Nadi Yoga Part 10 - Preliminaries - Tapas

One of the many meanings given to tapas, the 3rd niyama, is heat. Heat is a quality that implies movement. Tapas is an active principle. Movement is necessary to overcome the imbalance of tamas, the guna of solidity, which at its extreme can manifest as torpor, tiredness and rigidity.

When our lives become out of balance and we find that we are stuck, not moving, we can overcome this either through shauca or tapas. We may find that we need to free up space, clear out the house, clean up our body, in order to be able to move in the first place. This is where shauca comes in. Sometimes though, we have to ignite our inner fire, start up our engines and just get moving. This is the function of tapas. Shauca and tapas can easily go together, tapas providing the heat and movement to clean things up in our life.

There are many forms that tapas can take. Tapas can be inhibitory. For example we may find that we are lethargic due to bad foods or habit patterns that are governing our life. Tapas can take the form of restricting certain things from our life in order to free up the energies that are blocked from the bad habit patterns. If I notice I am tired after drinking every night, I may choose a form of tapas that eliminates alcohol from my life for some time. If I notice that I can't seem to get anything done because my life is a mess around me, I may have to take the time and energy to clean it up (tapas and shauca combined). Tapas can also be a practice which focuses our energy. The later limbs of yoga like asana, pranayama, and mudra can be powerful forms of tapas which help to align our energies and concentrate us.

It is more effective if we choose forms of tapas carefully and work with only one or a few at at time. In this way, if it is used with consistency and moderation, it can build power over time and slowly eliminate the blockages that dam our inner rivers of movement potential. Pick one practice to begin with. It may be abstaining from a bad food. It may be going for a walk at the same time everyday. It may be forcing yourself to write or do that project you have been holding off on. It may be choosing to abstain from certain speech or actions. It may be taking a yoga class or learning a particular pose. It may be learning to slowly hold a pose or meditation for longer and longer. The forms that tapas can take are literally endless and should be adapted with care and discernment according to temperament and ability.

Tapas has the potential, if not used with discernment, to quickly fall into the trap of asceticism and extremism. Like santosha, tapas should be used in a balancing way, being careful not to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction from the imbalanced direction that we were correcting. If used with careful discernment, tapas can be a powerful tool for bringing the gunas into a state of harmony.
If we are not careful to choose a form of tapas properly, or pick a form of tapas too extreme for our abilities, we may fail. In failing we run the risk of falling back into the tamasic patterning that led us to the tapas in the first place and it may be more difficult to start up the movement again. For example, we may decide that the project we have been holding off on for so long needs to be completed in one day. We try and fail and decide that it "just isn't worth it". Or we attempt to quit all at once eating ice cream, which we have eaten every day for the last 10 years. If we fail, we may decide to just eat more ice cream and feel bad about ourselves. Better to start the project with reasonable consistent goals, or to start out our plan only eating 3 to 5 small spoonfuls of ice cream a day and slowly cutting down, than to push ourselves right to the finish line in one go.

Thus tapas needs to be carefully tempered with discernment. If it is utilized in this way with intelligence it can be a very powerful tool for purification and clearing.

There is an important point about tapas which follows from the laws of physics. If we look at the law of momentum, it tells us that momentum equals mass times velocity. In other words to get mass in motion we have to "give it a push". However once that push is given, it will continue with the same velocity minus the occasional friction that attempts to impede it. Tapas functions in the same way. We will feel the most difficulty in the beginning as we are setting things in motion. Once the motion is set, the pushes required to continue the motion become much easier. To see this in action, start to push a car from neutral on a flat road.

