These are some thorough conference notes curtesy of Satinder Khalsa. So much good information is there! Conference notes from this past Saturday: TRISTHANA As we all know, in our Practice three things become important which is the posture, breathing and gazing...where to look. So these, very important in our Practice. Posture, is to bring comfort to us. Asana you are told to bring stability to the body and mind. So it happens only when we follow the breath because the body is controlled by the mind, the mind is controlled by the breath we take. Inhalation. Exhalation. When there is irregular breathing, then the mind also becomes very distracted. Mind also will wander. So through breathing techniques we can control, calm the mind. So these three things are very important. Gazing brings more focus in our practice. In Kriya, its called Trataka. Trataka is one Kriya where you focus in one place. So when we are doing Asana, we focus, we are doing Drishti. These Nine Drishtis is what we follow in our daily practice. What are those Nine Drishtis? Nasagrai means to the tips of your nose. Broomadya means in between the eye brows. Nabi means your navel. Hastagrai means tip of your hand. Agra means tip, on the end, the tip of your hand like that... (points to the tip of his middle finger). Padayoragrai means tip of your feet like Padangushthasana, Padahastasana, all of these asanas you do, you try to see the tip of your feet (points to his big toe). Parshva means sideways. That doesnt mean you look at someone. Angushtha means here, in between your hand, your thumb. And Urdhva Drishti is the Air, or Antara Drishti means the space. Both are same. So these Drishtis, once we follow in asanas, we bring more focus in our practice, we bring more concentration in our practice, so your mind wont distract. I see some students. I see their attention is always somewhere else. They want to look others what they are doing. They dont have focus in their own practice how her Kapotasana is, his Kapotasana is; oh back bending he is doing. They are very curious, mind is so distracted. They all want external. They want to see what others are doing, they dont to see what theyre doing. If they concentrate and of us on their practice, what theyre doing, then their focus will improve. Your practice will change. So by following this Drishti, we can bring more concentration, bring more focus in our practice, which will help you when youre practicing Pranayama. Then comes Pratyahara. Then Dharana. This concentration which grows within you strongly, then the mind also will be focused. It wont get distracted. So these Drishtis are very important, and the breathing as we told is very important; which allows the blood to circulate and remove all the toxins out through sweat. So when we say these three things, many students ask oh why no Bandha? Theyre more curious about Bandhas. To understand Bandhas, it takes many years of Practice. Just talking is easy, hold your Bandha.....first, hold your Yoga! What is Bandha? There is three Bandhas, three internal locks, sealing...Band means stop. Mula Bandha is the anus control or blocking the anus. Why? It develops Energy. If you see a tree, a big Tree. How does that Big Tree grow stronger? If you see the trunk of a tree, it is so strong. Why is it so strong? The Roots. Roots are strong. Roots will hold the whole tree. So if the roots are not strong enough, it doesnt hold the tree, the whole tree will fall. Exactly, the Mula means, the Source or the Root. Once we practice this Mula Bandha, the whole body becomes stronger. This has been explained in many texts (quotes from texts). Yan Mulam Sarva Bhutanam. Yan Mulam Chitta Bandhanam. Mula Bandha Sava Sevyo Yogyo Sou Raja Yoginam. The great person who wrote this was Shankaracharya. What is the Source for the Five Elements? What are those five elements? Water, Air, Fire, Earth, Ether the Space. What is the Source for this? GOD Again when I say God is the Source then you get oh...I dont want to... You get scared. Some people they are scared to hear God. God is nothing but Energy, which makes everything work. Are you making this whole Galaxy work? How is it working? Its spinning. How? Someone should be there to spin the Galaxy. Everything is happening. Everything is Energy. Everything is moving. You cant feel because of this gravitational force. Gravity is holding us, even that is an energy which is holding us. If that is not there, you will be going everywhere. So what is making this Earth move? It is the Energy. Who is the Source for this Pancha Bhuta? We are all made out of this Pancha Bhuta, (Agni, Vayu, Bhumi, Jala, Akasha). All this is made by the Supreme Energy. Instead of God, we will call it Supreme Energy. So that is the Source for Pancha Bhuta. Here, the Source to control the Mind is Mula Bandha. Yan Mulam Sarva Bhutanam. Yan Mulam Chitta Bandhanam. So that is the Source. Who is running this show? Everything is run by the Supreme Energy. So to control the mind, Mula Bandha is the Source. If you perfect in Mula Bandha, who engages Mula Bandha all the time, he becomes the Supreme Yogi. So once you practice these three bandhas, then there is no death for you. One day you have to die. You cant say oh I dont want to die. Its not possible, you have to die. That is true. Its like North and South Pole. Birth and Death. So in between you do, that is very important. So by ding these techniques, we can drag our Life. Even in Pranayama. Pranayama means what? To drag the Prana. 