Wonderful yoga lecture by Master B.K.S. Iyengar's disciple Zubin (1)

Hello everyone, hello friends, hello friends who love yoga, because only by loving yoga can you give up other things and gather here today. I heard that Saturdays and Sundays are holidays in China. I am very happy to see so many people gathered in this hall today. Even when I gave a speech in my hometown of Mumbai, there were not so many people, so I am very, very happy. Even though I have taught two classes today and I am already tired, when I see you, I am suddenly full of vitality, especially since you are so interested, so I want to give you a good speech. Before I begin my speech, I would first like to speak to my teacher B. K。S。Master Iyengar pays tribute! My teacher B. K。S。Iyengar is 87 years old. Even if he is 87 years old, he can still do everything and do better than me. A book "Light of Yoga" was recently published in China, and he can still do all the poses in this book today. So remember that yoga practice is not just a simple exercise. There is a lot of scientific and ideological behind what we do. When you are young, you can do it as a form of exercise, but have you ever heard of athletes winning Olympic gold medals in their 30s or 40s? He can only behave like this when he is young. What are these athletes like when they are old? His entire body declined. And doing yoga is not just what the word softness of the body can summarize, just like my teacher, who still does yoga at his age. Yoga is something that people of every age can do. When you see this pose, you must see the details behind the pose. For example, if you hear the word "yoga", how do you feel?

I want to ask you a question; what is yoga? I don't want to be the only one here talking endlessly. I hope to get some feedback from everyone.

Someone replied: I think yoga is a combination of body and soul.

Zubin: I have heard many answers like this. Are there any other new explanations?

Someone replied: Yoga is a happy way of life.

Zubin: How do you achieve this through yoga? Does that mean I am happy just because I do yoga? How about it?

Answer: I enjoy this process. As far as our bodies are concerned, we can learn more than just practice, through the practice of yoga, because our minds are inside and our senses, spirit, including spiritual levels, are inside the entire body. So yoga has the potential to benefit all aspects of your body. For example, if I sit here and close my eyes to meditate, what will happen to my body over the years? There will be no change in my body, because in this state, my mind and my body are not united, and I may allow my mind to make a progress instead of my body. Just like an athlete, maybe his body has a process of movement, but not thoughts. So when you do yoga, you are actually focusing on all aspects of the body. Why does yoga begin with the body? For example, if I am sitting here now, can everyone see my thoughts and soul? But you can see my body. For example, if I don't say anything now, I just keep quiet. Can you see my thoughts? I express myself through my tongue. Similarly, your spirit is also expressed through your body, so when we do yoga, we start with the mountain stance. This is the first and most basic pose. Your body is on the foundation of your feet. Such a pose is used to plan your body and achieve integration. So you have to understand that in yoga, every pose is a combination of your body and spirit. The word YOGA comes from the Sanskrit root YOG, which means combination and unity. It is the unity of the individual spirit and the universal spirit. So what we believe in is sacred not only on the outside, but also in your heart, so first you have to feel the sacred within you, not just your head, but it permeates every part of your body. Now, you may think that my body was this big when I was very young, but do you know how deep you are inside? I gave an example to my students this morning. It's a therapeutic thing that makes you feel incredible. For example, our lungs will be as big as a tennis court when unfolded. When your intestines expand, it will be as big as a football field. When your nerves are connected, it's as long as 6000 miles. All your blood vessels are connected, and they are 60000 miles long, which is two and a half times around the earth. I heard that in the Great Wall of China, all the bricks are placed one by one, and it will circle the earth twice, while our blood vessels will reach three. Imagine all these things in your body. How do you maintain such a body? People will think that money will bring you health, but will your body really be healthy inside? Nothing will bring you. For example, if everyone is sitting here, what will happen to this girl's spine if she sits like this? So everyone sat straight. At least our topic today is health, so you have to sit up straight first. For the remaining hour, you are not just exercising your ears, you are also exercising your body. For our bodies, health has many aspects. The health of a body is composed of every healthy part. This is true health. For example, walking is a healthy way to exercise, but if you walk a long distance, you may hurt your knees. Why? Because when you walk, you use the same muscles, every step. When you do yoga, you are moving different parts of your body and using different muscles. When I am doing asanas, not only is my body moving, my thoughts and my breath changing with every movement. For example, when people stand like this and their legs will feel uncomfortable over time, what will they do? They'll switch to the other side. So, they changed their posture. Think with your intelligence. It's like doing yoga poses. Different parts of your body are changing and different muscles are moving. I am in the mountain pose now, and you may be thinking, what a simple pose this is. Ask the students I taught this morning how they felt? It's not just simply standing, some people stand leaning back so that the thighs come out, and some people stand leaning forward so that the hips come out. You have to be sensitive to understand that when you are standing, you are exercising every part of your body. If you stand in mountain pose like this, only your legs will be tired after an hour. When my teacher Iyengar stood like this, he still had strong control over his body. He could even change the beating frequency of his heart. Just like the students I teach now, let them practice, because they are beginners, I ask them to roll their thighs inward and use the inner muscles, but they can't find them, can't use them, and it's very difficult to do, so don't worry about your heart for a while, but care about your thighs first. So when you stand, you first learn to balance the front, back, left and right sides of your body. When standing, the function of your legs is to raise energy upward and fill your torso with strength, so your legs are connected to your head and your thoughts. Some people will say, I want to do some spiritual exercises, so don't teach me asanas. This is a wrong idea because your body will reflect your mental state. Take a look at depressed people, what does their chest look like? When he is sad, he always pulls his chest inward. Have you ever seen a depressed person standing with his head held high? So we must understand how our bodies affect our spirit, and how our spirit affects our bodies? Now let me show you how to stand up. I will demonstrate different asanas to show different states of mind. When you stand on your feet, there are many different poses that help you practice different muscles in your body.

