YOGA HALE
Yoga: Sanskrit Word Meaning, to Yoke Oneself to God    Hale: Hawaiian Word for House
The Latest Catch Phrase in Yoga: Proprioception

I recently began a working with a new client in the healthcare industry - it is a small outpatient clinic which helps people who have suffered from an accident or long-term health issues deal with their transition from pain into a pain-free life in the "real" world. There are many rehabilitation programs which focus on the musculature of the patient, but more often, (to my great pleasure) they are looking at the person from a more holistic viewpoint. I try to incorporate the practice of meditation into my yoga classes as often as possible so that a general sense of awareness is created in the muscles even when someone is not in a class holding an asana (pose), but this awareness takes time to build. There are some scientific and medical terms which echo some of the same knowing that yogis have been teaching for millennium.

Proprioception is an often used term in today's rehabilitative and personal training circles. This big word can be made more simple. . . it simply means the reception of stimuli produced within the organism. Basically, muscle coordination and muscle inhibition with the intention of improving muscle firing (contracting) patterns. Throughout our lives, we develop  motor patterns which are essentially the blueprints that muscles follow in order to accomplish a  task such as walking or typing at a computer all day.  Typically, muscular weakness, inhibition (muscle not firing properly), and / or pain will cause a normal motor pattern to become abnormal. Carpal tunnel is an example of an incorrect motor pattern.

For example, the primary function of the gluteus maximus (buttock muscle) is to extend the hip. However, many people have gluteus maximus muscles that are either weak or strained. Therefore, the hamstrings or lumbar spine (low back) erector muscles are forced to facilitate hip extension. (Ever wonder why your low back and hamstrings sing when you come into forward folds?!) Due to this novel, aberrant, motor pattern, these individuals commonly complain of tight hamstrings, irritated sacroiliac joints, and / or chronic low back pain. The probability of injury increases dramatically, as does the inefficiency of movements when muscles are regularly recruited to compensate for weakness, inhibition or pain.

What is more curious about the habitual use of muscles, though, is that often when we are weak in a certain area, it is also caused, not just by the irregular and repetitive movement, but by emotional patterns or trains of thought we are stuck in.  One of the easiest ways for you to imagine this is if I tell you about examples of my private lessons with yoga students.  Some of my students have suffered early emotional damage and are  still healing from the thought patterns established by that abuse. They come to me closed off - - literally and physically.  They hunch over, their shoulders are locked up close to their ears, and they seldom take a deep breath.  They are physically "trapped" in a stress mode throughout their entire musculatory and skeletal system.  All movement therefore, exudes from this contracted state.  There is no easy way, in the beginning of their practice, to have a positive stimulus within the organism of their bodies and souls. These abnormal physical patterns can be corrected; however, but they do require steady work and patience, along with an awareness that the emotions and the muscles are like the chicken and the egg - one could argue which is causing the patterns of the other. Proprioception, therefore is not just the stimulus of gross and fine motor movement through the muscles, as it is often defined in physical therapists offices, but the stimulation of the entire organism of the spiritual self.

We are creatures capable of amazing things, but the body must be unlocked as we also unlock the mind.  Dr. Jean Houston tells us, "I firmly believe that all human beings have access to extraordinary energies and powers. Judging from accounts of mystical experience, heightened creativity, or exceptional performance by athletes and artists, we harbor a greater life than we know. There we go beyond those limited and limiting patterns of body, emotions, volition, and understanding that have been keeping us in dry-dock. Instead we become available to our capacity for a larger life in body, mind, and spirit. In this state we know great torrents of delight.”

(c) Christina Sarich 2009

1000 Religions, 9 Billion Names for God

Humankind's quest to understand the infinite seems to be as diverse as the manifestations of the Divine itself. Sociologist David Bromley has documented over 1000 religions. Rob Brezney of Free Will astrology fame has been quoted in his witty manner saying, "We need at least 3657 religions to understand God." The names of God are equally as diverse. Often called the Divine Trickster, Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, Yaweh, El Shaddai, Yahweh, Elohim, Shen (神), Shangdi (上帝) , Tian (天), Bhagavan, Ishvara, Maheshvara, Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Adi Purusha, Paramatman, Waheguru, Satnam, Ek Onkar, Nirankar, Dàrì Rúlái, Aten, יהוה, Haile Selassie, Ra, Akua, Cao Đài, Konkachila, Tawa, Yezdan, Tenchi-Kane-no-Kami, Mioya-Ookami, El Cantare, The Great Being, Father Sky, Mother Earth, Mioya-Ookami, Ahura Mazda, and on and on.  The Tibetans believe that there are nine billion names for God. Considering the current world population is hovering right about 6,790,926,117, then we apparently have  a different name for the Divine for every living human.

If the names of God and religions of God are so diverse, I ask how any one can be the "right" way to peace. Our belief in any one system is life a preference.  You wouldn't war with your neighbor because they prefer cream in their coffeee and you like yours black.  But that is what we do with our religions beliefs; we forget that they are just a preference, an imagined construct to try to explain in concrete terms something that is not concrete.  Even with all our research in the divine particle in physics, and in theories of chaos and the proposed "Great Theory" there is room for more understanding.  These are just our current preferences for seeing the world. If you can convince me that you can truly understand the concept of a billion stars in just one Universe, then perhaps you as an individual might begin to have the over-arching concept of God that the rest of us should subscribe to, but I find it is a rare individual who can conceive of a concept so vast. Astronomers looking through the Hubble telescope are still dumbfounded on a daily basis.  There is just too much of God's manifestation out there for any of us to comprehend in our small minds.

The vastness of the concept of God should not however, dissuade us from trying to understand it. Any conclusions we come to, however, should be accepted on a temporary basis, with an understanding that this new perception is only a small step toward a greater understanding.  How many religious and scientific minds were jailed or persecuted because they tried to show their societies alternative ways of viewing the world. There are far too many in history to name. In my practice, I teach that yoga is inclusive of all religious views, but it is indeed a spiritual practice.  By understanding the microcosm of our own bodies, we grow a greater appreciation for that larger world we live in.  It is the same way scientists have learned about the habits of planets in space from examining the molecules of an atom under a microscope.  The nine billion names of God have the most fascinating harmony through all its manifestations, no matter how big or small. If we can remember this when we become rigidly attached to our own personal worldview, we will grow more integrated and understanding of the larger picture of the Divine.

The Benefits of Surya Namaskar

Sri Sathya Sai Baba told us “God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold.” Our fascination with the sun is often eclipsed by our worries about the responsibilities of the day. The sun is the life-giving source of all things, but we forget to honor it as it continues to give us warmth, heat, flowers, plants, and all the other glories of our existence. Surya Namaskar is Sanskrit for "Adoration of the Sun." We are taught by many that thankfulness is a proper attitude, but we often overlook one of the biggest boons to our existence - that big ball of light in the sky, over 93,000 miles away. We begin and end Sun Salutations with our hands to our hearts in Namaste as an act of loving awareness of the life giving force of the sun. The mere acknowledgement of the Sun practiced mindfully while practicing Surya Namaskar will benefit the practitioner, because it is a reminder to honor the "light" within us also. As we touch our heart with our hands with Anjali Mudra (also called the Heart Seal), we remind oursleves that the light of the sun is nothing compared to the capacity of our own hearts.

