Читать книгу Ashtanga Yoga - The Intermediate Series - Gregor Maehle - Страница 18

Practicing the Intermediate Series yields many benefits to the gross body — that is, the body that is perceptible to the senses. Your body will become healthier, stronger, leaner, and athletic, much like that of a racehorse. And yes, of course, the shape of your derriere will also improve. (You see, I know what motivates many modern yogis.) But let’s leave jokes aside and focus on what’s really important: the effect of the Intermediate Series on the subtle body.

The subtle body is chiefly made up of chakras (energy centers), pranic currents called vayus (vital airs), and the receptacles of the vayus, the nadis. Nadis are the conduits, or energy channels, of the subtle body, along which the various forms of life force (prana) move. The nadis are clogged in most people and must be purified if one is to progress to the higher limbs. The Intermediate Series serves this function of purification; in Sanskrit it is called Nadi Shodhana, which means “purification of the nadis.”

Some have translated the term Nadi Shodhana as “purification of the nervous system,” but this translation is problematic. The nadi system is much subtler than Western anatomy’s nervous system. The nervous system refers to part of the gross body, which is obviously very different from the subtle nadi system. Many nerve ganglions of the gross body are several millimeters in diameter and can easily be seen by the naked eye. Nadis, on the other hand, are considered to be one one-thousandth the diameter of a hair. As part of the subtle body, they cannot be perceived by the senses.

As one practices the Intermediate Series, and later the Advanced Series and meditation exercises, the nadis are gradually purified. Since prana ascends through the body via the nadis, this purification clears the way for prana to ascend all the way to the crown chakra, a culmination that marks the physical dimension of divine revelation or, in other words, of the state of liberation.

The nadis also require balancing, so that prana can flow through them evenly. The three primary nadis are the pingala (the right, or solar, nostril), the ida (the left, lunar nostril), and the sushumna (the central energy channel). When the breath flows predominantly through the pingala, the mind tends to adopt a solar or fundamentalist attitude, which means adhering to one truth while overlooking the many other truths.⁸ When the breath flows predominantly through the ida, the mind tends to adopt a lunar or relativist attitude, which means that one is attracted by many truths but unable to pick the one that is most appropriate in a given circumstance. During a samadhic state, there is no such imbalance, because either the prana flows in the sushumna or, as some authorities maintain, there is no pranic movement at all.

When a race car driver prepares for a championship race, he or she makes sure that the car is in perfect condition, ready for peak performance. The car is taken apart to make sure that all its parts are clean and in working order. If there are any blockages in the fuel ducts, air intakes, hoses, combustion chambers, exhaust pipes, or manifolds, the parts are cleaned to unclog them; otherwise they will impinge on the optimal flow of energy. In a similar way, if you see samadhi as the peak human experience and want to achieve it as much as the race car driver wants to win the race, you must make sure your nadi system is in top condition. If it isn’t, you either won’t have the mystical experience or won’t be able to put it into context and integrate it into your life. This necessary cleansing and fine-tuning of the nadi system is achieved by becoming proficient in the practice of the Intermediate Series of postures. Thus the practice of this series helps lay the foundations for higher yoga.