Yoga Retreat in Beautiful Swiss Mountains

September 10-13 in Lenzerheide, Swizerland

I'm very much looking forward to this special retreat. Every time I stayed or taught in Switzerland has always felt special to me.

Tattva Bodha

In this retreat we'll be studying the vedantic text "Tattva Bodha". It summarizes the philosophy of Oneness called advaita vedanta.

Also this text is deep in explaining the basic concepts of vedanta it's also very accessible to new readers. Come with us and you will be moved by the implacable logic and clarity which are a hallmark of Sri Sankara's texts

Hatha Yoga

Of course there will be a regular schedule of hatha yoga classes and deep meditations besides the lectures on vedanta

All details about the retreat and how to sign up can be found at Mandala Yoga.

OM OM OM

Become a World Recognized Yoga Expert

Many of this blog's readers are very experienced yoga practitioners and/or teachers. We all like to share the knowledge we have accumulated over the years.

Good Q&A Site

There is a new platform tapping into the expertise scattered all over the Internet and offering a "Questions and Answers" format.

The name of that platform is Stock Exchange and I have used their programming site for at least a couple years now. It's so great that I decided to use the open platform to start a Yoga site.

This site will not belong to anybody. It will be a true community and the most prominent yogis and yoginis will be the ones who contribute the most with their good questions and accurate answers. The site's clever system of "reputation" and "badges" will take care of that.

What Can You Do Now?

Before the site goes live and open to the whole public it needs to gather momentum.

The first step involves gathering experts such as yourself.

Determine the Scope of that Yoga Site

Here are the steps you can take and the things you can do to help the site get going and establish yourself as an active expert:

1. Go to the home page of the launching pad
2. Get your own username and login
3. Click on the "Follow it!" button
4. Use 5 votes for questions you feel will be very appropriate and right on target for the site.
5. Use your 5 votes to determine which yoga questions should NOT be accepted on the site and should be declined by the community.
6. Propose your own 5 questions. Right now we need questions which are more or less about yoga but are still good examples of off-topic questions. Questions which are overly argumentative, don't have a clear answer, are troll-like, negative or offensive.
7. Leave comments on the existing questions to discuss why they should or should not be considered good questions. Please note that we are not answering the questions yet. That will come at a later phase. This phase is only about determining which questions are a good fit.
8. You can also learn about this whole system by checking out the FAQ page.
9. Another good teaching tool is to look at the more active existing proposed sites.

Keep the Conversation Going

Doing the above is already good but we want to develop a true team of experts which will be active on an ongoing basis.

Take a few minutes every day to check out new questions and comments and keep leaving comments and adjusting your votes.

Spread the Message

If you have a blog or Twitter/Facebook account you can link to this post or to the Yoga Q&A site. The more active members join, the better.

You can do the same for any forums or blogs you like to visit or yoga magazines you enjoy reading.

Yoga Sitting Postures

There are two types of yoga postures - or asanas. The cultural poses and the sitting postures. The former are well known and constitute the most popular aspect of modern yoga as it has disseminated around the world. The latter are actually more important from the standpoint of spiritual growth. They are primarily used for pranayama and meditation, as well as other practices such as japa (mantra repetition).

Since kriya yoga pranayama and deep meditation constitute the core practices of pragmatic yoga it is important that we find a posture we are very comfortable with.

The Traditional Approach

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Maharishi

The asana (posture) should be steady and comfortable.

Yoga Sutras - 2.46

Steady

There should be an effortless stillness. Think of a candle flame in a windless environment. It will convey the idea of lightness and poise which are both found in our meditation posture. The other fitting association is that of a rock. Let your sitting posture borrow its steadiness quality from it.

Comfortable & Easy

In the sitting asana the yogi starts transcending the body within a few minutes. That is to say the body awareness vanishes much like when we are falling asleep. Did you ever try to feel your legs or arms just before falling asleep? It's as if they were gone. Well, the same thing takes place within a few minutes of sitting in the right posture as our awareness shifts from the physical body to the astral body..

As you get established in the astral body awareness many experiences connected with it manifest on their own volition.

You have found your posture when, during the whole duration of your practice, you feel that you could sit there forever. Naturally it is not the case, there comes a point where the posture becomes a strain but let that point come after your session is done with.

