Читать книгу Ashtanga Yoga - The Intermediate Series - Gregor Maehle - Страница 32

Once you have made the transforming commitment to adhere to the yama, you adopt the following five niyamas (observances):

1 Inner and outer cleanliness

2 Contentment

3 Simplicity

4 Study of sacred texts

5 Surrender to the Supreme Being¹⁰

Of course, niyama will bring you progress only if it is adhered to within the context of the first limb, yama.

PADMASANA: SEAT OF POWER

It is no coincidence that rishis, yogis, deities, and siddhas are usually depicted in Padmasana. You won’t see paintings or carvings of them sitting in chairs. Why? Because Padmasana is the seat of power. Padmasana is named for the padma, or lotus flower, a symbol of divinity in Indian folklore. Indian scriptures commonly refer to the chakras — subtle centers of divine power in the body — as lotuses. Images of deities or sages sitting on lotuses or sitting in Padmasana suggest that the subjects are spiritually empowered. Padmasana is the ideal yoga posture to sit in while doing pranayama (breath retention and extension).

Modern meditation teachers hasten to point out that you don’t need to sit in lotus posture to meditate. That is true; you don’t have to. However, Padmasana seriously empowers all forms of meditation and pranayama. When sitting in Padmasana, the spine effortlessly assumes its natural double-S curve, which is necessary for the ascent of prana (divine energy), sometimes called kundalini. Padmasana also creates a solid tripod for the torso, which prevents the yogi from falling over during surges of prana. In Padmasana, the hands and feet are turned away from the Earth and up toward the sky, which makes them receptive to divine energy rather than conducting energy down into the receptive Earth.