What is Yoga?

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.

I have learnt the Dragon Dance from Bernie Clark, and the below words are taken from his teaching material to the dragon dance.

The Dragon Dance is a blend of Indian and Daoist yoga, designed to stimulate and

remove blockages to the flow of energy (prana or chi) through directed awareness,

the breath and vigorous movements. It is great for people who want a vigorous

workout and who want to experience this mystical thing called “energy.” It is a

whole body workout, and will even challenge your ego. Flexibility is not just a

physical quality; we also need flexible minds. Learning the dance, will challenge you

mentally and will hopefully build neural plasticity in the brain. At some point you

may experience the dragon’s fire: you will know you have reached this stage when

you begin to sweat. After that, the dance will enter the yin phase, holding each

position for a few breaths, to strengthen and open the joints. The final relaxation

will allow the body to marinate in the juicy energies that you stimulated, which will

enhance the healing and strengthening process within you.

History of the Dragon Dance

The flow is inspired by the fertile teachings of Paul and Suzee Grilley. They offered

three yang-like flows they call the Dragon Sequence on Paul’s DVD called Yin Yoga:

The Foundations of a Quiet Practice (released in 2008). It is quite valuable to check

out these original movements so you know the genesis of the Dragon Dance. You can

also see these in various incarnations on YouTube clips, like Paul guiding Suzee

through the Flying Dragon and the Golden Seed in the following videos.

Berni Clark's  contribution was to arrange many of these movements into a full flow that can

be taught in a classroom setting, but the original inspiration is from Paul and Suzee.

You will notice, since the Dragon Dance as I have arranged it, is different from Paul’s

version in that we always are facing the front of the room every time we add a new

cycle. This is deliberate: it allows the students to be able to see you, the teacher,

demoing the new movements.

The Mythology of the Dragon Dance

[This article is from http://www.yinyoga.com/newsletter9_the_dragon_dance.php]

Many students who have participated in the Dragon Dance either live, or via Gaia Yoga have heard about the energetic benefits of this exuberant practice, but few have heard of the mythic symbolism of the dance, which is quite entrancing.

The dance begins with the "Hero Advancing:" he is looking for a dragon to slay. Already we have our two prime characters in the dance, but who are they symbolically? In India, "kama" and "artha" are two of the four aims of life: kama is pleasure, artha is achievement. We find these two primal, animal drives arising as early as the nursery - I want that, I don't want this. Whatever you have, I want too.

Kama is seeking that which pleases us and running away from that which we don't like. This is the same desire and aversion that the Buddha realized was the cause of all our suffering in life. Artha is our competitive drive, the urge to succeed materially in life, the desire for that big promotion, a bigger car, bigger house, and the need to keep up with the Jones. It is the will to power. The hero is driven in his quest by "I Want!"

The third aim in life is "dharma:" this is my personal dharma, my duty. It is what society, in the form of our families, our teachers, our clergy, our media, all demand of us. It is the role in life that we were born to play. It is of dharma that Krisna talks when he urges Arjuna to get in there and join the battle in the great epic The Bhagavad Gita. Go! Do your duty! Don't be concerned with success or failure; just do what you were born to do. We are being told to be the good soldier or good citizen or good consumer and do what society is asking of us. That is dharma.

Dharma is the dragon. Nietzsche once named this dragon, "Thou Shalt!" Each of its scales has a law written upon it; a rule of society, of our culture, that we must follow. "Thou Shalt!" is the dragon that the hero wants to conquer. The dance now begins.

Here we are presented with the quandary of our times - which is more important: my expression of individuality or my submission to the way things are? This is the battle of every teenager who is trying to figure out, "What is my purpose in life?" Do I try to fit in, as society is demanding, or do I seek my own individual path? If I try to fit in, things go smoothly but at a cost of feeling unfulfilled. If I try to express my own unique personality, to follow my own dreams and live the authentic life I want to live, my friends and family become alienated and frightened.