Triangle stretch pose: Why is it called triangle pose? Can you find the triangle? Half Moon: Do you see different parts of your body working? When both legs are on the ground, it's a different stretch. Warrior's second stance: The front legs are square, the rear legs are straight, and the strength is distributed to the front legs. When doing this pose, the strength falls on your legs. Some people may still think that this pose is too easy, but ask the students I teach now and let them tell you. Side extension: Pay attention to your spine. In our country, we put our hands together and say Namaste greets people. In yoga, we have folded our hands on the back. Look, it's the same as putting my hands together in front of me and putting my hands together behind me. Let's give it a try. Can you put my hands together behind me? Your hands may get sore after doing it for 5 seconds, but my teacher Iyengar can do it for an hour and then give you a speech. Strengthen lateral stretches: Bicorns: The key to all these poses is to create a controlling power in key areas of your body. Because our body is made up of many parts, including tissues, fibers, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and bones, you have to exercise all parts. I said this morning that in the gym, people just pay attention to the triceps and practice the triceps. Young people love to show off their triceps. But there are more than 600 muscles in people's bodies, and people should exercise all of them. These poses I do can exercise all the muscles in my body. Now you will wonder why I spend so much time in the mountain style, because the mountain style is a very important pose. Because if a person knows how to stand with his feet, he should also know how to stand with his head. Because it's all standing, just upside down. Because there is a foundation. When I stand like this, my feet are my foundation. When you sit, where are your foundation? In the buttocks. When you balance your head on your head, your head is your foundation. When you read the book "Light of Yoga", you will understand that every part of your body becomes a foundation, so we have more than 300 asanas. Prepare to do the triangular stretch warrior's second triangular side stretch pose with hands folded behind his back to strengthen the side stretch pose double angle pose. Now we will demonstrate a headstand.

I now feel as comfortable standing on my head as if you were sitting on the floor. For me, it's not difficult at all, and you seem to be difficult. There are hundreds of millions of cells in our brains that help our brains work, so this pose (headstand) has a nickname, called the king of asanas. Looking at the stretching of my legs, just because my head is balancing doesn't mean my legs can relax, my legs are stretching like my spine, and I'm measuring the relationship between my legs. Now I do some variations on my head stand. When I was making variants, the environment inside my body changed, just like typhoons in China now. For example, suddenly a typhoon hits your body. Do you know where it is? How did it get here? For example, in middle age, you suddenly have a heart attack. You didn't realize that there was such a typhoon in your body. And when you are doing these poses, you can know what is happening in your body, and then you can change it. Headstand: Headstand Twist Headstand Y-head stand variant head stand variant lotus in YOGA: All these changes in pose are a change in the weather. For example, you should know the yogis in the Himalayas who use the science of yoga to change the temperature of the body. Like headstand, look how hot I am now. In yoga, you not only need to know how to do yoga poses, you also need to know more, such as asanas that make you warm and asanas that make you cool. For example, another set of poses, Salute to the Sun pose. Salute to the Sun is a very dynamic exercise. I'm hot now, so I'm showing you a salute to the sun. Mountain pose, standing and stretching, standing and forward flexion, lower dog pose,...

