About Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
The name Ashtanga refers to the eight limbs of yoga set out in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. Patanjali's Yoga Sutra compiled around 200BC is generally regarded as the most significant text on Yoga. The practice of yoga postures (asana) is the third limb of what is sometimes described as the eight limbed tree of yoga.
The word yoga has many different meanings, T.K.V Desikachar in his book The Heart of Yoga provides the following interpretations: 'to come together' or 'to unite'. Another meaning for the word yoga is 'to tie the strands of the mind together'.
Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is a system of yoga developed and taught by K Pattabhi Jois, the director of the Ashtanga yoga research institute in Mysore, India. K. Pattabhi Jois was a student of Krishnamacharya who also taught BKS Iyengar and Indra Dev one of first Western women to be taught yoga.
Students are encouraged to develop a daily practice and gradually work through a set sequence of asanas known as the primary series. Each asana is linked with the preceding asana by a vinyasa, which is a series of flowing movements. All of this is done to the regulated breath of the practitioner. Vinyasas, while challenging to perform, serve to neutralise the effect of the previous asana and prepare the body for the next one. The three tools that are emphasized in this dynamic style of yoga are: Breath, Bandha and Dristi.
The traditional method of teaching Ashtanga yoga is called 'Mysore style'. The Mysore style class is an early morning self-practice class where the student practices the primary series and the teacher offers adjustments and gives new asanas to the student when appropriate to do so. In this way the student safely builds up to the full primary series. The student can then progress on to the intermediate, and advanced series. This process takes years, requiring persistence and patience.
K. Pattabhi Jois writes in his foreword of John Scotts book on Ashtanga yoga "one percent is theory and ninety nine percent is practice." This serves to emphasize the practical nature of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga.
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