Махамудра: мысли и ветры (2005, Нью-Йорк), занятие 3

[Говорящий 2]
It might be a Shambha series, it might be an Anussara series, it might be an Iyengar series, it might be one of those. We've been to, whenever we go to a new town, we go to all the yoga studios that we can. And so, for that foundation, it almost doesn't matter where you go, okay?

Like, it doesn't make a big difference. The series that you learn in most yoga studios are quite good. And they can provide what I'm calling foundation.

You know, like basic strength, basic lightness, basic flexibility. And then as you, hard yoga is, you know, we like it better only because it has a karmic element. That while you're doing the asana, you're collecting good karma.

Which we believe is the source of success in yoga. So if you don't have good karma and you try to do yoga, then you hurt your neck or you get bored, you know, or something like that. And if you do have good karma, then the asanas work on you.

So the asanas don't have any power by themselves. One person will do the same asanas and all their chakras are open. And then another person will do the same asanas and hurt their neck and leave and never want to go back.

And so, honestly, whatever a series you do, you have to work on the real cause. Yoga is not causing the opening of the chakras. Taking care of other people created the yoga which opens your chakras.

Get it? So, you want to take care of other people, that's the main thing. So hard yoga, those of you who know, if you don't know, Chakras of the Three Jewels, while you do the yoga, you're doing practices to collect the karma.

And then the yoga will work on you better and faster. So whatever yoga you're doing anywhere, it'll work on you if you're taking care of other people. And it won't work on you if you're not.

So that's the first thing you have to say. So foundation work you can do anywhere. Then we learned a thing from David Laithlaw and Sharon Gettinlaw, which I would call targeted asana.

David told us, they did this calendar every year, and he would pick some impossible pose. You know, like twisting one leg around your neck, and the other one behind your waist, and then getting under there and looking up, but upside down. And then, you know, he said, how did you do that kind of stuff?

And he said, I would pick a pose, and then I couldn't do it. So I would target that pose. And I would figure out all the poses that led to that pose.

So, you know, to get that part, I would do these three other poses. And then to get that part, I would do these three other poses. And I would think of that as targeting towards an end pose.

You see what I mean? Like, you can't do a pose, so you do all the ones that would lead you into the pose. So I think Mahamudra, you have to develop that way.

You need bo, to succeed at Mahamudra, asana. You need karma, which also includes the Mahamudra meditations that we talked about. So you can't do this asana if you don't know those meditations.

Are you supposed to do the meditation while you do the asana? Not right now. We'll talk about that some other day.

So no, it's too much. Concentrate on whatever Kristi La says when it comes to the asanas. But you should be doing the meditations outside of the asana practice.

You should know them and you should do them, because that opens the chakras. That opens the channels for when you do the asanas, they work on you. So what we thought today, we'll present a brief presentation on asanas that contribute to Mahamudra.

And we will do Mahamudra. It's just one asana, right? But it's extremely difficult.

It looks easy, but it's not easy. You can do it, but to do it right, it might take a couple of years. So we'll go through that.

And the asana series that we do today will be targeted towards the elements of that Mahamudra. Then if you really want to do Mahamudra, you know, you need to do it regularly. You need a whole series.

And it'd be useful if it's possible for you to come for the second asana series training in Tucson. I think in a month or two. March 24th in Tucson.

Is it four days? Three days? Four days?

So it's four or five days. Something like that. And you should come.

The more extensive training, including the elements of Mahamudra, we'll be doing during that series. So if you can come to that, it's better. We can't learn Mahamudra in one day.

But we're going to, you know, we're going to do a complete thing. You'll get introduced to it. We'll give you the best introduction you can get.

Mahamudra has, the asana has, four basic elements. One is what you call a Janushri Shastra. Where your one foot is under the perineum.

So the heel is under the, into the perineum. And it's a kind of, which is your groin, okay? In guys it's below your organ, okay?

And you have to like, like this. And then that puts a gentle acupressure on your, on that Muladhara chakra, okay? And then this leg is straight.

They say 45, more than 90, when it's straight out, okay? Like sometimes you go back further, it's not like that. For Janushri Shastra you might take it back further, but it's just straight out.

And then it's like a Paschimottanasana. But on one, or Janushri Shastra, okay? And the trick there is to keep this straight, and not to collapse in the lower back.

Fold up the hips like a book, and not like a worm. And that has an effect on this channel. If you've studied traditional Chinese medicine, there's a channel, urinary bladder channel.

It goes from the bottom, it goes from the heel, up the back, and then up to the top of the head. It has like 67, it has like three times more points than any other meridian. So, in our language, this part, this component of this asana is to open the side channels, and the central channel.

To open them in the back. And the Hatha Yoga Padipika talks about that. About opening the three channels in the back with a Paschimottanasana.

Similar, any kind of similar bend like that. The second component of this is Mulabandha. It's a lock in the perineum.

And in this asana, that's assisted, or that's, what do you call it? Instigated by a heel. It has to be tucked in nicely.

Here, underneath, a little bit underneath. And as you practice, you'll learn it. You can't learn it in one night.

But you have to keep trying and see where it's hitting the right place. Then some books will tell you Mulabandha, you have to do a contraction between your anus and your vagina, or your anus and your testicles. And what I wanted to say, we tried everything during the three year retreat.

Three year silent retreat. We had 17, 18 hours a day for three years to work on things. And we tried everything.