Many of my students inquire as to the benefits of doing Sun Salutations.  They ask why should they do them, how many should they do, and how often? Why are there so many "types" of Sun Salutation. The easiest answer is, like any form of exercise, Sun Salutations increases oxygenation of the blood and positively affects the heart.  The heart is one of the most important muscles of the body.  If it is not exercised, just like the other 849 muscles in the body, it becomes weak. There are many more benefits of doing Surya Namaskar, though.

The variations of Surya Namaskar are primarily of 12 stopping places and 8 primary asanas. The simplest form of Surya Namaskar is repeated throughout all traditions and variations. So, no matter which "type" you practice, you will derive benefits. The eight basic postures, in order of performance, are Tadasana (Mountain Pose), Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute), Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend), Lunge, Plank Pose, Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose), Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose), and Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose).

Surya Namaskar has many physical benefits.  One is that the entire hormonal system is exercised in a positive manner.  Increased blood flow to the thyroid, pituitary, parathyroid, adrenal, testes, ovaries, and pancreatic glands - all components of the endocrine system - have a tremendous beneficial effect on the human body. These glands get a little "massage" in the different asanas performed during the Sun Salutation, thus increasing their vital energy and ability to perform for the body. These glands are essential to our overall well-being because they control the cocktail of hormones flooding our blood stream at all times. When you look up to your belly button during forward bend at the beginning of Surya Namaskar, for example, you are performing a chin lock (jalandhar bhanda) which triggers blood flow to the thyroid and parathyroid glands. The proper functioning of these glands leads to a flood of "happy" hormones like seratonin and melatonin, and a decrease of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline which can wreck havoc on our immune systems in over-abundance.

You can start with just five to seven rounds of Surya Namaskar and build up to ten to twelve.  Eventually, you can practice 108 as a means to detoxify the entire body and focus the mind.  It is a true test of endurance and mindfulness as the movements start to get muddy at the end of the practice due to fatigue.  Traditionally Sun Salutations are practiced facing the East where the sun rises, at the dawning of day.  You can practice any time, though, with awareness and thankfulness that the light in the sky is a metaphor for the light within you.

“Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are." Ralph Waldo Emerson

© 2008 Christina Sarich www.youryogahale.com All rights reserved.

Yoga Asana for the Thyroid

Many people practice yoga without much idea of how the asanas and pranayama are actually affecting their hormones, but they derive the benefits nonetheless. With a deeper look into one of the largest endocrine glands in the body, the thyroid, we can understand why certain poses affect our hormonal system in a positive manner.

The thyroid is located in the neck just below where we would see an Adam's apple in men's throats.  (It is located in the same space for women, only the physical marker is less prominent.) The thyroid is responsible for regulating the rate at which the body burns energy, makes proteins and how the body regulates additional hormones produced by other glands.  It does all this primarily through the production of thyroxine and triiodothyronine which regulate metabolsim and growth for example.  Calcium homeostatis (for building and maintaining strong bones) and weight loss and gain are also controlled in part through the thyroid hormones.

The thyroid gets its orders from the hypothalmus and pituitary glands.  There are several asanas which affect the brain, pituitary and thyroid positively in order to greatly enhance their functions within the body:

Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) helps to calm the mind and relieve the nervous system.  It is an ideal pose to prctice before going to bed.  If you have an overactive thyroid, it well help to calm it. The thyroid and pituitary glands are stimulated positively in this asana which leads to a reduction in anxiety, fatigue, headache and insomnia.  It also helps to relieve symtoms of menopause as well as positively affects asthma, high blood pressure, sinusitus and osteoperosis.

King Pigeon Pose (Kapotasana) helps to invigorate the entire nervous system and brain.  These deep back bend should only be practiced by advanced yoga practitioners, but you can start to practice the asana from Camel Pose with some of the same benefits. As well as stimulating the organs within the neck (i.e., thyroid) it also stretches the deep hip flexors (psoas) and helps to increase blood flow to the uterus in women.  As the back muscles are use din a deep stretch, they are also strengthened.  More advanced yoga practitioners can practice this asana against a wall, walking their fingers down the wall to come into the backbend with the forearms to the floor eventually.

Supported Shoulder Stand (Salamba Sarvangasana) is not called the Queen of all yoga poses for nothing.  This asana greatly enhances the regulation of thyroid hormones and the prostate glands. It also decreases the accumulation of old, stagnant blood in the legs.  This asana reduces vericos veins, and leg and feet swelling. It improves digestion, helps with mild depression, calms the brain, and stimulates the digestive fire. It alleviates insomnia and menopasal symtoms as well. Try to get the body weight as much onto the shoulders with the chin placed in jalandar bandha (chin lock) against the chest in order to really help stimualte the thyroid galnds in this asana.

Fish Pose (Matsyasana) is a wonderful pose to release the neck bend from Salamba Sarvangasana. It is important to complete the counter pose to shoulder stand so that the spinal column (all the way into the neck) is not always stretched in one direction only. This asana is known as the "destroyer of all disease" because it normalizes the function of the thyroid, pituitary, pineal and adrenal glands. It also tones the nervous system, the kidneys, the stomach and intestines, the pelvic organs, and the nerves connected with the sex functions. It stretches the deep hip flexors (psoas) and the muscles (intercostals) between the ribs. It stretches and stimulates the organs of the belly and throat, strengthening the muscles of the upper back and back of the neck. It also improves posture.

Surrendering to the Silence: The Fifth Branch of Yoga


I attended a silent meditation retreat this past Sunday and shortly after leaving, I felt incredibly blessed for the fact that I and others were willing to make the conscious choice to sit in silence. Some astounding facts I recently came across buffered the sheer joy I felt in acknowledging this practice: last year, 25 percent of American workers got no paid vacation at all, while 43 percent didn't even take a solid week off. A third fewer American families take vacations together today than they did in 1970. American workers receive the least vacation time among wealthy industrial nations. 127 other countries in the world have a vacation law. The American government does not think one is necessary. We collectively have decided to make the time clock almighty, but I now have a different take on divinity.

I have been guilty of living the crazy lifestyle in the past.  As a former musician, I used to sing at ten weddings in a day, go to a four hour opera rehearsal, and then try to sing a jazz gig until 2am, and then get up and do it all over again.  I was actually shocked when my voice started to give out. It was yoga that taught me balance and surrender - Ishvara Pranidhana - a Sanskrit word meaning a complete surrender to the Divine. I now have to completely trust that my needs will be taken care of.  I have to completely trust that problems will find their own solutions in their own perfect time, even if I don't rush to put out the proverbial fire. I have to completely trust that I am where I need to be RIGHT NOW and that there is no place else, no other person I should be with, no other thing I need to be doing than what I am doing RIGHT NOW. Notice the NOW.  It keeps showing up.

Ishvara Pranidhana or 'Centering on the Divine' is an often overlooked branch of yogic science. Patanjali refers to it repeatedly in the yoga sutras as a means to overthrow the incessant and repetitive thought patterns we have. You can practice Ishvara Pranidhana anywhere. You need not attend a church or synagogue.  You can center on the divine through your own cultural filters.  You do not need an intermediary. But, do, indeed, let go of the ego and become one with a source which is greater than yourself. Supreme consciousness will always know better and wiser than your small egoic self.  It is just a matter of taking stock - of taking a moment out of your overscheduled, over-whelming life to allow the Divine access.

