Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

And there is the principle of pose and counterpose in any good sequencing of asanas. Backbends are balanced and complemented by forward bends, and stimulating poses are balanced by tranquilizing poses. Through exploration of well-sequenced poses, the practitioner quickly becomes aware of areas that are misaligned, stiff, weak, or underdeveloped. It is important to become aware of these imbalances and to study changes to the symmetry and alignment in your body when you practice. You can start by observing yourself in a mirror, beginning to notice your body structure. Is one shoulder dropped or lifted? Is there a torque or twist to your frame? Is the pelvis tipped or twisted? Pay attention to particular physical tendencies when you practice the postures and give some extra time to your weaker or stiffer sides in the poses. Students sometimes carelessly do the opposite, once again favoring the stronger or easier direction. Remember, the body’s spring tensions have set to hold the body in the positions and attitudesthat are habitually held. When you start restructuring and repositioning the body to hold itself in better levels of alignment, you may initially feel awkward and have some resistance from the muscles until the spring dynamics reset to hold at the new levels of balance. Go slowly. Use the postures as tools to restore alignment and start becoming more aware of using your body in more balanced ways during the day. Bring the awareness you develop in yoga to your daily life. Notice when you are holding tension in the muscles. Watch your patterns of sitting, walking, lying, and picking up and carrying things as you move through the day, to see if you can use and balance both sides of the body in ordinary activities. Symmetry of the body is one of the important signs of good health. Asana practice reminds us to look at all sides of things.

The Three Qualities
    Yoga philosophy defines three qualities of nature, called the
three gunas
(goon nah) in Sanskrit. The lowest is
tamas
(pronounced tah muhs), or inertia; the middle is
rajas
(rah juhs), or activity; and the highest is
sattwa
(saht wah), or light. Tamas refers to heaviness, dullness, lethargy, and laziness. Rajas refers to motion, stimulation, intensity, and activity. Sattwa represents clarity, peace, purity, and joy. All things—foods, activities, places, and everything in nature—have one of more of these qualities. We may endeavor to cultivate the higher qualities and higher energies, but the easiest movement is downhill toward tamas, lethargy, or into rajas, activity. It is more difficult to ascend into sattwa, clarity. We tend to stimulate ourselves into activity until we tire ourselves into lethargy, rarely reaching peace and clarity. Knowledge of the three qualities can be applied in an asana practice aimed at balance of the three. All three qualities work together and balance each other. An excess of tamas—or a dull, unconscious practice—results in lethargy and boredom, but in a balanced amount tamas is rest and rejuvenation. Excessive rajas—or an aggressive, overactive practice—can result in nervousness,irritability, or even in tamas. In balance, rajas is energetic and vital. Excessive sattwa, or even too much mental activity, can result in airiness, disorientation, and a lack of grounding, while in balance sattwa brings awareness, peace, and insight. Once again, the three gunas represent a yogic principle that guides us toward achieving balance.

The Three Root Principles
    The triangle is a basic building block in geometry and it is the first stable structure used in construction. A square wall is stabilized by a diagonally placed crossbeam that forms two triangles, adding strength and structure. In the same way, using the Three Root Principles strengthens your foundation in yoga. In the
chakra
system (to be explained in detail later), the root chakra resides at the base of the spine. Inside the symbol for this center is an upside-down triangle. The placement of this basic geometric figure symbolizes both the mystical aspects of the sacrum, which is also an inverted triangle, and also the three principles of
iccha, kriya
, and
jnana (
pronounced itch uh, kree yuh, and nyaah nuh, as in mañana).
    Iccha signifies will power or intention; kriya means the power of action or technique; and jnana refers to the power of knowledge. By using all three of these powers we form a triangle in our practice that is a stronger and more effective structure