Pranayama: Cleansing the Doors of Perception

Posted on October 16, 2015 by admin

“I then asked Ezekiel, why he eat dung, & lay so long on his right & left side? he answer’d, the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite; this the North American tribes practise, & is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratification?
The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.

For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and when he does the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite and corrupt.

This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.

But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away and displaying the infinite which was hid.

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.”

From The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake

William Blake, writing in the 1790’s, was probably unaware of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, but he intuited the need for an inner transformation of perception to awaken humans to the mysteries and sacredness of Divine Creation. Aldous Huxley, Jim Morrison, shamans in many cultures, and many in the baby boomer generation discovered that certain chemical compounds dramatically transformed the inner landscape and opened certain doors to mystical places. As mentioned in the previous post, shamans also use drumming and rattling to induce a shamanic state that opens mystical channels to the infinite. Yogis of old developed an inner science of practices without chemicals or strange side-effects to also open up the mystical world. These practices are called asana and pranayama, or ‘hatha yoga’.

As mentioned in the last post, Patanjali has four sutras addressed to pranayama and these address energetic transitions and phase shifts that Blake was referring to as ‘salutary and medicinal’. They also offer the possibility of preparing the consciousness for shamanic journeying and begin by linking pranayama to asana. Patanjali waits until the Vibhuti Pada to go into the shamanic realms where he unfold various siddhis or mystical powers that arise when ‘samyama’ is turned toward various aspects of nature, but serious hatha yogis learn sooner or later that pranayama can be a gateway.

The Yoga Sutras aim for a ‘masculine – trancendence’ form of spirituality, with the final goal as ‘kaivalya‘, where Purusha separates from Prakriti and rests alone. This, of course is a very important step in the process of awakening, but the modern world requires an integral, non-dual spirituality that requires proficiency in differentiating (not separating) the deep infinite stillness of Purusha, but also proficiency in navigating and integrating the depths of Prakriti, Mother Nature, the world of spirit, and then bringing both together moment to moment, becoming cosmic channels of healing for our planet.

II- 49 tasmin sati shvaasa-prashvaasayor gati-vicchedah praanaayaamah
With that attained, (the mastery of asana) begins the exploration of more subtle life energies through regulating the natural flow of inhalation and exhalation.

Mastery of asana includes what Patanjali describes in the previous three sutras:

II-46: refining sthira and sukham, aka the balancing of weight and lightness, ground and sky, of movement and stillness. This transforms our bodies into three dimensional perceptual fields of fluid sensitivity moving consciously through the fourth dimension, time. Building perception and learning to balance opposing forces as we move through life, and as life moves through us, are key here.

II-47: Relaxing all effort and becoming absorbed into the cosmic field, aka ananta, or ishvara: In the Samadhi Pada, Patanjali puts a strong emphasis on surrendering into the infinite, Ishvara Pranidhana. This returns here as a deep trust of the biological and cosmological wisdom gained from billions of years of evolution. It is very easy to impose onto Nature as we have been programmed by modern culture to do so. Will power or discipline, known as tapas, abhyassa and vairagyam in the sutras, should be applied to help inhibit our pathological habits, not to impose our will onto Nature.

II-48: Recognizing unity in all duality, so that all layers and levels of yin and yang are seen to be integral to, not opposed to each other. What appear to be opposing forces are actually two complementary forces acting in harmony to allow growth and complexity to emerge. When we find the fulcrums, the places of rest amidst the movements, and can stay there, stabilize our attention there (abhyassa), the next levels of subtle perception can emerge from the deep background. Energetic wholeness is a place of easy, effortless transition of attention through the planes or frequencies open to our attunement. Asana actually has very little to do with exercise, gymnastics, stretching or relaxation, not that that these aren’t fun, or cannot be very useful to creating a reasonable level of health. Asana is phase one of preparation for the deeper inner journeys the old yogis, shamans and mystics had been taking for eons. Pranayama is phase two.

II- 50 baahyaabhyantara-stambha-vrttih desha-kaala-sankhyaabhih paridrsto diirgha-suukshmah
The movements of breath are outward, inward and restrained. Practice involves allowing the stages of the breath to become longer and more subtle as you explore where the breath is felt inside the body, how longs the movements take, and how many cycles you can perform safely.

