One Practice

Posted on October 4, 2016 by admin

In two previous posts we covered three key sutras from Patanjali’s Samadhi Pada, and the three practices of Kriya Yoga introduced at the beginning of the Sadhana Pada. In this, the third and final post in this trinity of trinities, we will dive into Patanjali’s three sutras on asana or posture, II-46 – II-48.

But first I would like to emphasize the point that ultimately there is only one practice. We find many variations for differing situations and types of students, but they all bring us back to the primary spiritual goal; to stay centered in the heart, present to whatever arises moment to moment, expressing as much kindness to ourselves and others as possible. Easy to say the words, very, very difficult to live.

The heart is the seat of compassion and love. It is the link between the finite and the infinite, a portal from the world of time and space into the mystery of creation. It is the center of blessing and being blessed. But the heart is also almost always heavily armored and defended, as the painful memories of loss, shame, and the many slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that have befallen us are stored here. Thus, as Pema Chodron often mentions in her dharma talks, we are all far more familiar with the feeling of the heart closing down, than opening up.

“When I was about six years old I received the essential bodhichitta teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun. I was walking by her house one day feeling lonely, unloved and mad, kicking anything I could find. Laughing, she said to me, “Little girl, don’t you go letting life harden your heart.”

Right there, I received this pith instruction: we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.”

The openhearted state, known as bodhicitta, is the goal of practice. Why is this difficult? The price we pay for choosing to come into a human body is the survival instinct inherent to all life forms. Known as abhinivesha in Sanskrit, the fifth of the five klesas or afflictions suffered by the human heart, the instinctive fear of death has been updated and upgraded by human thought to cover fear of any and all unpleasant feelings and circumstances. (According to Patanjali in sutra II-2, the practice of Kriya Yoga awakens samadhi and helps attenuate these afflictions.) At a deep unconscious level it is easy to interpret feelings of discomfort as indication of a serious threat to our lives. Because the unpleasant and worse are a constant accompaniment to being alive, we have a major challenge. How do we survive these threats without closing down?

Two common strategies are described by the kleshas raga and dvesha. Raga is the constant seeking of pleasure, predominantly to mask the discomfort. Dvesha is the running away from the unpleasant, in any way possible. On first glance, who wouldn’t want to have pleasure and avoid pain? These drives are impelled by biology and are totally logical. But life experience offers a different take. Pleasure never lasts more than a short time and then it fades. So the human mind begins to crave more. We have to find ways to fill the emptiness. The same process occurs when the unpleasant keeps coming no matter how fast we run. There is no escape. So we turn on ourselves and others with blame, shame and anger.

But there is a solution. Pema Chodron my absolute favorite teacher on this subject, has a lovely term, discomfort resilience. What happens when we do not run away from the unpleasant and worse? What happens when we are just present to all of the sensations, thoughts, emotions and memories that are arising, even though the urge to avoid them is powerful? What happens when we let them just be, without getting lost in them, without denying them? Here are a few pithy observations from Pema:

“…feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.”

“Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.”

“If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart…”

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.”

What does this have to do with asana? Everything! What is asana or posture? It refers to how we embody our understanding of life. To reduce asana to performing yoga postures on mat is to miss the power and depth that full embodiment offers. Once you are in a body, there is always some posture arising. The question for the practitioner is “am I embodying the wisdom of my heart moment to moment wherever I am, whatever I may be doing?” And if not, how can I rediscover and nurture this?

II – 46 Sthira sukham asanam. Posture is the balance of stability and exuberance.

In the Shambala teachings of Chogyam Trungpa, Pema’s root teacher, the fundamental energy of the heart, or basic goodness as he describes it, is known as lungta in Tibetan. Lung means wind and ta means horse. Trungpa talks about raising windhorse as a key practice as it is the life energy of bodihcitta.

