edition no. 12, 1.22

What’s new? Resolutions.

 

Have you made yours yet? Whether you call them resolutions or intentions, a major one might be setting up (or reviving) a home practice. Here are a few tips to get you started.

 

Carve out a space at home that is your designated yoga “studio.” The beauty of yoga is that it doesn’t require a space any larger than your standard-size mat.  Tip: a clear wall, ideally as long as your mat, is key, but if that’s a problem, a closed door is a good substitute. 

 

Getting the basic props is the next step. If you’ve been taking classes on Zoom, you may already have two blocks, three blankets, a bolster, belt and yoga chair.  Props are a lifetime investment (unlike expensive running shoes). Tip: If you are on a limited budget, consider applying for a scholarship from IYAUM to get what you need. We are happy to support you!

 

The biggest challenge is finding the time, and this is where many lose their way. Tip: set MODEST goals. Establish a regular schedule that you feel you can commit to for a month, like 15 minutes before or after work several days a week. Inevitably, you will miss a practice because life gets in the way, but hopefully you will feel the void and recommit to getting back on schedule. A 20-minute regular practice is very respectable.

 

Over the first few months, as your practice becomes habitual, I predict that you will find ways to expand it by editing out other less compelling activities. The benefits are so vast. It's a life-changer.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Nancy Footner

CIYT 2

Director, Friendship Yoga 

Iowa City, IA

Join us for a pop-up class with Randy Just! This will be available to all levels of experience and online only, so you can join us virtually from wherever you are. Save the date: Saturday, January 29, 2:00 to 4:00 pm, CST. Recording available for one week afterwards.   

 

Randy is the Director of BKS Iyengar Yoga Studio of Dallas and is a Level 3 CIYT. His study of yoga began in the 70s, and during the mid-80s he became a devoted student of Iyengar Yoga. Randy has studied with the Iyengars in Pune, India regularly since 1997, as well as with many senior Iyengar teachers globally and throughout the United States. Randy’s devotion to yoga, perfectionism and compassion for his students characterize a dynamic, precise teaching style. His innate sense of humor coupled with an insightful understanding of Iyengar Yoga both inspires and challenges his students, thus enhancing the depth, clarity and focus of their practice. Randy has served as President of the Iyengar Yoga Association of the South Central United States (IYASCUS) and is currently President of The Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States (IYNAUS).

Jennie Ross

Home:  Viroqua, WI

Years with Iyengar Yoga:  Over 25

Fun fact:   Music is my passion—all kinds of music. I am currently volunteering at the local community radio station, WDRT, incorporating over 1,000 donated CDs and LPs into their music library. It’s a real test of my music knowledge, and I’ve discovered lots of new artists and genres!

How can the IYAUM community be more welcoming? 

It seems like teachers know their students, but many of the students don’t know each other. Something as simple as having the students say their names at the end of class might be helpful in creating a sense of community. Also, more experienced practitioners could welcome newer students to classes, find out more about them and offer mentoring or encouragement.

 

I started my yoga journey doing Hatha Yoga at the Meditation Center in Northeast Minneapolis. Five years later, I took an Iyengar class at the Minneapolis Yoga Workshop, and I found that it really resonated with me. Although William Prottengeier has been my “root” teacher for the past 25+ years, I have also benefitted from a number of other Twin Cities teachers.

 

When I had major surgery about 15 years ago, I asked William what I should do for my practice. He said , “It’s time for you to work on your meditation practice.” After visiting the Common Ground meditation center, I felt it was exactly what I needed to be doing, especially given the stress level in my work life at the time. 

 

My emphasis changed from a fairly strenuous yoga practice to one focused on meditation and āsanas with both body AND mind awareness. I met Amy Samson-Burke at one of William’s classes, and after hearing about her teaching of adaptive yoga (which is rooted in the Iyengar tradition) through Mind Body Solutions (MBS), I started volunteering there as a class assistant. I also took teacher training workshops from Matthew Sanford.