Bhagavad Gita

To the previous attributes the Bhagavad Gita adds the concept of an erect back, properly aligned with the neck and head. The whole spine should be in its natural position which is to say that of an elongated 'S'.

Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and perfectly still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around.

Bhagavad Gita - 6.13

The theory behind this is that when the spine is in its natural position the spinal cord and sushumna nadi will be freed and the prana/shakti flow between the root chakra, muladhara, and the third eye center, ajna, will take place with maximum efficiency.

The Gita gives us also much advice about the optimum environment for serious meditation practice: location, room, and the seat. The advice about location and room is full of common sense especially as it pertains to ancient India.

Proper Meditation Seat

The teaching about the seat is of particular interest and little understood by many yogis. It involves using a thin cloth, some kusha grass, and an animal skin. Some yogis used a deer skin, others that of a tiger.

In a clean spot, having established a firm seat of his own, neither too high nor too low, made of a cloth, a skin and kusha grass, one over the other, ...

Bhagavad Gita - 6.11

To get this out of the way, no, the munis of yore were not hunting animals just to get a nice meditation pillow. They would usually use the skin of an animal already dead by natural causes or killed by the kshatriyas, soldiers/police, in order to protect the population.

This concept of killing tigers is obviously politically incorrect at the beginning of this 21st century but in order to understand this you need to project yourself in India a few centuries back living in a tiny village surrounded by a thick jungle and the occasional attack of a tiger killing villagers, adults or children alike, for an easy breakfast. Humans make for easy prey so that was the tiger equivalent of fast food. Once you'd have a few relatives and friends disappear in such fashion you'd feel okay about keeping the tiger population under control. Times are different now and, just to make sure, I'm NOT advocating hunting of any kind nowadays, much less of near extinct species.

Anyhow the above advice aims at creating an electric insulation with the ground. Psychically, as the kundalini power awakens, we want it to travel up the spine. Ancient yogis were usually practicing outdoors or in little huts with dirt on the floor.

For ordinary activities it's very healthy to walk barefoot on the ground, grass, or wet sand at the beach. Doing so makes an energetic connection with the ground and it's great for vitality and inner balance. Much recommendeded if you have the opportunity.

The advice is however different for pranayama and meditation.

Most modern electric devices have a grounding, the third one, wire which connects to the grounding prong on your electric outlet. That ground wire goes through your house all the way down to the ground. The purpose is, in case of power surge, to get rid of the extra power for sake of safety as that extra surge would most likely fry the delicate components of your beloved computer or other gadget/appliance.

The purpose of pranayama and meditation is to awaken and direct upwards as much prana/shakti as is presently safe and the last thing we want is for that formidable power, which is very much of the nature of electricity, to go into the ground and be lost.

The Four Classical Asanas

There are four classical sitting postures.

• Sukhasana - the easy posture
• Siddhasana - the Perfect pose
• Svastikasana - where cross in the form of the ancient Hindu svastika symbol
• Padhmasana - the lotus pose. You also have the half lotus which is a variant of this one.

These four have been described at length on many web sites. We'll revisit them further down this post.

The Modern Pragmatic Approach

We want to learn from the tradition and adapt it to our modern situation. Main differences that come to mind are our modern dwellings which are already very much insulated from the ground and the rest of nature as well as the lack of hip flexibility found in most modern yogis due to the fact that most of us have used chairs and armchairs for most of our life whereas ancient yogis spent their whole life sitting on the floor and/or squatting.

Unless meditating outside we can safely ignore the conductivity/insulation issue and focus intently on finding the sitting posture that will bring us the most benefits.

Steady & Comfortable, Yes! Straight, May Be!

While steadiness and easiness are essential it turns out that although it's nice to have a perfectly straight back, it does not matter that much practically speaking.

The yogic literature is pretty much unequivocal in advocating a perfectly straight position and yet photos of meditation masters, ancient and modern, tell us a very different story.

I have been meditating for so many years with a straight back that this is definitely my preference and although I like to sometimes use the softer variations listed below, either out of necessity (in trains or planes for example) or for the sake of change and experimenting, it personally never feels completely right.

Nevertheless let us go through a number of possibilities to help the readers find their own preferred posture. We'll start with the gentler variations culminating with the ultimate sitting posture. At this juncture you might want to guess what is the best asana for meditation.

