The Flowering of Human Consciousness

In A New Earth, Ekhart Tolle describes how a flower could be said to be the enlightened stage of growth for a plant.  That the stage of flowering in  a plant’s life cycle implies a discontinuity of development, a leap to an entirely new state of being and, most important, a lessening of materiality.  He suggests that flowers play an essential part in the evolution of human consciousness.  Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature.

The Buddha is said to have given a silent sermon once where he held up a flower and gazed at it.  After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa, began to smile.  He is said to be the only one who understood the sermon.  According to legend, that smile (realization) was handed down to 28 successive masters and much later became the origin of Zen.

Tolle also describes how  the transformation of a rock to a crystal and the evolutionary process that enabled some reptiles to grow feathers and take flight as stages of enlightenment. Flowers, crystals and birds have held special significance for humans.  This can be attributed to their beautiful and ethereal quality.  We can discern some sort of divine Presence in these special forms.

People have often meditated on flowers, crystals and birds, using them as a window into the formless realm of spirit.  These enlightened forms have played an important part in the evolution of human consciousness.  Think about it: the jewel in the lotus flower is a symbol of Buddhism, and a white dove signifies the Holy Spirit in Christianity.

In this book, Eckhart Tolle asks the following questions:  Are we ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection?  Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, transparent to the light of consciousness?  Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism and rise above identification with form that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment within their own personality?  But then he describes the necessary stages and steps we can take towards awakening.  Although the journey is simple, it isn’t easy.  But don’t let that discourage you.  The process is much like the opening of a flower; it is slow, but progressive.  No progress on the path is ever lost.  The possibility of awakening is available to all of us.  As he says in his book:  “If you are reading this, you are already on the journey.”

Lessons from the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the best known and important texts of Indian literature. The words of the title mean “Song of the Lord”.  The teachings of the Gita are presented in the form of a dialogue between Sri Krishna, whom the Hindus regard as the Lord Himself and Arjuna; a warrior, an archer, the leader of the Pandavas who are in a battle against their cousins the Kurus for control of a kingdom.  Arjuna is the good guy and the bad guys are the blind King Dhrtarastra and his hundred sons.

“The Gita can be read as history, but it lends itself to being an allegory.  In this mode, Arjuna represents the individual soul and Sri Krishna the Supreme Soul that dwells in every heart.  Arjuna’s chariot is the body.  The blind king Dhrtarastra is the mind under the spell of maya, or ignorance, and his hundred sons are man’s numerous evil tendencies.  The battle is an eternal one that is always going on between the powers of good and the powers of evil.  The warrior who listens to the advice of the Lord speaking from within will triumph in this battle and attain the Highest Good.”  From the foreword of the Bhagavad Gita as translated by Winthrop Sargeant.

The following verses contain one of the main teachings of the Bhagavad Gita: (Stephen Mitchell version)

You have a right to your actions
but never to your actions fruits
Act for the action’s sake
And do not be attached to inaction

Self-possessed, resolute, act
without any thoughts of results
open to success or failure
This equanimity is yoga.

Action is far inferior
to the yoga of insight, Arjuna.
Pitiful are those who, acting,
are attached to their actions fruits.

The wise man lets go of all
results, whether good or bad,
and is focused on the action alone.
Yoga is skill in actions.  (B.G. II.47 – 50)

Since Arjuna is an archer, the following lesson from is an appropriate follow up.  One of Arjuna’s concerns that we all share is wanting to know the outcome.  What if I win?  What if I lose?  Krrisna’s teaching above is reflected in the wisdom of The Way of Chuang Tzu, as translated by Thomas Merton

The Need to Win

When the archer shoots his arrow for nothing, he has all his skill.
When he shoots for a Blue Ribbon, he is already nervous.
When he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind and sees two targets.  He is out of his mind; his skill has not changed, but the prize divides him - he cares.  He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of all his power.

