A Story from Deep Within

Photo credits © author taken on the outskirts of Lumbini, Nepal January 2018
 

“Dying each other's life, living each other's death”

-       Heraclitus

The day of the ceremony, you meet with your guide; this a person from the group that performs these ceremonies - nothing uncommon here - a very normal guy with a normal family, living in a normal house of a very quiet and normal town out of Amsterdam. This is your guide, your DJ, your nurse, your friend; he is everything you are going to need on your trip. In the beginning I felt scared. Getting inside a car with a stranger, going someplace unknown and having said to no one what you were about to do. Your superego is shouting to you “dude, what the fuck are you going to do” and other shit like that so that you chicken out and go back to your normal everyday life, your normal routines, your virtual safety. 

Once we enter the house, he guided me up to the attic, where he had modified the entire floor as a calm place for people to enter the true nature of the world. I laid down on an amazing sofa, covered myself with a blanket and took of my clothes except the underwear. He told me some stuff to remember during the trip because although it is all happening inside your head you are still able to feel your body. 

By the time he was finished with the “protocol”, he filled a small glass with a yellowish thick fluid (like a smoothie) with the pulp of the Ayahuasca tree and told me to hold it in my arms. We meditated for a few moments, while listening to some ambient music that replicated an exotic atmosphere of mystery and magic, something transcending that by this time you were unable to decipher. After that, you take the first sip; it smells like shit. Not surprisingly, it also tastes the same. However, it compensates for the 3-day liquid fast and I just drunk the hell out of it in one sip. I laid down on the leaning sofa waiting for the second glass. Drinking this one was no less than a martyr.

After that you just cover yourself to feel the warmth of the blanket while at the same time a night-mask covers your eyes. I closed my eyes as well and tried to relax. 

I cannot really find a certain point or incident that marked the exact time where everything started to happen. I remember that the music was all I was feeling and that in a sense I kind of saw or thought I saw some liquid patterns in the dark, or maybe the crests of these patterns as would have shined If the sun was hitting them with his rays. I remember that my mouth had still the nauseating taste of the plant pulp and that part of it was drooling out of my lips that were now open as if I was in a coma. And then I felt what I thought it was the cosmic power, the nature itself revealing itself out of the void of my mind, exposing her real rage and fury, making me feel so small and helpless as if saying: you pity human, you are just dust in the wind, a grain of sand that I can blow and weather away. I can do whatever I want to you, my power is immense. And she said that I felt that her power grabbed me from the torso, lift me up into the sky and then pushed me back, abruptly into the sofa, passing as a wave through my belly; I felt the middle of my body expanding, unlocking in a sense. 

Then I remember that in this darkness, I saw a dark face starting to form just in front of me, as if looking straight into a mirror from a close distance; just a black figure, no characteristics, as if trying to scare me. And then…I just burst into laughter! I had been laughing for about 10 min or more straight. I cannot remember having laughed so much and so hard in my life ever. I couldn’t remember having laughed during my life in the UK at all actually. And then I started sawing images of very serious people, tv personas saying the nightly news and other serious blocks talking seriously and started laughing again. I laughed so hard that my belly hurt and Rob started laughing as well, sitting next to me and holding my hand, saying “I know Adam, Mother also has a lot of humor as well!”.

The order of the following is possibly not right; time is not really a thing that you get a grasp on during the ceremony. I remember that at some point I felt as if the lower part of my jaws and the rest of the head started moving with away from each other, as if caught into a vortex. I remember feeling my entire body shaking in the rhythm of the music, as if the air around me was water, and I was a thin leaf in the middle of a lake while the wind was just blowing a bit its surface. Starting from my toes all the way up to the head, I was literally dancing while lying on the sofa, my every cell was in tune with some invisible energy that surrounded me and called me to dance with it. I could stop it, but I didn’t want to. I tried to stand up just to see how it feels, and noticed immediately that my body was 10 times more flexible and agile that normal. I felt as if I could perform any demanding yoga posture in the blink of an eye, every effort now seemed insignificant, all I had to do is just to do it. There was no thought, no breath, and no warm-up before that. Everything was in place, as if the entire universe was moving me; not just moving me, passing through my body and flowing through my veins. I was the king of the universe, the One being, the King of the galaxy; the smallest and the largest at the same time. There was nothing else around me but pure love, joy and happiness there. I cannot possible describe it right with words…

Meanwhile, inside the dark, my brain created a sphere around my body as the center. Inside this 3dimensional sphere, there had been floating images, memories and stories, dreams and reality of my past, my future and the present, alternative timelines and fairy-tales that might never come true. All I did I was just literally dive into these segmented thoughts or dreams. It was as if my subconscious had created a space for me to look into and try to figure out things. 

