Yoga Lessons from Seaweed

Posted on July 8, 2013 by admin

Sthira sukham asanam, the somanaut’s basic mantra, appears in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in II-46 as his first of three sutras on asana or yoga posture. In Patanjali’s time, yoga pose referred to any posture used in sitting meditation. In modern times asana has come to mean any of hundreds if not thousands of possible configurations of the human body, some meditative, some gymnastic, many therapeutic.

But what if we go back to the origins of life and the emergence of multi-cellular beings? What would it feel like to inhabit the newly emerging forms appearing on a watery planet? No bones. No nerves. Just a self-organizing aliveness of fluid, tissue and intelligence that has been carried forward into our emerging moment in our own human cells and tissues. Sthira sukham asanam: embodied living requires a dynamic balance of stability and mobility throughout all cells and structures. The imprinting of sun, of ocean waves and swells, of rocks, shaping minerals and cells into undulating intelligence, surviving the pounding surf by anchoring to rocks and learning to go with the flow. Nature is shtira sukham and one of her oldest and most prolific expressions is seaweed. Can seaweed help us awaken this primal intelligence and bring it into moment to moment awareness?

The Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology at The University of the West Cape, South Africa offers: ” The term seaweed refers to the large marine algae that grow almost exclusively in the shallow waters at the edge of the world’s oceans. Seaweeds are plants because they use the sun’s energy to produce carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water (this is called photosynthesis). They are simpler than the land plants mainly because they absorb the nutrients that they require from the surrounding water and have no need for roots or complex conducting tissues. Some large seaweeds such as the kelps (see above) have root-like parts called holdfasts, but these only serve to attach them to the rock. Most seaweeds have to be attached to something in order to survive, and only a few will grow while drifting loose in the sea.

Three groups of seaweeds are recognized, according to their pigments that absorb light of particular wavelengths and give them their characteristic colors of green, brown or red. (Red dulse and brown alaria to left.) Because they need light to survive, seaweeds are found only in the relatively shallow parts of the oceans, which means around the shores. Here they occur in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the large kelps (certain brown seaweeds) that form forests on temperate (cooler) coasts, to the hard “encrusting corallines” that look like pink icing, but are so important in building and cementing coral reefs in the tropics. Some seaweeds, especially many of the larger reds, are showy and attractive, while others may be small and inconspicuous, and grow in a low “turf” on the rocks.

This past weekend, the cosmos, speaking through my dear wife Kate, sent me (along with Kate and Sean) to hang with the “Seaweed Man”, Larch Hanson, his delightful partner Nina, five seaweed harvesting apprentices, and various visitors to seaweed heaven. (Here’s Larch with digitata, a kombu like plant.) Located in Steuben, Maine, north of Bar Harbor, ‘Maine Seaweed’ is action central for anyone wanting to awaken their own seaweed consciousness. If Larch is seaweed incarnate, I want more of what he has! Forty years of living in the sea, on the sea, with the sea, has imprinted into his cells the rhythms of the seasons, the oceans, tides and winds. He is an experienced carpenter, boat builder, structural integrator, poet, practicing Buddhist, and philosopher. He invites visitors and prospective apprentices in the summer to learn about awakening while feeling the depths of oceanic consciousness.

From Larch’s website: “Through seaweeds, the earth’s sea-blood strengthens our own sea-blood that we carry within us. Seaweeds are an excellent source of trace minerals in our diet. As our air and water become more acidified through pollution, minerals are leached and depleted from our land fields, and they wash down to the sea, where the wild seaweeds incorporate them. When we eat seaweeds, we take these minerals back into our bodies, and these minerals help us maintain an alkaline condition in our bloodstream, which is a healthy condition, resistant to fatigue and stress.

Seaweeds have admirable qualities: they are flexible, they are tenacious, they are prolific, and they are the oldest family of plants on earth. These plants link us to the primitive vitality of the sea. They strengthen our own primitive glandular system and nervous system.
An average family of seaweed eaters will consume a Family Pack within six months to a year. That’s 3 pounds dry weight = 30 pounds wet weight = one bushel of wet plants. This is a very concentrated food.

Don’t fear salt. Salt is necessary to life. If you are willing to sweat, you can move salt through you, and in the process, you will be actively creating your life and your dream from the universe-intelligent structures of the complex salts and trace elements that are available in seaweeds. Your body is an antenna, and your body can’t receive and comprehend the whole message from Universe unless it contains all the trace elements of the Universe. Quality counts more than quantity. If you eat the more complex salts of seaweeds, you will have less craving for simple junk food salt, and you will find yourself becoming more whole, satisfied and healthy.”

So, I offer to you, “Pass me the dulse!” (the red seaweed above the alaria in the upper photo). My inner ocean is ready to awaken.

