The question has been raised with regard to Heart of Yoga (the system that I primarily teach and practice), do we oppose seated meditation, or do we substitute asana for seated meditation? The answer is NO. Seated deep meditation is essential to our practice, just as it is in AYP! However, in Heart of Yoga, asana WITH pranayama (ujjayi breath and banda) is practiced AS "moving meditation" and is a prerequisite to seated meditation. Intimacy of body and breath sets the stage for participation in the Union of Shiva and Shakti in seated meditation. Krishnamacharya (the "teacher of all the modern teachers") said, "you cannot make yourself meditate, it is the mind trying to control the mind. it is self abuse," just as you cannot make yourself fall asleep. Meditation is a gift of grace that occurs when the conditions are right. So what we do is set up the conditions by doing asana along with pranayama, in the right devotional frame of mind. After doing asana with pranayama for at least a few minutes (a minimum of 7 minutes is recommended), you naturally are in a good state of mind for meditation to "happen." At that point you go into seated meditation with pranayama, mantra, energy work, or whatever method/s you prefer (including those offered by AYP), having a much better likelihood of success. The only difference between Heart of Yoga and AYP is our emphasis on the importance of asana with pranayama as an integral part of the meditation process, whereas Yogani places less emphasis on asana. Note, Yogani says asana is a "preparation" for meditation and if time is limited, "we do not replace meditation and pranayama with asana;" we would do sitting meditation. However, at Heart of Yoga we also do not choose asana over meditation; rather, we do asana with pranayama AS the first stage of meditation and we go into sitting meditation afterwards. So there is not that big of a discrepancy, more a matter of emphasis. As far as I know, Heart of Yoga is the only modern school which presents asana with pranayama as a form of meditation. It is also essential to our tantric practice because the body is already involved in doing meditation from the beginning.
