Day 11. Krishnamacharya General Practice #9

See the Guidelines for Practice page at the top of the blog.

Basically, the breathing is long and  slow, the eyes closed, bandhas engaged, Jalandhara bandha in particular. After each asana, mudra,and pranayama ( unless indicated otherwise, usually by "followed by") we are directed to lie down and rest for one to two minutes to notice the effect. See the guidelines post for more on this most important element of the practice.

Points of concentration are introduced for different asana, mudra and/or pranayama from this session on. I will be including the chart below with each post, the concentration post mentioned in the session highlighted in bold.

Points of concentration: 16 vital points. (No concentration points in todays practice)

sirsa - the fontanel

murdhna - middle of forehead

bhrumadhya - between eyebrows

nasagra - extremity of the nose

talu mula - back of the palate

lalata - root of the uvula

kantha - throat

kantha kupa - back of the throat

hrdaya - middle of the heart

nabhi - navel

sroni - centre of the pelvis

mula - perineum

jangha- point at top of thighs

janu - point at middle of knees 

gulpha - point at middle of ankles 

pada angusta - point of the big toes.

Also of note...

Murdhna: the point located in front of the nose

Divya Chakshush: Point behind the head (occipital)

Aditya (the sun) is the disk of the sun, black and shiny,

The star: lying on his back to look as far as possible on the sky 

Taraka: the horizon point,

Kumbhaka

A.K. = Antah Kumbhaka (holding of breath after inhalation ) 

B.K = Bhaya Kumbhaka (holding of breath after exhalation )

*

Note

Sribhashyam offers an alternative to #8 Sirsa Asana, the head stand, Uttihita pada angusta asana

And here is a video my friend Andrea Panzer ( a student of Sribhashyam over eight years) sent me, showing the lying down after the asana. I'm planning a special post on the different alternatives Sribhashyam offers for Sirsa asana.

A busy practice sheet( relatively speaking).

Coming up, ne moon tomorrow and Shribhashyam has special practices for the full and new moon, it’s mostly pranayama. Then it’s a Mudra session on Tuesday, the next Pranayama session on Wednesday before coming back to general practice sessions on Thursday.