I wonder if half of us even know what it is like to put away the Blackberry, (I and other of my friends affectionately call the Crackberry) turn off the television or the radio, and sit in silence for even five minutes, let alone an entire day. I teach my yoga students to try to tune into the subtle voice of their bodies, but who could possibly do that in a world which caters to the credo of more, faster, louder and longer! Somehow we have created a life only sustainable by live to work ethics, and not work to live ethics. Somewhere along the way we bought into a "slave" mentality. In the Annals of the American Psychotherapy, we are told that spending as little as a half hour in nature alleviates symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children. It seems logical that just slowing down means we could concentrate better, but so many of us refuse to believe it, or believe it but don't know how to change our break-neck pace. Other studies from numerous higher institutions teach us that problem solving abilities, self-confidence, and sensory abilities improve with relaxation. Why would our corporate culture continue to push us into 80 hour weeks unless we were buying into the addiction of work-is-life.

Complete surrender requires an absolute presence in the right here and right now. I start almost every yoga class in surrender pose, as a reminder to myself, and to my students, that we are exactly where we need to be. Ishvara Pranidhana is one of the hardest niyamas to practice because your guru, or teacher cannot tell you how to do this.  There are no instructions for silence. You just go into it and explore it on your own.  It is a completely different adventure, though there are countless words of advice about it.  Mother Teresa told us, "We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Complete surrender cannot be done in a rush, balancing a phone on one ear and our boss', our children's, our families' needs all balancing precariously on the other shoulder. When we give into the infinite - the silence establishes new peace and strength for us. Lao Tzu told us, "Silence is a source of great strength," but this truth is often crowded out of our consciousness in our over-worked world. Find some silence and surrender to it.  You are surrendering to the divine.


Feeding Our Consciousness with Nourishment
Instead of Junk

You need not look far for bad news these days.  Between the incessant droll of the news and papers about the state of the economy, the state of war, and the crisis of terrorism, we cannot seemingly escape the drudgery.  Its hard to keep a light heart in such a climate!  An important part of the yogic practice is being vigilant, however, about the types of thoughts we continually put into our heads.  Practicing purity, called Saucha, is not just about the kind of food we put into our bodies, but also the diet of our minds.

Developing this vigilance does not mean that we become irresponsible about what IS going on in the world, but in the words of the Ho'opnono of Hawaii, we try to change our perception by forgiving, loving and accepting.  We ask that our view of the world as a violent and chaotic one, where some have so much and others have so little, is changed.

I challenge you to look for good news for one week and see how it starts to change your life. If you aren't sure where to start, you can look here for a healthy new perspective. The Good News Network is just one place you can go to change your thoughts - and then 'be the change you want to see in the world', in Ghandi's words, instead of wallowing in bad news.  You truly are what you think. Ask yourself if it is time for a new mental diet.


Uniting the Wisdom of Japanese, Jewish and Indian Culture Through the Third Chakra













 
The third Chakra of the energy system is called Manipura.  It is located near the navel along the spinal column. In the yogic tradition, it is referred to as the "other heart center".  If the energy of the third chakra is balanced, we feel giving, receptive and emotionally content. We also are able to cultivate our moral compass in life through the expression of this chakra. It seems that in the Japanese culture, this same power is exerted through the belly.

The word haragei, often referred to as the 'hara' in many martial arts practices, is Japanese: 腹芸, and translates to mean art of the belly. It is referring to the art of exuding one's personal energy, ki Chinese (qi) , Indian (prana) primarily from the hara, at base of the abdomen, three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel.

Although the Jewish Kabbalists describe Tiferet as the third chakra, they envision it housing some of the same energetic qualities as the Japanese and Indian: Manipura or Tiferet is the Self, the midpoint of the psyche. This is where healthy communication of the imagined "self" occurs.

In Japanese martial arts, Haragei is sometimes called the center of emotional communication. It is thought that by developing this energy center, or chakra, one can exert great influence over others, acting with boldness and determination. Our ability to "speak our truth" comes from a strong and balanced third chakra. This is also where our energy must rise from the lower two chakras to begin to develop a spiritual perspective of life. If energy lies dormant in the first two chakras, then we become consumed with thoughts of food, and shelter, as well as procreation.  We have no more "energy" to concern ourselves with higher pursuits or a spiritual quest. Personal matters and old karma are mostly worked through once our energy has risen to Manipura, Hara or Tiferet. It is from this new perspective on our climb up the proverbial mountain that we can begin to see ourselves as a part of an Expansive Wholeness.

Yoga poses which will benefit the third chakra include:

Peacock (Mayurasana) is the ultimate pose to balance this chakra, as well as any heat building poses like Sun Salutations (Suryanamaskar) and Warrior (Virabhadrasana), backbends like Bow (Dhanurasana), twists such as Ardha Matsyendhrasana, and abdominal strengtheners like Boat Pose (Navasana) all access energy in Manipura.

Rebalancing the Chakras: Clearing Blocks from Mooladhara

The innocence of self, that wise-innocence which children have, comes from a balanced mooladhara chakra.  Though we evolved from the most basic cells, into the complex organisms we are now, these spiritual and material beings; we are still simple, unguarded and open in our most pristine state.  Jung and Freud both talked about what hapens in early childhood as we start to develop a personality which must be "protected" from all the "dangers" in the world.  We are taught by our society, our parents and our siblings to have walls, and to let go of the simple innocence and wisdom of a child. It is no surprise that in these "dangerous" times, many of us are learning to return to that childlike place that has no alterior motive, except to give and receive with complete purity.  Most of us have completely forgotten that this place exists.

By removing blocks in the energetic pattern of mooladhara, we can return to this state of innocence:

CLEARING BLOCKAGES IN MOOLADHARA CHAKRA

A weak or blocked Mooladhara Chakra may show up in a number of ways including; a poor sense of direction, poor memory, poor sense of balance (gravity), certain ‘incurable’ diseases or mental problems.

Emotional conditions of an unbalanced root chakra include fear, anxiety, insecurity, vulnerability, worry, grief, hording, depression, self-centerdness, distrust and low self-esteem. Commonly, addictions that have to do with food, sex, and drugs are used to go-unconcious with wounded energy still stagnate at the level fo this chakra.

Asana which help to alleviate these imbalances are:

All poses which draw the sacral pelvic floor to the earth will help ground and re-energize the root chakra. Asana such as a yogic squat, and thunderbolt pose will help re-root us into the first chakra.  Also, anything which helps us to ground into the soles of the feet will help as well - essentially we are growing deeper roots into the earth.  Uttansasana (forward fold) is wonderful for this effect as is Supta Baddha Konasa (Reclining Bound Ankle Pose) and Salamba Savasana. Finally, finish by practicing Salamba Balasana (Supported Child's Pose) to allow the energy to rise from the root to the crown unimpeded.

To change the vibratory quality of the body, and help to rebalance mooladhara, you can also chant the Ganesha Mantra.  If you like, you can rest one palm facing down to the earth, and the other in your lap, palm facing up to support the flow of energy from root to crown:


OM TWAMEVA SHAKSHAT SHRI GANESHA SHAKSHAT
SHRI ADI SHAKTI MATAJI SHRI NIRMALA DEVI NAMOH NAMAH (repeat at least five times)
In time, as you practice yoga and meditation, you will feel more open in your hips, your digestion and elimination will improve, you will feel a vital connection to the earth and your body. You will enjoy the feeling or being connected to others, have more trust and a sense of fulfillment in your every day activities, including your job and home life. You will have enough of everything, without living in excess. These are all signs of a balanced mooladhara chakra.


