What are the Bandhas with Rod Stryker

Transcript

hi I'm rod Stryker and we're going to take a few minutes to talk about Bundys so it's helpful in to understand really what Bundys are is first of all helpful to understand or see yoga as an energetic process so one of the defining characteristics of the hatha yoga tradition is that the Yogi's recognize that the body was a vessel of energy and by shaping and controlling or directing energy we really can shape and affect the way we see the world whether we're looking to be more effective externally in the material world or we're looking to have a more effective spiritual life and spiritual practice really prana or life force or it's really our greatest ally in other words the way we utilize and direct life force will determine the way we see things the way we ultimately are able to draw our own resources and move out into the world or move toward our spiritual life prana is this kind of bow that sets everything in motion so shaping energy is really critical now well the way they saw asana was a way it was primarily as a tool to loosen or break down the obstacles to energy flow so think about that one of the reasons that we feel better when we leave a yoga class one of the reasons we feel better is because there's more prana flowing through us at the end of class and there was before class started but think of now bunda as being another step in that process of becoming more masterful in the way you shape your energy because although I've loosened the way energies flowing I haven't necessarily begun to consolidate its flow and that's really the heart of what bunda practice is all about the word bunda usually gets translated as loc it's not my favorite definition or translation of the term there is a term in English that's really similar to the word bunda and that is the word bond or bind and the word bond has a couple of meanings one is you create a bond which is a connection if you and I have a bond we have a connection but the other meaning of the word is a binding a way of almost creating restraint or bondage and so Banda actually refers to both ideas one it's a linking to a kind of tying or consolidating energy that you want to consolidate another is to consolidate a kind of restraint or framework by which you can collect energy so both to link but also to collect alright so there are three major Bundys one of them gets all of the attention in the press I like to say which is typically the one in the area around the pelvic floor called mula bandha mula means root very simply put the second is ooh Dione Abunda and hood means to lift opera to go into flight this is the one where your abdomen is being lifted and you've probably seen demonstrations of that of Yogi's at the end of exhale drawing the abdominal organs powerfully back in and up this is a super energizing technique and then the one that really perhaps is the most refined of all of them and in many ways yet the most critical of all of them is called Jalandhar bandha and that's involving something up in this area something related to the thoracic and cervical spine where the collarbones are rising but sometimes you'll see Yogi's doing it this way where the spine is tall the jaws more or less level collarbones are elevated and but often will see in photographs the head dropping forward the word Jolla means net or to catch it also means water but the idea here is that you are catching or collecting or stopping something this is that restraining idea the three Bundys together are called treta bandha so you in a way you have a fourth bunda now in modern times I've seen Yogi's talk about the hasta Bundys where they're talking about bond is in the hands or Bundys in the feet I've never seen it in an ancient Scripture so this is kind of a modern invention it's okay there is no reference to it in ancient scriptures that I've seen now each of the Bundys have different functions and traditionally this great master Christmas Aria taught that we should master the Bundys from the top down unfortunately a lot of Yogi's are actually learning the root lock but not developing the other ones and if you think about Bundys as they're often described which is the idea of like a kind of restraint system like we dam a river in which we can then develop and collect hydroelectric power so the bunda creates a restraint and then we can channel the potential energy that it's holding back so it's a really it's an apt metaphor for bunda what you realize is that you could never really work with that energy until you create a restraint system or a wall until you create the dam you can actually really utilize the energy so jondura bandha is the restraint system in other words whether the head is simply in line so the neck and cervical spine thoracic spine are in line collarbones elevated or the heads falling forward I'm creating restraint in this area then the work I do in the Bundys below it can be effectively used if you start to work with the Bundys below say Ludhiana bondo or mula bandha and you haven't yet created restraint you're gonna have limited benefit in fact sometimes dilatory us benefit s-- non-constructive benefit comes our non-constructive so I was taught through Chris makaras lineage that John Dyer bandha was the first one to develop acquires more perhaps more subtlety but the value of it is that as you develop Jalandhar bond a couple of things happen that are really meaningful number one is the mind gets quieter this idea of lengthening the back of the neck and then later working with dropping a chin for it activates the vagus nerve which stimulate creates more stillness in the mind now when I generate when I move down to Dion Abunda which is this great generator of lifeforce which works with the navel plexus in the navel Center where really your healing in your potent senior energy of self nurturance is just waiting it tap you now have an away and ability to contain that energy and finally the mula bandha is this unique technique that helps to gather our senses helps to gather and collect our senses instead of moving outward to move inward but also what it does is it generates activity where there's we'll say mentally emotionally and even spiritually speaking a lot of stagnation we have we have a tendency to be kind of very attentive to our worldly stuff and our body not so attentive to spirituality it's just how human beings are that our default position is our body and the world and so what mula bandha does is potentially shake that up a little bit it breaks down that kind of overly sense of being anchored or attached to our worldly existence now just for a moment though think about this because the Bundys should not be practiced by everyone all the time if you have a tendency to be Spacey if you have a tendency toward irregularity in terms of elimination if you are amenorrhea so someone who has irregular menstrual cycles doing too much mullah bandha can be counterproductive why because it's moving you toward less embodiment and it's moving prana upward where you need it actually to help you move downward stay grounded stay regular and stay and stay embodies so indeed mula bandha is not necessarily helpful for everyone all the time it should also there's some contra decay shion's pregnancy is one certainly menstrual cycle is another women with IUDs should actually be careful with mula bandha so there are definitely considerations about it and ultimately I would suggest that all whatever as you start to step into bunda practice it's really something that ideally you are being guided by a masterful teacher someone who has a lot of experience and can help guide you through and determine the amount of bunda that you should be doing when Bundys are done correctly and we are approaching them with a deeply relaxed state of mind maybe I should put that differently you're approaching bunda correctly when you're approaching the practice of bunda with a calm and relaxed state of mind one of the things that I tell my students who are teachers I say please don't teach it to people who can't breathe smoothly so you first have to establish even smooth breathing the ability to shape inhale or exhale elegantly and extend it so that's preliminary to bunda practice the ability to remain in asana comfortably for an extended period of time so that your overall becoming more and more an embodiment of stability and ease in your asana practice if you have those two things established and then there's not a lot of emotional turbulence in your life then bandha is one of the most significant ways to take your yoga from simply an asana practice to truly a yoga practice so approach Bundys methodically mindfully and with guidance and they build your ability to tap into the true power of yoga enjoy your Bundys