Urdhva Muka Paschimottanasana
Practicing in LA
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The Difference between Sukhasana, Siddhasana, Padmasana
Traditional meditation cross legged sitting postures. The most done and most traditional used all over the world is: Sukhasana. The next is Siddhasana. And only rarely, Padmasana.
Sukansana – sitting “easy cross legged” pose.
This is “easy” because it is simply sitting cross legged.
Siddhasana – sitting with toes tucked into thighs or set the feet side by side keeping the knees wide.
Siddhasana is a little more difficult than Sukasana and is a cross legged pose where you tuck your feet into your thighs (between thighs and calves specifically), or lay your feet side by side (on the floor in front of you) keeping the knees wide: a wide kneed pose. Which means that it can only be done when the hips are more open, and it can help open the hips even more than simply sitting cross legged.
Padmasana – sitting with feet on top of thighs tucked close to hips
Padmasana or lotus pose is the most difficult of the seated “meditation” poses. It is done by tucking the feet up on top of the thighs and close to the hips: a closed knee pose. Which means that the knees are closer together and can be done when the hips are much more open than the other two. It is not easy to get into and takes a great deal of practice to make sure the knees are protected.
These are important distinctions. All three are available to use – but please practice especially the last two, with a GOOD teacher – one who knows the difference between the three poses.
Once you practice all three poses, the differences and the benefits of each will become clear.
Please keep yoga asana names and terms correct.
Peace!
The Process of an Ashtanga Practice…
I go through what’s on the graph in a split second every other day. 🙂 And it continues to be like that no matter how I advance in my practice. Ashtanga is a complex and very layered, deep practice. There’s always room for improvement, and there is always signs of improvement. It keeps me humble and it fills me with such joy too.
I love Ashtanga … no matter what.
*Bhoga or Yoga…
Acrobats are NOT yogis/yoginis. Circus freaks are NOT either. Come to think of it neither are ballet dancers or athletes. Yogis/Yoginis are well… yogis/yoginis. It is beyond the physical. Beyond the point of “look at what I can do”. There’s a subtlety and a humility that is expressed through the body when doing asana. Can you see it…within yourself?
FYI:
Someone commented:
Hmmmm…
I know what you mean, I think. But many dancers and athletes and acrobats I know are also yogis/yoginis… the various practices and arts and sciences do interleaf with each other, all the intersecting influences and balances and movements and stillness add the kind of texture to life that I adore…
My response:
You may think so – but the quality of the relationship between mind and body is intrinsically different because of how you approach the physical practice. If you are in a discipline such as gymnastics or dance which focuses on ‘performance’, that becomes a part of the ‘yoga’ you do which is NOT the how or the why of Yoga…
Gymnastics and dance, etc. are just physical. Just because you can contort your body seemingly perfectly into the postures does not mean you are doing YOGA. Yoga is so much more and if you’ve done it long enough say 20 years (yes I think it takes that long and even longer), you will know that performing the postures and enacting asana within your practice are NOT the same thing.
*Bhoga is doing yoga asana for the sake of the self. For entertainment, performance or narcissistic purposes. Yoga asana should only be done for the purpose of worshipping god (universal energy). – Paraphrased from the writings of Mr. Iyengar founder of Iyengar Yoga.
Asana practice: Urdhva Dhanurasana
Yes. It has always perplexed me – Urdhva Dhanurasana. Even as I take the pose it is not very comfortable for me. I don’t feel ease and I can’t stay in it long. It took me years of concerted and sincere practice to even get me here.
I never learned from someone who could do this posture well. They are the kind of teacher who can’t believe you can’t do it. You know the teacher that says, just do this, or that, and they think it’s that easy. I had one teacher give up on me. That didn’t feel good.
So I took what I knew – by that time 20 years of practice, and started to practice on my own (doing it for 12 years now), and didn’t rely on a teacher to see me through. What I learned about my body: what it could do when I moved into things the way that it needed to, was a real eye opener. I learned a lot and my body opened up considerably after in the years that I’ve been teaching myself. I always told my students that the people with the most difficulty in postures are the lucky ones. We are the ones that really feel our bodies open and change and even tighten up again. We learn that there is an ebb and flow.
