What is Ashtanga Yoga?

The following is an excerpt from the article about Ashtange Yoga, The Quiet Strength of a Woman’s Body by Kino MacGregor.

After years of practice and mastery over seemingly impossible postures, there is now no doubt that women have an equal type of strength, too. Marianne Williamson says that a true woman’s power is magnetic, attractive and visionary. A woman’s body receives, nurtures, gives, produces, holds, bears, bends, grows, shrinks and sometimes even breaks, only to rebuild. Rather than an exposed sexual organ, in the heart of every female form rests a womb that is a great, silent and dark potential for life. This darkness that draws its archetype from the lunar cycle pulls energy, tides, change, life force and fertility to it. Where a man’s body has muscles to push, thrust and engage, a woman’s body beckons, seduces and contains. It is in this crucial difference where women must find their strength in the yoga practice and in life: Not in emulating the deep belly thrust of a man’s world, but in tapping into a uniquely feminine way to engage the world will women touch the mystery of true female power.

The full article can be viewed here HERE.

This Ashtanga Yoga Demo in India Video had close to 900,000 views when I saw it on You Tube. I am posting it here because I was fascinated by the beauty of the environment as well as the beauty of the yoga. Note that in the very beginning of the video you will see a monkey in the distance tree.

A short explanation from Wikipedia on Ashtanga Yoga:

This style of yoga is characterized by a focus on vi?y?sa, or a dynamic connecting posture, that creates a flow between the more static traditional yoga postures. Vinyasa translates as linking and the system also implies the linking of the movement to the breath. Essentially the breath dictates the movement and the length of time held in the postures. Unlike some Hatha yoga styles, attention is also placed on the journey between the postures not just the postures themselves. The vi?y?sa ‘flow’ is a variant of S?rya namask?ra, the Sun Salutation. The whole practice is defined by six specific series of postures, always done in the same order, combined with specific breathing patterns (ujj?y? breathing).

For the full acticle see Wikipedi HERE

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