Posted on May 2, 2022 by admin

Sadhana Part 2:

Kriya and Ashtanga Yoga

If there is a universal teaching about discovering what is Real and True, it is that to ‘Know’ the True Self is to know Stillness or Silence. Our personal identity has to land here and then ‘let go’. Books by contemporary spiritual teachers Eckhart Tolle, ‘Stillness Speaks’; and Adyashanti: “My Secret is Silence’, attest to this. Father Thomas Keating, a modern contemplative Christian has observed: “God’s first language is Silence. Everything else is a bad translation.” Taoist master LaoTzu, implies ‘Silence’ when he begins the Tao Te Ching with the line “the Tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao.” Patanjali defines ‘yoga’ in two sutras: I-2: ‘yoga is bringing the mind to Stillness’ and I-3: ‘the Seer (then) stably abides in its True Nature.

To put it another way, Spiritual Awakening arises in and as Silence or Stillness. In sutra I-2 Patanjali points out that the innate busyness of the mind is a major impediment to both the first glimpses of awakening and also remaining stable there. In fact he completes his definition of ‘yoga’ by adding sutra I-4: (at other times …ie… when not in the state of yoga) mental activity is mistaken identification for the Self. This brings us back to our original statement that Awakening involves a shift in personal identity.

The inquiry into Silence and our own true Self-Identity is a crucial component in Spiritual Awakening, but because we begin with a self identity composed of mental activity, this process can often careen into more conceptualization and imagination. It is extremely easy to just change the mental activity so that if feels and sounds more spiritual, but that is essentially putting a halo on our still diminished self. Changing our behavior, however, from self-centric activities to life-centric ones is very important.

Fortunately, there is a very tangible and palpable embodied clue that can help take Spiritual Awakening from theory and concept to experiential realization, and that is the human heart, our heart, and the boundaryless field of energy emanating from it. By relaxing our attention into the heart and resting there, the depths of Silence and the seeds of infinite peace and Awakening to deep wisdom and compassion begin to sprout. The heart can be felt physically, physiologically, emotionally and spiritually.

Stably remaining in the heart is anything but easy as mental habits that avoid depths of the heart, created over years and lifetimes, do not dissipate easily or quickly. From this perspective we can see sadhana as a process of opening and awakening our hearts and discovering the infinite depths of wisdom, love and compassion emanating from the Silence there. Sounds easy, but the reality is that very few even begin the journey and even fewer Awaken. To understand why the spiritual path is incredibly difficult to live and embody requires an understanding of not only what we are awakening to (Silence)but we are awakening from.

As mentioned in the previous post, at the beginning of our lives we are helpless infants totally dependent upon others to care for us, and we develop powerful emotional bonds with our care givers. But over the years, with luck and support, we gradually develop more and more skills and strategies for taking care of our physical, emotional and psychological needs. This constellation of emotionally charged skills and strategies known as the ‘ego’ contains concepts, ideas memories and beliefs that emerge from an on-going ‘self-sense’ based upon feelings of separateness, inadequacy that are inevitable and quite natural for both infants and unsteady and ungrounded toddlers.

As we move through childhood and adolescence, these egoic energy patterns also accumulate various wounds and traumas from our interactions and relationships with others. As we mature into adulthood, these wounded structures often stop evolving and healing, remain unconscious, and yet continue to strongly influence our relationship to ourselves and the world around us. These wounds and traumas in turn lead to the relentless pursuit of activities that attempt to mask or repress these tortured feelings but never resolve them. This is the wheel of samsara and suffering, for ourselves and those around us.

Only when we make a conscious choice to stop and examine our own behaviors, habits and decision making can the resolution and healing begin. This is sadhana, which begins with recognizing these mental patterns and determining how they motivate our behavior. Why do we do what we do? What impels us to act, or not act in the world? Do our choices in life, large and small, help lead us to Awakening, or keep us trapped in a never ending spiral of suffering and confusion (samsara)?

This is true for individuals, but even more importantly for society. In our historical moment of extremes and rapid change, we need to understand what forces and factors motivate society as a whole to make decisions. The first seeds of awakening is the motivation to take up a spiritual practice, to walk a spiritual path, and Patanjali, like the Buddha, offers a very clear path to get us started. The Sadhana Pada, the second chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, (the first chapter, the Samadhi Pada, actually offers more advanced variations) begins with the three practices of Kriya Yoga:

Tapas or discipline; don’t wait to begin practicing; the time is Now! and stay with it, with patience and devotion. Abhyasa (investing energy in developing mental and emotional stability) and vairagya (letting go of behaviors that perpetuate suffering/ being objective about the reality of forms) are two disciplines previously mentioned in the Samadhi Pada.

