“In āsana and prānāyāma, owing to differences in one’s constitution and frame of mind, techniques and sequences change, but not their essence. As soon as the consciousness is purified by removal of the impurity, āsana and prānāyāma disclose their essence. When an even balance is achieved, the essence of subject and object are revealed in their purest and truest forms.” Excerpt From
Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
B. K. S. Iyengar
Working toward these (advanced) rounding forward bends of Kurmāsana, attention is trained on lifting the outer corners of the bottom ribs. This was an instruction my teacher, Manouso Manos, gave in Adho Mukha Virāsana at the March Intensive. In my experience, it helps with spreading the lower back. In Light on Yoga and Art of Yoga, Yogācārya B.K.S. Iyengar’s forward bends demonstrate beautiful and even dome shapes where the curve of the pose does not happen just on one point of the spine but the entire spine participates in the arc of the posture, and the entire back is spreading, like the turtle’s shell.
“When seeds are buried in the earth,
their inward secrets become the flourishing garden.” Rumi, Mathnawi I. 175-177.