What Are Mudras (those funny hand positions)?

Last night at Cottonwood Com Ed class, a student asked "What are those funny hand positions you keep using?" They are called mudras.  When you perform a mudra, you are aligning your etheric energy channels (or nadis) up in an exact way to achieve a specific result.  When you are meditating, for example, it is often difficult to quiet the mind.  The mind keeps chattering and chattering and won't let you tap into stillness.  If you first have a very comfortable and stable seated position, you will then choose a mudra to place your hands in.  The mudra will still the fluctuations of the mind or in yogic terms "the vrittis (fluctuations) of the chitta (mindstuff)".  

There are two mudras most commonly used in meditation.  The first mudra is gyan mudra. This mudra is commonly used by yogis.  The first finger rests gently on the thumb tip. The other three fingers point outward away from the body's aura.  The hands are resting palms upwards on the thighs.

  
This mudra allows the clean positive energy (prana) within the body to recirculate back into the auric body and etheric channels (nadis).  Thus it will continue to purify any remaining blockages.  This is accomplished with the circle created by the first finger and thumb.  The other three fingers allow any negative karma or prana (energy) to be removed.  The process of meditation purifies the body very quickly and therefore these 6 fingers are an outlet for any undesired elements to leave the aura.  This mudra is wonderful for calming the mind and entering deep states of awareness.

The second mudra is the classic zen meditation mudra, called "heart" mudra.  It not only calms the mind and enables one to concentrate easier, it also opens the heart, making the meditation more receptive to positive influences emanating from the divine realms.  

Both mudras are excellent for meditation purposes.  Most yogis don't use mudra much in their poses.  It is fun and interesting to incorporate them into the poses, because mudras definitely shift the energy inherent in the pose.  Try it and see if you can sense the different quality of the poses energy.  Pictures on the covers of yoga magazines often show someone in a pose doing mudra.  It isn't necessary, but it adds an element of beauty and grace to your practice.


 

Use of Props In Class or Practice

Today I had a conversation with several students about using props during class.  Some of my students (newbies who've never done yoga before) don't want to bother with them and at times refuse to purchase them as part of their required equipment.  Minimally in my classes we need 

• (1) yoga foam block
• (1) six foot strap / d-ring or cinch
• (1) yoga sticky mat
• (1) stiff blanket 

The reason we use props is because everyone in every class has a different body, different abilities, limitations, flexibility levels, balance issues, or strengths.  The props help the student with limitations or specific body issues do the poses in the most beneficial way.  Props assist the person to be able to do a version of the pose to the best of their ability.  Students never have to "push" deeper than they are able to in a pose and perhaps get injured trying. The use of props starts to build the confidence level which encourages students to keep practicing.  Props enable the student to experience the wonderful benefits that come from opening and strengthening congested or underused areas of the body. 

No one should ever feel like they aren't good enough if they use props.  Yoga isn't a competition between teacher and student, or student and other students.  It's about tapping into your own potential and becoming more aware your own possibilities.  Possibilities are limitless if you stick to it and keep working on the mat.  My responsibility as an instructor is to prevent students from being injured by giving clear instructions and showing them how to use props properly.

Most of my students (except my SLCC students) are over age 40, and my seniors are all the way up to 80+.  As we age, we lose range of motion, strength, balance, and flexibility.  Regaining these aspects of our bodies is a challenging process.  The use of props enables those of us who are older to do yoga at our own level.  We don't have to keep up with the youngsters in those boot camp classes who are so full of energy and have super flexiblility.  Sometimes we unknowingly wander into a yoga class full of these young people and the class is so demanding that we never go back because we can't keep up! We've then and there decided "I can't do this, it's too hard for me".  This is sad, because if this has happened to you, you've simply gone to the wrong class.  Look around until you find one that is right for you.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of practice!  If we go home after class and don't practice in between classes, we are missing out on a whole new way of looking at the world; physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  Practice heightens our awareness to a whole new level.  I tell my students repeatedly, "When you don't want to do it (practice), you need it the most!"  My long time students will verify this fact. 

Here is a good Yoga Journal  http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2200?print=1 article discussing the use of props. 

SOME TYPICAL USES FOR YOGA PROPS

What is Kriya Yoga?