“raising a wind of delight and power, and riding on or conquering that energy. … the personal experience of the wind comes as a feeling of being completely and powerfully in the present. The horse aspect is that, in spite of the power of this great wind, you also feel stability. You are never swayed by the confusion of life, never swayed by excitement or depression. You ride on the energy of your life. So windhorse is not purely movement and speed, but it includes practicality and discrimination. a natural sense of skill. This quality of lungta is like the four legs of a horse, which makes it stable and balanced. Of course, in this case, you are not riding an ordinary horse; you are riding a wind horse.”
(“Shambala, the Sacred Path of the Warrior”, pg 114)

Windhorse, lungta, is sthira sukham asanam. Stable as a horse, free and exuberant as the wind, grounded in the present, skillfully navigating your life journey. This is what posture means. On the mat, in our more traditional yoga postures, can we begin to raise windhorse, or basic goodness, the nectar that emerges for our hearts, and feel its presence? Can we discover how to nurture this bodhicitta, and circulate it around, so that when depression, anger, shame, self doubt, or self loathing arise, we have the antidote of heart energy ready and use it to rise up to face the moment. It is palpable, this energy. Our inner chemistry changes as we soften, yield, release and a lightness seeps into our body from the inside. From this state we can clearly see what is truly arising, how old habits and patterns relentlessly return and how they do not have to keep us contracted. We can see more deeply into their root causes and they become less scary, less absolute. Intense emotions like sadness and grief can be felt deeply and completely as we see they flow from the compassionate heart

The constrictions of the heart can be felt directly, immediately, as they are physiological as well as emotional. Tension can be stored in other organs and muscles as well. Various asanas can be utilized to help soften and open the tissues that have become stuck. When we become more grounded, connected to the heart of mother earth, at home in gravity there is much less tensing, contracting and gripping. When we expose our hearts in a backbend, if we are stable and grounded, we can be tender and soft, not aggressive. When our emotions are stirred by twisting or bending forward, we can find ways to help the energy flow more freely, like the wind. When we need cooling, forward bends can take us to a place of inner stillness. Asanas, hopefully, lead the body back to balance, openness, lightness and joyfulness. We recognize that sthira/stability refers to the stability of the open heart and sukham, or lightness and exuberance is the quality of energy that flows freely from the open heart.

II -47 Prayatna shaithilyananta samapattibhyam. By relaxing all effort and becoming absorbed into ananta (posture is mastered).

Our basic goodness is always present, effortlessly free and available. We work hard to repress it, but none the less, it remains present, awaiting us. This basic goodness, on a cosmic level is represented by Ananta, the multi-headed serpent who helps Vishnu keep the whole universe flowing. The cosmos is a macro-phase expression of our own true nature, the drashtuh svarupe Patanjali mentions in I-3. Bodhicitta contains within it the desire for all beings to awaken to their wholeness, their inherent Divinity, their basic goodness. By becoming one with Ananta, we are offering ourselves to this force of awakening that sits at the core of the universe. We then embody the bodhisattva tradition of participating in life for life as a whole, and not just our smaller minded egoic selves.

II – 48: Tato dvandvaanabhi-gatah: Then duality dissolves into wholeness.

Life is experienced as polarity. All of creation emerges and is sustained as the interplay of yin and yang, feminine and masculine, inward and outward movements of energy. The small self feels that duality means separation. There is me, and there is everything else. This is a rather unpleasant and threatening place to live from. ‘Other’ is dangerous, threatening, scary and we respond accordingly. But when we know, immediately and directly from our heart, that the duality of form is held together by the infinite wholeness, like Vishnu and Ananta, then our sense of separateness dissolves.

We are still differentiated and unique. In fact when our hearts are open, we are liberated to allow our uniqueness to fully blossom. And our innate intelligence still recognizes that there are very real threats to our existence and we need to act accordingly to stay safe. But these challenges need not harden our hearts.

As humans, we have a long way to go in this realm. Many generations of habits, fear and misunderstanding are programmed into our behavior, and these patterns are being played out across the planet every day. But transformation begins now, with us and just one practice. Find that vulnerable tenderness of your heart and nurture it. First toward your self and then expand slowly to encompass the whole. Take that to your mat and into your life. Smile,

Notes From Detroit: Jan 2016 (pt 1)

Posted on February 17, 2016 by admin

Patanjali on the Energy Body:
Monitoring and Modulating the Flow of Prana in Yoga Practice

How can we learn to feel, see and act from the energy body, where the quality of the flow carries so much information? As far a bio-mechanics are concerned, specifically the action of muscles and bones, we want to, as Ken Wilbur would say, transcend and include. Working from the energy level refines the bio-mechanics because it dives into the cellular and organ support underlying the muscles and bones. We want to feel organic, in movement and stillness, not mechanical. There are three principles we can draw upon from yoga to help us find our way here.

