Celtic Yoga

Posted on July 21, 2015 by admin

One of the fascinating joys of the awakening process is the discovery of another brilliant and charismatic teacher who captures this amazing moment in unique and deeply insightful ways. I am a bit late to the party with my Irish Catholic brother John O’Donohue, who very unfortunately for those of us still here, passed on in 2008. But, wow, is he is opening the eyes of my soul in unimagined ways with his amazing imagery and use of language. As his brother Pat says in the introduction to “Four Elements: Reflection on Nature, “he wrestled the terms of reference that were used to think about ‘soul’ from the religious institutions. He carried them outdoors to the landscape and let them free among the elements. Here they danced their dream of possibility…”

He reminds me a lot of one of my other mentors, Thomas Berry. Both were Catholic priests and scholars who found tremendous spiritual depth in Creation, the manifest world of earth, water, fire and air. While not formally a monk, John also found deep healing in solitude. The powerful forces of Mother Nature shaping the landscape on the western coast of Ireland were his inspiration, providing an invitation to plunge into the inner world of mystery beyond the seen and the known. Without needing the formality of asana, he knew the body to be a gateway to the soul, that the body is immersed in the soul, and not the other way around.

He lived a life of integral spirituality with vitality and joy. And he was at home with the deep pain of loss and despair and other afflictions of the human psyche and soul. To John, all is sacred, all holy. To lead a good life, all one requires is solitude and friendship; longing and belonging; being deeply engaged with one’s own inner world, and deeply engaged in sharing that journey of self discovery with others. And to recognize that even on the inner journey one takes alone, we can befriend all we encounter. There is no ‘other’.

Here are some of my favorite observations from John.

From Anam Cara: (Irish for ‘soul friend’ or, friend to your soul)

“The Celtic mind was not burdened by dualism. It did not separate what belongs together. The Celtic imagination articulates the inner friendship that embraces Nature, divinity, underworld and human world as one. The dualism that separates the visible from the invisible, time from eternity, the human from the divine, was totally alien to them.”

“Humans are new here. Above us, the galaxies dance out toward infinity. Under our feet is ancient earth. We are beautifully molded from this clay. Yet the smallest stone is millions of years older than us. In your thoughts, the silent universe seeks echo.”

“If we become addicted to the external, our interiority will haunt us. We will become hungry with a hunger no image, person or deed can still. To be wholesome, we must remain truthful to our vulnerable complexity. In order to keep our balance, we need to hold the interior and exterior, visible and invisible, known and unknown, temporal and eternal, ancient and new, together. No one else can undertake this task for you. You are the one and only threshold of an inner world. This wholesomeness in holiness. To be holy is to be natural, to befriend the worlds that come to balance in you. Behind the facade of image and distraction, each person is an artist in this primal and inescapable sense. Each one of us is doomed and privileged to be an inner artist who carries and shapes a unique world.”

“Human presence is a creative and turbulent sacrament, a visible sign of invisible grace. Nowhere else is there such intimate and frightening access to the mysterium. Friendship is the sweet grace that liberates us to approach, recognize and inhabit this adventure. … Friendship is a creative and subversive force. It claims that intimacy is the secret law of life and the universe. The human journey is a continuous act of transfiguration. If approached in friendship, the unknown, the anonymous, the negative and the threatening gradually yield their secret affinity with us.”

‘Silence is a great friend of the soul; it unveils the riches of solitude. It is very difficult to reach that quality of inner silence. You must make a space for it so that it may begin to work for you. In a certain sense, you do not need the whole armory and vocabulary of therapies, psychologies and spiritual programs. If you have a trust in and an expectation of your own solitude, everything that you need to know will be revealed to you.”

“At the deepest level of the human heart, there is no simple singular self. Deep within, there is a gallery of different selves. Each one of these figures expresses a different part of your nature. Sometimes they will come into contradiction and conflict with other. If you meet these contradictions only on the surface level, this could start an inner feud that could haunt you all the days of your life. They are in a permanent war zone and have never managed to go deeper to the hearth of kinship, where the two forces are not enemies, but reveal themselves as different sides of the one belonging.”

From “Four Elements”

“How can people be so sensitive to the dignity and independence of landscape?….Landscape has a vast and wonderful presence. … But landscape is not merely extensive; it is full of opaque depths. The depths of landscape reach down into eternities of silence and darkenss. But they are not the hopeless depths of a black inferno, for at their ultimate level they rest upon the tender emptiness of the cosmos.”

From “Eternal Echoes”

A Blessing

May you listen to your longing to be free,
May the frames of your belonging be large enough
   for the dreams of your soul.
May you arise each day with a voice of blessing
   whispering in your heart that something good is
   going to happen to youMay you find a harmony between your soul and
your life,
May the mansion of your soul never become a haunted place,
May you know the eternal longing which lives at the heart of time
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within,
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May your angel free you from the prisons of guilt, fear, disappointment and despair
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and
   embrace you in belonging.