And we had great teachers come and help us. Every six months they came for, you know, like a week or two weeks and helped us. But then we would go away for six months and try them.

And my big experience about these bandhas that I wanted to share with you, there's a thing called, say, Sahita.

[Говорящий 1]
Kumbhaka.

[Говорящий 2]
And Kevala.

[Говорящий 1]
Kumbhaka.

[Говорящий 2]
Sahita means you make an effort, you see. Like you try to lock your neck. Or you try to lock your abdomen.

Or you try to lock your perineum, you know. And you consciously try to lock that muscle. And my experience in retreat was, it's easy to do it wrong.

And to hurt yourself. Like, one day I couldn't go to the bathroom for like four days. Because I was doing something wrong with the mumma bandha.

And I never figured out what it was, really. But I know what I'm not going to be doing in a few days.

[Говорящий 1]
It was very weird.

[Говорящий 2]
Like no pee-pee, no nothing. Something just happened bad. Like it was all felt bad.

And I was working really hard on trying to clench muscles. So the first thing I wanted to say, don't try to clench anything. Like, no.

You read in a book, they'll say contract. And then you want to clench something, you know. And don't try to clench your tummy muscles to do the Uddiyana bandha.

Don't try to clench your neck. Everything should be very gentle. And it should be more like...

Watch my cheeks. You see, it's like a slight vacuum on the inside. And you're not like...

[Говорящий 1]
No, it's just a balance. There's a state of balance.

[Говорящий 2]
There's a line of gentle balance, you know. And there's a vacuum. And you're doing it here.

And you're not like clenching all your muscles. It's not like... Navasana helps.

But it's not that. Navasana helps build the muscles. But then when you get to it, it's a...

It's a light diaphragm thing with Uddiyana bandha. So, don't like clench anything. Because then you might not be able to pee pee for four days.

And you can hurt yourself with all this stuff. They say it's like a tiger. You can ride it or it will turn on you.

And you have to be careful. You shouldn't do... You shouldn't like do a full Mahamudra asana unless you have a teacher.

A full-time teacher helping you. You know, like someone you can go to two, three times a week to help you with it. Okay?

And in general, if you do any kind of yoga, you should be going to a yoga studio two, three times a week. To a good teacher. Someone who knows what they're doing.

Even if they don't know Mahamudra. Just a teacher who's trained well in what they do. Ayyanga or Ashtanga or whatever it is.

Go to somebody good. And don't... You know, have a teacher.

It's important in these things. And I'm not approving anybody to practice these things unless they have a teacher. Okay?

So, don't say I taught you. Okay? So, that's...

First element is this working on these three channels. Second element is the Mula Bandha. Third element is Uddiyana Bandha.

Where you're... They have this thing where you... You ratchet up.

And then... Like this, you know? It's too extreme.

It's not for this. Okay? I mean, this is a slight...

A slight sucking of your diaphragm and upper abdomen. Okay? It's not like...

You know, you're forcing it. You're clenching things. You know, like that.

When you get good at yoga, it's just a slight... I don't know what to call it. It's like a slight sucking in that you do pretty much through your whole series.

All your yoga. And also when you're on the bus. You know, and as you walk around.

It's just this gentle thing. And it takes time to get it right. You know, someone who's worked for 7 years to get it can tell you about it.

But then you have to work to get it. You have to do the work. So that's Uddiyana Bandha.

Gentle. Not like... You're like this thing.

There are yogis who do this thing. You know? And then they move gnarly.

And it's not for us right now. Okay? It's just a slight thing.

It... It instigates movement of wind in the central channel. And helps you see emptiness directly.

And the whole purpose of Mahamudra is only that. It's not to get thinner. You will get thinner.

It's not to get stronger. You will get stronger. It's not to get more flexible.

You will get more flexible. But in Tibet they say you get weeds when you plant corn. Like, you don't have to plant weeds.

Like, go for the corn. Plant corn, you'll get the other smaller stuff, by the way. You know?

Go for seeing ultimate reality, divine reality. And then, by the way, you might look better and get healthier. That's okay.

You know, you get the weeds with the corn. Don't worry about that stuff. Use it for seeing ultimate reality.

To do that, you have to be doing the Mahamudra meditations half the time. And then the asana half the time. And then the asana helps trigger the understanding.

And that's the only reason to do the asana. There's no other reason to do that. The last element is a very light chin rock.

You know. And if you study it on a physiological level, it's like adrenal glands... I don't know.

Stimulation, they would say. And on a spiritual level, some books say that this helps choke off the two side channels coming down your neck. Okay.

In a traditional Chinese medicine, you are tonifying the C7, circular... cervical? 7th cervical vertebrae, which is the center of all your...

of your six yang meridians. So half the meridians in the body meet here. In Chinese medicine, which are like the channels, right?

And then you affect it strongly if you... What we would call in India, Vishuddhi Chakra is strongly affecting. So you're working on the Moola, Bandha, the chakra there.

You're working on the Heart Chakra and the Navel Chakra, Manipura and Anahata. And then you're working on Vishuddhi Chakra with this. So you're...

Then yogis have considered it like the ultimate asana. Because it's working on all the chakras. It's working on the three major channels.

It's a Bandha, and a Kriya, and an asana, and a pranayama. All at the same time. And you might alternate nostrils at some point.

So it's like considered very powerful. In the text they say, it will remove your kleshas. And people mistranslate kleshas because they don't know about kleshas.

