Mobility, Motility and Stillness, part 1

Posted on January 28, 2013 by admin

(Notes from the Detroit workshop, January 2013)

I love trinities. I see them everywhere and love when new ones pop up. Our weekend focus is on one that has just come to me, although it is not totally new: mobility, motility and stillness. This trinity offers us a key to unlocking the secret of yoga. Finding balance and harmony in the first two creates a possible opening into the third, the unbounded infinite open heart. Just as the eternal ‘Now’ is not the absence of time, stillness, as I am using the word here, is not the absence of movement, but the ever-present source of all movement. Patanjali calls this purusha.

We can also another connection that might be helpful. Mobility involves the gross or physical body, the body of weight and mass. Motility is the subtle or energy body with no mass but measurable movement. The causal or ‘bliss’ body (anandamaya kosha) refers to the fields such as gravity and electromagnetism that shape the movements of matter and energy. “Stillness’, as we are using the term is actually the source of all ‘three bodies’ and thus accessible from anywhere at any time. However, the stability of the causal body allows it to be the most likely place from which we can ‘let go’ into the stillness.

Mobility

For those of us who practice and teach a somatic based enquiry, we usually begin with the most tangible, the most accessible: the gross body or body of weight and mass (sthula sharira in Sanskrit). Mobility is the ability of this body to move through space. Animals are mobile. Plants, for the most part are not. Animals have nervous systems which have evolved to organize movements in space. Plants do not have nervous systems. (See the ” i of the Vortex” by Rodolfo Llinas for a brilliant exposition of the evolution of the nervous system.) Animals have muscles and bones and it is through these that most humans discover movement. In a hatha yoga practice, our first goal is usually to optimize the capacity of the body to move. Here, the most simple movements are returned to their naturally elegant, graceful and effortless level of expression.

To keep life simple, we will explore the three fundamental movements of the pelvis in relation to the legs and how the legs and feet provide a stable base for these movements. These are the foundation to the beginning level poses. We will look at sustaining, or staying in a pose for many breaths in the motility section. (There are also situations where restorative poses are necessary at the beginning, with no outer movements, and we will visit that in motility.) Here is a away to introduce elegant mobility to new students.

Tadasana; here we stabilize the feet, and mobilize the ankles, knees and hips. Imagine you are on skis (or ice skates, surfboard, skateboard etc) where your feet play a crucial role in feeling the earth beneath you and your legs are dynamically interacting with gravity. There is a flow of energy linking the joints and muscles as they continuously adapt to the changing terrain. As you stand with feet hip width apart, find this state of being both relaxed and alert and feel it throughout the body. As you stand on your mat, let your ankles, hips and knees move as your feet stay still. Let the whole body feel supported.

When the legs are awake we can add the three basic movements of the pelvis turning around the hip joints, forward flexion/extension (forward and backbending postures), lateral flexion and extension (of the pelvis!) like trikonasana and its cousins, and rotation or twisting. In teaching all levels of yoga students, these three movements are foundational. To begin this pelvic exploration we will add a bonus to the body. Our human tail is very limiting so we will grow a new one, with our imagination and energy.

So, grow yourself a tail. Let your imagination expand. Cats, birds, fish, lizzards, or even a kangaroo are possible options. Feel the energy of the tail extending down and back to offer more support and relief to the spinal muscles. This vector (direction of flow) takes you away from your head. Let it extend even beyond your imaginary tail so it continues on into space.

From tadasana we will now explore forward bending or forward flexion and its complement, extension. Let your tail go back and up to help bring your torso forward and down. Feel the pelvis and hips at the very center of the movement, the femur bones being the fulcrum of the see-saw, so you feel perfectly balanced all the way down. Pause, and then using your tail, return to the upright position. Repeat the cycle again and again, as slowly as possible.

The secret to healthy expressions of mobility is the ability to first feel a pair of even, balanced, complementary movements around a still point, which here are the femur heads. Let the body relax in skier’s tadasana and feel the changes as you move in and out of the forward bend. Take your feet wider apart and explore the same movements. Prasarita padottanasana is the Sanskrit name for the wide leg pose . If you have the flexibility, let your head and or elbows come to the floor as well, but the movements in and out are what is important. Experience many different distances between the feet, not just two. Each will offer new sensations and the possibility of greater ease.

Next comes the lateral or fish body poses, of which triangle pose is the all time greatest. It is in my top three of all time favorite asanas. Imagine a tail, like a fish, extending away from the human tail. Visualize a circle, or even better, concentric circles , and move in and out of the pose riding on the circles like a half-pipe in skiing. Smooth out the movements and the energy flow. Try the same in parsvakonasana and ardha chandrasana. Remember to do both sides equally. We are not staying in the postures yet. That will come in the motility section. Try to find a clear clean circle of energy in the side plane. This is where trikonasana shines!

Finally we rotate. Because the legs can inhibit pelvic rotation, the bet way to develop mobility here is to use ardha chandrasa as a starting point, using blocks if necessary, keep the standing leg till and rotate the pelvis around to parvrtta ardha chandrasana. Again, we are not yet staying in the pose, but exploring and liberating the mobility in the body so repeat back and forth as slowly and smoothly as possible. (Great thanks to Onecenteryoga in Asheville, NC for the photos).

The standing poses offer the best leverage for opening the hip joint mobility. We are not necessarily trying to greatly increase range of motion as we are are looking to create balanced, elegant centered movements around a stable base. Ardha chandrasana can be an entry into one legged dog pose where we use the hip mobility of help lengthen the spine and open the shoulders. From here, ‘flipping’ the dog uses the pelvis mobility and also takes you deeper into the organic movements we will discuss in motility, (coming in part 2). Practice moving in and out as slowly as possible to increase sensitivity and elegance.

