Preeti: Awareness and Asana

In my experience during YTT, an asana becomes an asana when it touches various muscles of
the body and when one becomes aware and conscious as to which muscles need to be exactly
engaged. It is like participation of the entire body with intelligent action towards performing an
asana. The asana becomes the Dhyana itself.


In my understanding, there are many poses in YOGA that are categorized under Beginner Pose
and an Advanced Pose. A general difference between the two categories can be understood as
that in a Beginner pose a person has time to adjust and raise awareness of themselves. The
instructions are more to bring awareness and attention towards parts of the body like adjusting
the hands, legs, toes and fingers. Whereas when the person delves into performing Advanced
Poses, it’s more an introspective phase when one looks within themselves concentrating on the
organs or bones or nerves like kidney, spine, diaphragm, an asana is meant to benefit. The
more subtle and introspective way an asana is performed, makes it more penetrative. In a
Beginner pose the person has time to make adjustments whereas in an advanced pose, that
involve more contortion of the body, the person may not be able to hold the pose for long.


Therefore, the difference between the Beginner Pose and Advanced Pose is not how
complicated the pose is, however it is about how meditatively and with more awareness the
pose is performed.

Preeti
RYT200 Aug’20 Weekend