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Embodying Presence:

Winter Series Mid-Term Notes

Being: Living in Presence: Three Commitments (from Adyashanti)

Commitment to Stillness as the root of Presence
Commitment to resting in the breathing flow, as both portal and anchor
Commitment to compassion for our humanity and the challenges of the commitments

Becoming: Three Principles of Embodying

Finding and feeling the dynamic field of aliveness as vibration and tone
Discovering/feeling/exploring the Yin and Yang poles of tone as:
weight/lightness, condensing/expanding, flexion tone/extension tone etc.
Finding and resting in balanced tone as a portal to Stillness

Belonging: Living/practicing the four Brahma Viharas in all of our relationships in the world
Loving-kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, Equanimity

Discover and explore how these three link together in our daily lives. As a personal example, it is an act of loving kindness to myself to do my practice every morning. Part of that practice involves invoking compassion as a way of opening my heart. The breathing is essential in both Embodying and Presence practices. I feel my aliveness being more juicy in the presence of joy. My heart opens more when I can feel others distress and suffering.

Embodying Presence as
a vibrational field, embracing all, from atoms to cells, organs, tissues and the world around us

Becoming as awakening to, and exploring the feeling of, the living, breathing, bio-dynamic presence of the body’s energy field. We will call this organizing field as ‘primary tone‘ as it has a vibrational quality, as in music.

Explore primary tone beginning in the feet at K-1. Climbing the wall, walking, dancing, any way to engage your feet. In skiers tadasana, find the flexion/extension balance through feet, ankles, knees and hips, keeping the pelvis vertical, neither ‘tucking’ nor ‘untucking’, as the body bobs up and down. Let your tail hang freely, like a dog, bird or reptile. Feel the support of Mother Earth as yin/grounding/flexion/condensing, as well as the support of Father Sky as yang/ space / extension/ expansion. Here primary tone connects to the Cosmic support of gravity and boundary-less space.

Explore going in and out of the simple standing forward bend, uttanasana, maintaining the flexion/extension tone balance in the legs and notice how the spine responds. Feel the flexion / extension through the joints as an expanding / condensing throughout the whole body.

Connect K-1 to the pubic bones and then sternum, feeling a lift and support to the yin front body and organs, and repeat the above two explorations.

Explore primary tone as a living, dynamic three dimensional volume, surrounding the three dantien spaces, and linked with the Microcosmic Orbit. Dantien means ‘exlixir field’ and thus implies an energetic vibrancy. Our entry points to the volumes are the three bony cavities, the pelvis, ribs and skull.

In general the tone of the Yin/ front body/ gut body/ torso flexion/ condensing Conception Vessel tends to be to low and the tone of the yang/back body/spinal column/ torso extension/ expanding Governing Vessel, tends to be too high. This may be a pattern that begins in utero (premature birth doesn’t allow the compressive forces that build yin flexor tone) or just from a sedentary lifestyle. Our intention is to explore the state of balance between yin/yang and adjust accordingly.


Our starting points to awaken/strengthen yin front body tone are: The pubic symphysis for the lower dantien, the sternum for the middle, and the birthing crown* at the back of the skull near where the upper occipital bone meets the two parietal bones.

(* This is a term Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen uses. First to differentiate it from the crown chakra at the top of the skull, and also as the point of initiation of the birthing impulse of extension, when the baby begins to emerge from the deep torso flexion of the late womb state.

Ideally for labor, the baby is positioned head-down, facing your back, with the chin tucked to its chest and the back of the head ready to enter the pelvis. This is called cephalic presentation. Most babies settle into this position with the 32nd and 36th week of pregnancy. Other fetal positions for birth include different types of breech (feet down) and occiput posterior position (face up).)

Awakening primary tone through hands, feet and mouth.

While sitting, feel your hands gently and slowly opening and closing around a center point (Pericardium 8), like a bird about to clasp a branch. Feel you whole body responding. With your feet on the floor, feel them creating (yang) that same flexing/condensing and extending/expanding from the soles of the Feet (K-1), and feel the whole body joining in. You can have in dog pose with this, engaging all four limbs. Feel the body receiving the action (Yin) and then feel the hands and feet receiving the action (yin) from the action (yang) of the body (diaphragm, ribs, lungs, abdominal wall etc).

Now find you soft palate at the back of the mouth (you can use your tongue if necessary). Gently open and close your mouth in an expanding/condensing action similar to hands and feet. Relax you jaws and facial muscles to allow this some ease. Now imagine a gentle suckling action at the soft palate with the tongue, like in nursing. Feel you whole gut body responding, feeling the gentle movement. Relax and feel the primary tome throughout the entire body, from head to toes and skin to organs and bone marrow.

Now place your hands on the back of your skull, like in sirsasana (head balance), and as the mouth slowly opens , lift the back of the skull very gently opening the top front of the spine at Skull – C-1. Feel that as the mouth closes, the upper back of the neck releases as the skull bone oscillates back over C-1. By learning to feel the back of the skull as a source point of initiating extension/ expansion, as at birth igniting, many/most neck issues can be resolved.

