Day 20 Krishnamacharya Mudra/Life Saving Session #3

 

Points of concentration: 16 vital points.

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 g

ulpha - 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 )

NOTES

To point or flex the feet in  head and shoulder stand?

When I was diagnosed with glaucoma a year or two back I stopped doing inversions, stopped having my head below my heart altogether in fact, no downward dogs, not even a full fold in Paschimatana Asana. Once the glaucoma was under control with eye drops and given that my eye pressure was being regularly tested I started to reintroduce these aspects of practice. So far so good. I do two things in my head and shoulder stands to try to counteract the increase in eye pressure that is supposed to result from them, I have no idea if these techniques make the slightest bit of difference. One is to point my toes and the other is to press my tongue to the roof of my mouth. I can’t remember where I heard these techniques might help, I’m not sure if there is any science behind it but so far I’ve been able to reintroduce these inversions without my eye doctor frowning at me.

I think I heard Shribhashyam prefers us to flex the feet or perhaps relax them rather than point them. Pointing might I guess be a distraction from the concentration point although I haven’t found it a problem. 

I checked Krishnamacharya’s own photos and if not strongly pointed they aren’t flexed either.

Shribhashyam offers alternatives to these inversions, should my eye pressure increases I could take advantage of these. Also, there seem to be few full forward folds showing up, perhaps we might consider this a glaucoma friendly system.

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Mudra session today, the Pranayama session tomorrow then back to general practice sessions on Thursday. I’m looking forward to practicing this session today, after another cup of tea, a beautifully sparse practice.

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Practice sheets based on the sessions in T. K. Sribhashyam's wonderful 'Emergence of Yoga'.

 May be available on Amazon but check the language.

 https://www.yogakshemam.net/product-page/emergence-du-yoga

Also available direct from T. K. Sribhashyam's school.

I heard the website says it doesn't ship to the US but if you contact them direct it might be able to be arranged for a little extra shipping cost.

Day 6. Krishnamacharya's Mudra/Life Saving practice #1

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.

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Mudra Sessions

"Mudra session: One session every 5th day of practice. See examples of Mudra sessions."

T.K. Sribhashyam - Emergence of yoga

This confused me, where were the Mudra sessions in the book? Sribhashyam did say in an interview that he had hoped to write a follow up book on Mudra, Bandha and Dhyana, perhaps they were there. But of course the Mudra sessions he is referring to are the 'Life Saving' sessions of chapter 8. It's confusing partly because the first Life Saving practice below doesn't seem to include any mudras.  Sribhashyam mentions that the book follows a pedagogical progression, Life Saving session #2 contains 1 mudra, #3 has 2, #6 has 3, several of the asana found in the Mudra/Life Saving sessions also have an equivalent mudra version.

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 )

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IMPORTANT PRACTICE POINT 1.

Lying down between Asana, mudra, and pranayamas

In Sribhashyam's presentation of his father's (Krishnamacharya) practice, you lie down and rest for 1 to 2 minutes after every asana, pranayama and mudra.

"Lie flat on the back, legs together, feet together, arms along the body, palms of the hands on the floor, chin lowered, eyes closed. Breathe normally through the nose." p65 Emergence of Yoga.

He doesn't seem to mention this in the book, but when I was first introduced to this practice by my friend Andrea Panzer several years ago it was indicated that during the rest, we direct our gaze to the Occipital (from the latin meaning back of the head- the bowl like bone of the skull), this was in her notes from the teacher training course she did with Sribhashyam and in other notes I've seen from other students.

"Divya Chakshush. Point behind the head (occipital) Divya Chakshush means "divine vision": this is one of the most important concentrations to obtain the vision of the soul." 

from "The Pearl" or the influence of Mudra and Pranayama in the spiritual quest

A seminar of Sri TK Sribhashyam in Neuchatel, 29.7. to 01.08.2006

from Yogakshemam Newsletter May 2007 http://www.yogakshemam.net/English/homepage.html

This links in with Sribhashyam's introduction to the Life saving Sessions. 

"Practice of these sessions helps awaken and develop the concept of the soul in Westerners".

After every asana, mudra and pranayama in any of Sribhashyam's practice sessions, General, Mudra/Life saving or Pranayama session we are directed to lie down and rest for 1 to 2 minutes after every asana, mudra and pranayama.

As a dear friend who studied with T. K. Sribhashyam so nicely put it...

"After a while, you discover that this is the real challenge, conquer quietness."

VIDEO

A big thank you to my friend Andrea Panzer, who studied with Sribhashyam for eight years, for allowing me to share this speeded up video of the above Mudra/Life Saving practice. It was Andrea who first shared one of Sribhashyam's practice in her old studio in Germany several years ago.

https://www.ashtanga-yoga-inspiration.com/

Notes

While these postures are asana, it's worth noting that there are mudra versions of many of these postures.

Maha bandha (mudra) is in Baddha kona asana.

Bhujamgi mudra is the same final position as Bhujamga asana.

Asvini Mudra is in the same final position as Paschimata asana.

Why then asana rather than mudra in a Life saving session. Possibly for pedagogical reasons, mudra involve involve concentration points and kumbhaka (breath retention) and Sribhashyam is holding off introducing kumbhaka. Kumbhaka isn't introduced in the general practice sessions until #8 and #10 and Life saving session #2 and Pranayama session #2.

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Do we have to employ all these concentration points?

Sribhashyam points out on p38 of Emergence of Yoga, that...

"The only concentration in the original mudras was bhrumadhya, the vital point situated between the eyebrows." p38 Emergence of Yoga.

Bhrumadhya is associated with Shiva, the other points were supposedly introduced to allow other religious convictions.

My own concentration points of choice in the past have tended to be Bhrumadhya - between the eyebrows, hrdaya - middle of the heart and Taraka - the horizon point.

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May be available on Amazon but check the language

Also available direct from T. K. Sribhashyam's school.

https://www.yogakshemam.net/product-page/emergence-du-yoga

I heard the website says it doesn't ship to the US but if you contact them direct it might be able to be arranged for a little extra shipping cost.