Differentiating the Lower 2 Chakras

Posted on July 13, 2015 by admin

As we continue to rest in stillness, while the universe flows through us, in the on going stream of karma and creativity, we somatic explorers can also use the yoga postures to help with the flossing the chakras, creating a more clear channel for the light. Always cycling through the heart, the energies of the asanas can be very helpful in both differentiating and integrating the various modes of energy associated with each of the seven main chakras, allowing our creativity to unfold and flower at more and more interesting levels.

For most modern humans with a confused upright posture, the bottom two chakras are squashed together with almost no differentiation. We will use our supported bridge pose to begin the process of opening space between them and developing a sense of fluid differentiated movement. Then we will integrate this opening and new sense of space into our play in the rest of the standing poses, and then all the rest of the poses in your repertoire. The water element makes for very juicy yoga!

Structurally, the pelvic bones are the first and most obvious link, as they connect with the femurs to form the hip joints, powerful 1st chakra centers, and also with the sacrum at the sacro-illiac joints to motivate the 2nd chakra. As you can see above, there are numerous nerves, ligaments and muscle fibers here, so this is very dynamic space. There is another hidden link, the elusive joint between the sacrum and the coccyx, much more obvious in animals with a larger tail. For most, the L5 – S1 joint, where the sacrum connects to the lower lumbar, is hypermobile, leading to excess movement and injury here. If you can ‘stabilze L5 – S1, and mobilize the sacral-coccyx joint, you will have very different spianl experience! Your imaginary tail will make this link more accessible, and this will help open up the center channel with what we will call a bit later ‘lateral space’.

One observation we can make, before we go further, is that chakra 1 represents the element earth and stability, while chakra 2 represents the element water and mobility. As students of asana, sthira sukham asanam comes immediately to mind. If we can find the dynamic balance of stability and mobility through the structures and energy fields of the two lower chakras, we have the perfect foundation for all subsequent movement needs. Eric Franklin’s very helpful book, “Pelvic Power” is full of great imagery, exercises and education. I love the fountain!

A second observation is that one can be very integrated in structure and movement down there and still be emotionally dysfunctional. There is no shortage of highly skilled professional athletes who fit this profile. The element water is also associated with emotions, and the second chakra is also the center of sexual energy, so as we begin to release the bound energy of the second chakra, we need the grounding energy of the first chakra to stabilize us, and the wisdom of the heart chakra to make sure our actions are always expressions of the heart.

Place the block directly under the sacrum. I prefer a wooden block, as the feedback is clear and the block is stable. I find the foam blocks less stable unless you stack them, and then you lose the precision of the narrow edge. However, your body has to be safe and comfortable.

Feet are alive, continuing to ground the energy, even though the primary grounding is now through the block. Gently press the feet forward to create a rebound energy coming back towards your head. Channel it through the center of the pelvis. To do this, the pelvis is neither tucked, nor untucked, but floating in neutral, parallel to the floor. This pose is not about how much height you can create up to the ceiling, but about how accurately the energy flows through the core. The block gives you feed back for exactly where the sacrum is. As you press the feet, feel that action is coming from the pelvic bones reaching toward the knees, right and left evenly. This would be grounding if you were standing. Let the rebound move in the opposite direction through the sacrum so you feel the double action centered right where the hips and sacro-illiacs are located. Allow a space to emerge between the bones, without a sense of ‘stretching’ anything. Just energy flow, ground and space. Feel the diaphragm and heart expanding to receive the pelvic energy. Feel the fountain.

Now begin to grow a tail that extends out past the knees. Try a mammal tail and oscillate between flexion and extension, forward and back bending actions, just with the tail, but let the fluids of the whole body respond. The other spinal vertebrae may also move in a wave like motion. Let them feel the fluid motion, but try to not help by contracting any muscles. This is the beginning of differentiating the front and back body from the center and opening up the inner ‘volume’ of the body. Inhabiting this inner space is key in the somatic awakening process.

Then take the feet up without losing the tail so there is no ‘gripping in the lumbar sacral area. There will be some engagement of the deeper muscles as they align with the flow. Experiment with slowly moving up and down to involve different regions of the spine as the legs and sacrum adapt to the changing angles, and then land gently without losing the awareness.

Next, try a fish tail with side to side wave motion. Big fish! Let the whole ‘chakra line’ feel fluid, let all the vertebrae have a chance to feel the integrated flow. The fish tail action is the beginning of finding the lateral space that opens up through the second chakra as the two pelvic bones differentiate. That the right and left feet and legs can move independently is obvious. When the two pelvic bones can differentiate, at the pubic bones and at the sacro-illiacs, the second chakra can begin to breathe and the side to side or lateral differentiation and volume awakens.