The only thing that slows momentum down are external forces like friction and gravity. Assuming a fairly level ground of movement, this will require occasional pushes to keep the object moving. From this principle we learn that tapas really only bears fruit if it is joined with consistency. It will do no good to have a practice for one day or one week. To really bear its fruit, tapas must be a daily endeavor. This is why it is important to choose one's tapas carefully as we only have energy for so much. Choose a form of tapas that truly works for you, according to your abilities and then once chosen, attempt to stick with it for a set number of days. Traditional tapas periods are 40 or 44 days. If one can stick to that time period with success, then one can decide if one is ready to increase the number of days to a longer period. It may be with certain addictions that one has to really come to terms with a lifelong tapas and makes the decision due to health and other factors that one needs to keep the constant fire lit throughout the remainder of one's days. This is difficult in the beginning but like the law of momentum in physics, the hardest part is always in the beginning. Once the ball is rolling, you only have to overcome occasional friction, and if it is kept consistent, the initial pain of overcoming the weight itself is kept at bay.

Nadi Yoga Part 9 - Preliminaries - Santosha

Santosha is a very powerful niyama. Traditionally translated as contentment, I don't feel that this translation gives the full power of its meaning. Contentment as we know it in the English language can be seen in positive or negative lights. In the positive, it can imply a total peace that comes without any need for things external to ourselves. In the negative it can imply almost a complacency or indifference that can develop due to the non-attachment of all things. In this way, contentment can be a double edged sword. It is worth while to examine this niyama with more scrutiny and discernment.

I believe that in the highest light, from an absolute perspective, this niyama of Santosha can be translated as "perfect OK-ness of Being". This translation is fairly liberal, I realize, but it takes into account the deepest possible level of contentment that we can have, that of perfect OK-ness. What does this mean? It means that everything is perfect as it is. Some might balk at this and complain that everything is NOT ok, that we need to fix, that we need to change things. However, I believe that from the ultimate perspective, everything that exists, AS it exists is all part of divine plan and order. To fully have santosha, we must at some level be ok with this divine plan, we must have a deep, deep level of acceptance. This is not easy, but if it can be done our world transforms around us.

If one is able to fully come to the deepest light of acceptance in one's life, then one has a place from which to move which is unimpeded. The will is released from guilt, shame, and fear and can move forward to act with full range of motion. This allows for the deepest level of creativity to blossom forth in the material world. This allows for all of the pathways to function in an unobstructed way. One realizes a depth of freedom that previously had only been defined conditionally.

There is also a second mode of santosha, a more relative mode, which relates to the three prime qualities we call the gunas. This form of santosha is the contentment that arises when our energy is frenetic and busy. This form of santosha is like a balancing and grounding anchor, that steadies the intensity and movement of our mental, emotional, and bodily energies. This santosha is like a beacon that calls us back to our home ground when we become lost in the display of the moving wheel of life. This santosha attempts to balance the intensity of our pendulum-like swings of emotion and thought energy.

This second level of contentment, the relative santosha can be useful to ground and balance out the intensity of the rajas guna. When our minds and bodies are highly rajasic, our ability to concentrate and to become still is compromised. Our judgements and decisions and movements can be unclear. It is akin to being lost in a storm. So the calming power of santosha is extremely useful here. Santosha helps us overcome the patterns of deep attachment, aversion and fear. All of these qualities will ultimately interfere with our lives and practices if we are not attentive to them. 

I would argue that to have this second type of santosha, the first form of santosha should be realized first. In other words, if one cannot return again and again to the deepest level of acceptance of one's self and the world, then it will be difficult when our different energies become excited to know where to ground.

We might be tempted to "just be content" when we find our energies are highly rajasic. This way of thinking has the potential to be problematic though as this mode could be coming from the place of thinking "calm mind is good, busy mind is bad." Many forms of modern spirituality tend to place a certain negative emphasis on the movements of mind and emotion. Even though it might not be stated explicitly, implicitly these negative judgments are laced throughout western and eastern traditions. In this way, our idea of simplifying and becoming more content come more from a place of "should" than a genuine place of actually seeing the full "OK-ness" of what is.

