Kitabı oku: «Spiritual Practice. Philosophical Reflection», sayfa 2
Static / Dynamic
Static and dynamic is the basic correlation in feeling your own path. Similar to balancing, timing is mastered in personal experience only. Everybody knows that even worldly business requires both skills in patience (waiting for months and years until success) using stability for improvement of your foundation and ability to do multiple parallel actions (while traveling coordinating the staff at a distance) without errors in every step. Spiritual practice concentrates timing in the eternal unity of the individual and god. Ideal timing is the being of Time itself in its evolving through destinies of people and ages. The person is a conscious axis for cosmic circling. For instance, some kriya-yoga teachers explain self-realization as becoming Time itself. That is why timing is more obvious in examples of great personalities. They are embodiments of whole ages in human evolution. They found the basis for new traditions giving “programs’ to people and nations for hundreds of years. Such epochal changes happen in a direct synchronized moment. Before they become able to guide the world’s destiny, their lives are full of fate when timing possesses their personal structure for alignment with common development. Literary, they do what they cannot escape – and nothing else!
Technically, when you master timing on the structural level, first of all, you need to develop an axis for centering. It would be a process of coordinating the center of your self-being with Supreme Self. The yogic ideal requires performing different rituals in many cultures. Slowly, the ritual became abstract as pure principles of development – movement and / or stability. If we take the version of spiral (circling around axis) we can call it as “movement in stability’. So, first strategically the connection in any personal algorithm is “timing – axis’. Punctuality depends on being centered, and vice versa; axis is developing together with punctuality. For example, Yogi Bhajan always prescribed meditation for a precise period 11 minutes and then – you have three, two… minutes left. Kundalini Yoga needs the centering of all practices around rising Kundalini up alone the spine. However, you can use for this goal both dynamic and static techniques, punctually changing your practice in the proper time. Eternity does not discriminate between movement and stability. Everything is moving in a total stillness in the holistic universe. This is the perfect orienteer for coordination between dynamic and static.
Periods
Obviously, every developed person demonstrates his mastering in “timing’. Each special practice (sadhana) or life period is directly separated in time. After that a sudden inexpectable change happens and one starts another period moving to a different field, changing ones style or manners etc. Such radical changes seem crazy and unreasonable for surrounding people while they always have an inner foundation being very punctual in timing. For instance, at the beginning Ramakrishna’s conduct caused laugh and he was treated as a mad man. You see, once he prayed to Jesus Christ, and then he performed Muslim prayes, next he jumped on trees like Hanuman (god monkey) calling Rama, etc. However, Ramakrishna himself finished each sadhana after a specific determined period in his self-realization; especially when he achieved the final goal as the Vision of God (Darshan). The very end of his efforts was adwaita (non-duality). We see similar periods in Ramana Maharshi’s life: leaving home, 17 years in the cave, staying in the house with his family, as a head of the ashram. The saint (recognized in India) was silent ten years, and suddenly he started to accept many visitors daily and answering to everyone. Why all changed? Inner work creates the intention to start a new period, and everything is converted according to new task.
Timing is required in your interaction with different traditions too. You can belong to this or that school due to initiations, perform some particular sadhana, accept some guru, or study classic scriptures. For example, Swami Satyananda was disciple of Swami Sivananda for 10 years, and he was the best disciple, therefore everybody expected him as the next head of the ashram. But once he was sitting on the bank of the Ganges (a river of northern India) and thinking that he cannot become enlightened there. Next day he left the ashram, forever, not worrying what his guru and people will say about this. Otherwise, he would had never become the founder of the Bihar school of yoga which he created after ten years of solitary wandering and studying with many other masters. In the same way, Swami Vivekananda chose the time for his trip to America, where he was not invited by anybody, while he felt that Time itself sent him to the West. Waiting, praying, asking for blessings, visiting sacred places, and meditating day and night, he got the necessarily sign and became enthusiastic: “NOW I am ready!” Timing creates a strong feeling of beginning and end for everything. Events do not come sooner or later. You can develop your mastering of timing in daily practice which requires periods.