I saw myself married with a girl and being all together with my family back in my homeland during summer, out in the sun, eating outside, beneath a large porch. I saw me struggling to do some sort of yoga postures, failing miserably, and then saw a kid doing it, just doing it, simple and elegant, no effort, and then looking at me and smiling. I saw lots of stuff. I saw soldiers in the war just before killing innocent people. I was one of them. Time paused, for everyone there, but me, and then saw a personalization of consciousness (the Self?), trying to talk to me while holding a gun in hands, trying to shoot a kid against me ready to drop a Molotov cocktail on us. He [i.e. the Self] said about the absurdity of everything I am about to do, killing those people, taking my self so serious inside that suit, trying to make the world a better place by killing. I am about to talk back to him, he just pokes my eye and laughs. “What are you doing? What are you supposed to be doing? Don’t you see that this is all empty of any rational thinking? Think! Why are you here? Stop trying to make arguments! Think for god’s sake! Think out of the box! What are you supposed to be doing here! This is NOT your enemy! Wake up! You could have been so much more!”…and somewhere around mine/his mumbling I saw it. Another world, where humans, both killers and victims work together, up-cycling the material used for weaponry to make technological breakthroughs, disassembling rifles to create something to that would help humanity grow further. A soldier and a kid, dropping down their weapons and looking at each other. The time flows again. The rest of the soldiers waiting for a command that will never come; the kid afraid having dropped his cocktail and a soldier standing there trying to figure out what happened, giving order to the rest of his band to throw their weapons away. 

I was living the whole thing right there.

I saw a man, inside an artist studio creating the world, the earth, as we know it; he formed it with materials and fresh paint as a small sphere next to his desk. He created the world. But I don’t think I remember more from this story. I don’t know even if I remember it right in the first place. Those parts though are correct. I just cannot remember more.

The trip lasted for about 6 hours.

Before you sip the pulp, you have to ask a question for Mother Ayahuasca so that she can answer for you. I asked: “what am I afraid of”. I couldn’t really figure out by that time. I never stopped thinking about it. After a few months, as I was thinking about it again, I finally saw it, I saw the answer. I am afraid of doing the step, taking the leap forward, moving to something new. My fear holds me back, the fear of failure, of anything new. 

I know understand that I have to do the things I have to do without fear. I will survive it because I have people (my friends and my family) who will always be next to me to support me even if I mess up big. Move forward to find your true nature, what you really are. It is the only way.    

You will never have your moments back. For us pity humans, time is linear. And you can't always have what you want. But you can definitely find someone to share the burden of life together. You are so young and healthy so don't contain yourself and don't follow the path of other people. Move forward and one day you will find something that will tell you to stop. If that moment is now though don't let it slip. At least tell him how you are feeling. Because times goes fast and there might be no other moment to say it.

Clarifications:

Please note that the entire experience is not something common for everyone. Everyone “feels” it in a different way, this is simply because each and every one of us is different and unique, and his/her uniqueness is its beauty; we also tend to have different experiences during the years of our lives and these experiences affect us, sometimes unconsciously, therefore what “mother Ayahuasca” (sometimes called “mother Earth” or “mother Nature” will show you, depends on you and on you only. If you decide to go all the way and do it, there are some things that you have to study and do first. It is important to follow these “guidelines” so as to ensure a deeper and more fulfilling trip. 

There is a set of actions and non-actions that one must perform (these are optional of course, but I did them anyway). That is a very strict diet (try to eliminate animals and animal products) for at least a month (no problem here cause I was doing plant-based anyway), so sexual activity for two months (including masturbation) and 3-days prior to ceremony, only juices and soups for cleansing. It went fine in every aspect of it. The 3-day fast just before the ceremony, will make you feel so light (both physically and mentally) that you‘d wish to remain like that for the rest of your life. I had some trouble going back to my regular habits of eating but nothing serious. 

--

We could never have these moments back. For us pity humans, time is linear. We can't always have what you want. But you can definitely find someone to share the burden of life together. You are so young and healthy so don't contain yourself and don't follow the path of other people. Move forward and one day you will find something that will tell you to stop. If that moment is now though don't let it slip. At least tell him how you are feeling. Because times goes fast and there might be no other moment to say that.