Sacred Geometry: Yoga and the Torus

Posted on July 1, 2013 by admin

The torus is a three dimensional figure created by rotating a circle 360 degrees along a line formed by another circle. This is also known as a donut or bagel shape. The hole is one ‘inside’ and the interior of the donut (like the inside of a tire tube) is another ‘inside’.
These are static structures.

We can also imagine a toroidal shaped electromagnetic field generating a torus shape like this heart-centered one from
Asianhealthsecrets.com.
“The Hearts’ torus electromagnetic field is not the only source that emits this type of electromagnetic field. Every atom emits the same torus field. The Earth is also at the center of a torus, so is the solar system and even our galaxy…and all are holographic. Scientists believe there is a good possibility that there is only one universal torus encompassing an infinite number of interacting, holographic tori within its spectrum.”

Here is a larger torus centered on Jupiter and its moon, Io.

” Io’s volcanoes continually expel an enormous amount of particles into space, and these are swept up by Jupiter’s magnetic field at a rate of 1,000 kg/sec. This material becomes ionized in the magnetic field and forms a doughnut-shaped track around Io’s orbit called the Io Plasma Torus.” (planetaryexploration.net)

Here is one with a vesica pisces! Very cool! The original, by artist and planetary healer Pamela Leigh Richards is quite dynamic. (http://flywithmeproductions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/torus1.gif.

Another cosmic one appears in the current edition of National Geographic (July 2013) in an article on the origins of the solar system. This side oriented torus represents the Oort Cloud’ a collection of trillions of comets and mini planets toroidally spinning around the solar system, seen here in red.

This reminded me of Itzak Bentov’s torus describing his model of the whole cosmos. This can be found in both “Stalking the Wild Pendulum” and “A Cosmic Book, for those who want to look a bit more deeply into this.

And, for the piece de resistance, I offer the first cell division, where a single cell becomes two cells.
Notice the energy flow and the opening of the toroidal field as the poles (centrioles) separate. For your cosmic homework, as you sit in your favorite pose, Find your heart in the center and visualze the heart’s electro-magnetic field. Find the 1st chakra and open it to the earth’s energy. Find the 7th chakra opening to the heavens. Then allow the heavens to pass through the donut hole into the earth and the earths energies to pass through you to the heavens. Find the balance of stability (sthira) and flow (sukham) as the torus links your atoms to the cosmos and vice versa.

Then explore the energetic shift from one cell to two and then the reverse, from two to one. Develop some flexibility in both directions. Find the torus and the vesica pisces. We will build upon this in upcoming embryology sections.

And most importntly, Smile. Enjoy the show. And, to quote the poet Mary Oliver, ‘Pay attention!, Be astounded! Tell about it!

Minneapolis notes: part 2

Posted on May 15, 2013 by admin

Patanjali, in his three sutras on asana, unfolds the whole process of somatic awakening. Although most commentators gloss over these as being just about ‘physical postures’, those of us who deeply inhabit the world of organic intelligence can use them to discover Patanjali’s (and Iyengars’) genius in increasingly amazing ways.

sthira sukham asanam; prayatna shaithiliyananta samaapattibhyaam; tato dvandvaah anabhighaatah: II-46, II -47, II-48

Sthira sukham asanam: stability and mobility in perfect harmony is asana. Sthira is easy; Stable, steady, steadfast. Sukham is a more elusive word; comfortable is the most commonly found translation, but it does not convey the depth of the experience possible or the profundity of Patanjali’s statement. From a cosmic perspective, all forms, at least in their healthiest expressions, from atoms to galaxies and everything in between, from simple to complex, abide in a dynamic state of balance between the poles of stability and mobility. Without stability, there is chaos and no forms can exist. Without mobility there is stagnation and the forms collapse from degeneration. Patanjali also uses the terms tamas, rajas and sattva in reference to the world of forms; tamas is the tendency to remain the same, Newton’s inertia of rest, which can be stability or stagnation. Rajas is the tendency to change, Newton’s inertia of motion, which can be harmony or chaos. Sattva describes the state of dynamic balance when rajas and tamas communicate with each other openly and freely. This is sthira sukham, the perfect dynamic balance of form and freedom

For the somatically inclined yogi, the ultimate ‘sthira’ is gravity, the bond that holds the whole cosmos together. Gravity does not get tired, does not run down. It is very stable. To be one with gravity is to be fully alive. See Philip Petit in the documentary ‘Man on a Wire’ to get a taste of this. Your tadasana will never be the same. Buddha, upon his enlightenment, was said to have touched the earth, as his witness, acknowledging the infinite bond gravity offered him.

A practical clue for stability in postural balance is to mobilize and stabilize the tarsal bones in the feet, especially the cuboid and navicular bones. The bones of the human foot channel the energy the way all mammals do, like this dog. The energy travels along the metatarsals and out into the toes, like the ballet pointe position. But, we also have to release the heel bones down to allow the whole foot to be grounded. Here the student is transitioning onto the foot while maintaining the core elongation. the weight is over the tarsal bones and they allow the energy to flow both toward the toes and toward the heel. If and when she straightens the leg, it will come from the inside, using the stability of the foot, not the quads.

