Be self-controlled! Give! Be compassionate! From the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad V:2
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Much yoga practice begins with mindful breathing; the relationship of breath and movement is an important one. Mindful breathing during Postures/Asanas (and life in general) is the first step in our Energy Control (Pranayama) practice.
There are four ways that we can relate our Postures and our Breath: we can 1) move the body and the breath, 2) hold the body still while moving the breath, 3) hold the body still while holding the breath, and 4) move the body while holding the breath. Each has its own benefits. 1) Movement the Body and the Breath is the most commonly known "yoga" practice in the west. It is called Vinyasa (especially in the Krishnamacharya lineage) - each movement of the body is linked with a complimentary inhale or exhale. This category of Posture practice begins the process of breath awareness, links the mind to the body, begins to purify the energy channels of the body and therefore generates tremendous energy and strength. 2) Holding the Body Still While Moving the Breath is powerful for the energy body and mind. It creates a "lock" with the entire body, shifting circulation and endocrine flow as well as strengthening the nervous system. When holding the body still while moving the breath, the body's energy circulates strongly. This category of Posture practice builds great concentration, focus and quiets the mind. 3) Holding the Body Still While Holding the Breath is often called a "lock" or "bandha." It creates vivid stillness in the mind and connects the energy of the body to the energy of the universe. This practice is used to purify the body on ever more subtle levels and to draw focus to the motion of the mind so it may be stilled. After we still the body and breath, stillness or Concentration (Dharana) of the mind is the next step on the path of Yoga. 4) Holding the Breath While Moving the Body takes great awareness and control of the body, energy and mind. It is the most advanced of these four practices. Once we can hold the Breath in stillness along with the Body (as in #3), we may decide to deepen our energetic control by moving the body without letting the breath or mind move. This practice creates powerful force in the physical and energetic bodies that can push up against a stilled mind and create energy disturbances if the yogi is not careful. If the mind can remain still and clear, the yogi deepens his or her connection with the divine. At the beginning we do the postures to serve the body. We make the muscles strong and the joints mobile. At some point the relationship inverts and the body exists in service of the postures. We no longer do the poses to strengthen our abs; we have strong abs to enable us to do the poses.
This begs the question: what do the poses serve? What is the purpose of the postures once they are no longer done in service of the body? The goal of the postures becomes the same as the goal of yoga itself: to remove suffering. Our unhappiness is made in our minds where we create little universes for ourselves and try to rule them. We try to be the best and the most popular and have the most stuff, or whatever the rules of our ego-driven worlds are. We try to keep control. The path to happiness is not by conquering our own mind-made universe, but by realizing its nature as a figment of our minds and gradually eradicating it. This is where self-awareness, honesty and meditation come in. The postures become a place where we can settle our bodies, sometimes for long periods of time, and quiet the mind. They become points of focus. Each posture has a different point, and when we do the posture our mind can focus and rest there. The poses become practice for the mind in concentration and longer periods of shiftlessness. "When the five senses are stilled, when the mind
Is stilled, when the intellect is stilled, That is called the highest state by the wise. They say yoga is this complete stillness In which one enters the unitive state, Never to become separate again. If one is not established in this state, The sense of unity will come and go." The Katha Upanishad, Part 2, Chapter 2, Verse 10-11. Wind, I cannot control the wind
Sun, I cannot control the sun River, I cannot control the river Rain, I cannot control the rain Earth, I cannot control the earth except in small handfuls or shovelfuls Birds, I cannot control the birds Brother, I cannot control my brother Insects, I cannot control the insects I have not much control in this world But I can control my thoughts and my actions I can strive toward peace and happiness Humility is easy if I just open my eyes and look around me "The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Dhammapada are among the earliest and most universal messages... sent to inform us that there is more to life than the everyday experience of our senses. The Upanishads are the oldest, so varied that we feel some unknown collectors must have tossed into a jumble all the photos, postcards and letters from this world that they could find, without any regard for source or circumstance. Thrown together like this, they form a kind of ecstatic slide show - snapshots of towering peaks of consciousness taken at various times by different observers and dispatched with just the barest kind of explanation. But those who have traveled those heights will recognize the views: 'Oh, yes, that's Everest from the northwest - must be late spring. And here we're south, in the full snows of winter'" (The Upanishads, introduction and translation by Eknath Easwaran).
When I read this paragraph in Easwaran's introduction to The Upanishads, especially the last couple sentences, I was overwhelmed by emotion and recognition. My eyes filled with tears. For much of my life I have felt familiar with the teachings and explanations of Eastern philosophy and spirituality regarding human consciousness. I have never been able to explain or understand my familiarity and I have always thought myself a bit of a hippie or a kook. According to this description, my familiarity must come from some sort of recognition. Something within me has experienced these things before. Could it be a past life or the universal consciousness? I don't know, and there I go sounding like a hippie yogi kook again. One of my biggest challenges as a developing practitioner of yoga is my shifting consciousness. I have fewer words to describe the experiences that are occurring within myself. And I am at a complete loss about how to explain or guide my fellow Midwesterners. Pranayama exercises are putting me in touch with the nervous system throughout my entire body. I am witnessing and experiencing more pure energy from the earth, the atmosphere and within the body. These are things for which I have no vocabulary. "I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.... Truth being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you understand that, then you will understand how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is a purely personal matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountaintop to the valley. If you would attain to the mountaintop you must pass through the valley, climb the steps, unafraid of dangerous precipices. You must climb upwards to truth... I maintain that no organization can lead man to spirituality... The moment you follow someone you cease to follow truth... I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free."
- From a speech by Krishnamurthi, excerpted from Health, Healing, and Beyond by TKV Desikachar One small bend that wasn't there before
One breath that's a little deeper One act of kindness that we would have neglected One word of truth when we would have been silent In this way, bend by bend, breath by breath, kindness by kindness, truth by truth We transform May my practice and life be filled
With honest effort and humility Where is the delusion when the Truth is known?
Where is the disease when the Mind is clear? Where is death when the Breath is controlled? Therefore, surrender to Yoga. - T. Krishnamacharya |
This journal honors my ongoing experience with the practice, study and teaching of yoga.
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