S. Ramaswami's Newsletter on Meditation

Somebody was saying recently that meditation was in the air. I came across this Newsletter again today and thought it might be nice to share.

Meditating on Meditation (The Newsletter in full is found here )

'...how should one meditate? Many start meditation and give it up

after a few days or weeks as they fail to see any appreciable benefit

or perceivable progress. The drop out rate is quite high among

meditators. The mind continues to be agitated and does not get into

the meditating routine. Or quite often one tends to take petit naps

while meditating. Why does this happen? It is due to lack of adequate

preparation. Basically one has to prepare oneself properly for

meditation. The Yogis mention two sadhanas or two yogic procedures as

preparations. They are asanas and pranayama. Asanas, as we have seen

earlier, reduce rajas which manifests as restlessness of the mind, an

inability to remain focused for an appreciable amount of time. But

another guna, tamas also is not helpful during meditation, manifesting

as laziness, lethargy and sloth and this also should be brought under

control if one wants to meditate. Patanjali, Tirumular and several old

Yogis advocate the practice of Pranayama to reduce the effects of

Tamas. Patanjali says Pranayama helps to reduce avarana or Tamas. He

along with conventional ashtanga yogis also mentions that Pranayama

makes the mind capable of Dharana or the first stage of meditation.

Pranayama is an important prerequisite of meditation.

There is evidence that pranayama has a salutary effect on the whole

system. In an earlier article I had explained the beneficial effects

of deep pranayama on the heart and the circulatory system. Further,

when it is done correctly, it helps to draw in anywhere between 3 to 4

liters of atmospheric air compared to just about ½ liter of air

during normal breathing. This helps to stretch the air sacs of the

lungs affording an excellent exchange of oxygen and gaseous waste

products. These waste products are proactively thrown out of the

system by deep pranayama, which yogis refer to as reduction of tamas.

Thus soon after pranayama, the yogi feels refreshed and calm and

becomes fit for the first stage of meditation which is called Dharana.

What should one meditate on? Several works talk about meditating on

cakras, mantras, auspicious icons, various tatwas and on the spirit/

soul etc. But, the method of meditating, only a few works detail.

Perhaps the most precise is that of Patanjali in Yoga Sutras.

Patanjali details not only a step by step methodology of meditation

but also the various objects of prakriti and ultimately the spirit

within to meditate on. Hence his work may be considered as the most

detailed, complete and rigorous on meditation

For a start Patanjali would like the abhyasi to get the technique

right. So he does not initially specify the object but merely says

that the Yogi after the preliminary practices of asana, pranayama and

pratyahara, should sit down in a comfortable yogasana and start the

meditation. Tying the mind to a spot is dharana. Which spot? Vyasa in

his commentary suggests going by tradition, a few spots, firstly

inside the body, like the chakras as the Kundalini Yogi would do,, or

the heart lotus as the bhakti yogi would do, or the mid-brows as a

sidhha yogi would do or even an icon outside as a kriya yogi would do.

The icon should be an auspicious object like the image of one’s

favorite deity. Many find it easier to choose a mantra and focus

attention on that. Thousands everyday meditate on the Gayatri mantra

visualizing the sun in the middle of the eyebrows or the heart as part

of their daily Sandhyavandana** routine. It is also an ancient

practice followed even today to meditate on the breath with or without

using the Pranayama Mantra.

(** Namarupa published my article “Sandhyavandanam-Ritualistic

Gayatri Meditation” with all the routines, mantras, meanings, about 40

pictures, and also an audio with the chanting of the mantras in the

Sep/Oct 2008 issue).

What of the technique?

The Yogabhyasi starts the antaranga sadhana or the internal practice

by bringing the mind to the same object again and again even as the

mind tends to move away from the chosen object of meditation. The

active, repeated attempts to bring the mind back to the simple, single

object again and again is the first stage of meditation (samyama)

called dharana. Even though one has done everything possible to make

the body/mind system more satwic, because of the accumulated samskaras

or habits, the mind continues to drift away from the object chosen for

meditation. The mind starts with the focus on the object but within a

short time it swiftly drifts to another related thought then a third

one and within a short time this train of thoughts leads to a stage

which has no connection whatsoever with the object one started with.

