How to keep ourselves in a circle of evolution and creation in our yoga practice?
How do you keep the spark of life, in and out of the mat?
Sometimes we become entangled into our own existence, our thinking, doing the same things, with the same emotions embedded into our nervous system. When we experience repetitive, mostly linear yogic routines, we can get stuck into our mind and body into a cycle of stagnation or degeneration, overusing our joints in the same way and stopping the expansion of our creative energy.
After many years of Western and Eastern practices, I realised that by moving with slow circular movements, I reach a state of ecstasy and immediate well-being at every level of my physical and subtle reality.
By circling a practice of vinyasa around the mat in a Mandala and incorporating slow QI-gong movements, we get in touch with the energy within and surrounding me, manipulating it for the greater good. By centering the physical body from your heart to the nurturing earth and the limitless sky and play with the invisible, the emptiness that gives form to our physical reality. Taoism philosophy melt in time and space with the Indian philosophy of Yoga on the mat. There is a sacred aspect to it; We become part of the circle of life.
An ancient Chinese text states: "The vital energy moves constantly during all the four seasons of a year, Yin upwards and Yang downwards to meet each other in accordance with the principle of the round. Various life forms by the cooperation of Yin and Yang, will allow germinate on; germinate on will allow growth; growth will allow maturity; following maturity will be withering; following withering will be death; and after death will be disappearance. The process of life is in accordance with the principle of the round."(1)
The circle is one of the oldest sacred geometric shapes evoking a feeling of wholeness, symbolising the universe in Hinduism and Buddhist traditions. For example, when you create the circle of energy between your thumb and index finger, creating Gyan mudra, you embody the link between your universe within the universe and the universe that is within you.
In Taoism, the circle divided into two separate and complementary wavy forms is the Taiji, the symbol of Yin and Yang, portraying the balance of the cosmic force in constant transformation. In India, this force of life is also illustrated by Shakti (the flowing creative energy), and shiva (the consciousness energy) flowing within us in a multidimensional cycle of creation and destruction.
While moving our asanas in circular movements, in a mandala, tuning into the revolving motion of the planets, and the limitless spiral of life within our DNA, we can free the self from everyday thoughts, performing Yoga like a dance, the dance of Lila. (The divine dance of the universe). The Mandala connects us to our body at a cellular and energetic level, to our past and future, equilibrating the waves of the infinite vibrations of our heart in tune with the earth's magnetic field. The endless, smooth mandala dance, like in a shamanic trance, dissolves suffering, and the natural state of life force is re-balanced.
We are an energetic field in a world of energy. Become multidimensional.
SHIVA/SHAKTI SHORT STARTING PRACTICE
Visualise your yoga mat, inside an imaginary circle, the largest you can.
Start both feet at the front of your mat in Tadasana.
- Inhale, lift your arms to the sky, join your hands into Anjali mudra
- Bend your elbows, keep the hands together, and place them at the back of your neck. (You are now connected with your front and back body).
- Open your arms to your sides and simultaneously opening your left leg to the left into Utthita Tadasana (five-pointed star pose).
- Continue flowing to your left towards the end of your mat into Virabhadrasana 1 (Warrior 1).
- Bend the left knee into a Utthita Ashwa Sanchalasana (High lunge).
- Exhale; bring your two feet back into Phalakasana (Plank),
- Half plank, Bhujangasana (cobra), Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-facing dog),
- Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana (Three-legged dog) with your right leg up.
- Utthita Ashwa Sanchalasana (High lunge) (Right knee bend)
- Turn to the left into Utthita Tadasana (five-pointed star pose) to the left.
- Continue turning to Virabhadrasana 1 (warrior 1) facing the front of the mat.
- Tadasana, arms up to the sky, then back of the head in Anjali mudra
Repeat on the opposite side. This a 2 x 180 degrees simple flowing practice.
While practising, incorporate the luminous knowledge of yoga mythology and the kinesthetic sensation with your surroundings. Every time you touch the floor, feel the earth energy nourishing you. Every time your hands reach for the sky, feel the cosmic energy radiating onto you. Every time you flow into the pose sense, the power of Shakti energy circulating through your spine up to the top of your head. When you rest in Tadasana, become the observer connecting with Shiva energy.
Add your own asanas, flow, move and become one with everything, allowing the teacher in you to grow.
Namaste.
(1) The Spring And Autumn Of Lu Buwei - Publisged by Guangxi Normal University Press - Guangxi - China 2005