Working with Trauma

Embedded in the primary tonal field of the body are pockets of resistance and holding. These come from psychological and emotional traumas, large and small, as well as injuries. Large traumas usually need the help and support of professionals in the world of psychotherapy, as when the trapped energy is triggered, it can often overwhelm the capacity to stay stable amidst the storm. A trained therapist with a grounded nervous system and stable primary tone can act as an anchor and stabilizer as we learn to navigate out own inner world. this is analogous to a parent helping to stabilize a young child when in a state of overwhelm/meltdown. This is why having a deep connection to Mother Earth and Father Sky is important for adults. We all need support for our challenges.

In working with smaller traumas, we can take support from the Stillness awakened in our meditation practice and the linking our our priamry tome to the Cosmic Fields of Mother Earth/Gravity and Father Sky/Spaciousness . the organism inherently moves toward healing and wholeness, but sometimes this process becomes stuck (dukkha). this is why continous practice is essential in the awakening process

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Embodying Presence: Class Five and Review


“Everything is meant to be let go of, that the soul may stand in unhampered nothingness.” Insight from the 13th century German mystic and theologian, Meister Eckhard.

Compare with Patanjali I-3: Then the Seer stably abides as its own True Nature

Unhampered nothingness! What a great image. See, feel and keep letting go. Taste it, Be it.

Continue to raise up the vibratory energy field of the body through through somatic samadhi practice, using breathing as vehicle to awaken sensation-perception-integration. Presence is a felt sense of ‘Stillness’ and vibrancy.

Continue to dampen down reactivity (citta vrtti nirodhah) with discrimination, patience and a sense of humor. This is our ‘letting go’ practice.

Continue to find the ‘gaps’ of emptiness/stillness and let our attention rest there. “Now’ is a great portal.

Continue to be ’embodying presence’ throughout all of our daily activities, paying special attention to our reactivity to our experiences, just as we do when sitting. We have no control over the experiences, but we do in our relationship to them.

Awakening the vibrancy of the Middle Dantien

Continue to explore your diaphragm:

Yang explorations to feel its movement, strength and elasticity. (Feel the diaphragm pushing down on the abdominal organs on inhalation and releasing back upward into the chest cavity on the exhalation)

Yin explorations to feel its sensitivity. (Feel the breath as it comes down through the nostrils and lands on the diaphragm. What regions are sensitive/conscious, which insensitive/unconscious.

Feel the diaphragm and pelvic floor moving as an integrated whole, it whatever way works for you.

Trace the crura, right and left, to the coccyx if you can. (Anatomy books all show it ending abruptly in the lumbar.)

Allow the diaphragm to gradually become softer, gentler, more open and receptive, and let the heart rest upon it.

Opening the heart center and awakening the chest.

Traditionally called the Moro or startle reflex, here here the baby first opens her arms outward, and then closes them in. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen has expanded our exploration possibilities by reframing a more mature expression of the Moro. We can call it the ’embracing reflex’ and experience its deeper levels at the heart center by playing with these movements using the breath.

1. Let the in breath open the arms wide, feeling the organs expanding, allowing the heart to rest and keeping the back soft. On the out breath allow the arms to return in a circular embrace, opening and widening the back body while keeping the organs open and the heart resting.

2. Same as above only reversing the actions with the breathing. Let the in breath gather the arms in an embrace and on the out breath allow the arms to open out to the world.

3. These can be done sitting, standing or lying on the floor.

Supplemental Explorations and Fun Inquiries on the number 5

The five “yoga vitamins” are key components to practice. These are attitudes of mind from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that create a state conducive for awakening.

I-20 shraddhaa-viirya-smrti-samaadhi-prajnaa-puuvaka itareshaam
The samadhi of others (one’s who achieve samadhi in this life) is accompanied by faith, strength, memory, meditation and wisdom.

Shraddha, loosely translated as faith, is the full clarity and pleasantness of the mind field. Like a benevolent mother, she protects the yogi, says Vyassa. It is an inner confidence that it is in fact possible to awaken and move out of suffering and confusion. Spending time in the company of those who radiate love, compassion and wisdom nurtures this. It builds enthusiasm which leads to virya.

Virya, strength, energy, vitality, accumulates with the inner confidence of shraddha and the results of practice. Virya can also be seen as creativity, the power to create, and has traditionally been associated with celibacy. The tantrikas have a different point of view about this.

Smrti or memory, mentioned previously in I-6 and I-11, is recalling states of deep inner peace and clarity as a way to re-stimulate the neuronal circuitry associated with these states and strengthen them.

Samadhi practice deepens and further wires the circuitry of the absorption state. The more time spent here, the easier it becomes to sustain as a natural state. This is Hebb’s axiom applied to yoga.

Prajna or wisdom arises through samadhi practice and reinforces our capacity to make intelligent decisions as we go through our daily activities. Intelligent decisions do not lead to negative mind states and further suffering.