Kleshas are your negative thoughts. Like in second chapter, Yoga Sutra opening, couple of verses. Five negative thoughts.

So the last thing I have to say, In Hatha Yoga Padipika, when they teach this, it's like, why do it? In an immediate sense, it clears abdominal problems. It's very well...

It's famous for clearing abdominal... You might fart. You might burp.

And that's a good sign. It's cleaning toxins out of your body. If...

We call them boobs. If a boob or a burp stays in your body, it festers. It's like rotten.

It's like toxins. And if your yoga practice can push them out, then that's great. So don't be shy.

You know. No, I mean... Lady Ruth called me the symphony the other day.

Because of my various noises. And... It's good.

It means you're... It's working. Things are...

It works. You want to push out those things. And so, feel free.

OK? And then... Master Iyengar and his daughter Gita Iyengar.

They are very big on this asana for all kinds of menstrual problems. Also for postpartum after one month after the child was born. They highly recommend it.

Displaced uterus and things like that. All that kind of plumbing stuff. They are very big on teaching this asana to women.

And she... It's a big asana in her book. Which is called Gem from...

[Говорящий 1]
Yoga Gem for Women.

[Говорящий 2]
Yoga Gem for Women. It's published by this obscure guy in Canada. If you can get it, it's really good.

If you're a woman. She's a very... Very famous and very capable woman.

And she's really writing for women. And what it helps... How it helps your body differently.

Then the ultimate two results. And I'll let you be here after this. It says it stops death.

You see. And in... Nowadays in India there's this reverse pollution.

Like Indian yoga teachers don't want to say something like that. Because it doesn't sound scientific. And there's this big deal that one yoga school has got a catechism by the Indian government as a college, as a university.

But they have to sell kind of like sell a lot of the spiritual part. And now everybody wants to do that. Everybody wants to go there.

Because they have a degree. And so yoga teachers in India nowadays can't mention that you could wipe out your negative emotions and overcome death with this asana. That your body could change into light because that's not scientific.

And that's the whole reason we're doing it. We're trying to get the body to change into light. The moment you change into light your body appears on a billion planets to help people.

You become the Jesus of a billion planets. You become the Buddha of a billion planets. You become the Dalai Lama of a billion planets at once.

That's all that we're here for. You know, I don't need a degree and I don't need any money. So I can say it, you know.

No, I mean, that's the only reason we're doing this together. That's the only reason to be here. So keep that in mind as we go through.

OK? That's my speech. Now I'll be there if I have to.

[Говорящий 1]
We're going to start by lying on our back. Very easy way to start the asanas today. I know it's kind of spooky in here, but we'll just have to excuse our neighbors if we touch each other's feet and stuff like that.

Just be friendly. Yeah?

[Говорящий 2]
Oh, I forgot. There will be some people who are here and helping. Assisting.

And what they're going to be watching for is not the normal straight body and straight arm. If they see a person frowning, I call it horizontal frown, they're going to swipe, and I call it Shiva, the Shiva touch. Those three lines, they're going to go like this.

If they see you doing this thing, a vertical line, they're going to do a, I call it the rise to the moon. They're going to do this thing very lightly on your head. OK?

If they see tension here at the corners of the mouth, they're going to do this smile thing. You know? And then the last thing, two more things.

Watch for straight backs and folding correctly. And then, the last thing, oh, breathing. Especially on the out-breath, make a sigh.

OK? Listen. And just relax.

She's going to go into that. But you have to watch for those things. If you would rather, if you don't feel comfortable being touched by someone, especially on your face, then let them know when they get close to you, OK?

[Говорящий 1]
Go away. No, some people, it's not comfortable with them.

[Говорящий 2]
So if you don't feel comfortable, just put your hand like that and, you know, they won't touch you, OK?

[Говорящий 1]
So, just close your eyes and relax on your mat for a minute. And, notice how your abdomen automatically gets some sort of hollow sort of in the area of your diaphragm, right? And it kind of gets pulled down by the gravity.

It gets pulled down and almost a little up. And that's sort of a natural start of Uddiyana Bandha, right? It's what Lama Guru Deshakachar calls a Tadaka, the pool.

There's a little pool there. There's a little space. And you can kind of feel it with your hands, that space in your abdomen, if you haven't eaten too many of Geshe-la's donuts.

Right? So, this is one of the areas that we're going to concentrate on today when we go through just a very short series of asanas. Now we're going to focus on our breathing.

The breathing that we normally do during our asana practice is called Ujjayi breathing. And, as Geshe-la was saying, it's sort of like a sigh, especially on the out-breath. It's a slightly audible breathing.

It's like, ah. And then your body automatically relaxes as you do this breath. So, try and begin the Ujjayi breathing now and maintain it throughout the practice, unless otherwise notified.

But just practice now while we're lying down. It's a slight constriction of your throat muscles, just to make an audible sound to your breath. But it should be relaxing.

It shouldn't be tense. And this stimulates that area in your neck where we're trying to focus on for Chandarabhata. And try and slow your breathing down.

Breathe more deeply. Notice where the breath is coming into your body. Is it just up in your chest area or is it going all the way down to your abdomen?

And then raise your arms above your head. Probably we'll be touching so much feet, but try and stagger. And just slightly push your lower back into the floor and give a really good stretch.

Pulling your legs away from you, your arms away from you, and pushing your lower back into the floor. And then release, and sit up. Just come into a comfortable cross-legged position.