Further Thoughts on the Yoga Sūtras

It must had been primarily hard for a mystic – among mystics – such as Patañjali to dress into words the understanding of experience(s) beyond the realm of immediate perception, which in a sense justifies the use of laconic language that most of the times baffles the contemporary reader. The knowledge that this ancient mystic is trying to articulate in the sūtras falls into the buffer or grey zone that forms the perimeter of the human cognitive perception amidst the chaos of concepts beyond our mental understanding[1]^,[2]: this area can be rendered as the circumference of a cycle tainted with emotional-dreamy traits[3] [see fig. a01]. Despite our inability to articulate them, we as humans are able to physiologically grasp them by means of bodily experiential feedback. Even more so, we still possess the capacities to engage with them emotionally or develop an inherent understanding through self-reflection and dialectics. The latter, is a process that was initiated through the implementation and re-reading of the original text that lead into various approaches or descriptions known as commentaries or Bhāṣya-s.

fig. a01 the Realm of Cognitive Awareness [visualisation based on J Peterson's Biblical Lectures Youtube]

 

Back then Patañjali’s efforts to unite the shambolic ideological systems that had sprung from the earlier yoga traditions must have been a rather strenuous task. The natural, inherent tendency that we possess as humans, to cling into ideologies and self-proclaim ourselves protectors of their constricted boundaries had been immanent all around the world that Patañjali used to live in – gravely separating instead of uniting the human spirit in order to bring about something good[4]. The values of the compiled aphorisms were not a by-product of logical thinking but the fruits of a journey into the dreamy realm[5]^,[6].

 

Trying to make sense of the Yogasūtra-s only as a piece of literature will naturally constrict us to our narrow sphere of apprehension that is established onto things of non-firm, non-conceivable reality[7] – one will eventually act out dreams that she / he does not feel, stemming from an internal disassociation. In order to grok their meaning, studying and reading the text itself will be of little value; humans have a tendency to read and apprehend a lot, but are usually found to act along a vector pointing toward a diametrically opposite direction. Thus, practice is paramount i.e. the physical and physiological experience of the described axioms as perceived by the most apt, tangible parts of our bodies and senses. 

 

The importance of the text draws even further on. There are very clear references to what Freud conceptualized as the subconscious mind, conceptualized as God in the ancient times; an obscure layer that overrides our voluntary control mechanisms and seems to indirectly affect our conscious decisions. This idea is then transcended into the psychoanalytical concept of the human being as a fragmented puzzle of personalities with independent characteristics of which jurisdiction can hardly be applied successfully. 

 

The ineptitude to curb and discipline oneself can be magnified in the contemporary world due to the enhanced stimuli which in turn seem to be working on the unconscious mind. The very early eras of human existence that preceded Patañjali were lacking such context, and thus made it easier for people to be in closer contact with the divine [read subconscious mind]. Disassociated from the intimidating self-imposed artificial reality, early humans found solace in nature and further on through the overwhelming, altruistic offering of her juices that were amply used to mingle the human consciousness with the divine. Long-extinct plants such as soma were the primary means of melting the concreteness of reality, fusing it into the spiritual realm[8]. God, and whatever can be framed inside this notion, was manifested in the human soul, erasing any need of scripting down in literary form the rules and principles that helped toward this path. 

 

Ideologies are parasites on an underground religious [do you mean spiritual?] substratum according to which people are trying to organise their thinking; they are likened to crippled religions, wrapped and twisted, falsely representing a pure but yet inconceivable foundation. Nietzsche proved that when the aforementioned substratum is diffused, humanity is oscillating into extremes, magnificently represented by the clash of polarized ideological strongholds. On top of that, he thoroughly predicted the loss of millions of lives in contemporary societies, that followed the efforts to rationally interpret the dreamy or emotional states with faulty rational representations(?). 

