iyengar yoga
Yoga is for everyone. No one is too old or too stiff, too fat or thin or tired. A Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher can guide students of all ages and physical conditions to an experience of yoga, which is safe, accessible and rewarding. Momi Jhung is a Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher at the Intermediate Junior I level.
Certified Iyengar Yoga instructors are held to an unusually rigorous standard. Only after years of training and evaluation do they become certified. Iyengar Yoga teachers modify the classic asanas (yoga postures) for individual students with the use of props -- such as blocks, blankets and belts. Props allow for a deeper penetration into the posture, as well as a longer stay.
Iyengar Yoga teachers use their deep-seated knowledge of the asanas to individualize corrections for each student. Students know they are observed and, if necessary, adjusted. Clear demonstrations of the posture. A well-developed eye. Specific teaching points which awaken the body's intelligence -- these are the marks of an Iyengar Yoga teacher.
Students of Iyengar Yoga begin with elementary postures, with an emphasis on the standing asanas (postures). In time, other postures are added, including forward bends and back bends, twists, inversions and restorative poses. Salamba Sarvangasana (Shoulder Balance) is introduced as soon as students are ready because of its many therapeutic benefits. Each class ends with Savasana, corpse pose or deep relaxation. Students learn to rest in a profound way, completely releasing the body while drawing the mind towards the peace within. As the student progresses, Pranayama (the control of the breath) is introduced.
Teachers devise sequences of poses, which build skill and understanding, from posture to posture, and from class to class. Students are encouraged to develop their own home practice; without one, the study of yoga is incomplete.
Iyengar Yoga is firmly grounded in the ancient Indian art of yoga. More than 2,500 years ago, in The Yoga Sutras, Patanjali wrote about Astanga Yoga, the eight- limbed path towards spiritual fulfillment. Iyengar Yoga addresses this journey from a perspective which is practical, experiential and intensely personal.
Yoga is, at its most simple, union -- the union of mind, body and spirit. In Iyengar Yoga, this search for union begins with ongoing practice of the yoga asanas (postures) with a focus on exact alignment. In time students learn to penetrate beyond the outer physical layer to the inner kosas (layers) of mind, energy and spirit.
Mr. Iyengar has said that there is no Iyengar Yoga -- only Patanjali's Yoga. It is his unique perspective that the yoga asanas and Pranayama (the control of the breath) can be a template to explore, evaluate and experience each of the other limbs The journey begins with the first two limbs of Astanga Yoga, Yama and Niyama, the yogic guidelines for personal and ethical conduct. Asana can even carry us through to the higher limbs of yoga, including Pratyhara (withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration) and Dhyana (meditation), and point the way towards Samadhi, the complete freedom at the end of the yogic journey.
The first two limbs of yoga, Yama and Niyama, give us guidance for our conduct. One of the most essential of these rules is Ahimsa, non-violence -- sometimes translated as love for others. This idea is too complex to be easily understood, but in Iyengar Yoga students learn to practice Ahimsa while practicing asana.
One example: performed incorrectly, a yoga asana may cause pain in the knee. When the student learns the remedy -- correct alignment, as directed by an Iyengar Yoga instructor -- the pose is done without pain, without doing violence to the self. The student begins to understand non-violence and how to apply it, first in yoga, then "off the mat," in life.
Similarly the student becomes aware of Sauca, purity. Yoga sharpens awareness of health and the need to nurture it. Practicing yoga, and practicing Sauca, the student learns to moderate eating, drinking and other habits, leading to a purer lifestyle.
