In most classes we use the syllable OM to begin and end each class, but what does this actually mean, and why has this become a Yogic tradition?

As in most Eastern thought, an idea cannot merely be thought of; to truly be known it must be experienced as well.  Sanskrit is an experiencial language meaning that woven into the technology of the language is the actual physical, mental and emotional experience of that linguistic concept-symbol that is being uttered.  Unfortunatley for most modern humans our ability to sense the subtleties inherent within mystical practices and traditions such as sacred language, sound and geometry has become atrophied.  According to Hazrat Inayat Kahn, a Sufi teacher and mystic, once we have been made aware of our limitations of perception, this is where the opening to our true sense of knowledge can begin.

OM is a great place to start.

OM is broken down into four parts:

(HU) -A -U-Mmmm.

HU = Spirit;  A = The Infinite Energy / the Divine;  U = the transmission of the Infinite Energy; M = the containment / embodiment of the Infinite Energy.  The resonant mmmmm at the end is the resonant vibration and expression of the Infinite Energy within its embodiment.

A (Divine) > U (transmission) > M (embodiment)…..mmmm (expression, life, human).

The utterance of OM is a recognition of the embodiment of Infinite Energy that resides in each of us.  It is also the pure experience of the embodiment of this energy, and the mmmmm fills us and moves through us.  Don’t take my word for it, try and see :).

It can be thought in this way:  The “A” is hot water; the “U” is the pouring of the water into a bottle; the “M” is the containment of the water within the bottle and putting the stopper on; the “mmmmm” is the feeling of heat emanating from the bottle.

Then if we were to hold this bottle, we could not say that it is the bottle that is hot, but the water within that is the source of the heat.

We can also experience this in our Yoga postures.  The “A” is the beginning, the setting of the foundation, The “U” is getting into the posture, the “M” is the full expression of the posture and the natural ending of it, and the “mmmmmm” is the blissful experience resonating in our body-mind shortly after coming out of the posture.

This finally brings us to our Human-ness.

“Hu”  = spirit;  “Man” = mind / consciousness (”manas” from sanskrit)

Human = Divine Consciousness; and expression of the Infinite Energy

Another way of looking at this is that human-ness is the way through which God knows itself.

By chanting OM or gazing at the sacred symbol we are acknowledging that we are indeed an embodiment of the Divine Light and Energy that both contains  and permeates all of existence.  We exist in OM and OM exists within us.

Hope this enlightens your New Year!

Peace and Love,

Joshua Graner

There is a beautiful sentiment from many cultural mystical traditions that states: “When 2 or more people come together with a prayerful mind then miracles happen.”

When we practice Yoga together this is also the case.  A prayerful mind really means a focused, intent, genuine, devoted mind.  With this kind of mind there is little that is not possible.  In my time practicing and teaching Yoga I have noticed that when I practice with others the energy is much higher.

There is a wonderful Sanskrit mantra that expresses this idea:

Sahana vavatu sahanou bhunaktu / Sahaveeryam karavavahai / Tejasvinavadhitamastu /Mavid visha vahai hi / Aum Shanti Shanti Shantihi

Translation:  Let us be together / let us eat together / let us produce the energy together / let there be no limit to our energies / let there be no ill feeling among us.  Aum Peace Peace Peace!

Together, when we practice we are like a symphony.  This is one of the reasons it is good to have a personal practice.  When we practice on our own we have the space and time to discover certain things which may be overlooked during a group practice.  Our sensitivity to our energy becomes heightened and we are able to fine tune our Yoga.

Then we bring our practice to the the Kula (energetic orchestra) and create amazing energetic music.  The teacher is like the conductor and the students like the musicians.  In this case it doesn’t matter how well one can stand on their head, or do the splits.  What matters is the prayer mind.  The mind of patience and devotion.  The mind of exploration and adventure.  The mind of Unity!

Peace and Love my Friends,

Joshua Graner

Joshua@all1mind.org

I recently heard a talk by the Dalai Lama and he addressed a person’s question about desire.  The practitioner was confused by the seemingly paradoxical Buddhist teaching that desire, craving and attachment will cause suffering, but that it takes desire to be disciplined in one’s practice.  The answer the Dalai Lama gave was simple, that certain desires are positive and some are negative.