If we have a strong felt sense of our innate fluidity, breath is felt as waves rolling through the ocean of our body. We can begin to dissolve the stuck places that inhibit even smoother flow of these waves and also begin to allow the natural pauses to spontaneously lengthen. Beginners in yoga would be off doing asana and just feeling the breath in restorative poses, building perception without force. Then inhalation is used to train the ribs shoulder girdle and pelvic girdle to expand and the spine to lengthen form the inside outward. Exhalation is used to train the dome of the diaphragm to stretch up, lifting and widening while the perimeter lines lengthen downward. Imagine the diaphragm as the dome of a parachute, with weight pulling the cords down and a constant upward pressure lifting the center of the dome upward. This uplifting is constant as the heart sits atop the dome.

An average non-yoga trained person inhales by pushing down on the center of the diaphragm, flattening out the dome, and exhales by collapsing the chest down onto the lungs. This inevitably leads to the ‘pear shape’ body you see in many middle age humans accompanied by a diaphragm that moves less and less. For this person, the diaphragm needs to learn how to move more and practices diaphragmatic breathing or belly breath. The abdominal wall moves up and down as the diaphragm disentangles. Hopefully the exhalation comes from the rebounding and restrengthening of the abdominal wall, pushing the diaphragm back up toward its natural dome shape. This type of breathing is also often taught to singers. Yogic breathing takes this several steps further in sophistication

II- 51 baahyaabhyantara-visayaaksepii caturthah
The fourth (in addition to outward, inward and restrained) surpasses the limits of outward and inward.

This suspension of the breath is spontaneous and not the result of the previous mentioned kumbhaka practices. In other words, there is no sense of ‘practicing pranayama’, but of resting in deep neurological stillness. It is from here that we begin to feel the more subtle realms of energy and psychic presence and surrender to the deeper layers of fluid movement. Instead of waves, there are felt as much much slower tidal rhythms that we will discuss in a future posting on craniosacral practice.

TII- 52 tatah ksiiyate prakaashaavaranam
Then the covering of illumination is weakened.

The covering of illumination, the “narrow chinks of his cavern,” is weakened, or cleansed upon the refinement of the art of pranayama. What might this mean from a neuroscientific perspective? An article in Scientific American on the how psychedelics act in the brain states: “In effect, psilocybin appears to inhibit brain regions that are responsible for constraining consciousness within the narrow boundaries of the normal waking state, an interpretation that is remarkably similar to what Huxley proposed over half a century ago.” (Aldous Huxley, is his famous book, “The Doors of Perception” spoke of his experience with mescaline.) In many ways, the waking state restrains consciousness, primarily as a survival mechanism in the modern word. You would not want to be driving a car or operating heavy machinery while having a shamanic experience. You might also have trouble doing your taxes or writing a legal brief with the mystical channels open. Jill Bolte Taylor, author of ‘My Stroke of Insight” had her left brain citta vrttis nirodhahed by a stroke that left her in an ecstatic state of right brain bliss. But her barely functioning left brain saved her life.

Pranayama, being not quite so dramatic, inhibits mind activity by calming down the reactivity of the autonomic nervous system through the balancing of the fire and water elements. In modern culture, the water element is totally neglected, with fire and air predominant. We have a planet full of angry people, full of deluded ideas and belief systems, unable to feel their own aliveness, never mind anyone else’s.

The Practice: Last posting was about refining our perception of the breath. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. Today we will begin to differentiate ribs from diaphragm, in perception as well as action. You can do this in any seated position, provided you are aligned, upright and comfortable, or lying down in any supported restorative posture. When lying down you gain spinal relaxation, but lose mobility in the ribs. In sitting, you have more mobility in the ribs, but more potential effort in the spinal column.

Step 1: Relax and let the normal breathing settle. Let your heart be light, open and spacious. Get a feel for how you are this moment. Soften all unnecessary tension, especially in the face, neck, and throat. Drop the groins and release the anal mouth. (We’ll get to mula bandha later. Most people hold way too much autonomic tension here and the nervous system cannot shift to the deep parasympathetic tone needed with a tight asshole.)

Step 2: Imagine you have bird wings and let the inhalation begin with a widening of the ribs, as if you were extending your wings sideways. As best possible keep the diaphragm relaxed so the ribs can work. Feel the pelvis widening simultaneously.

Step 3: On the exhalation, let the ribs and wings wait a bit and the belly squeeze the diaphragm up into the center of the chest to initiate the exhalation. As the diaphragm ascends, gradually allow the ribs and wings to release back to center, without the ribs sinking.

Step 4: repeat, slowly, mindfully.

