Aumwork: The Science of Yoga
summer intensive July 2011 flow.
Yoga is a method for experimenting with Self. The experiment reveals how the Self behaves — at even the most minute, cellular level — in pleasure, in pain, and in peace.
Acknowledgement of this behavior offers opportunity to repeat this behavior — at even the most grand, worldly level — with greater awareness and thusly, greater grace. The ultimate goal of this experiment is to experience peace — in harmony with our internal and external environments — more so than pleasure or pain.
Asana practice, in particular offers an opportunity to explore the Self in its incarnations as the body, the mind, and the spirit. Through asana there is the realization of the potential and limitations of the body, how the mind’s interactions affects this potential and limitation, and how the spirit harnesses limitations to achieve potential of both the mind and body.
Incorporating pranayama with the asana practice offers an opportunity to channel the breath — the prana, the life force, the “spirit” to energize the body and focus the mind. Without this most basic nourishment, the cells and the body formed from these cells becomes rigid, the mind less concentrated, and the balance of potential and limitations is shifted in favor of limitations. For example, a healthy human may live for a month without food, a week without water, and will die in mere minutes without breath.