Legs extended

There are definite energetic benefits in sitting with the legs crossed and therefore I strongly suggest you try your very best to adopt a posture of this kind. Besides the strong energetic benefits that will come with sitting with legs crossed from the beginning it will help one develop the flexibility necessary to eventually practice the most efficient of all postures in terms of kundalini awakening.

This being said the yogis with injured knees or hips will go far in the practice even with the legs extended and feet flat on the floor. I do use such variations while practicing in public transportation vehicles and guess what, both the energetic benefits of kundalini rising and the mental quietness of meditation are being experienced to some degree.

With Back Support

So our first variation, the easiest of all, will be to sit on a sofa or armchair leaning back with the feet flat on the floor.

Similar would be to sit in a regular chair while leaning back or in one of those modern 'yogic chairs' with straight legs.

Without Back Support

If possible it's preferable to keep a straight back using one's back muscles as opposed to external props.

One can use a regular chair paying attention to not lean back against the support. It helps sitting on the edge of the chair to help tilt the pelvis forward. Even easier is to use some modern ergonomic chairs with forward tilted seat. The back will be straight naturally.

Cross-legged Postures

With Back Support

Again starting with the easiest variation, one might want to sit in one's bed leaning against the head board or the wall. Sounds too good to be true but it works so don't feel self-conscious. Try it out at least. Upon waking, you might want to answer nature's calls and going back to bed, sit up and start your practice right away.

A bit less decadent looking, and as efficient, is to sit and lean back on a sofa or large armchair.

Sitting on the floor you can use a "yogic chair" to lean against.

In the first two variations the legs will fit comfortably on their soft base while the latter one is bit more spartan.

On those rare, or not so rare, days when you don't feel like doing your sitting practice, go ahead and sit on the sofa and relax with your eyes closed. It takes zero effort. Everybody can do that for 1 or 2 minutes. Start breathing deeper if you feel so inclined. Then the spinal breathing will come by itself and before you know it you will transition into a meditation which might turn out much deeper than you thought it would be.

Without Back Support

Necessity of a Pillow

Since the first priority is to sit steadily and comfortably most meditators will need to sit on a pillow or blanket. In my many years frequenting ashrams of all kinds I have met VERY few yogis, Indian or Westerners, who could sit straight, naturally without elevating their pelvis.

Here the Westerners seem to have an advantage as our Indian friends are culturally repulsed to using a wimpy pillow and most of them end up sitting with terrible postures.

So, to achieve your optimum posture, feel free to experiment with the variety of seats such as pillows or folded blankets. There are so many choices nowadays in terms of shape, materials, etc. that we are truly blessed to live in such a world of abundance and choice. Some pillows are very soft, some very hard. You can also find a variety of 'filling' materials, many of those will espouse the shape of your behind as if you were sitting on the sand.

Some meditators will need to sit on a very high pillow so that the posture feels right. That's fine. After weeks, months, or years of practice one might feel the natural tendency to use a thinner pillow, decreasing the height gradually as it feels right. Going down to zero height is not the goal though. Many of us will never get there.

Be open minded about the selection of your 'ishta' asana.

Following are some suggested sitting postures.

Sukhasana - The Easy Pose

This is the 'natural' sitting posture for many yoga novices. Its name comes from the fact that it puts the least strain on the legs. It's recommended for practitioners who have knee conditions, stiff hips, and/or thick legs. The feet are more or less situated below the opposite knees.

Unfortunately, due to the position of the pelvis, this asana puts more strain on the back and it's therefore difficult for most to sit straight comfortably. This posture typically requires a higher pillow to sit on.

Based on observation the great majority of meditators and pranayama practitioners will adopt the following posture.

Modified Siddhasana

This is an easy variation of siddhasana. To adopt it:

1. sit with legs outstretched in a 'V' form
2. fold one leg in front of you in order to bring the heel in the central axis of your body. The foot is resting right in front of your pubis. Don't worry if your heel does not rest in the central axis.
3. fold the second leg so that the foot will end up in front of the first food. If the heel is also on the central axis of the body it's good but it's okay if it's not.
4. Rest your hands on your knees or thighs

Traditionally the left leg should be bent first but some yogis have a better body alignment with the right leg crossed first in which case they should adopt the latter variation.

In this posture the back is naturally straight.

Again this is the most popular posture and is highly recommended.

