Dreaming the World

I just got back from my tour in Europe. It was fun to bring the Dharma to all these different communities; sometimes I feel like a hummingbird, collecting nectar and spreading it around. As I have always loved hummingbirds, this feels like a good use of my inherent potential!

I love being back home in Santa Fe. I don’t know what it is about this enchanted place, but it makes my heart sing and my soul breathe like no other place I’ve ever been to.

Some thoughts for your contemplation:

Just like the tiniest grain of sand has a particular mass, a mass that remains attached to the big mass called Earth, every thought has a mass too. Some science, like quantum physics, verifies this and confirms that even random thoughts may have consequences because of the mass they possess. When many people focus their thoughts on the same thing, the mass increases and so does the outcome.

As we grow up, we often forget our dreams. This is an unfortunate outcome of “growing up”, as it is our very dreams that help us realize our full potential. When we forget to dream, we may get stuck in habits – good or bad. In order to change habits, we need to be fully aware of them to see how best to proceed.

It is said, while the Buddha made every mistake possible on his path to freedom he never lied to himself about it. Making mistakes, consciously, allows us to actually learn from them. I often invite my students to make new mistakes! Making the same mistakes over and over again seems very depressing to me. To go and make a new mistake is one of my missions in life.

Yogic practices, such as chanting, invite certain archetypes and possibilities into being. For example, Ganesh, the elephant-headed son of Shiva, is not just the master of obstacles. He also represents an invitation to accept our life just as it is, to get grounded in the here and now. It is said, when Ganesh appears we stop wanting to be somewhere else. When this happens we actually show up, fully, to who and where we are in this moment.

One description of enlightenment is exactly that – the moment we stop wanting to be somewhere or someone else. We realize that we are in the right body at the right time, with the right people, on the right planet. We wake up to things as they are, as well as learn to hold a vision about where we are going. From this vantage point we get to work intelligently with the obstacles in the way. Holding this paradox is exactly what yoga is about.

There is an ancient teaching from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika that talks about a link between our mind and our life energy, called Prana (or chi, dao and many other references to describe this life-force in different cultures). The relationship between these two vital forces, although invisible, is one of deep connection. It is often described with the image of two fish swimming in tandem.

The work at hand is to be fully awake to where we are, and to see ourselves and others clearly. We must also cultivate the ability to cast our mind forward, say two years, to get a sense of how we want to feel in a relationship, at our job, or any other place in our life. Our life energy focuses and reorganizes around this possibility, eventually manifesting it into being. At the same time, the honest view of where we are, at the moment, and what might stand in the way, helps us to deal wisely with the obstacles.

On the yoga mat, investigating this link can take a very tangible form. We can focus our mind on the simple reality of sensations in the body while we are moving through the asanas. Instead of practicing to achieve some perfect idea of our body or the pose, we connect with the wholeness of who we are in that moment and simply accept. In that liberating instance of just being with what is, it is possible to perceive everything as sacred. Usually, once we leave the mat after one of those experiences of wholeness we feel supremely, and maybe even sublimely, okay with the way we are, including the fact that there is room for improvement. In essence, our body becomes an ally in the quest for full realization instead of an obstacle to overcome. This is good news!

Winter 2007 Newsletter - The Ancient Link Between Prana and Citta

The Ancient Link Between Prana and Citta

I have just recently returned from a month in Europe, teaching workshops in Amsterdam and Zürich as well as visiting family and friends and doing some skiing in the Alps. Truth be told, I almost didn’t want to come home! But here I am and delighted to be back.

While it was a hard decision to let go of Yoga Sangha, I love the freedom that has come from it. Yoga Sangha was my main project for the last 4 years, and allowing it to transition into the capable hands of Sarasawati Clere and Yoga Kula was really the most joyful and strategic decision I could make at this time in my life and career.

While I treasure the experience of running a business enormously, having learned so much in the process, I have also learned, thanks to guidance of some dear wise friends, that to maximize my impact in the world, I should focus on “doing only that which only I can do.” I constantly had to balance the ease and joy of being a yoga and spiritual teacher, with the challenges of running a studio.

Saraswati is one of the most gifted studio owners around, so it made perfect sense to turn the studio over to her, freeing me to do “that which only I can do,” to be a yoga teacher, a spiritual guide, an activist and sangha builder.

Moving out of the role of studio owner has led me right back into the dreamy, sweet space of the yogini that I am. Now, I’m catching elusive threads of complex yoga philosophy and finding new ways to share it with my students, instead of my old life which was filled with finding subs for sick yoga teachers and administrative tasks!

As I am starting this brand new chapter, I’m finding life to be uncertain and exhilarating all at the same time. Actually, we are always at the threshold of the new, having to let go of the old.

I am spending my time making vision boards (visual collage of goals and intentions), doing increased Metta practices (loving kindness) and exploring purpose, picturing on how I would like to feel and “be” going into the future. I am sinking into the state of pure feeling and “being.”.In Yoga philosophy we would refer to this as the state of Prana, or life energy, where we get to simply be, breathe and observe sensations that allow us to immediately get in touch with Prana.

Especially in our world, it is a relief to leave the world of Citta or Mind and enter into a simple state of being. Lucky are those who discover how to approach life through Prana rather then just Citta.

The link between Citta and Prana has been documented well. For example in scriptures such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, it is said that Citta and Prana swim together like two fish in complete harmony. Where one goes, the other follows.

Most of us here in the Western Hemisphere try to understand, control and manipulate our mind in order to reach freedom and happiness. While that strategy can sometimes produce results, generally this approach is slow and tedious. The mind can only understand itself through its past patterns, concepts and understandings and so it is very limited.

This is true especially if we don’t expose our brain to frequent paradox, challenges and new viewpoints (like reading an intellectual book or talking to someone from a completely different cultural background). By following the same patterns and habits, Citta will get smaller and more narrow, traveling down the same old paths. Buddhists call this narrowing “the small sense of Self”. Because our life energy is linked to Citta, it too will become smaller and smaller.

As yogi(ni)s, we soon discover this phenomena and we do our best to explore the possibility of reversing and expanding our approach. If we can do our practice in a non-competitive, non-judging and non-aggressive way (all Citta related concepts), we discover Prana and learn to follow it. The magic happens in the process of following Prana through its winding path; Citta can’t help but be transformed and opened and thus returns to it’s empty, spacious state, also called “the original mind.”

Prana doesn’t discern between pleasant and unpleasant sensations or experience, because all becomes grist for the mill. Prana does not judge. It simply leads us where it must, to energetic or physical blockages as well as to places of strength and talent. Prana has its own direct and powerful intelligence and when we learn to follow its flow, we will encounter both the dark and the bright in us. It allows us to address life’s problems from a new and fresh perspective.

One of the strengths of a Yoga practice lies in its ability to literally reverse how we see the world. We do it in down dog or headstand – any time we turn ourselves upside down. But the true magic comes from following Prana rather then the all-consuming Citta, which is exactly what happens when we practice yoga, contemplate art, surrender to dancing and chanting or travel in a different culture.

Even just a few moments of sinking into Prana each day, letting ourselves breathe, observe sensations, feelings and thoughts will turn Prana into the leader and help expand the mind. An extra benefit from practicing in this way comes by recognizing that Prana intuitively knows things that Citta doesn’t.

For example, Prana will guide my hands to someone’s injured body part during a yoga class even though my mind didn’t know about the injury. Prana will create those special, synchronized moments where the person you just thought about suddenly calls. Prana will lead you to the right place at the right time to the right person.

What is your way of finding Prana? My invitation this winter is to take some time to reflect on the activities that allow us to cultivate Prana and then make a commitment to practice them often.