The word "Kriya" means "action".  In Kriya yoga, the devotee is taught specific "actions" or practices which purify the several bodies or aspects of the devotee (physical, mental, emotional, astral or energy body, and the spiritual body).  These kriyas (practices) include a combination of specific breathing exercises, mantra, visualizations, and body postures or movements.  

The kriyas are designed to draw us to the experience of divinity within our own souls, experiencing divine joy (union of the individual soul with the divine, or YOGA).  For the most effective kriya yoga practice, the student must be initiated by an authentic guru carrying the lineage of Mahavatar Babaji, a living, God realized Master who works through his gurus here on earth. 

Mahavatar Babaji

The Guru who initiated me was Baba Gonesh, who was initiated by Paramahamsa Hariharananda, who held the lineage directly transmitted through Lahiri Mahasaya, the Yoga Master who received it directly from Babaji.  The instructions to many kriyas are easily researched and specific instructions are available, but practice is relatively ineffective unless one has been formally initiated. Initiation connects the devotee to a direct flow of energy from previous God-realized souls which increases the effectiveness of the kriya practice exponentially.

Focus - The Most Important Part of Balance

Last week at Cottonwood Com Ed class, we were working on Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Hand to Foot Pose) with the airborne foot on a table. All of a sudden the student two persons down from me fell.  It was blindingly fast, so one had a chance to help her.  It turned out she hit on her tailbone, and it was still bothering her at class last night.

In all of these years, I've only had two students collapse.  This lady, and one years ago who had hypoglycemia and hadn't eaten for about 12 hours.  Since there has been a lot of bad rap in the media lately about how so many people get injuries when they do yoga, I thought it appropriate to address the issue. 

The lady who hurt her tailbone fell simply because she was unable to hold her focus while she was standing on one foot.  Most of us come in to yoga with our focus fractured.  It's a result of living this fast-paced technology overloaded life.  Yoga teaches us to focus, and our focus gets better the more we spend time on the mat. Better focus is also the result of practice, refining it more and more as we work.

My students who have attended other yoga classes complain a lot that many teachers really "kick butt" and make them work hard and fast like new military recruits in boot camp.  This is not a good idea.  This takes away the yoga principle of teaching us pratyahara (sense withdrawal), or to "go within" and work with where the body is in this moment.  Kick butt yoga fosters an atmosphere of competitiveness which, in my opinion, is not the real aim of yoga.  The competitive environment encourages the students to overdue the stretches and poses which can lead to injury.  It distracts from the end result of true practice which is the union of body, mind, and spirit.

As students we must always be aware of our limitations and work with them, not against them.  As teachers we must respect where our students are and not push them past their limits.  Kick butt yoga is an immature approach and is not helping our students become aware of the inner landscape of the body.  It doesn't matter what we look like in a pose, or if we perform asanas perfectly.  Injuries can be avoided if we work intelligently by being aware of where our bodies are in the present moment. If we're in the present moment, we're paying attention, and our focus is activated. There is very little chance of getting injured if we're practicing yoga with our full awareness.

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An "Esoteric" Question

Yesterday a student asked me "when you say breathe into your hip joint, or breathe into your shoulder" you can't REALLY LITERALLY breathe into the area, because you can only bring air into your lungs.  Why do you give that instruction, and how do I bring the breath to the area?" Good question!  

The breath is something we all have (or our bodies would be dead) and can relate to and pay attention to.  It is the vehicle of prana, or life force energy.  In this case it is used as a method which everyone can relate to and direct wherever they wish.  Even though "air" is basically entering and exiting the lungs, prana is capable of going anywhere. Air is not prana, it carries prana.

Therefore, when an instructor says "breathe into your hip joint" he is instructing us to draw our consciousness into the hip joint. Our conscious intention directs prana, and using the breath is an easy way for anyone to direct consciousness without worrying about the literal aspects of moving "air" to another location.  Our intention is what makes it happen.

Move prana using your intention

 

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Personal Practice

Last night I practiced for about an hour and 10 minutes.  Sometimes I don't feel like it, but I have learned over the years that when you don't feel like doing it is when you 

• NEED IT THE MOST

• GET THE MOST BENEFIT FROM IT! 

