Kidneys 2: Life, Water and Practice

Posted on July 7, 2017 by admin

One of the challenges in life, and yoga, (hopefully you are at a point where these are one and the same!) is that growth requires change, and most of us are ambiguous about change. (There’s that word ‘ambiguous‘ again.) Change that makes us feel better – bring it on! Change that makes us frustrated, uncomfortable or confused: no thank you. The reality of growth is that when moving to a new level of integration, whether horizontally or vertically, what worked previously (the level of precision, openness, integration) will probably not be enough to function at the next level. Which means you have to go back to being a beginner, and if your ego has become attached to being ‘successful’, it will want nothing to do with the ‘failing’ to live up to the egoic self image’ that growth requires. Your ego will be quite content to stay stuck.

(A simple example of horizontal integration: as an English speaker, I can increase my vocabulary and understanding of grammar, and learn to express myself in prose or poetry, or in writing. With vertical integration: I learn a whole new language, or multiple languages or study linguistics.)

After 18 months on the alto, I have finally leaned to, in very basic terms, use the full range of the horn, including a few of the more challenging altissimo notes. The middle notes are the easiest, but it took a while to find depth and fullness in the lowest notes and even get any sound in the very high ones, but I made it. So what does my dear teacher Karl Hunter do? He asks me to quickly go from high to low, or low to high and back, just to see what might happen. Yikes. Horrible sounds, total loss of tone. Lots of confusion. Feelings of embarrassment.

My diagnosis? I had good yin for the low and good yang for the high, but they were not in a healthy relationship. Or to say it slightly differently, there was not a stable center uniting the two extremes. Not to get too technical, but the pelvic floor, diaphragm, ribs, throat cavity, tongue and muscles of the mouth (embouchure, from the French word for mouth) have to be both stable (sthira) and flexible (sukham, in the right relationships. My embouchure was unstable, overcompensating to help hit the high and low notes. Parts that should be moving were stuck, and parts that should have stablized (not rigidly) flopped about. So I have to go back to being a beginner and relearn this, by finding a stable and flexible embouchure center (high A flat) and sustaining this as I go up and down, adjusting other inner muscles and tissues.

This is, amazingly enough, the same story in yoga. Many years ago, I was able to push myself into deeper backbends and forward bends, through will power and persistence, but when, over a short period of time I met Bonnie Cohen, Emilie Conrad and Caryn McHose, three teachers who totally embodied flow, I was at a total loss trying to feel what they were trying to teach me. (At the 1990 Backbend Intensive in Pune, Iyengar used me as the ‘poster boy’ for how ‘not to do’ backbends. He was also trying to penetrate my overly dense energy field, but I was clueless. Here is Iyengar’s creative way to awaken CV-1, the seat of the yin, and to relax the kidneys to balance the intense yang of the pose. In spite of the help my my Aussie buddies Peter Thompson and John Leebold, I wasn’t there yet.)

I realized that I had to ‘unlearn’ many habits, slow down and learn to listen. This is the feminine or ‘yin’ side of asana, that when awakened, revolutionized my inner world. Amazingly enough, but using way more ‘yin/water’ and way less ‘yang/fire’, I began to feel what Iyengar had been trying to teach me and my understanding of the world he inhabited began to open. However, it took many more years for the kidney/water relationship to awaken. Yoga is an ever evolving process.

It is important for a beginner in yoga to realize that there are stages in the evolution of sensitivity. Not all go through the phases at the same speed, but you cannot skip any levels, and you need to deeply absorb the lessons of each in order to keep growing. Growth is a spiral rather than a straight line, so going backwards are re examining previous levels can lead to deeper understanding.

The first step in the modern world this is moving from being ‘thought’ centered to ‘body’ centered. ( Is this right? – How does it feel?- I don’t know, can’t you just tell me what I’m supposed to feel?) This is a big leap for most. Your new center of balance is no longer an idea or memory, but information coming directly from the body. There is still a strong tendency for the mind to grip the tissue because it does not know of any other way to find it. This is overworking, a rajasic action, but at least your in the body. And the tendency to use thought or memory as the root of the action will be strong for a while. But over time, if you can relax a bit, you will begin to notice when the body ‘feels right’. and the body will begin to become the teacher. This will evolve as you become more sensitive to ”too tight, too loose, just right”.

Over time, if you want to become an intermediate level student, you have to be willing to change again. This time, from being centered (and probably attached to the wonderful job you are finally doing) in muscles and bones, objects the mind can grasp onto, you have to find the ungraspable but definitely perceivable sense of flowing energy. Here you begin to find a new center of balance by exploring what Patanjali calls the ‘dvandvas‘, and what we are calling here as yin and yang. As you feel flow and become flow, you begin to recognize blockages as information to be studied and food for growth, not obstacles to overcome. The dualistic mind sees obstacles as ‘other’, in the way of ‘me’ feeling good about myself. When you recognize these dualistic mind states and voices as the roots of suffering, you can turn them into your allies by honoring their deep desire to protect you, but finding other ways that they can be of service. Send them to apprentice with Ganesha, or some other cosmic defender, where they can learn how to become ‘non-dual’ protectors. This make take a awhile, and a good psychotherapist can be very helpful, but then you’ll be able to handle the next shift with grace and lightness.