 

Little information can be obtained on the history that preceded Patañjali and the practices of yoga amidst the vedic periods [vedanet.com the original teachings of yoga: from Patañjali back to Hiranyagarbha[9]]; the very fact of the traditions’ oral character combined with our failure to sustain enough scriptural evidence makes the investigation as to what had been practically going on, even harder. Assuming that there has been worshiping of multiple different deities and thus, various corresponding representative schools – which were actually teaching the same thing in different forms - paints an image of Patañjali as a peacemaker amidst the chaos: one could easily draw connections to the role that Moses played during the Jews spiritual and physical wandering in the desert i.e. both men were encouraged to compile a set of rules, commands [in the case of Moses] or aphorisms [in the case of Patañjali] that bound the spiritual cosmonauts into a united philosophical common-ground that was fundamental in order to settle and progress through the coming eons not as fragmented sub-groups but through strength-by-unity. 

---

[1] This can be simply viewed as a misty realm for which nothing is known at all.

[2] Contemporaries of Patañjali have also fallen into the same trap when trying to explain something beyond human apprehension: a common example would be the translation of 4^th dimension into words and / or images, a task usually performed by artists or writers with debatable results. Still, although the point is taken for granted, the actual experience is hardly generated. 

[3] This is the realm into which the mystics and artists live or pay visit when the situation demands – they are the mediators between the unknown and what we know for sure. Although incomprehensible at first, it is possible to be rendered by employing anything humanly invented especially by means of art. Words and text is always harder to carry the meaning as such, since logos is already infected by humane memories and preconceived notions or ideas in its very essence.  

[4] Even nowadays, people around the Indian subcontinent find themselves disputing and arguing over their god-centred belief systems – with discussions leading up to misunderstandings and even brawls; there is hardly any difference when such phenomena are multiplied in global scale. 

[5] This grey area has been shaping itself since always by the extrapolation of empirical, behavioural knowledge of humanity by means of art, literature, mythology etc and as such is constituent in aiding us understand ourselves and why act the way we do. Yoga as such, provides the student with a key to open the doors of this unknown realm that seem to have been informed with the principles that shape our very human nature – and this justifies the very fact that many of her researchers have come to describe regularly as a form of art. This is what is also suggest by Joseph Campbell too [see Mythos II, ep 2]    

[6] as a yogi and physicist liked to point out to me, it is an action that very much resembles the digital cloud principles, into which one is able to connect to, find what he is looking for and then download it back into reality as we experience; these truths and values had always been there, and they will always remain there intact, so that the mediators will be able to access them, when the times demand to do so. This is also proving – up to a certain degree – how detached this entire process is, compared to the superhuman aka überman concept as developed by Nietzsche – the axioms are not developed by humans who are looking towards becoming god themselves. Although people need belief-systems in order to exist and maintain psychological and sociological stability, they usually incorporate such rigidity that turn their supporters into a raging, totalitarian, blood-thirsty mob. 

[7] One can alternatively picture this as a castle built upon moving sand i.e. unsteady foundations; living in such a place or simply trying to raise it in the first place would be impossible based on our development as a species. 

[8] The ambiguity of Vedic traditions and texts cannot solidly draw any conclusion as to which plants were used for the extracting of the sacred juice – that very much resembles practices of later customs found in the Amazon – but the significance of soma was disseminated through linguistics into the same ancient Greek word that translates as (human) body: the annihilation of the source-plant forced humanity to use and manipulate the human body as such, in order to extract the necessary liquid substance that will journey the mind to its very origin, according to Richard Freeman’s poetic account of events in the Yoga Matrix.

[9] source: https://www.vedanet.com/the-original-teachings-of-yoga-from-patanjali-back-to-hiranyagarbha/ accessed June 18, 2020. 

Urban Creative Destruction

“This is the right way to worship, the real yoga: not to perfect physical postures, but to make every home a happy home. If one hundred villages in India could be harmonised as this one has, the whole pattern of life in India would change. I can’t do that, but perhaps my “children” will be able to. A father lives for his children, not for himself, if he is a real father [attributed to tantric teacher Vimalananda, source: Svoboda, E. R. (1993). Aghora II Kundalini, Brotherhood of Life Publishing: Albuquerque, NM, p 50]” 

 

© Adamantios Tegkelidis 2014

source: skyscrapercity.com

Contemporary buildings, strongly affected by the indubitable city branding that is experienced globally, tend to bow to the neoliberal environment that aids the development of their rarefied functions along with the globally controlled financial system that provides the elements for their manifestation. Under these circumstances, iconic architecture has become the new convention, unable though to counterpoise the needs of the masses, but instead leaning to the side of the corporations and the private interests. Our main point is not a mare arraignment of the current state of things or a lese majesty over starchitects’ production, but an in depth involvement to the out of boundaries principles that have come to characterized our future profession, where buildings are rendered by their edacity for financial profits.