I would like to expand on this.  Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudez says that what we desire most, that we will become. (This is an aspect of Karma)

To transform our habits, our desire has to be razor sharp and white hot to sear through the veil of ignorance and fear that keeps us making decisions that hinder our joy and destroy our habitat.

Desire can be placed into two categories:  Desire driven by compulsion (craving / attachment) and desire driven by choice (will).

We can only be truly free when our desires are by choice rather than by habit.  When we apply mindfulness to the expression of our will, our desire is transformed into a powerful tool for liberation and the creation of a world that celebrates joy rather than destruction, love rather than fear.

Peace and love,

Joshua Graner

Joshua@all1mind.org

Please enjoy this poem By Rumi,

Different degrees of Domination and Servitude

are what you know as love

But Love is different

It arrives complete like the Full Moon at the Window

Seek only That of which you have no clue

Step out of the circle of Time and into the Circle of Love.

This is  not the Nile River or some small creek

This is the Shoreless Sea

Here, swimming ends always in Drowning.

There are so many variations of our understanding of love.  The Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn says that space is the greatest love one can give.”  In yoga our practice is to create space in our body through stretching, breathing and deep relaxation.  If our practice causes us to feel contracted or tight it is time to re-evaluate our attitude toward our practice.  “Does my practice engender space to be filled with loving energy?”

As our practice is a representation of our lives, it is nice to ask ourselves “am I creating situations in my life to provide spacioiusness in my mind, relationships, activities, work and play?”  When we create the space, the energy will naturally come and we feel as if our movements and activities are effortless.  The key to this is mindful movements, mindful thoughts and mindful breaths.

Whenever I begin to feel as if I am getting ahead of myself the words of my good friend and yoga teacher Manel Rodriguez come to mind “Space it out man, space it out.”

peace and love,

Joshua

Joshua@all1mind.org

In Yogic science there are points in the body and in the mind called Dristis (inner focal points) that help to guide the focus and energy of the posture to the appropriate places.  For example, when doing a back bend like cobra, often the dristi is directed to the area between the eyebrows.  This along with the naturally constricted breathing created by the back bend stmulates the pineal and pituitary glands to help balance the hormonal chemistry in the brain.  There are many dristis in Yogic science, this is just one.

Dristsis also exist in the mental / behavioural aspect of the practice as well.  For example, a series of postures geared toward chest and shoulder opening will sometimes be accompanied by focusing on loving-kindness through mantra repetition, visualization or paying attention to the sensations of the body and emotions while doing the “heart opening” postures.  This is another type of inward gaze.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras states that one of the most important aspects of Yoga is to develop a relationship with the mind so that is can be pin-point focused on whatever the practitioner wishes and maintained without distraction.  This is the essential definition of Drisiti.  Imagine focusing your mind like a magnifying glass harnessing the suns energy and directing it single-pointedly toward a combusting, smoking dot on a piece of paper.  With the right magnifying glass and right conditions it is even possible to melt steel…now that is some serious energy! In our personal practices we can choose a point of focus and direct our energy to it…with that much attention, growth and insight is sure to happen.  One way that I choose a dristi is by asking myself “what am I resisting, and what do I truly want?”  I ask this before my practice and then choose.  Maybe I am feeling resistance in my heart center, maybe some resistance in my hips and glutes….maybe I have some uncertainty about an upcoming event or am just bursting with affection and hopefulness.  Whatever it may be I feel it out, bring it fully into my attention and focus all my energies on it while I practice.  When I practice like this there is always an unfolding that I experience in Savasana that leaves me with some insight, a sense of balance and a dissolution of resistance.

May your practice be focused and meaningful, and may you realize the miracle of your own mind.

Namaste, Joshua and Oso.

joshua@all1mind.org

Everything in this life is conditional meaning that only when the right conditions are met can something happen.  Often these conditions are met haphazardly and something is produced or accomplished by accident, and sometimes these conditions are met consciously and something is produced on purpose.  Yoga is the art and science of producing something consciously.  This could be a state of body, a condition of mind, a type of energy, an experience of emotion or the communication of an idea, but regardless of of what it is, it is done consciously.

The mystic, poet and spiritual teacher Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has been quoted as saying “only when one gives something 100% attention will it yield to that person, in fact with enough awareness, even existence itself will yield.”  There are many accounts of yogis, siddhis and mystics who were able, with enough focused attention to do things that defy established physical norms and imagination.