Finally, the mature student has to make the leap to the non-dual vision where you discover the oneness of all the relational fields of overlapping energy waves and flows, from the quantum fields to the galactic clusters, all dancing together, and the infinite stillness at the Source. And this arrival is not the end, but another beginning, where, as best you can, in your very human way, you unfold the unique vision of your soul into the world around you, through as many layers and levels of reality you have time and energy for. Here you are an eternal beginner, embracing ambiguity, tumbling in turmoil, accepting your humanness, open to whatever comes your way as your teacher, as gift from the hidden realms to help you further awaken.

Practice:

Kidneys represent/are the innate intelligence of water in the universe, manifesting as the source of life on planet Earth. Water has weight, so it immediately and clearly responds to gravity, giving us a sense of down and grounding. But water is ungraspable. It flows through your fingers, so you need a container. In our somatic explorations, the body is an obvious container, but so are the collective ideas and beliefs we hold. A healthy container is flexible and dynamic, listening to the water intelligence and learning. Our body/container has three major segments, head, chest and abdomen/pelvis, along with four limbs connected to the core. As the water element is yin, we need to awaken the lower regions to help find the kidneys, and for this we go right to the soles of the feet.

In standing, find the Kidney-1 points on the soles of your feet and relax down. Find what I call ‘skiers’ tadanasa, where your legs are engaged, relaxed, flexible and adaptable. The is the stance of the athlete, being ‘on your toes’, although toes is not the best description. But you can feel this. For beginners, through very mature bodies, return here again and again, until the region is awake. Learn to move from here, and when standing still, re-engage, again and again.

Water represents flow, and in the body, water needs to circulate. K-1 is also known as the bubbling spring, as it is where we begin to feel the water returning to the heart in what is called circulation. The elasticity in the joints and tissues of the feet and legs, gently and rhythmically flexing and extending, acts as a pump. The structure has rhythm, the heart has a rhythm, the breathing has a rhythm, and the kidneys help co-ordinate this dance of life. Kidney yin flows down helping the blood flow into the lowest muscles and tissues. The kidney yang helps the blood, lymphatic and extra-cellular fluids find their way back to the heart. Feel as relaxed and suspended as the kelp shown above, and follow the flow of fluids through your body.

The breathing pump can be easily felt sitting. Sitting upright, without strain, let the breathing drop down into the belly, as if the lower body is a basin or cauldron that has a weighty presence, but receives the breath by expanding and condensing, like a hoberman sphere. Once you can feel the gentle movement, visualize your kidneys gently dropping on the in breath, gently rising on the out breath.

In evolution and embryology, the single cell action of the sphere elongates to become a tube, giving birth to a mouth and anus, and eventually to a head and tail. Using the points in the center, you can begin to elongate from spherical to tubular consciousness. Imagine your kidneys are suspended from CV-12, CV-22 or even GV-20 if your imagination and perception allow, and let them feel the breath. Yesterday while swimming in the local pool, I imagined my two kidneys were two blue dolphins undulating along inside of me. Their presence helped change the shape of my feet. (The flippers helped as well.)

Eventually, the kidneys find their center, from which the up and down movements are easy and effortless. The reality is that, because the K-1 loop through the legs is not integrated, we overwork the erector spinae muscles at the back and the psoas along the front of the spine to maintain our upright position. This unnecessary tension, or ‘gripping’ in the tissues will inhibit the kidney motility. Finding the inner flow, with help of the GV-4 to release to erectors and CV-6 to release the psoas, and then integrating with the K-1 loop through the feet and legs creates a powerful core support that is fluid based, and thus adaptable. This adaptable support allows you to change postures without losing the kidney/fluid body support.

As the lower body center becomes fluid, adaptable and strong, it can be used to help open the chest cavity through the increasing elasticity of the diaphragm. The supported poses add a yin quality to help prevent overworking, but the supports are not an invitation to ‘hang out’ in the pose. Here, with yin and yang reversed, gravity becomes an ally to help expand the diaphragm. The yin still flows down, but now it goes toward the yang instead of away as when upright. The legs stay engaged to keep the K-1 to CV-1 (seat of the yin) compartment open, which allows the lower belly area to breathe and the kidneys to stay fluid. Still some work to do at CV-22, but the bolster is helping the area slowly open more.

Here is essentially the same pose but now were back in the ‘normal’ relationship to gravity. The K-1 points are very actively pressing down and CV-1 is strongly lifting to release the kidneys down toward the lower belly. Then the fluid/organ energy comes dynamically up into the diaphragm, going against gravity. The pressure inside the abdominal area is positive or outgoing and needs to be channeled into legs as grounding and into the diaphragm as chest lifting/expanding. The internal pressure of the chest is negative or inward and if the ribs can expand, the abdominal energy will be pulled upward from above by the negative pressure created as well as being pushed from below. This creates a powerful balance and integration that becomes effortless over time.

At the end of your practice, the bolster can be used to help relax and awaken the kidneys. Place yourself carefully and use your hands to adjust the buttock flesh down, but do not over tuck. Drop the femur heads, let the sacrum float up, and feel the kidneys breathing. Drop the brain, feel the kidneys feeding the heart, and then rest in the stillness.

