Читать книгу Ashtanga Yoga - The Intermediate Series - Gregor Maehle - Страница 33

Once the practitioner has integrated yama and niyama into her life, she can begin the practice of asana (posture). There are hundreds of yoga postures; practicing them makes the body strong and supple, prepares it for the ascent of prana, and restores the natural balance of the body’s three constitution types, or doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha.¹¹ It thereby removes the various obstacles listed by Patanjali, such as sickness and rigidity.¹² Asana coupled with pranayama removes even more obstacles, such as doubt, negligence, laziness, and sense indulgence. Most important, though, asana serves as the bedrock of meditation proper: performing the postures prepares the body for extensive sitting in the main yogic meditation postures, which are Padmasana (lotus posture), Siddhasana, Swastikasana, and Virasana (note that the names of these postures differ slightly among the different schools of asana). Padmasana is by far the most important of these postures — see the sidebar above titled “Padmasana: Seat of Power.”