The Art of Vinyasa

Understanding the Practice

Vinyasa simply means to "flow".  To flow from one posture to the next in a beautiful fluid movement.  Vinyasa should be much like a dance, rhythmic, fluid, captivating and once mastered, quite effortless.  In the beginning,  everything is a hardship and requires a vast amount of effort but with on going practice and attributes such as dedication and commitment as well as the right attitude the flow becomes effortless.  This is due to something called Prana or life force energy.  A big wave in the ocean is formed due to winds and even the moon's magnetic pull which are all forms of the same thing which is energy.  Energy pushes the big waves along and a surfer simply rides the waves of energy.  The energy flows and one simple moves with the flow.  Kinetic energy even potential kinetic is very powerful once it is harnessed.  We normally live our daily lifes on increasingly smaller amounts of energy or prana which results from stress, tension and leads to fatigue.  Someone who looses too much energy become a tiny snowflake and so "flake out".  Instead, we need to be snowballs at the tops of mountains that begin to roll downward slowly or quickly building kenetic energy,  growing in size and stature building to an immeasurable force.  Our movement become automatic like the snowball rolling downhill or a big wave.  When we cultivate  the true art of Vinyasa, postures become completely spontaneous due to the energy flowing and it feels like we are moving automatically without doing anything,  therefore we become the surfer riding the wave.

As a physical practice,  vinyasa is much more challenging than a static asana practice (based on a Hatha 1 vs vinyasa 1 @ Pure Yoga).  Although, from a psychological stand point,  vinyasa is easier than a static practice.  One on the main goals of yoga is -  Yoga chitta vritti nirodhah.  To cease all fluctuations of the mind.  Therefore,  when we practice a static class like Hatha 1 because we are holding the posture in stillness for 10 breaths, we are instantly faced with the challenges of the mind for we have the time to think, think about the posture,  think about our legs burning in side warrior pose, think about our upsets and our bank account.  Conversely,  vinyasa due to it's ceaseless flowing movements,  we do not have time to think about anything apart from the present moment.  If the mind does fluctuate and one spontaneously starts thinking about something else, this results in one quickly missing the next posture, or in some cases,  several postures but this is only applicable to beginners,  or those who have difficulty maintaining focus.

Traditional sun salutation is a wonderful tool passed on by the great masters which is a complete practice in its own right.  It contains asana, pranayama, bandha, mudra and meditation.  If carried out correctly it quickly invokes a state of  "meditation in motion".  The body begins to move spontaneously and the series of fluid movements begins to positively effect the mind to be calm, focused and yet alert.  Although, alertness or attentiveness can quickly diminish once we understand the sequence of 12 postures for the right side which is then repeated for the left.  This is a result of us remembering the series of postures and then simply repeating them over and over.  If we are not attentive we quickly become like a robot, hence the reason why the great sages gave us more to do in order to hold all rays of attention at one point or various points.   Once we understand the sequence and have mastered a good amount of flexibility to perform the asanas as well as it's intimate link with the breath, more is then added.  Bandha, mudra for redirection of the energy and awareness of Chakra, which according to the great masters magnifies the effect of the postures.  Once understood we add colour visualization and/or bija Mantra which are the seed sounds to positively effect and amplify the chakras or vortex of energies. 

All off these applications and more cause intense focus and concentration whilst maintaining a calm passive state of mind, providing the practitioner with a state of equilibrium.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned that vinyasa is much like a dance.  When we dance with a partner like dancing a waltz,  the man always leads his partner around the room.  The same can be said of a vinyasa, the breath leads.  We do not move the body and then breathe,  we allow the breath to flow and the body simply follows.  The breath leads us all the way through the movement until we reach our destination of full posture, then as the breath begins to flow again the body simply follows the breath through to the next posture. 

When we dance,  the goal it not to get to the opposite side of the room,  the goal is to simply dance.  When we play music, goal is to listen and enjoy the entire song, if the goal was only to get to the end of the song there would be no need for a beginning or a middle we would simply play the end.  When we dance we simply dance,  when we practice vinyasa we simply do without any pre-conceptions,  ideologies or goals.  We are only present in a state of full awareness, observing whilst surfing a big wave of energy.

Namaste,

With Metta,

Michael