Svadhyaya or self study: What motivates me? What are the underlying or even unconscious forces that move me to act? Also, what motivates an Enlightened Being? The conversations between Arjuna and Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita dive deeply into this process. Study of writings by those on the spiritual path are also part of ‘self study’.

Ishvara pranidhana or ‘dissolving into the Infinite’. Here, for short periods of time in the beginning, and later for longer, we discover the stillness of an open heart where our sense of separateness dissolves, and our actions flow from wholeness. A wise and infinitely spacious mind is discovered. Our choices and actions are temporarily not motivated by ‘small self interest’ but a desire to nurture the innate Buddha Nature of all of creation. *Interestingly enough, ‘Ishvara Pranidhana‘ first appears in the more advanced teachings of the Samadhi Pada, and also as one of the Niyamas introduced later in the Sadhana Pada. There is a lot to unfold in these two words!

After introducing the practices of Kriya Yoga, Patanjali then addresses the two goals of these practices: the development of meditative absorption, (a more advanced practice known as samadhi, described in detail in both the Samadhi and Vibhuti Padas); and the ‘attenuation’ of the primary impediments to awakening known as the five Kleshas. “If the goal is Awakening, what gets in the way of our realization’? These five impediments are:

Avidya: fundamental ignorance; confusing delusion for reality: literally ‘not seeing.’
Asmita: confusing mental activity and/or any of the five koshas for the Self. (see sutra I-4)
Raga: unquenchable desire for pleasure; for something to make me feel whole. I want – I need – I have to have
Dvesa: unquenchable desire to avoid pain: to immediately get rid of anything that makes me feel uncomfortable
Abhinivesha: the inherent fear of dying

We now circle back to our practices and consider how they can help overcome these very challenging obstacles. We take time to examine our behavioral patterns and look for ways in which the kleshas are active. We can do this ‘off the mat’ by just holding the question, why am I doing this?, as we go about our day. On the mat or meditation cushion, we can observe more deeply the flow of mental activity. Most of our dysfunctional behavior comes from unconscious forces, so slowing down and paying more attention to our thoughts and actions will begin this process. But to do this, we need the discipline that leads us to a stability in our meditation.

Later on in the chapter, Patanjali introduces a set of eight practices, Ashtanga (eight limbs)Yoga to help us in developing self discipline, uncovering our unconscious patterns of thought and action and healing them. The first five are the final sutras of the Sadhana Pada and are considered to be more external, or preparatory for meditation. The last three limbs begin the Vibhuti Pada and are considered to be more internal or meditative.
The eight limbs are:

Yama: five guidelines for interpersonal relationships, offered as ‘what not to do’
Niyama: five guidelines for more personal elements of personal practice, offered as ‘what to do’.
Asana: Exploring the more tangible self-organizing capacities of the human body
Pranayama: Exploring the more subtle energy body
Pratyahara: Exploring the role of the sense organs in creating ‘raga and dvesa‘

Dharana: the act of bringing ones attention to a single place, again and again, amidst the distractions.
Dhyana: meditation; sustaining attention, with will power, to help resolve the distractions.
Samadhi: meditative absorption, where sense of self and time disappear

Being, Becoming, Belonging: Pt 3

Posted on March 13, 2021 by admin

One of my favorite teachers, Eckhart Tolle, is offering a School of Awakening program later this year. Click on the blue for more info.

“The world situation is calling more and more of us to take the inner journey toward conscious evolution. Paradoxical as it may seem, there is no better time than a time of adversity to awaken spiritually.

What becomes your reality in the future is intrinsically connected to your state of consciousness in the present. Often, the primacy of this inner dimension is not realized except through the pressure of suffering created by seemingly insurmountable challenges in the outer dimension. This realization represents the opportunity that is opening up for us at this time.

When awareness is lost, we easily become possessed by the hive mind—the collective unconsciousness, which at this time is amplified and reflected back to us by our mainstream and social media. Our rational faculties become impaired, and our decision-making turns dysfunctional. In other words, we regress to a lower level of consciousness and are completely in the grip of the collective ego. This exacerbates rather than alleviates our problems.”