Kidneys: Fluidity With Non-Dual Vision

Posted on July 1, 2017 by admin

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This course is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness
The gateway to all understanding.

Lao-tzu, in chapter one of the Tao Te Ching, ( Stephen Mitchell’s translation) presents the Tao’st non-dual vision succinctly and mysteriously. The ‘realization’ of the Truth underlying the Tao Te Ching is also the goal of yoga. To paraphrase Lao-tzu, ‘Being’ and ‘Becoming’, two radically different and totally essential perspectives from which life can be experienced, are actually expressions of fundamental wholeness. Being (mystery for Lao-tzu) is a synonym for ‘Infinite Stillness’, ‘Now’, ‘Purusha’ etc. Being (unexpressable in words, but we try anyway!) is unbounded, unlimited, unchanging pure potentiality, resting as pregnant stillness. And all is “I’, I am. There is no ‘other, which is the fundamental premise of the non-dual view.

Becoming (manifestations) refers to the evolutionary journey of the cosmos evolving and complexifying through time, expressing itself in the form of quarks and galaxies, fields and flow and everything else, imaginable and yet to be imagined; and of course, our own moment to moment unfolding in time and space, constantly changing, ever mysterious. Non-Dual vision refers to a life grounded in the knowing that both points of view are part of a whole ‘Self’, and need to be cultivated and integrated to lead a spiritually fulfilling life. The challenge in awakening and remaining awake is to hold both perspectives simultaneously, moment to moment, understanding what each offers as we respond to our unfolding life adventure.

The reality is however that ‘Being’ is elusive. Living only from ‘Becoming’, the ever-changing world of manifestation, leads to what Pema Chodron calls the essential ambiguity of the human condition. We all crave a stability of ‘well being’, but this cannot be found in a world of continuous ‘Becoming’. Somewhere along the line we decide that ‘well being’ means always have things go the way we want them to, which means much of life is seen as alien, or other.

The ahamkara, the Samkhya term for the aspect of mind that develops strategies for making the world conform to our wishes. This requires constantly managing our likes and dislikes, which themselves are always changing. These strategies crystallize as various selves or voices, also known as ego. Vast amounts of mind activity is spent by these dualistic voices in our heads complaining about how the universe is not flowing the way we want it to, right now. If it doesn’t make me feel good, it is ‘not me’, and either useless or dangerous. To a dualistic mind, the world is overwhelmingly ‘not me’. (Citta vrtti nirodhah, anyone?)

However, inevitably, various trivial yet unavoidable irritations like mosquito bites, traffic jams and ‘other people’ intrude on our sense of well being. At a deeper level, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not, we all know that our own death is inevitable, some day. So are all other sorts of loss, such as the death of friends and family, loss of jobs, homes, and friendships, divorce and other relational traumas. We just never know when, we have no control over these phenomena, and often no way to even see them coming. (Sadly, literally and ironically, as I was writing this paragraph, this beautiful old oak tree in our back yard gave up the ghost.) And we (our dualistic voices or selves, posing as us) hate this! We want stability and security that a constantly changing world can never provide. Our various ‘selves’ try defend themselves by grabbing onto the good stuff and fighting off the bad.

Buddha made this struggle to fortify and defend our self-sense against the reality of being the first of his ‘Four Noble Truths’ and called it dukha or suffering. These various dualistic ‘selves’ posing as the true ‘I am’ find security by fixating on ideas, beliefs and strategies about what makes us ‘feel good’ and what makes us feel bad. This inhibits flow and it is this ‘fixation’ that is the cause of suffering.

Ultimately, this fixation is because the dualistic mind hates ambiguity. It (we) wants our truths simple and absolute, which is, of course, fundamentalism. We see this story being played out across the planet, in religion, politics, economics, education and more. President Trump is a fairly extreme version of the fixated, dualistic mind gone wild, but we all have a bit of Trump in us.

Most students who walk into a yoga class do not want ambiguity. They want to know ‘how to do the pose the right way’. We all hope yoga will offer a safe haven from the vicissitudes of life. It will, if we can take on the non-dual view. As inhabitants of a constantly changing body/mind vehicle, at a core level, we all begin as fundamentalists. But a somatic practice is a profoundly effective path to unraveling these fixations. Although our psychological and emotional ones can easily remain unseen, in the ‘shadow’ aspect of our unconscious, the physiological and physical stuck spots become immediately apparent as soon as we begin working with asana. The breath has constrictions and the muscles, joints and connective tissues have knots and blockages galore.

The dualistic mind wants to ‘get rid of’ these blockages, because they are painful, or even embarrrassing if their limitations rub up against a ‘yoga self image’ of being open and flexible. And there very well be some stored trauma that needs careful therapeutic processing. If we have a ‘fixed belief’ that the fixations are a problem to be removed, the fixations remain ‘other’ and the dualistic mind will never find freedom. However, it is possible not to get stuck here, and that is the true goal of any spiritual practice. If we can learn to see these stuck places as our teachers, guides and sources of potential growth welcome them with an open heart, a whole new realm awakens. And here is where the kidneys can be of great service to us.

