What is the Difference Between Ashtanga and Vinyasa Yoga?

Transcript

Ashtanga Yoga is the practice that I've been doing for over 20 years I've been getting on my mat and doing Ashtanga Yoga as I learned it from my teachers in South India over and over and over again it's the reason that I'm speaking with you now and it's the reason that I'm happier and more peaceful than I ever could have imagined all those years ago when I first stepped on the mat you might be wondering what is this Ashtanga yoga and is it for me maybe you've heard of other styles of yoga that are out there and want to know well what is so special about Ashtanga that kept me practicing for all these years so let's start off with the basics where does Ashtanga Yoga come from well the word Ashtanga is a Sanskrit word that comes from Ash the Sanskrit word for eight plus Anga the Sanskrit word for limbs so like limbs you know like the limbs of your body don't worry there's no dismemberment in Ashtanga Yoga the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga are comprised of moral and ethical princi principles that guide how you show up as a yoga practitioner and then guide you into the work of the inner tradition of yoga that really help you understand that yoga is more than just ASAS that there are moral and ethical principles that guide how you show up for yourself how you show up for your world and there are increasingly more subtle practices that the asanga yoga path actually begins to open your mind your spirit and your soul up to so so when we hear Ashtanga Yoga the word comes from patan yoga sutras this is a canonical text written approximately 2,000 years ago that my teacher referred to regularly in fact Ashtanga Yoga is called Ashtanga Yoga because many people asked my teacher what style of yoga are you teaching and he said oh I teach Ashtanga yoga and what this meant was that he is teaching yoga in the lineage of patanjali and also as he learned it from his teacher so TKA yoga as taught by K Pabi Joyce who was my teacher in South India a small city called myor this style of yoga is a lineage-based practice which means that to really understand the benefit of the practice you have to immerse yourself with a teacher who's also steeped in the lineage uh while it's possible to learn say a series of poses or something like that the real magic of the practice happens in community it happens when you catch the spark of the inspiration so for me when I first started practicing Ashtanga Yoga I caught that spark of inir inspiration I started practicing six days a week you're supposed to take one day of rest off um within each 7-Day week I practiced six days a week almost immediately and then I got the poll sort of the call to travel to India and meet Pabi Joyce in myour so I found myself in India practicing there within the first year that I ever started Ashtanga y and I've been continuing to go back to deepen my understanding of the practice and to dive deeper down into the lineage ever since then and that maybe is one of the most distinguishing features about this practice is that as you begin to really go into the practice it gets deeper and deeper and deeper um in the fact that there are kind of intangibles that really come from spending time in community kind of experiencing the cultural immersion happens when you stay not just for you know one course or one week but months there was a period in my life where I spent you know six months out of every year in India studying with my teachers I'm so grateful for that that that period it was just so special to um you know just be there and give everything that I had to the practice so Ashtanga Yoga as a physical practice is sometimes known to be very demanding first of all just asking someone to practice six days a week is already a lot but when we understand that the practice is a daily ritual where you devote yourself to the the spiritual journey we understand that this has to happen every day just like brushing your teeth has to happen every day um in a certain uh kind of manner to be effective right if you only brush your teeth you know once a week it's dramatically less effective so in this way we are uh told to step on the mat and do the practice regularly now the physical practice of asanga yoga is broken up into six series and these six series are actually only three Series so so the first series is called yoga chikita which is Yoga therapy and the idea is that this creates the foundation of a healthy body and with the foundation of a healthy body then the mind is more tuned to spiritual practice Once the mind is more attuned to the spiritual practice then all sorts of things start to change we begin to become more whole in our being we begin to kind of you know relax in the body and we can you know find more glimpse of the truth of the spirit within which is really magical now after we get the foundational practice really well established their second series called nadishana and nadish shod is nervous system cleansing really working deeper energetics of the practice and it can be very confrontational um it can be very challenging the postures the ASAS many people think that to progress in Ashtanga Yoga you need to get more poses and that's kind of a mistake or a misunderstanding to progress in the Ashtanga Yoga practice we have to go deeper into the internal journey and the methodology that we use for that is to coordinate what's called breath body and mind these three elements are referred to as Tristana Within These eight limbs of the practice the elements of breath body and mind are always present when we're doing our ASA practice there isn't a random order of the ASAS the ASA practice is called Vinyasa K and the K is the method and so when we understand that this is a Vasa method the Vasa means to organize into a special or sacred way every entry and exit into each ASA as well as to organize and make sac the space of our practice so when we understand Vinyasa as the methodology of the practice it's a coordination of breath with movement and also a sense of creation of the Sacred so we enter almost into an inner Temple each time we practice the Vinyasa method is all about connecting breath with movement so that these are perfectly aligned with our deeper intention every time we step on the mat you may have heard some styles of yoga referred to as Vinyasa method well my teacher's teacher Krishna macharia Shai Krishna macharia was a big proponent of this Vasa method's coordination of breath with movement so any style of yoga that can trace its lineage back to Krishna macharia in fact practices some form of Vinyasa yoga there are many people who practice Ashtanga yoga and really connect with a coordination of breaths with movement and adapt the practice in certain ways leading to the Vinyasa yoga practice as you may have come into contact with it in some other styles of yoga but let's look at the tree of yoga as you could say those branches that stem outward from my teacher's teacher and his teacher before him and the long lineage of practitioners who've kept this practice sacred and safe for thousands of generations in India dating back to ancient times and if we think about this we can understand that whether you follow the series as it's known in Ashtanga yoga or whether you coordinate breath with movement in another way following one of the other branches that sprang out from Krishna machar's teaching then the Vinyasa the coordination of breath with movement can be your entry into the sacred inner tradition of yoga if you're interested in practicing Ashtanga Yoga understand that this is a traditional practice a lineage based practice something that is rooted and steeped in Tradition and yet accessible to you if you're interested in diving in and experiencing that magic that can unfold when we peer into kind of the sacredness and the the eternality of what yoga has to offer and we show up and do the work so if you're interested I hope you catch that spark of inspiration to practice Ashtanga Yoga you never know 20 years from now 30 years from now you you might look back just like I am now and experience so much more peace and so much more happiness than you could have ever imagined possible