The Real Siddhasana

I have named the previous posture 'modified' siddhasana as it lacks an important feature which makes siddhasana the most desirable sitting posture of all. Most casual yogis will think of the lotus pose as the the supreme posture but the majority of yoga and meditation masters hold siddhasana in higher regard.

When perfection is attained through siddhasana, what is the use of practicing many other asanas? When the flow op prana is stabilized, the breath stops spontaneously and a mindless state arises by itself.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika - 1.41

The reason is that this posture is directly stimulating the muladhara chakra, thus awakening the kundalini shakti and thus turbo charging one's meditation and other practices.

This is achieved by sitting on the heel of the first crossed leg. The more weight, or pressure, you put on the heel the stronger the kundalini stimulation.

The point of the body resting on the heel should be the one just below the muladhara chakra. It's approximately half way between the genitals and the anus, at about the central point of the pelvic floor.

WARNING - ACHTUNG

Because of the raw potency of this posture you might want to wait until you are established in your daily meditation practice for at least a few months before you experiment with siddhasana.

Super Duper Siddhasana

Well, guess what, the previous one was still not the true siddhasana. In its purest form, in addition to sitting on the first heel, the second heel comes on top of the first foot and applies pressure on the pubic bone. This stimulates the svasdhitana chakra and provides even more of an energetic stimulation.

This one is harder for men than women for reasons which will become obvious upon the first attempt.

Other Postures

What about the other postures you ask. You can also adopt them if they are the right fit for you.

Svastikasana

It takes extreme hip, knee, and ankle flexibility and I have only met a couple people able to do it even for a short time.

Padmasana - The Lotus Pose

Most yogis who can do this posture cannot hold it comfortably for a long time. The biggest problem with it is that so many meditators I know have worked on doing the lotus pose and ended up damaging their knees irreversibly. It's just not worth it.

The main danger is the unnatural strain on knee ligaments. Please be wise, patient, and gentle if you adopt this posture or work on it.

The main advantages of padmasana are a thorough upward redirect of the blood flow as well as extreme steadiness.

This posture is most recommended for practices such as bhastrika pranayama.

Again keep in mind that real siddhasana is arguably more beneficial spiritually speaking.

The Half lotus

Much easier to do and hold than the full lotus this posture brings you lots of steadiness and is easy on the back as well. It does not seem to have the destructive effect on the knee joints that the full lotus has.

Vajrasana

Popular in zen circles this posture is not much used in the yoga tradition as it lack the energetic benefits associated with the cross-legged positions.

Also it does not contribute to preparing the legs to eventually do siddhasana on the heel. Not recommended for pranayama or meditation but it can be incorporated to one's routine of cultural asanans for the sake of flexibility.

The great thing about this posture is that the spine will be naturally in its optimum form so you can use this posture to bring about the awareness of the your spinal column ideal position which your can later duplicate in whichever cross-legged postures you adopt.

To adopt this posture you either sit on your heels with the knees in front of you. You can also place a pillow between your feet or use a 'meditation bench' to sit on while your feet are tucked under the bench.

Conclusion

I'd like to think this little presentation is comprehensive enough to empower you to find your own posture which will propel your sitting practices to unimaginable heights.

Om Adi Shaktyai Namah!

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Pragmatic Yoga Course in Germany

I'm happy to announce that I'll be teaching another "Pragmatic Yoga Experience" 2-week course in the Summer of 2011.

This one will take place at the Yoga Vidya ashram in Bad Meinberg, Germany in July 10-24, '11.

Blog Redesign

When I woke up Saturday morning I got some ideas about a new design for my blog which has been long overdue.

Then I felt compelled to start working on it and before you know it I was half way through. Anyway it was a fun weekend project. I'm glad it's done and I can move on to real work tomorrow morning.

Breatharian Yogi Held Up to Scientific Scrutiny

As science marches forward at a frenetic space it has looked at countless aspects of the ancient yogic teachings. Many of these teachings have been validated by the process while some have been disproved without any doubts.

Amrita, the nectar of immortality

Many scriptures refer to the sweet ambrosia, or nectar of immortality, which can be accessed through practices such as kechari mudra.

The teachings state that in ordinary folks this cool nectar is dripping and end up being burned up in the digestive fire in one's belly. When preserved and tapped by the yogi it tastes like a sweet nectar and can be the source of youth distributed in the whole body.

