Christmas Eve Walkabout (and Satcitananda)
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Starry Nights, Tantric Yoga, and Pratyahara
On my previous visits to Sedona in the past year and a half, the moon has been full or nearly full each time. Even though there was little light from man-made sources, the bright light of the moon illuminated the sky enough that the stars were outshone. This trip, though, there was only a sliver of a crescent, and then, no moon at all. In the absence of the moon, the stars blazed forth in all their glory.
I recently have been contemplating how the practice of pratyahara (usually translated as withdrawal of the senses) fits into a tantric yoga path. Pratyahara is the fifth limb of the eight-limb path of raja yoga, see Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In classical yoga, the aim of yoga practice is to transcend the body-mind, and the eight limbs provide the means for that transcendence. It fits within that paradigm to withdraw from the senses to move towards meditation. In tantric yoga, though, the aim is not to transcend or quell the body-mind, but to understand that the body-mind is an emanation of spirit and to live ever more full of the light of spirit. The senses are not something to be transcended. Yet we still practice pratyahara on the tantric path.Why is that?
I think that in order to remember our own light, we sometimes need to choose to withdraw from the potentially constant stimulation of our senses; we need to pick darkness and quiet so that we can better discriminate between being delighted and inspired by the senses and being bound by craving stimulation of the senses. If we get completely bound up in the senses and seek only to get more and more stimulated, we will forget the fullness and light of spirit. We choose, therefore, at times in our practice, to diminish outer sensory input so that the inner light can shine more brightly. When we return from the inner light to go back to the senses, we are then better able to appreciate the wonder of what our senses bring to us. It is not unlike how we get to witness the extraordinary magic of the stars when we take ourselves away from the light of the sun, the moon, and the city.
108 Sun Salutations and Four Two-Minute Handstands (more or many fewer) and Samskara Revisited
Last night at group practice, after doing a centering focused on using yoga to dissolve samskaras (see yesterday’s blog post on this topic), I told the group how I had been inspired by a Facebook exchange between Noah Maze and Desiree Rumbaugh — stalwart beacons of inspiration to the Anusara community — about the benefits of doing 108 sun salutations with four two-minute handstands interspersed in the practice. I then had everyone come to the front of the sticky mat, hands in front of their hearts and began. For the first five (surya namaskar A), all I did was call out the poses and the breathing and count, though I almost never teach sun salutations without enough breaths per pose to be able to think about alignment. For the next few salutations, I started throwing in some variations. As we continued, I started asking the students to notice their alignment. Were the places where they are challenged with alignment starting to show up? (Yes, most definitely so.)
After the 16th salutation, I revealed that we could not possibly fit in 108 salutations into the practice time. I advised that we will do handstand at 16 instead of 32. We then went into handstand, with students having the option of half handstand or full handstand. I remained quiet for the first 45 seconds and then started calling out the time in 15-second intervals. For students who needed to come down, I suggested they try to go back up until the two minutes were over, even if it took multiple tries. The timed handstand generated all sorts of groaning and commentary, but it all had a light-hearted enthusiasm for being invited to a challenge.
After the handstand, we got going again. “Are your knees hyperextending?” I asked one student for whom that is a tendency. “Kidneys full?” I asked of another. “Root your index finger knuckle; shoulders up in chaturanga” was a good reminder for those getting tired. I threw in more variations to slow things down and to give more time to be careful with the alignment. There is no point in an elective challenges if it is going to cause injury.
It was becoming progressively more obvious that the more we pushed ourselves, the more the places where our bodies most habitually misaligned were starting to go (just the way our less than optimal emotional tendencies start coming into play when we are faced with upheaval and loss if we do not stay conscious and try to remain in alignment with spirit). “Are you still opening to grace?” I asked after a few more rounds. Everyone laughed and found renewed strength to stay in alignment and to keep up the practice.
After several more, with only 15 minutes remaining for the class before allowing time for meditation and savasana (final relaxation), I took the class from adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog) to balasana (child’s pose). What a rush of relief and ecstasy! “Just enjoy,” I suggested. “We need to be able to take the moments of grace, of respite, of sweetness, of pause, and not fritter them away worrying about what just happened or what is to come. Knowing how to do that is one of the blessings of yoga and one of the ways we can prevent samskaric build up.
We then moved into a cool down. With the various challenges of embodiment with which this group was working and the time limitations, a full 108 salutations with the corresponding handstands would not have been appropriate for this particular practice. But everyone left both exhilarated and more relaxed for having mindfully challenged themselves, seeking to stay aligned while not knowing just how much of that daunting number the teacher would ask of them.
Ether (the Mahabhuta akasha)
Ether (akasha) is the fifth of the mahabhutas. In science and perception, it is the space between the other elements, it is that in which the other elements reside. It is to some degree, the critical element of how we are able to perceive the other elements. I find focusing on the Anusara alignment principle of “open to grace” is the best way to experience the element of ether in myself. By softening, opening, and inviting spaciousness, I can better experience the subtle elements and appreciate how it is that I experience them.
The subtle elements or the panca tanmattras are smell (gandha), taste (rasa), form (rupa), touch (sparsa), and sound (sabda). The subtle elements are not what we sense (which is composed of the mahabhutas) nor are the tanmattras our sense organs. Rather the tanmattras are, as it were, the space in which perceptions arise, the ability to be perceived.
The next sets of elements are the panca karmendriyas, the organs of locomotion, which correspond to how we physically move, digest, and change in the physical world, and the panca jnanendriyas, the organs of perception or cognition, which correspond to our sense organs themselves. Our movement in and perception of the world bridges the physical elements, the perceptability of the physical world, and ourselves as physical beings, beings who move in the physical world, and beings who perceive the physical world. All of this, I think of as needing space or residing in space. As I consciously think of space giving a place for the world, my movement in it, and my perception of it, I become more conscious of consciousness. The physical practice of “opening to grace” and experiencing the element akasha makes possible for me in my practice knowing or experiencing a greater consciousness.
To start discovering your own understanding of akasha, try this meditation: listen to the sounds beyond the room without trying to analyze or change them. Appreciate how far in space your senses and consciousness can be. Then bring your attention into the room and hear the sounds in the room. Then open your ears to the sounds within you — your heart beat, your breath. Then open to all the sounds (don’t try to change or analyze them), both those physically far away and those within your own body, and be aware of them as all residing within your own consciousness. Appreciate that your consciousness is as spacious as the world around you and within you. Rest in the space of consciousness.
See whether spending a few minutes using this meditation technique helps you when your day has gotten too busy with work, errands, family or other demands. I find it very helpful.
Ardha Chandra
Half moon, telephone wires, crepe myrtle
