a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
196 Boston Avenue
Suite 3900
Medford, MA 02155

781 396 0808
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Introduction

12 Principles of Awakening

Spiritual Foundation

Scientific Foundation

Embodying the Practice

Collective Awakening

             Embodying the Practice:

          Yoga and The Living Matrix

           explorations of the integral life systems

               in breath, sound, movement and stillness,

             integrating posture, circulation and breathing

    to facilitate the further evolution of the nervous system       

                      Introduction

    The living organism we call a human being is a marvel of the emergent evolutionary creativity of the cosmos. It's innate capacity for sensation, perception, contemplation and action is complex, profound and subtle. This section will use the practice and principles of yoga to explore the organismic intelligence of the human as expressed in what is being called "the living matrix". This matrix is a dynamic structure that allows integral functioning of the three principle integrative/information systems in the body: the fluid/circulatory system, the fascial or connective tissue system and the nervous system, with all the cells, organs and organ systems of the body. The matrix facilitates the flow of energy and information to and from every molecule, cell and organ of the body, from skin to core and core to skin. In this section we will see how an intelligent yoga practice engages this matrix in awakening and facilitating a process of spiraling self integration.

  This dynamic energy/information collective has traditionally been called ki in Japanese, (as in aikido), chi or qi in Chinese (as in chi gung or tai chi), or prana in Sanskrit, and has long been explored in the embodied disciplines of the East such as yoga and the martial arts and the healing practices such as Chinese medicine and ayurveda. Insights arising from the modern scientific tradition allow us to include electron flow, electromagnetic and gravitational field effects, and resonance in our understanding of the integral energy of aliveness. Developmental neurobiology, integrating psychology, anatomy, physiology and embryology, offers insights into the complex ways in which human energy systems may evolve depending upon genetics, life conditions and other factors. We may

complexify and mature, or get stuck in less efficient, less mature patterns, and possibly destructive patterns.

  An embodied yoga practice seeks to facilitate the natural process of maturing and integrating the energy and information systems, involving both structure and flow. It brings a harmonizing of all of the organic systems of the body, awakening the capacity for all of the cells and organs to be deeply conscious and present to the fullness of this moment, through all the fields of creation. Life is a flowing exchange of energy and information between the organism and the environment, including gravity and the electro-magnetic fields arising from the sun, the earth, and other living beings. Embodied living is being fully present to this ongoing dance of moving energy, a full expression of self, other and wholeness.

   We will explore an embodied yoga practice from three points of view and in time learn how to integrate all three simultaneously into a truly integrated spiritual life practice. These three perspectives are: the attentional/psychological/emotional view (or mind) as seen through mindfulness, meditation and metta practice; the physiological/energetic view (or breath) as seen through pranayama and other types of breathing explorations; and the physical or structural view as experienced through the yoga postures known as asanas integrated into the newly emerging understanding of the psycho-neuro-biology of posture and movement. It is important to remember that each of the three views are inextricably intertwined with the others at all times. As we work with mind, posture and breath are foundational. As we work with breath, posture and mind are foundational, and as we work with posture, mind and breath are foundational.

                                       Asana

   Yoga postures or asanas, whether linked in flowing movement (vinyasana), or sustained for longer periods of time such as in meditative or restorative practice, are profound vehicles to bring higher levels of balance and integration to the human organism and nervous system  and awaken new levels of understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us. An integrated yoga pose is a highly sophisticated state of embodied stillness, and to fully understand its subtlety, (sthira and sukham to use Patanjali's terminology), we need to study not just the poses themselves, but the fundamental organizing activities of the body/organ systems that underlie movement and posture, namely the spontaneous movements of the prana or chi and their western scientific correlates.

  The body is a verb, not as noun. As Emilie Conrad is fond of saying, the body is movement. Movement is not something the body does! The cosmos, all of creation, is movement. Life is movement. From the sub-atomic realm, through the cellular activitites, into circulation, respiration and digestion, and the movements of our bodies through space and time, our aliveness is sensed and expressed in our bodies through undulating rhythms of breath, pulsating rhythms of the heart beat, and the vibrations arising from the cellular and molecular levels into the fascial matrix.

  Posture implies a sustained stability, of our aliveness, and also our particular structural/psychological/emotional relationship to the world in the moment. Ideally, this is a stability of flow and flexibility and not contraction, freezing or collapse. A yoga posture starts with our structural/psychological/emotional core energy of the moment and then plays with gravity and leverage, limbs and torso, to discover new ways of sensing, feeling and acting. Whether standing, sitting, prone, inverted, rotating, flexing, or extending , the organism is challenged to sustain flow, strength and flexibility.

   A yoga pose is an entry point into mystery, not a place of arrival. a common mistake made by yoga practitioners, especially beginners, is to assume that there is a correct pose that is somewhere, out there, to be aquired or arrived at in the future, but most certainly not what is happening to them in the moment.

   This mind-set or belief system is a difficult one to overcome. Most certainly there are bodily positions that are compromising or down right damaging to the body. The study of basic alignment principles will help the student recognize the most common challenges that arise from a yoga practice. But what is most important for the student is to learn to listen to what the body is saying moment by moment so that you feel the misalignments and learn to feel the moment by moment adjustments that alleviate strain as it arises. Eventually the poses become a living example of self-education and self - integration

                                Somatic Pioneers

   An exploration of embodied wisdom would not be complete without including some of the modern pioneers of awakening somatic consciousness, Emily Conrad, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Susan Harper, Hubert Godard and Caryn McHose. We will also look at how the work of Ida Rolf and the many 'Structural Integration" practitioners who have followed in her footsteps have contributed to our understanding of embodied intelligence. Special focus here will be on Tom Myer's work on "The Anatomy Trains".

  As all of the sections are interwoven, our exploration the body-mind will delve into all of its chaos and harmony, looking deeply not only at the physical level (muscle/bone) and physiological level, (breath/organ/fluid/vibration), but also the psychological/emotional components that arise concurrently in the poses, refering to our Heart/Mind/Meditation explorations when necessary. Our underlying attitudes and beliefs about practice, ourselves and the world are as fundamentally important to study as are alignment, strength and flexibility and thus we will be spiralling back and forth between the physiological and psychological on our journey through the poses.

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