© Adamantios Tegkelidis 2014

The proposal for a new social housing block above a free–for-all public plaza will be further implemented in an urban ecology plan that is going to boost the sustainable aspects of the building while reintroducing the starters’ homes concept and the BG openness in parallel. The schedule for the upcoming building of the housing project is supported by the simultaneous empty plan for the Robeco Tower offices at the banks of the Maas River.

© Adamantios Tegkelidis 2014

© Adamantios Tegkelidis 2014

The building waste after the destruction of the Wim Quist’s building is capable of supporting the creation of the new apartments, which in turn will “fill the holes” of the existing [under construction] wielded steel skeleton of the Stadskantoor. The apartments are going to be generated after the collaboration with the interested citizens, through a process that resembles those encountered in already described projects, such as the Klushuizen [see: § housing as an asset]. The interested tenants will be given a “toolbox” that will aid them to decide on their own space in relevance to their needs, the money needed and the available material. Ultimately, our theoretical, “what if” statement will be denatured in a collage of unique spaces, materialized from the ruins of another building, which will fill the steel structure and make as rethink of the Timmerhuis in its essence.

© Adamantios Tegkelidis 2014

Kaivalya

“Because Patañjali draws such a sharp distinction between the Self [i.e. Atman or Puruṣa] and the non-Self [i.e. Body, Mind, World], regarding the former as the ultimate value, he is forced to teach a form of emancipation which pre-supposes the total extinction of man as we know him. Even if we are convinced of the reality of Puruṣa, on what grounds need we accept the idea of self-realisation as taught by Patañjali; does the realisation of this value not coincide with our extinction as beings in time and space [i.e. the 3-dimensional world as we have come to experience it]? Patañjali's is not a way of living in the world free from fear of death or loss of any kind but acquiring an otherworldly dimension of existence. The transformation of human nature as envisaged in classical yoga is entirely a process of negation of everything that is ordinarily considered as typically human [Feuerstein, tbc].” 

Overall, it feels that when Patañjali speaks about the drawing of attention inwards might as well be introducing an entire new era or dimension that would imply the cessation of humanity as we know it. The achievement of unlocking such dimensions should be constricted to the individual's subjective point of reference, which in a sense justifies the fact that reality as we have come to experience it i.e. Pṛkti has not yet seized to exist or collapsed into being a part of a broader dimensional spectrum[1] just like a painting is in our 3-dimensional world. 

I quote the text from Cixin Liu's book Death's End ["the 3-body problem trilogy"] that vibrantly paints an interesting approach of the abnormalities and expansiveness of the 4th dimension. He is clearly building upon the great former example of Edwin Abbott Abbott's novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions that intriguely renders a similar paradox transiting from the 2nd to the 3rd dimension.    

“a person looking back upon the three-dimensional world from four- dimensional space for the first time realised this right away: He had never seen the world while he was in it. If the three-dimensional world were likened to a picture, all he had seen before was just a narrow view from the side: a line. Only from four-dimensional space could he see the picture as a whole. He would describe it this way: Nothing blocked whatever was placed behind it. Even the interiors of sealed spaces were laid open. This seemed a simple change, but when the world was displayed this way, the visual effect was utterly stunning. When all barriers and concealments were stripped away, and everything was exposed, the amount of information entering the viewer’s eyes was hundreds of millions times greater than when he was in three-dimensional space. The brain could not even process so much information right away [p 229].” 

“In the Yogasutrā-s there are clear references to siddhis [i.e. "power-s"] such as "knowledge of things obstructed from view or at a great distance" (11:25); "disappearance from view" (111:21)[2]”; among many others which bare resemblance to visual qualities that seem to be constricted from humans for physiological and physical responses to occur in the 3-dimensional world, but very much resemble the descriptions of what we can imagine as 4-dimensional space.

“The difficulty of describing high-dimensional spatial sense lay in the fact that for observers situated in four-dimensional space, the space they could see was empty and uniform, but there was a depth to it that could not be captured by language”. Language is essentially semiotic, it carries meaning memory by itself and thus cannot stand against the challenge of expressing or pointing towards concepts that have not yet been assimilated, experienced, developed, found or discovered, thus making imagination and visualisation equally important. Where language fails to convey meaning, art can substitute, especially visual art due to its connection with space as such i.e. distance, perspective, depth and illusion-s of them. The characters in Liu's book go further on to say that “this depth was not a matter of distance: It was bound up in every point in space. Guan Yifan’s exclamation later became a classic quote:

“A bottomless abyss exists in every inch” [ibid].