As yogi-somanauts exploring the layers and levels of aliveness in our cells, fluids and organs, we occasionally discover regions that are involved with integrating many levels of life activity. Lately the cosmos has had me spending time with the kidneys, and wow, is this an amazing place to play, because the kidneys are masters of non-dual awareness!

Amazingly enough, the kidneys, as understood in Chinese Medicine, are totally at home in ambiguity because they are true Tao’ists. They rest in ultimate mystery while they act in life. As the guardians of the water element in the body, they know flow. They accept the moment as it is, and simultaneously, apply untold millions of years of intelligent learning and experience to respond to the needs of the moment. Organic well being is their goal, but realize that this is not a fixed place.

Chinese medicine is based on the non-dual wisdom of Taoism and looks to sustain a deep harmony with all levels of reality, manifest and unmanifest. If we can begin to tune into our kidney energy and the kidney fields as they operate in our moment to moment life processes, they can help us to embody the non-dual capacity to embrace ambiguity and awaken to the organic intelligence of life itself.

As a starting point the anatomical kidneys, sitting at the center of the body offer us accurate reference points to help bring feeling and perception to the deeper tissues and fluids in this key region of the body. Using breath and imagination, we can track the subtle movements (and restrictions!) of the kidneys in the three spatial dimensions. The easiest is as they move up and down following the diaphragm. Front and back, or right and left are more subtle. These spatial polarities are included in what Patanjali calls the dvandvas, the pairs of opposites that are integrated through the practice of asana. (II-48 tato dvandva anabhigatah). It is also through this integration of opposites that rajas (action) and tamas (rest) lead to sattva, the state of transparent harmony that allows non-dual insight to arise. (Later in this article we will see how rajas and tamas are analogous to the yang and yin of Tao’ism.)

In the Tao’ist model, all manifestations, or creation, arise as combinations of two primary qualities of existence known as yin and yang, representing the basic principles of inter-connectedness and constant change. As depicted in the well known symbol above, yin and yang can not be separated, and yet they appear to be opposite to each other. Yin cools, yang heats. Yin condenses, yang expands. Yin represents the feminine and all the qualities of Mother Earth. Yang represents the masculine and the qualities of Father Sky, the heavens or celestial realms. They are in an intimate relationship with each other, working as one to maintain a balance that allows creation to thrive.

Yin and yang perfectly describe the paradox of biology and aliveness itself. Life is ambiguous, sustaining itself by constantly hovering in a narrow band between too much and not enough. Variables like temperature are fairly straight forward. You can die from hypothermia, or excess fever so the body constantly adjusts its processes to balance the elements of fire (heating/yang) and water (cooling/yin) keeping the temperature at 98.6 degrees F. Most biological systems, however involve far more complex relationships involving psychological, emotional and metabolic processes with proteins, waste products, hormones, neurotransmitters, nutrients and more. But ultimately, a successful life comes down to balancing yin and yang at every possible level.

The kidneys are one of the twelve “organs” described in Chinese Medicine. There are 6 categorized as yin, involved with supporting and nourishing, with each of these paired with one of 6 yang organs involved with dynamic action. These ‘organs” are not exactly the organs aswe know in Western Medicine. Rather, they represent complex sets of relationships, interactions and modulations centered on the physical organ and the physiology recognized in the west, but also spreading out through the whole being in subtle and surprising ways. Each organ has an associated meridian line with numbered ‘cavities’ where acupuncture needles can be inserted to stimulate the inner system.

In Chinese Medicine, the kidneys play a foundational role. Kidneys are a ‘yin’ organ and associated with grounding, cooling, receiving. But, as this is a Tao’st system, kidneys have both yin and yang qualities and energies, (as do all of the organ systems).

Kidneys represent the water element and are said to be the ocean of the human body. The oceans sit at the lowest place on the earth and waters of the lakes, rivers and streams flow down to rejoin them. The sun (Fire) evaporates the ocean water, converting it to mist clouds and rain, which fall back to earth filling the lakes rivers and streams and continuing the cycle.

Kidney yin, also called primordial yin, true yin or true water, is the foundation of the yin fluid of the whole body; it moistens and nourishes the organs and tissues. Kidney yang, also called primordial yang, true yang or true fire, is the foundation of the yang qi of the whole body; it warms and promotes the functions of the organs and tissues. Thus the yin/yang balance of each organ depends upon the yin/yang balance of the kidneys.

The kidneys store also ‘jing’ or essence (there is no real western word to cover this). Jing is the primordial substance before yin and yang emerge and is said to be the seed of the life process. Pre-natal jing comes from the egg and sperm of the parents, and we might say jing involves the unique expression of the DNA and becomes a core part of a persons constitution. Adding to this in the post-natal jing, the life force essence derived from what is absorbed from the environment, including food, but also psychological, emotional and spiritual energies.

Jing or essence is not a substance but a quality or potential for growing, maturing and evolving that differentiates the living from the non-living forms of the universe. With healthy jing we age gracefully and consciously. Jing is the source of reproduction and as kidneys store jing, they have an intimate relationship with the genital organs. The kidneys and gonads emerge from the same tissues embryologically, so this is no surprise. It truly seems that the Tao’ists who first articulated the principles of Chinese Medicine had an intimate and intuitive connection to the embryological development process.

