1. **How is anger connected to prana vayu? Describe both the physical sensations and the deeper seed causes.** *Possible student response: Prana vayu is located in the heart and governs life and breath. Anger often feels like a constriction in the chest and can result in muscle tension and high blood pressure. On a deeper level, it arises from seeds of past harmful actions, like yelling at others.* 2. **Which is the worst negative emotion and why?** In the same way that vyana vayu helps all the other winds perform their necessary functions, misunderstanding also infects all the other negative emotions. It is therefore often described as the field in which all the other negative emotions grow. It is the simple misunderstanding of how things exist (that a pen could never be a chew toy for example) that creates the fertile ground for jealousy, pride, anger, and the rest. If we could see that every single thing in our reality is a reflection of our kindness (or lack thereof), we could never at that moment have a negative emotion. It is simply impossible for those two states of mind to co-exist, as wisdom is more powerful than ignorance. What this means is that we can work at all the other negative emotions forever– anger, jealousy, stinginess, pride– and try to slowly dwindle them down to nothing. But if we never destroy ignorance, they will always arise again, like in a zombie apocalypse. And if we can remove ignorance, the other negative emotions could never arise, and they will simply quickly start to fall away. 3. **How can we use our Lady Niguma asana practice to eliminate the negative emotions?** To answer this question, we have to remember the most fundamental yoga teaching we saw in LNF1 about the onion. As we place our body in proper alignment in a yoga pose, it will affect the next layer in - the breath. Smooth, controlled breathing will have a resonant effect on the next layer in, prana, just like strings on a properly tuned sitar. And as we know, there is a connection between prana and thoughts, so we have a very direct way to affect our negative emotions by using our asana practice. Further, the Lady Niguma system very specifically uses poses that target the specific winds and therefore has a powerful effect on our emotional well-being. Lastly, yoga practice in general improves the flow of the winds in the channels. This serves to straighten the channels, to repair them, and to allow the winds to flow more freely. This then allows us to move prana into the central channel, and when we are able to do this completely, we can destroy ignorance and the negative emotions. Forever. **4. Name the Negative Emotion corresponding to the 5 inner winds, giving both the Sanskrit and English names for these winds. Add the information to the Winds & Wisdom chart.** | **Sanskrit Name of Vayu** | **English Name** | **Negative Emotion** | | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------------- | | Prana | Life Wind | Anger/ignorantly disliking | | Udana | Upward-running Wind | Ignorantly liking | | Apana | Downward-clearing Wind | Stinginess and pride | | Samana | Equal Wind | Jealousy and competitiveness | | Vyana | Pervasive Wind | Ignorance | **5. What are the three components of a trigger? How does understanding a trigger positively affect our response to emotional experiences?** The three parts of a trigger are: 1. Pre-condition 2. Event 3. Experiential Database When we understand that emotions are processes, we can investigate the components and see how to affect them with practice. For instance, when we see that how we enter into an event (pre-condition) affects our emotional experience, we can understand that if we have a solid motivation of concern for the other party, we will be more capable of hearing their perspective. If we come into the same situation tired and angry, the experience is likely to be quite different. Similarly, if we become aware of how we habitually interpret certain stressful events like a job interview, based on our experiential database (eg. past trauma), we can begin to work through these habitual patterns. This allows us to go from reacting to responding, and from destructive to constructive responses to these emotional experiences. **6. Where do meditation, compassion, and wisdom fit into the emotional timeline?** Student answers will vary. Meditation, compassion, and wisdom all clearly fit into the pre-condition of an emotional experience. However we can also see that if these become engrained through practice over a long period of time, they also become part of our experiential database. **7. Reflect on the “bus” metaphor. In what ways does seeing all beings as your fellow passengers help you expand your compassion in daily life? How could this idea affect the way you interact with people you don’t usually get along with?** Student answers will vary. The “bus” metaphor helps me remember that everyone is on this journey of life together. Seeing others as fellow passengers makes it easier to feel compassion, even when people act in difficult ways. It reminds me they’re also learning and growing, just like me. When I think this way, I’m more patient and open, especially with people I don’t usually get along with. Instead of reacting harshly, I try to respond with understanding. **8) Name the asana poses related to the udana vayu. Describe how any one of these poses might work to relieve the negative emotion related to this wind.** The poses associated with udana vayu include: Head rolls Snare of Hungkara Tiptoe bridge Shoulder Stand / Supported Shoulder Stand Plow Pose Knee to Ear Pose Matsyasana Hand neck twisting w/massage The negative emotion associated with the udana vayu is ignorantly liking. This vayu is located at the throat and so we can see that a lot of these poses work at the neck and throat area and at the throat chakra. These poses help to twist and stretch these channels or energetic pathways and thereby loosen the knots caused by the twisting of the channels. For instance, plow is a powerful pose that stimulates the winds at this chakra, increasing their flow and vitality. **9) What were the main lessons you learned from the story of Goraksha?** Student answers will vary