Education and The Spiritual Journey

“Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transform the person who sees.” B.K.S. Iyengar

I recently listened to (and thought you might enjoy) Terry Gross’ interview with Barbara Brown Taylor on Fresh Air this past week. Ms. Taylor is an ordained Episcopal priest who left her job as rector of a church to become a professor of religion. Barbara Taylor has written several books on religion and spirituality including: An Altar In the World, Learning to Walk in the Dark, Leaving Church and her memoir titled Holy Envy.

As a professor of religion, Taylor said that she “hoped it would be a way to convince {the students} that they could find things they liked about other traditions, and it would not make them disloyal to their own.” She said that it worked most of the time.

Taylor writes about how teaching the different religions changed her student’s understanding of faith, as well as her own. She was asked if she was concerned about shaking the faith of her students. She answered: I think that education does that – whatever the subject matter. So, yes, I did feel as if in the field of religion I was in the business of making misfits, who would never quite fit the same way in their faith communities, their families. Then I started talking to colleagues in other fields and they said, “Yeah, that’s what we do at college, it’s that people grow and change and don’t fit where they used to.’”

Education does that – whatever the subject matter – and yoga is just a different subject.

In Zen Buddhism, this process of education, or moving towards enlightenment is represented by the 10 Bull Pictures.

In psychology, a similar learning curve is depicted by The Four Stages of Competence.

In the beginning we are Consciously Incompetent. This is the ignorance is bliss stage. We don’t know what we don’t know. The second stage is Conscious Incompetence. We know our arms are bent, but we aren’t able to straighten them. This can be a little frustrating. Then there might be a breakthrough and if we really concentrate, we can straighten our arms. This stage is called Conscious Competence. Finally through perfect practice we may enter into the state of Unconscious Competence where we don’t have to think about it, we know our arms are straight.

Another book you might enjoy in this same vein is Educated by Tara Westover. Ms. Westover wasn’t your garden variety college student. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a history class, she didn’t know what it was (no, really). That’s because she didn’t see the inside of a classroom until the age of seventeen. Public education was one of the many things her religious fanatic father was dubious of, believing it a means for the government to brainwash its gullible citizens, and her mother wasn’t diligent on the homeschooling front. If it wasn’t for a brother who managed to extricate himself from their isolated—and often dangerous--world, Westover might still be in rural Idaho, trying to survive her survivalist upbringing. It’s a miraculous story she tells in her memoir Educated. For those of us who took our educations for granted, who occasionally fell asleep in large lecture halls (and inconveniently small ones), it’s hard to grasp the level of grit—not to mention intellect—required to pull off what Westover did. But eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge University may have been the easy part, at least compared to what she had to sacrifice to attain it. The courage it took to make that sacrifice was the truest indicator of how far she’d come, and how much she’d learned. Educated is an inspiring reminder that knowledge is, indeed, power. --Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book

Can't Do Boat Pose?

Modifications for Navasana

In the book How Yoga Works, Miss Friday notices that the Captain skips doing Boat Pose in his practice.  When she asks him about it he says the pose is not for him because it hurts his back.  She lets him know that he needs to do all of the poses that she taught him and that each pose has its benefits.  Leaving out the poses we don’t like simply reinforces our imbalances and the duality that our preferences create.  Often the poses we most want to avoid because we can’t do them or they are uncomfortable are the very ones we need to do.

She quotes from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to him: And then there will come a time when differences (attachment and aversion) no longer disturb you.  Y.S. II.48

However, we shouldn’t just push through pain to do a pose.  It is possible to find a manageable variation for everybody in any pose.

If you find Navasana to be a challenging pose to do, here are a couple of good variations that you can practice.

Full Boat using the arms for support

Full Boat with bent knees and hands on (or off of) the floor

Half Boat, one foot on the floor and using one arm for support

Full Boat using a belt for support

Try any one of these variations, or even combinations of the variations that I haven't pictured, and see if you can make any improvements in your Boat Pose.  Feel free to play and find something you can do!