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In the previous post we offered a perspective on Awakening from Vedanta and the Taittiriya Upanishad as a ‘turning on’ of the five vehicles of consciousness known as koshas or sheaths, allowing them to function as a differentiated and unified whole.

This process of evolutionary ‘Becoming’ awakening to the Ultimate Mystery of ‘Being‘ is an on-going journey that will be of great benefit as we proceed through the unfolding of our lives and the awakening of Becoming through the emergence of the larger planetary consciousness or noosphere. As Eckhart describes, ‘Becoming‘ is currently bogged down in the unconscious collective ego, so we have a lot of work to do. Through the process of Belonging we can bring our newly discovered insights in Becoming to all of our relationships and into the collective field.

Our evolutionary journey of Being, Becoming and Belonging travels in two directions in an oscillating spiral of development, or as Adyashanti describes, from the intertwining of two spiritual impulses. One is the impulse of Being to continuously express itself through an infinite number Divine forms. It’s complement is the impulse of each form to realize their own inherent Divinity as Pure Being. In Vedic terms, as articulated in the Bhagavad Gita, the first is the pravritti marga or path of karma yoga. Krishna told Arjuna, in no uncertain terms, that his path of awakening was action in the world. The nivrtti marga is the path of awakening through renunciation of worldly action. We in the modern world are living both simultaneously.

Being first comes into form as ‘light’ or pure vibrancy of the anandamaya kosha. This light awakens the spiritual intelligence or ‘knowing’ of the vijnanamaya kosha to help uproot the ‘self-sense’ from the realm of thought and belief and ground it in the infinite. (This is what Patanjali refers to in sutra I-3; tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam; then the Seer stably abides in its True Nature.)

Then the spiritual intelligence or buddhi can guide the attention, intellect, imagination, memory and sensory awareness of the manomaya kosha in its own ‘Becoming’ emergence. From either direction, it is in the middle, in the manomaya kosha, that the process breaks down. The personal and collective unconscious resides here in the form of ideas, images, beliefs based on a separate self or ego and and these patterns of energy can block the flow of light and wisdom. The middle is the key pivot place in our journey.

Ideally, the manomaya kosha, with the help of the light and wisdom, learns the embodied story of ‘Belonging’ from the differentiated beings (cells and Organ systems) of the pranamaya kosha who have learned cooperation over billions of years of evolution. This allows the light and layers of intelligence to penetrate through the presence of the fluid body and awaken, amongst other things, the fascial intelligence of the anamaya kosha and its 13.7 billion year old wisdom transmitted through matter and the gravitational field.

The organizing powers and intelligence of the Universe, awakened and integrated through the functioning of the five koshas of Vedanta, also are expressed in Taoism. The Microcosmic Orbit is our entry point and this energetic circuit includes the Yin Conception vessel linked with the Yang Governing Vessel as seen to the right. (Also, see the previous posts: Using the Microcosmic Orbit in Asana pt 1, Microcosmic Orbit part 2, Fascia, Sitting and the Microcosmic Orbit, Trauma, Neuroscience and the Microcosmic Orbit.)

The Microcosmic Orbit represents the fundamental Taoist principle ‘as above, so below’, as the functioning of the human energy system (microcosm) is a fractal of the entire Universe (macrocosm) This goes for human societies as well. To help us understand and awaken to some of the emerging dimensions of the collective consciousness known as the Noosphere, and work through the resistance of the collective unconscious, we can use our awakening koshas to look even more deeply at the circulation cycles of Yin/yang and Yang/yin that we have been exploring in the microcosmic orbit and then look for parallels of health and dis-ease in modern culture.

The mystery and challenge in Taoism to Westerners is to truly grok the principle of inseparability of yin and yang, expressed in the taijitu symbol. The seed of yin is found in the depths of yang and the seed of yang is found in the depths of yin. Qi, the energy linking yin and yang flows endlessly in alternating and oscillating waves. Patanjali parallels this analogy in his three sutras on asana, II-46 – 48. *
In simplest terms, yin and yang are in a waxing (expanding/heating) and waning (condensing/cooling) relationship. When in dynamic balance, as yin reaches its maximum, yang is at its minimum and this is a dynamic moment of change. As the cycle continues, yin begins to convert into yang. Then yang slowly waxes and yin slowly wanes, until yang reaches its maximum and the process reverses. This continues on and on in endless cycles.

