Yoga in the Iyengar System

<h2>YOGA IN THE IYENGAR SYSTEM</h2>In Iyengar yoga this means the meticulous building of every asana, even the very simplest. Until the body becomes open enough, students must use props to bring the body into the required position and to get the most from it. Props are of real benefit and help to avoid injury. Blocks (bricks), for instance, will make the space around you more workable and will help you hold poses in which your hands do not reach the floor. Folded blankets serve as supports to sit and lie on during class. Straps are especially useful for bound poses, when your hands do not reach one another, and for poses where you have to take hold of your feet but cannot get to the place you need.Iyengar yoga is above all an evening out: a steady movement towards harmony of body and mind through the even, gentle extension of some parts of the body and the relaxation of others. Through the physical alignment of the body, harmony begins to form in the realm of physiology as well, and in the end every cell of your body directs its work towards cleansing. As you gradually transform your body, becoming healthy and kindly disposed, you will feel freedom and joy again, and notice how the world around you is transformed.Another feature of Iyengar's method is the gradual development of practice, the move from simpler poses to more difficult poses and to pranayama as the body and the mind become ready to perform them. In the early stages of practice Iyengar does not recommend performing difficult poses, because the body does not yet have the necessary strength and stability, and the mind is not attentive and concentrated enough. The standing poses play an invaluable part in a beginner's practice, and in Iyengar yoga they hold a special place. Although these poses have existed for a very long time, before Iyengar they were not given much weight and were considered something secondary. Sri B.K.S. Iyengar devoted a great deal of attention to deepening the standing poses and performing them more finely, seeing in them an inexhaustible source of strengthening and opening the body and of preparation for more advanced stages of practice. Without exaggeration, the standing poses can be considered the foundation of Iyengar's method.Only poses performed correctly give the result you want. Not everyone, by any means, can bring the body into the correct position and then hold it for a certain length of time. At first this causes difficulty even for young and healthy people: unfortunately, our sedentary way of life does not help to keep us in good physical shape, and it leaves the body stiff, tight and at the same time weak. A further feature of Iyengar's method is the use of a variety of aids (soft bolsters, wooden blocks, supports of different heights and shapes, blankets, mats with a textured surface, chairs, straps and ropes), which make it possible to place the body correctly in space from the very outset. Thanks to them the body receives support, which is absolutely essential for the correct development and stability of the pose. The wide choice of aids and the practically unlimited ways of combining them make it possible to take account of the individual features of a person's build and their level of preparation. The level of load is chosen accordingly, and its correct distribution is ensured.Success in yoga will come to anyonewho can overcome their own idleness.And it does not matter whether they are young or old,ill, weak or even frail.Only let their practice be persistent.Svatmarama, «Hatha Yoga Pradipika», chapter 1<a href="joga/osnovnye-napravleniya-jogi/ajengar-joga/b-k-s-ajengar-osnovatel-shkoly/">Find out more about B.K.S. Iyengar, the founder of the school</a>These words were written many centuries ago, but nothing captures the essence of Iyengar's method better. In the twentieth century yoga - an ancient esoteric tradition available only to a chosen few and hardly ever going beyond the borders of India - was born a second time and conquered the world, becoming the property of all humanity. Sri B.K.S. Iyengar played a considerable part in this process. He teaches yoga to men and women regardless of their age, state of health, background, nationality or faith, holding, rightly, that all people seek to avoid illness and suffering and to find harmony and inner peace, and that yoga can help everyone.Yoga is a single, all-encompassing teaching within which many different schools exist. The schools differ from one another in where they place their emphasis, in which aspects of one and the same subject they concentrate on. Iyengar yoga is classical hatha yoga, whose origins reach back deep into the centuries. Sri B.K.S. Iyengar created his own method of teaching yoga which, thanks to its particular qualities, has won enormous popularity and is today one of the most widespread in the world.Sri B.K.S. Iyengar has been teaching yoga for more than sixty years, and throughout that time his method has been developing and deepening. From the very beginning the practice of yoga demanded immense effort and attention from him, since his health was poor. The years of practice not only made his body resilient and strong but also gave him a unique understanding of the poses - for the results of their action had been tested in his own experience. He explained and illustrated every traditional aspect of yoga… rediscovered and systematised a whole series of poses and breathing methods… and carried out extensive research into the therapeutic effects of yoga.The young Iyengar preferred a dynamic, powerful and even somewhat severe practice, one intended first of all to strengthen the body. Iyengar's guru, T. Krishnamacharya, taught young aristocrats of the warrior caste in this way (another of Krishnamacharya's students, Pattabhi Jois, went on to continue this method, which was later given the name Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga).In time, however, Iyengar came to see that such a practice was effective only for young and healthy people. Age or problems with health became an obstacle to practising yoga. Iyengar began to give more and more attention to deep, subtle work within the pose. The practice becomes more static; staying in a pose for a long time strengthens its effect not only on the muscles, joints and ligaments but also on the internal organs, the systems and even the cells, on the emotional state and on the mind. In this way the pose acts not only on the surface, physical level but on the inner, physiological one as well, and this is one of the founding features of the method.Closely bound up with this is another feature: in the course of practice the body becomes not only stronger and more flexible but also more symmetrical and more even. The ideas of evenness and of aligning the body within the pose are central to Iyengar yoga. The point is that the body is aligned not only on the physical level. Gradually changes begin to take place on subtler and deeper levels as well: the system of energy channels and centres, which has the most direct influence on the emotional state and on consciousness and the mind, is aligned and brought into balance. Asana means pose, which is the art of arranging the body as a single whole: physically, mentally and spiritually… when an asana is performed correctly, the distinctions between body and mind, mind and soul must disappear. … If, through the correct practice of asanas, the health of the cells is preserved, the physiological sheath becomes healthy too, and the mind draws closer to the soul. (B.K.S. Iyengar, «The Tree of Yoga», Moscow, «Medsi XXI», 1998, pp. 81-82)