My studies today (it is a very rare day that I do not read some of a yoga text or commentary) included a mention of the body’s nine openings. The yoga treatises ubiquitously mention the “nine openings” of the body through which prana enters or leaves (is dissipated). Certain practices are designed to open the tenth, which is an energetic opening that corresponds to the fontenelle at the crown of a baby’s head.
A few month’s ago, my astute friend Jane, who has given birth and nursed, pointed out that a woman has 12, not nine openings.
What is a woman to do in response to this apparent disconnect or male exclusivity? Reject out of hand the teachings as only being misogynistic and of limited utility because they originated for male physiology and not female? Interpret the teachings and correlative practices as being based on the anatomical and energetic openings common to both sexes? Deeply explore the practices relating to this teaching and discover whether there are subtle ways to modify and reinterpret and apply the teachings and practices to address the lack of reference to and recognition of the three crucial additional openings that are fundamental to a woman’s being?
Guess which of these I am most likely to advocate and practice.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Naturally, I do agree with your perspective. If others did not feel as you do, there would be certain activist communities in which I would not be made to feel particularly welcome. And being a part of them has been extremely beneficial for my own self-development. I would then believe that everyone wins out in the end.
Sometimes a degree of translation is necessary and should never be confused with compromising the core message. While some systems of belief are deeply Patriarchal, I have found it both necessary and liberating to refuse to define them according to the “rules” of some.