To summarize, it is useful to recognize whether santosha or contentment is coming from a relative or absolute place. The absolute place is already "OK". The relative mode is always a balancing act, which can be useful if we have swung really far "out there" but we have to be very careful not to swing too far in the other direction in coming back. The first level of santosha discussed above is more in the absolute vein and from this perspective, the swinging of the pendulum doesn't matter. From the second level or relative level of santosha, we try to find balance in the swinging.

Nadi Yoga Part 8 - Preliminaries - Shauca

The Five Niyamas

            The niyamas are orientations and attitudes that we take in aligning ourselves with the direct practices of the yamas given above. Together, the yamas and niyamas are like a strong pair of legs that form the  foundation of our yoga practice. Depending on the tradition consulted there are 5 or 10 niyamas. I will follow the tradition of the Yoga Sutras which list 5 practices. You will find that the 10 niyamas of other traditions are subsumed under these 5. 

              Traditionally, the last 3 niyamas of tapas, svadhyaya, and Isvara pranidhana are known as kriya yoga and can be considered a separate series of practices themselves. For the purposes of the Nadi Yoga I am choosing to consider the first 3 niyamas as part of an orienting group which helps to stabilize the 3 traditional energies of the gunas. 

              The 3 gunas are the primal energies of creation. Sattva is the energy of clarity, rajas is the energy of movement, and tamas is the energy of stability. These are similar to the western alchemical energies of mercury, sulphur, and salt. They correspond to the 5 elements as well. Sattva corresponds more to the lighter elements of space and air, rajas to the elements of air and fire, and tamas corresponds to water and earth. If these gunic energies are out of balance in the individual, then disease results. For the practice of yoga, we need primarily sattvic energies, with a careful balance of rajas and tamas. 

                 From the perspective of Nadi Yoga, the niyama of shauca can stabilize sattvic energies, the niyama of santosha can stabilize the rajasic energies, and the niyama of tapas can stabilize the tamasic energies.

Shauca

            The niyama of shauca is oftentimes translated as cleanliness and/or purity. At the outermost level, this niyama is about cleanliness of body and external surroundings, all of which are conducive to clarity of mind. On a more internal nadi level, shauca is about cleaning our house, our internal house. If our system is clogged with impurity and undigested food, how can we function? How can energy flow clearly and cleanly?

             Shauca is about having the willingness/intention to bring internal balance about  within ourselves. It is about clarity. If this willingness is fully embodied with the actions of the yamas, then we have the means to move forward to clean the house. If we cannot first assess with full satya - clarity and truth, the state of our house, how can we hope to clean it?  If we violate ourselves, if we are not willing to see the truth in ourself, if we expend ourselves, if we hoard undigested food, if we rely on others for our strength, we find that we are already living in an unclean house and no amount of cleaning will be able to overcome these tendencies that we have habituated ourselves to. The yamas are thus seen as the action component of shauca. In this way, the yamas and niyamas work together, in this case shauca providing a motive for the yamas to function and bring about a clearer space.

            Why should we have a clean house? Vyasa, the first major commentator to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, tells us in his first sutra commentary that there are five states of mind/body. These five states of mind in turn are based around three qualities of the gunas, described above. To state again, Sattva guna is clarity, openness. Rajas guna is activity. Tamas guna is inertness. When we relate these 3 qualities in different ways to the mind, Vyasa tells us we come up with five combinations. These are called mudha or torporous, kshipta or frenetic/distracted, vikshipta or mildly distracted, ekagra or one-pointed, and niruddha or resolved. The mudha state is one in which the mind is mostly tamasic in nature. The kshipta state is one in which the mind is mostly rajasic. The vikshipta is a mixed state. The mind only becomes one pointed or ekagra when it is mostly sattvic in nature. The last state is transcendent of the gunas and we will discuss this later.

             Shauca is a commitment to balance one’s gunas and come to a more sattvic or clear place in one’s life. Recognizing that the mind and body are not separate, if we seek to improve the clarity of the body, the mind will come into line. So the commitment to cleanliness and clarity of our environment, both external and internal will bring clarity to the mind, which will bring about the deeper result of yoga - one pointedness. 

