This entry was posted on Sep 17, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
Asana, the bodily follow, is probably the most recognizable of the eight limbs of yoga. For those who point out “yoga,” most individuals will routinely image an individual in some stunning, flexible place. However, after all, yoga is rather more than simply asana. There are seven different limbs of yoga within the system of Ashtanga Yoga. (Right here, Ashtanga Yoga refers back to the conventional that means of the eight-limbed path, slightly than Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, the system developed by Ok. Patabhi Jois.) As well as, there are lots of different types of yoga that don’t embody postures.
Within the context of the eight limbs, asana comes third, after yama and niyama. The primary two limbs present a stable basis for the remainder of the follow. They instill wholesome intentions in order that our follow can bear healthful fruit. As well as, they offer us tips for residing a swish life.
As a result of asana is the most well-liked side of yoga, additionally it is probably the most misunderstood. Western practitioners, who grew up on rigorous train, typically follow asana within the context of that acquainted paradigm. After we consider train, we consider ideas like competitors and private bests. Consequently, we affiliate the power to do acrobatic poses with being “superior.” However in line with the yoga sutras, mastery of asana is a very completely different factor.
The Asana Custom
The phrase “asana” means “seat.” It actually refers back to the sitting posture. The unique objective of practising yoga asana was to assist the physique for the trials of sitting meditation. This consists of not solely the bodily physique, however the physiological methods as nicely. Particularly essential is the nervous system.
Once I studied in India with B.Ok.S. Iyengar, one factor he mentioned caught in my thoughts and has helped information my follow. He mentioned that we follow asana to create a peaceable, calm surroundings for the thoughts. When the physique is comfortable, the thoughts can extra simply be comfortable.
Three of the 196 yoga sutras describe asana. All are within the second pada, or chapter. Right here they’re (from Alistair Shearer’s translation):
- 2.46: The bodily posture ought to be regular and cozy.
- 2.47: It’s mastered when all effort is relaxed and the thoughts is absorbed within the Infinite.
- 2.48: Then you’re now not upset by the play of opposites.
So let’s break this down. As with different posts on this Yoga 101 sequence, my descriptions right here can be quick and candy. If you wish to delve deeper, choose up my e-book, Aware Yoga, Aware Life.
Sutra 2.46: Alistair Shearer’s translation makes use of the outline “regular and cozy.” Different translations of this sutra describe asana as “agency and gentle,” “regular and straightforward,” and different such reverse qualities. For me, this says that balancing effort is the important thing. Steadiness implies a power, stability and dedication. Consolation implies ease and calm. Steadiness with out consolation can create stress and tightness. Consolation with out steadiness can result in sloth and heaviness. So we stability the 2 in each pose.
Sutra 2.47: This sutra is essential for understanding the intention—and the facility—of asana follow. Discover that it doesn’t outline mastery when it comes to what our our bodies can or can’t do. There’s nothing about pushing additional or mastering fancy poses. Actually, it implies the alternative. Not like aggressive sports activities, the place we consistently push our edge, asana asks us to loosen up our effort. After we can loosen up effort in our poses, as a substitute of “doing” the pose, we begin to “be” the pose. In that present-moment expertise of the interior course of, our minds are absorbed within the Infinite. Anybody, with any physique kind or bodily capacity, can obtain mastery in asana.
Sutra 2.48: Flexibility, power, tone, stress reduction—these are the qualities most frequently listed as the advantages of asana follow. And it’s true; common practitioners typically report these advantages. However these are merely aspect advantages to the actual objective of follow: to have the ability to meet the ebb and move of our lives with equanimity. After we follow with steadiness and luxury in thoughts, we stability our nervous system and domesticate mind-body calm. After we loosen up effort and let go into the moment-by-moment expertise of asana, our minds change into spacious and clear. By growing this state, we’re capable of strategy our lives’ ups and downs with extra grace. I don’t find out about you, however I feel that is a unprecedented declare for a bodily follow.
So by way of the instrument of our personal bodily our bodies, we are able to contact into spacious equanimity that expands outward into our on a regular basis lives off the mat. That is the aim of asana. It prepares our body-mind for meditation, but it surely additionally helps us combine the meditative state into all our bodily pursuits.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and folks sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.