21,600 times automatically we breathe everyday, inhalation, exhalation. You do it or not, it keeps happening 21,600 times. So when we do asanas, what we do? We drag the inhalation so like that also, our Life will expand, will extend. So Life also will extend or we can make it longer by doing these techniques. We can stretch it like a rubber band. So these Yogic Techniques are to gain good health and give longevity, so you wont be bound by the time. What is Kala Pasya? The Poison which we call Time. So we are all bound to this time. That is like poison for us. So with this, we can drag our Life and gain good health. BANDHAS But how to do this Mula Bandha, Uddiyana Bandha? Practice by doing Asanas. Mula Bandha especially, all the time, while sitting, while standing. Jalandhara Bandha comes mostly in Pranayama Techniques. When we are doing Kumbhaka Pranayama, we hold all Mula, Uddiyana and Jalandhara Bandha. Jalandhara is locking the chin in so that the external air will not go inside. You dont try at home, you have to be taught by a Guru, from a Teacher only. Shastras says exhalation, exhalation, exhalation. Once you exhale then there is no air in your lungs, no air inside. Then hold the Mula Bandha. When the exhalation is finished, at the end of the exhalation, hold the Mula Bandha. For example, you can start with Utpluthih. It strengthens your lower abdomen, if you hold for long time. Before going to Utpluthih, just exale, exhale, exhale, then hold the Mula Bandha, then inhale then lift up. You try like that. Ill test you after fifteen days, (nervous laughter from everyone) how you can hold Utpluthih. If you are able to hold for ten breaths that means its working, youre doing it properly. So like that, slowly, we have to build up this Mula Bandha, all the Bandhas. It takes two, three years to build up all these techniques, to know what this is and apply in daily practice. Everyday practice will improve these bandhas. The coordination between the Breath and Posture, the Movement, the Vinyasa comes only through Practice. Everything, whatever you do, takes time, especially Yogic Techniques. Yogic Practice, the Sadhana, takes long time. It doesnt come in fifteen days, it doesnt come in one year, it doesnt come in five years, it takes life long you have to practice. So once you say I know everything, that is the end of your learning. Once you follow all these things, your practice will become strong, when you practice for a long time. It doesnt come at once. Keep on practicing and you can hold it for longer. Now you can hold it for two breaths, three breaths. Like when you do Utpluthih, just try to do, consciously do. By doing, then automatically it comes. First you have to try with few postures. Try to focus on the Bandha in Utpluthih. You see, you get more stronger, your abdomen becomes stronger, your roots, the Mula, it becomes stronger. Then youll be able to lift yourself up. It is not the shoulder strength like many people think. Why they cant lift? Because bandhas are not correct. It is not about strength you have on your shoulders, it is how you engage all these bandhas. Once you engage, automatically your body will become light, it will float automatically. You dont need too much strength to do that. DRISHTIS Once you go to the posture then you do the Drishti. In between sometimes you get dizzy. Just go to the posture, the Sthitih of the posture, when youre doing the posture. For example when youre doing Chatuari, Pancha, that is not the posture. For example when youre doing Paschimattanasana, when you start breathing five breaths in Paschimattanasana, that is the Sthitih of the posture, that is the State of the Posture. The Chatuari is not the state of Paschimattanasana. Pancha, Shat, its just a warm-up, it is like a preparation, it is the supporting asanas. But that is not the main asana. When you do the forward bend, that is the main asana. That is the state of that asana. Then you do Drishti. Not everyone can see the foot. That is why, Nasagrai Drishti is like neutral gear. When none of the gears are working in your