Then suddenly the meditator remembers that one is drifting and soon

brings the mind back to the object and resumes remaining with the

“object”. This process repeats over and over again. This repeated

attempts to coax and bring the mind to the same object is dharana. At

the end of the session lasting for about 15 minutes, the meditator may

(may means must) take a short time to review the quality of

meditation. How often was the mind drifting away from the object and

how long on an average the mind wandered? And further what were the

kinds of interfering thoughts? The meditator takes note of these. If

they are recurrent and strong then one may take efforts to sort out

the problem that interferes with the meditation repeatedly or at least

decide to accept and endure the situation but may decide to take

efforts to keep those thoughts away at least during the time one

meditates.

If during the dharana period, the mind gets distracted too often and

this does not change over days of practice, perhaps it may indicate

that the rajas is still dominant and one may want to reduce the

systemic rajas by doing more asanas in the practice. On the other hand

if the rajas is due to influences from outside, one may take special

efforts to adhere to the yamaniyamas more scrupulously. Perhaps every

night before going to sleep one may review the day’s activities and

see if one had willfully violated the tenets of yamaniyamas like “did

I hurt someone by deed, word or derive satisfaction at the expense of

others’ pain”. Or did I say untruths and so on. On the other hand if

one tends to go to sleep during the meditation minutes, one may

consider increasing the pranayama practice and also consider reducing

tamasic interactions, foods etc.

Then one may continue the practice daily and also review the progress

on a daily basis and also make the necessary adjustments in practice

and interactions with the outside world. Theoretically and practically

when this practice is continued diligently and regularly, slowly the

practitioner of dharana will find that the frequency and duration of

these extraneous interferences start reducing and one day, the abhyasi

may find that for the entire duration one stayed with the object. When

this takes place, when the mind is completely with the object moment

after moment in a continuous flow of attention, then one may say that

the abhyasi has graduated into the next stage of meditation known as

dhyana. Many meditators are happy to have reached this stage. Then one

has to continue with the practice so that the dhyana habits or

samskaras get strengthened. The following day may not be as

interruption free, but Patanjali says conscious practice will make it

more successful. “dhyana heyat tad vrittayah”. If one continues with

this practice for sufficiently long time meditating on the same object

diligently, one would hopefully reach the next stage of meditation

called Samadhi. In this state only the object remains occupying the

mind and the abhyasi even forgets herself/himself. Naturally if one

continues the meditation practice one would master the technique of

meditation. Almost every time the yagabhasi gets into meditation

practice, one would get into Samadhi. Once one gets this capability

one is a yogi—a technically competent yogi-- and one may be able to

use the skill on any other yoga worthy object and make further

progress in Yoga. (tatra bhumishu viniyogah)

The consummate yogi could make a further refinement. An object has a

name and one has a memory of the object, apart from the object itself

(sabda, artha gnyana). If a Yogi is able to further refine the

meditation by focusing attention on one aspect like the name of the

object such a meditation is considered superior. For instance when the

sound ‘gow” is heard (gow is cow ), if the meditiator intently

maintains the word ‘gow’ alone in his mind without bringing the

impression(form) of a cow in his mind then that is considered a

refined meditation. Or when he sees the cow, he does not bring the

name ‘gow’ in the meditation process, it is a refined meditation.

The next aspect-after mastering meditation— one may consider is, what

should be the object one should meditate upon. For Bhakti Yogis it is

the Lord one should meditate upon. According to my teacher, a great

Bhakti Yogi, there is only one dhyana or meditation and that is

bhagavat dhyana or meditating upon the Lord. There is a difference

between a religious person and a devotee. A devotee loves the Lord and

meditates on the Lord, all through life. The Vedas refer to the

Pararmatman or the Supreme Lord and bhakti yogis meditate on the Lord.

The Vedas also refer to several gods and some may meditate on these as

well. By meditating on the Lord one may transcend the cycle of

transmigration. At the end of the bhakti yogi’s life one reaches the

same world of the Lord (saloka), the heaven. Some attain the same form

as the Lord. Some stay in the proximity of the Lord and some merge

with the Lord. The Puranas which are the later creation of poet seers

personify the Lord and the vedic gods. Thus we have several puranas as

Agni purana, Vayu purana and then those of the Lord Himself like the

Bhagavata Purana , Siva Purana , Vishnu Purana. Running to thousands

of slokas and pages the puranic age helped to worship the Lord more

easily as these stories helped to visualize the Lord as a person,

which was rather difficult to do from the Vedas. Later on Agamas made

the Lord more accessible by allowing idols to be made of the Lord and

divine beings and consecrating them in temples. Thus these various

methods helped the general populace remain rooted to religion and

religious worship. So meditating upon the charming idol/icon of the

Lord made it possible for many to worship and meditate . Of course

many traditional Brahmins belonging to the vedic practices stuck to

the vedic fire rituals, frowned upon and refrained from any ‘form

worship’, but millions of others found form worship a great boon.

