Yin and Yang: Double Action in Action

Posted on August 18, 2017 by admin

On the left we have our basic micro-cosmic orbit energetic pattern; two half circles joining to create a whole, with a diameter extending from root to crown, yin to yang. (Almost equal halves: the back circle, the yang governing vessel is slightly longer than the front, yin conception vessel. The meeting points are at the mouth and anus, the two ends of the gut body. How interesting! It is said that at birth, when a baby first opens her mouth to breathe, the circuit opens. The general practice is then to keep the energy field connected through all of the challenges of life.)

There are key points along the circle that we can focus on and bring energy to in order to active the whole, and we can link the points by moving our attention from point to point, using the breath. We can link the yin points to feel and find the conception vessel, or the yang points to find the governing vessel (GV-1 is just in front of the coccyx, on the other side of the anus from CV-1. We can also explore them as yin yang pairs such as GV-4 and CV-6, CV-17 and GV-9, or CV-1 and GV-20. The governing vessel nurtures the six yang channels and organs, while the conception vessel does the same for the yin channels and organs. This this circuit integrates the whole.

When we can hold yin and yang simultaneously, we have a ‘double action’. There may be waxing/waning as during movement, or staying stable, but yin and yang are always (when healthy) both dynamically engaged. (There are many more points of the governing and conception vessels that are used in acupuncture treatments. The ones on the diagram have been chosen by my teacher’s teacher, Jeffrey Yuen, to be of special importance in integrating the micro-cosmic orbit, which supports all the channels, and thus all the points. This is link offers an excellent introduction to Jeffrey’s cosmic level insight in teaching Chinese Medicine. )

The acupuncture points (actually they are cavities, but it is much easier to bring your attention to a point rather than a cavity) are accessed through the skin, but their effects extend into the body, as well as into the energetic field surrounding the body. This allows us to visualize the larger circle as demonstrated by the hula hoop. Points CV-12 and CV-17 can be found at the center line of the body, along the thrusting vessel, even though they are listed as being on the front. Ultimately and ideally, all points are energized and energy flows freely in both directions around the circle, and up and down the center line. Reality tells us that energy gets sluggish in some places and overactive in others, so helping remediate this is a practice.

The micro-cosmic orbit is a sagittal plane circle and can be very helpful in guiding our movements in and out of forward and backbends. This is the foundational action in all of B.K.S. Iyengars poses.

In paschimottanasana, he first activates the yang-back body-governing vessel as the yin/front body/conception vessel yields and opens, front and back acting as a single whole. The front tends to collapse in going forward, so this awakening alleviates that. Then he completes the pose by transitioning, smoothly reversing yin and yang, front and back, releasing the yang back body governing vessel to create a deep yin forward bend. The movements in and out are a dynamic double action. When staying in the pose, the double action remains as energy flow as the physical body remains still.

Check out ‘Light on Yoga’ and you will see all his forward bends are shown this way. For a bonus, check out this youtube clip featuring Iyengar at the ripe old age of 59, when he was in his prime. This is what fully integrated embodiment looks like! Pay special attention to the expanding and condensing of his body, in the transitions, but also when he completes the poses.)

lf I go from tadasana to uttanasana and back again, I can create a similar field where I imagine the circle turning like a wheel, half way in one direction to get down, and the reverse to come back. Down the front and up the back to go down, down the back and up the front to come up. This is movement. I can also, in tadasana or any pose for that matter, without moving physically, move the energy in the same pattern, as if the hula hoop moves, but I don’t. I can also do both at the same time, if I just move the energy. The circles pass through each other and I can complete both circles over and over, just using imagination, attention and breath or qi. This is a double action. Two apparently opposite actions, working together to create a dynamic field of energized presence. I can do a similar double action transitioning in or out, or remaining in any pose. This sustains the pose in a dynamic field to minimize holding/contracting and collapse.