Step 5: As the ribs widen on inhalation, feel the perimeter of the diaphragm, where it attaches to the ribs, being drawn inward and downward, like the cables on a hot air balloon. Imagine the diaphragm connected through the pelvic bones all the way to the feet. Keep the center of the diaphragm always lifting up through the heart, so the heart floats lightly throughout the inhalation.

Step 6: Now on the exhalation, as best possible, keep the ribs expanding, resisting the urge to exhale by dropping the chest. Let the fibers of the diaphragm lengthen up and the dome of the diaphragm expand higher and high upward to push out the air. Over time, the ribs will get more expansive and the diaphragm longer and more elastic. Slowly release the ribs back onto the uplifted diaphragm without dropping the sternum, like a bird drawing in its wings while keeping its chest open.

Step 7: and any time in this process, pause and let the normal breathing return. Notice any tension sneaking in. When you are finished, lie down and digest to sensations. Imprint the felt differences between ribs and diaphragm, and then rest as deeply as possible. Feel the spaces between breaths, thoughts, bones and organs. Let time slow down, space expand and see what arises from the depths of stillness.

In you next asana practice, keep feeling the differentiation. Which poses help open the ribs? Which help stretch the diaphragm? Which compromise the breath?

A Shamanic Cosmology

Posted on September 29, 2015 by admin

Cultures throughout history have had some sort of cosmology; that is, a story or model, or belief system that defines the origins, structures and functioning of reality as experienced by that culture. The modern era’s cosmology is a quirky cultural stew of scientific rationalism, religious dogma, and enlightened spiritual insight. My vote is for an enlightened spiritual insight which arises from an ongoing, direct and intimate contact with the world as it arises moment to moment. The question here becomes what do we mean by “the world as it arises?” The shamans have a very interesting view on ‘the world’, feeling all of creation is spiritual, and that much of the world is unseen to the human eye.

Reality: An Overview

From a shamanic perspective, reality has two fundamental expressions: the seen, and the unseen. The seen is what the average human would recognize as the physical world. It includes the sky, with clouds, stars and planets, mountains and the rest of the continents, oceans, rivers, lakes and streams, weather, and living beings of all sorts, etc, etc. All of these are experienced through the five senses and we are in constant relationship to this world in our daily activities.

The unseen can also be called the dream or spirit world and and has two primary levels, the lower and upper. The lower realms include the spirits of the earth, including plant and animal spirits as well as spirits associated with rocks, rivers, weather etc. The shamanic animist reality sees all creation is being imbued with a spiritual as well as a physical expression. (Thomas Berry’s ‘Principle 3’ acknowledges these two levels.) The lower realm, or underworld is often the destination of the dead, where human souls go in the afterlife. There are many fascinating tales and teachings about what happens to souls when they get there.

The upper realms include gods, angels, devas, celestial beings, saints, ascended masters, and spiritual guides. In most cases, heaven is the highest reward, and place of eternal beauty, health and happiness and reserved for those departed souls who have passed strict qualification tests, either on the earthly plane or in the underworld. These tests vary across cultures, but they all weed out the unworthy.

This three part reality is almost universal: The heavenly realms, the earth where the action or karma of our lives take place, and the underworld, and the nature of these realms varies tremendously from culture to culture. The modern Western world is currently dominated by the patriarchal monotheistic religions who were terrified of the power of the shamans and thus redefined the lower realms as hell and murdered nearly 100,000 women through the middle ages.

The Shamanic Journey

The modern shaman uses ‘technology’ to enter ‘altered’ states of consciousness, travel to the lower and upper realms, acquire help and helpers in the form of spirit helpers or teachers, and information, to help bring healing to the middle realm of action, in the body, in culture and throughout the planet. The entry point of the journey is through the body, or body soul, aka physical soul, where perception takes place, and the ‘technology’ is to use a drum or rattle to rhythm entrain the brain waves to fire at the Theta or 3 – 8 HZ. “Theta brainwaves occur most often in sleep but are also dominant in the deep meditation. It acts as our gateway to learning and memory. In theta, our senses are withdrawn from the external world and focused on signals originating from within. It is that twilight state which we normally only experience fleetingly as we wake or drift off to sleep. In theta we are in a dream; vivid imagery, intuition and information beyond our normal conscious awareness. It’s where we hold our ‘stuff’, our fears, troubled history, and nightmares.” (from www.brainworksneurotherapy.com). The drumming or rattling have to be accurate and consistent to sustain theta for 20 minutes or so. We will go further into some of the protocols and process of the journey in the future.