We are caught on the horns of two ancient conventions: the Greek urge to express our unique individual nature captured in modern secular times as our inalienable human rights, and the Levantine commandment to surrender to God and do his will. This conflict is aptly symbolized by Prometheus, the hero who defied god (Zeus), was justly punished and did not repent, and by Job, who was unjustly punished by God, but repented despite the fact that he had done no wrong.

In the Dragon Dance, the hero first advances: the "I Want" seeks to slay the dragon of "Thou Shalt!" In the second act, the Dragon turns (Dragon Twist) and sees the hero approaching: society is watching you! Do you really think that you can sneak up on your own culture?

In the third act, the dragon rears up and spreads its wings (Dragon Wings), ready to take flight. "Thou Shalt!" is not easily subdued. The fourth act sees the dragon diving back to earth (Diving Dragon), ready to assault the hero and force him back in line. The dragon is above you, larger and stronger than you. How can you hope to defeat it?

Act five: the dragon swings his scaly tale at the hero: retribution is at hand. Act six: the hero ducks under the dragon narrowly avoiding being bludgeoned back into his proper place in society.

At this point in the dance several things could happen. The hero has stepped under the belly of the beast and from here can deliver a killing blow into the dragon’s exposed heart, but there is another choice.

The fourth aim of life, beyond kama, artha and dharma, is "moksha." Moksha is release, liberation, ultimate freedom from desire and duty. In India, when a man has completed his worldly tasks, when he has raised his family and the eldest son is ready to take over as head of the household, he heads to the forest to practice yoga. (Women can do this too, but rarely do women choose this path.)

We can choose to slay the dragon "Thou Shalt!" and become a rebel living outside the laws of custom, culture and family, or we can choose to transcend pleasure and duty altogether. Moksha is going beyond the three lesser aims of life. Through our yoga practice we yoke the hero and the dragon together. This is the last act of the dance: the hero spirals around the dragon and mounts it. The dragon is not slain, only tamed. Together the hero and the dragon rise up: now is the time to take to the air, to transcend.

In the West, we have recognized these characters psychologically. Freud has named kama and artha, libido and id. Dharma, our dragon, he calls the superego. This is an old story: "I want" versus "thou shalt." Carl Jung has offered a path to resolution via the process of individuation: a complete sculpting of the Western ego so that is free from the imperatives of desire and duty.

(Ego in the West is not the same as what is meant by ego in the East! In the East, ego is simply libido and id: desire for pleasure and power. In the West ego is much more complicated: it is the psychic interface between all that is unconscious and that which is the "real" world outside ourselves. In the East we are urged to kill the ego, which means we should stop our greed and hatred. In the West are urged to develop our ego, which means to become whole people, not the part people society would have us to be.)

This myth has been rendered in different terms in the story of the night of the Buddha's enlightenment and his three temptations. As the Buddha sits in the unmovable spot beneath the great tree at the centre of all things, Mara, the great shadow, approaches him. Seeking to prevent the Buddha's enlightenment Mara invokes Kama who sends to the Buddha his three lovely daughters: Lust, Fulfillment and Regret. The beautiful daughters of Kama try to seduce the Buddha but he does not react: he has moved beyond desire and libido. Next Mara summons Yama, the Lord of Death, and Yama hurls his great army at the Buddha in an attempt to frighten the Buddha into moving. The Buddha remains steady: he has moved beyond fear and id. Neither kama nor artha can move the Buddha: the hero remains still.

Next Mara summons the god Dharma who berates the Buddha. "Why are you sitting here? You lazy man! Your place is beside your father. You are born to rule, to be king after your father. Go home and perform your duty!" Dharma, the superego, fails to move the Buddha as well: the Buddha in a simple gesture touches the earth. She speaks in his defense and dismisses the dragon of dharma. As in the Dragon Dance, the Buddha transcends the first three aims of life and finds a new path - a path to freedom.

Freedom does not mean license. This is not freedom to do what you want and not do what you don't want, but a freedom from wants. Of course, it is not just the Dragon Dance that leads to this ultimate contentment—now that you are aware of these mythological symbols, you are free to see this journey unfolding in any dance you choose to perform. It is really the dance of my life.