We also have a lateral plane circle that helps give us a three dimensional sense of embodiment. The common points are root and crown and the diameter, but now we have points on the sides of the body (our lateral line) to explore. This is the trikonasana circle or fish body. Balancing all points on the circle in both directions is the goal. I tend to collapse the underside, so I pay extra attention here, from inner back heel rooting into the ground all the way through the inner ear and beyond to keep the lateral circle open. Right and left are another yin/yang pair that communicate back and forth moment to moment, in transition, or in satying in the pose. Once I’ve landed in trikonasana and remain there for a while, I can explore the microcosmic orbit to stabilize front and back as well. The same principle operates in all of the lateral poses such as parsvakonasana, ardha chandrasana and anantasana and more.

As a meditation, exploration and practice, I can zero in on any region of the body and refine the double action. We will use the pelvic floor as it holds the seat of the yin, the root chakra, and is the foundation for all postures. The two circles are shown as they cross at the pelvic floor. Imagine this is a bowl, so the lines are curved and the center point drops down (into the page from the reader’s perspective) creating a coccyx instead of the sacrum as one of the 4 cardinal points. Now we also have four quadrants or volumes to explore. (This is similar to the image shown in Bonnie’s video clip in the previous post.)

On the micro-cosmic orbit, in a forward bending action, or coming out of a backbend, (untucking) , the energy runs from pubic bone to coccyx, but if I a not careful, the energy may get stuck and I will just compress the front two quadrants. In a backbending action, or coming out of a forward bend, the energy runs from the pubis to the coccyx (tucking). My weakness will be to just close the back two quadrants and block the energy there.

Before I move into a pose, I can energetically move the coccyx and pubis together and apart, making the energy line connecting them longer or stronger. Or I can do both at the same time, as a double action. Try these now as you are sitting reading this. To help get a feel for how the double action energy manifests in the tissue, Imagine either compressing a spring as it pushes back, or stretching thera-band as it offers resistance. Feel the dynamic charge of energy. You can modulate the intensity. Start strong and then back off until the the energy is very clear but subtle. Locate the intersection point and make sure it is centered. If you feel adventurous, add CV-6 and GV-4 to create longer arcs of energy. Imagine the whole circles as you focus on the lower bowl. Feel CV-6 and GV-4 parallel to the ground and CV-1 at absolute center. As this becomes stable, your ability to sit lightly will increase tremendously.

Hip Remediation:

I have been working with some issues in my right hip for several years now thanks to some unfortunate encounters with ice dams and window wells my last winter in Arlington. What has been most helpful is to bring this double action I feel on the microcosmic orbit first into my spine/pelvis and then into the hip joints. In what ever hip-opening pose I am working with, I first monitor the 4 orquadrants of the pelvic floor, noticing which quadrants are compressed or overstretched. Because the legs attach to the pelvis, they affect the pelvic floor and vice versa. My right rear quadrant of the pelvic floor is the major culprit in my hip challenge, and I can connect that to the other three to help provide support in releasing.

Now imagine each hip joint has four quadrants in the same plane as the pelvic floor and monitor those. When seated, the pelvis is now 90 degrees to the femurs and I now have a second floor to add to the four rooms of the first (pelvic) floor. Instead of four quadrants, I now have eight volumes or spaces. These are composed of the yin and yang pairs of each combination of the three directions: lower front right, lower front left, upper front right, etc. Ramanand calls the upper front rooms the tops of the groins, from the acetabula up the illium, and the bottom front rooms, the bottom of the groins, from the acetabula to the sitting bones.There are four more spaces at the back of the hips as well.

To bend forward moving from the pelvis, whether sitting or standing, what I want to do is open the bottom of the groins, from the acetabulum to the sitting bones, and the bottom back hips as well, and release into this space.In coming out of a forward bend, which is the same actions as going into a backbend, I want to open the upper stories, front and back. In backbends, lengthening the tail is very useful in keeping the upper back space from contracting.

If I truly want to ‘open’ the hip joint and engage all eight spaces, I can simultaneously, energetically roll the head of the femur in the opposite direction of the acetabulum. In a forward bend, the acetabulum untucks (pubis to coccyx, down the front and up the back) while the femur ‘tucks’ coccyx to pubis, down the back and up the front. This is bringing the microcosmic orbit into the action of bones and flesh. This is creating a double action with the femur head and the acetabulum, paralleling the double action of the microcosmic orbit through the pelvic floor.

