Yoga & Dharma
Yoga & Dharma
THE ART OF
AWAKENING LIBERATE YOUR BODY * STRETCH YOUR MIND NOURISH YOUR SOUL
KATCHIE ANANDA
Copyright Š 2016 by Katchie Ananda, www.katchieananda.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at info@katchieananda.com.
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CONTENT DEDICATION 9 INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME 10 GUIDELINES 11 YOGA & DHARMA 13
1.0
THE ONE WHO KNOWS
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OPENING TO GRACE 16 UNIVERSAL / INDIVIDUAL 18 A MESSAGE FROM THE HOPI ELDERS 22 THE BACK-BODY AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 23 DHARMA 24 Two clues to finding dharma 24 MINDFULLNESS – THE GREAT MEDICINE 26 THE ROLE OF CHANTING 27 KALI – THE GREAT MOTHER 28
2.0
THE TOOLS
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POORNA & SHUNYA THE 5 MAHABHUTAS OR ELEMENTS THE 5 PRINCIPLES &THE 5 MAHABHUTAS 1st Principle 2nd Principle 3rd Principle 4th Principle 5th Principle SETTING THE FOUNDATION MUSCULAR & ORGANIC ENERGY Muscular Energy A few words on injury Organic Energy SPANDA – THE PULSATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS INNER & OUTER SPIRALS Inner Spiral Outer Spiral ASYMMETRIC POSES A note on the application of the Spirals BALANCED ACTION RIGHT EFFORT
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3.0
YOGA & DHARMA PHILOSOPHY
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TANTRA 53 Timing 54 Commonsense 54 The Golden Rule 57 SAT CIT ANANDA 59 Sat 59 Cit 60 Ananda 60 BECOMING THE BLESSING WE SEEK 64 SANKALPA – THE POWER OF INTENTION 66 Sankalpa 66 THE PRACTICE OF FORGIVENESS 67 The Practice 70 Forgiveness for yourself 70 Forgiveness from others 70 Forgiveness for those who have hurt or harmed you 71 VIPASSANA – INSIGHT MEDITATION 72 The Practice 73 The Four Foundation of Mindfulness 74 Mindfulness of the Body 74 Mindfulness of Feelings 77 Mindfulness of Thoughts 77 Mindfulness of Dharma 78 THE BRAHMA VIHARAS 79 Trauma & Metta 80 Metta Practice 81 Karuna 84 Comparison 85 Pity 88 The Sanctuary 88 Mudita 91 Upekka 95
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4.0
5.0
THE SECONDARY ALIGNMENT PRINCIPLES
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THE 7 LOOPS Ankle Loop (Muscular Energy) Shin Loop (Muscular Energy) The See-saw Principle Thigh Loop (Inner Spiral) Pelvic Loop (Outer Spiral) Kidney Loop (Opening to Grace) Shoulder Loop (Muscular Energy) Skull Loop (Organic Extension) SITO – SHINS IN, THIGHS OUT THE 5 PRINCIPLES OF THE ARMS 5 Principles to achieve proper alignment of the shoulders The 5 positions of the arms Stabilize the Periphery, move the Core
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THE SCIENCE OF LIFE
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AYURVEDA 110 Ganesha 110 Earth, or Prittivi 111 Water, or Ap 111 Fire, or Agni 111 Air, or Vayu 111 Space, or Akasha 111 THE DOSHAS 112 Vata 112 Pitta 113 Kapha 114 THE GUNAS 118 THE KOSHAS 120
6.0
HATHA YOGA
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CITTA AND PRANA 122 VINYASA AND UJJAYI BREATH 125 Vinyasa 125 Ujjayi breath 125 Technique of Ujjayi breath 126 General Principles of Ujjayi 126 PRANAYAMA 128
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Classical and Tantric Interpretation 128 of Pranayama 128 Ida, Pingala and Sushumna 129 Prana and Apana 130 Kumbhaka 132 The Gap between Inhalation and Exhalation 132 A word on Kundalini 133 THE BANDHAS 134 Physical Application of the Bandhas 136
7.0 SADHANA
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SADHANA 138 KATCHIE’S PRAYER 139 FOOD & NOURISHMENT 140
CHANTS
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GANESHA CHANTS SHIVA CHANTS Mahamrityunjaya Mantra – The Great Mantra of Liberation Gayatri Mantra – Celestial Prayer of Light Traditional Anusara Invocation Traditional Ashtanga Invocation Hanuman Chaleesa Hungry Hearts Text by Bernie Glassman Amazing Grace BIJA (SEED) MANTRAS Muladhara Chakra Svadhisthana Chakra Manipura Chakra Anahata Chakra Vissudha Chakra Ajna Chakra Sahasrara Chakra
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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PHOTO BY GENEVIEVE RUSSELL