We're going to do something called Kapalabhati breathing, which most people who've taken an asana class know how to do. It's where you take sharp exhales. You forcibly use the strength from your abdomen to push the air out of your body with a sharp exhale.

And then you let the body naturally inhale by itself. So what it sounds like is you sound like a bellows or something. You sound like...

And then nothing comes. No sound for the inhale, right? And depending on how fast you do it, we'll do it pretty slow for the first time.

I have a feeling some people haven't done a lot of yoga here. So just watch. Keshi and Michael are our model.

If you're not sure how to do it, the abdomen should be going in with every breath out to push the air out of you. So especially concentrate here, not to get a little frown when you're trying so hard to push the air out. That's really important because if you block the channels here, it's kind of counterproductive to what we're trying to do, which is getting wind into the central channel.

If you block them here, you're kind of clenching the central channel, not allowing that air to go through. So take a breath and then begin. Last time.

Take a full exhale. Breathe very deeply. Exhale.

Breathe normally for a minute. We're going to do another round. This kind of exercise is really good for strengthening the abdomen muscles, and any kind of tonification or strength in the abdomen muscles is going to assist in your getting a natural Uddiyana Bandha as your asanas progress.

Okay. Take a breath out. Take a big breath in.

And begin. One more. And take a breath in.

And out. Then go into downward dog pose. And begin again Ujjayi breathing.

The breathing with slight constriction of the throat where you're making, especially when you exhale, a big sigh and rhythm. Try and get your breath to a nice, slow and steady rhythm. Now, this particular pose is actually one of the most perfect poses for practicing all three of the Bandhas.

What we're trying to do in this pose, and we're going to stay here for quite some time, so get comfortable. We are pushing our butt bones back towards the opposite wall. We are pushing down with our hands so that we can extend our shoulders away from our ears.

And we are pushing down towards the ground with our heels. The abdomen at this point should be hollowed out. Just not too forcefully, but just naturally in this pose.

And the chin should be dropping gently towards the chest. Try to get in touch with all three locations of the Bandhas that we're working with. We're going to start with Muladhara Bandha, then go to Uddiyana Bandha, and then lastly to Jaladhara Bandha.

You might want to think of Jaladhara Bandha as that region of your spine where the bone pops out, and your neck. That's what C7 is. And we're going to try and focus on these three areas throughout our yoga series today.

So then walk your feet one foot length closer in, and take a breath out, and in, and out again. Then walk your feet one foot length closer in, and out, and in, and out. Then walk your feet again, one foot length closer in, and in, and out.

Then walk your feet in between your hands, and cross your elbows with your hands, your hands to your elbows, and just hang over your legs. Try and bend straight from the hip socket, and not from the lower back so much. Try and feel the movement of the prana as your hamstrings release in this pose.

Now, the two side channels, they break off at the point near your groin, and two extensions of them go all the way down your legs to your feet. So really, this pose, Uttanasana, is tonifying the two side channels. They are normally frayed and broken off in our bodies, and this rejuvenates them.

And if you bend from the hips, it goes all the way up to the top of your head. Then slowly roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae, at your head last, and stand in Uttanasana with your feet together, slightly apart if that's more comfortable for you. And just close your eyes and try and find your sense of balance.

The bandhas are an inner experience, and if they're activated, it's like a central core is running through your body, and you would have a perfect sense of balance. Try and feel the three bandhas again in your body, not by clenching them, but just by locating them with your mind in your body area. The Mula bandha, and then Uddiyana bandha, and then Jalandhara bandha should be activated through your Ujjayi breathing, slightly stimulating that area.

Don't forget your breathing. So, on an exhale, take your hands in front of your heart, clasped together, and then on an inhale, bring them up over your head, looking towards the ceiling. Then exhale down, placing your hand near your feet, and then inhale, right leg back into lunge position.

Exhale into downward dog. Then inhale to plank position. Then exhale, bend your knees, and lower your seat to your heels.

And then inhale, hold your body forward into cobra. Then exhale back to downward dog. I don't hear you breathing.

Okay, exhale, lift both your hands, and then on an inhale, bring your right foot forward to lunge. Left foot forward, and exhale into lunge position. Inhale, up, hands up to the sky, and then exhale to down dog.

Inhale, and exhale your hands to third position in front of your heart. That's the right breathing. Inhale, hands up, over your head, and arch back slightly.

Exhale, down to downward dog. Inhale, left foot back into lunge. Exhale, downward dog.

Inhale, eighth position. Exhale, bend your knees, lower your feet back to your heels. And then inhale, hold yourself forward into cobra, and exhale back to downward dog.

Relocate your palms, as if you've lost them. Exhale, look forward towards your hands, and then inhale, left lunge, left foot forward, exhale into lunge position. Inhale, hands up and arch back, and exhale, samasthiti.

In the Tibetan tradition, we do the first pose, it's called sky diamond, where you link your thumbs together, and then put your hands into prayer. He's going to show, he's a model. Yeah, link the thumbs, put your hands into prayer, and then take them all the way back behind your head, sort of in arch.

But your eyes are not looking towards your hands, they're looking sort of diagonally to the crease between the wall and the ceiling. So your hands are farther back than your... Don't stop breathing.

Okay, ready? Inhale, exhale, your hands into prayer position. Inhale, your hands up to sky diamond.

Exhale, fold over to each hand. Inhale, look up, and exhale, jump back, or step if you want to, down to sky diamond. Inhale, upward facing dog.

Exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale, your adjustment one, step your right foot in between your hands, and take your hands up to your prayer position. Then exhale, your arms out of your adjustment two, and hold there for a minute and breathe.

Our experience with Mula Bandha, and we're just going to hang out here and talk a little bit so we're very comfortable, is that you're pulling in a... What do you call those muscles? The...

The ones you do besides... The muscles, the inside inner thigh muscles. Last breath out, and then inhale, your hands down to your mouth, between your...

side of your foot, and exhale, back to downward facing dog. Hold there and breathe. So that those inner thigh muscles, the stretch of those inner thigh muscles actually is an extension of where Mula Bandha is in the body, and any kind of hip opening, sideways stretch like Virabhadrasana two is actually targeting the Mula Bandha area and inciting it a little bit.

So when we do the left side of Virabhadrasana two, try and think about opening up that area of Mula Bandha. So inhale, forward to plank. Exhale, chaturanga.

Inhale, upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale, your left foot forward, Virabhadrasana one, and it's up to this side.

Exhale, open to Virabhadrasana two. Try and feel your back leg as it pulls the inner thigh muscles, and see if you can find a connection between that and where we talked about Mula Bandha here. Keep breathing.

The more you stretch, the more you feel it. You guys went down like another two inches when I said that. And for your last exhale, then inhale, push your hands on the two sides of your feet, and exhale back to downward dog.

Hold and breathe. Try and slowly pull your chin into your chest and get in touch with the area of Jalandhara Bandha. Keep the abdomen hollow.

Try and find a connection between the tonification you're getting in your hamstrings and where the two side channels branch off at the groin, which is the area of Mula Bandha, right? Everything is connected. So, we're going to do hop our feet forward to...

in between our hands. But not right now. Hold on.

Keep breathing. But I want you to try something. I want you to keep this hollow abdomen thing happening during the whole time that you bend your legs and then you take off in the air, and then you gently put your feet down in between your hands with absolutely no noise whatsoever, right?

Okay, well, you know, we can cope. But try and keep that area hollowed out. It's not a cleansing.

It's just to keep it like that pool when we were lying on our backs. So, on your next exhale, look toward your hands and bend your knees. And then on an inhale, let the hollow abdomen pop forward.

And then exhale, bend over your legs. Inhale, up to sky-diving. And then exhale, swan-sleeping.

Inhale. Then exhale as to bear. Inhale, up to sky-diving.

Exhale, fold from the hips, or release it into motion. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, jump back into hollow abdomen, and step back as you return, coming down to chaturanga.

Inhale, upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog. Inhale, right foot forward, between your heels.

You're adjusting the arms. Exhale to move, adjusting the feet. Once again, we're trying to feel where this inner pulling of our inner thigh is connected to the lower abdomen.

Can you see me? I'm smiling. Yeah, lower your head slowly.

Last exhale. And then inhale your hands beside your foot, and step back to downward dog. Inhale, forward to plank position.

Exhale, chaturanga. Inhale, upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog.

Inhale, your left foot forward, with your left hand on the ground. Exhale, open to your right hand, too. Try to get your thigh so it's parallel to the floor, and try to feel the connection between your right inner thigh and lower abdomen.

Good. I wish she would say, take me home, though. I'm not sure.

We're trying to save your thigh, so that's good. Why are you shaking? Okay, last exhale.

Inhale your hands beside your foot, and then come back to downward-facing dog. Hold here, and breathe. You know, the winds follow the lines, and when you're actually focused on the bandhas, without any kind of muscular tension at all, the energy of the body automatically goes to these spots.

So when you're focusing on the lumbar bandha, for instance, in these poses, or even on the bandha, something is already happening, just by virtue of listening to it in your mind, and you're paying attention there, in that area of the body. So find your bandha areas again when we're here in downward dog. It's such an easy place to get in touch with them.

This is the simplest pose, and yet I keep finding more and more exciting things about it every day. It's very important, this place. You can really...

You can really grow from spending a lot of time here. Okay, exhale and look between your hands, bend your knees. Hollow out your abdomen, inhale, jump forward.

Exhale, bend over your straight legs, return to center. Inhale, your arms up to spine, bend. And then exhale.

So much breathing. Now we're going to close our eyes for a minute and just focus on the lumbar bandha and put you on the lumbar areas. You can slightly tuck in your stomach a little bit, as long as it's not clenching, tucking in.

Try and find it, try and access it. It's deep within your body, it's in the core. And this energy, this core energy that you're focusing on is going to help us keep our balance for the next pose.

So now open your eyes and raise your knee up to your chest and out your knee up to your chest. And then exhale your knee out to the side for a two pose, utsasana. Placing your hands together at your heart.

Breathing, breathing. I can tell when everyone's really concentrated, their breath is dissipating. If this is really easy for you, you can raise your hands above your head, holding your arms up lengthily, and then try and raise them onto your toes.

You should always try and find your ceiling, right, and then push yourself beyond it. So if you're one of those people that's sort of falling over right now, then you're in the right place. If you're not falling over yet, you haven't pushed yourself enough.

Right? You're not finding your ceiling. See, and then you try, you say, oh, I'm not balanced enough, and then you try and get back in touch with that core that we were just talking about.

And you go straight up. Straight up. Okay, then hug your knee into your chest, and then down.

We'll do the other side. Take a few breaths. Focus again on this area of your core, and inhale your knee into your chest.