II. Central Axis
In most Asian countries a “white person’ walking on the street is pulled to many different directions by people wishing “to cut him into pieces’ wanting from him many things. You will fall apart without axis. You need self-confidence and clear understanding WHAT are you going to do by your own and HOW to realize your projects. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed by various requests, and you will start to do something different from what you have planned even ten minutes ago. Next, if you were naïve enough, you will find yourself in an unknown place, being surprised why you spent so much money for something that you did not want in the first place. And you will need to waste more money in order to come back to your original place and mental state of an independent person. A similar situation will happen with choosing a spiritual teacher: if you are focused in your central axis, you know directly what you need and you develop in chosen direction. Otherwise, you will be fished by anybody and you will need a long time to remove wrong opinions from your mind. As Socrates said, “If you have eaten something wrong you can save your life by vomiting and purifying your stomach. But if you have digested false knowledge – how can you remove it from your mind?” Axis is the base of your path. Building an axis on the energy structural level you will get the column of your character, and the right way on the spiritual level. After you have formed your axis you will get stability in calm and direction in movement. The axis can be kept by correct proportions of static and dynamic work.
No matter where I am living, when I wake up I start from finding my axis as a focus of attention, rather, than rebuilding the inner lost feeling of it, like in Tai-Chi where you do not separate physical movement from energy flow and mental concentration. If I am staying in a comfortable house with gardens, then I prefer a dynamic movement of circling exercises in order to get my axis back. If I spent the night in airplane or car, sitting in armchair, I restore the feeling of axis only by meditation. It is the principle of contrast: outer calm requires inner dynamic while outer movement requires inner calm. It is useless to do anything without axis – you will not succeed or it will take too much efforts and time. Timing is still working: you involve your personal time into evolving of “axial time’. I will give some simple techniques here, but remember that techniques are not really important and you can exchange them for better techniques of your own creation. If you understand the PRINCIPLE, you can compose many techniques for your own purposes, but if you just learning some particular techniques, they will not really help you except in the case that you repeat them till the degree that you will see how they work in principle. The principle of axis is permanent while techniques vary. Our age of high technology makes even spiritual practice too technical. So, it becomes both non-spiritual and non-practical.
Alignment
The notion of axis is central for most spiritual traditions on structural level. Symbolically, we see cross in Christianity, minaret in Islam. Technically we have axis everywhere: column as the base in Taoism, Tadasana (rock posture) as basic asana in Yoga, standing (concentration on the cross) in the whole night in Christian prayer. In transforming systems, systems that transform the very structure of a human being up to physical level, the vertical axis serves as a direction for rising the Kundalini in Tantra or descending of super-intellect in Integral Yoga. Axis as such is obvious in Sufi circling dance. All these are methods to improve the vertical axis. I described many techniques for building the axis in my books: “Hatha Yoga Practice: Disciple against Wall’ and “Taoist Female Practice: Period of Preparation’. Everything depends on our axis, no matter what tradition you follow, or what practice you perform. Vice versa, no matter what you do and what tradition you belong to, and it is important how good is your axis developed. Namely, axis coordinates your consciousness and connect microcosm with macrocosm. There is no working situation without axis; therefore, mastering of axis is the base, the process, and the achievement in any spiritual practice.
Any tradition includes various practices in standing position as I mentioned above. Taoism is based on “column’ for all dynamic styles (Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Syn Yi) which is precious as a meditative practice by itself. Chinese like the story about a disciple who avoided martial arts preferring to stand in a “column’ for hours, and all others laughed at him. He stood one year, ten years… The master became old and decided to choose another head for the school. The main condition for the candidates was to be good “rooted’ since the head of a monastery must be stable like a rock. So, the master checked all his disciples to know how the improvement of their central axis was. He pushed everyone, and all fell down except the disciple who was standing in a “column’ for years. As result, he became the head of the monastery. You can find many versions of the story with the same essence: the basic principle is the foundation for all practices. Mainly, it is enough as such, if you do it not just externally but following detailed inner principles. When you deal with the vertical axis, the standing position is the most important.
