The goal is not to hold at any cost an asana that is painful or to try to
achieve it prematurely. This is how I hurt myself as a young practi
tioner when my teacher demanded that I do the Hanuman asana,
which involves an extreme leg stretch, without proper training or
preparation. The goal is to do the asana with as much possible inten
sity of intelligence and love. To do this, one must learn the difference
between "right" pain and "wrong" pain.
Right pain is not only constructive but also exhilarating and in
volves challenge, while wrong pain is destructive and causes excruci
ating suffering. Right pain is for our growth and for our physical and
spiritual transformation. Right pain is usually felt as a gradual length
ening and strengthening feeling and must be differentiated from wrong
pain, which is often a sharp and sudden cautionary feeling that our
body uses to tell us we have gone too far beyond our present abilities.
In addition, if you get a pain that is persistent, and intensifying as you
work, it's likely a wrong pain.
The challenge of yoga is to go beyond our limits-within reason.
We continually expand the frame of the mind by using the canvas of
the body. It is as if you were to stretch a canvas more and create a
larger surface for a painting. But we must respect the present form of
our body. If we pull too fast or too much at once, we will rip the
canvas. If the practice of today damages the practice of tomorrow, it is
not correct practice.
Many yoga teachers ask you to do the asanas with ease and com
fort and without any stress or true exertion. This ultimately leaves the
practitioner living within the limits of his or her mind, with the in
evitable fear, attachment, and pettiness. These teachers and their stu
dents feel that the kind of precise and intense practice I am describing
is painful. Yes, it is true that sometimes we experience pain during our
practice as we exert ourselves and our will. Yoga is meant for the pu
rification of body and its exploration as well as for the refinement of
the mind. This demands strength of will both to observe and at the
II K S I Y 1'. N 1; /Ill