 

My yoga practice evolved yet again as a result of the teachings at MBS. I learned how to really notice and work with the “subtle body” aspect of āsanas, even if the physical body can’t do a pose in the traditional way.  This way of practice also aligned with what I had been learning about awareness of body sensations and energies from my meditation teachers. MBS allowed me to teach some meditation classes emphasizing mind-body awareness through their studio. When I moved to Wisconsin two years ago and the pandemic hit, driving classes online, I was able to continue teaching meditation (along with my fellow yogi and meditator, Nancy Boler) through MBS via Zoom.  

 

The fact that we have so many wonderful Iyengar teachers in our local communities and in the wider community of Zoom is something to be thankful for. I feel particularly fortunate that Carol Anne Kemen teaches Iyengar Yoga in my small town, and I have also been able to do Zoom classes with William and Shannyn Joy Potter.

 By Hallie Evans, CIYT

Parivṛtta Trikoṇāsana (Revolved Triangle Pose)

 

I like all of the three parivṛtta standing poses, but Parivṛtta Trikoṇāsana is my favorite.  Not only do I get the benefits of a standing pose, but also those of a twisting āsana.  The lateral rotational movement creates mobility in the spine; the pose also strengthens the hip muscles, relieves back pain and invigorates the abdominal organs.  

 

There are so many terrific ways to practice this pose! 

 

In Yoga in Action: Preliminary Course, Geeta Iyengar stresses that practitioners “do not allow the head to go past the line of the leg,” and suggests practicing the pose near a wall to learn this alignment. Facing the wall, press the fingers of the top arm against it to help revolve the trunk and open the chest, and stack the top shoulder over the bottom one. 

 

I also love practicing the pose with my back to the wall. The wall keeps my hip in place, assures that my trunk is in the same plane as my legs and serves as a guide for my ribs and shoulders: Can I revolve my trunk so that both shoulder blades are on the wall? Using a rope wall, there is the added bonus of reaching the top hand to a rope for extra extension. I remember Abhijata Iyengar’s comment in one of her online sessions that doing a pose facing a wall offers psychological support, whereas having your back to the wall gives physical support. Either of these are great options for Parivṛtta Trikoṇāsana,

 

Doing the pose with a chair by the front leg can be very beneficial. One can use a slightly higher placement (chair seat or bottom rung) for the bottom hand—a great way to help rotate the trunk, or roll the top shoulder back with the top hand on the chair back. Or do both!  A chair also helps us balance in the pose so we can better focus on alignment. 

 

However, in Aṣṭadala Yogamālā Vol. 2, B.K.S. Iyengar reminds us that if we are healthy and able, the use of props shouldn’t become a habit. Rather, “use your own body, mind and intelligence as if they are props.” He adds:

 

“Use props to reach the optimum level in the poses. Then practice independently and see whether you can do as well as you practiced with the help of props. This way of study takes you to your optimum level of intelligence, which can carry on growing forever.”

 

Practicing Parivṛtta Trikoṇāsana in the center of the room allows us to focus on balance, the firmness in the feet and legs, the extension of the revolved trunk away from the hips, the expansion of the chest as the top arm reaches up and the joy of finding all of these actions at once. Nothing beats the exhilaration of achieving the pose and then windmilling back up to suddenly find yourself in Utthita Hasta Pādāsana—arms wide, legs firm, chest lifted. Just see if you’re not smiling!

 

 

Instructions from Yoga in Action: Preliminary Course

●  Jump (or step) to Utthita Hasta Pādāsana.

●  Turn and go to Pārśva Hasta Pādāsana.

●  Exhale, rotate the entire trunk, pelvis, abdomen, chest and head to the right so that the left arm extends over the right leg.

●  Exhale, place the left-hand fingertips down on the floor on the outside of the right foot. Alternatively, one can place the left hand on the inside of the right foot or on the right ankle.

●  Rotate the trunk and extend the right arm up in line with the shoulder.