In supta padangusthasana like poses, the femur head of the lifting leg moves around the socket, but the energetic action is the same as uttanasana. The femur head feels as if it were ‘tucking’ while the socket continues to untuck. When the motion is complete, I sustain the double action energetically to melt the joint. Start with the micro-cosmic orbit to engage the whole. Focus in on the four quadrants of the pelvic floor, and then add the upper and lower spaces. Then focus even more closely on the actions of the femurs and acetabula. When you find a sense of balance, rest in the infinite space that feeds the yin and yang. This is dynamic somatic meditation in action.

Indra’s Web and You

Posted on July 24, 2017 by admin

Indra’s Web (or Net) is a metaphorical description of the structure of the Cosmos as an interconnected web of pearls extending in all directions and dimensions, where each of the pearls is both unique, and a microcosmic expression of the whole web. The pearls, or nodal points, receive and transmit energy and information throughout the whole net, adding and offering their own unique experience, and receiving that from others. Thus the whole process is alive, growing, learning and recreating itself moment to moment.

The ‘Fireworks Galaxy” (ngc 6946) above offers an entry point for the imagination to play with this fabulous vision. This galaxy, a nodal point in the web, is one of an estimated (as of January 2017) two trillion galaxies in the ‘known universe’. Our own ‘average size’ Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to have 200 to 250 billion stars, which gives us a rough approximation of 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. Don’t try to wrap your mind around that number. Rather let your mind go, so it’s free to rest in infinity.

Now, imagine that each of these stars is also a nodal point in Indra’s web, a web within a web, radiant, vibrating, linked through the web to all the other stars, sending light energy throughout the cosmos. Our sun is one of those nodal points, providing the crucial life energy for Mother Earth, but as a node in the web, it is also transmitting information from all the other stars as well.

Lets add the cells in your body, all 35,000,000,000 of them, another web within a web. By the way, 80% of these are red blood cells, by number; by weight, because they are quite small as cells go, only 4%. More nodes in the web, all vibrating, communicating with the environment and the web as a whole. If you add in the 35,000,000,000 bacterial cells inhibiting your body, you have 70 trillion vibrating nodes of cellular consciousness in your somasphere. The bacterial cells are quite small, maybe 200 grams worth, or .3% of your mass, but crucial to your happiness.

Now, imagine the atoms in your body also as nodal points in Indra’s Web. There are 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them roughly, arranged in differing patterns like the DNA molecule, each vibrating with its own unique note, creating chords with other atoms to make molecules. And also vibrating, through and throughout the web, with the fundamental pulse of the Cosmos.

So we have the web within, the web without and now we add ourselves. Each of us, as a soul being, is also a node in the great web, connected to the whole, and transmitting energy in all directions. This is one of the great realizations of a yoga practice, as Patanjali states in the Samadhi Pada:

I-40 paramaanu-parama-mahattvaanto’sya vashikaarah
Mastery (of one who has refined the mind) extends from the smallest particle to the totality of creation

Patanjali the physicist describes how the mind of one who is fully stabilized extends from the sub-atomic realms of the quantum field all the way to the galaxies and beyond. The universe is the mahat, the great mind that is the mind of the yogi.

Feel this. Imagine this. Feel this. Let the primary frequency of your energy be love and compassion, as best you can as a human being. Find new connections, new relationships, new sources of learning and growth. Be a mentor, a mentee. From the depths of your soul ask what you need for healing and go for it. Ask where you creativity wants to take you and go for it. Be patient. Find a support system and take advantage of it. Cultivate your imagination more and more.

As nodal points in Indra’s Net, we have an amazing opportunity to learn and grow by using and refining our imagination and our external and internal sensitivity. External sensitivity involves opening to the relational fields of both human interaction and Mother Nature. By stepping outside, or beyond the confines of our skin, we open to all the ways in which the universe is informing us of wholeness, love, coherence, cooperation, and the infinite challenges involved in working as a community of cosmic nodes. My internal sensitivity takes me inside my skin, into the world of Qi and blood, of breath, emotions and thought, of imagination, dreams and deep stillness, where 4 billion years of evolutionary learning have primed me to awaken to the depths of the present moment, through my cells, senses and imagination.

There is no pose that takes you there, but every pose has the possibility. There is no special place that helps awaken you, but every place is a node in the web, if we can just learn to see. This is not something that will come in the future, but is always available now, in this moment, the only moment. You are the web, you are embedded in the web, and the web is embedded in you.