There is also a strong shamanic link to the kidneys as they connect us to our ancestors. Not only through the obvious action of the genes, but the subtle energy fields as well. My cranio-sacral guru is helping me track my paternal lineage karma through my right kidney and I am working to heal some old wounds carried for many generations by my Irish ancestors.

Jing is said to produce marrow so kidneys ‘rule the bones’. The ‘inner sea of marrow’ also includes the brain and spinal cord, so healthy kidneys lead to a healthy brain. The ears are the ‘outer opening to the kidneys’ through the sea of marrow and the brain.

Kidneys ‘grasp the qi’, which means that during the inhalation the kidneys help draw the breath into the lungs and down to the pelvic region. (We will practice this later.) Kidneys also store the ‘will’. Yang will is the dynamic assertive quality of being. Yin will is noticed in stillness, resting in irreducible mystery, or being deeply connected to the unknown and you will see an extraordinary demonstration of kidney yin later in the post.

Finally, the kidneys ‘dominate anterior and posterior orifices’, the anus and the uro-genital openings. In addition to the previously mentioned reproductive capacities, the kidneys also have water relationships with the bladder and large intestine, the two yang organs involved in excretion. Dysfunction in here may be traced back to kidney deficiencies. In the practice section, we will explore this relationship in a variation of our micro-cosmic orbit meditation we introduced in a previous post by attending to the seat of the yin at CV 1.

(An excellent introduction to the mysteries of Chinese Medicine and the source of most of this overview is ‘The Web That Has No Weaver’ by Ted Kaptchuk. Also essential to my understanding is my weekly sessions with my TCM teacher, John Hickey.)

Explorations in Energy-Flow Meditation:

Using the diagram below as a map, in any sitting posture, first establish your core line, using your breath and imagination to connect heart center with crown (GV-20) and the heavens, and root chakra (CV-1) and the earth. The center your awareness at CV-1 the seat of the yin, at the center of the perineum. You may feel this as a simultaneous and subtle tucking and untucking energy flow that meets and balances here. Let this point extend down into the ground on inhalation and spring back up on the exhalation, cultivating elasticity.

Now, imagine/feel that on the inhalation, the downward breath flows through GV-4, down to CV-1 and around the corner and up to CV-6. Let the exhalation reverse this pathway. After several breaths reverse the whole pattern. On the inhalation, feel the breath/energy flowing through CV-6 to CV-1, around the corner and up to GV-4; on the exhalation, reverse. Then, pause and rest in the stillness at the center of the balanced energy field.

These are major points for kidney yin and yang and begin to awaken what is called the lower dantian, the energy field of the lower third of the body and the root of embodied existence. No thoughts arise here. Just energy and presence. (The middle dantian is centered around the heart and the upper dantian around the midbrain. See the diamonds in the illustration above.) As described in the previous post, you can add more points to your meditation/flow tracking to explore the whole circuit. To work physiologically, as you travel back and forth through CV-1, from CV-6 to GV-4, feel both the anal and urogential regions softening and relaxing away from the center, allowing blood flow, space and presence. Visualize all of the pelvic organs breathing freely, bathing in the sea of qi. Feel the connection to the kidneys. Feel lateral space as well.

Now shift your attention, using this foundation, and begin to imagine the kidneys and lungs working together. “Grapsing the qi” feels like the descending kidneys help open the lower back lungs to have a fuller in-breath, as the back diaphragm expands and lengthens downward as well. On the exhalation, maintain the rooted feeling even as the kidneys and diaphrgam rise back up to keep the lift of the heart. In embryology, the final kidneys (the are two other sets of proto-kidneys that disappear during development) begin in the pelvis. Interestingly enough, they remain where they are and the whole lower body including the lumbar spine and pelvis grows downward, leaving the kidneys where we find them today. (see diagram above) Finally, play with the points and patterns in the above diagram in any way your intuition and imagination allows. Let it come alive for you in your own unique way.

Somatic Explorations

Embodying kidney yin and yang: From the foundation of the above practices, bring this awareness to standing. In tadasana, as you bring one knee up, feel the kidney on that side descending and the back muscles softening, without collapsing the front body. This is awakening the kidney ‘yin’. If you do this on an inhalation, feel the kidney ‘grasping the qi’ and track the breath down into the pelvis.

As you extend the leg back without tightening the spinal muscles, land on K-1 and feel the front of the kidney opening and the yang kidney energy rising up, If the spinal muscles contract, you are not releasing the kidneys. To complete this action, allow your heel to land as well, not by pushing the knee back, but by releasing the yin kidney energy down with the heel. Feel the kidney-heel connection.

Using a wall for balance, try this in ardha chandrasana. From the full pose, bring the top leg toward the chest and feel the release of the lower back muscles. Go deeper. Feel this as the kidney yin energy releasing down into the pelvis and the lower dantian. When you extend the leg back to its final position, extend from the energy of the dantian/kidneys and not by overworking the muscles. This will feel fluid and effortless.