●  Inhale and come up to Pārśva Hasta Pādāsana and then to Utthita Hasta Pādāsana.

●  Repeat the same on the left side.

 

Note: Those who are pregnant or menstruating should not practice this pose.

 

Hallie teaches classes at The Yoga Place in Lacrosse www.yogalacrosse. com, the Yoga Room in Decorah www.decorahyogaroom. com,  and Root River Yoga www.rootriveryoga. com

 

References

Iyengar, B.K.S. Aṣṭadala Yogamālā, Volume 2.  Allied Publishers, 2001.

Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on Yoga. Schocken, 1979.

Iyengar, Geeta. Yoga in Action:  Preliminary Course I. YOG, 2000.

 

Snakes Everywhere

By Joy Laine, CIYT

viparyayo mithyā-jñānam atad-rūpa-pratiṣṭham (I.8)

Error is false knowledge stemming from the incorrect apprehension of something. (Bryant p.38)

 

Citavṛtti overview

 

If you were asked to make a typology of your conscious thoughts (cittavṛttis), I wonder how your schema would compare to that of Patañjali. I think it’s fair to say that his classification of human thought into (i) instruments of knowledge, (ii) perceptual errors, (iii) verbal conceptualizations, (iv) deep sleep, and (v) memories is not an intuitively obvious way to cut the pie of human thought. Patañjali’s classification, however, reflects his connection to the broader philosophical landscape of his time, since the categories he describes are widely discussed in the Indian philosophical traditions beyond that of the Yoga Sūtras. You could say that they were a common currency in Indian philosophical thinking in his time, and a wealth of philosophical exploration of the human mind underpins each of these categories. 

 

Having discussed the instruments of knowledge in the first of the cittavṛttis, Patañjali goes on to equate the next two categories of cittavṛtti with two different kinds of error. The first of these is the category of perceptually based errors (viparyaya), and the second consists of conceptual or verbal missteps (vikalpa). One might wonder why error plays such an important role in his classification of thought, constituting two out of his five categories. We tend to think of errors, such as perceptual illusions, as aberrations rather than as key categories of human thought.

 

Perceptual and verbal errors, however, were widely discussed amongst Indian philosophers at this time. There were several reasons for this, first and foremost among them being the belief that error was the fundamental cause of human suffering. This drove an investigation into the nature of error itself, an investigation that led Indian philosophers deep into the workings of human thought, revealing that error is much more pervasive in human cognition than we might think. This month, we will consider perceptual illusion (viparyaya), the second category of cittavṛtti. By coming to understand seemingly simple perceptual errors, such as seeing a rope in a corner as a snake, we gain insight into the subterranean workings of the human mind, and ultimately, how a deep, existential error at the heart of human thought leads us to a place of suffering.

 

 

Viparyaya

 

In the classical commentaries on the Yoga Sūtras, the commentators offer several different examples of what constitutes a viparyaya—seeing a mother-of-pearl shell on the beach as a piece of silver or seeing two moons, for example. The best known and most widely discussed example, however, is that of walking into a room and seeing a piece of coiled rope in a far corner as a snake. We will follow tradition and focus on this stock example to explore the nature of viparyaya, teasing out its distinctive features:  

 

(i)  Viparyaya and pratyakṣa (perception)

Viparyaya is perceptually based and therefore has an experiential component to it. It is not counted as a perception (pratyakṣa), however, because the very concept of perception has accuracy built into it. Remember that perception (pratyakṣa) is viewed as an instrument of knowledge (pramāṇa) so, for anything to count as a perception, it must accurately represent that which is being perceived. If it seems to me that I am seeing a snake in the corner of the room, then for that to count as a perception, there really does have to be a snake in the corner of the room. When our experience of the world is not accurate, it is counted as a viparyaya.  Perception is given as a correct form of knowledge, whereas viparyaya is given as a mistaken form of knowledge (mithyā jñāna). Yet, while it is occurring, viparyaya feels like an authentic perception. This is why viparyayas can have such a powerful influence on us. When you see the rope as a snake, at that moment the snake is your reality, and you will feel the same fear as you would were there a snake present in the room.          

