Hatha yoga comprises an all but lost three phase evolution of somatic engineering for accessing the optimal human athletic experience of flow-state (called Samadhi in Sanskrit.)

• The 1st Evolution: Asana, or specific postures, to integrate structural alignment.
• The 2nd Evolution: Vinyasa, or linking breath to moving between asana, to integrate breath.
• The 3rd Evolution: Prasara, or linking movement to breath and structure, to integrate movement, and thus access the optimal physical experience of flow-state.

Yoga naturally evolves through the daily deepening of our personal practice from asana, or balancing surrender and strength in structure, to vinyasa, or syncing breath through and between a series of asana, to prasara, or disinhibiting flow through improvisational exploration and expression of movement.

Certainly, one begins with asana development, the basic education of the alphabet, followed by forming words and sentences through vinyasa development, and then finally a conversation erupts spontaneously between you, yourself and everything. However, this development is not purely sequential, but cyclical.

We begin with asana and before sequencing them, we develop the ability to balance surrender and strength in a particular structure, intrinsic movement or field of tension, as well as our breath type, quality and depth. Once we have to a degree mastered a particular set of asana, we can sequence them in vinyasa.

In vinyasa, when breath dis-integrates with the movement between a particular set of asana, we down-shift and concentrate on the individual movements in-between as new asana themselves. Once we have developed those in-between asana, we resume our vinyasa practice to sync our breath to the sequence. With each new vinyasa sequence we practice, and on any particular day, we will find a multitude of work to do – which will be our yoga for that day.

After serious study of our vinyasa, we have gained the ability to improvisationally explore the union of any connection of points (asana) or string of breath (vinyasa). We can use prasara to converse dialectically with our system to find our yoga for that day. And when we find some hidden point, we can down-shift to vinyasa to sync our breath back up with the sequence, or we can down-shift all the way to asana to address dis-integrated structure if there is an imbalance of surrender and strength.

Prasara is much more than merely an expressive yogic dance. It is much more than merely an exploratory diagnostic tool for identifying covert disintegration of our movement from our breath and structure.

Prasara is how we expand our personal practice into everything we do at every moment. By expanding prasara off the mat and into our lives, we plug into where we are and how we are addressing the situation at hand at any particular moment.

Prasara is how we stop doing yoga and start being yoga.

Om Amriteswaryai Namaha.