An extreme kidney yin pose is child pose, a very quieting posture that, if your knees allow, creates a cooling and deeply quiet interior. Bring you attention to your kidneys and visualize them softening, cooling, resting. Do not struggle with the muscles. Support yourself as necessary. If you knees do not allow such deep flexion, you can do this pose sitting on a chair and resting your head on a desk, table or second chair.

All forward bending postures, if down without collapsing the front body, cultivate the cooling kidney yin energy. Uttanasana, because the legs are extending (yang), will be less cooling than child pose, and you can see the possible spectrum available with the different forward bending poses. These postures are very helpful in the heat of the summer.

Backbends, in contrast, awaken kidney yang, if done without tightening the spinal muscles. The kidney organs still flow down toward the pelvis to root the core energy and support the base, but the front of the kidneys open and release the energy trapped in the connective tissues of the mesentery and blood vessels. this flows up to help open the heart. The kidney yin is still present to balance the overall tone. In this pose the knees and hips are flexed, adding a bit more yin to the pose. The Bhoga block sits right under the kidney region to act as a fulcrum to balance yin and yang, up to the heart and down to the pelvis. There is an old constriction at the root of the skull leading to the color shift at the throat.

In supported ustrasana/supta virasana there is a stronger action on the kidneys, so more attention is required to keep the glutes engaged to help the kidney yin flowing down stream to the seat of the yin at CV-1. Because this is supported, it is a more yin pose than unsupported, and can actually allow a deep resting in stillness.

“My kapotasana is just like your savasana!” One of my all time favorite quotes, and I was there watching. B.K.S. Iyengar, in the middle of an asana demonstration at Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA, 1987. Although a fiery guy, he knew how to utilize his kidney yin will to deepen stillness, even in dynamic poses.

One crucial thing I have learned in the past year is that healthy kidney yin helps lower the blood pressure. Too much kidney yang and not enough kidney yin raises the blood pressure. I have my home blood pressure kit to verify this.

Twisting Poses affect the kidneys in differing ways, depending on what else is going on in the posture. As an example, this simple standing twist using the wall becomes a very different pose by adding a little more kidney yin action. With the bent front knee and the foot supported, the pose becomes standing marichyasana, one of the key postures used in the therapeutic classes in Pune.

In any twists of your choice, notice the way the kidneys move apart and together with the breath. Notice if one has more space and movement and try to balance them. Any in any poses, from sirsasana to savasana say hello to your kidneys. Let them speak to you, and teach you about balance and ultimate stillness.

Stable Loving Presence

Posted on April 24, 2017 by admin

Notes From the workshop at Bija Yoga in San Francisco, April, 2017, and more…

1 Intention and Attention
2 Forest and Trees
3 Lines and Circles
4 Living in Three Dimensions

Intention and Attention

Intention and attention are the twins that help us remain rooted in the present moment. Of course, we have to begin with the intention to stay awake and present. From there we attend to whatever it is that will help us realize this intention. The interplay between intention and attention will show up anywhere and anytime we find ourselves looking to go deeper into our soul journey. Stable Loving Presence is a term I am using to help organize the focus of our intentional and attentional possibilities as we continue our work to heal ourselves, human culture and our planet.

What is our intention for this class, this moment, this lifetime? Every moment, if we are staying awake, we get to choose our intention. We have no control over what may arise, in our minds or in life, but we do have the capacity to respond to whatever arises from the spacious, open present moment and not from conditioned habit. If we want to be a vehicle of sanity and kindness in an insane world, we need the intention to choose the open spaciousness of love over contracted and unconscious fear as our base for responding to the moment, every moment. If this is our life’s intention, we need to explore just what this means. When fear, or any of its related emotions such as anxiety, anger, shame and others, arises, as they will, over and over, day after day, what determines how we respond? We have to be paying attention to find out!

In general, habit rules our responses. A common reaction to difficulty or unpleasantness is to shut down/contract our heart center as a means of self defense. These challenges can come from the outer world, or from within the depths of our own psyches. We all carry many lifetimes of psychic and emotional wounds and we have ‘learned’ to ‘close down’ to keep from revisiting the old ones, or being wounded again. Unfortunately, as we all learn sooner or later, this strategy does not work in the long run. Closing down perpetuates a sense of separation, and this alienation from wholeness, and aspects of ourselves, is the true source of our suffering. We might call this the major spiritual disease of our times. Somatically, we feel this as contracted restricted energy.

Option two is to embody the negative emotion and get lost in it. We become the anger, anxiety or fear and the fullness of our world collapses. Our strengths and resources for dealing sanely with the moment become forgotten in the unconscious passion. This is happening collectively all over the planet, as people bond with others lost in similar fears and anxieties and act out in violence and stupidity. In both of these choices, we have lost the space of the present moment.

Option three is to stay present, open and alert, holding some level of spaciousness, wisdom and compassion, even as fear, in any of its variations, arises. If necessary, we respond to the demands of the moment, as best possible, with compassion for ourselves and others, and as much wisdom as we can summon, and keep going, moment by moment. This requires a certain level of emotional and spiritual strength, cultivated through practice. A spiritual practice involves stabilizing an awakened loving presence, so just physical exercise or mental training will not be sufficient. And this practice primarily involves paying attention.

