ASHTANGA YOGA

• Yoga is Union
• The ability to direct the mind without distraction
• The state of wholeness
• Control of thoughts
• Union with the divine

Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is a physically demanding system designed to make you sweat! For those looking for the gym alternative wishing to be physically challenged at the same time practicing in a moving meditation reaping mentally calming rewards, then this is the yoga for you!

Patanjali, considered to be the father of yoga and author of the Yoga Sutras, described the eight aspects of yoga as limbs of a tree ( Ashta = 8, Anga = limb)

These limbs are:

Here in the west we primarily focus on the 3rd limb, being Asana, or Posture.

"The practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is both
powerfully strong and meditative."

Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is all about the breath. The breath initiates movement and in every movement there is calm. This movement practiced in conjunction with the breath is the Vinyasa. The breath is key to unlocking the body and deepening one’s practice.

The postures need to be felt through the breath, allowing the breath to slide over muscles, through sinew, breezing over joints. The entire practice is a continuos flow of movements and breathing which generates an internal and physical heat that purifies the body and clarifies the mind.

The History : Ashtanga Yoga

The ashtanga yoga system was reconstructed from a mysterious manuscript written on a bundle or palm leaves, the Yoga Korunta.

This collection of verses on hatha yoga was discovered in the 1930's by yoga master and Sanskrit scholar Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and his disciple K. Pattabhi Jois while researching Sanskrit texts at a Calcutta University library. The manuscript is dated to be between 500 and 1500 BC.

From this they translated and reconstructed the Ashtanga yoga series and Pattabhi Jois, with the encouragement of Krishnamacharya, took the instructions as the basis of his practice and teaching.