“So no more faces when you come into a pose that’s hard for you.  The hard ones are usually doing you and your back the most good.  Don’t give in to preferences; don’t create more differences in your life.  It’s the differences that harass us all day long that make our days unhappy.  I like this, I don’t like that.  I like her, I don’t like him.  I don’t want to do this thing I have to do, I’d rather do that thing I want to do.”  (I’m tired of this cold weather and snow already, I’d like it to be 30 degrees warmer!)  Miss Friday to the Captain in How Yoga Works.  (Except the part about the weather,  that’s me!)

Chanting the Sanskrit Alphabet

Chanting the Sanskrit Alphabet

This month we will be learning the Sanskrit alphabet. Chanting the Sanskrit Alphabet is much more than learning the letters and the sounds. Each letter represents a petal in one of our chakras. Chanting the alphabet can open our chakras.

We start by chanting the vowels and then move through the consonants.  The consonants are grouped by how they are pronounced.  The gutturals are created in the back of the throat.  The palatals are created in the upprer palate.  The cerebrals are created by curling the tongue back and touching the tip of it to the roof of the mouth.  The dentals are created with the tongue touching the teeth and the labials are created with the lips.

Listen to Nicolai Bachman, who wrote The Language of Yoga,  chant the alphabet here:

Each letter stimulates a petal in one of the chakras:

The throat chakra

The heart chakra

The solar chakra

The pelvic chakra

The root chakra

The third eye

Mantra of the Month for February - Guru Mantra

Guru Mantra

Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwaraha
Guru Saakshaat Para Brahma Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha

Guru is the Creator (Brahma), Guru is the Preserver(Vishnu), Guru Deva is Destroyer(Maheshwara). Guru is the absolute (singular) Lord himself, Salutations to that Sri Guru

Translation word by word:

• Guru: Dispeller of Darkness; Gu=Darkness, Ru=Remover

• Brahma: Creator; Personification of Creating Quality of God

• Vishnu: Preserver; Personification of Preserving quality of God

• Deva: God

• Maheshwara: Destroyer; Personification of Destroying Quality of God

• Saakshaat: Self/ Himself

• ParaBrahma: He who is the highest Lord; Consciousness

• Tasmai: To him/ To such

• Sri: Holy, splendorous

• Namaha: Salutations

Here is my favorite rendition of this mantra being chanted by Bhagavan Das.

This is Purna, That is Purna.

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om poornamadah poornamidam Poornaat poornamudachyate Poornasya poornamaadaya Poornamevaa vashishyate.
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih

(Listen to the Ravi Shankar version here.)

Meaning:
Om, That (Outer World) is Purna (Full with Divine Consciousness); This (Inner World) is also Purna (Full with Divine Consciousness); From Purna comes Purna (From the Fullness of Divine Consciousness the World is manifested) ,
Taking Purna from Purna, Purna Indeed Remains (Because Divine Consciousness is Non-Dual and Infinite).
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

We are made from Divine Consciousness. We are made from the same stuff as the stars and planets. In yogic tantric literature, the Divine so wanted to experience itself in every possible incarnation that it manifested as you and me and everything else in our material world. This descent of how the “One” becomes the many is described as the 36 Tattvas. These describe the principles of existence and of consciousness becomes matter. Basically, it describes how we came to be.

It is one thing to learn about us all “being one”. It is quite another thing to experience it. We all have moments in our lives where we feel that we are connected; that we have the insight into a deeper part of ourselves and we perceive that oneness. More often, though, we feel separate and different. This experience of differentiation comes from a power called Maya, or illusion. Maya has three ways in which it operates; the three Malas. They are:

1. Anava Mala
Creating feelings of unworthiness, the source of incompleteness we experience. It gives rise to feelings of insecurity and sadness. Connected to the heart.

