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Why do ashtangis avoid practice on moon days? I

had a great practice this morning (started ashtanga 6

weeks ago)and was thinking that I was carrying an extra

peaceful and centered feeling, when I noticed the full

moon on the way into work?<br><br>I don't remember any

avoidance of moon days when I was doing Iyengar-type yoga.

Is there a rationale?<br><br>Namaste,<br><br>Jim

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yogimac,<br><br>That's a question I asked myself

too many times, because as far as I know, you will

find no mention of a moon-day rule anywhere in the

ancient yoga texts.<br><br>So I can only speculate - two

reasons why astangis avoid practice on moon days come to

my mind:<br>1 - Sri K Pattabhi Jois' father was an

astrologer.<br>2 - K.P. Jois was born on the full moon day of July

1915.<br><br>It follows that astrology had an important role

already in Jois' family since his birth, which may have

led KPJ later to make it part of his own hatha-yoga

system.<br><br>The moon-day rule may seem quite irrational to our

modern western minds - but then, every hatha-yoga style

has its own pecularities, and ultimately it's those

seemingly irrational rules which add charm to the practice

of yoga.

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A great way to understand why moon days are

avoided is to experiment on yourself. You can feel the

energy change if you practice on these days. I tend to

push too hard on full moon days, thus making myself

open to injury, and new moon days make me feel too

lethargic to finish my practice. This is my experience, so

after many months of ignoring "tradition," I have

become traditional.

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<<A great way to understand why moon days

are avoided is to experiment on

yourself.>><br><br>That is impossible, unless you are 'blinded' so that

you don't know whether it actually is a moon day or

not.

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I read somewhere recently (have had my nose in so

many books about yoga in the time i'm not practicing -

please forgive that i don't recall which one) that

astangis do not practice on moon days so that there will

always be a time to practice

non-attachment.<br><br>Something to ponder...

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I wonder if we'd feel these effects of the moon

days if we weren't aware of the calendar, and how

we're supposed to feel.<br><br>Personally, I think

astrology is a wonderful way to open the mind to the

Cosmic. However, I have very little belief in any of the

specific claims of astrology to predicting human behavior

or even human energy levels. As far as I'm aware,

not one scientific study has ever borne out the

notion that human behavior is any different during the

full or new moons than it is during any other time of

the lunal phases.

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Just off the top of my head, you have M.D. Dean

Ornish's observations of the healthful effects of yoga and

diet on cardiovascular disease.<br><br>What we do not

have is anything (except certain marginal evidence

detailed in Ken Wilber's book ONE TASTE) to corroborate

the idea that celestial bodies have any effect on

us.<br><br>If it were true that -- to cite the grossest

legendary example of celestial influence -- the phases of

the moon affected the psyche, then science could

*easily* tell us this were so.<br><br>But there is no

statistical evidence that this is so, whatsoever. Contrary to

legend, crime rates do not go up near the full moon;

crime rates do not abate near the new moon.

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anecdotal perhaps -- but emergency room and

police precinct personnel report heavily increased

activity during full moons. <br><br>Not just anecdotal,

but mythical and

incorrect:<br><br><a

href=http://www.mwsc.edu/~psych/research/psy302/spring96/larryreno.html

target=new>http://www.mwsc.edu/~psych/research/psy302/spring96/larryreno.html</a\

>

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So Srewgee, When Patanjali speaks of siddhis for instance do you consider this

superstition also? Perhaps Dr. Dean Ornish will find the chakras soon too.

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"When Patanjali speaks of siddhis for instance do

you consider this superstition also?"<br><br>Yes.

Unless you consider hopping in lotus to be

levitation!<br><br><br><br>"People believe most what they understand least" --

Eric

Hoffer

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If you are doing your practice 6 days a week you

will welcome the extra days of rest the moon days

provide.<br><br>When you sail a boat, as long as the pressure is even

against the sail, the boat is stable and moves along

steadily. When the boat turns and comes about to tack in

another direction it is momentarily quite vulnerable and

off balance. That moment is analogous to full and new

moons, when the effects of the moon shifted.<br><br>In

my humble opinion, of course.

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