Salt Water Cleanse with Yoga Asana: Shank Prakshalana
(this in no way is intended to replace the advice of your medical pratitioner)

A salt water cleanse is very helpful for cleaning out the digestive tract and many other organs of the body. It is also a form of Saucha Yoga. It is important to set aside enough time to relax and recuperate after doing the cleanse. You want to be sure to care for your diet after cleansing also by avoiding heavy or fried foods. Your digestive tract will be very feeble for a few days up to a few weeks post-cleanse. Also avoid alcohol and spicy foods for at least one month following this practice.

Directions:

Boil to hot (but not burning so you can drink the water) 2 quarts of water. Use purified water if possible.

Add one Tablespoon of natural rock salt. It should not be chemically altered. Try to purchase sea salt or dead sea salt from a health food store. Do not use iodized salt.

Add the juice from a lemon or lime to taste

Drink the entire 2 quartz of water in one sitting. You can drink a few glasses and then continue after a period of ten to fifteen minutes. You must drink the entire amount for this to work. The best time to do this is between 5AM and 7AM in the morning because the body is a more open channel. If you cannot do the cleanse early in the morning it is o.k., you can continue anyhow at a more convenient interval.

Between every few glasses practice the following asanas to help get the water into the intestines:

Bow pose
Plow pose
Spinal twist
Forward bend
Lie down and bring the knees into the stomach and hug them in gas release pose
Cobra Pose

If you have a need to throw up try to resist it. You can minimize the asanas if the need becomes too great. Once you have the urge to go to the bathroom, go. Just be sure to continue drinking all the water. It can take several hours to empty the contents of the bowels completely. Your appetite will be increased tremendously also, but pay attention to what you eat. You are cleaning the good and bad bacteria out of the intestines at the same time (there is no way to just clear one type) and it takes time for the body to make new good bacteria.

if you haven't done any intense cleansing before, you may have a slight headache as your body rids itself of toxins. Just lie down and it will pass. In time, after the physical sensations pass, you may also feel cathartic emotions. Allow these to pass also. In a few days you will experience any or all of the following benefits:

  • Fresher breath
  • Better digestion
  • Better sleep
  • Disappearance of acne and rashes
  • Brighter complexion
  • Odorless sweat
  • Regulated metabolism - lose or gain of weight depending on body's needs
  • Relief from headaches
  • Relief from allergies
  • Relief from menstrual irregularities and any diseases related to the reproductive organs
  • Riddance of intestinal worms
  • Relief from urinal tract infections

You can complete this cleanse every day for a week, and thereafter once every six  months as needed. Again, adherence to a modified diet after cleansing is key.

Relieving a Tense Jaw with Yoga

TMJ, or Temporo-Mandibular Joint, is a fairly common health problem that affects the jaw muscles. If you have tried a  doctor's treatment without results, some patients have found that yoga relaxation techniques can ease their discomfort.

Jaw clenching is thought to be caused by stress or deeply rooted and unreleased psychological tension caused by a number of factors. (work stress, childhood trauma,  a seeming lack of empowerment to speak your mind, for example. . .) As you release tension in various poses, (shoulder releasing asana, for example, have  a great effect on releasing jaw tension) you will stop clenching your jaw when you sleep, and even when awake.

Another technique to dismantle this habit is to practice mindful breathing with the jaw slightly unhinged.  Though the breath should emanate from the nostrils - deeply inhaling and exhaling through the nose - the mouth can be left slightly open and the jaw released. Close the eyes and relax the body completely, staritng from the top of the head to the tips of the toes and fingers. Notice places where you feel tight and rigid and breath more deeply into them.  You can also do this practice in Shavasan, or corpse pose. With a good yoga teacher, address the issue and consider her suggestions.  Yoga nidra can also effectively uproot deeper anxieties which cause TMJ and other tension related disorders.

Practicing Loving Kindness - Metta

Mother Teresa once said, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” Her sentiments are echoed in the Tibetan Buddhist practice. The word Metta is from the Pali meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, and just good old-fashioned respect and care for your fellow beings. It is often described as a mother's unselfish and unconditional love for a child. It is a strong wish for the well-fare of others, also called parahita-parasukha-kamana.  True metta is devoid, just as a mother's love, of self-interest.  It is the ability to have higher regard for another than for oneself.  It is a rare, and beautiful quality in today's world, but it does exist.

People are often swayed into egoic attitudes and actions due to the state of the planet.  As a whole, people seem to be aggressive, violent and self-serving, but there is a growing number of people who practice the development of metta - a meditation on universal love - as a means to counteract all this violence and chaos. It is a pragmatic practice with the conditions of the world as they are, to develop loving kindness for others. Examples of  people trying to develop loving kindess abound if you just look for them:

Geeks make the world a better place with a video game

The Quiet Soldiers of Compassion

Cabdriver Thanked for Returning Stradivarius

29-day Giving Challeng

These are just a few examples of people practicing metta, there is an infinitely greater number of acts of loving-kindess happening on a daily basis throughout the world.

You can also practice a metta meditation by sitting down in a quiet place and mentally radiating love and compassion to those around you.  They can be complete strangers in a coffee shop or people you see everyday at work.  They don't even have to know you are doing it. But you will see a difference in the way people respond to you and to each other if you practice metta meditation consistently.  You can change the world one step at a time, one thought at a time - standing in line at the grocery store and sitting in your own room at home.  Eventually you can try sending these same thoughts to those you consider your enemies, a practice the Dali Lama has worked on for years to deal with the Chinese inhabitation of Tibet. Once you can have true feelings of compassion for those you would consider your adversaries, you know you have mastered the act of metta. It does not happen overnight, but start with people you feel good towards already, and then work to have compassion and loving kindness for even those who you see in a negative light.  You will be transformed by the practice, and so will the world.

Why Do I Need Yoga, I Already Work Out? 
The Difference Between Exercise and Yoga

For some people who already workout, the idea of adding yoga to their week seems redundant. Why should I stretch into odd pretzel-like shapes?  I look great! There is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to physical, mental and emotional health, though. By all means, people who are working out at the gym or playing their favorite sport should continue to do so, but yoga can provide a perspective for a person's overall health.

Firstly, anyone who works out and has a great looking body has developed strength in their muscles, but often, many workouts lead to an overexertion of the larger muscles and an inbalance in overall muscular strength. Another key difference between practicing asanas and exercise is that asana practice requires less oxygen to be consumed, while exercise requires more. Why does this matter?

  • In most types of yoga (power and advanced vinyasa, aside) the heart rate and respiratory rate decrease.  In exercise, they increase. In our stress-filled society, we need to give our heart and lungs a break.  We don't want them to become lethargic, but more vital through an increase in vital nutrients they receive through the blood while doing asanas.  These systems receive more oxygen and cellular support because the muscle-fibers are not hogging all the goodies.