2. Mayiya Mala
Perception of difference, separateness between us and the world. Creates comparison to others. It gives rise to feelings of jealousy and anger. Connected to the mind.

3. Karma Mala
The capacity for limited activity, the feeling of inability to act, not doing enough. It gives rise to feelings of worry and fear. Connected to the body.

These Malas are part of our existence, part of the fabric of who we are. As such, there is no need to get upset about it or even trying to “rid” ourselves from these perceptions. Yoga can teach us to become observant when these Malas come up. We cultivate the power of discernment to help us see that even though we feel a certain way, it is not who we are. With this increased awareness, we work with the Malas and not against them and we will be able to see ourselves as we truly are: Pure Consciousness.

This mantra is meant to help us connect to that sense of “Oneness”.

Here is another beautiful recording of the mantra for your listening pleasure!

This reading from Louise Hay seems to go perfectly with this mantra:

In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect,
whole and complete and yet life is ever changing.
 There is no beginning and no end,
only a constant cycling and recycling
of substance and experiences.
Life is never stuck or static or stale,
for each moment is  ever new and fresh.
I am one with the very Power that created me and this Power
has given me the power to create my own circumstances.
I rejoice in the knowledge that I have the power
of my own mind to use in any way I choose.
Every moment of life is a new beginning point
as we move from the old.  This moment is a new point
of beginning for me right here and right now.
All is well with my world.

from You can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay.  You can download a pdf version of the book here.

Chanting AUM

AUM: The Best Praise or Prayer

The Latin word Omne and the Sanskrit word Aum are both derived from the same root meaning all and both words convey the concept of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. Another word for Aum is pranava , which is derived from the root nu meaning to praise, to which is added the prefix pra, denoting superiority. The word, therefore, means the best praise or the best prayer.

The symbol Aum is comprised of three syllables, namely the letters A, U, M and when written has a crescent and dot on its top. A few instances of the various interpretations given to it may be mentioned here to convey its meaning.

The letter A represents the deepest sound in the body that can be made. It is a sound that comes from the throat. The U represents the sound in the middle of the palate. The M represents the sound at the furthest extent that the human voice can create, at the end of the lips. Thus A, U, M represents the sounds of creation represented by the power of speech. As it says in Genesis: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. Aum represents the power to create through speech.

The letter A symbolizes the conscious or waking state, the letter U the dream state, and the letter M the dreamless sleep state of the mind and spirit. The entire symbol, together with the crescent and the dot, stands for the fourth state, which combines all of these states and transcends them. This is the state of Samadhi (a state in which the aspirant is one with the object of his meditation, the Supreme Spirit pervading the universe, where there is a feeling of unutterable joy and peace).

The letters A, U, M symbolize respectively speech, the mind and the breath of life, while the entire symbol stands for the living spirit, which is but a portion of the divine spirit.

The three letters also represent the dimensions of length, breadth and depth, while the entire symbol represents Divinity, which is beyond the limitation of shape and form.

The three letters A, U and M, symbolize the absence of desire, fear and anger, while the whole symbol stands for the perfect man, one whose wisdom is perfectly established in the divine.

They represent the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, while the entire symbol represents all creation together with the Creator.
They stand for the three gunas or qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas, while the whole symbol represents a gunatita, one who has transcended and gone beyond the pull of the gunas.

The three letters correspond to the three tenses – past, present and future – while the entire symbol stands for the Creator, who transcends the limitations of time.

They also stand for the teaching imparted by the mother, father and Guru respectively. The entire symbol represents Brahma Vidya, the knowledge of the Self, the teaching of which is imperishable.

The three letters depict the three stages of yoga discipline: asana, pranayama and pratyhara, The entre symbol represents Samadhi the goal for which the three stages are the steps.

They represent the triad of Divinity, namely Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer and Shiva the destroyer of the universe. The whole symbol is said to represent Brahman from which the universe emanates, has its growth and fruition and into which it emerges in the end. It does not grow or change. Many change and pass, but Brahman is the One that remains unchanged.