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DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my late mother, Elizabeth Roniger Egger. Her unconditional love instilled a foundation of trust in me that can never be broken. It is the base of all that I have achieved and who I am. And to my teachers, to whom I owe all my love and understanding of yoga and dharma: Lucius Sigrist, my first true teacher, in the lineage of Rudolf Steiner; he was the first to believe in me and set me on my path with heart. I owe him everything. Jack Kornfield, a true master in the wisdom traditions of Theravada Buddhism. His skillful means of teaching through stories and parables helped me to quiet my mind and awaken my heart. His teachings of wisdom and compassion are the bedrock of my practices, giving me access to my inner compass, which never fails. Richard Freeman, who, with his sophisticated intelligence, revealed the inner machinations of yoga and taught me what yoga is really about – unwrapping it like a candy to reveal its sweet core. Sharon Gannon and David Life who taught me that yoga is not just about our own freedom and liberation. Through them, I learned that yoga is a lifestyle and encompasses the happiness of all beings. And finally, I give thanks to Anusara, a fantastic system of yoga that helped me heal my body with its skillful alignment principles. All my teachers are extraordinary, and it was hard for me to accept that they are also human and thus not always perfect. All of them let me down at one point or another. I am grateful for this, because without those disappointments, I would never have transferred the true power back to myself, and finally graduated. A note of deep gratitude to my current teacher, the first female teacher in a long time, who goes by the name of H. She prefers to stay hidden and can only be accessed through direct experience. I am eternally grateful for the guidance I have received from all of them. The best I can do to honor my teachers is to pay it forward to my students, and to live a life of integrity and joy. Namaste
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INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME by responding wisely to difficulty and sorrows. This is the goal of our practice and this manual. Through an immersion into these teachings, we will attempt to intelligently use the tools at our disposal that can lead us to more freedom on and off the mat.
Welcome to yoga and dharma. In the following pages you will be introduced to practices that help quiet the mind, open the heart, and liberate the body. This manual is mostly useful in conjunction with an intensive training or immersion. It is a companion and reminder of the direct transmission that happens when we commit ourselves fully to a period of serious sadhana (spiritual practice) with a teacher and within a supportive, like-minded community, or sangha.
We want to be fully embodied and engage in this precious life but our mind, body and emotions can sabotage our attempts to be happy and fulfilled. We are constantly engaged in battle. We combat against our bodies as they age. We wrestle with our emotions, afraid to drown in their intensity. We struggle against our thoughts, which lift us up to the heavens just to drop us down into our own personal hell.
The goal in life, and of all spiritual practices, is to realize our full potential. There is nothing more satisfying than finding our true authentic voice and giving our unique gifts to our loved ones and the world.
And so it goes, on and on, the wheel continues to turn over many life times. In the meantime the universe is waiting for us to stop, smell the proverbial coffee, and simply be who we are, so that we can give our special talents as a gift to the world. That is what we were born to do. As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, we can only be happy when we live our dharma (the way, truth, destiny) fully.
While this sounds simple, it is not all that easy to do. Through our conditionings and wounds we tend to perpetuate what is called samsara, the wheel of suffering. The Buddha’s first noble truth is that life is suffering. It is also joy and deep happiness, yet without the proper tools we may not find a way out of our suffering. In Buddhist teachings, life being hard is sometimes called “the first arrow.” It often comes unexpectedly and hits us squarely in the chest. We neither deserve it, nor did we cause it – not that we can see or understand from our limited perspective in any case. It is important that we acknowledge the way things are right then and there because there is no avoiding the truth. Not without paying a big price.
We will start with the same ritual that I usually do at the beginning of an immersion or intensive training. I would like you to contemplate these three questions: 1. Who are you in this very moment? 2. What would you like to get out of this time of practice?
