

      Furthermore this relaxation of the rectus abdominis allows the pubic bone to drop, leading to an anterior (forward) tilt of the pelvis, which produces a hyperlordotic low back, commonly referred to as a sway back. This in turn lifts the origin of the erector spinae,³ the main back extensor muscle. Thus shortened, the erector spinae loses its effectiveness in lifting the chest. The chest collapses, leading not only to a slouching appearance but also to a rigid, hard rib cage. This prevents the thoracic organs from getting massaged during breathing. The lack of massage and movement of heart and lungs lowers their resistance to disease. The compensatory pattern, leading to a sway back, an anteriorly tilted pelvis, and a collapsed chest, is one of the worst postural imbalances, and its main cause is favoring abdominal breathing and the resulting weakness of the abdominals.

      In yoga we use both the abdomen and the thorax to breathe. The intercostals are exercised through actively breathing. The air is literally pumped out of the lungs until all that remains is the respiratory rest volume, the amount of air left after a full exhalation. The aim is to breathe more deeply so as to in crease vitality. The way to achieve this is not by inhaling as much as possible but by first exhaling completely in order to create space for the new inhalation.

      There are two vital reasons for wanting to increase breath volume. First, by increasing our inhalation we increase the amount of oxygen supplied. Second, by increasing our exhalation we exhale more toxins.

      These toxins fall into several categories:

      • Mental toxins — examples include the thought of conflict toward another being or collective conflict like the wish to go to war with another nation for whatever reason.

      • Emotional toxins — fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, attachment to suffering, and the like.

      • Physical toxins — metabolic waste products that are not being excreted.

      •