In our yoga practice, maybe our goal is not to hover above the Himalayas on a cloud of ethereal mind stuff; maybe all we want to do is live a full and rich life relatively free from health problems and conflicts.  This is very much possible, but it is conditional.  If through our practice and habits of mind we are able to create the conditions for health, peace and joy then it will happen.  Otherwise we are left to haphazard situations, superstitions, faith and hope.

1)  The Conditioned Body:  Our body, the way it functions, its posture, its degrees of tension or relaxation and its response to internal and external stimuli is all a composition of everything we have done from birth to now.  If our conditioning throughout our life occurred in a certain way then our capacity to experience life would be large and we would be able to function in an expansive state physically, mentally and energetically.  Through the practice of Yoga we cultivate the body or Anamayakosha (body made of food), as it is known in Yogic sciences.  By cultivating the body through our Hatha Yoga Asana (postures) in a compassionate and intentional way we can increase the capacity for our body to experience different and more intense physical, mental and energetic states.  Here are a few ideas about how our body can be conditioned:

a.  What and how we eat.  The ingredients and intention behind what we eat and how we eat shape many aspects of our body including metabolism, hormones, brain activity, immunity, tissue generation and regeneration, energy and our connection to each other and our environment.  In the blogs to come I will provide some ideas concerning nutrition and intentional eating including recipes and such.  As an exercise, I invite you to begin with something simple.  Before you eat, make a mental note of how you feel physically and mentally.  Continue this inquiry during the eating process, directly after eating and a few hours later.  The first step to intentional eating is developing an awareness of how our food habits make us feel directly.

b.  How we sleep.  Sleep is one of the most important aspects to staying healthy and vibrant.  When Yoga is practiced in a certain way and with the right intention we are able to increase the depth and restfulness of our sleep while decreasing the amount of time needed to stay in bed.  Our diet is a large factor in this as well.

c.  Residual tension in the body:  The body is designed to expand and contract. Every cell, organ and tissue in the body follows this principle.  Our muscles and connective tissues are also designed to relax and tense as needed.  Pain and discomfort occur when the balance is thrown off and we exist with a degree of residual, or left-over tension.  This is often caused by some type of trauma to the body, psyche and energy.  The tension is stored in an aspect of the nervous system (brain, spinal chord and nerves) called the sympathetic nervous system.  For most of us there is tension in the nervous system most of the time but it is not often discernible under normal conditions.  Once the tension reaches a threshold then we receive signals in our muscles, joints and emotional centers in our brain which all sing out in a symphony of “OUCH!”  One of the goals of Yoga is to help discharge the pent up tension-energy trapped in the nervous system, which is one of the reasons we feel so good after practice.  The key to maintaining this feeling of lightness is to include a practice of pranayama (energy / breath cultivation), and a form of meditation along with your Yoga asana (postures) practice.

2)  The conditioned mind:  The second verse of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras states that the goal of Yoga is to guide the mind to a sweet place of choice and maintain it there without distraction (1).  Tibetan medicine and psychiatry holds that “…the general and basic cause of mental [and physical] illness is thought to lie in leading a life that runs counter to one’s deepest spiritual inclinations and insights and one’s inherent disposition (2).”  If we look deep enough, the source of most of our troubles is internal, and the source of the internal dis-ease is a state of conflict.  Through the practice of Yoga, pranayam, and meditation we are able to begin to ease the internal conflict, recognize its source and realize it is in fact just an illusion.

In summary, much of what we are is on account of our conditioning.  There are some essential or genetic components that come into play, but the majority of how we are in my opinion is based on our choices past, present and future.  The past is a memory and the future is a hallucination of the imagination.  Therefore the choices we make presently are the most important.  If we practice intentionally, compassionately, and without obsession, trust the process of life, and cultivate a well-operating body and mind then not only will we be enjoying the present moment in our practice but we may also be creating conditions in our body, mind and energy that will allow us to experience states and phenomena that we have never experienced before.  And this is totally Rad!

Much love - Joshua Graner

Joshua@all1mind.org

Sources:

1.  Yoga of Heart, Mark Whitwell

2.  Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry, Terry Clifford.