Yoga: Ashtanga Yoga

Founder: Sri K. Pattabhi

The Ashtanga Yoga places equal emphasis on strength, flexibility, and stamina. As a result it increases circulation, develops a calm mind and delivers both a strong and light body.

Ashtanga Yoga is a series of postures that involves a continuous flow both in the physical body and the movement of breath. It produces an intense internal heat which releases a purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs.

More deeply, ashtanga yoga is "eight-limbed yoga." Patanjali originally outlined the eight-limbed path in The Yoga Sutras (written between 400 and 200 B.C.). No one is sure of when yoga was first developed but The Yoga Sutras are held as one of the earliest recorded "manuals" to Raja Yoga. The Yoga Sutras outlined the path all yogis should implement as a guideline to their daily life.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois named this system "Ashtanga Yoga" believing it to be the original asana practice as intended by Patanjali.

The vinyasa, or "breath-synchronized movement," of ashtanga is integrates the eight limbs of yoga by movement through postures (asana) which detoxifies and purifies the physical body, and mastering the breath through the postures (pranayama) which evokes a concentration (dharana) that quiets the senses (pratyahara), preparing the practitioner for meditation (dhyana) and then achieves, samadhi, the union of the soul with the divine.