Step 1: II – 46: sthira sukham asanam
Patanjali gives us a huge clue, one that is the foundation of all life forms, including the human. How does life balance stability with mobility? Stability without mobility is rigidity or stagnation. Mobility without stability is chaos, and although some chaotic states can be a very powerful way of shaking up stagnation, a return to some level of order is essential for life processes. When stability and mobility work as a single intelligence we have creation and the emergence and unfolding of the Universe.

What does it feel like when a body is both stable and mobile? What does it look like? Aren’t these two contradictory? As students and teachers of a somatic discipline like hatha yoga, these questions are key. We all know this intuitively, as this intelligence is already embedded in the cells, organs and blood flow, but we often forget, or get distracted from feeling directly by various thoughts, ideas and beliefs. We must learn to trust our instincts and our inner capacity to know. We must expand our capacity to perceive energy flow in the body/mind and begin to discriminate between healthy and unhealthy actions. When our organs of perception, and our intelligence are linked with the organs of action in a yoga posture or exploration, that is known as samyama, or samadhi in action.

If we watch highly skilled athletes , we can learn to see ‘sthira sukham‘ in action. This trains the eyes as well as our mirror neurons. Athletes have to be able to move, sometimes suddenly, and often in complex ways. They have to be able to change direction fluidly while tracking the world around them, and still maintain balance and control of the body. Their actions have to be integral to the changing environment that surrounds them, as well as the changing internal environment of the body. In endeavors like surfing or skiing, the body is relaxed and responsive to the flow of the wave or slope. In others, you are responding the the movement of a ball and opponents. In all of these, transitions, where one type of stability shifts to another, determine the quality of the flow. If you lack stability, you lose you balance. If you lack mobility you get stuck. Your transitions are awkward or non-existent.

The term ‘stability’ here refers to the capacity of the body/mind to retain it’s integrity while undergoing constant change. Integrity, the state of being integral, means operating as a single whole individual, even while arms and legs and torso may be required to move differently. In yoga it is the buddhi, the ‘organ’ of intelligence. (The buddhi is an ‘energy body organ’, not a physical body organ, although neurons are certainly involved.)

How does this relate to hatha yoga ?

Step 2: We add another clue from Patanjali, the gunas, discussed in the Sadhana Pada . These are the three qualities of energy know as tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamas is the tendency to remain the same, or Isaac Newton’s inertia of rest. Rajas is the tendency to keep moving, Newton’s inertia of motion, and sattva is the state of perfect balance, where movement and stability support each other, rather than conflict with each other. This the fundamental balance of the universe at all levels. When tamas is not in balance, stability becomes stagnation or dullness. When rajas is out of balance, mobility becomes instability or chaos. But when these are in balance, there is harmony. This is our goal in yoga. To facilitate harmony in mind and body, spirit and soul, movement and stillness.

The automobile is a useful metaphor for this. Tamas / stability think brake pedal. Rajas / movement think gas pedal. If we need to stop, we smoothly (sattva) release the gas and add the brake. If we need to accelerate, we smoothly release the brake and add gas. It is a dance between the two possibilities. The Taoists call this the balance of yin and yang.

In time, we begin to recognize the difference between an organic state of stability (desirable!) and rigidity (the brake is locked on and won’t let go), or stagnation (the engine is turned off and won’t respond): (undesirable!!) We begin to recognize the smooth use of both pedals, speeding up or backing off to respond the the environment (desirable!) versus the sudden starts and stops that create a jerky feeling. This is true in both movement and stillness.