 

(ii)  Viparyaya and adhyāsa (mischaracterization/superimposition)

Viparyaya is essentially a mischaracterization of that which we are experiencing. The mind projects something onto the object appearing in our experience which doesn’t actually belong to the object. This is known as superimposition (adhyāsa). From (i) above we see that viparyaya is rooted in an actual experience of the world, so the error creeps in when we mischaracterize what it is we are experiencing. For example, when I see a coiled rope in the corner as a snake, I am experiencing a something that is in the corner of the room, but then I superimpose the idea of “snake” onto it, along with all that the snake represents.     

 

(iii)  Viparyaya and memory (saṁskāra)

Superimposition can happen for a variety of reasons. The mischaracterization is often triggered by an underlying similarity—a coiled rope, for example, has the same shape as a snake and mother-of-pearl has the same color as silver. The ways in which we mischaracterize objects, however, has much to do with our past experiences (saṁskāras). I may, for example, be primed to see coils of rope as snakes if I live in a place where snakes are a common menace. Prior experiences persist as latent influences in the mind, ready to spring out under the right circumstances. Viparyaya points to an important idea—namely, that our minds play an active role in how we experience the world. Our perceptual relationship to the world isn’t viewed as a passive process where the world is reflected in the mind like an object in a mirror, or imprinted on the mind like an object pressed into a piece of soft wax (metaphors sometimes used in western philosophy). Rather, our minds are engaged in a constant interpretive dance with the world, sometimes supplementing our raw experience with useful additional knowledge, but sometimes leading us astray with false projections emanating from the mind’s hidden layers. Either way, our experiences of the world are infused with the influence of the mind and its categories.   

 

(iv)  Viparyaya and sublation

There is a well-known expression in both the Indian and Western traditions of philosophy: “Truth cannot contradict truth.” This implies that when we say something is true, we are saying that it cannot be toppled by some new idea that comes along. Yet sometimes we think that something is true that turns out not to be true at all. Indian philosophers have a dynamic view of knowledge—we hold things to be true but sometimes may let go of these supposed truths in the face of new experiences. This is known as sublation, and it is exemplified in the situation of the rope and the snake. When I see a coiled object in the corner of the room, I may hold as my working truth that there is a snake in the corner of the room. This is the best I can do in that moment of time. We are not imprisoned in our beliefs, though, since we have the power to explore our environment further to gather more information. I can cautiously approach the corner of the room, maybe poke the coiled object with a stick, leading me to replace my initial judgment that there is a snake in the corner of the room with the new judgment that there is a coiled rope in the corner. In his commentary on I.8, Vyāsa gives a concise summary of this idea of sublation:

 

“Why is this [viparyaya] not a valid cognition? Because it is sublated by valid cognition. The object of valid cognition is a thing as it is, and the fact of not being valid cognition is shown by the fact that valid cognition cancels it. For example, seeing the moon as double is refuted by seeing that it is in fact a single moon.” (Vyāsa, Yoga Bhāṣya in Whicher, The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana, p. 110)

 

The pramāṇas therefore function as correctives to perceptual errors (viparyayas). We glean from this that the tradition has a dynamic, pragmatic view of knowledge. We act in good faith on what we think we know in the present moment, understanding that so-called current knowledge may need revision in the light of future events. As the rope/snake example teaches, we have to be open to the idea that there may be some future insight that will cause us to revise some of our current beliefs. Truth seekers do best to keep an open mind.      