manual transmission car, what do you do? You put in neutral and try to push it, then it moves (chuckles). In 80% of the Asanas, Nasagrai will be the Drishti. That you can use. Some are flexible, some are not flexible, sometimes you have back pain you cannot do forward bend. Then use this Nasagrai. When we do Japa we use Nasagrai Drishti, when we do Pranayama we use Nasagrai Drishti. Nasa is your nose, Agra means tip of your nose. So you have to look at the tip of your nose (jokes about having a long nose so its easy for him...short noses, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese will have to put a dot, Bindi...then points at the tip). BREATHING There shouldnt be any pause between breaths. Naturally it shouldnt happen. When youre doing reathing, the regular cycle will complete only when youre inhalation is finished then suddenly your exhalation starts. That is the cycle. If you stop there, it will cause lots of problems. So thats why when youre doing some difficult postures, you hold your breath. Get used to the posture then you will be more relaxed in the breath. First you did Urdhva Dhanurasana, you hold your breath. But whey out get used to doing Urdhva Dhanurasana, and you do more and more of those asana, then your breathing will be free breathing. Free breathing means, you dont struggle to breathe, relaxed breathing. The more you relax, nervous system, the more blood will circulate, breathing becomes calm. Once you breathe fast, you can get hyper tension, anxiety. Even in Surya Namaskara, relax and do Surya Namaskara, not only Marichyasana D. In each and every, start from Surya Namaskara, take one rhythm. Rhythm is very important. The whole Vinyasa system, the purpose of this, is bringing One Rhythm to your practice. So this breathing is very important to stabilize our body, stabilize our mind. Your posture also has a technique to do it. Not every can do every posture. To understand the technique you have to do a long time. I personally have done so many asanas, I think more than enough Gurujis students has done. So many asanas, everyday Guruji is making me this. There was certain research, its not my Ego. It is the fact which I always try to see. Many students ask me, why, how you can teach, others cant teach like this? That is because my own research in doing how to apply this, how to apply to the student, how they can do it. So this is research should go on within You. It is not a competition. You dont want to compete with anyone. You do your own research within you. Each and every asana you have to do your own research inside, then only the perfection will come. Guru says Bring stability to your posture. How to bring stability? You cant get stability at once. You see some students are very bendy, they can do back bending easily, Kurmasana, whatever asana you say they can do very easily. But there is no stability in them. No control of the body. So how to bring that control? Its through Practice. Engaging all the Bandhas, practicing for long time and researching yourself. BODY PAIN/MUSCLE SORENESS You stop walking too much. I see you walking everywhere. Naturally if you do too much walking, it stiffens your body. This is true! Once you are dedicated to do asanas, you have to concentrate more on the asanas. You cant do two things simultaneously. Makes your body very stiff. One day you walk for five kilometers, next day your body will be very stiff. So once we reduce that, and keep everything limit, then the body also will become more flexible in the asanas. And every week you should take oil bath. Coconut oil or castor oil bath so that your muscles will relax. Dont do massage. If you do massage, youll hurt your body. Too much massage you get sore in your muscles and joints. Just gentle, rub oil, weekly once when you have off. Take hot water bath, this will remove soreness in the body. Once we do asanas, we get a lot of soreness in the body, especially when youre getting new asana, new pain, new soreness. This will relax the mind and allow the blood to circulate, takes all the stress from your body. LACK OF TIME IN PRACTICE Research means, whatever your Guru teach, research that asana within you. How to bring it perfection? We all have responsibilities. When you say family responsibility, even I have family responsibility. I have 400 students to teach everyday. I have so many responsibilities. I have family responsibility, I have 400 students teaching responsibility, running this institution responsibility. But again I wake up at 12:45am and do my Practice. (The lady backs off against the wall and simply nods an OK ) Last night I slept only 3 hours. You wont believe. Only 3 hours. I think you can make one hour time everyday whatever responsibility you have. You have lots of time to be on the Facebook, on