When I started coming to Yoga Works in 1993, I’d already been practicing Yoga for close to ten years, but as an athletic pursuit thrust upon me by my hippie high school teachers. I could do most the poses with ease, but because of this ease, my practice required very little consciousness. So it was a total mystery to me when I wandered into Chuck Miller’s Saturday morning class and he began with the statement “It’s all a breathing exercise…” I knew I was breathing, but surely, that wasn’t the point of Yoga was it? Come to think of it, what is the point? My young mind became oh, so confused…
Contrary to popular belief, the word vinyasa does not mean “chatturanga- up dog- down dog.” This word, which has come to describe a style of Hatha Yoga is actually the cohesion of two Sanskrit roots: Vi which translates as “in a special way” and nyasa which means “to place.” Together the roots form “to place in a special way.” We as yogis are using the word to describe our practice, which is “to place in a special way the breath onto the body.”
Vinyasa = Breath placement. When it comes to Yoga, vinyasa means any series of movements with an implied specific breath choreography.
I learned from Chuck that the Ashtanga practice had yielded Vinyasa Yoga also called “flow yoga” because as Western asana practitioners, we love the physical challenge and sense of graceful athleticism. This heat-building practice helps us to melt away the tension and realize our true nature. As Westerners, we experience a high level of stress and therefore a practice such as this has become popular because we need it to “break away” from our illusion of separation and experience our union or “yoga” with the infinite.
As all of this has come about, the specific asana sequence of “chatturanga- updog-down dog” has become the vinyasa of choice, but the sequence doesn’t actually mean vinyasa. It is A vinyasa, but not THE vinyasa. Over many years, I heard Chuck explain that we should look at our entire practice as a breathing exercise and that all of the movements in Yoga have a breath pattern associated with them. These were called vinyasas. Even if the movement was very simple, it was still a vinyasa, it was still Yoga.
He went on to explain that all Yoga sequences are of equal value. No vinyasa is better or more important than the next. “In fact,” he continued, “Yoga isn’t just the asana practice you do on your mat. Everything you do is your Yoga practice. The way you park your car, the way you sign in for class, the way you put away your shoes. It’s part of your Yoga practice. The way you talk on the phone, it’s a breathing exercise, the way you sip your tea—it’s a vinyasa. You are always doing a breathing exercise; therefore everything should be done with consciousness.”
I attempted to assemble the pieces of the puzzle as I began to understand his implied meaning. I gave him a quizzical look .
“Yes Sara, that’s right, get it- your whole life is a vinyasa…”
