my notes and thoughts from saturday morning int/adv. with John Friend

Here are some of my notes and thoughts from the inter/adv. workshop with John Friend at The Shop in Park City (I am very greatful to Leslie S. who recommened me transcribing my notes so I dont end up with another notebook of messy handwritting)
John Started the class by asking for questions...
Someone asked the question:
“How would you teach abdominals without interrupting the apana vayu (downward moving energy)?"

John responded by saying that most people (especially in the west) consider the core to be the rectus abdominis “six pack”. But really the core is the vertical channel that runs through the core of our body. It is from this subtle vertical channel that our physical body is building upon. This subtle body can be thought of as an etheric double. The core of our body, this energetic channel isn’t just vertical and straight has spanda (pulsation of prana).

We talked about how we don’t have anything in our body that is perfectly straight. Everything has a curve like our spine. Our spine can hold tons of weight if you use good alignment which holds the natural curvature of the spine for example in sirsasana. But if you were to straighten out the spine and then make it weight bearing that would be very unsuccessful. So cool. When John was talking about this I was thinking about how straight is similar to perfect. If you have a curve and you want to make it straight, you want it to move in a way toward perfection. However, john was pointing out that perfection isn’t straight. I feel like in my life I strive for perfection but this reminded me that perfect is never straight we become not perfect but more fully our self when we align with our uniqueness, our curves and the curvature of our spine.

Back to the original question. Most people (especially in the west) think of the core as the rectus abdominis, so they really work that area which makes the front of the belly tight. This tightness will pull the tailbone under. But people also tuck there tailbone under so their booty doesn’t look as bad. When you tuck the tail bone under like this you make your back flat which hurts the ligaments between the discs which can make you more prone to disc problems. Fun Fact: L5 SI is the most commonly injured dist for this reason. This tucked action and flattening of the back causes prevents the energy to go down and ground toward the earth (apana vayu). This disturbs the downward flow of energy and causes energetic and physical constipation, agitates the nervous system, feeling unsure, unconnected, anxious, nervous, ungrounded…

(I was so immpressed that this question guided the whole asana practice. We worked strongly on open to grace and inner spiral and outer spiral so we could feel the grounding quality and the flow of apana vayu while created dimond strength of the core)

“when we line up with life the beauty happiness”

We then talked about where the soul is located body?
How some philosophers say it is in the head, but when you take that view the head becomes superior and everything bellow the head becomes inferior (reminds me of how a lot of people think and act)
John said the soul is located in our pelvic area and that in fact the word sacrum comes from the word sacred. John didn’t say this but I think it is very interesting that the sacrum (5 fused vertebra) resemble a downward facing triangle, a symbol that shows from the divine to the embodied.

We are:

Divinely manifested

Embodiment of the supreme

Breath Awareness:
Focus of the floor of the pelvis. As you inhale notice what happens do you feel an expansion or do you feel a contraction? As you exhale notice what happens, do you feel an expansion or do you feel a contraction?

If the energy is moving “correctly” the inhalation should case the pelvis to expand and the exhalation should cause the pelvis to contract.

The story of Virabhadra...with a new lesson...Be fiernce and unite with your heart

The story of virabhadra.what serves you? I love myths. I love how every can teach so many lessons. Every time you return to them even if it is a story you have heard one hundred times before you will learn something new, gain a new insight, be inspired in a new way. This time I thought about how this story reminds us of Anusara "flowing with the heart". I was thinking about the story of Virabhadra the other day. The fierce warrior whom our poses virabhadrasana (warrior) 1, 2, and 3 are named after.

(I posted a blog very similar to this story so if you read it before you can move toward the bottom and read about a different way at looking at this same story :))

Once upon a time in the celestial realms lived a young man, Lord Shiva, and a young woman, Sati (also thought of as Shakti). Shiva and Sati fell madly in love and were wed. Unfortunately their story did not end here. For Sati was the daughter of King Daksha, who never approved of his daughter marrying a dreaded hair yogi who danced, sang, and consumed intoxicants. To show his disapproval, Daksha through a huge party, inviting everyone in the universe except for Shiva and Sati. Sati heard about the lavish party that her father was throwing as a way to punish her and her new husband, Lord Shiva. Annoyed, she begged Shiva to go with her to the party in spite of her father’s wishes. As the wise Lord of Consciousness Shiva replied; “why go, were we are not invited?” Sati disagreed and decided to go alone.

When she arrived her father jokingly announced that she must have come to her senses and left her husband. Sati whom was not amused defended Shiva, even pointing out his divineness, his oneness with nature, his steady unchanging firmness, and his supreme consciousness. She realized her father would never understand so she announced “since you have given me this body I no longer wish to be associated with it!” Determined she took her seat on the floor in the middle of the party and closed her eyes. She visualized Shiva and then through pranayama (breathing techniques) and other yogic exercises she cultivated her Agni (internal fire). Moments later she burst into flames, leaving the body her father had given her!