Questions about Shambhavi Mudra

2 questions came to me today regarding Shambhavi mudra.

"1. Please write on whether shambhavi mudra leads to a awakening of the Ajna chakra, on whether trataka combined with shambhavi leads to quicker opening of the ajna chakra ?
2. is it correct to awaken the ajna chakra before you awaken the muladhara chakra in your kundalini awakening progress ? "

1. I would say that yes, Shambhavi mudra does lead to an awakening of the Ajna cakra. Trataka for those of you who are not familiar is a process or kriya that involves staring at a candle flame or other small object without blinking until the tears are shed. Then one closes the eyes and follows the inner image that is now "burned" into the eye until it disappears. I would say that trataka is also good for awakening the Ajna cakra. Shambhavi is superior in my opinion but if one did do both practices, yes the Ajna would open "quicker". What is important in the Shambhavi mudra is to follow the deep feeling of clarity, which leads one through the blockages which are felt at the midbrow and frontal brain region. Relaxing these blockages actually creates the clarity we are seeking with the Shambhavi mudra. Eventually one is able to relax and release this center without Shambhavi mudra as one learns to feel it out. The same blockages will be felt in the practice of trataka. This brings up an important point that in the beginning of practice the chakric centers are felt more as granthi or knots. This isn't a bad thing but is a good basis to place our awareness and learn to relax and release these deep centers. By following the pathways of blockage, we are led to deep mental/emotional holding patterns that have to be addressed and resolved before the respective center can open up. Maybe I will write more on this at some point.

Awakening the Ajna cakra is in my opinion necessary before the stabilization of the concentration practices can fully be realized.

2. According to the tradition of Swami Satyananda Saraswati, author of Kundalini Tantra, and according to my Guru's tradition, yes, the Ajna cakra is very helpful to awaken before muladhara. In the tantric cakra nyasa practice from my Guru's lineage which I will eventually post on this website, we always work first with the ajna before the muladhara. This helps to open the doors of deep level discernment before undertaking the work through the elemental centers leading through the central column.

Hope these answers help!

Nadi Yoga Part 7 - Preliminaries - Asteya

 Asteya – non stealing of the life force, proper boundary

            This next yama is a little unusual but very important. At its grossest level it involves not stealing. Most yogis are not thieves of gross things but of course it is possible to steal on many levels. With nadi yoga, we have to take a closer deeper examination of how it is that not only we steal from others but how others steal from us. This brings up the importance of proper energetic boundaries and the idea of boundary is vital in the understanding of this level of asteya.

            When we understand how our boundaries function healthily through brahmacarya and aparigraha, we recognize more clearly how our system is meant to be when it is functioning in a healthy way. The next place we have to examine is how we function with these boundaries in our relationships with others. To have healthy relationship with others, there must be equal give and take. You choose consciously what you give to others and you choose consciously what you take from others.

            Many relationships in our modern world are parasitic and even vampiric. In other words we take from others psychically and energetically, most of the time completely unconsciously. This builds psychic and energetic dependence on others. It can go both ways: we can take from others and they can take from us. It is one thing if this exchange is a gift, another if it is unconscious and/or trying to fulfill some lack within oneself.

            There are a couple things to consider when we first examine whether or not we are feeding vampires in our life. The first is to remember the old phrase which tells us that vampires cannot come into our house unless we first invite them in. Second, we have to do something about the vampires that are already in our house. The first thing is most important. It reminds us that we are in charge of who we let in. It is important to see where we do let others in, where we give our power away. The second is more difficult and may involve some hard choices regarding family, friends, and co-workers or bosses. We have to understand that we are not going to be really free unless all of the vampires are out of our house.

            It gets even more complicated when we consider that this problem extends beyond the grave. We can be and most of us are affected by our ancestry. Our ancestral “curses” rob and deplete us psychically and energetically, most frequently beneath our radar. This work is even more tricky to negotiate but can be done with specific practices of the tantra and deep inner process work. How many of us are “haunted” by the shades of the past? 

