True tranquillity can be yours when you practice pratyahara and draw your senses inward
One early morning I was practicing at my usual studio with some fellow Ashtanga yogis, when a man from out of town put his mat down beside mine. We were all there for the self-directed Ashtanga Yoga Mysore practice, but it quickly became clear that his practice differed from ours. His postures were more advanced, but there was more to it than that.I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made his practice unique. What I knew for sure was that his strength, poise, and grace exceeded anything I had ever seen.
Story & Sequence by Sarah Wilkins
I watched him as he moved through a complicated pose that combined a backbend with a Headstand and required walking the body around the head five times in each direction. He seemed absolutely unfazed by the technical difficulty of the posture. His face never suggested distress or discouragement or excitement or pride. His breathing was deep. His gaze was steady. His movements were fluid, light, and quiet. He was truly in his practice. Even more than that, he was in himself.
I didn’t know it at the time, but this man was showing me the way to pratyahara, a state of being in which sensory awareness is drawn inward and contained. Pratyahara is the fifth of the eight limbs of classical yoga as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. The first and second limbs, yama (restraints) and niyama (observances), contain the philosophical underpinnings of the practice. They teach nonviolence, truthfulness, non-hoarding, cleanliness, and more. The third limb, asana, is the physical practice of yoga. And the fourth, pranayama, is the limb devoted to breathing techniques and is a natural precursor to the fifth, pratyahara. The last three limbs teach us to concentrate (dharana) and meditate (dhyana) in order to approach a place of union (samadhi).Pratyahara acts as a bridge between the externally focused activities of the first four limbs and the internal energy of the last three. But somehow, pratyahara seems to get passed over.
Required Breathing
And yet, pratyahara can play a vital role in the evolution of your practice and your consciousness. The steps on Patanjali’s eight-limbed path are meticulously laid out and build on each other. To concentrate and experience meditative absorption, you first need to increase your capacity for withdrawing the senses and containing them in spite of what’s going on around you.
The sequence
Warm up and prepare for your practice by alternating between the first two postures in the sequence, Child’s Pose and Down Dog, for a few rounds. The forward bending of both postures has a quieting effect, encourages the senses to withdraw from the outside world, and provides a baseline for observing what you’re feeling as you start your practice. If it is difficult to come into a resting pose right away, try a few rounds of slow-moving Sun Salutations to burn off some energy. You’ll know you’re ready to start the following sequence when a few long, smooth breaths come naturally. During the sequence, hold each pose for 7 to 10 breaths before moving on.
Balasana (Childs Pose)
Sit on your shins with your knees slightly wider than your torso and your big toes touching. Release your torso down onto your thighs. Then feel your thighs release onto your calves and your whole body release toward the ground. Rest your forehead on a block, blanket, or the floor. Without changing anything, notice the movement of your breath. What are the natural lengths of your inhalations and exhalations? What do the natural pauses between the breaths feel like? Are your breaths shallow or full? Is your mind racing?Are you feeling peaceful or uncomfortable with the stillness?
After checking in, lift your head about an inch from the floor. Move your chin toward your collarbone, and release your forehead back onto the floor. Then release your chin away from your collarbone, moving the skin of your forehead toward your eyes. From that place, look inward and follow the movement of your breath. Take 7 to 10 breaths. As your practice develops, move toward 15 to 25 breaths.
Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward- facing dog pose)
From Child’s Pose, stretch your arms in front of you, and set your hands a bit wider than shoulder-distance apart. With the skin of your forehead still moving toward your eyes, slowly lengthen your side body and arms, roll your toes under, and lift into Down Dog by extending your sitting bones up toward the ceiling as your heels reach toward the floor. Roll your shoulders away from your ears, and keep the back of your neck long and relaxed. Soften your eyes by imagining the inner corners of the eyelids melting inward toward the center of your head. Rest your gaze on a single spot.
Salabhasana ( locust pose)
Lie on your belly with your legs hip-distance apart and your arms along your torso, palms facing up. Reach from your belly through your legs and feet behind you, spread your toes, and widen the soles of your feet. Open the base of your spine by tucking your pelvis and moving the skin of your lower belly up toward your navel. At the same time, lengthen the torso forward through the crown of your head. On every exhalation, reestablish the openness in the base of the spine. On every inhalation, reach the legs back and the torso forward.
Ardha Chandrasana ( half moon pose )
Start in Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose) with a block to the outside of your right foot. Rest your right hand on the block. On an exhalation, bend your right knee deeply and shift your weight onto your right leg as you move the block forward 6 to 12 inches. Using an inhalation, lift your back leg and open into Half Moon Pose. As you make adjustments to maintain your balance, notice the sensations in your skin, muscles, and the spaces surrounding your joints. As much as possible, encourage a feeling of floating the pelvis slightly above your right thighbone. Consciously smooth out your breath and soften any sense of gripping in the jaw. Move back into Triangle, then Down Dog, and finally back to Child’s Pose. When you feel ready, come up and do the other side.
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana ( bridge pose )
Lie on your back with your feet close to your sitting bones, hip-distance apart. Make sure your feet and knees are parallel instead of turned out. Lengthen the base of the spine, and on an exhalation, slowly lift the pelvis from the floor, as though you could initiate this movement from your belly. On an inhalation, gently lift your chest and imagine that you’re externally rotating your shoulders and upper arms from the center of your heart. Imagine that your earlobes are melting through the ear canal toward the center of your head. After releasing, take a few moments in Savasana to observe the effects of your practice so far.
Janu Sirsasana ( head-of-the-knee pose )
From Dandasana (Staff Pose), bring the sole of your right foot to your inner left thigh. Root down through your sitting bones, rest your left hand on the floor outside your left hip, and place your right hand on the outer edge of your left thigh. Slowly start to release your torso forward and down, moving your hands with you as you fold. Release the base of your skull away from your neck. Rest your head on a block or on your left shin, with the skin of your forehead moving toward the eyes. The moment you begin to find yourself reaching or pulling, soften your skin and the quality of the breath. Relax your throat, and dissolve any striving to deepen the posture. Take Dandasana between sides.
Paschimottanasana ( seated forward bend )
Come back to Dandasana and reestablish your seat by rooting through the sitting bones. Lengthen both legs forward from the hip creases, and bend forward, releasing any gripping in your hips, thighs, or stomach as your torso moves down toward your thighs. Resist coming to your deepest edge. Instead, rest your head on a support (like a block, bolster, or blanket). Reach back through your arms, and let them relax behind you as your side body and shoulders round inward. The posture may continue to open up to you, in which case you can adjust your head support, moving it forward, lowering it, or removing it as needed. Abandon any actions or thoughts of reaching or pulling deeper into the pose as soon as you notice them. Soften the bridge of your nose, and allow the senses to rest within the rhythm of the breath.
Savasana ( corpse pose )
Stack two blocks at the back edge of your mat. Lie on your back with the blocks about three inches behind your head. Position a 10-pound sandbag on the blocks so the front third is on your forehead, shifting the skin of your forehead toward your eyes to calm the nerves. The weight of the sandbag should be equal on the right and left sides of your head, and you should feel no pressure on your nasal passages. With your eyes closed, imagine that you are looking directly at that place where the sandbag rests on your forehead. Then, from that same spot, drop your gaze inward. Feel as if you were underwater in the middle of the ocean looking into the current of your breath. Allow the breath to come naturally, and simply watch. Keep moving deeper into the sensations of the body and breath. Stay for 5 minutes or even longer if you can.
This article was first published in the print edition of Yoga Journal Singapore, which is now Yogahood Online.
