Ashtanga Mysore Program

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HISTORICAL - PHILOSOPHY

The word Ashtanga is composed of two Sanskrit words (Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language), "Ashta" means 8, "Anga" means Limbs, inspired by the 8 limbs of yoga mentioned in the "Yoga Sutra" book for Patanjali, it shows how Ashtanga Yoga advocates for aligning all the 8 limbs of yoga forming a complete and holistic system. The aim of this practice is to train on the 8 limbs of yoga on your own mat, you practice YAMA (Moral and Ethical code), NIYAMA (Self Discipline and healthy habits), ASANA (Postures, building a healthy, strong & Flexible body), PRANAYAMA (Breath Control, learning how to control your breath to best use it for your own good health), PRATYAHARA (Withdrawal of senses, learning how to control your senses and again use it for your best interest), DHARANA (Focus & Concentration), DHYANA (Meditation, reaching your pure consciousness), SAMADHI (Reaching a state of Enlightenment, peace & bliss), All of those 8 aspects are covered within the ashtanga vinyasa yoga practice.

K. Pattabhi Jois with the guidance and assistance of his great teacher T. Krishnamacharya both formed the 6 series of Ashtanga

PHYSICALLY

Ashtanga Yoga practice is an active flow & a form of Hatha Yoga, Its main idea is based on the VINYASA, which is connecting the movement to the breath. 

Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga consist of 6 series (Primary series, Intermediate series, Advanced A series , Advanced B series, Advanced C series, Advanced D series) with a fixed order of postures connected to the breath forming a beautiful flow.

There are three main pillars for the ashtanga practice called Tristana:

Ujjayi breath (victorious breath)  

Bandhas (energy locks)

Drsti (yogic gaze).

And those three pillars will be your main focus when you start your ashtanga practice.

What is Ashtanga Mysore Program?

Getting into a room and the first thing that shock you how chaos it looks like, one student over there is standing on his head trying to maintain his balance through his breathing, another student on the other side is in the triangle pose, while another is sitting there and breathing. While the room is very quite and everyone seem like they are doing something different, yet the harmony of the breathing and the energy in the room some how unite everything in this place. The sound of the Ujai breathing is a healer.
Watching the teacher moving swiftly from one student to another observing the breathing of every student and giving adjustments as appropriate. Everyone is involved in his own path, his own journey, learning his own personal lesson on his mat.

Mysore style is the traditional way of teaching Ashtanga yoga), the beauty of this teaching technique is that its like building blocks, you learn a small sequence to trying to get the grab of the 3 pillars we mentioned above, learning on your own pace, and when the time comes and your teacher see you are ready for the next phase she/he add some more postures to your sequence. So the Mysore style is like having a one on one session but in a group format.

At Beit Mariam we focus on the Primary series (First series), The Ashtanga Primary Series is called Yoga Chikitsa, meaning yoga therapy, reflecting the cleansing and toning effect it has on both body and mind.

HISTORICAL - PHILOSOPHY

Yin yoga is inspired by ancient Chinese Taoist practices incorporated into Kung Fu & martial art training for thousands of years.

Yin yoga was found in the late 1970s by martial arts expert and Taoist yoga teacher Paulie Zink,

and started to get popular in the west when Zink’s student  Paul Grilley started spread their yin yoga teachings there.

PHYSICALLY

Most yoga styles are yang style, meaning its a dynamic sequence/flow, focusing on stretching and strengthening the muscles those styles are like vinyasa flow, Ashtanga Yoga, But there’s another equally important style that’s completely opposite: yin yoga, yin style where the main focus of the practice is not on the muscles, but on the deep connective tissues e.g facia, ligaments, joints, and bones.Its a meditative slow pace practice, most of the postures are seated postures. 

A static sequence where practitioners hold the posture for a long time, usually between 3-8 minutes depending on the practitioner level.

MENTALLY

Due to the slow pace nature of this practice, the body gets into a relaxed state as soon as the practice start, relaxing the nervous system.

Some people meditate, and still ask why are we meditating, others don’t meditate and don’t understand why some people sit in stillness and say they are meditating, questions like:

• So, what should I be doing when I meditate?
• What will happen when I meditate?
• What if I start meditating and thoughts starts attacking?
• I can’t meditate, I just can’t stay still
• This is too boring
  Some people mistaken meditation by thinking that they should have no thoughts at all while meditating, like zero thought, which is a huge mistake. We can’t have zero thoughts, our mind is designed to think and have thought, yet what kind of thoughts and how it is developed is the questions.
  In my understanding, the story of our need to meditate starts from the early age of our journey, we are born as clean as a white page, with a divine light in our heart, throughout the years we start collecting layers and layers that cover up this light forming some sort of a veil, a veil that hinder us from seeing the truth of things, the natural looks of things. Through our values, experiences, what we have been taught, and through our fears...etc. we form our perceptions, which varies from one person to another, yet the object that we perceive has its natural look and nature, yet we see it differently, and here where the suffering, disappointments and discomfort all starts.
  Don’t misunderstand the word “suffering”, in Buddhism and Hinduism, when the word “Dukha” was translated, scholars translated it as “Suffering” while other scholars cleared it that it is too intense of a translation, it doesn’t have to mean that all our lives full of huge incidents and events that causes suffering in terms of great pain, it could be discomfort, or unsatisfaction or disappointments, and in the philosophy of Buddhism, it says life is suffering but we created this suffering, and we can eliminate this suffering.
  We created our own suffering through our perception, assumptions and misconception that never map the true nature of things. Our perceptions and feelings are formed from our thoughts that was developed again from our history of experience, learnings, ego.... etc.
  The essential purpose of meditation is to reduce the misconception, misperception, false understanding or incorrect knowledge so understanding of true nature becomes clearer and can gradually come to surface. Only when we see the truth, when we reach a level that is higher than our normal everyday understanding, something deep within us becomes very quiet and peaceful. It is reaching a place of contentment that is free of judgment.
  When we meditate, we steady the fluctuation of the mind, we slow down and clear our mind from the cluttered and unneeded thoughts so we start see things clearer, so thoughts that generate bad feelings and generate stress that lead to Dukha (Suffering) becomes less. Exactly like the still water, if you look at it you will see clear reflection of your face, while if the water is not still, if its moving too fast, the reflection quality will be too disturbed.
  Or like a pond, if the water is still you can see the deepest point, while if the water is moving too fast bringing all the sand and mud up, it won’t be clear, you won’t be able to see except a moving surface.
  So, we sit in stillness, focusing the mind on one single point, observing the present moment, training our mind to live the NOW, to eventually be able to reach a meditative state that grant us enlightenment and clarity where we are able to see things at its natural size and look that enable us to deal with matters properly.