Yoga for Hips and Thighs:

Awakening the Intelligence of the Body
The human nervous system already knows the natural state of the body. Hundreds of millions of years of experience and learning are encoded in the DNA of each cell. Hence, it is a great mistake to try to impose our will on the body.

Hatha Yoga is commonly misunderstood in the modern world as an attempt to control the body and breath. Our current ecological problems stem from a view of nature as an object for human exploitation and manipulation. But nature, whether in our bodies or in the world outside us, can't be coerced or controlled. We can, however, enter into a harmonious relationship with the natural wisdom of the body. Hatha Yoga is actually not about controlling either the body or the breath. Instead, it's a way of eliminating poor habits that inhibit the natural flowering of the nervous system. The first step in this process is to cultivate our ability to listen to the body.

As human beings, we want to act and do. Precise action is important, of course; but to act without listening to the body can lead to imbalance and injury. To be whole, a person must be receptive and sensitive as well as active and outgoing. Yet because the qualities of receptiveness and sensitivity are not highly prized in our culture, we must make a special effort to cultivate thern. In yoga practice, this means that in every action we must include a pause--a "space"--where we consciously listen and experience exactly what is happening.

The nervous system sends constant signals to the brain from the joints, skin, and muscles. If we blindly impose our ideas onto the body without pausing for feedback, we will injure ourselves, thus violating the first principle of yoga practice, ahimsa, or non-violence. As we become more sensitive, we discover, surprisingly enough, that attention to the skin is the key to refining the action of muscles and bones.

The skin is the largest sense organ of the body. We're usually aware of sensations in the outer skin in its contact with the external world, but much less aware of the inner lining of the skin, which is sensitive to the muscles. When the muscles over work or become too tight, they press against the inner skin cells or overstretch them. When the muscles are weak, the skin cells feel the lack of energy. When the muscles are vibrant, the skin also vibrates.

The renowned yoga teacher B.K.S. Iyengar describes the mastery of yoga asanas as a state of perfect communion between the skin cells and the muscle cells. In this state, the skin tells the muscles when to soften or tighten up in order to maintain a perfect vibration, and the skin, muscles, and con sciousness function as a single unit. Frogs and most other animals are in this natural state all the time. They don't have to think about it or practice it--they just live it.

Humans, however, must work carefully and consistently to develop this level of awareness. Usually our yoga practice falls into one of two categories. The first category is that of too much sensation: We create so many perceptual signals that the mind rebels and backs away, so that we never penetrate deeply into the source of our sensations. The second category is that of too little sensation: With not enough stimuli to hold its attention, the mind wanders and we don't learn. (This is why yoga can be difficult for flexible people; they don't get as much feedback, in the form of discomfort, as people with tight muscles.) We must therefore seek a balance between these two extremes, creating enough sensation to feel and study over time without losing the signal, but not so much that we overstimulate the nerves.

As we practice the asanas in the Frog Pose series, we should remember to begin each asana with an intelligent and creative action. Placing the bones and moving the body requires thought and awareness. And once we've initiated a movement, we must pause slightly to observe the results. How does the body feel? Where do we experience a healthy sensation? Where is there tightness or pain? Where do we notice fullness? With too many sensations, we can't stay in the position long enough to observe; with too few sensations, the mind wanders--a major obstacle to yoga practice.

As Vyasa notes in his commentary on the very first of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, yoga can't even begin until the wandering mind is brought to a state of one-pointedness. This one pointed state requires constant practice and what Patanjali calls "dispassion" (vairagya), which means not desiring results, not becoming frustrated over lack of progress, and not becoming inflated over any progress that does result.

The path for beginners in yoga is described by Patanjali at the beginning of chapter 2 of the Sutras, in what he calls the "three principles of Kriya Yoga." The first principle is tapas, or "self-discipline," which is the will to practice, to commit one self to the process of yoga. The second principle is svadhyaya, or "self-study," which involves the cultivation of sensitivity and continuous consciousness in the present moment. These first two are the creative and receptive components of preliminary yoga practice. The third and most difficult component is Isvara pranidhana, "surrender to the divine," a transcendent state that allows the natural intelligence of the body to take over from the ego. The term "surrender" here doesn't refer to a state of mindless obedience to some poorly understood teaching, nor an unconscious return to old habits. Rather, it refers to a superconscious state of at-one-ment with the natural wisdom of the body.

Joseph Campbell says that dreams "come from the imagination . . . [that] is grounded in the energy of the organs of . the body."l Our dreams must become the dreams of the Earth, our vision, the vision of the cosmos. The intelligence of our bodies can awaken and guide us back to a harmonious relationship with the natural world.

Next: A Practice for Hips and Thighs

Back to:
~ Introduction
~ Muscles and Bones
~ Structure of the Groin