In the yearly cycle, at the winter solstice, (in the northern hemisphere), yin is at its peak and yang is at its minimum. And at that moment, the cycle reverses as yang begins to grow and yin begins to wane. At the spring equinoxes, yin and yang are even, and yang continues to wax and yin wane until the summer solstice when the process again reverses. The yin yang flow of the lunar or monthly cycle is more noticeable on a day to day basis.

To the dualistic mind, all pairs of opposites are separate, unconnected, absolute entities, with no energy flow linking them. The moon is either full or new, each claiming to be the ‘real moon’, with sides drawn and battles engaged. The challenges of the transgender community come from segments of society that see humans as either absolute male or absolute female, often with pathological stereotypes attached. In reality, we all come from both egg and sperm, yin and yang, in totally unique combinations.

In extreme cases of pathological duality, pairs such as good and evil, God and the devil or Trump and his ‘enemies’, define an eternal struggle of each to conquer and eliminate the other, leading to wars and genocide. In our current political climate, this pathological belief is being played out in real time, with tremendous suffering and delusion the on-going result.

Through our personal somatic practice we discover and learn to ‘feel’ the inseparability of yin and yang, and come to know, through the buddhi, that all the infinite expressions of duality are at their core essence, expressions of wholeness. We also develop sensitivity to places that are stuck (duhkah) and learn skillful means to liberate the flow of yin-blood and yang-qi and restore harmony and balance. Using this somatic knowing to help accelerate the maturing and awakening of the nooosphere is the huge challenge we are undertaking.

The processes in life and in society are complex, with layers of cycles nested up and down, from atoms to biological and ecological systems, to economic and political, all entwined in the cosmic gravitational cycles. But it is quite obvious that modern culture is stuck, on a plethora of levels, in repressed feminine yin and hyper-exaggerated masculine yang. Although the cultural qi is starting to move in more healthy ways, there is still much fear resistance and ignorance from pathologically dualistic beliefs. We need to energize the yin, where ever we can find it and simultaneously calm down the yang, to re-align the dynamic yin and yang field.

The first step in our somatic approach to this challenge is to find and feel the yin and yang energies of the body. These are a few simple possibilities for your exploration. On the physical/anamaya kosha level, yin is water, weight, stability and groundedness. Yang is lightness and movement of the body through space. On the energy/pranamaya kosha level, yin is cooling, condensing, receiving and storing. Yang is fire, heating, expanding, moving, acting. On the emotional level, yin is nurturing, internally focusing, relaxing, resting. Yang is protective, externally focusing, dynamic, outwardly expressive.

On the mental level, yin is contemplation, yang is critical thinking and analysis. On the spiritual vijnanamaya kosha level, yin and yang are intimately known as the taijitu, the unity of duality and from the perspective of the anandamaya kosha, yin and yang are the radiant light and pure vibrancy of each.

In the microcosmic orbit, the front body channel, the conception vessel is the yin and the back body channel, the governing vessel is yang. Yang is not only the back body, but also the outside of the body, the outward facing skin while the yin is the inner body, the inner lining of the skin (I learned to explore that from B.K.S.Iyengar) as well as front. And there is always yang within yin and yin within yang as shown in the taijitsu. On the yin inside of the body there are yin and yang organs, and within the yin meridians of the organs, there is an upper yang branch linking a lower yin branch, with the diaphragm in the middle.

Working with the yin organ systems and meridians is fascinating on many levels, especially with their link to the Five Spirits or Five Shen. The Taosit model is a profound dynamic living example of the dance of Being, Becoming and Belonging. For review and preparation to work with this and subsequent blogs, please reread these three previous posts: The Three Treasures, The Seven Karmic Lessons of Life, and Yoga, Taoism and the Intelligence of the Yin Organ Systems.

In the next post, we will explore in depth the Jue Yin or ‘returning yin’ channel and look for Jue Yin parallels in contemporary society.

Yoga, Taoism and the Intelligence of the Yin Organ Systems

Posted on September 25, 2020 by admin

Introduction

In the previous post, we introduced the seven karmic lessons of life and some explorations of these using the microcosmic orbit and some anatomical references on the front and back body. Keep working with whichever of the lessons is relevant to you in your life right now. Our next exploration of these lessons will come from the interior perspective of the yin organs, but that will come in a future post as first we will need some preliminary work linking Yoga, Taoism and the Organ systems to help keep us on track.