the Internet, looking all these people who are doing all the Yoga videos, how to do this asana, how to do that asana. Why dont you have time to do your own practice for one hour? Switch off everything! Your mobile, your everything, and do your own practice. Give your child to your husband, let him look after him for one hour. The you can look after the baby and he can do the practice. Adjustments you can do, but dont leave your practice. For my wife, from past, one week shes helping with back bending. She gets up at 2 oclock helping me with back bending when son was sleeping. PACE Some students are looking at others, their mind is somewhere else and not concentrating. So for these students I say, little faster. So faster means keep on pace. It is very important to have one pace in your practice. Like one hour fifteen minutes, twenty minutes for whole, full finishing. Full finishing, one hour twenty minutes, like that you keep. Keep on pace, if you keep on pace youll generate Energy, internal heat also. Once you generate internal heat you become more flexible. Stay with five breaths, inhalation, exhalation, keep it in one pace. This helps a lot. For Primary Series, you dont need more than one hour twenty minutes. Unless you have extra time to do Shirshasana. You dont have to go to work, you dont have anything else, then you extend a little bit of Shirshasana, Sarvangasana, instead of doing 8 breaths, do 15 breaths. Like that you can extend. Extending asanas are in the end, Sarvangasana, Shirshasana, Padmasana you can extend That one for longer time. That is very good for circulation of the blood and purification of the blood. When you do upside down, Shirshasana, the whole circulation doubles, circulates the blood little faster when youre upside down. You have to do it carefully. Weekly once you do when you have time, instead of 25 breaths you can do 35, 40, 50 breaths Shirshasana, when you dont have to go to work. Like that you can extend these asanas. But other than that, from Surya Namaskara til your back bending, Paschimattanasana, keep one pace. Unless you have difficulty in postures, you want to try one or two times, then you try, its not a problem. But if you are able to do effortlessly from Surya Namaskara all the way to Setu Bhandasana keep the pace within you. LED CLASS PACING AND SHARATHS POLICY Vinyasa class is to make you understand Vinyasa, where to inhale, where to exhale, how many Vinyasas are there in Marichyasana. To get to that knowledge, we teach Vinyasa. Maybe my counting is not exactly five breaths , sometimes its eight, sometimes its four, it depends (smiles naughtily)...how strong coffee I have drank. (laughter in the entire hall) I try to maintain you see. Everyday Primary Series its one hour eighteen to twenty minutes. Its in between that. Like that you keep one pace for your practice. Once you start your practice, dont talk to anyone until you finish your practice. This was my policy. My Mother also while I was driving, she used to say all these things. I never talk to anyone, until I finish my practice. This was my policy. Because too much talking also you lose your Prana. Unnecessary sometimes. It became part of my Sadhana. Before my practice, I dont talk to anyone. If I talk its very very little, only in one or two words. It helps a lot. Many times when you talk too many unnecessary things, the mind also gets distracted. Youre not concentrating on your practice. Where is your focus? Then your focus is not there, then you take a posture wrongly and you hurt yourself. When you do consciously, then the less injury in your practice. Your mind is also injured. Your body also gets injured. You see some Sadhus, they never talk to anyone. Some Sanyasis I know for three months they never talk to anyone. Only if there is emergency they write something. Dont talk until you have perfected in Silence. AUTHORIZATION AND SERVICE (student reminded how it was said some advanced authorized teachers have ego and that it made more sense to authorize the most humble) See if you get authorized it doesnt mean you are a Yogi. Youre just transmitting the Practice, what you have learned from your Guru. That is the fundamental thing you are giving. You are not taking them to Samadhi. If you are authorized, it will not take you to Samadhi. Even I cant take you to Samadhi. Can I take you to Samadhi? I can go to Samadhi but I cant take you. Why? Because your understanding is not like my understanding. You know what I mean? YOUR Effort is very important. That is why Guru will say Asana is for you to go deeper in your Practice. Asana is for you to do the Sadhana. Guru gives you Asana for you to do the Sadhana. He says this Sadhana will take you towards this direction. Someone will give you a knife, cut the fruits and