“The experience of high-dimensional spatial sense was a spiritual baptism. In one moment, concepts like freedom, openness, profundity, and infinity all gained brand-new meanings” [ibid].

[as the science fiction author points out] the danger of the 4th dimensional space is that simply, once you get to experience it for long you would never come back from it. 

It is clear so far that the human mind cannot grasp the tremendous amount of detail and information that is built-up with the addition of an extra dimension, very similar to how the circle would never able to absolutely grasp the idea of a sphere. [Similar to what was described in Flatland] we should be able to get a glimpse of 4-dimensional projections to our 3-dimensional world. Naturally, a 4-dimensional object projected in our reality would be reduced into the 3-dimensional rules just like our own very shadows unfold on a piece of paper or any other surface. The current state of consciousness would not enable us to appreciate even a millionth of a fragment of the 4-dimensional object, however, even the possibility of stumbling across such an entity would be mind-blowing. Stillness of all bodily and physiological functions is proven to have been dissolving the mind and thus, enabling individuals to enter higher states of consciousness which are usually described by means of other dimensions[2]. "Upon realising samadhi we become free of perspective; thus, free to create new perspectives, because the self is not invested in it or attached to a particular view point[3]". 

Meditation techniques as such might be critical to understand what is beyond our constricted senses allow us to perceive as real, but what's more, they might as well be the answer to the technological bottleneck of the contemporary science regime.  
___
[1] I suggest you listening to Seth Powell and Chase Bossart's conversation on the multi-layered readings of the Yogasutrā-s here.
[2] Hawley, D. The Dimension Beyond Space and Time. online article accessed May 2020.
[3] transcript from Samadhi documentary-series in gaia.com accessed May 2020 [00.49.30]. 

the Take-away

There has been a tremendous amount of literature, articles, photos and speculations as to the traditional routes of the system that we currently call orthodox Aṣṭāṅga Yoga, that frame any taste in particular. Although this is a very interesting subject for multiple reasons, I want to draw attention toward the current state of affairs reduced to what orthodox Aṣṭāṅga yoga has transformed into since the beginning of the 1970's. 

No matter which concept you chose to follow, the hard evidence that we have so far is that following his teacher’s lead and after studying next to him for almost 20 years, KP Jois has maintained most of the main points of Krishnamacharya’s approach towards āsana (see below). Still, [KP Jois book] Yoga Mala has excluded some of the elements found in Krishnamacharya’s teachings for unknown reasons[1].  

The following are aspects emphasised as the main components of orthodox Aṣṭāṅga Yoga.

01 Vinyāsa Vinyāsa means a breathing and b movement system. For each movement, there is one breath. For example, in Surya Namaskar there are 9 nine vinyāsas. The first vinyāsa is inhaling while raising your arms over your head, and putting your hands together; the second is exhaling while bending forward, placing your hands next to your feet, etc. In this way all asanas are assigned a certain number of vinyāsas.

"Historically, introduction of the vinyāsa system is clearly attributed to Krishnamacharya by Pattabhi Jois himself. Krishnamacharya credits vinyāsa to a text called Yoga Korunta i.e. Yoga Group attributed to Vamana Rishi. The former was taught the script orally by his own teacher Rama Mohan Brahmachari, who in turn, claimed that found a copy of it at the university of the Calcutta library. The book, being written on palm leaves as all equal, was so badly damaged that nowadays is nonexistent. Patthabi Jois himself never saw it, only partially learned it from his teacher, in specific the āsana and vinyāsa systems[2] [Stern, 2019 p 48]". 

In essence, Vinyāsa is a technique roughly referring to a the linking of breath and movement also describing the way in which can move in and out of a posture or b an entire methodology or approach towards practicing āsanas [ibid, p 48]. 

Vinyāsa is important insofar that it develops the maximum beneficial entry to the state of the āsana. It doesn’t mean or has any relevance to flow see modern approach to aerobic yoga. It is a feedback loop i.e. a very specific routine that brings you from point a to point b and back again concerned mostly with the working of the breath [ibid]. 