That's my advice as a 30 year veteran.  "Just do it" as Suzuki Roshi said (famously) (and you thought it was NIKI.  Nope, they stole the phrase).  So I practiced kriya that Baba Ganesh taught me for about 25 minutes.  I started out extremely stiff, I'd been working in the yard for several hours and my legs were tight as a drum.  By the end of the kriyas I was thoroughly warmed up and felt much better. 

There seemed to be some blockage from my head down my arms as I practiced, and when I did a couple of the kriyas, it made me cry a little as they released.   One of my teachers, Osho, (Bagwhan Shri Rasneesh) said never feel bad about crying.  It shows that the heart is open and it and lets out etheric debris that cleanses, purifies, and heals us.

Then I started doing asana - some hip openers and leg stretches, because that was the area that was "talking to me".  I discovered a new pose I call "The Mosquito" because if you look at it from above it looks sort of like a mosquito.  The cool thing about practice is that if you do it, you always feel better, it pulls you out of your whiney place, and once you get going, you can really do whatever feels good to open up the body and get prana (life force energy) moving.  

I also discovered a new variation of Reclining Bound Angle Pose that opens the fronts of the hips rather than the groins.  I have to remember to teach it today at Seniors.  The most requested poses by my students are hip openers.  

Everyone is dealing with mooladhara (root) chakra issues it seems, including me. (Mooladhara is the chakra dealing with survival issues - jobs, money, shelter, food, health, etc.). So if you want to try it, look at the picture, go into the pose without the strap, and roll pelvis so that one leg is vertical and the other one rests on the floor.  Then push the foot that is now on the floor strongly into the floor and lift that hip off the floor.  Awesome!

 

 
 

TAYLORSVILLE COM ED CLASS

Wednesday nights I teach a Community Ed class for Granite Peaks at Taylorsville High.  It's an hour and a half.  The students are about 60% over 40, with 4 or 5 over 60 years old.  The others are younger than 40.  I have a challenge with the age range, as it is important to me to keep everyone getting the most out of the class regardless of their ages and ability levels.  It needs to be challenging enough for the older and more regular students who've been doing it a long time, and it can't be too hard for the new people or the beginners.  

I've found that if we use props a lot (blocks, straps, blankets) it helps with every level, allowing everyone to get the most benefit out of the poses.  We start with a short 5 minute seated meditation, allowing everyone time to quiet down from the day and tune in to their bodies.  This creates a space for them unlike the frantic day that we all seem to have.  This way the day is not carried into the practice, we have space to just be with our bodies.  

I often ask the class if they have any special requests, such as areas of the body they want to work on.  Many of them are sore or have problems with shoulders or hips for example.  Sometimes they want a more intense workout and they ask for core work.  That can be iffy on the first day of class when we have new people, cause I hate to overwork them and scare them away. My formula is to warm up the spine first.  We do yoga breathing first, then twists, forward bends, shoulder openers, lateral spine stretches, and a couple of back bends.  Then we go on to warm up the hips and feet and knees.  All of these poses are pretty gentle and on the floor (seated).

From their it varies each time, but I try to build up the intensity so that by about 2/3 through the class they are working very hard.  Then I throw in a new pose or a fairly difficult pose that gives them a good sense of accomplishment, a triumphal feeling of "Oh, yeah!  I can do that!"  Then I wind them down.  Class is never the same, even if they request the same thing.  There are so many thousands of poses, I try to never get stuck on a few same ones over and over.

This class has a lot of people who come over and over, a core group so to speak.  It is really fun, the students and we banter about a bit, and it is lighthearted . Sometimes funny cracks are made. The class is set up in 6 week blocks, at the moment it's about $49.00 for six classes, which is an excellent deal here in the Salt Lake area.  The Com Ed closes over the summer, as the local high schools have to shut down for maintenance and cleaning to get ready for fall start up. They start up in the fall about mid September.

Last night we did a series of core poses with a block between the thighs, the one in the current Yoga Journal.  It was an excellent work out, and the students seemed to enjoy it. If you're interested, my classes are at Cottonwood High School on Tuesdays at 7:30-8:45, and my Taylorsville High classes are on Weds. at 7:15-8:45 (15 mins. longer).  I like this length of time for the classes because it gives them a full 15 min. savasana or final relaxation.  They need it so much! 

You can sign up at www.granitepeaks.org if you're interested.  You'll need a mat, a 6' yoga strap, a block, and a stiff blanket.  We also recommend you bring an eye bag or eye cover.