Good. Then exhale over to the side. Another really fun way of checking whether your core is very strong is to close your eyes and speak.

Sharon at DavidLabs just likes to put blindfolds on us. That was really fun. Okay.

Keep breathing. And then hug your knee into your chest, and then feel it down. With your feet placed together, inhale and lift your arms parallel, and lift yourself up onto your toes.

And then slowly lower your seat down, keeping on your toes, until you're in a squatting position like this. This is a good place to engage more momentum. In fact, a more advanced pose, you just stick your heel into your body and cross your leg over your knee like this, and then try the other side.

If you're doing good in that one, you can try that. So your heel goes first. No one wants to try this one.

Your heel goes first into that groin area. Probably the heel is going all the way back past the anus, but the pressure is on the perineum. And then you cross your...

You cross your leg in a half-loaded stance, and then you take your hands off. It's hard to do it in front of the microphone. Okay, try to do the other side if you can do that one.

It's actually easier if you put your heel all the way into your stomach. And then you get a little bit of a run-up, and then you get another run-up at the same time. Oh, he's doing good.

He's like surfing. Good. Anyway, if your core was really strong, it would be so easy to just stay in this pose for a really long time, you know?

The engagement of the muscles. And then you can let yourself relax. So if you can get yourself into a lotus, or if you're not in just a comfortable cross-legged position, keep your ujjayi breathing.

Full lotus is a very powerful pose for sending the inner legs up in the body. It stimulates a lot of upward movement. Then place your hands beside your thighs on the ground and lift your body up on the inhale.

And then let your body go. Drop to the ground three times. And relax.

Then inhale your body up. Drop, drop, drop. Inhale your body up.

Drop, drop, drop. And release your pose. Keep your legs in front of you.

Keep your feet flexed. Try and pull your knees so that the backs of your knees are touching the ground but your heels are still on the ground. It's sort of a challenge there.

And then keeping your back, your lower back, very straight, grab your toes and try and pull your stomach down to your thighs. But don't collapse all the way down. Just...

And breathe here. Paschima Nasana is a really powerful mula bandha pose. There's something about the way that the entire back of the leg stretches that triggers something in the mula bandha.

And if you bend at the hips and not curving your lower back, then the energy will come all the way up to the tip of your head. And that's ideal. So we want to almost come...

almost have an arch to the lower back at this point. And then on the next exhale, just release down all the way to your maximum stretch. Keep breathing.

It doesn't matter where your maximum stretch is as long as you're feeling it in the right areas. But try not to bend your knees. If you can't reach your feet, it's better to keep your knees straight and feel that pull of your hamstrings because that's the energy that's going to trigger the incitement of the areas we're working with today.

This pose, your abdomen should be completely hollowed out. And that should actually allow you to drop further down in the pose. Try and direct the...

I don't know, whatever tension or pulmonary sensation, discomfort, whatever you want to call it, direct it towards the area of the Bandhas and use it like energy. Okay, last breath. And then slowly raise yourself up.

And then bend your knees, place your hands on the floor behind your hips and raise up into table top position. Dropping, arching your neck all the way back, just dropping your neck. Push your hips up to the ceiling as high as you'll go.

And see this as a stimulation of Dandara Bandha, this opposite motion of the neck. And lower down. Now place your left foot forward and your right foot into Half Lotus.

And it's about an inch outside of your belly button, in sort of a hollowed area, right? Then wrap your hand around and grab your foot if you can, if you're comfortable. If not, that's all right.

Inhale, and then exhale, fold over your straight leg, This is purposely targeting the area of Uddiyana Bandha. It's almost like your heel is digging into your lower abdomen and forcing the energy up. Again, try and keep your lower back straight and not arched.

And then inhale, release the pose. And exhale, move on to the other side. You have to experiment.

Grab your foot, inhale, then exhale, lower down. You have to experiment with where is the best place to put your heel to actually activate these things we were talking about with Uddiyana Bandha. You might not be able to discover that completely tonight.

You know, it's like a six-month job for you. And then inhale, come up. Then exhale, your foot out a little bit wider to the side.

It would be just on the... So, where the groin meets the leg, that area. And then inhale, try and turn your stomach so that your belly button is straight over your leg.

And then exhale, fold over your straight leg. And then keep breathing. If you're really good at this pose, you can start to try and pull your head all the way down to the outside of your leg.

Outside of your leg, not inside. There you go. And inhale, come up.

Change sides. So, these are the... Johnny's here saw some of the poses that are preparing us for our main pose.

Inhale, your torso over your leg. And then exhale, down. You know, in India, they make you hold the poses for a really long time.

And they tell you, don't move, not even a muscle. Don't move an inch or you'll have to hold twice as long. I won't make you do that.

So, inhale, come up. I think I just turned it off. There we go.

Now put both your feet together, the outsides of your feet together, in sort of an elongated diamond shape. And then, this is one where you actually purposely try and curl your back. And you push your neck, your chin towards your chest.

And you try and get the top of your head in front of your heels. You won't be able to do it, but that's where you're going with this pose. So, just curl your body in here.

And then press down your two knees with your hands at the same time. And feel the stretch. In the backs of your thighs there.

Press your knees with your hands. And then inhale, come up. Then exhale, bring your two feet in closer to your groin.

And this time we're going to go and fold over our feet with a straight spine. So our belly button should be right in between our soles, right? And you can put your forehead on the floor if you can reach that.

