edition no. 2, 3.21

Welcome Spring!

The lengthening days bring a resurgence of energy, a renewal of hope. The warmth of the sun and the sight of hardy crocuses peeping out from the melting snow uplift us, even as we are buffeted by the blustery wind. It’s Vata time—time for change!

 

As we emerge from the hibernation of winter and the isolation of the pandemic, we are fortified by self-care as well as health care. We eagerly watch the rising wave of vaccinations, and our arms long to reach out to others.

 

Let us renew our commitment to our practice. Let us build a strong support network of yoga sādhakas. Whether connecting through the screen or while socially distanced and masked, we are a caring, collaborative community. We invite you to contribute your ideas, photos, and resources to our newsletter at news@iyaum.org

 

Nancy Marcy, President
IYAUM

Setu Bandha Sarvāngāsana (Bridge Pose)

By Susan Johnson, CIYT

“Setu” means a bridge and “Setu Bandha” means the formation or construction of a bridge. In this pose, the body is arched and supported on the shoulders, soles and heels. The arch is supported by the hands at the waist. (Light on Yoga.)

 

This is a beautiful āsana offering great versatility through the use of props, as instructed by Guruji. The practitioner can do it dynamically, as described in Light on Yoga, by dropping back from Sarvāngāsana. This sequence promotes a supple spine and healthy nervous system. One can also practice the āsana using supportive props for a restorative pose that promotes a quiet and sound mind.  

 

As a practitioner, I find many benefits from doing this āsana. I try to apply at least one variation with each practice. Most commonly, I place it towards the end of a practice, using bolsters or a bench to prepare for my Śavāsana. Lately, I have found it helpful to take the pose on a block at the beginning of my sequence to open the frontal body, particularly the chest, and to quiet my mind so that I can be centered for practice.

 

Instructions (with a brick)

1. Lie on the floor with knees bent, toes pointing toward the wall.

2. Keeping the head, neck, and shoulders on the floor, press the feet on the floor and raise the hips/buttocks up.

3. Place a brick vertically under the sacrum, towards the tailbone.

4. Straighten the legs, one at a time, the center of the back of the heel resting on the floor.

5. Open up the chest.

6. Extend the arms along the floor towards the feet.

7. To come up, bend the knees, lift the hips, remove the brick and lower the buttocks to the floor, then roll over to the side and sit up. 

 

References

Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on Yoga

Iyengar, Geeta S. (2000) Yoga in Action: Preliminary Course. YOG Mumbai.

 

Susan teaches a continuing Iyengar Yoga class (live stream) on Sundays through the Saint Paul Yoga Center.

Sūtra recitation is at 3:50 pm, followed by class at 4 pm.

Equanimity

By Joy Laine, CIYT

I.33   maitrī-karuṇā-muditopekṣāṇām sukha-duḥkha-puṇyāpuṇya-viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātaś citta-prasādhanam.

 

Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favourably disposed, serene and benevolent.

 [B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sūtras in Popsi Narasimhan p. 24]

 

By cultivating an attitude of friendship toward those who are happy, compassion toward those in distress, joy toward those who are virtuous, and equanimity toward those who are nonvirtuous, lucidity arises in the mind.

[Edwin Bryant in Popsi Narasimhan p. 24]

 

I.33 is perhaps one the best known sūtras in the whole of the Yoga Sūtras. Patañjali offers us this sūtra as a way of countering the obstacles that we will likely face in our yoga practice. This sūtra, however, has a scope that goes beyond its usefulness for overcoming obstacles in our practice. When paired with the ethical principles (yamas), I.33 gives us a blueprint for applying the principles of yoga to our social interactions. 

 

Four locks and keys

I.33 gives us four pairings, four respective ways to respond to four different groups of individuals: friendliness toward those who are happy, compassion toward those in distress, joy toward those who are virtuous and equanimity toward those who are non-virtuous. Swāmi Satchidānanda (1914-2002) characterized these four pairings as the four locks and keys. The idea of a lock is that the emotional state of another can lock us into an unhealthy frame of mind. We can become jealous, for example, when we encounter someone enjoying great success. The key to unlock such an unhealthy emotional state in this case would be the cultivation of joyfulness (muditā) toward that person.

 

Psychology of I.33

I.33 gives a good illustration of the overall psychology that Patañjali lays out in the Yoga Sūtras. We know that ignorance (avidyā), the root cause of human suffering, manifests largely as egoism (asmitā), the strong tendency we have to misidentify with our ego self. This is the reason why emotions such as envy, anger, etc. are so harmful from a yogic point of view. They not only spring from the ego, but in turn, reinforce our identification with the ego. Jealousy occurs because we desire something that someone else possesses. Such a desire is rooted in a sense of our own inadequacy, which arises because we mistakenly believe that our identity resides in our ego self. Jealousy focuses our attention on the imperfections of the ego self, distracting us from that deeper Self which lacks nothing.

 

Upekṣa

In I.33, upekṣa is given as the appropriate yogic response toward those who are without virtue, or more plainly stated, those whom we think of as propagating evil. “Upekṣa” is most commonly translated as either “indifference” or “equanimity.”  This pairing is perhaps the most challenging of the four. We can easily understand why compassion is chosen as the response to suffering, for example, but it is less easy to understand why we are being asked to respond to evil with equanimity or indifference.