So it taught me that for me, Urdhva Danurasana was always going to be a challenge and the things like Kapostasana, might not ever come. But it doesn’t mean I don’t venture into that realm of back bends – I keep practicing. There are days when I can feel what it’s all about. And then the next day it’s gone. I accept that about my body and that’s what yoga’s all about. Isn’t it?
So absolutely go slow. Ease into it. But most importantly – move as if there was no where to go. No goal in sight. Just keep expressing the energy of back bend, or forward bend, or inversion, or any other type of posture you’re doing. Doesn’t matter if it ‘looks’ like you are in the posture perfectly, it matters how deeply you can go into the feeling of the energy of the posture.
Ask me about anything: If you’re struggling with any posture including backbends, send me a note. I’d be glad to assist.
A note from SBYC’s FB page…wanted to share it here
Hi – while I genuinely appreciate the work and dedication of those who sincerely study, practice and teach yoga in their particular way to encourage, and effect change in social and individual consciousness, I can not allow the posting of these teachings on SBYC’s FB site because I can not endorse the method with which they are presented at times.
I have a very clear notion of how yoga is to be presented, and with my heart, to me, it is not about joining a single group, following a particular swami, seeing ‘god’ as a separate and isolated entity that is beyond our intimate and personal knowledge, or advocating for the Light only, etc..
Everyone living is a separate entity – of course we all know that. And while practicing and studying these teachings we must remember that everyone is different. The human heart/mind has certain sensitivities, or preferences which guide an individual along their chosen path. These eventually dissolve to show that we are not separate at all. But in the initial stages of Self-discovery, our egoic nature gets caught up in the how we are read and seen by what we chose to do. It is a lonely path truly, because no one else feels or sees things the same way you do, and so the individual must begin and continue for years their journey in a way that speaks to them.
Anyone who has been walking the spiritual path knows this intimately. How many ‘styles’ of meditation, asana, teachers, books, workshops, retreats, have you gone through in your years of practice? This is good. Opening up to different practices and work, only deepens your process. It deepens the process sometimes by confusing us at first. The mind has a way of latching on to a particular thought or way by convincing itself that this is the ONLY way until the heart is no longer served by whatever it is, and must move on to find ‘flow’. The searching will continue until the heart settles into a LOVE that is deep and eternal, and directed outward.
Yoga practices which include everything from asana styles, meditation traditions, Bhakti especially, all help to bring about Self-realization, Union with the Beloved.
I encourage you all to find your own path. To be still for a moment and really listen to what is being asked of you. Then move in that direction.
I am grateful that along your path you have stopped here if only for a moment.
Namaste
Peace!
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore (well I’m mildly perturbed…haha)
Most of the time when I search for yoga sites for someone to follow because there is a resonance with their approach to the yoga practice: that, it is true and unencumbered, I can’t find any. Pages upon pages are full of people doing ‘stunt’ yoga like that’s where it’s at or all about.
I’m getting really tired of it. You’re just a bunch of showoffs. Really. Big deal, you can bend over backward and kiss your own ass. Big deal that you can put your leg behind your head. Big deal that you can do a handstand! Any circus freak can do what you are constantly bombarding us with on your websites and your blogs. And I don’t think they’re (the circus freaks) doing “yoga”. They’re creating a spectacle that is the circus.
Yes, I can do most of it. There are still things I struggle with daily. But that’s what teaches me.
Yes – it looks pretty. BIG DEAL. Do you even know what yoga is? I don’t think you get it. Yeah yeah, you’re so impressive, that you can do that. Whoop! But that’s what it’s really all about for you isn’t it? You crave for attention. For people out in the world to look at you and say, oh, I want to follow you. You’re gorgeous or remarkable (because they are saying to themselves, I can’t do that – so you must be great.) And stop blogging the perfect beautiful photo of yoga. Take a picture of yourself doing a pose. Yeah! That’s part of the teaching. Would you dare to show yourself in a not so perfect pretty pose? Would you? The real learning of yoga is to get over that…as a individual, as a business, and as a culture.