In the sitting position any technique of meditation requires straight spine while the position of your legs can be different. However, in classic meditative asanas, it helps to close your body at the bottom, stopping to lose the energy and cutting downward flowing, therefore, the energy is reoriented upward. These asanas construct a triangle as base of a “pyramid’, where the axis is fixed into the most stable structure. Then you can keep axis automatically. The Lotus posture is an ideal pose for meditation both in Indian and Chinese systems. Energy work needs focus attention to the spine since your axis must be active. Anyway, you can sit on your knees as well – religiously, it is used mostly in prayer and other rituals. Buddhist prostrations start from vertical axis while it is standing in Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) and sitting in Theravada (original Buddhism). In both cases you build axis for doing the prostrations and again come back to the central axis. We will remind this practice while discussing the personal rhythm of the spiritual practice where you add movements like the dynamic Taoist meditation.
In the laying position, there is horizontal axis as well. However, it is Yin state, while the spiritual practice requires namely vertical axis. Women can use laying positions since they have horizontal energy structure. Men can use the laying positions in order to improve foundation. All people can choose the laying position for practice when they are tired. Hatha Yoga practice is finishing by Shavasana which is relaxation in the lying position on your back with arms and legs aside of your straight spine as the central axis. Yoga Nidra (conscious sleep) is performed in Shavasana, as a pose for deep meditation, where the whole body is mastered by focus attention, step by step, symmetrically around the axis. The Taoist dynamic meditation is performed in the same posture with some additional movement of arms and legs. Bend arms and legs simultaneously connecting palms and feet but keeping them on the surface; then turn to a side closing elbows and knees; come back to previous position; turn to other side with the same movement; come back to “8” -pose again; stretch you arms and legs; and finally you are in the starting position of Shavasana. This can be better understood in actual practice with the teacher. When you are ready to stand up, first you have to turn to a side as before. The Taoist sleeping meditation needs also straight spine and controlled limbs.
Mastering Axis
In any position, the axis is felt clearer and kept stronger if you add twisting of your whole body around the axis. Standing in the column, you can turn left-right keeping arms down (the palms will create a circle around your hips); arms in the middle horizontally (the palms will create a circle around your chest); finally above head (the palms will create a circle around your high energy channel). Sitting with crossed legs, you can make stronger twist to perform more “closing’ asanas: start from Siddhasana, coming to Ardha-Padmasana and finishing in Padmasana (lotus). It can be comfortable to put your palm on opposite knees at twisting while other palm is going behind your back to opposite hip. Laying on your back you can do a simple asana when you put one foot on opposite knee and put bent knee on the floor to opposite side while turning your head back. The most important thing is to improve straight line from top to foot. All symmetrical asanas must be done on both sides. Dynamic twisting will be a subject of the following chapter about rhythm in movement. Technically, you can deal with my description if you are yoga practitioner since I use well-known poses.
Another similar exercise for mastering of your axis is multiplied turning around the axis. This is the way of dancing Sufis and some African magicians. Moreover, we can find round movement in many temple rituals (bow down to all sides, walking around Stupa in Buddhism or around Altar in Hinduism) and technical practices (walking around in Ba-Gua, radiant steps with coming back to central point in Syn-Yi – both are the Taoist practices). Hatha-Yoga was developed in this aspect by a teacher whom I met in Nepal. He worked out surrounding space by set of Asanas composed in connection with central axis with turning to all possible directions. All these examples make the notion of rhythm very important, since it is not just a position (simple axis) but a particular movement during some time in limited space. Sure, it includes the energy factors which are reflected in emotional states. The emotional axis means equanimity. So, the techniques are useful for energy balancing which is required for spiritual stability in your chosen way. Finally, the spiritual axis is the most important thing. When you have the spiritual axis, you need not any techniques.