Remember that our karmic lessons pertain to every moment of our lives. Fall of 2020 is going to be a turbulent and challenging time and we all need to remain grounded, heart centered and clear, no matter what arises. Keep resting in Being and allow Life to flow through you, as best you can. Stay safe, support small businesses, be kind to one another, and do what you can to help get out the vote. Don’t waste energy worrying about things you have no control over. Keep the the loving open heart channeling into the human energy field and we will get through this.

Before we continue, I have to pass on Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s wisdom, as presented in the introduction to her Fall 2020 series of classes on the Spine, offering us a clear vision of inner dimensions of our somatic explorations. She is the voice of Somatic Spiritual Awakening.

CELLULAR CONSCIOUSNESS
Each cell in our body has living intelligence. It is capable of knowing itself, initiating action, and communicating with all other cells. The individual cell and the community of cells (tissue, organ, body) exist as separate entities and as one whole at the same moment. Cellular consciousness is a state in which all cells have equal opportunity for expression, receptivity, and cooperation. Attuning ourselves to our cellular consciousness brings us to a place in which we can find the ground from which flows the intricate manifestations of our physical, psychological, and spiritual being.

EMBODIMENT
Embodiment emerges from our cells’ awareness of themselves. It is a direct experience. There are no intermediate steps or translations. There is no guide, no witness – just the fully known consciousness of the experienced moment initiated from the cells. Here, the brain is the last to know. The process of embodiment is a being process, not a doing process. It is an awareness process, not a thinking process. There is complete knowing and peaceful comprehension. Out of this embodiment process emerges feeling, sensing, thinking, witnessing, understanding, compassion. The source of this process is free; it is love.

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Patanjali and Lao Tzu: The Meeting of Yoga and Taoist Practices

In general, the cellular consciousness referred to by Bonnie is unconscious in most of us. The journey is to awaken to this always present flow of energy and information and then allow any and all sense of separateness to dissolve into this fundamental embodied aliveness. Patanjali, in the beginning of the Sadhana Pada, the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras entitled “On Practice”, lists three essential practices known together as Kriya Yoga, that guide our journey. They begin sequentially, but then intertwine into an evolving spiral of awakening and integration.

Taoism has many parallels that take us right into the organ systems. Chinese Medicine is process based. Rather than referring to anatomical structures such as kidneys, it refers to organ systems, including all metabolic and integrative processes associated with the organs and their related hormones. Organ systems also have a subtle psycho-spiritual component unseen in Western medicine.

The first essential practice is discipline or tapas in Sanskrit. Without discipline, there is no practice, or no ability to sustain practice when difficulty arises, and this is true no matter what the subject matter, no matter what level of experience we may have. This is very true in spiritual practice, and Patanjali introduces the more advanced expressions of discipline, abhyasa and vairagya, in chapter I, the Samadhi Pada, sutras I-12 – 16. Abhyasa is the constant directing of our energies to create layers and levels of stability. This includes grounding in the world of form, through bones, fluids and mind, and also stabilizing our awakening in the formless. Vairagya is the constant directing of our energies away from habits and patterns that perpetuate unconscious delusion and suffering, and transforming them towards into patterns that are stabilizing and Awakening. Abhyasa and vairagya are tow sides of the same coin

Discipline is a form of will power, and In Taoism, Will is one of the five Shen or Spirits and resides in the Kidney Organ System. In Taoism, will has a yin and yang component. The Yang Will involves both the day to day and major life decisions and its active and dynamic energy helps us stay focused on the tasks at hand. Yin Will is quite different. Ted Kaptchuk, in his book on Chinese Medicine, “The Web That Has No Weaver”, describes it this way.

“Yin Will is the other side of Will. It is the deeper encounter with the inexorable and ultimate destiny that already exists hidden in the undifferentiated seed. It is the recognition that the deepest force requires no effort. The Yin Will is elusive, almost intangible. It is noticed in stillness. It has a quality of irreducible mystery. The Yin Will is about the inevitable, about a direction we each move toward that can only be seen when we turn around and look at how we have developed through time. It is about fate and destiny. It is about the unknown and depth.

Recognition of Yin Will allows for the creation of the virtue of Wisdom. This Wisdom is not about knowing things. In fact, it is more about being deeply connected to the unknown. Wisdom is a recognition of the fact that life is an intertwining of known and unknown.”