The Buddha’s second arrow is often referred to as the tendency of humans to create more suffering. We are often quite good in making things worse for ourselves and others. This can be avoided with the proper training. We cannot avoid the first arrow, but we can learn to avoid the second,
3. What are you willing to let go of?
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I invite you to take a few minutes of quiet contemplation and/or journaling. The more honest you are with yourself the deeper you will be able to go into your very core. For example:
GUIDELINES
1. At this very moment I am feeling sad due to a breakup. I’m yearning to learn more about why it hurts so much and I would like to know more about myself.
1. Create integrity – when you say you are going to do something, follow through.
Here are some general guidelines that are useful during the committed timeframe of practice:
2. Be realistic about how much you can handle (i.e., it is better to do 10 minutes of practice a day rather than two hours once a week).
2. My intention is to become more loving with myself and others.
3. Do your sadhana each day and have a designated time and space for it.
3. I’m willing to let go of destructive behaviors and patterns that are in the way of my inner growth and evolution.
4. Until you have created some momentum over the course of a few months, do NOT talk to friends and family about what you are doing. You can, however, talk as much as you like with your fellow sangha members. 5. Observe yourself at all times – even when doing something unskillful, for example, overeating. Simply notice what you are doing and name it, gently. 6. Keep a journal – it is great fun to read it again years later. 7. Use your will to get to your practice, but leave it outside with the shoes, once you started. 8. Be kind to yourself.
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PHOTO BY LINDSAY ISOLA
YOGA & DHARMA For a long time, yoga and dharma have been traversing separate paths. Slowly a movement is developing devoted to combining the two. There is no doubt in my mind that the two of them belong together, and in fact are a perfect match in the quest for freedom. We can use our yoga and dharma practices to pursue perfection. In fact, most yoga is practiced this way today. We want to be forever young, healthy and successful. Yoga is often used to sell this unattainable state of being. In following this false path we can get lost – trying to improve our bodies and our personality – striving toward ideals that are actually being sold to us for a profit. Yoga and dharma are not about creating an ideal image. They are practices done over a long period of time to help us see ourselves clearly, to study our behavior and patterns. Eventually, as we get more skillful, yoga and dharma are methods that help us to choose ways of being and behaving that bring us happiness and freedom.
My favorite translation of yoga is “skill in action.” We get ever more skillful as we learn the tools to train the mind and liberate the body.
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However, the classical, somewhat patriarchal path of spiritual practices (going back a long time in both eastern and western traditions) is to break the body and the mind so the inner working of spirit is revealed. Monks and nuns are taught to deny themselves and in certain traditions it even goes a step further where self-flagellation is used for that purpose.
In fact the proper way to train the body and mind is the same as we train a puppy – with persistence, patience and love. Fortunately a new paradigm of yoga is currently emerging with this in mind. The word yoga means to unite, to yoke. We might ask – what exactly are we uniting, or yoking, together? I think there is no limit to the ways we can “yoke.” In fact the more yoga we practice, the more this seems to happen. We yoke the body to the mind, becoming aware of how the body yokes to our feelings and vice versa. We get yoked to people around us as our natural, inherent compassion awakens, and we cannot help but empathize with life all around us. At some point, we feel that there is no difference between life forms. We may feel as much a connection to trees, plants and strangers as we feel toward loved ones. The inherent interconnectedness of the world is revealed to us – it’s just a breath away.
These old ways of training body and mind can be likened to the training of a dog, traditionally carried out through fear, and the punishment/ reward system. When we train a dog in this way, we will get an obedient dog because it works. Unfortunately, there are consequences with this training. You will get an obedient dog, but the harsher the training the more likely you will have a dog with a broken spirit. It will do what you say, but will have no more curiosity and incentive of its own, and experience little joy in its existence. The same happens with the body and the mind when we train using this approach. You can train them to be obedient, to do what you want, but you break something in the process. Using yoga to torture ourselves in an endless quest for discipline, perfection and the fulfillment of an ideal causes “the One who Knows,” that inner voice of wisdom, to recede deeper into the core. Continuing on like this, it is more likely that we become dependent on an outside authority and the outer form of our practice or path. The more disconnected we are from the innocence of our creature body, our feelings and our intuition, the more likely we are to fall prey to a false prophet, meaning the many self-proposed gurus that are out there. Our inner compass weakens through this approach.
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