Out of devastation and grief of Sati’s fiery death, Shiva enraged tore out his hair (or a dread lock depending on which ancient text) throwing it to the ground. From this hair he created the fiercest warrior, which he named Virabhadra. Vira is the Sanskrit word meaning hero and bhadra means friend. I like to think of Virabhadra as faithful servers of Shiva. Shiva instructed Virabhadra to go to the party and seek revenge for Sati’s death.

The actions that Virabhadra took that night in battle are what inspired the asana poses we have come to know as virabradhasana 1, 2, and 3:

Virabhadrasana 1: Virabhadra entered the party by breaking through the ground as he rose from within the earth clasping a sword in each hand.
Virabhadrasana 2: Moments later he spotted Daksha from across the room.
Virabhadrasana 3: Lastly he beheads Daksha.

So that is the story… And every time I think about it a different aspect, a different teaching sticks out to me. I wrote a blog about this story and the ego http://authenticselfyoga.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-of-virabhadra-fierce-warrior.html. In that blog I talk about viewing Daksha as the ego, so Virabhadra is beheading our own ego in service of Shiva, our consciousness. However since writing this blog I have been studying a lot of tantra (Shiva-Shakti and Rajanaka). In this tantra view we don’t believe the ego is nessisaraly a bad thing. The ego is what makes the choices for the I. When I first came across this I idea I was so confused. For so long I have been trying to get rid of my ego. And yes the ego is bad when it makes me coincident, arrogant, cocky….But the ego is also that part of me that chooses to practice yoga, eat healthy, study tantra, meditate, and be kind... The ego in its essence represents the freedom of our life. The freedom what makes life so beautiful. So in tantra we don’t want to behead our ego. Does this make sense?

As I thought about this a different teaching came to mind. I thought about how Shiva represents our Consciousness and the Self while Sati (Shakti) represents the heart and the creative expression of the divine. Their marriage represents the union and experience of the heart, bliss and freedom with the Self. When Shiva and Shakti are united we can experience Param-Shiva the singular Supreme Spirit. Daksha can be viewed as whatever is not serving this union of the self (Shiva) and the heart (Shakti). When we move toward this Supreme Spirit we experience the “Essential Attributes of the Absolute” including: absolute Goodness, Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Sat-chit-ananda), pulsation, self-awareness, ultimate freedom (Svatantrya) and perfect fullness (Purnatva). Daksha represents the “stuff” that stands in our way, prevents us, or pulls us out of our connection with the heart, and the creative freedom of life. Whatever stops you from connecting to the bliss (ananda) that is part of our being (anamaya kosha).

This myth can inspire us to be fierce like the Virabhadra in serves of our Self, encouraging us to “behead” or remove whatever is not serving us in our life. Whatever is stopping us from being more heart centered, and more blissful. I love this. We can then take this view and apply it to each version of virabhadrasana:

Virabhadrasana 1: when he is breaking through the ground. This can represent us showing up for our self. Deciding and acknowledging that there is work to be done so we may connect more fully with our heart. This is the first step. It is empowering it takes strength and dedication, like the strength to break up from the earth.

Virabhadrasana 2: when he is setting his sight on Daksha. This is us looking. It is us being present in our life and seeing what is pulling us out or preventing from experiencing the “Attributes of the Absolute”, from being happy, from being connected to the heart. Maybe this is fear, anger, sadness, insecurity; maybe it is bad friends, drinking, gambling, sex…. Not only do we need to show up (virabhadrasana 1), but we need to dive into our self and see what needs to be “beheaded”.

Virabhadrasana 3: when he is beheading Daksha. This is doing the work. We have showed up (in virabhadrasana 1), we have looked and been present with our self (in virabhadrasana 2), and now we need to do the work, we need to implement changes and behead what is stopping us from being heart centered. Part of this phase is to continuing to show up (virabhadrasana 1 and virabhadrasana 2). It is continuing to practice, continuing to look at our self. A great Sanskrit term for this is Abhyasa.

“Abhyasa is the best term that encapsulates this concept. It's showing up, over and over, for a long period of time with a devoted heart. The word abhyasa means: "a continuous endeavor; constant practice; repetition; exercise; exertion."” (Maria Cristina)

So...as we practice can we show up for our self, look with in and see what is holding us back, and then have the strength to do something about it, and continue this process over and over and over! This is hard work, which is way we can be inspired by this fierce warrior Virabhadra who serves us (Shiva) so we may unite with our heart and creative freedom (Shakti).