As far as I know this aspect of the teachings has no parallel in our modern understanding of physiology.

As explained in this article this old sadhu not only claims that he hasn't eaten or drunk anything in 70 or so years but that he can do it because since he was very young a Goddess has been pouring ambrosia through his crown chakra.

This provides some food for thought - no pun intended.

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Pragmatic Yoga New Home

Om Namah Sivaya, all info on pragmatic yoga will now be centralized on its official web site.

Spinal Breathing

In yoga it is understood that 'God', Spirit, or the supreme reality has two components which can't be separated. These two are Consciousness and Power. By nature Consciousness is static whereas Power is dynamic. In the tantric tradition they are referred to symbolically as siva and shakti.

Spiritual Growth Practically Speaking

Looking at it on the individual level the static consciousness manifests as a deep inner silence and direct connection to the true Self while the dynamic power as the awakening of the infinite power within us called kundalini shakti.

Advancing on the yogic path is very simple. Just cultivate daily the power of kundalini and the experience of inner silence.

To do so we apply ourselves to the practice of 2 yogas which constitute the core foundation of our sadhana (spiritual practice).

1. Spinal Breathing to awaken the kundalini
2. Meditation to cultivate the experience of inner silence

Kriya Yoga Pranayama

The practice of meditation will be covered in another post so now we'll focus on the practice of spinal breathing. There are several yogic systems to awaken the kundalini power: hatha yoga is a popular branch of kundalini yoga but there are several others.

Paramahansa Yogananda popularized the kriya yoga approach at the beginning of the 20th century and of course this rich tradition has many methods and variations. Spinal breathing is such a variation which turns out to be very simple but also extremely potent and efficacious.

Here is my take on it which is directly influenced by Yogani's.

Why don't you take a few minutes to try out this simple practice in the next few days?

Spinal Breathing Technique

In essence you want to sit still, relax, breathe deeper than normal and visualize the subtle breath going up and down your spine in coordination with your breathing.

Sitting posture

As mentioned in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali one's sitting posture should be steady and comfortable. If the spine is very straight it is a plus but don't fret about it if it's not possible yet.

If you have very stiff legs and back or any health issues that warrant this you can practice on a chair with your feet flat on the floor.

There are advantages to having a cross-legged position so if you can do so please go ahead and proceed with the following suggestions.

The 'softer' approach is to just sit up on your bed the back leaning against the head board. The legs are comfortably crossed on the softness of the mattress.

This can also been done in a sofa. Legs crossed and back leaning on the back rest. One can also sit against the wall or in those modern 'yogic' chairs.

If you can, and this is my preferred recommendation, sit on the floor on a pillow with the back, neck, and head perfectly erect. Personally I have sat with a straight back for so many years that it feels wrong to lean against anything. I did want to present the other options though. Better practice in these sub-optimal postures comfortably than in a strict posture in discomfort.

If you want to know more about the sitting options consult the post on "yoga sitting postures".

Relaxation

It is a central concept of kriya yoga that relaxation gives rise to concentration. When concentrating or meditating too many yogis try 'too hard' creating inner tensions sometimes leading to headaches and other ailments.

The type of concentration we are looking for could be better called absorption. Think in terms of reading a book. Most people have found themselves, at some point in their life, in a high state of concentration while reading a book. When this happened to you did you try to focus really hard? Most likely not. You started with a line, then a few. This led to a page, and 2, and more. You slowly got caught up in the story or material presented in the book and before you knew it you had achieved partial pratyahara and a deep state of concentration.

Anywho, just take a few moments in your sitting posture to settle in stillness and to relax your face, shoulders, back, arms, and legs. Special emphasis on the jaws, tongue, eyes, and eyebrows.

Then follow with interest the motion of the breath and of the energy.

Deep & Slow Breathing

Now comes the time to breathe deeper. Not as deep as in hatha yoga pranayama but do take some full yogic breaths. First fill up the abdomen, then the chest. On the exhale start emptying the chest and then the abdomen. Do this a few times until it feels right and you are fully comfortable and relaxed.

Both inhalation and exhalation should take place through the nose. Make sure you breathe slowly enough so that very little noise is created by the breath.