So that's the groin. Good. This will be your humongous breathing.

You'll be inspired. Try and match this breathing, okay? Okay, come on.

When we're Kisha and Michael and I do our asanas together, we always match our breathing. And there's something really nice about getting in tune with another person's breathing so that you're breathing in the same rhythm as they are. And I would encourage people, if they have friends that they like to practice with, or do their asana practice with, to try that.

Because it brought us a lot in our practice. So we're going to try Mahamudra now. We've worked around the pose for a while.

So this is where... So place your left foot out. And then place your right heel right directly at your groin, so you're actually sitting on top of your heel.

This could take some kind of adjusting so that you're comfortable. It's not... Some people like to put their foot, this part of their foot, next to their thigh.

And some people like to tuck it underneath so that their foot is pointing that way. And either one, it doesn't matter. Whatever one is more comfortable for you.

As long as you are stimulating that area of the perineum with your heel, you're doing it right. Good. And then grab your left toe with the first two fingers of both hands.

And straighten out the lower back so that it's almost concave. Keep breathing. Then slightly hollow out that abdomen area.

It's sort of this energy that goes in and up, right? Think about when you're in Downward Facing Dog and you have that completely hollow feeling there. And try and get the same thing here, but without doing any kind of clenching or tightening.

Just a very gentle, slight lifting. And more in towards the core of your body and not on the outside muscles. And then drop your neck down so that your chin is going towards your chest.

But without concave, without curving your back. It's just the neck. And then I want you to pay attention to the end of your exhales.

Try and breathe very slowly. And then at the very end of your exhales, there should be a slight pulling sensation upwards in the body. Just before you breathe in.

Close your eyes and focus on the spot about an inch in between your eyebrows. It's actually... It's actually directly above where that bump on your upper palate is.

So if you put your tongue on that bump at the roof of your mouth, and it goes straight up from there to the spot between your eyebrows, keep your focus there. There's a picture of sort of a diamond-like point of light there. Again, your head should be strapped slightly down, but not straining.

And not so that you would bend your lower back. Okay, release. We're going to try another swing.

This is a very strong technique for getting people into a meditative state very quickly. To do this pose for about five minutes on each side, and then you feel sort of... Yeah, yeah.

So now we're trying to place our left heel into that area of the cranium at our groin. Right? Trying to balance.

And then keeping your back straight, reaching with two fingers of both hands to grab our right toe, right big toe. You can slightly pull the body... Pull the toe with your hand so you pull the body forward a little bit, but keep your lower back very straight.

And then drop your chin towards your chest. Close your eyes. And focus on the ascension.

Okay. Pay attention to the exhales. At the very end of the exhales, try and feel some sort of sensation in the core of your body and lift slightly up before you take your inhale again.

Okay. Inhale, come up. Straighten your legs out and just shake them out a little bit.

And then lie down on your back with your knees bent. We're going to do a side lunge last minute now, so just so you know how to create space with your knees. We're all very close here.

So keeping your body breathing, even though we've moved to our backs, raise your legs up and over your head. Clasp your hands together behind your back. Place them...

Get your elbows as close together as you can. And then bend your arms and place your hands as high on your back as you can. Then slowly raise your legs up.

If you haven't done this pose before and you need assistance, please ask one of the people assisting today. You don't want to be directly on your neck. You want to be on your shoulders.

If this isn't a very comfortable pose for you, you can just close your eyes. And concentrate on that area, C7, where we are inciting our Dandarabha Mandala here. Very good.

Then slowly lower your legs down behind your head, keeping them straight. Clasp your hands again, pressing them down towards the floor. Place your toes on the floor and then push your heels back to the opposite wall.

Positive breathing. Keep breathing. There's something about the inverted poses that reverses the flow of the winds in your body.

They're very powerful poses. And you should try and stay in them as long as possible. The Indians say, oh, it reverses death.

The flow of time and death. Now bend your knees and take your knees into your ears, as close as you can get them. Keeping your hands on the floor, pressing against the floor.

You can keep them clasped together if that's comfortable. Then slowly, vertebra by vertebra, roll down onto your mat. If you can, place your legs in full lotus.

I think it would be better for me if there was space around here. Or you can keep your legs out straight. Breathe.

Then raise your head up and then arch your back and bring the top of your head down to the floor. Keeping your weight on your arms, so your knees are straight. Clasping your toes and pulling down your elbows if you're in full lotus.

Making sure your knees are close to the floor. There you go. This is the counter pose, of course, to all the Sarvagasana cycle.

The area the neck releases. It's the same trigger for Dharabhanda. The interesting thing about opening that chakra at the neck is, it's directly related to what we were talking about a year ago, of being able to speak all languages, communicate with everyone.

Okay, and release. And just lower yourself down to the floor for a Shavasana. Be kind to your neighbors.

Be sympathetic. So just close your eyes. Mm-hmm.

We're saying something, put his legs down. Your head should be out to the side of your body with your palms facing up. Mm-hmm.

Try and pull your shoulders down so they're away from your ears. Then just relax. Go through the areas of the body that we worked on today, that we're targeting, and see if they feel slightly different to you after spending so much time on them.

Check the area just above your groin. See if there's any sort of spark there that you didn't feel before. Mm-hmm.

Then check that space in your abdomen near the core of your body, and check the area of the throat. Picture your three channels, and see that they were opened and healed by this practice, and that the winds are now flowing smoothly through them. And then think about how this will get us to our ultimate goal of turning our bodies of flesh into bodies of light.