Meditating on the form of the chosen deity either in a temple or at

one’s own home has made it possible to sidestep the intermediate

priestly class to a great extent. One can become responsible for one’s

own religious practice, including meditation. The ultimate reality is

meditated on in different forms, in any form as Siva Vishnu etc or as

Father, Mother, Preceptor or even a Friend. Some idol meditators

define meditating on the whole form as dharana, then meditating on

each aspect of the form as the toe or head or the arms or the

bewitching eyes as dhyana and thus giving a different interpretation

to meditation. Some, after meditating on the icon, close the eyes and

meditate on the form in their mind’s eye (manasika).

Darshanas like Samkhya and Yoga which do not subscribe to the theory

of a Creator commended ‘the understanding of one’s own Self’ as a

means of liberation. The Self which is non-changing is pure

consciousness and by deep unwavering meditation after getting the

technique right, one can realize the nature of oneself and be

liberated. Following this approach, the Samkhyas commend meditating on

each and every of the 24 aspects of prakriti in the body-mind complex

of oneself and transcend them to directly know the true nature of

oneself, and that will be Freedom or Kaivalya. Similarly the Yogis

would say that the true nature of the self is known when the mind

transcends(nirodha) the five types of its activities called vrittis to

reach kaivalya, by a process of subtler and subtler meditation.

The Upanishads on the other hand while agreeing with the other

Nivritti sastras like Yoga and Samkhya in so far as the nature of the

self is concerned, indicate that the individual and the Supreme Being

are one and the same and meditating on this identity leads to

liberation. They would like the spiritual aspirant to first follow a

disciplined life to get an unwavering satwic state of the mind. Then

one would study the upanishadic texts (sravana), by analysis (manana)

understand them and realize the nature of the self through several

step by step meditation approaches (nidhidhyasana). The Vedas, for the

sake of the spiritual aspirant, have several Upanishad vidyas to study

and understand It from several viewpoints. For instance, the panchkosa

vidya indicates that the real self is beyond (or within) the five

koshas (sheaths). It could also be considered as the pure

consciousness which is beyond the three states of awareness (avasta)

of waking, dream and deep sleep, as the Pranava(Om) vidya would

indicate. The understanding and conviction that Self and the Supreme

Self are one and the same is what one needs to get, before doing

Upanishadic meditation following the advaitic interpretation.

Summarizing one may say that traditional meditation warrants proper

preparation so that the mind becomes irrevocably satwic and thus fit

for and capable of meditation. Secondly it requires practice on a

simple object until the meditation technique is mastered and such

meditatin samskaras developed. Then the Yogi should set the goal of

meditation based on the conviction of a solid philosophy—bhakti,

samkhya, yoga, vedanta, kundalini (or if comfortable, nirvana) or

whatever'.

The Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga has a short sequence called 'The meditative pose sequence' based on Vajrasana or bolt pose. Vajrasana can be used for meditation as an alternative to Lotus. The sequence is basically Vajrasana with different hand and arm variations and including some forward and backward bending. It's a nice sequence and ideal perhaps for an Ashtanga rest day and as preparation for Pranayama and Meditation.

YOGA NERVES from Srivatsa Ramaswami's February 2010 Newsletter

Even orthodox Astangi's get 25 breaths in Sarvangasana and Sirasasana which can be taken as long, deep and as slow as they like. For the home Ashtangi The complete book of Vinyasa Krama has some nice variations worth considering while your up there.

YOGA NERVES

from Srivatsa Ramaswami's February 2010 Newsletter.

The brain and its nerve pathways form an important system of the human

being and again Yoga has some unique procedures to help the efficacy

of the nervous system. The brain, the spinal cord containing the nerve

fibers, the ganglions, the plexuses and the peripheral nerves form

this system. We have already seen the benefit the yogic technique of

meditation can bring to the brain. It helps to create new neural

connections and reduce disturbances. This Raja Yoga technique works

within the brain and transforms (parinama) it to a better functioning

organ. The Hata Yogis through the Hata Yoga practices such as

Pranayama, viparitakaranis and some mudras help to maintain good

health of the brain. The two postures that really help the brain are,

as you can guess, the inversions, Sirasasana and Sarvangasana.