  • In asana practice we decrease the metabolic rate.  In exercise, we increase it.  Why do we want to do that? In one word - STRESS! Chaya M.S. M.Sc., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of the Division of Yoga and Life Sciences at the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation in Bangalore, India tells us ". . .according to ancient yoga texts, yoga is done basically to bring in a balance in the system, by calming down the mind, relaxing the body, slowing down of the breath, to reach higher levels of consciousness, which is psychologically, physically, and biochemically different than the three most well defined states of consciousness, i.e., the wakefulness, dream state and the deep sleep state of being. For the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) studies 104 subjects were selected, for the sleep studies 88 subjects were selected and divided into yoga and non-yoga group. For asanas and relaxation postures only experienced 30-35 yoga practitioners were selected. Results show that the BMR of yoga practitioners was lower than that of the non-yoga practitioners. Sleep study results show that the metabolic rate of yoga group was lower when compared to non-yoga group before sleep itself. Yoga group had lower metabolic rate after sleep when compared with the non-yoga group. Even the heart rate was lower in yoga group before sleep when compared to non-yoga group. There was progressive reduction in metabolic rate during Quick Relaxation Technique (QRT) and Deep Relaxation Rate (DRT) (11% reduction in energy expenditure during the practice). There was varied stimulation effect of the asana, padahastasana done in the asana way being highest in metabolic rate (60% increase in metabolic rate during the practice) followed by ardha- chakrasana done with instructions and awareness (51% and 26% increase in metabolic rate). Ardha chakrasana done in the Asana way was highest in the metabolic cost. (16% decrease in metabolic rate), followed by ardhakati chakrasana done with awareness and instructions (12 % decrease in metabolic cost). The rest of the Asana had similar energy cost (11% decrease in metabolic rate). Reduction of metabolic rates in all the aspects of yoga throws more light on the relaxation components of yoga, which has therapeutic values for all stress related ailments, and all stress management program." Stress is the cause of more diseases today than any other kind.  Exercise alone will not keep you healthy.

  • When practicing asana, the blood pressure and heart rate lower, while in exercise they go higher, causing the heart to work harder. A heart that never rests can lead to heart-problems.  I know of at least three "super-healthy" runners with perfect physiques who died early from heart complications. Yoga helps to counterbalance and over-stressed heart.

  • Asanas balance endocrine secretions - the very hormonal stew which causes us to feel elated, at peace and able to handle the day. Exercise does not affect the hormonal system to the same degree.

  • Asanas stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, exercise stimulates the sympathetic nervous system.

  • Exercise overworks the joints, often causing injury, especially as we age. Yoga does not.

  • Asanas encourage flexibility in the way we view the world as we move out of rigid physical postures or rote movement. Many exercise programs rely on redundant movement which exaggerates our current mental programming.

  • Physical exercise tends to increase toxins in the body, while asana practice helps to remove them.

Who Does Yoga?!

An irony which arises in teaching professional athletes yoga is that the extreme competitiveness which many of them have used as a tool in their careers, finally takes a back seat to awareness. Ask any great athlete or performer how they superceded their peers in their sport, and some of the best will tell you it was when they found that still, quiet space within. This is one of the biggest reasons that professional athletes, dancers, and musicians turn to yoga, but there are other reasons too.

Ask Kareem Abdul Jabar, one of the NBAs most famous players in the history of the sport.  He tells us that, "Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath, that's the essence of yoga, too. So I consciously began to us yoga techniques in my practice and playing. Americans are very good at cardiovascular endurance and strength, but flexibility is the missing element. This is why a lot of athletes get injured. I think that doing yoga really helped reduce the number and severity of the injuries I suffered during my career. As preventive medicine, it's unequaled. My friends and teammates think I made a deal with the devil. But it was yoga that made my training complete. There is no way I could have played as long as I did without yoga."

Teena Murray, the strength and conditioning coach for the USA Hockey Women’s National program, also sees the benefits of yoga for hockey players. Surprised?  Boston Bruins goalie, Tim Thomas spent part of his off season training learning about downward dog, warrior and butterfly asanas. The Seattle Seahawks are taking their football games to the next level practicing yoga, as are the Bengals and the Tennessee Titans. Soccer players from youth teams to members of Manchester United are using yoga to combat the muscular fatigue and mental drain of intense games. The list goes on. . .

Madonna is old enough to be a grandmother, but try convincing her fan base she looks like one.  She practices Ashtanga yoga several times a week. Perhaps she was inspired by Sting, a long time practitioner of yoga with his wife Trudy.  The couple rely on several different practices, including karma yoga to stay balanced and centered in their busy lives. Phil Jackson, of LA Lakers fame has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.  Many of his players have relied on yoga to help prevent injury, increase lung capacity and stay grounded during hectic games and practices. In the Bhagavad Gita v111.21 we are told, "Whatsoever a great man does, that others will also do. Whatsoever he sets up as the standard, that the world follows." Perhaps some of these high-profile people are responsible for bringing yoga its prominence in the west, but the practice of yoga is not just for women looking to limber up anymore, nor the hippie looking for enlightenment.  Yoga is increasingly used as a secret weapon in slaying the mental, physical and physiological barriers that one comes against in any sport.

© 2008 Christina Sarich www.youryogahale.com All rights reserved.

What are the Benefits of Meditation Anyway?

If you are like most people on this planet, you have a hard time living every single day as if it were an absolute gift.  Sure, on better days, we can remember this, but many days, life just feel sort of "blah" at best. This has been the human condition for centuries.  Despite the fact that we have more things to distract us, more modes of entertainment than ever before, human-kind still feels these undeniable pangs of experience. It is unlikley that this state of mind will change for the mass majority of us any time soon. 

Some of us have very busy minds.  Agitation of the mind actually manifests in the body. It causes shallow, agitated breathing, it causes stress to accumulate in the muscles, bones and joints, and even, in the newest scientific tests, in our very DNA! Those of us who are atuned to the energy body realize that an agitated mind also manifests in the etheric or energy body. Cultures besides the Hindu and Buddhist for example, from the Kalahari dessert to ancient Egypt to the Bushmen of the Australian Outback to the Aztec and Mayan Indians, for example, realized that the mind must be made still to positively affect the energy body.

The first step in a meditation practice, therefore, may not just be learning to sit upon the floor with a straight spine, but to actually admit to ourselves that we are more deeply affected by the state of our minds.  We admit that we are human. Next, we start to look inside to just notice the kind of intellectual patterns that we create with the mind.  Without judgement for having the thoughts in the first place, we just notice what kind of projections about the future we tend to make, or what memories of the past consistently crop up for us.  The basis of any meditation practice, from almost any religious or cultural backdrop is to still the mind and bring it repeatedly into the moment of NOW.  Most of us cannot concentrate on now for more than three seconds before the mind is already off and running on its next tangent. If you sit for at least twenty to thirty minutes a day, you will start to know your personal version of a busy mind better.  You will start to shed light on your own mental patterns.  You can watch them just as if you were at the cinema. When you watch a movie, you don't necessarily judge the experience of the actors.  In a good movie, you forget there are actors at all, you just watch their actions and the ramifications of them, without judgement. This is what we want to do with our state of mind.  We want to watch the "movie" we consistently have playing in our heads. 

Once we notice what movie we have playing - we will then have even more feedback for the mind to play with. This is why meditation is important in the beginning stages. The tendency to judge the thoughts we are having, once we realize we are having them is great, but this is just another way for the mind to trick us into intellectualizing again. Instead of judging ourselves for having played the same horror movie for the last twenty years, we can just decide to notice it, and decide to change the movie. We can start replacing the pattern of consistently negative thoughts to one of consistently positive thoughts.  We can notice the negative thought pattern arising, watch it fade away and then choose a different program. To use another analogy -- if we are tired of listening to the same tunes on our I-pods, we can easily switch them out to something new - the mind is no different.  It just takes a little time and consistency.

Once we start to meditate for even a few minutes every day, we will notice the following positive changes taking place:

  • Our life force/life energy is freed up from consistent negative thought patterns.

  • Creativity grows by leaps and bounds.

  • Due to this increased energy on the physical and etheric levels, we start to experience health and happiness - they will grow exponentially!