The purpose of vinyāsa is for internal cleansing. Breathing and moving together while performing asanas makes the blood hot, or as Pattabhi Jois says, boils the blood. Thick blood is dirty and causes disease in the body. The heat created from yoga cleans the blood and makes it thin, so that it may circulate freely. The combination of the asanas with movement and breath make the blood circulate freely around all the joints, taking away body pains. When there is a lack of circulation, pain occurs. The heated blood also moves through all the internal organs removing impurities and disease, which are brought out of the body by the sweat that occurs during practice.

Sweat is an important by product of vinyāsa, because it is only through sweat that disease leaves the body and purification occurs. In the same way that gold is melted in a pot to remove its impurities, by the virtue of the dirt rising to the surface as the gold boils, and the dirt then being removed, yoga boils the blood and brings all our toxins to the surface, which are removed through sweat. If the method of vinyāsa is followed, the body becomes healthy and strong, and pure like gold.

After the body is purified, it is possible to purify the nervous system, and then the sense organs. These first steps are very difficult and require many years of practice. The sense organs are always looking outside, and the body is always giving into laziness. However, through determination and diligent practice, these can be controlled. After this is accomplished, mind control comes automatically. Vinyāsa creates the foundation for this to occur.

02 Tristhana: This means the 3 three places of attention or action: a ujjayi aka victorious breath, b bandhas i.e. power centers or centers of connection tbc and c drishti i.e. yogic gaze or eye direction. These three are very important for yoga practice, and cover three levels of purification: the body, nervous system and mind. They are always performed in conjunction with each other and in the framework of each āsana-s[3] which in turn strengthen and give flexibility to the body.

Ujjayi is the notorious Aṣṭāṅga breathing method a steady slow breathing technique that originates in the diaphragm and works in conjunction with the spine and the lungs amongst other. It can be discerned as rechaka and pūraka, that means inhale and exhale. Both the inhale and exhale should be steady and even, the length of the inhale should be the same length as the exhale. Breathing in this manner purifies the nervous system[4]. Dṛṣṭi is the place where you look while in the asana. There are nine 9 dṛṣṭi: 01 nose 02 between the eyebrows 03 navel 04 thumb 05 hands 06 feet 07 up 08 right side and 09 left side. Dṛṣṭi purifies and stabilizes the functioning of the mind[5]. 

An important component of the breathing system is a mūla and b uḍḍīyana Bandha-s. These are the anal and lower abdominallocks which seal in energy, give lightness, strength and health to the body, and help to build a strong internal fire. Without bandhas, breathing will not be correct, and the asanas will give no benefit. In reference to a traditional saying, when mūla bandha is perfect, mind control is automatic.

For cleaning the body internally two factors are necessary, air and fire. The place of fire in our bodies is four inches below the navel. This is the standing place of our life force. In order for fire to burn, air is necessary, hence the necessity of the breath. If you stoke a fire with a blower, evenness is required so that the flame is not smothered out, or blown out of control.

The same method stands for the breath. Long even breaths will strengthen our internal fire, increasing heat in the body which in turn heats the blood for physical purification, and burns away impurities in the nervous system as well. Long even breathing increases the internal fire and strengthens the nervous system in a controlled manner and at an even pace. When this fire is strengthened, our digestion, health and life span all increase. Uneven inhalation and exhalation, or breathing too rapidly, will imbalance the beating of the heart, throwing off both the physical body and autonomic nervous system.

03 the 6 six poisons a vital aspect of internal purification that Pattabhi Jois teaches relates to the six poisons that surround the spiritual heart. In the yoga shastra it is said that God dwells in our heart in the form of light, but this light is covered by six poisons: 01 kama desire, 02 krodha anger, 03 moha delusion, 04 lobha greed, 05 matsarya envy, and 06 mada sloth. When yoga practice is sustained with great diligence and dedication over a long period of time, the heat generated from it burns away these poisons, and the light of our inner nature shines forth [tbc].

The equally strict approach of regularly practicing 6 six days/week is simply another mean towards developing discipline; which is nothing but commitment and training on a whole different level.

