CLINIC Astanga 2

Dristi - literally means 'perception'. In our Astanga practice it means our gazing point and it assists not only as a focus for the mind, but a physical assist for the body in each posture. Dristi is an integral part of Tristana, the union of bandhas, vinyasa & dristi. It is an aid in concentration or Dharana, the 6th limb of Patanjali's 8-limb Astanga path of yoga. John Scott mentions dristi to 'draw the outward-looking eyes inward'. Common dristi in Astanga: nose (most common), 3rd eye, side - these are the top tier of dristi. They are often broken down further (ie: navel, because you are looking past nose / up or hand or foot or thumbs, because you are looking to 3rd eye / left side / right side). To maintain the gaze in that direction (not a crossing of eyes). The Traditional general pattern put forth by Guruji is that odd# vinyasa & inhale & upward = 3rd eye dristi & even# vinyasa & exhale & downward = nose dristi. Some current standards differ to encourage the posture alignment (ie: up dog nose dristi vs 3rd eye keeps neck long / seated folds nose dristi vs foot also prevents the neck from over arching). We see how important dristi is in the learning of Astanga when we consider that, while keeping ujjayi breath & bandhas constant during practice, our objective is to learn the individual asana: its name, its vinyasa, its dristi. In this Clinic, we started with eye exercise movements that will be utilized for dristi; these show us how deliberate our focus should be & how strengthening dristi will be for the health of the eyes. Then we went through the Daily Minimum, and included some standing sequences and balancing and backbending, to allow for practicing the correct dristi. One example of dristi as a physical assist is parsvakonasana: you can feel a greater expression of the 'side angle stretch' by taking the gaze toward the hand (note to not let the head fall back, this essentially is 3rd eye gaze).