The Five Kleshas : PYS II – 2 to II – 12: These ‘afflictions’ are the primary obstacles to Awakening. They are:

Fundamental Ignorance or avidya (not seeing)
Mistaking the Egoic Process for the Self (asmita)
Grasping (raga)
Aversion (dvesha)
Fear of death (abhinivesha)

The Five Vrttis : correct perception, mistaken perception, imagination, sleep and memory (PYS I-5 to I-11)

The Five Skandhas: The Buddhist model of the development of the egoic structures and processes

The Five Koshas: The Five ‘sheaths’ or layers of embodied consciousness

The Five Yamas: PYS II – 30, 30 Habits to avoid:
violence, dishonesty, thievery, addiction to sex, hoarding

The Five Niyamas: PYS II – 32 Rules to Follow:
cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self study, allowing your Divinity to manifest.

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Embodying Presence: Week Three:

In honor of the third class, here are some fun and profound ‘Trinities’ we can explore.

Cosmic Trinities:

Thomas Berry’s Three Laws of the Universe: Subjectivity, Differentiation and Communion
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva
Mother Earth, Father Sky and You
Three Expressions of Embodying Presence: Being, Becoming and Belonging
Buddhist Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

Energetic Trinities

Three Dantiens: Lower, Middle and Upper (See below)
Three Shariras (Bodies) in Vedanta: Gross (shtula), Subtle (sukshma) and Causal (karana)
Three Koshas (sheaths) of the Subtle Body: pranamaya, manomaya and vijnanamaya
Three Spatial Directions: Up/Down, Right/Left and Front/Back
Taoist Three Treasures: Jing, Qi and Shen
Three Gunas: Tamas, Rajas and Sattva

Anatomical Trinities:

Three Embryological Anatomical Cavities: Jue Yin, Tai Yin and Shao Yin
Three Bones of the Pelvis: Illium, Ischium and Pubis (see below)
Three Centers of the Upper Femur: Great Trochanter, Lesser Trochanter, Femoral Head
The Three Groins (scroll to pg 60, note also pg 30)
Endoderm, Ectoderm and Mesoderm
Three Holistic Systems of the Body: Circulatory, Nervous and Fascial Systems

First Three Classes Review:

Just Sitting, or Shikantaza. Resting as Presence, True Nature, Silence, Stillness, the Tao.

Mantra: Pause – Relax – Open – Allow

When the energy field of the body is in balance, the sattvic guna, we can drop all and rest as ourselves, open, innocent and free. When there is a disturbance, we become distracted and can easily become lost in samsara, the realm of confusion and delusion. We train the body to discover its dynamic and relaxed state and remain there. Presence, always and already here and now, is realized as effortless Being. Because of the power of mental habits, the body mind needs to remain alert and awake so presence becomes stabilized. This is the core/anchor of our practice.

The Lower Dantien

Notice the center of the pelvic floor is the intersection of the Conception Vessel (Yin) and the Governing Vessel (Yang). Imagine the pelvic bowl as a flower pot with a bulb: roots will grow down and the stem will grow upwards. We want to begin to feel this double action: both down and up from the bulb at the center of the lower dantien space. This double action, simultaneously up and down, will continue at every level. The lower dantien energy field unites with Mother Earth to create stability and grounding through the gravitational field.

Feel the middle dantien space as the heart floating above the pelvis/lower dantien. As you sit for meditation, the heart will then be the stable ground for the upper dantien to open upwards into the open sky of the heavenly realms/outer space/sun, moon, stars and galaxies. Lower dantien anchors and releases the heart upward. The middle dantien/heart then stabilizes to allow the upper dantien to open and rest in the heart. Thus we balance heaven and earth, yang and yin as the three dantiens become a single field united with the Cosmos.

The Pelvic Bones

As we look at the structure of the pelvis, we find three bones on each side, with the pubic symphysis as the center place of balance and weight transfer when moving. Through movements, touch and energetic visualization, raise the vibrancy of the pubic symphysis so you can find and feel it at will. As this becomes more conscious, notice the release of pressure, compression and tension across the sacro-illiac joints. As the yin front body awakens, the yang back body spine can begin to release its holding patterns.

The Pelvic Floor:

Imagine the bottom of the bowl of the pelvis (remember it is curved and not flat like the image) divided into four sections. Although ideally they are all evenly toned, the reality is that one or more will be contracted and constricted, or too loose. Using visualizations, micro-movements and breathing, we can explore this area and bring more balance. The very center point is, ideally, springy, like a trampoline so it can safely facilitate the descending and ascending energies of posture and circulation to work together and allow more effortless movements from sitting to standing and vice versa

The Femur Head and the Trochanters.

There is an intimate relationship between the pelvis and femurs. The Pubis is central as is the head of the femur. Releasing/lengthening through the lesser trochanter will help release the bottom of the groins – pubis to sitting bones – yin front body. This is internal rotation, adduction and extension down the inner leg to the inner foot, like the inner edge of a ski or ice skate blade is a key action that can be learned in all standing poses

Releasing/engaging the great trochanters will open the top of the groins – pubis to illia and the yang back body. This is external rotation, abduction and lengthening down to the outer foot (outer edge) and complements the previous pattern. Done together, as a double action creates the foundation of tadasana and then any sitting pose.