Many people, when they start to practice Headstand, find that their

faces flush and they feel a rush of blood to the face and the skull.

After some regular practice for a short period of time, the body

adjusts to the new posture and auto regulates the flow of blood. Even

so when one practices this posture for a significant time, the blood

circulation in the brain improves considerably, since the blood

vessels in the brain do not contract or dilate the way other blood

vessels do. This is very refreshing to the brain and normally people

get a cleansed feeling. Equally important is that the cerebro-spinal

fluid, which is a clear and colorless liquid surrounding the brain and

the spinal cord, drains and pools upon the top portion of the brain.

It enters the ventricles and small recesses in the brain and helps in

the nourishment of the brain cells. The third ventricle conveys a

small recess to the posterior portion of the pituitary gland. The

pressure of the CSF, while staying in Headstand, helps the gland to

secrete more of the hormones into the CSF which again is said to

stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. So people who have a weak

sympathetic system may benefit from remaining in Headstand for a

considerable amount of time. The weak sympathetic is considered to be

one of the causes of some ailments like bronchial asthma. Hence this

exercise could be useful for those who suffer from such conditions as

bronchial asthma, its cousin eczema and distant relative, epilepsy y

stimulating the sympathetic.

Sarvangasana is similar to but yet different from Headstand. In this,

instead of the crown, the occipital portion of the head is on the

floor, and the CSF pools into the midbrain and the back of the brain

including the medulla. These areas are really stimulated by a good

stint in Sarvangasana. It is said the Vagas nerve nuclei are

stimulated by this exercise. Thus it results in the activation of the

para sympathetic. It results in reduction in anxiety and insomnia. My

Guru used to say that it helps normalize sexual functions. Thus a

judicious mix of Headstand and Shoulder stand would help to bring

about a healthy balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic

nervous systems.

Yoga is particularly directed towards maintaining the integrity of the

spine. The spinal cord is about 45 cm long for men and 43cm for women.

The enclosing bony vertebral column protects the relatively shorter

spinal cord. In fact, the spinal cord extends down to only the last of

the thoracic vertebrae, or the thoracic spine, and then the tail flows

down the lumbar region. The spinal cord is inside the neural canal --

almost the diameter of the thumb-- of the backbone. The nerves from

the spine emanate on either side through openings called neural

foramina and then proceed to the autonomic nervous system and then

various organs. The slightest displacement of the vertebrae will

result in chronic or acute pain. In Yoga, efforts are made to maintain

the spinal column in proper position and mobility. There are fibers of

both the central and autonomic nervous system. When there is some

pressure on the nerves due to even the slightest displacement of the

vertebrae, there is pain which inhibits the various impulses that pass

through the brain, spinal cord, the various organs and muscles. This

can be compared to ‘noise’ in the telephone transmission system. In

such cases the signals do not properly reach the organs or the brain

and spinal cord do not receive the signals properly resulting in the

inefficiency of those organs. So Yogis take special care to see that

the spinal column is properly exercised, mobile and supple. The

exercises are designed to prevent any vertebral pressure on the nerves

by maintaining a healthy inter-vertebral space. And then these spinal

exercises help to circulate blood and CSF to nourish the spinal

nerves. They also suggest strengthening the back muscles so that the

spinal column is well supported. Paschimatanasana, as the name

implies, will meet the requirement admirably.

The movements for the spine include side bending, forward bending,

curving the back, back bending and of course twisting. These may be

done in different postures as is usually done in Vinyasakrama. One of

the simple sequences that helps achieve this is hasta vinyasas and

thoracic exercises in Tadasana, which include all these movements.

(See my book “Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga, Chapter on Tadasana).

This stretching of the spine will be enhanced if one practices the

scores of vinyasas in inversion poses like Sarvangasana and sirsasana.

The spinal cord is inside the thoracic region of the vertebral column.

So when we move the arms and do the various movements the spine at the

thoracic region does not stretch as the ribcage moves up and down as

one unit. The intervertebral discs in the region of the thoracic spine

are much thinner than in the cervical and the lumbar regions. As a

result there is generally less movement between the vertebrae of the

thoracic spine. The yogis have found a unique way of stretching the

thoracic spine. This is achieved by doing all the movements with deep

breathing, especially inhalation. When we do deep inhalation, the

chest expands side to side, front to back and also up and down which

will help stretch the vertical thoracic spine and maintain a good

intervertebral space for mobility and freedom for the nerves. Hence

the vinyasakrama method of doing asanas with good breathing has this

additional advantage. Again a good stint of Pranayama practice

especially Nadisodhana (nerve cleansing) with an easy, graceful and

secure Jalandharabandha should be very useful for the spinal cord.