Show me you’re not perfect. If you want to keep showing those pristine shots on your website, then that’s fine just don’t call it YOGA! It’s not yoga. For crying out loud. Enough already! It’s fooling around with what looks like yoga postures. And please don’t write me about how a yogini wouldn’t get mad. I am channeling ‘Kali”. You know Kali – the hindu goddess of creation and destruction! Sometimes things must be destroyed to create something new. And it’s about time!
Please send me your not-so-perfect-yoga-asana-pic, I’d love to see it!
Christine U in Parsvottanasana
I ground my front big toe mound down into the ground and draw the spiral energy of life force up from the earth into my outer front thigh.
I draw the outer right thigh to connect the two hemispheres of my hips together into centre behind me.
I ground my back outer foot into the mat without lifting its inner line but creating an arch and let that energy spiral up into the outer back hip, meeting the inner thighs pressing up into the outer. This energetic action stabilizes the back hip which is met by the front hip drawing in.
I am stable and strong now.
I draw in the front lower belly toward the spine, I fold naturally and easily till my chin rests on my shin. My hands rest lightly on my back and my elbows lift slightly.
I relax into Parsvottanasana with breath and mindfulness.
DEAR BILL…
William Broad – You seem to poo poo the spiritual aspect of yoga which is the essential part of yoga. When you divorce the physical from the spiritual then you are dealing with the ego only – I won’t get into it, but that’s what gets you into trouble. It’s you, not yoga, that makes you mis-step, feel less than, get injured.
When the ego drives the work in yoga (any part of it – BTW, yoga is not just the physical work – asana), then you get injured. You said it yourself – with all the pretty flexy girls in class doing crazy postures, you said, you couldn’t help but follow and try to match them. I would think that after 40 years of practice you would know better; You would see that you are imposing a structure (your own) onto the practice of yoga that isn’t really there. It’s only there because of your own need to impress or prove or something else – or the teacher’s need to push you for some reason (and that’s a different story).
Any teacher worth their salt would have let you know that you are treading into dangerous waters when you leave your own senses and become an instrument of your own ego. Yoga practice of any sort doesn’t look to highly on that sort of thing. It is you who’s deciding to go there; to deny the truth of your own reality…that your body may be too old or too much a guy’s body and not a young chickidees body to do the things they were doing! In fact, if you did yoga with the spiritual/philosophical aspect in mind you would have known that through your readings/teachings. But you obviously don’t.
Yoga is very scientific – traditionally. There is a reason for everything you do in the more traditional practices. You do get results. But when taught wrong through lack of knowledge or an imposing ego (teacher or you), it all can go horribly wrong.
Yes people have changed the practice of yoga – too much in my opinion. And really if you listen very closely, you will hear the little whine from those that change it for their own needs, into their own image. I say, you don’t have to change a thing.
Just because someone’s a teacher/guru doesn’t mean they know what’s what here or in India. The depth of the practice has been almost lost and we are usually paying lip service to someone else’s ego’s notion of what yoga is. That is wrong to me.
Changing the practice is thinking you know better. Changing the way we teach is recognizing the depth of ourselves. Much different. You can read thousands of books on yoga; they’re out there, go to a million classes there’s enough of those to go around too. If you are still looking without instead of within, in other words, looking for the wisdom outside of yourself instead of within:
“If he (she, my addition) is indeed wise, the teacher does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather he (she) leads you to the threshold of your own mind.” Kahlil Gibran,
if you can’t find a good teacher to guide you to the truth of yourself, if you still think you know better instead of earnestly trying to shed all of your resistance to the teachings, if you treat yoga less than what it truly is and has to offer, you’ll never find what your looking for – – a deep, meaningful, challenging, mind-blowing, humbling, life-affirming and joyful life.
Christine U in Padmasana in Sarvangasana
Strive to be Authentic…Not Perfect
