Guruji Conference notes....

The last Guruji conference was a month ago. Before I go on... I should make a disclaimer that Guruji's answers were in English that was often abbreviated and hard for me to understand. I perhaps thought he said something when he said something different. So, this report is somewhat subjective... and subject to all sorts of errors and misinterpretations to the point where perhaps it should not even be written.

Conference began with a silence while Guruji waited for questions. Unlike last time, no one asked any questions. So, Guruji spoke for about 10 minutes. He began by saying that Asana was the third limb and that the yamas and the niyamas were the first two limbs. He said that "you must take practice" and then the yamas and niyamas coming. Then he recited the yamas and niyamas, stopping to define ahimsa as 'not troubling others.'

When taking practice and the mind thinks of all sorts of things, "Mind elsewhere. This is very bad." This is the "chita vritti" of the second sutra "yogash chita vritti nirodha." In Ashtanga there is the pranayama of a 10 second inhale and a 10 second exhale. As asana shapes and controls the body, the pranayama "breaks, controls, and shapes the mind." "Breathing control means mind control; this is real."

He talked a little about there being 22,000 asanas and 22,000 nadis... "everything 22,000." The spine must be straight for the inside to be straight and breathing right. You cannot bend your spine forward and breath right. He demonstrated slumping and sitting up. He then talked about the nadis - especially an area 4" down from the navel and one on the crown of the head.

He talked about when sick after a few days going back and taking practice to heal. Finally he talked about doing pranayama separately from the ujayii breathing in the practice. This should not be done while one is working on the primary series or even the second. "When asana perfect; then pranayama."