Our Practice

In the last post, we began the process of differentiating the felt sense and movement possibilities related to the lower six chakras. Today we will go a little further with this exploration. Imagine a ladder; two parallel lines linked by six horizontal lines. Imagine a circle or sphere in the center of each rung, and these will represent the chakras. Now, lying down in savasana, find the chakras and the two parallel lines running down the right and left sides of your body. Visualize and feel these two lines passing through key places aside the different chakras: inner ears, two sides of the jaws, two lungs, two kidney, two pelvic bones, two legs/feet. these are just a few suggestions. Find what awakens in your own perceptual field.

Now imagine the space between the chakras becoming like a frisbee and let the energy spiral back and forth, ascending and descending around each of the chakras.you may begin to notice something that looks like this. Enjoy the ride. This is the ‘fishbody’ we have been working with for many years now. Smooth out the spaces. You are liable to find places on the sides of one or more chakras where the energy is sticky, or just plain stuck. In that moment, the habit is to ‘contract’ something to force the issue. Inhibit this urge. Contraction vrtti nirodha. Relax. Use imagination and visualization to help open channels.

Now return to the ladder image and find the points where the rungs intersect the vertical. Imagine all twelve points breathing together and feel. Imagine the heart beating simultaneously in all twelve points and feel what arises. This may take some practice and patience. Now take this into your asana practice and discover these points and energetic patterns anew. Let them dance you, reshape you, awaken you from deep within. Now go out into nature and do the same. Feel nature dancing with you. Be open to surprise, awe and wonder.

Further Reading: “A Bowl of Light” by Hank Wesselman, and all material at sharedwisdom.com.

(It was an amazing weekend!)

Inhabiting the Chakras: Finding Space

Posted on September 21, 2015 by admin

In the previous post we discussed the triune soul as a habitat, a place to live in harmony with the whole of creation, and what is means to begin to inhabit these three realms. Here we will explore the chakras as habitats, ie actual locations with structures, energies, ecologies and relationships. You will need your imagination, the ability to stay immersed in the energetic world for 20 minutes or more, a comfortable pose or place to be, (supported savasana) and some understanding of anatomy. The intention is to evoke new sensations and perceptions, awaken more integration in movement open to the intuitive revelations that arise from the subtle realms of the body.

To inhabit the inner spaces, for a somanaut, requires a deepening increase in perceptual sensitivity. For our work with the chakras, this begins by learning to differentiate the various structures and elements that allow freedom of movement from the inner most layers of the body. An important note about the chakras before we go further: chakras are portals or gateways into ultimate mystery, and thus cannot be pinned down with any meaningful accuracy. What we can do is recognize their possible effects upon the structures, energy patterns and movements, and explore the sensations that arise as we proceed inward. Each of us will have unique experiences, so when I describe what I feel, that is only a starting point for your own explorations. Your experience may be quite different, but equally valid.

It is my own inner experience, and from what I see again and again in teaching, there are certain areas in the body when structures are con-fused, or stuck together. Thus we cannot differentiate the various components that make up that area. From a chakra perspective, the 1st and 2nd are quite undifferentiated, as are the 3rd and 4th, and the 5th and 6th. Our perceptual field and capacity to feel movements does not quite align with the model above. So we will begin by looking at ways to open up some space along the chakra line. The most subtle, but very powerful is to work from the level of ‘field effects’. The magnetic field is familiar enough for all to use, and the basic rules are opposite charges attract and like charges repel. If we imagine the 1st and 2nd chakras both carry a positive charge, the 3rd and 4th both carry a negative charge, and the 5th and 6th both carry a positive charge, some interesting movements begin to awaken.

Lie in a supported savasana, knees elevated to help keep the pelvis neutral. Imagine the legs, femurs to feet slowly oozing away from the trunk of the body. Imagine the pelvic bones releasing laterally very slightly to release the sacro-illiacs and then flowing away with the legs. Finally imagine your tail bone slowly lengthening and releasing in the same direction as the legs. Visualize the central organizing activity of all of these as the 1st chakra being repelled downward (away from the head) by the 2nd or sacral chakra. The sacrum moves in the opposite direction, upwards toward the heart or 4th chakra. Find the space that opens between 1 and 2 and rest in the depths of that space. Feel whatever sensations arise, looking for pulsation, vibration or slow wave motion as clues for the larger energy patterns. What is happening in the fluid body, through the blood vessels and the extra-cellular fluids? What happens to the lower lumbar discs, nerves, vertebrae? What other realms are there waiting to be noticed in the deep background?