Patanjali’s very first two practices, given in I-12, abhyasa vairagyabhyam tan nirodhah, teaches about monitoring and modulating how we utilize our innate energies at all levels of our existence. Abhyasa is the conscious and deliberate movement of energy into actions that are desirable for health and awakening. It is continuously stabilizing our integrity as we grow and learn, enabling us to move through the next levels of the awakening without getting lost. Vairagyam involves consciously and deliberately removing or withdrawing energy from habits and patterns that are either no longer effective, or downright harmful. These practices work together as a single process of the intelligence, the buddhi. This true in all aspects of life.

Step 3: Now, to bring it into a fully embodied experience, we discover that what may appear to be opposite actions can actually be felt and experienced as a single ongoing flow. Patanjali says in II- 48, tato dvandvaanabhi-ghaatah; then the pairs of opposites resolve into wholeness. In asana, we discover this at the fulcrum or balance point between two movements or structures. Here in ardha chandrasana, the left of standing leg creates a center line of support from which the back leg extending through the foot, exactly balances the torso extending in the opposite direction. Also her left arm balances the action of the right arm, the tail balances the head etc. To come out of the pose, a major transition, she will begin by grounding a bit more of her energy through her left leg and foot (abhyasa), begin bending her knee just a bit to extend the energy forward and then from the top of the fulcrum in the pelvis balance by reaching back and down with the leg and foot while the torso moves forward and up. She can transition to trikonasana or, even more fun, a one leg tadasana with the back leg bending into the chest.

In this variation of supported bridge pose, the block provides a fulcrum to balance the weight and action of the legs with that of the torso and arms. At a more subtle level, each finger and toe can change the energy field, and then we can add kidneys, liver, bladder, heart and more as organizing centers of perception and action. Where in the organic field of the body, in the living matrix of fluid and connective tissue, is there freedom, vibrancy, aliveness, harmony, balance, bliss? Where is there dullness, unconsciousness, thickness, denseness? Where is there aggression, overacting, overly gripping the muscles? Can I move the energies around, through actions of feet, legs, kidneys, liver, arms, fingers, eyes, ears, tongue, skin, integrated through intelligence, to build more harmony (sattva) and less dullness, less aggression.

Sliding and Gliding: Option 1
In standing poses, we need to feel that we are in balance, moving in, moving out, or sustaining the pose. As in ardha chandrasana above, there is usually one leg that carries more weight and more grounding energy than the other. They may have to shift. Here is a simple way to play with this. Start on one leg with the other knee bent into the chest. Sitting into the standing leg to ground more completely, begin the extend the bent leg sideways, downward and slightly backward, with a slight internal rotation to keep the DFL (Deep Front Line) engaged. When the leg lands, balance the weight evenly between the two feet. From here you can either shift the weight back to the first leg, or shift to the landing leg and bring the original standing leg to the chest. Reverse.

Option 2: Starting from the same position, extend the leg but do not land, and bring the leg right back to position 1. The weight stays grounded through the same leg all the time. Feel elastic as the legs move.
Option 3: Same as option 2, only alternate legs, so the return leg doesn’t come back to the chest, but becomes the new grounding leg. The legs are probably quite different in their capacities to move and support you.

Refining the Articulation of the Arms: Here we play with the dvandvas, the opposite actions to further differentiate the various bones of the hands, arms and shoulders. This will help refine both action and perception throughout the area. There are many steps, but the basic action remains the same all the way through.

To start, find the tips of the fingers, the bones furthest away from the body, as they press the wall. Keep them pressing the wall as all the other bones including torso release away from the wall. From this double action, feel the first set of joints joints opening as perception, as space. Next, add the next set of phalanges. From the second joints, extend into the wall, and release all other bones away from the wall. Feel the spaces opening. 3: Third set of phalanges now join all phalanges to press the wall, all others away. 4. Add metacarpals. 5. Add first row of carpals. 6. Add second row of carpals. 7. Add radius, but not ulna! Radius and all other bones of hand to wall, ulna and all others away. 8. Add ulna, open elbow. 9. Add humerus, open shoulder joint. 10. Add scapula to open AC joint. 11. Add collar bone to open sterno-clavicular joint. 12 Add sternum to awaken ribs. 13. Add ribs to find lungs and heart. This whole process will take 10 minutes or more, especially in the beginning, when it is all new. And that is just one side! After some practice, you will be able to open all the gates more quickly.