The Eastern practices including sitting meditation are well-known in the West nowadays. However, I saw often in different meditation centers some Western practitioners who were ready to break their knees in order to do wishful Lotus posture. So, I pay attention to this point. Lotus is an ideal foundation for central vertical axis in whole body. As all Yogis know, it is performed not bending knees but opening hips and turning of legs. The knee cannot be bent to aside even for a little without being broken or hurt, while the hip can never be broken by opening. Sitting on the floor and stretching legs with some distance in between, you can understand how much you need to turn your hips that, bending your leg naturally, you would find your foot on opposite hip. This is the working area. There are many additional Asanas in Yogic literature. After opening hips, you can also remove energy blocks from your abdomen developing your low chakras and healing emotional problems. Since Lotus stops to lose energy flowing down, when you open hips all freed energy will rise up into your vertical axis stretching your spine and full it with energy for keeping and balancing.
You can take care of your knees using standing poses like “column’. Long sitting meditation requires strong knees anyway, even if your Lotus is correct. You can improve your knees by walking meditation or other dynamic practices, but a stable standing works better for this purpose. Especially, when you are standing long time in the Taoist “column’ where your knees are bent little bit. Also, you can use Yogic Utkatasana for a stronger effect. Stand up closing your legs; bend your knees as much as possible, as if sitting on an invisible cheer. Close your forearms keeping elbows before chest and hands before face (or stretch your both arms up). This posture requires very strong legs because you must keep straight spine. Of course, this is far from being meditative Asana, but it is very useful for improvement of your body before meditation. If you are able to work out the axis doing this standing posture, it will help you also. In the same way, you can master Lotus posture using some additional Asanas where Lotus as an element is the part of complex structure. But we will not deepen Hatha-Yoga here (see my other books).
Spiritual Pillar
Technically, an axial meditation includes also spreading of your personal sphere up to Supreme Self (Atman=Brahman). You can do some preliminary practices in any centered position (standing, sitting, and lying) while standing is the best option. Here you already start to develop a “volume consciousness’ and the concept of a “volume path’ (see the last chapters). Try to keep axis not only by concentration on the axis itself, but spreading your attention and awareness to a bigger sphere. First, concentrate on the axis, then spread your attention as a circle around, absorbing space but not fixing on any particular objects, images or thoughts within this area. Feel everything equally in your presence. Next, come back to the axis, and again spread your attention to a bigger sphere. Try to move it as far as possible, where your concentration reaches including bigger volume into consciousness which is associated as your own “I”. Finally, you accept the whole universe as “I”. It must be not an idea only, but the real feeling and experience of global consciousness. There is nothing “individual’ in this Self till you come back to your central axis as an axis of the world.
Orientating to the final god-realization in prayer, we can remember a “pillar’, which is the strongest ascetic practice of Christian Fathers. Many years they were standing on a stone as if being its extension, constantly repeating the Jesus prayer and rising to God. Some of them became saints and were canonized by Christian church. Similar extremity was performed by Indian ascetics who were doing “standing sadhana’ many years. They still continue doing similar practices in modern times. For example, a mahant of the Naga-Baba ashram in Varanasi was standing above 10 years before he reached Samadhi and left his body. The case happened in the end of 20-th century. He was the patron of my yoga teacher, and I saw the photos in his home album. Even the image of that saint was still powerful spiritually. It was not only physical practice, while I do not know what type of mantra he used during standing sadhana. Anyway, we see a good example, how the lifelong practice can be done as keeping an axis for total self-realization. Building personal axis, you can reach all your personal goals. But if you surrender an individual axis to the universal axis, then you can keep concentration of holistic evolution in each movement and action.