When we have as our primary intention in life to cultivate stable loving presence, every moment of our lives offers a chance to practice. We are not limited to the yoga mat or meditation cushion. And every moment we get to start anew, to be a beginner in life, hopefully recognizing that we are children in this practice, still learning and prone to mistakes. But we have to be paying full attention to what is actually arising. Most of the time we pay just enough attention to get by, but most of our mental energy is engaged in our habitual ‘lost in thought mode’. The more we practice staying fully present, the easier it gets. Of course, the spiritual irony is that stable loving presence is our natural state; we just seem to have forgotten and have become lost in our own delusions of self, in all of its stories.

Through practice, or grace, the awakening from our delusion slowly emerges, but even if a major spiritual shift has not yet taken place, we all have access to the present moment and can practice staying present. “Being steady with mindfulness as an anchor for all the changes we go through is the way we practice forbearance. And you can employ this same method anywhere and anytime: just pay close attention to the detail of what is going on internally and externally. Don’t flinch, don’t run away. Trust what happens. Take your stand there.”

Forbearance is another word for equanimity, (Yoga Sutras) samatvam, (Bhagavad Gita) or emotional resilience (Pema Chodron) . Zen priest and poet Norman Fischer, writing in his fascinating book ‘Sailing Home” is describing basic Zen practice, but the mindfulness he discusses is the root of all spiritual practices. In the body, notice that while fear or anxiety contracts the energy, you can slow that process down moment by moment, if you hold presence. The fear dos not go away necessarily, and if there is trauma associated, there will be a lot of work to hold presence, but you can do this. Keep you intention clear and your attention sharp.

‘Sailing Home‘ is also a book about stories, both personal and collective, and how we can use them wisely, without ever confusing them for absolute Truth. Our spiritual journey parallels that of Odysseus on his great journey. We never know when one of the many hidden places in our unconscious, triggered by life experience, is going to jump out and create trouble. Emotional stability and resilience is a very important skill to cultivate. I am using the expression ‘stable loving presence’ as it captures the three qualities of ground, heart and openness that are the key for this resilience.

Our somatic explorations in yoga will show how we can embody and nurture stable loving presence, (SLP), through diligent, careful practice. ‘Sthira sukham asanam‘, Patanjali’s description of asana is also a description of stable loving presence. Krishna, in chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, calls this ‘sthitha prajna’, stable wisdom. SLP requires the brain to surrender to the heart, the entire body to deeply ground into Mother Earth, and hours and years of practice. Patanjali offers abhyasah, as the very first practice in the Yoga Sutras.

I-13 tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah
Practice leads to stable healthy mind states and stillness.

I-14 sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkarasevito drdha-bhumih
Stability of mind requires continuous practice, over a long period of time, without interruption, and with an attitude of devotion and love.

Deeply ingrained habits do not go away overnight, whether in an individual or a society. The neuronal connections can be strongly wired, especially if they have been repeated over and over. Laying down new neural pathways and weakening old ones take time and patience. The intention to sustain devotion and love are required to make sure the new pathways are healthy and not dysfunctional. It is quite easy to react to an unhealthy pattern by creating another unhealthy one. “”I hate myself for having all this judgment,” is a common thought/vrtti. Learning to gently and compassionately see the thought and recognize it for what it is requires discipline and patience. This then leads to the process of letting it go. This is vairagyam, described in sutra I-15. There are many vrttis floating about the mind field that are triggers for suffering. Vairagyam is sustaining a healthy and alert immune system for the mind.

Forest and Trees

We will look at what this means in life, as well as how our asana explorations can deepen the openness of our heart and the stability of our grounding. Remember to balance the view of the forest with the details of the trees in your practice. Obsessing over detail (trees) never allows you to rest in the openness of the present moment. For those of us trained in the Iyengar system, it is easy to get seduced by the endless pursuit of perfection. In the world of form there is always one more adjustment, one more instruction to remember, one more prop, one more nuance to notice. To be stuck here is the sign of a restless mind. In any asana, just choose a few points to awaken, using an energetic pattern to anchor your attention and integrate the flow, and then step back and ‘be’. If and when you become distracted, repeat the cycle. (For more detail on this way of practicing, see Samyama in Asana pt1) and pt 2.) Notice the incredible richness of the whole forest and the vast unbounded stillness at the core of our being waiting to be seen.

Getting lost in detail is a problem but to never notice the subtle possibilities available in refinement is also a great loss. Asana practice has been trivialized by most of modern culture. It is seen as a fancy exercise to complement your Pilates or spin classes, or some simple practices to get you ready for the ‘real’ yoga. To experience asana as a spiritual practice is to see asana as the whole expression of spirit in matter. How are you embodying wholeness, wisdom, compassion and delight in your organs, cells fluids, structures, moment by moment, 24/7/365? Can you feel a deep resonance in your cells with every form in the cosmos, from stars to starfish, as they embody the same depth of cosmic creativity as you? If so, you are beginning to get a sense of asana.

Practice: Roots and Stability

Sit in any comfortable position, preferably with a slight lift to get your pelvis off the floor. Feel tall without effort. Relax the breathing and feel the heart soft, open and relaxed. Rest here momentarily, softening the facial muscles and sense organs.