Before you do you second side, take time to feel how different the two sides are. Notice quality as well as quantity of sensation/perception and insight. Again, before you do your second side, try dog pose and follow the connections throughout the body.

In part 2, we will look at energy from the big or cosmic perspective by exploring balance from the seven sacred directions, North, South, East and West, Above, Below and the Center.

Re-Birthing Yourself

Posted on November 16, 2015 by admin

Every morning (unless you are a night-owl), you awaken to a new day and a new set of possibilities to unfold. As we look more deeply into the nature of reality, we begin to see that not just every day, but every breath offers the same opportunity to give birth to something new. In our work with pranayama over the previous few blog posts, we have discovered that breathing, when relaxed, arises from, and dissolves back into Stillness. Thus breathing is a major factor in our ability to ‘realize’ that the limitless mystery that is Stillness (or Silence, Buddha Nature, Purusha, Atman, etc) is the source of all that arises moment to moment. We are developing a proficiency in staying grounded in Stillness. Keep it going!

But what are the factors that shape what arises? How can we overcome habituated responses to life that drain our energy? How can our own unique creativity participate in the moment to moment unfolding? Lets look at some of the layers available to our investigation.

The Cosmic Fields: 13.7 billion or so years ago, the manifest universe emerged into being guided by what we may call the laws of physics. Energy, particles, atoms, stars and galaxies burst into being and variations of these continue to be self emerging and self sustaining. The sun, moon, planets and stars continually move around, but we can guarantee they will be here moment to moment.
Our Geological Fields: Mother Earth emerged into being some 4.5 billion or so years ago and continues to re-birth herself moment to moment through her movements, weather patterns, geological upheavals and water flow. If you have chosen to be here, Mother Earth will appear moment to moment in your reality.
Our Biosphere: The 8.7 million living species currently on the planet re-birth themselves moment to moment. Individual members die off and new ones emerge, species die off and new ones emerge, in an extraordinary dance. Where ever you go, the biosphere will be with you moment to moment, including you own living body which includes 30 trillion cells that have your DNA, and 300 trillion more bacterial cells which have their own DNA. Moment to moment there is a lot going on!
The Noosphere: A term coined by Teilhard de Chardin, noospere refers to the energetic fields generated by human thought and carried through culture in various forms. Science and religion are just two of the more obvious aspects, but educational, judicial, political, and artistic and many other social systems are also included. Every moment we awaken to the collective field the humans give birth to through their thought driven behavior.
Our own inner world: You wake up and your ideas, beliefs, memories, habits and patterns of emotional energy, likes, dislikes, plans and schemes are all there re-emerging, or lying latent for the right input to activate them. Habits are a two edged sword, as they can liberate the intelligence to look into more complex processes, but they can also keep you unconscious. This is the level where we can choose to give birth to something new, if we are awake, paying attention, and resting in the Stillness. The Upanishads offer some insight on some of the structures and possibilities available to us to help in our transformation.

A yogi’s model of reality, from the Taittiriya Upanishad:

We are are composed of 3 bodies, further divided into five nested sheaths or layers known as koshas. These extend inward from gross to subtle. All emerge from the Luminous Emptiness of Stillness. What is false dissolves into emptiness, (shunyata). what is real, the ground of all that arises, remains as light or luminosity.

The Gross Body (Sthula Sharira) has one sheath:
the Anamaya kosha: the body of food. We have weight and mass, as does all the matter in the universe. We study anatomy to make sense of how our structures interact. The known universe has a gross body we all share. Realizing that the whole universe is my body is an awakening that can arise in any and every moment. Feel this! Nurture this!