The Mind Follows Shakti

You should then proceed to follow the journey of the subtle breath up and down your spine. Do this for a few minutes and then you are done for this session.

Here is a brief explanation of this visualization. The term visualization is a bit misleading because it implies a purely visual process. While many yogis will see a light along this path with their inner eye many also experience the movement of shakti in the form of vibration, tingling, heat, pleasant ecstasy, and/or several other ways. The main practice though is to travel up and down with one's awareness.

During the inhalation we move up along the spine. The starting point is the lowest chakra, muladhara chakra. There is a long explanation as to where this is exactly but here is the shortcut. Imagine you are sitting on a bicycle. Start from the point where you have most weight and go up inside about 1 to 3 inches (2 to 8 centimeters). This point is usually higher in women and sometimes further back as well.

Move backward and slightly up (or down) to catch the beginning of the spinal cord. Then move up inside the spinal cord all the way to the neck and keep moving upward until you reach the middle of the brain. At that point make a sharp turn forward to end up in the third eye located right between the eyebrows, not too high on the forehead.

Now it's time to start exhaling and move back and down to return back to the root center.

It might take a few rounds or even a few sessions of practice before you feel comfortable. Remember to relax body and mind as you do this.

At first you might not have any direct experience of the motion of the subtle life force. Or you might only experience it in a couple places. You will have to use your imagination to travel up and down. With practice you will have full awareness of the pathway from muladhara to ajna. When this is achieved even less effort is required during the practice.

You have to find your own path. Each yogi and yogini finds their own proper trace. Some perceive the muladhara as lower or higher, placed more forward or backward. As you move from there most are tempted to go up towards the other spine but it's often helpful to go backwards to reach wherever the swadhishthana chakra is.

The red and blue colors indicate different possible variations and the black dotted line indicate a trace following major pathways of the physical nervous system.

On the MRI above you can see corresponding areas of nervous system in the physical body. The spinal breathing works both on the physical and astral levels.

Twice a Day if Possible

Instead of thinking of the kundalini awakening as a volcano-like sudden surge of power in your lower back you might want to think of it as gradual process of creating and strengthening an energetic conductivity going from the root chakra to the third eye.

This will harmonize the 'raw' energies naturally located in the pelvis and help them ascend to the higher chakras, the brain and the rest of your body. This new power will then be available to fuel all your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. The stronger the psychic connection between these polarities and the richer your life. More theoretical details will come in the future as the focus of this post is to provide a practical guidance.

For this daily cultivation to take place substantially you need to practice daily. Either once a day or twice a day. Surprisingly it is actually easier to stick to a 2-a-day routine than a single daily session. This is because it takes more than half a day to exhaust the spiritual power accumulated in any one session. Thus you can still feel the shakti playing in your psychic and nervous system and reap faster and more benefits as soon as you start. You also feel more inclined to sit again.

Once you are accustomed to the technique it just take half a minute to a minute to get ready and start doing the visualization. Your sessions can then last between 5 and 10 minutes. You can use a clock if you want to be precise about it but I personally like to do it as long as it feels right without going too long. My practice improved significantly after I quit timing myself.

Best is to do one practice in the morning and one in the end of the afternoon. Some prefer later in the evening for the second session. I like the end of the afternoon because it energizes you for dinner, social activities, and/or various obligations.

In my experience this is the very best preparation for meditation so you can also make a habit of practicing this just before you meditate.

If this is new to you I suggest you give it a try for the next few days or couple weeks. Then you look back and determine whether it's worthwhile continuing.

I wish you a fruitful and blissful practice. Om Om!

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Pragmatic Yoga Influences

While I like to think of pragmatic yoga as my own way to convey the teachings and as an expression of my ever changing spiritual path I'm fully aware that I have not invented anything. Like most folks I have been and am currently influenced by countless great people of the past and the present.

While it would take a book just to mention all the people that I'm trying to emulate in some way or the other there are a few major influential teachers to whom I owe everything.

Swami Vishnu-devananda

After a brief foray into the kriya yoga tradition of Paramahamsa Yogananada I met Swami Vishnu-devananada at the end of a month-long yoga teachers training course taking place in Kerala, South India, in January 1987.

As powerful and transformative as the course was, my first meeting with this great Master during the last few days of the course exceeded that by turning out to be life-changing in so many ways.