 

Indifference

Indifference is sometimes defined as an absence of compulsion towards one thing over another—for example, tea versus coffee or good versus bad.  The very structure of I.33, however, speaks against being indifferent to whether something is good or evil.  Upekṣa is the response that Patañjali advocates in the face of evil, not when faced with a choice between good and evil. Patañjali is not attempting here to undermine the reality of the distinction between good and evil. Indifference in the face of a choice between good and evil would amount to callousness and a lack of moral compass. Indifference is also commonly understood to mean a lack of interest or concern for something. One possible (and worrying) reading might be that we need not care about or concern ourselves with evil, that we should not allow evil in the world to distract us from our own spiritual quest. If we situate I.33 in the broader context of Patañjali’s ethical teachings, however, it is clear that he does not advocate that we turn a blind eye in the face of wrongdoing.  Having cleared up possible misconceptions, we can now examine why Patañjali teaches us to respond to evil with upekṣa.

 

Equanimity

In asking us to face evil with upekṣa, Patañjali is asking is to maintain our composure in the face of difficult situations. We can best see the wisdom of this by comparing it to other potential options that are available to us. The emotion of anger ranks high as an appropriate response. If we see someone committing an evil act, then it might seem as though our very humanity requires us to be angry rather than equanimous. In II. 34, however, Patañjali gives anger (krodha) as one of the leading causes of violence towards others. This is the problem with anger—it so easily spirals into violence, causing harm to all concerned. Violence is rarely a solution to a problem and often makes an already difficult situation worse. Anger is often premature, springing from egoism and ignorance of the big picture. For example, we can misread a situation and be quick to anger if we always take things personally, as in a situation of a driver who cuts us off and speeds away in front of us. We can easily see this as a personal affront and cultivate an anger towards that person. We have no idea, though, what is occurring in that person’s life.

 

We often speak of “righteous anger” as distinct from just plain old anger. We may feel angry because of people going hungry or because of mass incarceration, for example. Surely such anger is justified, we may argue—we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t feel anger at such things.  Yet even righteous anger is rarely sufficient on its own and should not be viewed as an adequate and sole response to evil. If this is our sole response, it may be that we are just trying to assure ourselves of our own moral sensitivity, and we can lapse into self-indulgence.

 

Righteous anger is therefore properly viewed as a stepping stone to action. It might be that righteous anger prompts us to take the necessary action, and hence it can play a valuable role, but it could be argued that we don’t need anger to prompt us to act in the right way. Furthermore, we make better decisions once we move past our initial anger. Emotions such as anger and fear hinder us from carefully assessing any given situation.

 

Perhaps the strongest argument for upekṣa is that it is the guardian of friendliness, compassion and joy, the other three emotions mentioned in this sūtra. Upekṣa is distinct among the four emotions listed in I.33. Rather than being thought of as a fourth emotion, it is best understood as a nutrient in which to cultivate the other three. In arguing for upekṣa in the face of evil, Patañjali is not counseling inaction, but rather, effective action.

 

Summary

This past year has been challenging on many fronts, and we can become consumed with the constant stream of bad news. It is all too easy to feel angry and hopeless in the face of so much that is wrong with this world. In I.33 Patañjali is not teaching us to ignore wrongdoing. Instead, he advocates that we respond with composure. This will give us a clarity of vision and action, directing our emotional energy away from emotions that threaten to engulf us and distance us from our deeper Self.  In doing so, we can become a force for positive change in the world.

 

 

References and Further Study 

B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life (Rodale, 2005), especially Chapter Three

Popsi Narasimhan, The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: An Anthology of Translations (popsi narasimhan, 2018)

Sean Scott

Home:  Battle Lake, Minnesota 

Years with Iyengar Yoga: 11

Fun fact:  Awarded “Emerging Artist” of 2019 for National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts

I was introduced to yoga in college while taking it as an elective course, and for years after dabbled with the occasional class when I felt I had the money. A few nebulous flow sequences sustained my intermittent home routine, but I always maintained an interest in āsana and philosophy and considered yoga to be part of my life. As I look back on some of those early teachers, I realize some were accomplished and some were…dangerous. I never once in that time ran across anyone who practiced in the Iyengar tradition. 

 

After finishing graduate school, starting a family, moving to Minnesota and diving into the life of a studio artist, I realized I was mentally, emotionally, and physically frazzled. I was also diagnosed with vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder (often stress induced) in which the body’s defense system attacks and depigments melanin from the skin. I knew that yoga was shown to decrease stress levels and boost the immune system, so I sought out a studio in Fergus Falls and began taking classes with Katy Olson, who introduced me to Iyengar Yoga. 

 

I was immediately struck with the specificity of instruction, systematic approach and solid framework it provided. From that point forward, Iyengar Yoga has blossomed in my life. By year three I had established a daily āsana practice that complemented weekly classes. 

 

Since that time, Iyengar Yoga has continued to be a great asset, helping me to heal through two knee surgeries. More importantly, it has steadied me immensely as a father and husband during the critical formative years of our two sons. 

 

I have aspirations to teach yoga and have done some training with Chris Saudek and Kristin Chirhart. For the last two years, I have studied with Joy Laine and am grateful for her knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for the practice. The current online format has made classes much more accessible to me, but I do look forward to working in the same room with others and being on the receiving end of that perfect hands-on adjustment.

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