Savasana is a yoga asana often used to begin or
conclude a yoga session. It is a relaxing posture intended to rejuvenate one's
body, mind and spirit In Savasana, our bodies integrate and assimilate what we
have just practiced.
It is about letting go completely. Proper relaxation
is essential for the health of our mind and body and for clarity of thought for
making good choices. The obstacles to a good Savasana are sleep,
boredom, mental agitation, and the ultimate obstacle: thinking you don't
need Savasana anymore. Mental agitation and tension are obstacles that
make us miss the point of life's journey.
As Sri, K. Pattbhi Jois says, “Most
difficult for students, not waking, not sleeping.” It may be the most
difficult asana to master, yet the focus is simple -- all you do is relax every
body part. If you get distracted or agitated, you can always come back
to this basis. Just undo, unwind, let go totally. Place yourself
carefully in the pose, and then just get out of the way and observe. Savasana raises our consciousness and intention to a higher,
more spiritual plane. In these moments, we feel how yoga is a spiritual
science, not a physical work out. Sometimes in Savasana you get a taste
of the unconditioned mind, with no thoughts arising, just bare awareness. When you achieve peace in Savasana, remind yourself that you can call
upon this feeling, contact this place inside you, at any time during the day.
The aim of yoga practice in daily
life is to live vividly from moment to moment without being stuck in thinking
or the idea of not-thinking. Wood floor, open window, blanket, cushion,
t-shirt, wool socks – there is something profound just here. We are not trying
to create an experience; we are making room for experience to happen.
Experience, like the present moment, is always waiting for a place to happen.
The architecture of savasana requires us to continually let the ground we are
lying down on, literally the ground of our thoughts and our bodies, to fall
away, until the constructs that frame our experience pass on. This is an act of
both dying and being born. Our imagination makes us very busy exploring the
world of choices. In the end, there will be no choice, just death. So in the
center of your bumbling human life, where you are always looking around for
something better, notice how the present moment is just a small death away.
Savasana is the art of practicing our
death, little by little, every day. “If student does not get up from savasana,” says Pattabhi Jois, “or
lifting student up (and he/she) is like a stiff board, savasana is correct.”
