Upayas for Sacred Somatic Journeying

Posted on July 12, 2017 by admin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.