"The Importance of Asana"

"Modern ( and particularly modern Western) practitioners of yoga can easily jump to the conclusion that yoga postures are mere gymnastic exercises, without spiritual or philosophical significance. One purpose of this book ['Ashtanga Yoga: The Intetmediate Series' by Gregor Maehle] is to correct this misconception, to make it very clear that the asanas are part of a spiritual culture that aims at nothing short of bringing practitioners to a state of complete and absolute freedom in which they realize their innermost divine potential.

"For the majority of modern people, mere sitting in meditation is not sufficient to achieve any lasting spiritual progress or transformation. If you practice only sitting meditation or self-inquiry or the study if scripture, you can easily fool yourself about your state of attainment. True knowledge is not something that occurs in one's mind alone; it has a physical dimension as well. The Armenian mystic George I. Gurdjieff expressed this in the words, 'True knowledge is of a chemical nature.' What he meant is that authentic knowledge has a biochemical and bioelectrical component; it has substance. This component is what traditional yogis call siddhi, which is sometimes translated as 'supernatural power' or 'proof'. Asana lays the groundwork for achieving the biochemical and bioelectrical changes in our bodies that are necessary for gaining true knowledge.

"Sitting in meditation is sufficient only for those fit to practice Jnana Yoga. The term Jnana Yoga [ ] in a nutshell refers to gaining freedom by the mere contemplation of the fact that one's true self is identical with the infinite, pure consciousness, without resorting to any other techniques. Jnana Yoga and the associated seated meditation (that is, sitting upright with the head, neck, and spine in one line) can be practiced only if one's intelligence is completely freed from the stains of rajas (frenzies) and tamas (dullness). If you are not tainted by these states go right ahead and try to achieve samadhi through sitting. If, however, your intellect oscillates, as mine does, between frenzy and dullness (with some bright moments in between), then the practice of asana will be useful for you.

"Richard Freeman in his collection of discourses called 'Yoga Matrix', likened the practice of postures to going through your body with a fine-tooth comb. Thoughts and emotions that are powered by rajas or tamas leave imprints in your bodily tissue that make it more likely that rajasic or tamasic states will be repeated. These imprints are released through posture practice, thus forming the bedrock for higher yogic technique." -pps xvii, xviii

These 'imprints', of samskaras, seem to be released extremely quickly through the practice of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, probably because Kundalini Yoga technique never seperated Asana practice from meditation, the practice of the bhandas, the mudras and the pranayama and chanting; and also because, simply stated: Yogi Bhajan, being an enlightened master, had the power to empower specific series of yogic postures, or Kriyas, with the ability to have far reaching effects with very little effort. Accomplished and enlightened masters have done this before throughout Vedic history...fulfilling arduous and time-consuming lifetime practices on their own, to draw upon divine Grace and pass the ability to achieve the same results on to their students without so much effort. Classical Purashana mantra practices of say 120,000,000,000 repetitions given with intent to students, and only the injunction to complete 1,000,000 in 40 days, for instance, if they only just believe it possible and have faith. The passing of the attainment and the faith is Grace, and Grace can achieve miraculous things. But of course, the asana, the mantra, the pranayama, the bhandas and the mudras are excellent tools to assist progress on the spiritual path.