Upayas for Sacred Somatic Journeying

Posted on July 12, 2017 by admin

Upaya is a lovely Sanskrit word referring to a sacred skill or practice, sacred in the sense of helping to move toward a deeper realization of the non-dual nature of Self, infinite stillness and effortless flow. When hatha yoga is an upaya, that is, not just physical exercise, or something that lays the groundwork for more ‘spiritual practices’, what eventually emerges is the realization that asana practice is profound vehicle for somatic sacred journeying. Here, the soul travels to realms of existence radically different from the every day world, expanding our sense of what is real, meeting teachers and guides on other planes, gathering clues about our own personal life adventure, and returning with gifts and lessons from these other realms to help foster the deep healing and awakening desperately needed on this planet, right now.
Patanjali offers a hint of some of the possibilities in sutra
I-40: paramaanu-parama-mahattvaanto’sya vashikaarah
Mastery (of one who has refined the mind) extends from the smallest particle to the totality of creation.

My introduction to somatic sacred journeying came in 1979 when I discovered Itzhak Bentov’s book ‘Stalking the Wild Pendulum’, an amazing exploration of science and consciousness. Bentov was a bio-medical engineer, a meditator, and, although I did not realize it at the time, a serious shaman. Bentov, who died in a plane crash in 1979, had been journeying through non-local reality for years. He discovered that he could enter the hynogogic state between waking and sleep by lying in a bath tub filled with very hot water, and first used this to help solve engineering challenges. Then other surprises came to him.

He left extensive notes which were edited and published by his wife Mirtala as “A Cosmic Book” in 1988. SWP was written ‘sort of seriously’, as Ben was trying to speak to the scientific community about meditative experiences. In “A Cosmic Book’, originally imagined as a comic book, he went ‘all in’, describing the adventures of a soul traveling through higher and higher octaves of creation, meeting devas and angels, all with an amazing lightness and sense of humor. As as we are in a kidney phase, I have to include this quote:

“Suppose we could project our consciousness into our kidney and strike up a conversation with single kidney cell. We would ask the kidney cell, “Would you tell me please, what do you do here?” The kidney cell, a very simple little fellow, will probably mumble something to the effect, “Look mister, I just work here. Why don’t you ask the boss?” We go to the boss who is the kidney itself. It is the consciousness of all the kidney cells put together. The kidney right away rattles off all the good things the kidney does for the body. It tells you how it cleans the blood of harmful substances and how it regulates the components of the blood to achieve a balance among them. It is not ashamed to throw in a bit of propaganda, just in case, saying that without the kidney we wouldn’t last very long. We are very impressed with the performance, offer our thanks for the explanation and turn to the liver. The same thing happens: the single cell turns out to be relatively ignorant, while the composite consciousness of all the cells in the liver is an intelligent being and an expert in its field.”

Many years later, today, my own inner vision is finally opening to Bentov’s insights, as my explorations in asana, Continuum and BMC, the Tao’st micro-cosmic orbit meditation, active dreaming and sacred geometry and more are converging in my practice and teachings. In order to help as many people as possible join me on these cosmic adventures, I am offering some simple upayas that can be very helpful to any and all interested in the art of somatic sacred journeying.

First: Cultivate ‘Mindfulness’ so you can fully inhabit the present moment. The past is always available, as are the many possible futures, but do not ‘get lost’ in them. There is a sense of spaciousness that arises when consciously mindful, and this spaciousness is our playground.

Second: Become very familiar with what Bonnie calls ‘cellular breathing’. Simply put, it is feeling the radial expanding and condensing of our energy, like the action of the Hoberman sphere. Feel this as your whole body breathing, and then practice bringing this image/feeling anywhere in the body you wish to explore. This is the beginning of tracking energy flow in the body. Have this available, in the background, every moment, every day. Bring it to the front when needed.