That meeting led me to join the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers as a staff member the following year and for the next 12 years I remained immersed full time in the models presented by Swami Vishnuji. This constitute the core of my training and the foundation of my yogic life.

Every other influence which have come before or after that period only comes as a supplement to Swamiji's approach and not as a replacement.

Swami Sivananda

Swami Vishnu-devananda, like many genuine yoga masters, did not teach and serve in his own name. Everything he did, including naming the organization he founded, he did in the name of his own guru, i.e., Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh. Swami Sivananda was one of the few yogis of the 20th century who contributed the most to the worldwide spreading of yoga.

Learning from Swami Vishnuji meant learning Swami Sivananda's approach sometimes summarized as the yoga of synthesis or integral yoga. Swami Vishnu's way would just put more emphasis on the tantric practices of hatha yoga as well as the purifying practice of service or karma yoga.

A very prolific writer and teacher Swami Sivananda authored over 200 books and saw to it that many of his close disciples blossom into great masters themselves.

Even my very first yoga teacher, André Van Lysebeth of Belgium, was a direct student of Swami Sivananda.

Adi Sankara

Although yoga is a very practical discipline it stands on the shoulders of the rich philosophical foundation of the Srutis, or Vedas. The Vedas are the authoritative body of scriptures giving rise to what is now called Hinduism. At the end of these vedas came the small but extremely meaningful Upanishads.

The Upanishads lay the philosophical foundation behind all yogic teachings. Over the centuries many schools of interpretation came out of these teachings. Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnu-devananda embraced the pure non-dualistic views of Adi Sankara.

Sankara's commentaries of the principal Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras argue that advaita, or non-dualism, is the highest understanding of the Upanishads and life in general. Using clear thinking, uncompromising logic, and a fearless attitude Sankara defeated all other schools of thoughts via his commentaries and in countless debates.

The concept of Oneness pervading all expressions of diversity is a popular one nowadays and we can trace this to Adi Sankara himself.

Sukadev

While I was in the SYVC organization I was fortunate enough to be there during the last 6 years of Swami Vishnu-devanandaji's life. This gave me ample opportunities to have satsang with him which was a true blessing.

My karma was to not receive the direct training from him but, as luck has it, I was trained by many of his senior disciples and swamis. I learned a ton from many of them but my favorite of them all was Sukadev.

His dynamic approach to yoga teaching and to the practice of karma yoga inspired me a great deal and I even was called once a 'little Sukadev'. LOL.

Anywho Sukadev is a great yoga teacher in too many ways to list here but if you want to see by yourself what I'm talking about just visit the extraordinary Bad Meinberg Yoga Vidya ashram.

Swami Satyananda

Talking and thinking in high philosophical terms is all fine and dandy but it does the aspirant no good if the yogi or yogini can't make it come true in his or her daily life. Jnana yoga is supposed to achieve this but it's just not working for most who adopt this path. We'll develop on this in an upcoming post.

Come to the rescue the practicality of tantra which manipulates one's life force and awaken one's inner power called kundalini.

Just like Swami Vishnu-devananda, Swami Satyananda was a great master of kundalini yoga but while Swami Vishnuji was primarily using the traditional tools of hatha yoga Swami Satya also perfected the kundalini branch of kriya yoga. Besides his perfect mastery of this art and science all in one, he was expert at guiding thirsty aspirants through his crystal clear writings. Among his many written works you owe it to yourself to check out 'yoga nidra' and 'kundalini tantra'. These two books are chock-full of theoretical insights and easy practices to understand your mind and tap your inner potential.

I started incorporating some of these kriya yoga practices to my sadhana a few years ago and it has propelled my yoga to new heights which I was starting to doubt I would ever reach.

Yogani

Yogani is a kundalini master who is unconventional to say the least. He's American and decided to spread the teachings to the masses while remaining anonymous. He started Internet lessons via a Yahoo group several years ago and the quality of his 'advanced yoga practices' lessons is such that the word of mouth did the rest.

Having studied yoga from many masters and groups he has synthesized and simplified the kundalini teachings in the most pragmatic way possible. His is a path to get maximum spiritual results for the minimum required amount of efforts. His writings are unpretentious, full of common sense, and represent to my mind the true scientific approach which is a hallmark of modern Western civilization and yes, the USA.

Many like to attach the 'science' or 'scientific' monikers to yoga but few walk the walk the way Yogani does.