We will soon see how Yin Will links up with the third practice, but Yang Will will leads to the second practice of Kriya Yoga, svadhyaya, Self-study or Self inquiry. Yang Will involves choices (when and how do we apply discipline) and for this we need to cultivate discriminating intelligence. The first stage of Self study is the examining the rules and laws that govern the world of form (known as Prakriti in the Yoga Sutras) and the nature of our own habits and behaviors. In learning what aspects of our lives and mental activities to cultivate and what to eliminate, we discover a discriminating intelligence that can be awakened and refined to guide us in our day to day and long term decision making. This is very true on the collective level as well and is a life long endeavor also as our habits have layers and layers going back through our ancestors.

In Taoism, this discriminative intelligence is another of the five Spirits and resides in the Spleen-Pancreas Organ System. The Spleen-Pancreas, in Chinese Medicine, extracts the ‘pure from the impure’. On a biological level, in the digestive process, the nutrients and anything else that is beneficial are separated and absorbed into the blood stream, while the rest is sent along for elimination. The blood is also filtered and monitored for potential infectious agents, engaging the immune system. The Spleen-Pancreas also discriminates at the psychological and spiritual level, helping us make intelligent descisions about all aspects of our lives. This processing is analogous to the Samana Vayu in Yoga.

The second stage of svadyaya is inquiry into Who, or what am I. What is this “I – me – mine” mind set that drives my behavior? What is change? What is stillness? Can I discover my innate True Nature, as and in the Stillness at the core of my heart? Self study includes reading sacred scriptures that discuss this question, such as the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads, the many Buddhist Sutras, and mystical poetry. It is about Being and not doing, as Bonnie described above. In the Yoga Sutras II-26 – 27, Patanjali discusses this deeper dimension of discriminating wisdom. In Taoism, is the recognition of the small Shen, the ruler of the Five Spirits that resides in the Heart Organ System and the fullness (purna) of the Big Shen, one of the Three Treasures.

The third practice, Ishvara Pranidhana, is the dissolving of the egoic structures into Being. It is allowing Life in its Wholeness to flow though you effortlessly. This is Yin Will in action. Egoic structures are energetic habits of thought and belief that perpetuate the illusion of ‘separateness’ that causes so much suffering. The energy held in these patterns can be transformed by first seeing them for what they are and then exposing them to the direct realization of True Nature, where they dissolve like a wave returning to the vast ocean. Because of karmic momentum, the egoic patterns will keep coming back. But if we can recognize them as just waves, transient phenomena arising out of the depths of True Nature, and stop feeding them by resisting or giving into them, eventually the karmic momentum resolves back into the Source and they come to an end.

The fact that in Kriya Yoga Ishvara Pranidhana comes after Self Study is crucial. It is easy to ‘let go’ into unconscious habits and believe that the ego is letting go. This is one of the great tricks of the ego. You can see obvious examples in spiritual teachers who have had a powerful ‘waking up’ experience, but haven’t done enough ‘growing up’ emotionally. The results are not pretty. The cultivation of discriminating wisdom helps keep all of us from our own self delusion.

Ishvara is a Sanskrit word that points to Divinity as manifest in the multiplicity of forms in the Universe. It is infinite creativity in action. As my Vedanta teacher Swami Dayananda used to say, “What is, is Ishvara”. There are many layers to the practice of Ishvara Prahidhana as demonstrated by Patanjali using this expression in three different sections of the Yoga Sutras. In the first chapter, sutras I-23 – I-29 are all devoted to Isvara. And all three of the Kriya Yoga practices are included as part of the Niyamas, one of the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga described later on.

There are two more Yin Organ systems associated with the Five Spirits that we need to consider and they are linked together in a quite interesting Yin-Yang way. The Lung Organ System is associated with the Spirit known as Po, the corporeal soul. Po is the denser yin expression of embodiment, associated with the five elements, concerned solely with this body and this incarnation, and returns to the Earth at death. There are seven Po, related on the physical plane to the seven sensory openings: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth. The are also related to the seven Karmic lessons of life discussed in the previous post.

The Liver Organ System is the home of Po’s yang counterpart Hun, or the non-corporeal soul. The Hun is lighter, more expansive and more subtle than the denser Po. It is the aspect of spirit that has no attachment to the physical body and at death leaves the body to dissolve into more ethereal realms of existence. It is the Hun that is the vehicle for shamanic journeying. There are three Hun, sometimes referred to as three spirits or energy fields of differing densities surrounding the physical body (the 7 Po). The ethereal is the densest, the light and finally the true spiritual plane. Taoist master Jeffrey Yuen also teaches that Po is related to space and Hun to time.

