So, this week we'll return to the practice of "roots" and living centred - like a tree - releasing whatever is in the way of us living in a truly responsive present moment Presence....
From Rumi: Be like a tree; let the dead leaves drop
Before we move to the chakras associated with the upper half of the body, before we arrive at the heart, let's connect back to our roots. Spiritual practices can, in my opinion, sometimes focus unduly on "opening the heart". How can we do so, what can "heart opening" really mean, if the foundation on which the heart rests is not centred and stable?
So, this week we'll return to the practice of "roots" and living centred - like a tree - releasing whatever is in the way of us living in a truly responsive present moment Presence.... From Rumi: Be like a tree; let the dead leaves drop This week as the sun begins to warm, we explore third chakra (manicure) associated with the solar plexus area, and with the element of fire. We'll explore core connection to breath, the inner strength and courage that allow us to act according to our values, and movements that nourish and enliven the abdomen.
Our reading is from Rumi: Let go of loneliness; the Universe is inside you. Let go of acting small; we are the Universe in ecstatic motion. Set your life on fire, and seek those who fan your flames. This week we move to the second chakra, Svadhisthana, a subtle body energy centre considered to be "located" in the area below the navel and in front of and above the upper sacral edge. This chakra is associated with the element of water, as well as creativity and emotional intelligence. Our reading is from Rumi:
It’s good to leave each day behind, like flowing water free of sadness. Yesterday is gone and its tale is told. Today new seeds are growing ... For the next session (and the one following), we'll continue to explore our lived experience of the chakras (energetic "wheels" in the subtle body - rhymes with woodchuck). For the next few weeks we'll begin in the root (base of spine) chakra (muladhara), exploring grounding, and the element associated with this chakra, Earth.
Our readings this session relate to the elements associated with the various chakras, and come from the great meditator Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) Perhaps [we] are searching among the branches for what only appears in the roots (Rumi) Next, the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra leaves breathing practice for a time, and moves to an exploration of chakras (pronounced with a hard ch like change - meaning galaxy or wheel, like a potter's wheel). These energy centres sensed by the ancients often correspond with biological nerve plexus in our human body. The text offers their exploration as another way we might know ourselves as Life/Divine in daily life.
For the next few weeks, we'll engage yoga asana and meditations to stimulate these centres, and explore our own experience of them, step by step (krama) from root to crown. From Lorin Roche: Trace the river of life [kundalini] that flows through you, the luxuriously rising energies, gradually touching each of these centres along the spine. Savour every shimmer of colour along the way. Enter each area tenderly, loving as you go, finally, gently, dissolving in the crown of the head. Then above, in the space above the head, the great dawn* * twelve fingers/three fists above the head (dvadashanta), the experience of Bhairava (luminous Reality) The next few weeks we'll dive into the fourth practice verse. Keep in mind that this text is a compendium of different meditative practices for different temperaments, times of life, etc. so if we've worked with a practice that really speaks to you in the previous weeks, continue to work with it.
The meditation returns to the two points we explored a few weeks ago - the deep existential heart, and the dvadashanta twelve fingers from the centre eyebrow/tip of nose space, and then adds an evocative pause to allow us to experience ourselves as the embodiment of Lifeforce/Reality/the Divine. These pauses are "holding" the breath (perhaps over time and practice to many seconds), but in the hatha yoga sense of "effortless effort", not in a tense, stressful or forceful way. Kumbhaka - an evocative pause in the breathing, holding for a few or many seconds, without unnecessary force or tension; also a vessel for water, a jar or ewer From Lorin Roche: At the end of the exhale, breath surrenders to quietude. For a moment [we] hang in the balance. Suspended in the fertile spaciousness that is the source of breath. At the end of the inhale, filled with the song of the breath, there is a moment when [we] are simply Holding the tender mystery. In these interludes, experience opens into exquisite vastness with no beginning and nil end. Embrace this infinity without reservation. You are its vessel. This week we'll stay with the third practice from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra - exploring awareness of the central energetic channel (sushumna nadi). The verse says something like: "when we establish awareness in the space in the central path, at some point there is no directional movement in the energy of the breath, simply timelessness and spaciousness" (adapted from the teachings of Lakshmanjoo).
