alignment&thebandhas

[Guest guest]

that current vista of my interior journey is one

where the overt and subtle quanta of alignment turn out

to be either the supporting conditions (roots) for

or the direct effect (fruits) of the bandhas. for

me, the bandhas and alignment are one: yoga as

opposed to shape making. if you approach the yoga

postures more with the mind you get the endless detail of

structural geometry, within which it is only too easy to

remain stranded in conceptualisation (it was for me

anyway). if you approach more from within the body with

the bandhas as your compass you get the underlying

energetic and structural unity of body parts, body, breath,

mind, self, other etc etc. ie. yoga. for those who have

the interior penetration working from the details is

probably irrelevant. for those who dont maybe its helpful.

but, while geometrical conceptualisation may be an

irrelevance, the geometry of somatakinetics is not. the body

moves and hangs together according to fixed structural

paramaters including gravity, osmosis, etc etc. this means

that in order to transcend the dualities of the body,

it must be brought to stuctural integrity so that

there is no stress or tension in the body resisting the

dynamics of the asana, and generating a dualistic

perception. it does matter how far the feet turn, where the

outer edge of the kneecap is, what the line of the

thigh is. but so too do the specific structural

limitations of your body as it is. between these two the

drama is played out, wherein applying the badhas within

the shapes challenges our limitations by bringing our

muscles towards integrity: the expression of which is a

transcending of the perceptual distinctions that give us the

dualistic sense of left/right front/back top/bottom

centre/periphery inside/outside in our body. then we are in asana

( a specific shape (pascimottan), structured, and

energised by the bandhas (asana)), then pranayama can

occur, then pratyahara, then dharana, then dhyana, then

samadhi. its all here, right now, fruit to be plucked from

the bandha tree. the vinyasa is only a distraction

for those who are distracted. for me its a way of

maintaining the depth of my interiorisation when its time for

the body to change its form.