eat it, youll become more healthy. If you use the same knife to kill someone, Guru didnt tell you to kill? He said cut the fruits only. Im giving you the knife to cut the fruits. To enjoy that fruit. You know what I mean? By asana also you can go...someone teaches you asana, you keep on dong it from morning til evening. When you didnt get asana, you go to someone else. You say I want to do more, then you hurt your body, mental stability also will go away. Once a Guru says Do properly, in good purpose you do, with good intention, then youll gain proper knowledge. This is what my Guru told me. Do this to gain good knowledge. Practice this to gain good knowledge. Practice this to gain good understanding of Yoga. Oh my Guru says this, let me check what other Guru says with this, this is the curiosity of students. They listen to the Guru, theyll go and take suggestions from others. I never had two Gurus. I only had One Guru. He gave me so much. Lifelong I have to do research. Hes given so much. I dont know. I need seven more lives to research. So what Authorization means? A Guru will trust someone. I dont know outside what he does. I cant monitor everyone. I have to have a device in monitoring, GPS with a camera! What hes doing, how his mental, what hes thinking...he might curse me outside after authorizing him! He might say bad things to me. How can he not? I authorized this student because I trust him! I thought he knows something hes learned from me. See, the Parampara is very important. To learning Yoga by doing Asana is not to understand the whole system, how the knowledge starts, how to understand, its got its own culture. In Yiga Practice there is a Culture. In Spirituality there is a culture that we have to follow. You have to not only just doing asanas. Its not just learning how to do Marichyasana B. You need to learn how to respect your Teachers! You need to learn how to uphold your Teachers Teaching. What you have learned from a teacher, to uphold that, is also your Dharma, and your Karma. Both! What is your Dharma? Your duty is to uphold your Gurujis, your Teachers Teaching. Because he puts lots of effort. My Grandfather used to also get up at three thirty in the morning. He used to get up everyday. He used to teach me, he used to help me in back bending. Now I miss him so much. His dedication, see, whoever comes, he taught them from his Heart. He taught them that they should learn this system, it helps them...in that intention, he taught. Many, many, hundreds of students came. He taught them like that. He taught them with good intention. And if that student doesnt understand that intention, whats the use of doing this Yoga? Whats the use of doing for many years? The purpose, why you are doing, what your Guru has taught, that is very important. You cant even imagine how much stress it is there. To teach so many students, you have to prepare yourself. My preparation starts from 5 oclock in the evening, to teach you all. Because I have to do everything systematically. If something, one misses, it upsets the whole day. I have to go to bed at 8:30pm. Sometimes I get sleep, sometimes suddenly I wont get sleep till 11 oclock. I sleep only one hour, two hours, get up, do my own practice and then...you cant even imagine how difficult it is. I dont want to say this because...sometimes...we have to make people understand how difficult it is. I can make you do five posture, easily tell you the energy goes here, I can make up stories easily but I dont want. I want you to learn. Because myself had lots of benefit from Yoga. And my Grandfather was always a big inspiration for me. He always said Yoga is not ones property. It is to share but you share it in a proper way. You share it in an Authentic way. This is what he was always telling. Give Yoga, Knowledge should be given properly to your students and with dedication and with devotion. Teacher also has to have devotion. Teacher also must have done twenty five years straight doing Yoga. That doesnt mean I can grow my Ego. Teaching is also like a Service, otherwise I wouldnt have put so much effort. So it is the Service, that is what I have thought. In real estate outside, you can do money. To earn money there is lots of different easy methods. You dont have to wake up 12:45, you dont have to sleep only for two hours, get up early morning, lift so many people in back bending, help them. Earning money is easier than doing this. This is my Life. I dont know anything other than this. If I dont teach for one week, I dont have anything to do. My wife will say I think you should work, you are so impatient, youre so lost in the house you dont know what you are doing.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 14:11:02 +0000
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