Sacred Geometry: Yoga and the Torus

Posted on July 1, 2013 by admin

The torus is a three dimensional figure created by rotating a circle 360 degrees along a line formed by another circle. This is also known as a donut or bagel shape. The hole is one ‘inside’ and the interior of the donut (like the inside of a tire tube) is another ‘inside’.
These are static structures.

We can also imagine a toroidal shaped electromagnetic field generating a torus shape like this heart-centered one from
Asianhealthsecrets.com.
“The Hearts’ torus electromagnetic field is not the only source that emits this type of electromagnetic field. Every atom emits the same torus field. The Earth is also at the center of a torus, so is the solar system and even our galaxy…and all are holographic. Scientists believe there is a good possibility that there is only one universal torus encompassing an infinite number of interacting, holographic tori within its spectrum.”

Here is a larger torus centered on Jupiter and its moon, Io.

” Io’s volcanoes continually expel an enormous amount of particles into space, and these are swept up by Jupiter’s magnetic field at a rate of 1,000 kg/sec. This material becomes ionized in the magnetic field and forms a doughnut-shaped track around Io’s orbit called the Io Plasma Torus.” (planetaryexploration.net)

Here is one with a vesica pisces! Very cool! The original, by artist and planetary healer Pamela Leigh Richards is quite dynamic. (http://flywithmeproductions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/torus1.gif.

Another cosmic one appears in the current edition of National Geographic (July 2013) in an article on the origins of the solar system. This side oriented torus represents the Oort Cloud’ a collection of trillions of comets and mini planets toroidally spinning around the solar system, seen here in red.

This reminded me of Itzak Bentov’s torus describing his model of the whole cosmos. This can be found in both “Stalking the Wild Pendulum” and “A Cosmic Book, for those who want to look a bit more deeply into this.

And, for the piece de resistance, I offer the first cell division, where a single cell becomes two cells.
Notice the energy flow and the opening of the toroidal field as the poles (centrioles) separate. For your cosmic homework, as you sit in your favorite pose, Find your heart in the center and visualze the heart’s electro-magnetic field. Find the 1st chakra and open it to the earth’s energy. Find the 7th chakra opening to the heavens. Then allow the heavens to pass through the donut hole into the earth and the earths energies to pass through you to the heavens. Find the balance of stability (sthira) and flow (sukham) as the torus links your atoms to the cosmos and vice versa.

Then explore the energetic shift from one cell to two and then the reverse, from two to one. Develop some flexibility in both directions. Find the torus and the vesica pisces. We will build upon this in upcoming embryology sections.

And most importntly, Smile. Enjoy the show. And, to quote the poet Mary Oliver, ‘Pay attention!, Be astounded! Tell about it!

Clarity from Krishnamurti

Posted on June 24, 2013 by admin

Just back from our California adventure as our countdown to Ojai continues. While in Ojai we paid another visit to the Krishnamurti Foundation and I saw this posted at the entrance to the parking lot. His teaching has always been foundational for me and re-connecting with his wisdom continuously re-inspires me. This is Krishnamurti describing the essence of his message.

“The core of Krishnamurti’s teaching is contained in the statement he made in 1929 when he said ‘Truth is a pathless land’. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.

Man has built in himself images as a fence of security – religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. This content is common to all humanity. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all mankind. So he is not an individual.

Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man’s pretense that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence.

Thought is time. Thought is born of experience, of knowledge, which are inseparable from time. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past.

When man becomes aware of the movement of his own consciousness he will see the division between the thinker and the thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past . This timeless insight brings about a deep radical mutation in the mind.

Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of all those things which are not love – desire, pleasure – then love is, with its compassion and intelligence”.

In a future post we will look at Adyashanti discussing this same perspective in “The Shadow Side of Language”.

Sacred Geometry: Pyramids and More

Posted on June 3, 2013 by admin

More homework and clues for all of you somanauts out there. Previously we have been exploring variations on concentric circles (feminine) in several posts and now we add the masculine line in the form of the pyramid and some of the platonic solids. Somanautics requires a clear flow of perception, a good imagination, and lots of patience and curiosity. Go for it!

We’ll start with the square based pyramid as seen here. From the apex or top four lines descend, one to each of the four corners of a square, creating four triangles. This one shown is solid, but we can just as well imagine a pyramid of energy or as a light field. As we see with B.K.S. Iyengar, the basic sitting posture creates a pyramidal shape. If we could channel our inner Brahma, we could imagine four heads each looking out to the four directions, N,S, E and W, with head and tail orienting to heaven and earth to complete the six sacred directions.

There are many ways to explore this energy field. Here is one. Notice Brahma’s enlarged crown chakra. As you sit in whatever meditation position speaks to you, find the crown chakra space above your head and open it, wake it up. Let this be the apex. Imagine the inhalation traveling down from the apex spreading down the pyramid, ever widening in all four directions as it descends. This is a feminine inhalation, descending and widening. Feel grounded, rooted, stable. Imagine the masculine exhalation traveling up from the root chakra straight up the center channel to the crown chakra. Feel tall, open and spacious. As the inhalation moves down, keep the inner channel tall. As the exhalation flows, keep the width at all levels of the pyramid. Masculine and feminine energies move in perfect harmony. Let your cells and connective tissue structures feel the shape, expanding as they are supported by the field. This is ‘sthira sukham asanam’.

Another possibility begins with a mini pyramid centered on the root chakra. Let it breathe. Then slowly allow it to increase in size, keeping the center point of the base stable. Draw the apex up through the chakras observing where the body opens and where there is resistance. Be gentle and clear. Feel the pyramid expanding on the in breath, widening and releasing all unnecessary tension on the exhalation. Grow the pyramid until it reaches up past your crown chakra. Which of the four directions opens more easily? Which is the most resistant?

The square base pyramid is actually half of an octahedron, one of the five platonic solids. A triangular based pyramid is known as a tetrahedron, another platonic solid. Notice that the tetrahedron is asyymetrical. If we use it as a form for sitting we have to choose whether to have the base pointing forward or backward. Each offers a different inner experience. Try both. See if one or the other is more appealing.

If we take two tetrahedrons, put them together, one apex pointing up, the other down, we find a stellated octahedron. Here are two stellated octahedrons for your imagination to run with. Lots of fun can be had with the energy fields these create and we will come back to them in an upcoming post. They are a bit more complex so it may take a while. Enjoy!