Notes From Detroit: Jan 2016 (pt 1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

How does this relate to hatha yoga ?

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

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

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

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

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

IMG_8006 In this variation of supported bridge pose, the block provides a fulcrum to balance the weight and action of the legs with that of the torso and arms. At a more subtle level, each finger and toe can change the energy field, and then we can add kidneys, liver, bladder, heart and more as organizing centers of perception and action. Where in the organic field of the body, in the living matrix of fluid and connective tissue, is there freedom, vibrancy, aliveness, harmony, balance, bliss? Where is there dullness, unconsciousness, thickness, denseness? Where is there aggression, overacting, overly gripping the muscles? Can I move the energies around, through actions of feet, legs, kidneys, liver, arms, fingers, eyes, ears, tongue, skin, integrated through intelligence, to build more harmony (sattva) and less dullness, less aggression.

IMG_7948Sliding and Gliding: Option 1
In standing poses, we need to feel that we are in balance, moving in, moving out, or sustaining the pose. As in ardha chandrasana above, there is usually one leg that carries more weight and more grounding energy than the other. They may have to shift. IMG_7949IMG_7950Here is a simple way to play with this. Start on one leg with the other knee bent into the chest. Sitting into the standing leg to ground more completely, begin the extend the bent leg sideways, downward and slightly backward, with a slight internal rotation to keep the DFL (Deep Front Line) engaged. When the leg lands, balance the weight evenly between the two feet. From here you can either shift the weight back to the first leg, or shift to the landing leg and bring the original standing leg to the chest. Reverse.

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

IMG_0434 (1)Refining the Articulation of the Arms: Here we play with the dvandvas, the opposite actions to further differentiate the various bones of the hands, arms and shoulders. This will help refine both action and perception throughout the area. There are many steps, but the basic action remains the same all the way through.

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

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

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

Pranayama: Dissolving Structures

The Practice: As we are still laying the groundwork for the pranayama practice, we will hold off on discussing the bandhas. If these are familiar to you from your own practice, feel free to add at your own discretion.

Last post we explored differentiating and integrating ribs and diaphragm, the two major structural movers of respiration, in perception and action. It is important to be able to feel the location, shape and movements of these 3-dimensional structures to help make sense of how and where we store tension, and how and where we breathe more effortlessly. This practice can last a lifetime, but today we change our focus to look at two volumes or energy centers where deeper levels of balance and opening can be explored. The movements centered on these volumes are radial expanding and condensingUnknown, as represented by the movements of the Hoberman sphere.

The outbound or centrifugal force seeks balance with the inbound or centripetal force. In the dynamic of the human body, this balance of energies is called ‘tensegrity’. The center point is always still. Although we will feel ribs and diaphragm in the background, our attention will be directed to the energy moving, not the physical structures.

Imagine two spheres of energy, space, action and perception in the body. The first is centered behind the navel at the bi-furcation of the aorta and vena cava. The second is centered at the sino-atrial node, at the back of the heart, just about in the center of the chest. Hopefully they will overlap in their expansions, with the area of overlap being centered on the 3rd chakra area of liver, stomach, spleen and kidneys.

Begin lying in a supported savasana or pranayama position. (In supported pranayama the spine is supported with a pranayama bolster or accordion folded blanket.) In your Unknown-1imagination dissolve all structures, from skin to cells. Just a vibrant energy field sustains your attention. Starting by allowing the navel center to be the volume for inhalation and exhalation, allowing the heart center to be relaxed and receptive. In radial expansion, the in-breath moves outward in all directions passing through the body, outside the body, as far as comfortable without force or strain. When the limit of expansion is reached, allow a gradual condensing of the energy back into the navel center. Allow the inbound energy to travel at roughly the same speed as the outbound energy. At the two endpoints, dissolve all tension so the pause becomes a gateway to the infinite stillness.

You will, of course, feel the various tissues as the energy moves in and out. Try not to react from them, but discover how the energy can pass through them, transforming your perception from density to fluidity. Skin, muscle, bone, and all other connective tissues can feel fluid when open and relaxed. When the fluid body awakens, we discover billions of years of wisdom ready to nurture us.

Now, shifting you attention up to the heart center, repeat the expanding and condensing from hear, this time allowing the navel center to be relaxed and receptive. This may be a more challenging action as the ribs energy may not be familiar with much expansion. Asana practice helps here. As the heart energy expands on the in breath, let the face/skull/brain softly receive this without reacting or trying to help. The feeling is that the brain is actually exhaling, melting into the expanding heart. On the slow release of exhalation, try to not let the ribs help by squeezing or dropping. Just the energy flowing back to the center is all you need. Feel the heart, diaphragm and liver melting, as well as ribs and spine. Be the ocean and feel the waves, currents and tides.

Afterwards you’ve completed your explorations around heart and navel centers, map your inner world from what you have learned. Where are you more perceptive, conscious, fluid relaxed? Where are you denser, more resistant, or even un-consciousness? Remember, once you discover the unconsciousness areas, they are no longer unconscious! Just con-fused.

Unknown-2Next, try the same explorations while sitting. How does this change in gravity affect the movements around the two centers. Finally, do this standing in tadasana with the hands resting on the wall for support and extra grounding. Lying, sitting and standing are the three most common positions for the human body. Discovering how posture and breathing are related is the the first step on the journey of hatha yoga. We will soon see that sitting is the ideal for deeper breathing work, as it is more grounded than standing and more alert that lying down. Eventually, the majority of the practice will be done sitting.

Pranayama: Cleansing the Doors of Perception

    William_Blake_by_Thomas_Phillips “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 Unknowntrouble 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?