Third: Discover and embody tubularity. From a single cell, we embryologically emerge into tubes, with a head and tail, top and bottom. This gives us a very specific orientation in the human upright posture, head to the heavens, tail to the earth. To the radial cellular breathing, we now can track energy flows up and down the main axis. This can structurally include the gut body, the spinal column and the spinal canal, and energetically, the thrusting vessel/chakra line. Also, our limbs are tubes, as are blood vessels and the interiors of the long bones. Tubes everywhere. ‘Climbing the Wall’ is a great way to explore the vertical axis.

Metaphorically, the cosmic tubular being is Adhishesa, the coiled and resting cobra (yin) that can rise upward (yang). Also known as Ananta, the serpent of infinity is invoked by Patanjali in his second sutra on asana, II-47: pra-yatna shaithilyaananta sam-aa-pattibhyaam. With the release of effort and absorption in the limitless (posture is mastered).

Fourth: Learn to track the quality energy flow in your body. Begin with clearly recognizing when you are over-working, felt as a contracting/tightening, and learn to back off. In a overly yang culture, overworking is often encouraged as a ‘good’ thing, and its all about the muscles, so this is not an easy habit to overcome. You will probably find that the same muscles overwork over and over, even in different poses.

Then feel when there is collapse or dullness. As you become more sensitive, you will find much of the dullness comes from the more yin organs. (Organs have both yin and yang qualities, in varying degrees, but in general, muscles are yang and organs yin.) Both Infants and young children are very alive in their organs, and this gives their movements a lightness and effortlessness. Unfortunately, the effects of socialization gradually override their inner vibrancy and the organ energy gets lost.

Fifth: Learn to work with ‘Container and Contents’: When there is neither overworking or dullness, you have vibrancy and you will begin to feel that you have an inside and an outside, a container, and contents. Both are dynamic and alive, flexible, and yet stable. Begin to ‘snorkel’ through your ‘contents’, the inner ocean. Swim in, around and through your organs, blood vessels and whatever other surprises you may encounter. This is ‘somatic meditation’. Like the fish and kelp, also be moved by the inner currents and tides. Be as receptive as possible. Take this feeling into your explorations on a block, floating, rather than doing. This is the ‘yin’ to the more dynamic, actively swimming ‘yang’.

Sixth: recognize and play with the ‘fractal nature’ of life. A fractal is a pattern that repeats itself at all levels of existence. The sphere is the first and easiest to recognize. But container and contents is another. Within the contents of the outer container (skin maybe) there are more containers (organs), with more contents (cells, fluids), and the cells are containers that hold nucleii, mitochondria, etc.. And your home is a container that holds you, as is your community of friends, Mother Earth, The Solar System, and so on. Bentov was a real master of navigating this spectrum of being. (You have to read “A Cosmic Book”, again)

Seventh: Awaken to you dream life: Keep a journal and take notes, even if they are just fragments. Invite your dream world to come more into view. Journeying involves becoming more and more familiar with the nature of dream.

Eighth: Strengthen your imagination. This is the beginning of the micro-cosmic orbit meditation, where you imagine energy traveling in a circle and you imagine the energy traveling between various key points along the circuit. In time, there will be sensation in the energy field and tissues and you will be able to ‘feel’ the field, just as you can feel the energy between two magnets.

Also, create a sacred garden or any sort of sacred space, in the imaginal realm, and work with it. Active practice engaging this important ‘vrtti’, invoking all your senses. What can you hear? What do you want to smell and see? Add to it, modify it. Notice when it begins to take on a life of its own. Visit it often.

Another aspect of imaginal practice is shape shifting. The asana tradition includes imitating the postures of living beings, from birds and dogs, to locusts, turtles and frogs, to trees and lotuses (lotii ?). In the imaginal realm, rather than changing the shape of the structural body, allow the spirit of the being to infuse your subtle energy bodies. You can do this in any pose. I am particularly fond of bird and dolphin energy, as they are becoming my guides. It is always good to travel with guides and a support team. And you have to learn to do trees, because they are very powerful doorways to both the lower and upper realms.

This is a discipline that requires practice. Visualization is used in the Tibetan tantric tradition to ultimately discover the non-dual reality that there is no other, no outside, and all forms are of the imaginal realm, impermanent, transient, but also teeming with divine presence. We all inhabit a cosmic playground. The trick is to realize this and then do what you can to make are tiny corner of the cosmos a safe, loving and creative space for all to awaken and enjoy.