The Subtle Body (Sukshma Sharira) has three sheaths:
Pranamaya Kosha: the body of energy: we are also energetic beings, bubbling over with electrical, thermal and kinetic energies that are gifts from the dynamic energies of sun, moon, stars and galaxies. We embody this individually in our physiology, or the 5 pranas. Live well, stay healthy, give birth to health moment to moment.
Manomaya Kosha: the body of mental activity, including perception, memory and learned behavior patterns, and our personality structures. The universe is also imbued with perception and memory. Healthy use of this realm greatly eases our lives and deepens our capacity to dive into the unseen psychic/shamanic realms. Unhealthy use locks us into inflexible beliefs and patterns of behavior that perpetuate suffering through the generations through the Attachment process and other social and cultural fields. Healing comes from awakening the next level and integrating:
Vijnanamaya Kosha: the body of intelligence, also known as Buddhi. We can discern and discriminate. We can imagine. We can choose to change our actions, if we stay present, patient and alert. These conscious changes come from Stillness. But habits can carry on unconsciously and imagination can lock onto pathology. The intelligence is greatly nurtured when in can be integrated with the next level:

The Causal Body or Karana Sharira, has one sheath, the Anandamaya Kosha, the body of ecstasy or bliss. Here is Divine Revelation as the intelligence finally dissolves into wholeness and every atom and molecule, every form and pattern sings and dances in a Cosmic symphony that is ecstatic. We miss this because we are distracted by the confusion and delusion generated in the other layers when they are less than conscious.

As the anandamaya kosha awakens, the cosmic fields of the anamaya and pranamaya koshas are felt by the enhanced perception of the manomaya kosha. The vijnanamaya kosha can then recognize confused ideas, beliefs and patterns as seed forms in the manomaya kosha and, through imagination creativity and surrender into the cosmic fields, transform their energies into further spiritual growth and participation in the cosmic unfolding. All five levels function together as they arise and dissolve moment to moment.

The Practice: Sama Vrtti Pranyama

Remember, pranayama can be done as a kriya or cleansing, healing physiology, calming nerves, transforming the soft tissue structures of diaphragm, inter-costals, organs and spinal canal. Or, we can use it as meditation, to deepen our ability to stay in luminous emptiness. Sama Vritti is a meditative pranayama, as we are not specifically looking to expand the chest or stretch the diaphragm, having done that previously in asana and other pranayamas. We are looking to bring a deep sense of balance which can reveal the mystery of luminous emptiness.

In a comfortable sitting pose, or a supported reclining pose, spend several minutes settling in and observing the flow of the breath. Notice that the inhalation and exhalation probably do not have the same qualities of length, quantity and ease. They might, but… Be curious and attentive.

In sama vritti part 1, we will look to balance out the length of time of the inhalation and exhalation. You can count, like in music, or just feel it through. If you inhale to a four count, allow the exhalation to also have a four count. Back off on the easier phase, rather than trying to push to more challenged one. If your inhalations are generally easier and longer than the exhalation, let the inhalation be shorter to help balance. Same if the exhalation is easier. Let the pauses be soft and natural. You can spend years just on this level.

Part 2. We add a pause after inhalation, antara kumbhaka. In ‘Light on Pranayama” Iyengar suggests you start with a shorter retention, so the ratio of inbreath – retention – outbreath would be 1 – 1/4 – 1. With more experience (and much more space and elasticity in the chest), you can move to 1 – 1/2 – 1, 1 – 3/4 – 1, and finally 1 – 1 – 1.

Iyengar also suggests, and I agree wholeheartedly, that if you are not experienced in the retentions, only add them to sama vrtti part 1 every 4th or 5th breath. This is true for all levels of pranayama practice. When adding something new, allow several normal breaths to come between each pranayama breath. That will minimize strain and allow you to see how the relaxtion can deepen when this is natural and not forced. There is always some level of awkwardness when learning something new, but your intelligence can monitor the overall feeling and keep you on track.

Part 4: add the retention after exhalation. Start with smaller pauses until a relaxed ease is felt in the transition. Gradually work toward a 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 rhythm. The inhalations and exhalations will be naturally shorter to accommodate the longer retentions. You will begin to feel the that the antara kumbhaka is just continuation of the in-breath, without the gross breath moving, and the bahya kumbhaka is a continuation of the exhalation, with the further letting go internal.

Part 5: after any and all practice, savasana. Digest and rest in the luminous emptiness, drashtuh svarupe, avastahnam. Be born again, with your original face, radiant and free.