April 13, 2026 - Begin in Ignorance
This week’s class was our third exploring tamas, the guna of darkness, inertia, rest, and ignorance. Last week we discussed the quality of ignorance that can be helpful in our lives, and how becoming conscious of what we don’t know can propel our self-study and practice of yoga. However, sometimes there’s a tendency to grasp at our ignorance and take comfort in it, to rely on our lack on knowing in order to keep a fuller engagement with life (or yoga) at bay. It’s a bit like imposter syndrome, a popular psychological concept that describes those who, despite education, skill, desire, and/or success, may be plagued by doubt and feel inadequately prepared to ply their skills. Sometimes, we see these people doing everything they can to gain more knowledge, hoping that some teaching, some understanding will unlock their potential and give them the confidence to successfully begin their chosen endeavor.
Therefore, to some degree, we have to learn to tolerate tamasic ignorance in our lives knowing that we’ll never know everything or achieve perfection. In fact, some yoga traditions suggest that this is a necessary part of the fabric of the world, that concealment of absolute knowledge is an essential feature of the cosmos.
This is beautifully represented in the iconography of the deity Śiva (shi-va), represented as the cosmic dancer Nataraja (nah-tah-rah-jah). This representation of the deity shows the five acts (pancha kritya) that continuously create the cosmos. There are two important features here that can help us understand the necessary nature of ignorance: Siva’s lower left arm and the demon of ignornace, Apasmara, underneath Śiva’s standing foot. Śiva’s lower left arm crosses his body, the palm turned inward. This gesture represents tirobhāva, the concealment of ultimate reality. Apasmara, although he’s being crushed underfoot, isn’t completely destroyed. Both of these symbols suggest the necessity of ignorance in our lives. In order to discover the Truth, aspects of reality must be concealed from us. Otherwise, why would be inspired to see it? And furthermore, although ignorance (or the perception of ignorance) may not be comfortable, tolerating its presence is necessary. in order to continue moving forward in our lives. Like Apasmara, we acknowledge its presence and we continue our dance anyhow, even if we don’t always understand exactly why or to what purpose we dance.
To begin our practice, we started standing, stabilizing and breathing over our two feet. From there, we:
Lifted one leg and then the other into a standing balance: first knee bent into chest, then knee bent with rotation of the hip, and then a movement into Nataraja mudra - mimicking the shape with our bodies.
Moved into a warm up including: forward folds standing on a rolled blanket, spinal movements in four points, child’s pose, cobra pose, downward dog, and more.
We began to warm the body in earnest with a series of lunges:
Low lunge with side body and hip flexor stretch
Low lunge with rotations through the torso and arm
From there, we began exploring some deeper, supported work with the bolster. We lay down over the bolster, placed horizontally on the mat underneath the belly. We held for about two minutes, aiming to breath fully and relax over the prop, bringing the bolster up into our belly’s for abdominal compression and a gentle low back stretch. After that, we moved into a pranayama series.
Moved into deliberate ujjayi breath for a few rounds
Adopted the pattern of: ujjayi inhale, a longer ujjayi exhale, pause and retain the breath. This is called sunyaka - a longer exhale and retention of the exhale. During the retention, we gradually introduced the three axial seals - mulabandha, uddiyanabandha, and jalandhara bandha (pelvic floor, abdomen, throat) - to cultivate more prana (energy) in the body.
From there, we moved into a side bending series, beginning in:
Parighasana (gate pose). We stretched one side, transitioned onto the other side in a kneeling ardha chandrasana (half moon pose), both stretching and strengthening that side before moving into a twisting variation with both hands on the floor.
Afterwards, we transitioned into a short series of bridge poses and then back to the bolster, using it to assist in a back bending/spinal extension series on the floor. We placed the bolster horizontally under the belly/hip area and extended the arms forward. From there, we inhaled to lift the chest forward and up, which allowed us to explore a larger range of motion while supporting the low back.
After a gentle hip opening series, we grabbed the bolster again and laid it down vertically, bringing our hip up to the bottom end in a sideways orientation in order to lie down in a prone restorative twist.
From there, we closed with a supine series, stretching the hamstring, opening the inner thigh, and twisting. Afterwards, a nice long savasana and the usual Saprema.
Thank you, all. See you all next week.
With warmest affection :)