Now bring your attention to the bottom of the pelvic bones and feel the contact there. Roll very slightly forward and backward on the bridge or ramus between the pubic bones and sitting bones until you find the balance point where you feel a natural effortless lifting coming up from the base of the pose. Stay here without too much effort. There will be a very subtle natural oscillation as the body uses flow to remain stable. When you feel the ‘grounded’ state of the body, there will be no urge to do anything. The body and mind can rest.

Now let your attention drop into the lower abdomen, (dharana), several inches above the bottom of the pelvis, where the center of gravity of the body is located, and keep your attention here, (dhyana). Feel the breath expanding and condensing from this lower body center. Feel the brain resting and the heart open and floating above your stable base. Sit quietly and allow the body to rest in its center, its own stillness, (samadhi). Feel stable loving presence as a living vibrant state. Practice this every day. Start with 5 minutes, work up to 30 or 40.

When ready, transition to standing. Keep your attention in the lower body center with relaxed breathing. Feel tall and light. Notice that now your feet are your roots. Like the pelvic bones, roll slightly forward and backward until you find a place of balance. Although not necessary, slightly bending the knees might make it easier to feel your feet.

Now locate the points noted to the left. In Chinese medicine, these are the first points on the kidney meridian, known as K-1 or the bubbling spring. Here is where the earth element and the water element meet and these points are crucial in elegant and powerful movements of the body.

Technically, acupuncture points are actually cavities into which the point of the acupuncture needle is inserted, so this may help you imagine the K-1 as spaces. In athletics, ‘being on your toes’ means ‘be alert and ready to move in any direction’. When the K-1s are awake through both feeling and action, the body is relaxed and alert, stable and open. From the abdomen, breath into these points, charging them with sensitivity and alertness. Connect them to your soft open heart, feel the dynamic presence and you are now embodying stable loving presence.

Activate them further by walking and moving about the room, using the K-1 spaces as the brain of the movements. Change directions by pressing the floor at differing angles and feel how the whole body responds. Then return to tadasana and feel the breath connecting the feet and the entire body. Feel the inner stillness amidst the aliveness. We have the opportunity to cultivate stable loving presence with every step we take. How many of us walk unconsciously through life?

Take this practice into the world. The easiest is to be in nature, where every step can be nurtured by the grace of Mother Earth, if we are paying attention. From your feet, feel the trees, the rocks or mountains, the sand at the beach. Through your soft open heart take in the grace of all that surrounds you. The more time you spend in this state, the easier it is to sustain or rediscover it. (Hebb’s Axiom)

Continuing this practice in the human realm is a bit more challenging, as the collective human energy field is pretty traumatized. Practice with friends. Family members offer many delightful/frustrating/painful challenges to staying in loving presence.

Openness and Boundaries

As we bring our practice into the world, it is very important to understand that loving presence does not preclude the need for and skill in using flexible boundaries. As much as I love being in nature, I keep my distance from rattle snakes and poison oak. Although too much sun or too much cold and dampness is not conducive to good health, and I avoid those states whenever possible, my loving presence doesn’t take these personally. I realize that I can differentiate the needs of this individual organism, me, and act accordingly, without creating a feeling of separateness from wholeness.

The same is true in the realm of human relationships. Ideally, healthy parenting teaches us how to deeply and lovingly bond with another, and also how to clearly differentiate ourselves from all others. Our own authenticity is essential for soul health and a key component to this is learning how to set strong and yet flexible, and even dissolvable boundaries in our relationships.

Strengthening Our Ground.

Moment to moment practice in life helps stabilize our SLP. In asana, we can use the postures to also deepen and strengthen the nervous system’s potential to be strong, stable and open. Come back to tadasana, with the feet awake and the lower abdominal area breathing easily. To release some of the tension held in region of the pelvis and hip joints, to unlock the root chakra, and further ease the breath in the center of gravity, we can explore the effects of the standing poses. Tadasana allows us to feel our legs and feet as an extension of our root chakra and deeply bond with the gravitational field and Mother Earth. We now can discover how the other standing poses can liberate our tail energy and create a tri-furcated muladhara, where the two legs and a long imaginary tail give you three energy vectors to help create stronger grounding and more space and freedom. Click here to read more.

Lines and Circles

Hidden in tadasana is the horizontal circle seen here in a gyroscope. We can see the spinal axis or chakra line in the center. In the gyroscope, or any spinning top, the rotation gives stability to the vertical energy. This fundamental energetic pattern of the cosmos is seen in the solar system and the Milky Way Galaxy, both spiralic systems with a central axis. The rotation creates an expanding pull known as centrifugal force which tends to expand the circle. A complementary centripetal force gathers energy back to the center to sustain a balance and contain the energy. We can use twisting poses mentioned in the standing pose article referenced above to find this energetic field in our own bodies.

Living in Three Dimensions

If we take asana to the next level, we begin to feel our three dimensional being extends out into the cosmos in all directions, intersecting with layers and levels of reality we may never have noticed. Please click here for more on this.

Stay awake, grounded and openhearted and let life flow through you. Be the vehicle of social and spiritual change by living this, as best you can, moment to moment.

Emaho!