Pranayamic deep inhalation and the long breath holding (1:4:2) after

inhalation (antah kumbhaka) directly benefit the nerves inside the

spine.. So when you do deep inhalation, hold the breath and stretch

the spine, the breathing itself acts as an internal traction of the

thoracic spine.

Krama a pose in here and Krama a pose in there

Loved this comment on the last post, it makes a valid point. You start adding an extra asana here, an extra one there and you could end up with a series bursting at the seams.

It's had me thinking the last couple of days of why I want the flexibility to add poses in the first place.

3rd series was part of it. It's a nice series but I'm not sure I want to practice it. Now you know I love arm balances, but for all the wrong reasons. However, for a guy they're perhaps the least challenging kind of asanas; we're designed for them. Besides, after only a month of 3rd I could feel myself starting to bulk up. I tend to put muscle on quite easily and feel it just gets in the way of other postures, the twists for example. Twice a week was bad enough, four days a week and my Mari D would be right out the window and wouldn't have a hope of Purna M.

There are a lot of asanas in Third series I like, some I practiced in Vinyasa Krama earlier in the year and some I just find beautiful as well as challenging. In Vinyasa Krama these poses would just show up towards the end of a Sub routine and it seemed to make sense to have the option of slotting them in at the appropriate place in the Primary or Intermediate.

This morning, being my day off, I had an extended practice, Primary to Baddha Konasana then all of Intermediate. After the 2nd series LBH I just slotted in the LBH asanas from 3rd then carried on to Titthibhasana. This seemed to work OK, only added an extra ten minutes on to the practice and just took the LBH a little further. Perhaps next week i'll do a similar thing with back bends after kapo.

One of the things I missed about Vinyasa Krama was the wide range of asanas and variations. As it happens most asanas are represented in Primary to Advanced A, but obviously with less variation. Sometimes I feel like I want more twisting postures say, and this flexible approach allows me to add some. In Vinyasa Krama there are some twisted versions of Paschimottasana, for example, and occasionally it might be nice to slot them in.

Ramaswami writes about having a clear plan for your practice and this seems to be the key to making this approach work. I know too many extra asana will over burden the Series and it will no longer be what I love about Ashtanga.

The idea then is to have days where I add a small group of asanas I want to work on, Standing poses from 3rd say (perhaps my days off), and days where I add the odd variations because I feel like working on a particular area of my body or indeed of the practice.

And of course there's nothing new about Ashtanga VInyasa Krama, I'm sure people have been practicing this way at home ever since the Ashtanga came west. It's useful to give this approach to practice a name though and look at it as a separate style, kinda fun too. Over the next few months I want to locate each of the Primary and Intermediate asanas in their Vinyasa Krama Sub-routines to improve my familiarity with the variations available.

Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama

So I know I get peoples backs up sometimes by suggesting that what I practice is Ashtanga, so how about I call it something else, that way nobody gets offended.

But what to call it?

Well that was easy, there it is at the at the top of my blog already. I'd intended the title to Suggest Ashtanga and Vinyasa Krama practiced at home, now I take it to mean Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama TM... at home

So what IS Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama TM?

Well I'm glad you asked.

1. Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama TM is a 'new' style of yoga (about a week old)

2. It has it's roots in Krishanamcharya's Mysore palace yoga as presented by his student Sri K Patarbhi Jois in his book Yoga Mala. As well as in the Later yoga of Krishnamacharya as presented by his student of 30+ years, Srivatsa Ramaswami in his book, The complete book of Vinyasa Krama.

3. The practice is based on the framework of the familiar Primary and Intermediate series of 'Ashtanga'. However, it's Vinyasa Krama element is found in the way poses and/or subroutines are occasionally added before or after the traditional asana of the Ashtanga series.

Thus Hanumanasana may be approached after the parasarita series of Standing either on it's own or as part of a Vinyasa Krama Sub-routine. Natarajasana may be added after Utthita Parsvasahita. Akarna Dharnurasana A and B from the Vinyasa Krama Asymmetric routine as well as Ashtanga 4th series may appear before the Leg behind head poses of Intermediate. Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana after Kapotasana, Parsva Bakasana after Bakasana, Viranchyasana B after the Janu's and Urdhva kukkutasna after kukkutasana ETC. All these additions or preparation poses and others beside are deemed acceptable in Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama.