And then see your practice today as this pinpoint of beautiful crystal light in your heart, and offer it now to somebody else. Give your practice, give the light from your practice today to somebody else. You can see it like a ray of light shooting from your heart to theirs.

Now widen your scope. Give this ray of light to everyone else in the room here today, so there is like a network of lights coming from heart to heart, everyone here. And widen your scope even further.

Offer your light at your heart to everyone in New York, and see how far your light can go. See how far you can extend yourself, your offering. And now bring back all the rays of light.

See them getting sucked back into the dominant point of light at your heart. And slowly start to come back, moving your fingers and your toes, maybe stretching your arms and legs. Then when you are ready, you can roll to one side and sit up.

[Говорящий 2]
This is one more thing we will stop. We talked about the difference between sahida and kevala. So kumbhaka means stopping of the breath, suspension of the breath.

And then the purpose of doing this series today is to prepare the body and mind for kumbhaka, the suspension of the breath. And then as you get stronger, then during mahamudra, only with the instruction of the teacher, you would practice suspending the breath purposely, gently, very gradually. And then I would like to tell you the final, where this goes, and what will be the last day that you will do this practice, will be maybe a month before that day or a few months before that day, you start to have, sahida means trying to block the problem of the breath, suspended by some kind of effort.

And kevala means it happens naturally. So if you just do a steady, modest, short, 45 minutes, an hour a day, asana practice, and it really doesn't matter too much what, practice the kind of asanas that fit you best, at the yoga center that you find fits you best, but make sure it's gentle and not that it makes you more tense when you get out than when you come in. So, steady, modest.

I think you can succeed unless you learn to do your asanas at home also. So, two days a week, two days a week with your teacher, and then the rest of the days, take one day off if you need to, at home. Ladies, take a day off at your favor, or as you need.

Some people take the following off in the number of, but very steady, very gentle, and then what will happen is, because you are practicing just as part of your life, every day, and you're doing those meditations, for example, the feeling I'm having right now won't last, and I know that, I have to recognize that, I have to keep thinking about that. Then, if you keep doing the meditations, which you can practice here with James Conner, in New York, for free, at huge loss, then keep doing the asana series, then the bandhas will happen to you spontaneously. That's kerala.

Kerala means you won't really be trying to do it, and one day, once it's happened, the muddha bandha will come to you, and it may feel more like an opening than a closing, and then Udhyana bandha will come to you, and you'll understand it, finally, and then this muddha bandha, Jalan Dara, will come to you. And each of these bandhas corresponds to a sacred site in the world. There are 24 sacred sites.

Jalan Dara is a real place. Udhyana is a real place, and it's also a place in your body. So there comes to be this harmony between your body and the world.

Then in the final months, you might be sitting just in a library somewhere, and your breath will just stop for a long time, and you don't really notice it, maybe it stops for 5 minutes, but then suddenly you realize you haven't been really profiling it. That's kerala. That's a spontaneous kumbhaka, a spontaneous suspension of the breath.

And that happens when the thoughts are getting sweeter and sweeter. Your behavior towards other people is getting kinder and kinder, and your heart and your conscience is clean, and then the breath just stops, and the prana begins to stop, and it enters the central channel. When that happens, you'll be in a state of meditation.

The breath will be stopping frequently, like every couple of days you'll notice it's just stopping. And no effort, and no clenching, and no red face, and no lines on your head, just happily, naturally. Then your mind is in a state of meditation, and mahamudra, the real one, will happen, and then you'll see emptiness directly.

And it takes maybe 5, 10, 15 minutes. You are in communion with ultimate reality. You are perceiving part of enlightened being.

You are perceiving their emptiness, and no other thought, no other perception at all, just one with the thing. Then when you come out of that, within a few minutes the heart chakra opens, and then you see the face of every living being in the universe. Your mind has this capacity, and you want to do it, and that's why you're here.

And you know you will take care of them like their mother. You know you will be like their mother of countless living beings, and you will spend the rest of your existence eternally helping them, serving them. Then you see ahead to the day that your body will turn into light.

All of these things happen within an hour of real mahamudra, spontaneous mahamudra. And then one day you will be like the Dalai Lama of this planet, or the Jesus, or the Buddha, or whatever. You will be the person who will help every other person in the world, in many worlds.

And that's what we all really want to do. It's what we were meant to do. And this is just one, another step towards that.

And it's a powerful step. It's, to have the karma is really, really pure karma. You have some kind of very strong holy karma in you, and we have to try to maintain it by being good to other people all day, kind to other people all day.

So let's try to help each other do that. And keep up your yoga. And we'll see you.

Oh, there's a dinner. Please stay for dinner. It's a fun music for a concert.

And, you know, maybe in your room for tomorrow. And it's a very beautiful place to do retreats. And that's a very good thing to do.

If you can do one or two retreats a year, it's really good. It helps a lot with everything. So we'll do a prayer.

Thank you. We'll do a prayer to give away the good karma. Because we make really good karma.

Thank you for coming. And Krishna and I really enjoy, we were talking about it, that people that have been very kind to us, and very good, they've worked really hard with us, teaching us here in New York. And we're just like, we can't sleep at night, because we're so tired.

And we love you guys. We'll see you when we get back. Sakyong Rinpoche, Rinpoche, Sanghye, Sangye, Sangye, Sangye, Sangye, And twist it gently, twist it gently.