Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
ASHTANGA = eight limbs
VINYASA = breathing and movement system
YOGA = unity
We studied Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with Mark, Joanne and Shankara Darby.
Darby and Joanne were part of the first group of Pattabhi Jois students in Mysore in the 1970s, where they lived for 4 years. They then continued their practice in India on a regular basis from 2001 to 2009, until the death of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a static and dynamic practice comprising 6 sequences of fixed asanas. Static asanas (postures held) and dynamic vinyasas (movements synchronized with the breath) link the postures together. Dynamic does not mean fast: breathing is slow and movements are slow. The sequences that became a practice were developed by T. Krishnamcharya in the 1930s for K. Pattabhi Jois and others. Pattabhi Jois and other teenagers of his age. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois then taught what had been passed on to him, and it became a fixed method that has been widely disseminated throughout the world.
The foundation of the practice is based on 3 places of action called Tristana. These cover three levels of purification: body, nervous system and mind. They are always performed in conjunction with one another. Asana the Posture (Bandhas) purifies, strengthens and gives flexibility to the body. Breathing must be stable, slow and take up the whole body, with the same length on inhalation as on exhalation, thus purifying the nervous system. Dristhi, of which there are nine, is the direction in which you look in the postures, purifying and stabilizing the functioning of the mind. These three tools transform asana practice from a simple bodily exercise into a total mind-body experience.
There are 6 Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga series. Most practitioners get all the benefits of the first two series, and if necessary go on to the advanced A, B, C and D series, but all levels of practice will lead to what you need to understand.
This is not all, and whatever the history of this practice, ancient or otherwise. Above all, you'll need to get it right, so that it doesn't become a blind, mechanical belief, but that intelligence develops for a higher cause.