Proof of Heaven

Posted on January 17, 2013 by admin

There are many fascinating stories arising on the front lines of the awakening process, but Eban Alexander’s has to be one of the wilder ones. Great book! Terrifying to the rationalists!

Eban is a neurosurgeon. He earned his M.D. at Duke University in 1980, continued his residency there as well as at Mass General Hospital and Harvard, went on to explore neuroendocrinology and cerebrovascular surgery and spent fifteen years on the faculty of Harvard Medical school as an associate professor of surgery with a specialization in neurosurgery. As a practicing surgeon, he operated on countless patients, many with serious brain injuries and aliments. He is a scientist par excellence. ” I adored that simplicity-the absolute honesty and cleanness of science. I respected that it left no room for fantasy or for sloppy thinking. If a fact could be established as tangible and trustworthy, it was acceptted. If not, then it was rejected.”

And, in November of 2008, he suddenly came down with a rare brain illness.

If you are familiar with Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke of Insight” you might guess where this is going. But Eben’s story is even more mind-boggling. He developed a case of bacterial meningitis and was in a coma for seven days. His neocortex shut down totally. His attending physicians eventually told the family that he was never coming back, there had been too much trauma from the infection, which did not seem to respond to the various anti-biotics the medical team administered. But he did eventually awaken, rather suddenly, from the coma. And the story he returned with was shattering; shattering at least to his ‘sceptical-logical’ scientific mind.

In his out-of body travels he discovers the ‘underworld’, the ‘gate way’ and the ‘core’ and the absolute impossibility to describe his experiences in words or relate them to our earth bound ‘ordinary’ reality. “I know my biology, and while I am not a physicist, I’m no slouch at that, either. I know the difference between fantasy and reality, and I know that the experiences I am struggling to give you the vaguest, most completely unsatisfactory of, was the single most real experience of my life.”

“To say that there is still a chasm between our current scientific understanding of the universe and the truth as I saw it is a considerable understatement.” And, “perhaps the best way of conveying that part of that experience is to say I had a foretaste of another, larger kind of knowledge: one I believe human beings will be able to access in ever larger numbers in the future.”

“I saw the abundance of life throughout the countless universes, including some whose intelligence was advanced far beyond humanity. I saw that there are countless higher dimensions, but the only way to know these dimensions is to enter and experience them directly.”

Finally, “It is my belief that we are now facing a crucial time in our existence. We need to recover more of that larger knowledge while living here on earth, while our brains (including its left-side analytical parts) are fully functioning. Science—the science to which I’ve devoted so much of my life—doesn’t contradict what I learned up there. But far too many people believe, because certain members of the scientific community, who are pledged to the materialistic world view, have insisted again and again that science and spirituality cannot coexist.

They are mistaken…. The unconditional love and acceptance that I experienced on my journey is the single most important discovery I have ever made, or will ever make, and as hard as I know it’s going to be to unpack the other lessons I learned while there, I also know in my heart that sharing this basic message—-one so simple that most children readily accept it—is the most important task I have.”

Cranial Sacral Rhythms

Posted on January 12, 2013 by admin

I love trinities. The process of cosmic emergence also seems to love threes. So, as we deepen our enquiries into the energetic realms of aliveness, we can add the cranial sacral cycles to the heartbeat and respiratory rhythm to create an energetic trinity of waves and pulses. I was first attuned to this possibility long ago (1979) by Itzak Bentov and his pioneering book “Stalkiing the Wild Pendulum when he described the meditative state manifesting standing waves in the aorta, rhythm-entraining the cerebro-spinal fluid, when the breath was still. (To feel this however has proven to be rather elusive.) Bentov’s next book, ‘A Cosmic Book”, published posthumously, took his explorations way out into the cosmic realms, but I did not yet see the connection to the csf. (Nor did I discover the magnificent sphenoid bone, or the spheno-basilar junction, the fulcrum of the cranial movements.)

The possibilities were further elaborated when B.K.S. Iyengar, is a rare moment of inner disclosure, described how he would monitor his poses by the height and temperature of the cerebro-spinal fluid in the spinal canal. (This might have been during the celebrations and classes for his 70th birthday in 1988.) Again, sensitivities still were behind the conception. It sounded great, but there was still a lot of noise in the system. Some energies I could feel, but not the csf!

A big breakthrough came about 5 years ago when I discovered Charles Ridley’s “Stillness: Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Practice and the Evolution of Consciousness. His bibliography included all of my favorite authors from both science and spirituality and it was like finding a spiritual dharma brother with info on this mysterious realm that has fascinated me for years. His approach is both hands on ad non-dual! Wow! I’ll cover his work in more detail in later posts and articles.

Most recently I am blessed to be the recipient of cranial sacral work from both my friend Caryn McHose, who needs hours for her cranial sacral training, and Pat Cunningham, an amazingly sensitive healer here in Arlington who uses cranial sacral work along with other modalities. The cosmic links are opening up as the causal body and the causal fields directly affect the cranial sacral energies.

From Caryn I discovered Franklyn Sills, founder of “Polarity” and ‘Cranial Sacral Biodynamics. (Just like the yoga scene, the cranial sacral world is full of leaders, followers and politics!) Franklyn, and Roger Gilchrist in Cranial Sacral Therapy and the Energetic Body”, offer even more perspectives and points of view of the energetic nature of aliveness, healing, trauma and awakening. In the coming months I am hoping more clarity will come and I will be adding a new section to the resources menu on this work. I have my new skull. Happy New Year!