 

(v)  Viparyaya and samādhi

Following from (iii) and (iv), we can get an insight into the nature of samādhi states, at least those samādhi states in which we are still in contact with objects in the world (sabīja samādhi). Even in pratyakṣa, that is, even when we are perceiving the world correctly from an empirical standpoint, the mind still inserts itself into our experience of the world. Often our perception is pervaded by afflictions such as desire and aversion, and the very experience itself is ego-oriented (“I am seeing the rope”). Thus, one way to view samādhi states is that they are states in which, as a result of training the mind, it becomes like a crystal in which the object is reflected as it is, without any conceptual or emotional interference/superimposition (see Yoga Sūtras I.41). Patañjali is therefore implying that having a mind that functions like a crystal is the exception rather than the rule.    

 

(vi)  Viparyaya and avidyā

In his commentary on I.8, Vyāsa specifically links viparyaya to the root kleṣa, avidyā, the fundamental error in which we misperceive the very nature of existence itself.  This gives viparyaya a spiritual significance that goes beyond the domain of empirical corrections.  Patañjali defines ignorance in the following way:   

 

anityāśuciduḥkhānātmasu nityaśucisukhātmakhyātir avidyā (II.5)

Ignorance is regarding the impermanent as permanent, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant, and the non-Self as the Self. (Carrera, p.106).       

 

Thus, although viparyaya has an everyday sense in which it refers to perceptual errors, as in seeing the rope as a snake, in the context of yoga philosophy it refers specifically to the fundamental error in which we misperceive the nature of our very existence. In II.5 we can see how the conceptualization of avidyā is in accordance with the logic underlying viparyaya, seeing a thing as different from what it really is (seeing what is not eternal as eternal, for example), superimposing qualities onto a thing that do not belong to it. We superimpose qualities which properly belong to puruṣa, our deepest self, onto those material elements of our existence, investing them with an importance that they don’t actually have. Just as a person who believes they have found a valuable piece of silver on the beach will be disappointed to find that it is a mother-of-pearl shell, we too will be disappointed if we think that our possessions, our bodies, our egos, are going to be an eternal and a lasting source of contentment. Following the logic of the rope/snake example, confusion is most likely to occur when two things resemble each other in some aspect. Therefore confusion is most likely to occur in this case at the interface between the ego self and the Self.

 

 

Conclusion

 

One important feature of the mechanisms underlying viparyaya is that they are quick, operating beyond the scope of our conscious, rational minds. When I see the rope as a snake, it is not because I have undertaken some process of thoughtful reflection. Rather, it is an instantaneous response to my environment. In today’s parlance, we would say that viparyayas spring from the emotional or reptilian brain. This means that they are difficult to control, as are the strong emotions that may accompany these kinds of error. We have to undertake practices or therapies capable of reaching into the subterranean levels of the brain if we wish to change some of our instinctive responses to the world in which we live.

 

As it turns out, viparyayas constitute an important and pervasive category of human thought. We are constantly prone to mischaracterizing the objects and people we encounter. The traumatized war veteran who experiences every loud noise as a roadside bomb, or the person influenced by societal stereotypes who sees every young Black male as a dangerous presence, are two timely and poignant examples of the power of viparyaya in our lives. Time and time again, Patañjali’s insights into the human mind speak directly to us, arcing across the cultural divide that separates us from his world.

 

 

Joy Laine taught philosophy at Macalester College for over thirty years and teaches Iyengar Yoga around the Twin Cities.

 

Sources and Further Study 

Bryant, Edwin. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. North Point Press, 2009.

Carrera, Reverend Jaganatha. Inside the Yoga Sūtras. Integral Yoga Publications, 2006.

Whicher, Ian. The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana. D.K. Printworld, 2000.

 

2021 IYAUM Board of Directors

President: Nancy Marcy

Vice President: Nancy Footner

Treasurer: Dawn Talbert

Secretary: Katharine Wood

Membership: Bethany Valentini

Media & Communications: Shannyn Joy Potter

IYAUM Liaison to IYNAUS: Susan Johnson

Contact:  iyengaryogaaum@gmail.com

 

IYAUM Committee Newsletter

Editor: Irene Alderson

Visuals: Shannyn Joy Potter

Contact: news@iyaum.org

 

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