Aṣṭāṅga has been abiding to the rules of Haṭha Yoga i.e. forceful yoga, since it is a sub form of the latter, that clearly belongs to the side of integralism. However, focusing on the construction of the “divine” divya-sharīta or “adamant” vajra-deha body, the contemporary Haṭha Yoga practitioner is sacrificing higher spiritual aspirations, settling for lesser goals which are unfortunately driven or even formed by the very ego personality that she or he is trying to avoid in the first place. The “narcissism, or body-oriented egocentrism” that Feuerstein pointed out, developed equally by bodybuilders and Haṭha Yogins has been profoundly exploded nowadays [tbc p30] especially through the social media regime. This dramatic inflation of ego led scholars such as the German Sanskritist J. W. Hauer to renounce Haṭha Yoga as a “magic-al and sexuality-related activity” [ibid]. The psychospiritual technology aspect of this ancient practice has been diluted inside a modern era pot filled with superficiality and materialism; the body is exploited in various ways with yoga being one of them and the Haṭha yogins globally, being poisoned by desire, delusion and greed.  

However, we still have a long way to go. Current research in various scientific are trying to shed light in aspects of Haṭha Yoga that have been previously unexplored or misunderstood. a Diaphragmatic breathing and other Pranayama techniques combined with bodily movement patterns have been proven to be healing for lumbar stabilization [tbc] b with the phenomenon of serpent-power kundalinī-shakti being still under investigation.   

According to Michael Lear, the orthodox Aṣṭāṅga system as it has come to solidify, is mostly a self-assessment tool for personal growth and insight. In accordance with Maehle’s approach, its components might as well be manipulated in the hands of an experienced teacher so as to provide the student with whatever she/he needs to advance somatically i.e. physically and pneumatically. 

---

[1] There are three (3) significant differences:

01. Yoga Makaranda contains full vinyasa as does Yoga Mala, these days we tend to practice half vinyasa, jumping straight through between asana and sides of an asana rather than coming back to standing each time.

02. Kumbhaka: Yoga Makaranda tends to indicate holding the breath in after the inhalation or out after the exhalation depending on the asana. This might be considered optional. We can skip it altogether and continue to practice without it as most do now, employ it on certain asana, employ it while taking less breaths in an asana or employ it on every asana but practice less asana, perhaps half a series.

03. Yoga Makaranda contains a selection of asana, Primary Intermediate and Advanced asana and not in any particular order.
The most prevalent reason for KP Jois' omitting the aforementioned elements would be the change of T Krishnamacharya's teachings through his lifetime. Comparing the system Krishnamacharya used during the years in Mysore with what he taught later on during the late stages of his life (a great reference here would be A J Mohan's book tbc) would prove this point. 
[2] He usually used to quote the following verse from the aforementioned text: “Vinā vinyāsa yogena āsana adi na kārayet” which roughly translates“when doing yoga, do not do the many types of āsanas without the use of vinyāsa”. Furthermore, the word adi means “et cetera” or “the many different types” proving in a way that by the time Vamana was writing the text, a numerous amount of āsanas was already existing.

[3] Āsanas are normally hold in the system of orthodox Aṣṭāṅga for 5 breaths. As far as we know breath count was not originally such an issue for Krishnamacharya, however, the following is a personal hypothesis it might have helped towards concluding the series after a certain time and not exert yourself in ridiculously long practices. It might as well have helped K P Jois when starting working with many more students since the shala itself could only accommodate a fairly small amount of people. 5 breaths is a very subjective time-module but given the average on of 1 Ujjayi inhalation = 4 sec this translates to holding an āsana or stretch for almost 40sec in total this draft time period is always subject to the student and the āsana itself i.e. complexity, difficulty etc. Kino MacGregor had experienced first-hard occasions where Jois held very intense postures such as Kapotasana for up to 20 breaths during led-Intermediate series class [tbc]. 

[4] Interestingly both Iyengar and K P Jois are teaching the double-up wave when breathing in āsana i.e. both inhalation and exhalation start from the lower lobes and through the middle lobes are eventually conclude in the upper lobes; it is the only way to emphasize on the parasympathetic nervous system and find calm in an overall demanding physical process [Nicky Knoff interviewed for the escaping saṃsāra podcast by Nathan Thomson]. 

[5] The employment and emphasis on the eyes and gaze have multiple repercussions in the entire physiology as it had been proven around the same era i.e. 1970’s by the Ukrainian-Israeli engineer and physician Moshé Feldenkrais [ref Awareness through Movement book]. He specifically investigates among others how the movement of the eyes organize the movement of the entire body and specifically how the coordination of the eyes leads to improvement of the entire trunk. It also relates to the positioning and carriage of the Head which in turn affects the state of the musculature of the entire body [Feldenkrais 1987 p tbc]