  • Our minds are less crowded over time.  We start to have more conscious control over what we think.

  • We aren't stressed anymore by the thoughts that do come - we just don't worry about the stream of thoughts ever present in our minds.

  • Perceptions become crystal clear.  You can see things as they truly are, and not through the thousand veils our egoic minds put before us.


Why Static, Repetitive Postures are Not Ideal

Yoga is taught in the US and Europe in many ways which may not necessarily be what the original philosophers of yoga intended. You noticed, perhaps, that I said philosophers of yoga. In the west, yoga is often packaged in the 'fast results, competitive' way that mimics our appraoch to life. Americans are a work-a-day sort of people with little time to focus on the mind and body connection. We mistakenly practice yoga with similar reticence.  It only makes sense that a disciplined and rigid work ethic would result in a sinewy and healthy body.  Many gyms have added yoga as an "exercise" and some studios have followed.  It is understandable that the physical benefits gleaned from yogic practice would be misconstrued for "exercise."  The truth is that yoga is so much more. In fact, it is an un-exercise, though you can lose weight, lower your cholesterol, and grow sinewy muscles with its practice. The philsophy of yoga is what makes it different from other forms of physical activity. 

Unfortunately, some yoga teachers make the philosophy part of yoga a secondary, if not absent aspect.  They teach a set of asanas to repeat again and again or push students into stagnant poses and tell them to hold them, and the student does so, because this is the way they think that yoga should be done.  They haven't been taught any different. Others teach only that the goal of yoga is to transcend the gross workings of the body, that one can only realize enlightenment through a casting off of it altogether.  There are deep insights in the Taoist and Tantric traditions; however, that tell us the body is not to be transcended, but tapped into from a higher level perspective.  The body is often much more intelligent than the mind, in fact.

Many times in yogic practice, a student will realize that they are tight in their shoulders or rigid in their hips, or that their hamstrings cramp up every time they attempt downward facing dog or forward bend asanas; but they seldom realize that there is intelligence in these muscles beyond the physical. The subtle body permeates the physical body also, and as we release tension in the muslces, tendons and joints, we develop a deep awareness of our place in the physical world.  Our movements become more fluid.  We waste little effort getting from one place to the next.  An economy of energy is utilized thorugh a greater awareness of self that is developed through the body, not despite it.

According to some traditions, we can transcend the need for a physical body altogether, however there is great consciouness kept within the body as it moves form one physical experience to another.  Great scientific evidence has arisen in the past several decades describing the nature of the mind-body relationship within consciousness. You can explore the writings of Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Michael Sabom, Dr. Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross, and Dr. Ian Stevenso just to begin to taste of this fascinating relationship. According to more ancient teachings, those of the Katha Upanishad (1) and Srimad Bhagavatam (2), for instance, consciousness is a symptom of jiva which is a Sanskrit word for 'living being.' In these traditions, prana, or life force, floats through the entire heart cavity and spreads through the blood to inform the rest of the body with knowledge or consciousness.

When we practice yoga as an automoton, working through the movements in a rote manner, attempting to reach a certain self-defined "perfect pose" -- not allowing for an awareness of the consciousness of the body as we move, we aren't really doing yoga. Attend an aerobics class or go for a run; these activities still have positive benefits for the physical body. Ideally, however; we permeate all layers of our being when we practice yoga, and this cannot be achieved by force. We develop our humanism which is a vital part of our spiritual nature when we practice yoga with presence. By removing the philosophy of yoga, we end up with what I like to call a "cafe latte" practice which only furthers the rigidity and redundancy of our every day movements and thought patterns. The result of mindful practice is not only better body awareness but, a more realized and relaxed state of being.

© 2007-8 Christina Sarich www.youryogahale.com All rights reserved.


Swara Yoga: the Sound of the Universe

Swara is a Sanskrit word meaning sound or musical note.  Swara Yoga is an ancient practice which views the body and all the objects of the Universe as one immense orchestral masterpiece. This type of yoga essentially deals with controlling the vibratory quality of the body thorugh the breath, but it is much more, an awareness of the audible essence of things. The 5000 year old tradition of Swara yoga embodies elements which modern science is just now confirming – that every single rock, tree, flower, table, chair and personate vibrates at a certain ‘pitch.’  We all have our own resonance.  Every single cell, even, has its own perfect resonance at which it is most alive and whole. Essentially, each manifestation of the Universe in physical form has its own sound. 

We can see the teachings of Swara yoga in many traditions. In ancient Egypt, for example, the wisdom of Swara yoga was prevalent among Kings and Queens.  They knew of seven sacred sounds which could be utilized to “tune up” the cells of the body via the chakras, or seven energy centers.  When these seven sacred sounds were voiced or played, the entire body began to vibrate in harmony.  The body was harmonized all the way down through the physical structure, to the cell, to the very DNA, and then further into the body into the etheric and subtle bodies. These bodies are composed of less dense matter, and do not manifest in physical form, but have their own vibration, nonetheless. We are essentially a symphony of sound. 

When disease forms, it is due to a disharmony.  It is as if the entire orchestra of our body is playing along, except several key players, are playing the same music, just one beat behind.  When extreme dis-ease happens within the physical structure, it is actually a sign of the orchestra playing at its worst.  Not only is the body one beat behind, but several of the players, maybe even the conductor has the wrong score! Disease actually manifests as an erroneous vibration within the etheric and subtle bodies before it ever shows up within the physical body.  When we change that vibration, or give our conductor the right music, we then prevent the dis-ease or the dis-harmony from ever percolating down into the physically manifested form – the body.  These metaphors of music are not just literary references to make a point; we really are a walking symphony of sound. The power of sound is in us and all around us.

Most human beings can only sense sound within a certain range.  The lowest note on the piano, for example, represents a sound which oscillates at approximately 24 cycles per second.  This is usually abbreviated among wave scientists as  Hz for hertz. Thi sis the unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second. Sound is actually a travelling wave which has an oscialltion of pressure. When we talk about sound waves we are actually referring to the wave represented visually in a fixed moment of time. Sound waves, however, do not stop moving.  They continually travel like the waves of an ocean, only much faster – at about 1100 feet per second!

We can start to understand sound visually if we use a few examples. The highest note on a piano is represented at around 2000 cycles per second.  When the Polynesians blew a conch shell and “thus created the world,” as their creation myth purports, they were creating a vibratory pattern which oscillates in deep, shallow wave patterns.  A low pitch or sound, such as the conch shell,  moves through space in waves that have small peaks and troughs, whereas, a high-pitch sound such as the upper notes of a coloratura soprano’s range, move through space creating waves with very exaggerated peaks and troughs.  Dr. Winston Kock has some fascinating articles out there about seeing sound using technology called the Schlieren camera.

Even a rock has a vibratory quality, though we may not sense it because it is not within the human auditory range.  Scientists have actually recorded the vibratory rates for many inanimate objects, and even plants in order to prove this fact, but they must represent the rate visually, because the human ear is incapable of hearing specific sounds.  Consider your favorite canine’s sensitivity to sound, or the range of a dolphin’s ears – they can sense sound several thousand times beyond our own limited auditory capabilities.