This is one round. In traditional yoga, this set of poses has to be done 108 times. (It feels like the sun salutation of Ashtanga yoga) People give yoga many different names. In China, the word yoga is particularly abused. I went to a restaurant yesterday, and you know what I read on the menu? Yoga apple pie. What is this? It's like kung fu ice cream. So unfortunately, yoga is treated so casually by everyone. People know yoga, but people don't understand the depth of yoga. Now do some sit-up stretches. Stretch head to knee. This set of poses is very good for women during menstruation. Yoga considers all aspects and is very thorough. What do you do when you are happy, what do you do when you are unhappy, what do you do when you are young, what do you do when you are old? What to do when you are injured. What to do when you are sick. And most importantly, what do you do when you are healthy? Let you stay healthy. There are now hospitals that keep unhealthy people healthy. Have you thought of how to make healthy people healthier? It's not sports. Exercise is good, but it is one aspect of development. But when you do yoga, you can do anything in the world, so there are many people learning yoga. There are dancers, doctors, philosophers, writers, travelers, etc.

Head-to-knee stretch (one-leg back stretch) one-leg lotus head to knee stretch legs back stretch Zubin do the St. Marki pose (unfortunately Zubin is blocked) Only a few poses are shown here to give you a concept and a scope. Handstand balance pose. The weight of your body is supported by your hands. This is the foundation for your handstand, so that your hands are more powerful. I have been a teacher of elbow handstand balance for many years. In my class, these poses start very slowly. Here I do difficult poses all at once, which gives you an inspiration. When you come home, you will think: Well, I want to do yoga! All the people here, those who have not practiced yoga yet, have the idea that I want to practice yoga, and I am very happy. This is the meaning of my lecture here. Now let me demonstrate the balance. It's difficult to demonstrate here because I can't point my foot at my teacher Iyengar. Headstand Balance Camel Style: Where is the foundation now? In the knees. Tightening your thighs allows you to do better work. The students in my class in the morning all had pain in their thighs. Camel stance is very good for neck problems. We only have one spine, but if we have neck problems, we also have waist problems, which are actually all problems in one part. Remember that the neck and spine are one, so it's important to remember that the twist asana we just showed you is one. I can't demonstrate here the most important part of Iyengar yoga, which is physical therapy. This is Zhu Yan, she's 5 months pregnant, but she attends all our classes, she can do anything in the morning, just we give her lots of variants. So understand that anyone can do yoga. My wife, she was doing headstand the day before she gave birth. So there was no harm. When Zhu Yan stood, the child was upside down. When Zhu Yan stood on her head, the child stood in mountain pose. The child started doing yoga in her stomach. Now do a few more backward bends. Wheel: Notice that the teacher's foot is always controlling and not letting it outward. Bend backwards and rotate asanas: See how my spine rotates. Now let's demonstrate the poses that calm me down: shoulder stand pose and plow pose. Headstand warms me up, shoulder stand cools me.When doing a shoulder stand, always place a thick cushion under your shoulders and do it at a height. This should be done at the end of the day. It cools down and calms your mind. The chest is the emotional center and the head is the thought center. When a person is in love, his words come from his heart, not his head. Shoulder handstand: Notice that the cushion under Zubin's shoulders is making a plow. Lu Yi: Pay attention to the teacher's legs. They have never slackened at all. They have been tightening and exerting force, and their back has been stretched upward. Next up is the relaxing pose supine angle pose. You may be thinking, I'm just doing a relaxing pose, but every pose should relax you. Here is to give you an idea of what yoga poses can do for you, transforming you from a person without a whole to a strong integrated person. Yoga poses move every part of your body before you can meditate. Can anyone go to college without going to school? The asanas of yoga allow you to go to school, develop your body and mind, and then you will be suitable for meditation. (Internship Editor: Lin Xiaodong)