II- 47: Prayatna shaithilyaananta samaapattibhyaam; Letting go of effort and dissolving into ananta, Vishnu’s serpent throne, or Vishnu himself, the one who sustains the whole universe. The universe is intelligence manifest. Life is intelligence manifest. When the human mind stops imposing and allows the feminine, the prana shakti, to emerge in her full glory, magic happens. Flowers bloom, birds sing, creativity flows. The postures are expressions of the infinite, not a preliminary stage on the way to somewhere else. But when we impose willfully, without deep sensitivity, confusion is sustained and we forget. It is a tricky balance, returning to a living dynamic balance from the habits of tension (rajas) and collapse (tamas), as our modern culture, highly dissociated from life, lives in a world of mind/abstraction disconnected from heart wisdom. The poses can be healing if we see how they bring us home, to our inherent wholeness.

II- 48: tato dvandvaah anabhighaatah: Then (with the somatic aliveness of an awakened pose as expressed in the previous two sutras) the dvandvas resolve. Duality resolves. The non-dual wholeness of forms and the formless shines clearly. Purnamadah purnamidam. Many of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, using the Sankhya metaphysical model, are dualistic in nature, but I – 3 and this one lay the non-dual right out for all to realize. Of course! Emaho!

Continuing the asana sequence from ‘Minneapolis Notes, part one‘, we come to one legged dog, as a continuation of ardha chandrasana. Lengthening the inner back leg from the core of body through the inner heel, simultaneously lengthen from the core through crown chakra to open chakra line from head to tail. Feel the grounding energy of the muladhara or root chakra trifurcating like Shiva’s trident, into the down leg, the up leg and your imaginary tail. This (muladhara extension) becomes the starting point for flipping the dog. Extend in as many directions as possible, through arms and legs, elbows and knees, head and tail. This leads to using the back leg to come up into hand stand. You can try from a front walk-over action to maximize the leg action, or start with hands on floor. Try to utilize the muladhara extension to get up, i.e., lead from your tail, not your head! There is a similar process for head balance in that the feet, legs and tail, the muladhara extension, lead the action.

Back on the floor, a variation of parvrtta parsvakonasana I call the starfish, with the front foot and thigh turned out to 90 degrees (more than this gentleman), allows another multi-vector exploration of

core and limbs. Experiment with differing angles of arms and degrees of torso rotation. Be playful and open. Don’t forget your tail.

Energy often gets stuck in the third chakra/diaphragm region and supported bridge pose is a wonderful way to help create space, width and length here.

Classically, the pose is done with extended legs, but you can also bend the knees and keep the feet on the floor, or place the feet against the wall to engage the Deep Front Line from its roots in the soles of the feet. Trace the energy up through the pelvis into the diaphragm. Try to find the openings in the diaphragm for the aorta and esophagus passing downwards and the inferior vena cava traveling upwards. From these openings, widen the upper chest and relax the shoulders. Release through the throat and into the skull.

To further work on opening neck and throat, check out the action in uttana padasana. As the pubic bones roll into the floor lengthening the front line, feel the skull bone rotating in the opposite direction lengthening the throat. Dynamic arms and legs keep the back muscles from contracting and keep the action in the interior connective tissue structures. For an even more fun way to open the throat, repeat ‘wow’ again and again, feeling the expending and condensing of the mouth extending through the throat.

If you are now ready to be reborn, lie on the floor with your head touching a wall. Keep the knees bent and the feet on the floor. Awakening the DFL with a slight activation of the feet and trace the flow back through the pelvis, diaphragm, throat, through the soft palate, and out through the crown chakra gently pressing the wall. Find the sphenoid – basilar junction at the base of the skull and feel it breathing. Imagine the urge to emerge rippling through your cells as the udana vayu is activated and you re-experience some of the patterns of birthing.

Chakra toning twist: Pick a seated twist of your choice, but before you decide which way to twist, ask your root chakra which way it wants to go, clock-wise or counter-clockwise. Set yourself up accordingly. Relax. As best you can, let the energy do the work. Try not to use the muscles. Let the energy turn the body until there is a natural pause. Invite the opposite rotation of the energy, like a pendulum reverses direction. Let the bones move as if they were floating in an eddy. Repeat. Let the first chakra drive the pose. At some point the two directions balance, the way a bouncing ball eventually settles down to the ground. Pause there, wherever the physical body may be.

Then, go to the sacral chakra, ask it which direction it prefers and let it turn. When it has completed its action invite the opposite. Repeat as above for each of the seven chakras. When complete, either rest in savasana, or do a short twist in the opposite direction from which you started. Usually, the first round balances all. Now rest in savasana! Feel the open spaciousness, be the open spaciousness. Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthaanam.!