Ashtanga Yoga Bend

The Mysore Ashtanga Yoga Program:

Mysore (pronounced ‘my’ - ‘sore’) style Ashtanga Yoga is a unique program that combines the personalized benefits of private instruction and the meditative quality of a self-practice within the supportive environment of a group class.
 
This is a traditional program based on the principles of individualized instruction and steady daily practice. By teaching the Ashtanga sequence to each person one-on-one in accordance with his/her own capacity, the Mysore program accommodates people of all levels (e.g. from those with absolutely no prior yoga experience & those who have been practicing for many years). Everyone’s practice varies both in level and in the amount of time spent in class. Presented in this manner, Ashtanga Yoga offers an extensive opportunity for people of all levels to fully develop his/her own yoga practice.
 
Mysore Ashtanga Yoga, as a steady daily on-going program, promotes physical health and mental clarity which in turn supports one’s commitment to personal and spiritual growth.

Other Descriptions of Mysore Ashtanga Yoga:
      Eugene School of Yoga   •   Ashtanga Michigan   •   Wikipedia

Ashtanga Yoga:

This traditional ‘eight limb yoga’ system as passed down through Sri K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India, begins with the practice of a specific sequence of postures (asanas) that are linked together by synchronizing breath and movement (vinyasa). Each sequence begins with sun salutations, then progresses through standing and seated postures, and finishes with restoratives (viparita karani). The heart of this practice is smooth, even breathing (ujjayi) integrated with core strength (bandhas) and steady gazing (drishti), which creates an experience of continuity and stability throughout the sequence. When properly done, this method purifies and strengthens the body while settling and focusing the mind.

There are six sequences in this system: Primary (roga cikitsa), Intermediate (nadi shodhana), and Advanced A, B, C & D (sthira bhaga).

Other Descriptions of Ashtanga Yoga:
      Ashtanga.com

History of Ashtanga Yoga:

“[Pattabhi] Jois has often spoken about a text called the Yoga Karunta, an ancient manuscript on ashtanga yoga, which had been the basis of the practical lessons on yoga taught to him by Krishnamacharya. Attributed to the sage Vamana, it was one of the many texts taught orally to Krishnamacharya, which he learned by heart during the seven and a half years he spent living with his teacher, Rama Mohan Brahmacari. Karunta means “groups,” and the text was said to contain lists of many different groupings of asanas, as well as highly original teachings on vinyasa, drishti, bandhas, mudras, and philosophy. Before Krishnamacharya left his guru, around 1924, he was told that if he wanted to find this text he could do so at the Calcutta University Library. According to Jois, who has never seen the text and doubts that it still exists, Krishnamacharya at some point spent one year in Calcutta researching this book, which was badly damaged and had many missing portions. The remaining sections, which he transcribed, contained what we now know as the primary, intermediate, and advanced sequences of asanas. When Jois began his studies with Krishnamacharya in 1927, it was the method from the Yoga Karunta that he was taught. Although the authenticity of the book would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to validate today, it is generally accepted that this is the source of ashtanga yoga as taught by Pattabhi Jois (Yoga Mala p. xv - xvi, 2002).”

Yoga:

Yoga is both the state of complete concentration as well as the means for developing this state of yogic concentration. Properly practiced, yoga reduces physical and mental stresses thereby promoting greater mental clarity and physical vitality.

Yoga practice – composed of discipline [mental, moral & physical], study and the dedication of these acts to God (Yoga Sutra 2.01) – is the effort to abandon distractions and to direct the mind, emotions and senses upon one thing [e.g. your yoga practice] (Yoga Sutra 1.12). The yogic state – called samadhi – is to intentionally become so utterly absorbed upon the object of concentration that there is no longer any awareness of anything else – not even one’s own self (Yoga Sutra 3.03).

In the physical practice of Ashtanga Yoga attention is placed in three places (tri-sthana): asana, breathing & single pointed gazing (drishti). These form the basis for developing yogic concentration and reduce mental and physical suffering by establishing harmony in the human system (Yoga Sutra 2.02). The aim of yoga is to discern between the temporal mind-body and the Eternal Soul (atman; purusha); whereby from this enlightened awareness, over time and with steadiness, devotion toward the Eternal Soul becomes firmly and permanently established. Thus, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois has said, “The way of establishing the mind within the Self (atman) should be known as yoga (Jois, Yoga Mala p. 4 - 5, 2002).” This of course requires many many years of diligent and consistent daily practice as taught by one who has obtained yoga (Yoga Sutra 1.14).

The Eight Limbs of Yoga:

Literally ‘eight-limb-yoga,’ it is a wholistic description of yoga that comes most notably – but not exclusively – from Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras. They are described from 2.29 to 3.03 as follows:

Moral Restraints:

Non-harming.

Truthfulness.

Non-stealing.

Continence.

Non-hoarding.

Spiritual Attitudes:

Mental & physical purity.

Contentment.

Mental, physical & moral discipline.

Self-study, mantra recitation & study of sacred texts.

Complete surrender to the Lord.

Pleasant stabilization of bodily posture.

“Taking in the subtle power of the vital wind through exhalation, inhalation, and retention (Jois, Yoga Mala p. 23, 2002).”

Turning the senses inward toward God.

Concentrating the mind within certain boundaries [desha] of attention.

An intensification of dharana, when thoughts are reduced to only the object of concentration.

An intensification of dhyana, when there is no longer any sense of the self [meditating], and only the object [of meditation] shines forth in the mind.