VinyasaKultur

15/02/2019

15/02/2019

” …Like a many-faceted diamond, each side brilliant in its way. Different individuals saw different sides of him in different ways and took whatever appealed to him or her. I was fascinated by whatever he thought I should know and therefore taught me, and I found that in ásana practice, the Vinyása Krama method was most beneficial and satisfying. I am sure a few others also find it so.

With his deep scholarship, immense wisdom, and abundant compassion, Krishnamacharya reveled in making the ancient benevolent teachings accessible to ordinary mortals like us.”

– Srivatsa Ramaswami on Sri Krishnamacharya

15/02/2019

Three Aspects of the Absolute
folio 1 from the Nath Charit
Bulaki
India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur
1823 (Samvat 1880)
Opaque watercolor, gold, and tin alloy on paper
Mehrangarh Museum Trust RJS 2399

Creation begins with the limitless and eternal Absolute, according to the Naths, a sectarian order associated with hatha yoga. A mesmerizing painting represents the origins of existence as a shimmering field of gold (left). Its successive emanations (center and right) into consciousness and form are perfected Nath yogis, covered in ash and clad in saffron. Through yogic practice, Naths transform their physical bodies into subtle matter and merge with the luminous Absolute. Many yoga traditions define enlightenment as the recognition that the Self and the Absolute are one and the same. The second image show Leonardo Davinci's Human Being, and the following pics show me holding a replica of "The evolutionary Tree of Life" depicting the three branches of Life; Eucharyota, Bacteria and Archaea. The tree of life is a metaphor which expresses the idea that all life is related by common descent. Charles Darwin was the first to use this metaphor in modern biology. It had been used many times before for other purposes. The evolutionary tree shows the relationships among various biological groups. In a famous passage in Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species (1859)" states;

The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree. I believe this simile largely speaks the truth.
— Charles Darwin

The next image is a page from Darwin's notebooks around July 1837, showing his first sketch of an evolutionary tree, with the words "I think" at the top. The last pic is taken from the tree of life project.