Once we start to change the vibratory quality of the body through the breath and through mantra, we can begin to harmonize from within and then carry this sound ‘wave’ to those around us.  We actually start to vibrate sympathetically with those in our periphery. A sympathetic vibration is one that has the same frequency, or a harmonic multiple of that same frequency.  For example, if a tuning fork is struck, a second tuning fork within close proximity will begin to vibrate in unison with the original tunin fork, even though the second fork was never touched.  The oscillation, or movement, first in one direction, then another, is mimicked by the second, untouched tuning fork. This can happen with the human voice, as in mantra repetition or within the cells of the body through pranayama. Swara yoga is essentially the practice of inducing sympathetic vibrations within and then carrying them to those around us everywhere we go.

We can utilize conscious breathing to animate the life force, or pran within the body.  We can maximiaze energy through controlled breathign patterns through a sensory network through the nose and through subtle channles within the body connected to the seven chakras which the Egyptians and also the yogis of India and Eastern China and Tibet practiced. We use the breath to balance the rythmy of thebody to come into balance with greater Universal forces – in a phrase, we complement musically with the great symphony of life.

Christina L. Sarich
© 2008 All rights reserved.

Being a Spiritual Warrior:  Dealing With Negative Emotions

For many people, sadness, grief and anger are emotions they would rather avoid. We would rather not face irritation, grief, rage, depression and, jealousy, not to mention embarrassment or fear. For those on a spiritual path, however, these emotions are like shining treasures found in a hidden cave. These emotions can show us where we are stuck. They are messengers of great clarity that show us where we are holding back, where our hearts have stunted in growth, and where, perhaps we need to breathe more. For the spiritual warrior, unfortunate circumstances and difficult people are a moment to seize great power.

In fact, all forms of negative emotion are really caused by the root emotion of fear. It may not seem possible, but all tension, worry and stress are caused by projecting ourselves into the future, or mulling over the past where we created unhealthy emotions. These all stem from fear. Psychological time is the cause of fear. It is our perception of possible futures – our longing for certain outcomes or our denial of the past that cause this pressure. Time is always recreated, though. Look at a candle flame. The flame you look at in one second is entirely different than the flame you look at in the next. This is how a spiritual warrior sees time. It does not exist except in this moment. A candle flame is not the same from one second to another. It is constantly re-created. This is how a spiritual warrior sees life. It is also how a yogi sees life. Negative emotions are our clues to when we are shutting down. They are a map to moments we are being unconscious or not living in the now.

Most people see negative emotions, like sadness or anger as something to run from. The problem with this way of dealing with these emotions is that the very thing you would like to eliminate, you give more power, and therefore it grows bigger. Your fear, your anger, your sadness keeps growing. Like a plant being watered daily and given plenty of sunlight, you are fertilizing the soil of the negative emotions in the mind. It is only when we look our fear, or anger or sadness straight in the eyes that we begin to take away its power over us. Meditation is a way for us to start to lose some of our fear, and look at all the negative emotions we are carrying. Most of us have hidden these emotions so deeply within that we do not even realize they are there. We are like ghosts walking around with a thousand other ghosts chained to our ankles with iron shackles. The next time you are walking around the park or the city, just imagine yourself this way. This is how much extra weight many of us are carrying. When we look at our fears, they begin to disappear, and those shackles dragging behind us simply fall off and lighten our load.

In Buddhism, teachers speak of egolessness. All this means is that we allow the hardness in us – always essentially a form of fear that has crystallized into our bodies - to start to melt. We observe our patterns. If we notice a certain person always makes us angry, we can ask ourselves why instead of letting the anger run away with us. We can become conscious of the reasons and ask ourselves why we allow that emotion to run rampant. Ironically, when we feel the emotions completely, they start to melt away like popsicles left in the sun. When we meditate we start to be able to see what is happening more easily. We start to be able to separate the “us” from the “anger” or “fear”. We are no longer the fear, we are having the fear and we can see ourselves acting it out as if we were watching an actor in a play. Have you ever watched a movie and been so engrossed in it that you forgot it was not reality, that the story was just composed of actor and lighting and props and camera angles? This is how we are able to ‘see’ reality when we meditate. If we have an issue that comes up, almost immediately we can look at the situation and discover, I am really angry, or I am really sad.

We can look at what is truly causing the sadness and often just by observing it, it begins to go away. Instead of protecting ourselves from whatever uncomfortable feelings we are having, we take them on with gusto as if we were watching a really great film. If you were watching a horror movie, you wouldn’t want to be just a little scared, would you? You really want to scream and squeal. If you were watching a romance, you would want to practically swoon from the love scenes, right? The next time you are feeling sad, really feel the sadness, allow it to consume you. Cry great rivers of grief and torment and then watch yourself as an observer as if you were in a movie. Soon you will start to laugh at yourself and think, “wow, what a fabulous role I was just playing as a very sad woman (man).” Perhaps, if the wounds are deep, you will not feel this way right away, but with patience and courage, a spiritual warrior sees straight through the veils of material existence. A spiritual warrior sees straight though the negative emotions as knows, first that if they are not love, they can only be fear, and second, to feel them and embrace those emotions. Those negative emotions are great gifts in the right hands.

A spiritual warrior also realizes that life is full of opposites. Today I will feel bliss, tomorrow I may feel pain. A spiritual warrior does not fret about the roller coaster of events in life because she realizes that these are just the great actors upon a fabulously outfitted stage – just as Shakespeare taught us. These events are just part of the circle of suffering, of the wheel of life. The “I” after all is just an illusion. We re-create the “I” in every single moment – in the now. Alan Watts said of meditation, “It doesn’t have a reason or a purpose. In this respect it is unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we do not do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of making music, then obviously the fastest players would be [considered] the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true of meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.” The real test of a yogi is if he can forever face the now. She must be a spiritual warrior to forever keep the mind in the present, and to look all emotions which would take one away from the now straight in the eye, and to slay those emotions like a knight slays a dragon. The warrior does not run away. The warrior goes straight into the dragon’s fire and slays the negative emotions (fear) at the source.


Destiny and Karma Yoga

Swami Vivikenanda says that, "good and evil have an equal share in molding character, and in some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness." Does this mean we are destined to grow only through poverty, fear, and the lack of praise? Or, as the Course in Miracles suggests, can we also learn through joy? One's destiny (and ability to learn through joy or pain) is related to Karma more than they realize, according to yogic philosophy. The western conception of destiny is one of a predetermined course of events. The yogic view of destiny is that it can be changed via one's attitudes, beliefs and actions. It is akin to the Newtonian philosophy of action creates and equal and opposite reaction, or forces always come in pairs. In the words of Saint Kirpal Singh, "Each thought, each word and each deed has to be accounted and compensated for in Nature. Every cause has an effect and every action brings about a reaction. Uproot the cause and the effect disappears. This has been done by the [yogic] Masters who have transcended these laws..."
 
There are no hard and fast rules for the accumulation of banes and the riddance of 'bad' karma. In fact, 'bad' karma is a misnomer. There is only karma which aims to teach us valuable lessons about the laws which govern the Universe and karma which we enjoy because we perceive it to be pleasant; in other words, we have already learned the relative lesson and can bask in its inherent wisdom. However, even 'good' karma can cause us to have attachments. We are not to float through the world as apathetic ghosts, but we should try to minimize our attachments to certain outcomes. The question of how to affect our destiny, then, is reliant upon our attitudes.

It depends on if pleasure or wisdom is the goal of the aspirant. The word karma is Sanskrit for "action" or "to do." Karma yoga means that the things we do can either bring us closer to the Ultimate Knowledge or further away from it. Our destiny is tied up in our past Karma, but it does not mean we cannot overcome it. As we 'do' things we create cause and effect, an inexorable law of the Universe. If you follow this law to its baseline, you would realize that all the opposite or dualistic instances of the universe eventually lead to zero, or the great Infinite, the Void, depending upon your semantic preference.

