|
What is Kripalu Yoga?
page 1 • page 2 • page 3
page 3
For the purpose of discussion only, the traditional yoga practices of Kripalu Yoga can loosely be divided into three stages, which indicate degrees of refinement within the practice, rather than actual definitive stages. (In reality, practitioners often find themselves moving back and forth among the stages or levels.)
These are the same stages one must pass through in mastering any skill and must be experienced through self-effort.
Stage one: Learn, explore, study and practice techniques.
Stage two: Deepen this exploration and develop self discipline - this involves years of work.
Stage three: Release more and more into spiritual and creative freedom.
With these three phases in mind we can explore them in relation to Kripalu Yoga:
Stage one — Body and breath awareness
In stage one, we learn how to become fully present in our bodies. We learn classical hatha yoga postures and integrate them with flowing breath, proper alignment, and relaxation techniques.
This is a form of active meditation on the body right from the start, as we train our minds to remain focused on breath, alignment, sensations, feeling and feelings.
We learn to trust the sensations and signals from within our own bodies and we are learning to discriminate what movements are healthy and integrating for us and what movements are not.
The purpose of stage one practice is to stretch and strengthen the entire body, releasing the chronic muscle tension that inhibits relaxation and underlies many health problems.
During the process of stretching and strengthening the body, it is common to encounter physical limitations and emotional blocks. An attitude of compassionate self-acceptance is stressed as an essential element of practice.
Each session concludes with the rejuvenating experience of deep relaxation. Regular practice revitalizes the respiratory, nervous, endocrine, digestive, and other major systems of the body that support healthy functioning.
"Through effort the body is strengthened. Through relaxation the body is revitalized."
- Swami Kripalu
Stage two — Where you learn how to encounter and release deep-seated emotional and mental tensions. The purpose of stage two is to open the heart and clear the mind. Postures are safely held for longer periods of time, and the mind is focused on the intensified flow of sensation, emotion, and thought that results.
Holding a posture not only strengthens the physical body, it heightens self-awareness and naturally produces meditative stages of introversion and introspection.
Prolonged holding causes buried emotion and other unconscious material to surface, where it can be felt, seen and let go. Regular practice restores emotional balance and mental clarity, increases your capacity for learning and growth.
In stage two, we also develop yoga vinyasan routines, combined with moments of intuitive rest, to allow the physiology to release and integrate and the mind to relax more deeply.
Routines can be restorative, gentle, moderate or vigorous. They can be simple, complex and so on, according to the daily intention and needs of the practitioner. These often depend on the condition, health, age and ability of the practitioner.
"One of my favourite aspects of Kripalu Yoga is the pause between postures. When I first started yoga I was impatient to go to the next posture, the next level of practice. Even though I loved the class I watched the clock. Over and over my teacher invited me to pause, breathe, and feel.
At first I felt nothing. Then one day, after holding the posture for what felt like forever, I welcomed the rest. As I relaxed a marvellous thing happened. I felt my body release on deeper and more subtle levels. If felt that every single cell, right down to my bone marrow, had let go a huge sigh of relief.
I could have stayed there in stillness enjoying the sensations for a very long time, but of course my teacher interrupted my peace with an invitation to move on to the next posture. I was able to enjoy the irony of the moment. Now I love the pause between things and have also integrated this wisdom into how I schedule my days. I used to pack my days so full I never had a moment to spare. Whenever possible I now give myself time to receive the richness of each experience before dashing off to the next."
- Rebecca Johanna Stephens
Stage three — An experience called meditation-in-motion (a hallmark of Kripalu Yoga). This is a more mature stage, although beginner practitioners can easily gain a glimpse of it.
Sustaining the experience of meditation-in-motion however, depends on how well the body and mind have been trained from the previous stages.
When Kripalu Yoga is properly understood and properly practiced, one understands that meditation is an integral component right from the very start.
However, an appreciation of meditation will deepen as the body, mind and emotions purify through proper yoga practice, a good diet and relaxing into a more natural lifestyle.
When your mind is deeply relaxed, you can allow the body to move spontaneously as guided from within. Entering this experience, you drop everything learned from external sources and respond directly to the urges and intuitive promptings of the body.
The idea of yoga routines usually then drops, although they may also be somewhat naturally sustained and will naturally carry some influence, but without the will and effort. Sometimes postures spontaneously arise, or spontaneous breathing, mudras, chanting or dancing may occur.
Stage three is a form of moving meditation that reveals the essential mystical truth. Spirit dwells within you as the intelligent energy underlying body and mind.
Kripalu Yoga’s approach to meditation is unique, because it recognizes that the essence of meditation is a state of deep inner absorption, that can occur in either the flow of yoga postures or in moments of physical stillness.
"As I practice Kripalu Yoga, I am consistently reminded that I am traveling on a spiritual path. This is a path with heart for me. I feel it. I know it when I’m on it. My heart, my gut, my soul if you will, feel good about it. Kripalu yoga allows me to experience life rather than think it and talk about it."
- Dean Fulco
"Each of us is a lake of love, yet strangely enough, we are all thirsty."
- Swami Kripalu
"When you are relaxed, all that is highest and best comes to you as grace."
- Yogi Amrit Desai
|