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An Overview of our Inner Anatomy

Let the Kriya Yoga of ‘Discipline/Self Study/Letting Go’ guide our explorations as we use breathing, the leverage of different postures and micro-movements to bring attention/conscious awareness to some of these inner spaces of the body, the organs that embryologically emerge within them and the energetic flow of the organ systems. These micro-thin spaces between fascial layers surrounding the organs are also in relationship to the organs through the flow of fluids, Qi and intelligence. Yang Will focuses the attention and keep sit from wandering. Yin Will allows the innate intelligence of the Qi/Fluids/Cells to reveal itself in Being, without any attempt of the ego to manipulate the situation. The habits of the ego are relentless so be patient and compassionate with your Self when working at this level.

We’ll begin our journey into the intelligence of the organ systems by feeling the the anatomical spaces of the torso. The illustrations above left show the three anatomical spaces of the abdomen into which our inner organs emerge during embryological development. These comes from one of my favorite books, “Spark in the Machine” by David Keown, an English medical doctor and acupuncturist, who tells the amazing story of how embryological development serves as the foundation of the acupuncture channels, and much much more. My fascination with embryology, thanks to Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, has become a spiritual journey into the roots of creation itself as it manifests, here and now, in our embodied Presence.

Translating into Western terminology, Jue Yin, the most anterior, is called the peritoneal cavity; Tai Yin is the anterior para-renal space, and Shao Yin is the retro-peritoneal space. For somanauts, these three spaces provide a way to differentiate the depth spaces of the body, the most challenging of the three spacial directions. Head to tail is simple with the three Dantiens the starting point. With side to side we have the innate bi-lateral symmetry of the human form, i.e., 2 eyes, ears, arms, lungs, legs etc. Front to back is challenging, especially in the upright posture, so we really have to slow down and allow the sensations and perceptions to come.

Frank Netter’s drawing of the a cross section at T-12 , similar to the one above, is viewed from below so you have to reverse left and right, but the cavities are the same. Notice the space behind the stomach, where Bonnie allows her ‘embryonic breathing’ to originate. Also, the liver, kidneys and spleen. These will be key areas in our explorations, as we track the flow of breath/qi, through the micro-thin spaces between two layers of fascia surrounding the volumes and the organs.

In Chinese Medicine, these Yin inter-fascial spaces or channels also have an upper (above the diaphragm) component, as seen above, and are linked to the lower through the three openings in the diaphragm. The Qi flows through these three ‘channels’. These channel also branch out into the limbs to complete the meridians associated with each organ system.

Jue Yin follows the opening for the Vena Cava and links Liver Acupuncture Channel with the Pericardium Acupuncture Channel. Tai Yin follows the esophageal opening, linking Lungs and Spleen/Pancreas; (embryologically speaking, the lungs emerge from a bud on the oesophagus near the vocal cords.), and Shao Yin follows the opening for the aorta linking Heart and Kidney channels.

Exploring the Jue Yin

As an example, we see how the Jue Yin channel combines the Pericardium channel in the arm/upper body with the Liver Channel/leg in the lower body. ‘Absolute’ is one translation of the character ‘Jue’. Others are reversing or returning. Jue Yin runs from Liver-1 on the inside of the big toe all the way to Pericardium 9 at the tip of the middle finger. The pericardium channel also has an inner branch extending down the vena cava linking the three burners.

Dynamic Practice

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana and its variations are great poses to explore Jue Yin. Activate the inner big toes and middle fingers to open whole meridian. For the ‘Leg Jue Yin’ Liver meridian, track flow from the inner big toes along the inner legs and knees and through the groins. (Right and Left) Upper and lower channels meet at the upper front diaphragm.

Feel the liver and pericardium rotating in opposite directions to open space for the vena cava. The Jue Yin channel is where yin has reached its maximum and begins to reverse or return to yang, like at the winter solstice. It is where the de-oxygenated venous blood is returned to the heart and lungs to be re-vitalized. Setu bandha is a more yin backbend allowing the yang to build gradually. As the Jue Yin channel opens, more challenging backbends can be added. This supported (yin) ‘sort of’ kapotasana is still more yang. Without support, backbends become even more yang. Open slowly.

