Asana practice – part one
Most of the yoga classes that we see nowadays are solely about asana practice. Though it is not the main practice in Yoga, it does play an important role in the aim of achieving positive qualities in order to help us on the path towards self realization.
If we practice yoga asana correctly and regularly with right effort and right intention we will have a strong and flexible body for us to be able to sit for meditation comfortably (although the highest meditation is every moment in life while we are walking, sitting, lying, eating and etc, but sitting meditation is the most important meditation pose that will lead us into the state of Samadhi – complete silence state without name and form). We also will have stronger endurance to perform selfless service and other tasks in daily life. The overall quality of life will be improved. It can also train our will power to become stronger and to go beyond the mind and the body so that we can have firm determination to overcome the negative and impure thoughts that arise in the mind and have self control over our speech and actions.
Asana practice can help us to develop patience, courage, positive thinking, cheerfulness, openness, confidence, perseverance, awareness, detachment, equanimity, will power, self control, calmness, concentration, acceptance, correct understanding, selflessness, humility, compassion, wisdom and being at the present moment. All these qualities are to help us to overcome all the impurities like anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, arrogance, depression, egoism and all types of ignorance that contribute to the unhappiness in us.
It is not the people or the happenings out there that cause us unhappiness. It is the ignorance in us that make us think that it is the surrounding that upset us but actually it is our egoistic, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, depression, arrogance and etc that is making us so unhappy about everything.
If we have correct understanding and wisdom we will not have unhappiness. It is only when we don’t have correct understanding and wisdom that we will have unhappiness, frustration, disappointment and depression.
If we need something to make us happy or feel good about ourselves, we will be very disappointed and unhappy. We are happy and don’t need anything to feel good about ourselves is because we are full and content. We are what we are and are being true. We are not this, we are not that. We are not this fragile body. We are not these emotional feelings. We are not this discontented mind. We are not this selfish ego. We are not this limited intellect.
By training the physical body, we are training the mind as well. If we learn to withstand discomfort and difficulty in physical training, we can develop stronger mental endurance to withstand discomfort situations and overcome difficult moments in life.
We will become more patience, forgiving, accepting, loving, tolerance and open minded. We learn to respect other people who have different thinking, different cultures, different beliefs and different views from us.
We also learn to stop judging, comparing, competing and criticizing. We learn to let go expectations and rewards – the fruit of action or the benefits from the asana practice. We learn to detach from our body and the mind and not identifying with them. We learn to observe the thoughts and feelings without associating with them. We learn how to thin out our ego and minimize our cravings and aversions.
We learn to become humble but full of confidence. We learn not to be driven by praise and compliment. We also learn not to be disturbed by criticism and censure.
Above all, we learn how to overcome fear and negativity in us.
Ultimately we are preparing ourselves to go beyond the mind and the body, and beyond all the dualities and names and forms.
Yoga practice is about controlling the mind, to have self control over our thoughts, speech and actions, and to go beyond the body and the mind. Asana practice is just one of the tools to help us to conquer the body and the mind. It helps us to develop many divine qualities and to achieve a calm mind which will lead us to self-healing, purification, concentration and followed by clearer understanding. Eventually our well-trained and well-controlled body and mind will lead us to self realization.
Yoga asana is like pranayama – control of the breath, is a purification process for the energy fields in our body. It purifies and energizes the Nadis – energy channels, and it will unlock and release accumulated tensions – physically, mentally and emotionally. It also stimulates the chakras – energy centres in our body. All these energy centres are related to the body systems – the brain and the nervous system, the digestive system, the elimination system, the reproductive system, the glands and hormone system, the circulatory system and also related to the higher consciousness. It generates fresh energy and channels it for highest purpose – eventually it will help us in controlling the sexual energy and turn it into a divine energy. The greatest obstacle for many people in the path towards self realization is the uncontrolled passionate sexual desire.
Asana practice also helps us to conserve energy in our body instead of exhaust the energy. Although we need to use some energy for us to perform the poses in asana practice but it is only a little amount of energy being consumed when we come to a stage where the poses are being performed almost effortlessly. And by having enough rest in between each asana pose, as well as the long relaxation at the end is actually bringing back lots of fresh energy into the system. All the poses are actually generating energy into the system more than exhausting energy from the system. This doesn’t mean that the energy will become too much and overflows. Our body will know how to balance up the energy and store the excess energy in the “battery” – the solar plexus for later use, and it will channel the energy for a beneficial purpose for self evolution.
Many people find that they are always feeling tired and exhausted even though they have enough sleep and rest, enough food intakes, and doing some exercises for health and fitness reason. It’s because all these activities actually exhaust more energy from their system than to generate energy into the system. They don’t have enough Prana through out the system even though they have been eating a lot of food (the system need to use up lots of energy to digest all these food especially if the food is not pure – meat products, processed food, full of preservatives, colourings, and other chemical stuffs. The energy level being low is also because of the energy centres and energy channels in the body do not function properly – they are blocked and inactive.
No doubt that the physical body is a very important instrument for us to walk the path towards self realization, but the strength and flexibility of the physical body is not the essential mean for self realization. Instead the inner strength (courage, confidence, cheerfulness, perseverance and will power) and inner flexibility (acceptance, adjustment, accommodation, tolerance and forgive) are the means for us to attain self realization.
Even a person without the ability to move, to sit up, to speak, or without hands and feet still can achieve self realization without the need of any asana practice. Self realization is not limited by physical limitation – such as difficulty in sight, hearing, speech or mobility. It is all in the mind. Ignorance exists in the mind, and also dissolves in the mind.
Where is the mind? It is everywhere, inside us and outside us. When we are looking at something, the mind is out there on that object and we are not aware of what is happening inside us. When we are hearing some music, the mind is on that music. When we are observing the breath, the mind is within us on the breath. It is always very busy with the functions of the senses and the objects of the senses. Even when we are asleep, the mind is still busy constructing the dreams. Unless we went into deep sleep, then the mind is resting.
But the subconscious mind is always working. It is receiving input all the time even while we are in deep sleep or being unconscious – like being in coma, or when we are not aware of what is happening within our body and in the surrounding. The whole autonomous body system in our body functions even without us being aware of it. They are receiving inputs and sending outputs all the time without us controlling it or realizing it. The energy field in our body is constantly being affected by the energy from the surrounding every moment. All the energies are having some sorts of exchange or resistance against each other all the time without us knowing about it.
By doing proper asana and pranayama practice will help us to have some control over the energy and redirect these energy into good use.
