Spanda

It is great scientists are now confirming what yogis have known for years. That EVERYTHING is pulsating, everything is vibrating. Spanda is the name used for the subtle pulse of the universe as it manifests into form.

I have been thinking a lot about pulsation lately. I have been busy and sometimes I feel like I am fighting life. I know this feeling is because my pulsation is in conflict with the pulsation of the universe. This is one of the reasons I love yoga because I can realign myself with the flow of Grace. When I feel like I am fighting against the flow, I pause, I breathe, I practice meditation or asana, I remember I am connected to something bigger then myself and “this” homework assignment.

I was thinking about this and about how when we line up with Divine. When we are not fighting the natural flow things are more enjoyable. I was surfing the web the other day and I found this quote I thought it was so perfect:

“The whole world is an ocean filled with waves, learn to float on them and don’t get caught in them. Equanimity or balance is yoga. Learn to balance yourself and you will enjoy everything” Sri Gurudev

I know that spanda and quantum physics is super specific and complex. This is my way of breaking it down into simple words along with hand motions I use to help me explain it in class. My explanation is just to help explain the idea, in a fun way.

I applied/translated this to my idea of spanda.
The who world is an ocean filled with waves = the universe is constantly pulsating (I like to imagine this complex pulsation as one simple wave motion. I use my hand and make big wave motions).
Learn to float on them= learn to align yourself so you are pulsating on the same vibration as the universe (now I use both of my hands to make a wave motion that are in sync so everything is smooth and enjoyable).
And don’t get caught in them = don’t pulsate in opposition to the universe (to explain this with my hands I use both my hands going in the same directions but at opposite times (like a figure eight) so my hands collide in the middle of the wave).
Equanimity or balance is yoga.
Learn to balance yourself= learn to align with the divine (practice yoga)
And you will enjoy everything= life is full of SHRI

There are three main ways that we fight the natural pulsation of life, like three different vibrational levels. We all have a tendency to fall toward one of these in certain situations:
1. Sad
2. Anger
3. Fear

On Thursday I talked about this for my yoga hour class (only 4$ at the yoga center). It was really fun. We worked on holding poses up to two minutes. I talked about how when you hold a pose the body and mind can start to resist and contract. You start to bit your teeth or tighten the muscles around your eyes. This is what happens when we flow against the pulsation of the Divine. What’s great about Anusara yoga, is we can use the principles of alignment to find the optimum place for us in the pose. This is moving toward the optimal blueprint. When we are in this place it is magical. Instead of contracting and getting irritated we are full of love. We feel the deeper meaning of life, a sense of acceptance of our self. This is aligning with the divine. This is a way to match up our pulsation with that of Grace. And what is so cool, is if we can do this on the mat we can start to do it off the mat as well.

Here is a sutra I love from The Radiance Sutras (translated by Lorin Roche, Ph.D.) about spanda:
31. Experience the substance of the body and the world
as made up of vibrating particles,
and these particles made up of
even finer energy particles.
Drifting more deeply,
feel into each particle
as it condenses from infinity
and dissolves back into it
continuously.

Noticing this, breathe easily
with infinity dancing everywhere.

The Radiance Sutras...Effort/Stability and Ease/Freedom

I have reading Lorin Roches lovely book: The Radiance Sutra also called Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. This name loosely translates to mean “the terror and joy of realizing oneness with the Soul”. Each sutra is a way of looking and feeling into the essences of simple life activities. Lorin put it beautifully when he said “meditation is diving into your entire sensorium so fearlessly that you go beyond it into the core of your being and rest there. This is yoga of delight, awe, and wonder”.

These sutras all remind me of sutra 2:46 from Patanjali’s book “sthira sukam asanam”. This sutra is about how we should live our life and practice with a dynamic balance between effort (sthira) and ease (sukam). These two words remind me of something we talk about and practice in Anusara all the time. Stability (effort) and freedom (ease). As I read Lorin’s book every sutra is showing us a way of enjoying and experiencing an activity in our life so fully that we can merge with the divine. In order to do this we have to have disciple, effort and stability. We have to focus our mind so we may pick up on all the sensations so fully that we feel the dance and pulsation of life. However if we get to rigid, too hard, focused too deeply we will get stressed, we will tense up and we will miss this blissful experience. In order to prevent getting overly focused we need to be relaxed, and at ease so we may experience this gift of embodied freedom. However, if relaxed too much we wouldn’t have the containment we would miss the sensations and the invitation of experiencing the delight of life.

(I had so much fun teaching today. I didn’t stress too much about planning. I have 5 people come to a new class I am starting 12-1 at the yoga center only 4$! The students were of all different abilities and each one loved it. I think they all grasped this idea of needing stability, discipline and effort so they may soften, and experience freedom)
Theme: effort/stability/muscular energy and ease/freedom/organic energy
Childs “in childs notice the dynamic balance between effort and freedom. If you don’t use any disciple in your will spin off and if you use to much effort the pose inst enjoyable”
Tadasana-> 1/2 moon stretch
Variation of Sun with Lunge with 1/2 moon stretch 2x
Parsvakonasana
Trikonasana
Navasana -> rev. table
Handstand work:
L at wall, L at wall leg extended, L at wall with pumping, kicking up to wall, kicking up to wall but not hitting wall (the students honored where they were in the pose, many of them made it to a high level then they thought. It took effort on me to end the hand stand session because the students were loving it so much and smiling, so we went longer but not to long because I didn’t want them to get hurt because they were to tiered and were pushing to hard)
Forearm balance
Twist
Happy baby->compass
Forward folds
Savasana
We also focused a lot on being aware of our breath and taking the invitation the breath offers. The first activity offered in the sutras is a focus on the breath. The breath is an activity that we are doing constantly. We normally don’t have the stability to focus on the breath, and the softness to enjoy it. But when we focus intimately and softly we can experience the freedom it offers.

The very first sutra offers us this invitation to the breath:

“Beloved, your question requires the answers that come
Through direct living experience.
The way of experience begins with a breath
Such as the breath you are breathing now.
Awakening into luminous reality
May dawn in the momentary throb
Between any two breaths.
The breath flows in and just as it turns
To flow out, there is a flash of pure joy –
Life is renewed.
Awaken into that.
As the breath is released and flows out,
There is a pulse as it turns to flow in.
In that turn, you are empty.
Enter that emptiness as the source of all life”