Another way to explore Jue Yin is through the forward bend back bend flow mentioned in a previous post. In fact, you can explore the three yin “Great Channels’, by adding Tai Yin, (Lung and Spleen/Pancreas, the middle layer; and Shao Yin, Heart and Kidney, the inner most layer, anatomically speaking. Iyengar begins all his forward bends in ‘Light on Yoga’ by opening Jue Yin. The completed pose opens Shao Yin with the Tai Yin, the middle layer balancing the two.

Most beginning yoga students collapse in at the Pericardium/Liver junction, and the compensate by over constricting the very outer layer, Tai Yang along the back body to stay upright. By aligning and opening the three inner or yin channels, both back bends and forward bends become organically beneficial.

Inner Practice

In meditative or restorative poses, allow your imagination/attention rest in the opening in the diaphragm for the vena cava as it passes from behind the liver up and into the heart. Bring compassion/Loving Kindness to your heart area so the Pericardium, the connective tissue surrounding the heart, also know as the ‘Heart Protector’, can relax a bit.

Allow you imagination attention follow the Jue Yin as it passes from the feet through the groins. Imagine where the common iliac veins converge to form the inferior vena cava. This is the area of the ‘Hara’. Rest and soften here, bringing Loving Kindness and Compassion. Allow the whole space from the bifurcation up to the heart soften and relax. This is the Middle Burner. Notice the inner link as the inferior vena cava links heart in the upper burner, IVC and aorta in the middle burner and below the navel lower burner. Add inner arms and legs.Have fun with wherever this qi takes you. Be Yin/receptive, allowing, not trying to control, as best you can. Be grateful for having a human body.

For more detailed work and multiple postures and sequences for Jue Yin, see Ruth Knill’s YouTube page. Ruth is a long time yoga practitioner and teacher as well as a licensed acupuncturist working in Arlington, MA. She is teaching a regular ‘Zoom’ yoga class on line every week.

Taosim/Chinese Medicine Background

Foundational to all of Chinese Medicine is the Taoist non-dual principle of yin and yang, representing the three primary realities of creation: dynamism, inter-connectedness and change. The dynamic energy comes from the opposite polar charges of yin and yang. Although ‘opposite’ there is no ‘pure’ yin or yang; each is embedded in the other, no matter how deep you go. There is continuous flow between the two, one waxing, one waning, and then the reverse. What flows is known as qi, (or prana in Sanskrit).

Chinese Medicine describes 12 Primary acupuncture channels, six yin and six yang, that regulate the flow of qi in the body. Each channel is associated with an ‘organ’ (more of a set of energetic processes than the physical organ of Western anatomy), and has points located along the surface of the body. However the channels also have branches that dive into the interior of the body.

In general, yang organs are hollow and move substances throughout the body. They are: (capitalized to differentiate them from the western anatomical organ) the Large Intestine, Small Intestine, Stomach, Bladder, Gall Bladder and a quirky one known as San Jiao, or Triple Warmer. There is no western equivalent, but the San Jiao balances the flow qi through the three burners, which we might see as a regulation of the whole digestive process An ancient Chinese medical text states: ‘The Upper Burner controls intake, the Middle Burner controls transformation, the Lower Burner controls elimination.’ It can also be seen as the mediator of tensegrity in the fluid/fascia living matrix. The San Jiao is a key for our heart/hara balance.

The yin organs include: the Heart (the most yang of the yin organs), Pericardium or Heart Protector, Lungs, Spleen/Pancreas, Liver and Kidneys (the most yin of the yin organs.

One way to group the 12 Primary Channels is in yin/yang pairs of 2, giving us the 6 Great Channels. The six pairs link yang upper body/arms with yin lower body legs. There are three arm yang channels linking with three leg yang channels, and three arm yin channels linking with three leg yin ones. The Great Channels actually arise from 6 embryological, fascially distinct cavities that are arranged spatially from the yang, Governing Vessel back body to yin Conception Vessel front body, in this order:

Tai Yang – Yang Ming – Shao Yang – Shao Yin – Tai Yin – Jue Yin

These also determine a flow with Tai Yang being the Beginning of a cycle and Jue Yin the end of the cycle, which is why Jue Yin is called returning or reversing Yin where

Thank you and credits to Frank Netter for his anatomical drawings
and Marc Ignacio on Upsplash for his candle photo.

As always, questions on practice and editorial and copy editing corrections greatly appreciated.