           In addition to seeing where we are giving our life blood to the vampires, we have to see where it is that we are vampiric with others. Are we truly dependent on others like children, parents, friends, co-workers, and bosses for praise, fulfillment, “love”, and other things? This will be very difficult for some to face as they work to get farther along the road of self dependence. This work forces us to get out of “other’s houses” and to learn to truly feed ourselves.

             It is important to recognize with this and other yamas that we are in charge of our lives. Unless we come to terms with this, and find freedom and independence and security with ourselves, we will allow ourselves to be violated and allow ourselves to violate out of insecurity, the need to please, fear, guilt, and a whole host of other negative energies. It is important to learn to first see these qualities in ourselves. Then we can ask our different selves what it is that they truly are needing in an attempt to heal them and to heal our own internal relationships. Then we will find the external relationships and our boundaries changing in response.
            For more on this topic of internal relationships see the blog - Union and Internal Alchemy. Also see the 2 blogs on Kavaca/Armour for techniques on dealing with the Psychic Vampires.

Nadi Yoga Part 6 - Preliminaries - Aparigraha

Aparigraha – non hoarding / proper flow of the life force

            This next yama is given slightly out of sequence with the traditional order as I consider it to go hand in hand with brahmacarya from the energetic nadi perspective. Aparigraha is traditionally translated and interpreted as non-hoarding. There is that aspect of it, not to hoard or keep possessions, to live a simpler life. However, there is a more profound aspect to this yama, and that is to not hoard internally. Hoarding implies storing and keeping things, many of which we do not need. When we look at ourselves with the light of satya/truth in a very sincere way, we see all of those dark areas of ourselves where we have been holding things. Holding some past secret, some dark memory. We hold traumas, tensions, things that have been stored for years, even decades.

            The lack of aparigraha is even more than just hoarding. It implies that when something came in, we did not process it completely or fully. We did not digest it fully. We just stored it away somewhere for later. How many times do we take in food, media, sensory experiences out of some greed or desire, not even taking the time to process it before we are on to the next thing? This is how modern society functions, getting drunk on experience which leaves it only hungry for more. We are obese not only with food but with sensory overload, with sex, with media, with thrill seeking.

            The symptoms of lack of aparigraha are lethargy, anxiety, depression, and more. Aparigraha involves not only hoarding but the desire to fill something in ourselves that cannot be sated. The inability to fulfill this constant desire leads to suffering. And because the wheel of desire moves us so rapidly in this attempt at fulfillment we only store more and more and don’t know how to let go of what we have taken in.

What are we seeking? What hunger are we trying to fill? To understand our desire and why we have it is a very important topic and one we will come to later on. Even beginning to take a look at these questions however will cause us to start to have some understanding though at how we violate ourself through the lack of aparigraha.

Taken together, brahmacarya and aparigraha deal with the boundary of the nadis. They deal with the interface between ourself and the external world. Brahmacarya checks what goes out. Aparigraha checks what comes in. If we have a proper balance with these two yamas we will have more balance in our energetic life. If too much goes out we are depleted. If too much stays in, we become full and energetically unstable. Like any system in life, there needs to be balance. These two yamas help us to find that balance and need to work hand in hand. The yama of satya helps us to discern what is required here. Satya also helps us to slow down if needed, properly digest what comes in, to not take in more than we need. To not expend more than we should. Balance is ultimately what is required to keep these inititial yamas in check.

Nadi Yoga Part 5 - Preliminaries - Brahmacarya

Brahmacarya – Containment of the Energy Body



The next 3 yamas are related to each other and have to do with energy flow in and out of our body/mind systems and how well this flow of in and out is occurring. The principle of ahimsa guides us in these principles as if there is not a proper balance of in and out with the flow of life then we violate ourself, either through too much containment or not enough. Or the boundaries that help with this flow are skewed.

