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| I started the practice of Hatha Yoga in 1972 and entered it with all the vigor and enthusiasm of an 18-year old capricorn redhead. Soon I spend 2-3 hours wth asanas, bandhas, satkriyas, as the yogic lifestyle exploded in my reality never to leave me the same again.
I must emphasize that I was then trained by a traditional Yogi, his name was Mahindra, who was taught by Satyananda from Monghyr, Bihar. This training included also Japa and Kriya Yoga. The training went deep in ways I cannot express. After some time I allowed myself the luxury of practicing 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night.
Often I went to sleep and had many dreams with Yogis, who taught me and transferred energy. One night I remember I dreamt that I was practicing Ardhamatsyendrasana..... and I woke up in the middle of the dream only to realize that my body actually had shaped itself into the asana while sleeping. Thus went my connection with the yogic way at a very early age.
At 21 I went to Himalayas and spent time with yogis in caves at the Ganges and ashrams and cottages at the Tibetan border in Badrinath. Training continued.
Then Osho sent a message in 76, it arrived gently like a nuclear explosion of shunyata, emptiness, which is an experience of such fullness, it cannot be expressed. And there, I expressed it.
Next stop Osho Ashram, Poona, India. At this point meditation practice went easily into an average of 6 hours daily, the Ashram was set up this way. I entered often into 14 or 21-day retreats, where meditating and working upon oneself took place at the rate of 10-12 hours a day. While I would not describe Osho's Ashram as the monastic type, there was way too much joy, dancing and celebration going on, it was monastic in the way of providing a constant platform of sadhana, of spiritual practice in ways that were unimaginably intense. I did not believe anything comparable existed anywhere at the time.
My meditation practice went way up and asana practice way down. And then it happened: As more and more meditation practice took place, at times a tremendous, enormously powerful energy arose in my body. This energy was what seemed to be Universal Presence ... I would sit in meditation and suddenly This Enormous Presence just happened. It simply took control of my body and spontaneously bent it into what I recognized to be asanas. This happened many times. And when the asanas were held and completed in this way, the Presence merely got stronger.
I looked at this and understood what was happening. The Kundalini Presence unleashed, but it hit energetic obstacles in the body. So it simply took the body and shaped it into a position that would unblock the energetic hindrance so that it could unfold even stronger.
When I realized this, I understood immediately that this was the very Origin of Asanas. At the very core, asanas were a by-product of powerful meditation experiences, merely designed to make way for even greater depth of The Presence.
While I do also think that along the way there were people that looked at the ways animals moved and found it beneficial to copy those movements into a system of what we now call Hatha Yoga, I feel that Hatha Yoga, at the core, arose from the powerful events wherein the meditator has direct contact with the Divine Presence.
And that, in my vew, is the true origin of Hatha Yoga: An expression of Divine Presence. And if Hatha Yoga is practiced in the corrcect way, if you have a teacher who understands the connection of Hatha Yoga and the Divine Experience, you can approach this realm and the Divine Experience will shift from something you have read about, at best, to something that becomes a vibrantly alive reality for you.
May this happen to you.
www.teachingsinparis.blogspot.com |
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| Therefore, Asanas as an expression of an inner state, can potentially connect with that state also again, though this is not a certainty, since many things have to come together to create this result. The overall practice of the sadhaka requires intensity, balance and very competent instruction. A yoga teacher who is merely trained in yoga asanas and does not have any meditation practice, will never never do and merely respresents an expression of corruption in the sense that the bodily yoga asanas have been uncoupled from the deeper mysteries of YOGA. THAT WHICH BRINGS THE EXPERIENCE OF THE OPENING OF THE INNER SPACE .... THAT IS YOGA. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
 
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Hey Andreas...your preaching to the choir here. I enjoyed reading your post. I too used to find myself doing Asanas during seated meditation, it's kinda wild how it just all of a sudden comes up. Sometimes I can be doing yoga asanas at home and all of a sudden, I'll find myself in a new position and its like wow..that felt really good. At that moment, i always give a nice OM Nama Shivaya...and thank him for everything!!!  |
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| is that the only way to do it? |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Only way?? I'm not sure what you mean. I'm sure everyone has their own individual experiences wouldn't ya think?? |
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| i try to avoid it...
thinking, that is.
it's too bad we never got to meet up in atlanta. it would have been a gas |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Does that mean you're no longer in ATL??? I'm sorry, I was soooo busy with school. The only time I get to ATL is to see my Chinese Doctor, go to the Dekalb Farmer's Market, and have a Burrito Bowl from Chipotle..then it's back home...all in one day. I have your phone # programmed in my cell phone still!!! Dammit!  |
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| you went to chipotle?
lucky...
no worries, you'll just have to come out to washington state instead |
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| Thank you ladies for your interesting exchanges. Might you like to enjoy private conversation as private messages???? Thank you so much ...... |
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| i enjoy many things.
i think i would enjoy being a lady very much |
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Asanas arising in meditation?
