The third limb of the eightfold path is Asana. This is the physical practice where we can learn to steady the body/mind connection. Asana should be practiced with a steady and firm endurance in the body, a kind attention in the mind, and delight in the heart. Asana should be illuminating, not to be mistaken for comforting, otherwise that is just pleasure seeking. If you think on your life, some of your greatest moments are in discomfort, because that is where growth happens. And in our physical yoga practice, if we put ourselves into a controlled type of discomfort, that is where the illumination happens. That is the point where awareness can get sharpened.

When the body tones, the mind tunes (like an instrument). We incorporate all the yamas and niyamas into our asana, so that our practice becomes a way to get closer to the core of who we are as pure spirit, where a Oneness occurs between doing and the one who is doing.

Asana has 5 functions:

Will- a purposeful effort

Cognitive- perceiving the results of the actions

Mental- the discriminative capacity

Intellectual- the known felt experience

Spiritual- Euphoria in the cells

By practicing posture with steadiness and without strain, we can overcome restlessness, which is a type of boredom, which is one of our main human problems. The purpose of the practice is to enter into meditation with a balanced state of effort and ease. We seek to unite the opposing forces of duality into a felt experience; heavy and light, grounding down and reaching up, hugging in while extending out. Alignment is when struggle ceases and being still and calm is cultivated. This is where surrender, acceptance, and being present occurs.

All postures shift energy around in the body. They have an effect like exhilarating backbends, introverted forward bends, and releasing hip openers.

We express our thoughts and feelings physically, and most of the time unconsciously. You know all those figures of speech like pain in my butt, butterflies in my stomach, gut feeling, weight of the world on my shoulders, broken heart, frog in my throat, need to get something off my chest, cold shoulder, strong stomach, learned by heart, finger on the pulse, air head, put my foot down, turn my nose up.... I'm sure there are more although that was a fun list to think of. So these sensations build up in our bodies, and by choosing to take the time to look within, we can gain a clarity on what and how and where our tensions and habits show up. Mindful movement prepares our minds for introspection.

In one of Iyengar's books, he says, and I paraphrase this "without yoga, what we have is the tragic spectacle of humans working their problems out on each other." So this practice is devotion and discipline in order to move energy around in our body from our centre outward so that we can participate in our lives, create radiance and fluidity in our expression of this life. This is a sacred art, not just some exercise. We are using our will to become an efficient channel of Life Force energy.

Reflect:

How am I like my practice?

Where am I strong?

Where am I light?