Tristhāna: The Three Dwelling Places (Part 2, Bandha)
If you haven’t read part 1 of our tristhāna series, please start there.
Tristhāna is a technique consisting of three practices to help help the practitioner of yoga achieve the state of one pointed focus described in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra. These three practices, when applied during a yoga āsana practice, enhance the physical practice by creating focus and directing energy to expand the practice of āsana into a meditation in motion.
In the west we generally come to yoga practice through the āsana, and primarily for the physical benefits it offers - mobility, flexibility, strength, etc. But the true intention of the yoga āsana is not physical. While we may gain physical benefits from a yoga āsana practice, these benefits are secondary to the true intention of yoga āsana which is to free up and manage the prāṇa, or energy, in the body. On a physical level, we feel good when we leave a yoga class because stretching and strengthening the body feels good and has been shown to have positive effects on physical and mental health, but the deeper reason we feel so great after a yoga practice is because we’ve opened up space for energy to flow through us. We literally feel more alive at the end of a yoga practice, as we’ve increased the flow of our life force, or prāṇa.
The first practice of tristhāna is the breath. In yoga āsana practice we use the breath to enhance the flow of energy before we commit to the second practice of tristhāna, called bandha.
Bandha is the Sanskrit word that means “bond”. When we think of the word bond we can think of it in two ways. First, a bond is a linking or joining of two things together. In the case of bandha practice in yoga, we are linking or joining our attention to our body. A second way we can think of a bond is as a restraint, like the word bondage. In this regard the practice of bandha in yoga is like a restraint system. We enhance the flow of prāṇa through the breath, then we concentrate and restrain the breath in the main energy pathway of the body, known as suṣumṇā nāḍī (sue-shoe-mnah nah-dee). With the application of bandha we direct the prāṇa toward this energy pathway (often thought of as the pathway of awakening due to it’s function of carrying the awakened śakti energy from the base of the spine upward to the crown cakra), and restrain it there so we can harness it’s potential. In a way it’s like daming a river. When we build a dam on a river we can concentrate the water behind the dam and harness its potential to generate hydroelectric power, otherwise the water is useless in the generation of power. In the same way, the bandhas allow us to make use of our prāṇa by restraining it, allowing it to build up like a dam collects water, so that we channel the potential of the prāṇa into higher states of consciousness. So, bandhas develop the energetic quality of our practice.
Bandha is a more advanced way of working with āsana than what we are used to in a typical yoga class. We like to think of standing on our heads, or twisting our bodies into pretzel shapes as being “advanced” yoga, when in fact, the subtle practice of bandha is what is more advanced. Working with bandha requires a greater level of self-control and attention than a typical yoga āsana practice requires.
There are three bandha that are described in the Haṭhayoga Pradīpikā: jālandhara bandha, uḍḍīyana bandha, and mūla bandha.
Jālandhara Bandha:
The word jāla is the Sanskrit word that means “net”, so the jālandara bandha is the “net” that catches the prāṇa. We work with engaging jālandhara bandha before the other bandhas, because without a net to catch the concentrated prāṇa, the prāṇa is essentially useless.
Jālandhara bandha is located the the neck and throat area, and has the effect of concentrating prāṇa in and around the heart space. Practice jālandhara bandha by lengthening the upper thoracic spine and the back of the neck, keeping the head, neck, and spine in alignment with one another. Then, draw the head back slightly, as if you were lightly pressing the back of the head against the wall. This action will draw the chin in and down slightly. Holding that gentle tension in the neck, lift the center of the breastbone toward the chin.
Uḍḍīyana Bandha:
Uḍḍīyana is the Sanskrit word that means “soaring” or “flying in the air”. Uḍḍīyana bandha is the bandha that forces the energy upward through the suṣumṇā nāḍī where the jālandhara bandha will eventually trap the prāṇa in the channel.
Uḍḍīyana bandha is located around the navel center. To practice uḍḍīyana you draw the front body toward the back body, and up toward the rib cage. Think of the action you would make if you were zipping up a pair of pants that was too tight.
Mūla Bandha:
Mūla means “root” or “base” and is the bandha located at the base of spine that directs energy into the suṣumṇā nāḍī.
Mūla bandha is practiced as a slight lift to the perineal region of your pelvic floor. This bandha is often mistakenly taught as a tightening of all of the muscles of the pelvic floor, however, mūla bandha is an isolation of the muscles of the perineum (the area located between your genital and your anus). The engagement of mūla bandha is often described as the feeling of inhibiting the flow of urine, however, that particular description often results in a full squeeze of the pelvic area. To isolate mūla bandha, first locate your perineum (between your genitals and anus), then imagine that area as an elevator. To engage mūla bandha, slowly and gently close the elevator doors and lift the elevator.
Mūla bandha often gets over emphasized in a modern yoga practices. While it is important for directing the flow of prāṇa to the suṣumṇā nāḍī, habitual contraction of the pelvic floor can lead to a condition known as hypertonic pelvic floor and result in difficulty with urination, defecation and sexual intercourse. For these reasons, learning to relax the pelvic floor is just as important as learning to engage mūla bandha. If you have difficulty or pain with urination or defecation, painful sexual intercourse, dysmennorrhea (irregular menstruation), or you are pregnant avoid mūla bandha and consider seeing a pelvic floor specialist.
Learning to work with the bandha can take your āsana practice to the next level. Check out the video below for a practice designed to help you access and develop the bandhas in your practice.