Who Am I?

Whenever I say in this blog 'I', 'we', or 'pragmatic yoga' I never imply or pretend that any of the material presented is new or original. It borrows from the great teachers above and many more.

For those who object learning from teachers not belonging to one's main lineage on the basis of principle I would just say that this is not very pragmatic and I would rather prioritize making more and faster spiritual progress over following dogmas blindly. Does it take courage and create discomfort? Absolutely. Is it worth it? You bet!

Your comments are welcome on Facebook.

Sleep As Much As You Need

This goes against yogic conventional wisdom but my experience of the last year or so confirms the ideas espoused in this article.

At first you might have to overcome the guilt created by society and yogic peer pressure.

I have 'practiced' this for a while now. What you need to do, as often as possible, is to not use an alarm clock and just get up after you fully awoke naturally.

During sleep the brain and nervous system are creating and especially strengthening neural pathways conductive to improve memory and boost creativity among many other advantages.

Spending some time in bed to do some thinking, just like some great thinkers, is perfectly alright too.

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Comments on Facebook.

English-Spanish Interpreter

I'm looking for a live interpreter for a 2-week program I will be giving on the Spanish Atlantic coast in the gorgeous village of Mondariz-Balneario. This course, the Pragmatic Yoga Experience, will take place in August 2011.

Qualifications

If you'd like to be part of this wonderful experience you need the following qualifications:

• Excellent command of the English language
• Excellent command of the Spanish language. Being a native speaker is a plus.
• Being a yoga practitioner is a plus. Being a yoga teacher is even better

Conditions

For this karma yoga you'll get free accommodations at the hotel where the course will take place and we'll take care of your transportation to/from Mondariz as well.

Should you be interested please leave a comment on Facebook.

Pragmatic Yoga - What's in a Name

Over a week ago I polled my Facebook friends about the 'Pragmatic Yoga' designation.

I got some great feedback and the least we can say is that it generated a lot of different reactions, including quite some negative ones. Nonetheless I decided to go ahead with this name and this post explains why.

Bad Marketing

When a 'regular' company or person does name research they then pick the most popular name. Here I'm going with it even though the reaction is not that good and that's because it's the best fit for what I want to do.

My quest in the last few years is to be true to myself and embrace my different interests in life. Since then I feel I've made lots of progress on the path and that's very exciting.

What is Pragmatic Yoga?

Yoga is a spiritual path. Yoga means union and refers to the union of the individual (jivatman) self with the cosmic Self (paramatman). It takes resources to move towards that goal; time and efforts. Pragmatic spirituality is about maximizing these limited means to advance as quickly as possible on the path.

Find your own Path

The best yoga approach for me is not the best for you and your best is not the optimal method for anybody else. Pragmatic spirituality aims at helping each aspirant find what works best for them.

To do this we want to use the experience of masters and yogis by following the wonderful ancient tradition of yoga and the word of the guru. But what if we get stuck at some point, why not try different ways which traditionalists disapprove of on principle or by omission?

Many claim that yoga is a science but would not dare to approach the path with typical scientific openness and the necessary readiness to question oneself and one's ways.

It does not have to be hard

You can choose to approach meditation, which is the chief practice of yoga, as if it is impossible or extremely difficult. You can also choose to approach it as if it is easy. For me the latter works much better and I want to share this approach and many other insights that came to me in the last few years.

The Pragmatic Yoga Experience

I'm now developing a 2-week course which I will be offering in August 2011 in Spain via my good friends at the Yoga Center Madrid and I hope there will be other courses as well in locations which are dear to me.

This post is the first of many about this new direction I'm taking. Stay tuned if you want to know more. More posts coming to this space and a brand new web site will be setup soon as well.

Testing

This is only a test. Please ignore.

On Global Warming by a Scientist

In this article Bill McKibben analyzes the tactics used by those denying the global warming effect.

He first compares with much clarity the strategy with that of OJ Simpson laywers and goes on arguing in different ways.

He also addresses issues such as partisanship and others.

A gem of an article overall.

Comments on my Facebook wall

AYA Bickendorf Is Settling In

Howdy all!

The ashram is taking shape, the energy in the meditation hall is building up, and some renovations are already taking place.

Thinking of organizing a weekend satsang soon for those interested and living in the area.