Brahmacarya literally means “to move in Brahman”. It is oftentimes translated as celibacy or sexual restraint. However the sexual nadi or flow corridor is only one of the 10 major nadis. To just blindly restrain this corridor and not the others is not enough. And to just restrain without understanding is also equally problematic.

There are many different interpretations of how to work with this yama. In the terms of Nadi Yoga, brahmacarya is learning to control how much of us “goes out”. This not only concerns the sexual force but also all of the senses.

The sense gateways that are the nadis are labeled as problematic in many of the ancient traditions, not just the Indian traditions but also the western traditions. This problem goes way back to the beginnings of patriarchal society where there was a split between heaven and earth, between the mother and father god. This was a time of the beginning of the idea that somehow spirit was superior to the body. That the body was even to be reviled and the world discarded in favor of a higher heaven. This topic is a long one but suffice it to say that the Nadi Yoga favors the approach of tantra, which regards heaven and earth on equal terms, the body as an expression of spirit, the male equal in power to the female principle.

In this way, as the Yoga Vasistha tells us, the senses themselves are not problematic. Vasistha says in his work on Yoga that it is the mind, interfering and polluting the senses that is the problem. If this is so, why do we “throw out the baby with the bath water” and reject the senses? Does restraint of the senses really involve the retreat of the senses themselves? Or does it involve something deeper?

In this work of nadi yoga, it is vital to separate the senses from the mind. What does this mean? What it means is separating the instrumental level of consciousness from the objective level of consciousness. More will be explained on this later as we explore the process called mudra.

Coming back to the topic of brahmacarya, we have to look at where it is that we lose energy through the senses. The mind and its objective layer obsessions contaminates the raw experience of the senses and in effect takes energy from us, causing us to “leak” through the 10 sense doors. This doesn’t just happen with sex. It happens through our eyes when we desire different forms and activities. It happens through our ears when we let ourselves become entangled in conversation, in music, in sound. It happens with food, when our mind becomes habituated to certain foods. It happens through our hands when we become over controlling or obsessive with things like work, when we grasp at things. It happens through our feet when we are constantly moving forward, unable to stop going and going. In this way, we have many “leaks” in our energy body, in our nadi structure. Are we aware of how we spend energy? How do we feel? Are we depleted? Are we continually tired? Why is it that we are tired? Where do we leak?

Like all things, there is a balance. Brahmacarya is not the principle of telling us to contain and contain and not let go. That leads to the problem of hoarding, discussed later. This is another problem energetically. Brahmacarya is about containment yes, but containment tempered with discernment about how much we can comfortably contain without depleting ourself. Like a car, we need a certain amount of fuel, but with too much fuel we also run a risk of violation.

What does the proper amount of containment feel like? This is something you will have to discover for yourself. There is a certain glow, a certain buzz, that comes with proper containment. Proper containment is like storing “juice” in your body, healthy juice that feeds you and causes you to grow. It gives you energy. It feeds your life. If you don’t have enough of this juice, you feel depleted. Something is off and you constantly try to get the juice back, oftentimes by violating through another nadi corridor. For example, you may have excessive sex, which will deplete the body and then try to get the juice back through food, further unbalancing the system. After a hard long, overextended day at work, you may seek balance through visual media with the tv. There are many examples. Living a life of constantly spending and trying to make up for it through other corridors is a game we play. We take money out of the bank and try to put it back in in another way. The savings account never gets anywhere and we are constantly putting ourselves in the red. Living life like this is stressful and how much of modern society lives. The yama of satya helps us with this, to understand clearly what we are doing to ourselves.

Brahmacarya is vital as a preliminary practice as it causes us to conserve, to build our energetic savings account. As we start to store life energy, we start to recognize it more clearly and we have energy to proceed. Patanjali tells us very clearly in sutra 1.20 that virya or energy is necessary to have to build us up for the higher stages of yoga. Brahmacarya is how we build that virya or energy.