The letters A, U, M also stand for the mantra “Tat Twam Asi” (That Thou Art), the realization of man’s divinity within himself. The entire symbol stands for this realization, which liberates the human spirit from the confines of his body, mind, intellect and ego.

After realizing the importance of AUM, the yogi focuses his attention on his beloved Deity adding AUM to the name of the Lord. The word Aum being too vast and abstract, he unifies his senses, will, intellect, mind and reason by focusing on the name of the Lord and adding the word AUm with one-pointed devotion and so experiences the feeling and meaning of the mantra.

The yogi recalls the verses of the Mandukopanisad: Taking as a bow the great weapon of the Upanisad, one should put upon it an arrow sharpened by meditation. Stretching it with a though directed to the essence of That, penetrate the Imperishable as the mark, my friend. The mystic symbol AUM is the bow. The arrow is the self. Brahman is the target. By the undistracted man is It penetrated. One should come to be in It, as the arrow in the mark.

Most of this is taken from Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar

Doing it Right

Doing It RIght

In the book, “How Yoga Works,” Miss Friday is working with her student, the Captain.  The Captain comes to yoga as a lot of us do, to help us get out of pain; in this case back pain. He has been working with his teacher for a little while and he is pleased with the progress he is making.  But, as he practices Miss Friday sees that he is cheating in Pascimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend).  He is feeling a little pride in his practice because he can already touch his head to his knees in this seated forward bend.  But Miss Friday stops him.  He doesn’t understand why she stops him. But she tells him that he is cheating because he is bending his knees and rounding his spine in order to get his head to touch his head to his knees. (a common cheat)  She warns him that his both his back and legs are supposed to be straight.  She describes the correct bio-mechanics of hinging from the hips and not folding at the waist.  She tells him that they are doing the practice to make his back healthy again, not to make sure that he can touch his head to his knees.

Y.S. I.14  Your practice must be done correctly, for then a firm foundation is laid.

Miss Friday tells the Captain: “You see, the point is not what the pose looks like in the end.  It’s the process of the pose as it goes on; it’s what it does inside of you, how it works to begin to straighten and open your channels.   These are the channels of how energy flows in the body.  (More about that in another post!) Miss Friday goes on to say:  “But if you don’t do the pose right, if you cheat, if you try to trick the pose and get around it just so you look good, then the pose doesn’t work on you the way it is supposed to.”

She asks him to do the pose, again, without bending his knees, which he does.  It’s a beautiful pose, his back is straight, his legs are straight and he is hinging at the hips.  But the Captain is unhappy because his head is about 2 feet from his knees!

We are often like the Captain, impatient in our progress and mistaking what it not important for what is important.  Often a student sees someone do a very advanced Pascimottanasana and sees that their head is touching their legs, so they think that is important, but what they don’t see is the straightness of the legs and the long, almost straight line of the back.  It can take a long time to get to that stage of practice with a lot of hard work and true understanding of what is going on in the body.

One of the things I love about the study of yoga and the stories and mythologies that it uses to teach us is that we are meant to see ourselves in every character of the story.  Can you see yourself as the Captain?  Can you see yourself as Miss Friday?  Sometimes it is hard for us to recognize ourselves as the Captain, especially if we don’t like what we see.  But, we are also meant to see ourselves from a different perspective.  That way we can see if we are cheating ourselves and examine why.  Pride?  Envy?  Impatience?  While Impatience is not one of the Seven Deadly Sins from Christianity, or the Six Enemies of the Heart from the Yoga Sutras, as are pride and envy, it still has a way of blocking the channels and stopping progress on the path.

In the Iyengar style of yoga that I study and teach, the focus is on doing the poses correctly, to open the channels of energy in the body to create an optimum flow of healing energy.  It's a method that has worked for me.