a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
214 Crosby St.

Arlington, MA 02474

781 643-0117
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Introduction

12 Principles of Awakening

Spiritual Foundation

Scientific Foundation

Embodying the Practice

Collective Awakening

              Embodying the Practice

            The Practice and Teaching of Hatha Yoga       

                to Facilitate the Awakening Process

           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, relationships, life conditions and other factors. We may complexify and mature, or we may get stuck in less efficient, less mature, 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 galaxies, the sun and moon, 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 the three bodies as described in classical yoga literature with the updated perspective of modern science. We can see them as points of view or different perspectives each with their own points of reference, rules and instructions for exploration, but ultimately all part on an integral wholeness.

  The first is the gross or structural body, known as the shthula sharira or the anamaya kosha in Sanskrit. This is the physical or tangible flesh and blood body. It has mass, weight, and inertia. It is described by anatomy and refered to in yoga through alignment instructions. This is the simplest and most familiar of the bodies and the body most modern yoga classes addresses.

    The second is the subtle or energy body, sukshma sharira in Sanskrit, and is experienced as energy flow. The terms chi, qi and prana refer to the organized movements of aliveness of this body and this is the key body for practice and explorations, as this is where the confusion of the mind most directly manifests and the quickest entry into the healing process

   The sukshma sharira has three classically described layers or koshas (literally 'sheath") : the pranamaya or physiological kosha, the manomaya or mental kosha and the vijnanamaya kosha, the layer of intelligence. These manifest in the realm of energy, not matter. The physical heart has weight, but also electrical, mechanical and thermal energy flows. The pranamaya kosha includes all physiological energies. The mental layer includes sensation, perception, memory and all of our conditioning. The intelligence layer includes the cognitive capacities to transcend and transform our conditioned patterens and to integrate and develop more and more complex and sophisticated ways of processing information and acting in the world.

   The third body is the causal body, the karana shirira. Here, the individual is experienced as being a field embraced by and suspended in series of integrated, nested fields from gravity's macrophase shaping of the cosmic structures, to the 'web of life' dna fields of the life systems ot the planet, to the strong nuclear and electromagnetic shaping of the atomic and sub atomic realms. From this point of view, you and the universe are never separate, and thus this is also referred to as the body of bliss, the anandamaya kosha.

    In our yoga practice and teaching, we will use all points of view and in time learn how to create a truly integrated spiritual life practice. Three types of practice emerge in concert with the three bodies. The physical or structural view is first experienced through the yoga postures known as asanas. By using the breath in the poses we will quickly integrate the subtle body flow to the structral level to allow the integration process to begin. Another aspect of subtle body practice evolves as mindfulness, meditation and metta practice, where our attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and emotions are examined. As the meditation practice matures and non dual meditation emerges, surrender into the wholeness of the causal body helps deepen the connection to our divine nature

                                       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/novelty 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, organs and cells, 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, flexibility and novelty.

   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. What is happening to them in the moment is often ignored as the mind tries to remember past instruction or impose its will onto the body to move toward a fantasized future.

   This mind-set or belief system is a difficult one to overcome and mindful awareness is the primary antidote. 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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