4. However it is suggested that too many variations and additional poses may have a detrimental affect on the integrity of the framework series and thus only a small number of variations should be considered in any one practice.

5. It is suggested that the traditional Primary and Intermediate series be practiced once a week each, without any additional asanas to 'ground' the framework.

6. It is also acceptable to drop subroutines from the framework Ashtanga series to make room for the desired Sub routine from Vinyasa Krama.

7. It is suggested that Asana practice last between 60 and 90 minutes and is followed by 30 minutes of Pranayama, Meditation and even Chanting if you like that kind of thing.

7a. However, Shorter practices are of course acceptable and no doubt just as beneficial, if not more so, than the longer practice. Swenson has 15, 30 and 45 minute variations that can be used as alternative frameworks for a flexible Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama short practice TM

8. The main focus of the practice is the breath, long steady inhaling and exhaling, between 5 and 25 breathes per asana depending on the stability of the asana, and the engagement of the bandhas.

That should be enough to be going on with while I rush out, print T-shirts and try to engage Bikram's business manager the Spaghetti Monster.

Knee injury and Vinyasa Krama

I wrote this draft two weeks ago but forgot to post it. (Where it says a month ago read six weeks).

About a month ago I injured my knee and posted about it here. Nothing too serious, just an old injury from twenty odd years ago that plays up in the cold sometimes. I'd ignored the signs and walked around London all day. The following morning I could hardly stand.

My Practice, what about my Practice.

I couldn't really bend my knee so that was most of Primary out of the window and half of Intermediate. If this had happened last winter I would have been devastated, I hadn't come to Ashtanga from another style of yoga, Ashtanga was all I knew, as it was I was still thinking, 'What if this is it and I can't practice Ashtanga anymore'.

Luckily this year I'd come across Ramaswami's Vinyasa flexible Krama. Flexibility is it's middle name. OK, I made that bit up, but it should be it's middle name. Hell of a lot of asana variations in Vinyasa Krama, the system is designed to be adapted to the needs of the yoga practitioner.

So I took it easy for a couple of weeks adapting my practice, then added a few modified Intermediates, dropping asana that affected the knee and adding a couple of others from VK.

With more thought I could probably have added asana that work similar areas of the body as the ones I was cutting. As it was I kept it simple and took the opportunity to add asana from Vinyasa Krama routines that are less well represented in the Ashtnaga series. Parsva Bhangi (side poses) for example. Also Purva Tanasana (anterior stretch poses) In Primary we just get Pursvottanassana. From Vinyasa Krama's Supine sequence I added Apanasana (Pelvic floor poses) and some light Dwipadapitam (desk poses) which were easy on my knee, as were a lot of the shoulder stand series from Supine. I added these to finishing, to take up the slack from dropping Urdhava Padmasana, Pindasana and Matsyasana as well as Baddha Padmasana, Yoga Mudra and Utpluthi. When practicing Intermediate I added most of VK's Bow routine and went backbend crazy followed by long Paschimottanasanas with the different VK hand/arm variations. To Sirsasana I added a lot of the VK Inverted subroutines, there are some asanas that work on the knee but being upside down you can approach them much more lightly.

Best of all I felt I had Vinyasa Krama to fall back on. If I couldn't do Ashtanga anymore I could always practice Vinyasa Krama and that would be just fine, more than fine. What wicked wit and gifts had had the power to seduced me back to Ashtanga anyhow?

Vinyasa Krama doesn't have Jump backs and Jump through, other than at the very beginning and end of a sequence. Not being able to transition became less of a drama than it might have done a year ago. I used the extra time to really slow the breathing down and stay longer in an asana as well as repeating. Can't do Marichiyasana B and D that's OK repeat A and C, Can't do Karandavasana (misery) then do Pincha twice and stay up there longer, breathing more slowly.

Last week I was pretty much back to Full Intermediate bar a couple of obvious knee centric asana. With the extra time that gave me in the morning I worked a little more on Kapo and Dropping back. This morning my knee felt fine enough for a loose, full lotus and even Utpluthi, the only Asana I missed out was the left side of Vatayanasana.

UPDATE : My knee is just about back to normal, copes fine with Full Vinyasa Primary and Intermediate. I'm back doing Vatayanasana on both sides, Garbha Pindasa and with a lotus tight enough again to jump back from Supta Vajrasana. The only thing I find is that for longer periods of Meditation and Pranayama I find it best to sit in half rather than full lotus, at least until the weather warms up.