Guest guest Posted January 20, 2001 Report Share Posted January 20, 2001 IMHO, the Iy way may be a bit neurotically concerned with imbalance. Daily practice, drishti, breathing, bhandas bring major positive results; ultra conscientious focus on possible "imbalance" in asanas may be fruitful for some yogis, but I've yet to hear of anyone suffering problems from leg imbalances brought on by the astanga way.<br><br>ONe further note: In astanga pranayama practice(which of course is ideally done in lotus), halfway through one is to switch the legs from right foot in first to left foot in first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 20, 2001 Report Share Posted January 20, 2001 Kundalini does not originate in the muladhara chakra - its origin is in the sahasara. <br><br>When the kundalini rests in the crown charka - the yogi is in an extatic state and experiences unity-consciousness or Samadhi<br><br>As the instinct for life draws the kundalini shakti down from the crown chakra to the muladhara it splits into male and female energy...the female moving towards creation (extraversion) (procreation) dominating the left hand side of the body, the male towards salvation or liberation (intraversion) dominating the right hand side of the body.<br><br>When the right foot is placed on the left thigh in Padmasana - one effectively cuts off the outflowing female shakti allowing the energy to be more readily directed back towards shiva<br><br>The puropse of yoga is to let the mind merge back into its source, so that the true nature of reality can be perceived in the union of siva and shakti in samadhi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2001 Report Share Posted January 21, 2001 the original question was why is the right leg always first. gimme a break, it probably has more to do with the fact that in India you wipe your butt with your left hand and eat with your right. Hasn't anyone figured this out by now? Say whatever you want about kundalini and shakti energy, it really comes down to something this simple. Left side is unclean, Right side is clean. Some say left side bad luck right side good luck. if you want to make it esoteric and discover the original reason why left is the arse-wiping hand, it's because it is the female side and women are seen as unclean and impure in general.<br><br>crowjuice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2001 Report Share Posted January 21, 2001 > 90% of the people are right-handed. It's just not very clever to wipe your ass with the hand that you do most of the everyday stuff with. -> thou shall always use your left hand in the toilet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2001 Report Share Posted January 21, 2001 >From a spiritual point of view we are all hermaphrodites.<br><br> "Male" and "female" energies are archetypes - sex and gender are only temporary attachments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2001 Report Share Posted January 22, 2001 good answer sixtinain. if we ever shake hands i will keep this in mind. hey think about all the poor fellows who were born lefthanded and until recently they were forced to use their right hand for everything--writing and toilet training must have both been awkward<br><br>back to the question of is balanced to always put right leg first, in the long run, unless we are walking lopsided then it doesn't matter does it? or do guruji and sharath have a limp anyone has noticed? i like to not have to think about it, so my mind can just go on the backburner and the asanas, breath, bandha, drishti are on the front burner where they belong. iyengar's point of swithing sides makes sense but that is a different kind of yoga practice isn't it.<br><br>crow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 23, 2001 Report Share Posted January 23, 2001 screwgee,<br><br>I appreciated your words on Iyengar Yoga being "neurotically concerned with imbalance", because that is what I've come to believe too. In Iyengar Yoga, I long suspected, you get stuck in a bog of details that in fact don't matter much.<br><br>I mean, is it really so vital for your practice that when doing e.g. Utthita Trikonasana, you turn your right nostril towards the left one in order to achieve the correct arching of your back? In Iyengar Yoga it obviously is.<br><br>And did you know that according to Iyengar, pushing (in the same posture) your stomach too much forwards might be interpreted as a sign of aggressivness, showing that you have a tendency to violence? Such details can be off-putting, and counterproductive to your practice.<br><br>From an Iyengar point of view, Ashtanga might be imbalanced and reckless to boot. But then, it is also more fun.<br><br>Thanks to all the others too, who gave helpful and/or interesting comments on the Padmasana question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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