With one leg extending upward you can explore this new awareness. Let the pelvic bones follow the legs, leaving the sacrum floating above the block. This can help release tension in the deep spinal muscles along the length of the spine. The other leg remains in hip extension and you can begin to sense space in the center plane of the torso with the help of the tail. The legs stay alive as the fluidity supports the expanding of diaphragm, intercostals, mesentery and mediastinum. The pelvic bones and spine are often ‘confused’, meaning they are stuck together perceptually. So as the fish body awakens, the spine becomes more and more free to feel like a fish because the legs, from pelvis to feet, float away. This is more obvious in the next stage.

It all comes down to water, collagen, physics and sacred geometry: Now, with legs and pelvis free of the spine, play in this ‘Continuum’ exploration of the inner world that is opening. The balance of water (compression) and collagen (tension) build the tensegrity field, where every fiber feels connected fluidly and elastically to every other fiber, whether muscle, bone, organ, cell or fascia. Let the body take on any shape it desires. If the arms want o float upwards, let them go with it. Drop habits and holding and be as free as an anemone. There is a spectrum of of learning and freedom of expression, of course. It builds over time as Hebb’s Axion deepens the integration. When you are ready to carry this into other poses, retain the inner balance of fluidity and stability. Stay grounded and sing and dance your heart away!

Krishnamurti on ‘Understanding’

Posted on February 26, 2015 by admin

Spiritual teachers have the delightful challenge of trying to articulate the ‘(already I’m in trouble here!) inarticulable. There is general agreement on the two points of view available to the human consciousness, although the words used to point to these two vary. For the overwhelming majority of humanity, the dominant, and perhaps only point of view is that of limitation and impermanence. This is the world of forms. All forms are inherently limited and impermanent, whether we are referring to a thought or a galaxy. In this ‘world’, our self sense is composed of pieces: ideas, beliefs, memories, likes and dislikes. There is never stability or peace of mind for me as everything that is ‘me’ is constantly shifting. We can struggle and fight to hold on to something, trying to keep this ‘self’ intact. We build grand edifices out of beliefs and philosophies, we align ourselves with religions, political parties or cults, trying to find our ‘self’. But in the end, these edifices are castles of sand. Finding our ‘self’ here a hopeless proposition, but one we cling to lifetime after lifetime.

On the other hand, it is possible to ‘see’ the world from the eyes of wholeness, where absolute silence and stillness echo through eternity as all forms arise and dissolve in their own time. This is the Absolute, Buddha Nature, Brahman. Here, the “I am” rests in its own wholeness, with no separation, no division, no other. “Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam” says Patanjali. There is no struggle to become, or to self-improve. The Self is already whole and complete. This does not mean that life, in the world of form is without challenges and struggles. To embody this teaching in the world of form with death and disease, is difficult. But we do not have to make the innate difficulties ‘personal’. They are not about ‘me’. They are just as aspect of being alive, in this body, on this planet, in this moment. We feel, we act, we learn, and we keep moving along. Or more accurately, life just keeps flowing through us, as the forms come and go.

In the following quote from “The World Within” , reprinted from the current edition of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America newsletter, Krishnamurti uses “Understanding’ to point to the realization of “Unbounded Wholeness” and describes the human struggle to ‘recognize’ this.

“Understanding is not to be gained eventually, in the distant end. That which is not understood continues, and that which is understood ceases to be. Understanding is not accumulative; there is no experiencer who understands. What is incomplete remains as a memory, giving continuance to identity, to the ‘me’ and the ‘mine’. That which is understood and completed ceases to be, as it does not leave traces, memory. Understanding can exist only where there is freedom, not where there is bondage, not when the mind is crowded with memory. The end, the goal makes for and strengthens memory, and memory or accumulated experience does not bring about understanding. Accumulation creates a self-enclosing centre, separative, exclusive, and what is enclosed is never free, and so the experiencer can never understand. The experiencer is ever experiencing, and so the experiencer is ever incomplete. He can never understand, for understanding lies in freedom.

How can there be surety, certainty in freedom? That which is free, immeasurable, is beyond all comparison; it is beyond and above all opposites. He who is uncertain craves for certainty, but is not all existence uncertain, insecure? Death, disease, old age is upon us, which creates impermanency; yet we seek certainty in the impermanent. In death, in decay, in the transient we seek surety. How blind we are!

“But we must surely live in this world. Who will give us our daily bread?”

In seeking the Real, bread will be supplied; but if we seek only bread, then even that will be destroyed. Bread is not the ultimate value; when we make it into the ultimate, there is disaster, there is murder, there is starvation.

Through the transient seek the eternal. There is no path to it, for it is ever-present.”