Now bring your attention to the center of your diaphragm and imagine the 3rd chakra just below and the 4th chakra just above. Now add a negative charge to each and let them push apart a bit more. Feel the negatively charged 3rd chakra descending toward the rising positively charged second chakra. Feel the negatively charged 4th rising up toward the 5th chakra/throat region. Feel the organs and deep connective tissue structures of the mesentery, mediastinum, coronary and falciform ligaments melting, softening, opening. Follow the blood flow and the deeper rhythms of the body.

Finally, bring your attention to the soft palate at the back of the mouth. Imagine a positively charged 5th chakra below and a positively charged 6th chakra above, gently pushing apart. The positive 5th descends toward the negatively rising 4th, while the positive 6th rises toward the crown chakra just above the top of the skull. Soften inner ears and the backs of the eye sockets. Release the tongue, teeth, gums and jaws. Feel the field generated by all of these penetrating through the cells of the body.

Notice that the 5th, 3rd and 1st chakras are all moving downward slightly. This follows the natural flow of peristalsis and the gastro-intestinal tract energy. By unblocking the first chakra, back pressure is relieved from the anal mouth so grounding can continue at all levels. The unblocking down of the 3rd chakra allows the esophagus (and the vagus nerve) a free run down through the diaphragm at the esophogeal hiatus all the way to the anus to help to prevent or heal hiatal hernias here. At fifth chakra, where swallowing begins, the descending energy helps release tension in the neck and shoulders, the vocal cords, and the floor of the brain.

The ascending currents of the 2nd, 4th and 6th chakras resonate with the cranio-sacral system, with the heart chakra synchronizing with the cranial and sacral regions. In a future posting, we will explore the cranio-sacral system in more depth, including the three layers of the tide. In the overall field of the body, there are always ascending and descending currents seeking dynamic balance and harmony, within and without the body/mind/cosmic field.

Notice also that as the 2nd and 3rd chakras are drawn toward each other, they combine to help strengthen the lumbar region and integrate its movements with the sacrum and thoracic regions. Similar in the cerivical region when the 5th and 4th combine to support and integrate movements of the neck with the rest of the body. Humans seem to be the only creatures who have lost the inherent liquidity of their spinal columns, including flexibility and subtle integration. The upright posture is only partially to blame as we can restore some of the integration by waking up and inhabiting the spine and chakras again.

We can use our supported bridge pose to deepen the sense of space and expansion along the chakra line and through the chakra spaces and we will use a great new prop designed by old friend Randy Dean, the Bhoga Block. These blocks are hollow, making them lighter and easier to move around. They have a squared end for standing upright, and have curved surfaces that allow a much more organic experience of the back-bending support we can use to open 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and 6. Experiment where you place them, and which direction the square end faces. You can use a single block, or a pair, so there are many different possibilities to support, perceive, awaken and integrate.

Here I am using two blocks placed between 2 and 3, the weight of the tail and chakra 1 inviting chakra 3 to follow the downward flow to the feet, opening the liver and root of the diaphragm, among other structures and energies. The feet gently pressing out, following the direction of 1, create a rebound at 2 sending it up toward the heart. As soon as possible, let the repelling/attracting magnetic fields take over the work and you can rest in the stillness between and around the field lines.

With the blocks higher up, three is starting to sneak back up, creating a slight break in the field, but 4 is releasing up lifting the sternum, opening the shoulders. The blockage at 5 is slightly more pronounced leading to redness. Inner adjustments are needed, but the inner glue is beginning to melt. Fire and water are beginning to work more coherently, but it is a work in progress. Finding the magnetic field lessens the strain tremendously.

By removing the blanket under the head, I can get more differentiation at 5-6, especially where the cranial bones sit on the neck at skull – C1, the atlanto-occipital joint. My crown chakra opens into the floor to help 6 open into the back of the skull. 3 still needs to move toward the feet.

To bring in rotation, we can use the basic standing wall twist. Now that we are vertical, the chakra line and gravity have a radically different relationship. The role of the feet in grounding the energy is enhanced when we can relax down into them, receiving Mother Earth effortlessly. The ascending energy is then more internal. In this photo, there is still congestion at the back of 4, the origin of the wings. but there is lift rising up through the skull. In rotation, the chakra spaces expand radially outward, perpendicular to the chakra line that is the central axis of the body. We will look at this more deeply next week. Or soon! Our shamanic weekend at Esalen is coming so the next blog might be about our experiences journeying to new places.