Agama Yoga

 While in Granada, Nicaragua, I attended an all-day yoga workshop on Agama yoga. The workshop included meditation, breath work, lecture, and a Hatha practice. The poses were held for a very long time. It's interesting how, for me, it's often most challenging to hold a pose for an extended period of time and remain still. It can take extraordinary amounts of strength and concentration. Especially in 95 degree (Fahrenheit) weather. 


There was also a bit of Chakra-related meditation and body work. There was a focus on the root, which was great for a peripatetic girl like myself. I'm not sure if this sequence is traditional to all Agama practice, but this is the practice I was led in. Let me know if you have any Agama experience and can speak to any teachings you know about it. 

Agama Yoga

The word Agama, which can loosely be translated as "sacred work," refers to writings that have been revealed and transmitted from the divine source. There is a canon of sacred texts in Agama: the Dirgha Agama, the Madhyma Agama,the Samyukta Agama and the Ekottarika Agama. For more information than this piddling amount, check out the Agama yoga website.

1. Tadasana (Mountain pose). Hold for 1-3 minutes, feeling the balance-play of your feet
2. Roll neck slowly clockwise. Repeat counterclockwise.
3. A throat Chakra opener. Using the head facing forward as the intermediary point, take the following steps: Look quickly to the left twice, look quickly to the right twice, look quickly to 11 o'clock twice, look quickly to 1 o'clock twice, look quickly directly above twice. Your neck should do quite a bit of movement all over the place, and you may feel like a bobble head toy on the dashboard of a moving car. 
4. Tadasana. Pause to feel the affects of this practice
5. Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Hand Pose), hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart. In Agama practice, this pose is called Tree Pose, the upward reaching arms visualized as branches, your body the trunk. 
6. Uttanasana (Forward Fold). Hold for 5 minutes, come up very slowly
7. Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). In Agama practice, this pose has both feet parallel, and little to no weight in the lower arm. Hold for 2-3 minutes
8. Repeat other side
9. Prasarita Padotannasana (Wide Leg Forward Fold Pose)
10. Dandasana (Staff Pose)
11. Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Fold). Hold for 3-5 minutes
12. Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose)
13. Savasana