Enjoy, as we investigate by way of a breathing meditation from the Yaynavalkya Gita... This session, we begin by continuing to explore breathing, inspired by the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. Our source texts are Lakshmanjoo's Manual for Self Realization (2015, Edited by his longtime student John Hughes), Vijnanabhairava (2010 edition) by Jaideva Singh (another longtime student of Swami Lakshman Joo), and for a poetic interpretation, The Radiance Sutras (2014) by Lorin Roche.
This week, we dive into the 3rd of 112 practices for experiencing ourselves as fully human and fully Divine (or as Life/Reality itself). In our previous two classes, we were sensing into the two ends or poles of the breath. This week, we let go of dichotomy, and explore the central space between. The verse is something like this: the mind is freed, a middle state develops free of thought constructs, and the aspirant can experience a realization of their essential Self. So, with awareness open in all directions at once, we rest attention on the central channel of breath and energy in our body (called by the yogis sushumna nadi - the second 's' is like the sch in schnapps, and the final a is long). From the interpretation of Lorin Roche: Breath flows in, filling, filling; in this moment, drink eternity [timelessness]. Breath flows out, emptying, emptying offering itself to infinity [spaciousness]. Cherishing these moments, mind dissolves into heart, heart dissolves into space, body becomes a vibrant field, pulsating between fullness and emptiness... Meditate on the dynamic breath of life within you. In the middle (madhya) of the motion of breathing, delight in the splendour of Life. The second practice verse of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is similar to the first - another way to explore the throb of the creative energy of life, and the Presence or Consciousness we are that is aware of that. The first verse focused on the end of the breath - the space in the deep heart and the dvadashanta (12 finger widths) out in front of the nose (or space between the eyebrows).
This verse is points us to the spaces or voids between the breaths, and to our ability to be both attentive to the breath and pauses, and at the same time remain aware of the external world in a multi-sensory, panoramic way. Swami Lakshmanjoo, a key teacher of this lineage invited students to focus on those spaces with attention "unbroken, continuously refreshed". For the next few weeks, I invite you to get familiar with, fall into, rest in, and explore the spaces at the ends of your breath... From Lorin Roche: Radiant One, the life essence carries on its play through the pulsing rhythm of outward and inward movement This is the ceaseless throb, the rhythm of life... The inhalation, the return movement of the breath sustains life The outgoing breath purifies life These are the two poles between which respiration goes on unceasingly Between them is every delight you could desire Even when the senses are turned outward, your attention on the external world, Attend also to the inner throb, the pulsing of the creative impulse within you We'll remain with the first practice verse of Vijnana Bhairava Tantra this week, but it explore it in a different way; last week we were falling or dissolving into the pulse or throb at two ends of the breath - the deep existential/spiritual centre [hrt], and dvadashanta [twelve finger widths from the end of the nose].
According to Jai Deva Singh, a scholar of this text (2010), the verse also points to another practice: ajapa japa - the universal mantra [hamsa or soham] made effortlessly and automatically by the flow of the breath in every living being moment by moment. The mantra repeats ceaselessly with the breath, and this verse invites us to notice and join, becoming aware of the inherent interconnection of the individual self and the Timeless Self. To begin with we notice: ham sounding silently on the inhale, and saha sounding silently on the exhale [That I Am]; over time this may shift organically to so-ham [I am That]. The interpretation below is an excerpt from Lorin Roche's Radiance Sutras Beloved, your questions require answers that come through direct living experience. The way of experience begins with a breath, such as the breath you are breathing now... Exhaling, breath is released and flows out. There is a pulse as it turns to flow in. In that turn you are empty. Enter that emptiness as the source of all life. Inhaling, breath flows in, filling, nourishing. Just as it turns to flow out, a flash of pure joy Life is renewed. |
AuthorMisha Butot RCSW, ERYT 500 is a longtime clinical social worker and senior yoga teacher living in Victoria, BC Archives
April 2024
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