Although we may have set things in motion with our past actions, it does not mean that we must become fatalistic about our futures. A person's inner disposition or svabhava in Sanskrit, is determined by the accumulation of past thoughts and actions. We are now, the total result of our past evolution. Our destiny is that we are empowered to change our dispositions to propel us forward even further. Our bodies and minds allow us to work through whatever karma we have accumulated. The fact that we are on this planet at this time, when only one hundred years ago, we had not flown a plane or gone to the moon, there was no TV or Internet, means we have some beneficial karma. The fact that you are even reading this article means you have evolved with past karma that held some merit. The fact that you were born at all, means you still have some karma to work through. Perhaps you have lived in the past by way of the ego. Now, you have the opportunity to change your destiny and to leave that way of being behind.

There are three parts to past karma: The first is called prarabdha in Sanskrit. It refers to the karma which has already borne its fruit in our current lifetime. This type of karma cannot be annulled. It must be taken with forbearance and strength. You can probably imagine many undesirable experiences which were more than likely prarabdha. This is day-to-day karma you acquire through all your thoughts, words, deeds, interactions with others, your carbon footprint, your relationships, etc. In the yogic tradition if you do not work off this day-to-day karma you will have to work through it as sanchita karma in the next lifetime.

The second type of karma is called sanchita karma. This is karma which has not yet born its fruit. It is basically the balance left in your karmic credit account that you still have to work through. The effect following the cause is still waiting in the wings to be called onstage by the director. Sanchita karma is caused by our current thoughts and desires, and can be changed. You can change your destiny through changing your sanchita karma. These tendencies are often deep rooted and take patience and perseverance to change. It is important to have compassion for yourself and for others working through sanchita karma. In the yogic tradition, it is believed that this karma may have accumulated over many thousands of lifetimes.

The aspirant may not even realize why he is working through karma accumulated from these past experiences. Yogic techniques can be very helpful in removing sanchita karma. It is important to realize that if someone has a disability or is suffering from cancer, or poverty, it does not mean that they necessarily did something horrible in a past life. It could also mean that, at a soul level, they chose a certain circumstance in this life in order to learn a particular lesson. Unlike the Christian belief that, "'God is not mocked, what a man sows he must reap' there is no wrathful God which hands out reward and punishment. There is simply a system in place which governs cause and effect, and in some instances, the soul even chooses a circumstance that many might find unpleasant or even horrid. It is also important to forgive oneself and others for the karma they have accumulated, and will help to assist in working through it.

To draw from a different Christian tradition, Mother Teresa uttered the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi during her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. "Lord, make a channel of Thy peace that, where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that, where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that, where there is error, I may bring truth; that, where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that, where there is despair, I may bring hope; that, where there are shadows, I may bring light; that, where there is sadness, I may bring joy." In this simple prayer, the yogic principles of cause and effect are evident. When we say, "where there is error, may I bring truth" we are essentially saying, allow me to correct my ignorance so that I will not repeat my past mistakes. This, in a nutshell is karma.

The last type of karma is called agami karma. This refers to karma we are accumulating in this life that will bear its fruit in the future. We have complete control over this type of karma, perhaps the most control over all three types. It is by being aware of this type of karma that we can most easily shape our destiny and change the future. This is one reason we practice karma yoga, to remove the ego, so that our actions and words do not create future unpleasant events.

Swami Vivekenanda also says that, "Karma-yoga is no idle speculation. It is yoga in action. It is a life of intense activity inspired by knowledge. Genuine spiritual aspiration is bound to have active expression in every day life. The pursuit of Self-knowledge, unless it is idle imagination, will make the aspirant act for it. Love of God, if genuine, will make the aspirant express love through every action. The exhortation of the Bhagavad Gita is to act. The cause of a person's downfall is the performance of wrong actions, and a person's rise depends on the performance of right actions. Such a rise is never achieved by escapism, cowardice or hypocrisy. One is to sole the problems of one’s life by living it."

Through practicing karma yoga, one changes the effect by changing the cause. The destiny is changed by asking yourself:

1.How will this affect me and others after this moment?
2.How will this affect the people I love?
3.How will this affect the planet?

(c) 2008 All Rights Reserved Christina Sarich


Patanjali's Second Sutra: What is Yoga

Patanjali was one of the greatest philosophers of yoga. Although he did not create the philosophy of yoga, he wrote about it in a coherent and condensed fashion in order for the many traditions and branches of yoga to be understood by the masses.  His yoga sutras are famous throughout India and looked to by many yogis as the dominant source of the most important tenets of yogic practice. In Patanjali's second sutra, he states, "Yogaschitta vrtti nirodah." The translates to mean Yoga is to block the patterns of consciousness, or more literally, the circular patterns of consciousness.  Chitta is a basic Sanskrit word meaning individual consciousness.  Chit is "to see".  When we practice yoga, we are aiming to suspend the individual consciousness, which according to yogic tradition, is divided into three states of mind.  There is an objective consciousness, the subjective or astral consciousness, and finally, the unconscious, or dormant mind.  The fourth quality or dimension of mind is when the Atman merges with the Paramatman.  Atman can be likened to a drop of water within a vast ocean.  Paramatman is the ocean itself, composing all the smaller drops, but also a complete entity of itself.

In yogic practice we are utilizing nirodha - or the blocking of the extraneous three levels of consciousness.  This is the part of the mind which will turn in the "circles" of confusion and redundancy forever. Have you ever noticed how often your mind will ruminate on a single concern over and over, almost without ceasing? In yogic practice, we start to develop a quality of mind wherein the smaller drop of ocean that we are starts to become aware of the larger ocean of which it is a part. The Atman merges with the Paramatman to finally put aside its smaller concerns, for a larger view of itself. It is very difficult to worry endlessly over the small details of life, once a realization of one's true nature is at hand. If you think you have the force of only one drop of water, you are not yet aware of the vast power of the massive ocean. We do not suppress our individual concerns, worries, tastes, or preferences, but we rise above them.  It is not a psychological dance of ignoring the thoughts that are there, but of complete acceptance of all the little drops of the ocean, until eventually all our vrittis (Sanskrit word for mental patterns) simply melt away.

There is also the concept of the three gunas, or tendencies of personality which are addressed by the Vedas as well as Patanjali.  Over time, through our yogic practice, we do exactly as Patanjali says, we "block the patterns of circular thought" through a deepening of our mental awareness. At this point we reach what is called trigunatita, or freedom from the gunas. Out chitta is quietened enough to hear the roar of the greater ocean.

Yoga and the Spinal Column
(originally published on MacroYoga.com)

When we are still in our mother’s wombs we have only one curve to our spine. It is only through the birthing process, and later, learning to stand erect that the secondary, tertiary and fourth curves of the spine formed. Millions of years of evolution had to transpire for the human spine to be. Once humankind learned to stand erect, evolving from the forward hunch of monkeys, mother-nature needed to find an elegant way of protecting the inner organs as well as a sound structure which could support the heavy human brain and skull. The human spine is unique compared to all the other mammals which evolved along with us. It is the only spine which has both primary and secondary curves.

From an anatomical perspective, the spine is divided into the kyphotic and lordotic curves. It is further defined by four specific sections of vertebrae which are stacked on top pf each other like a stairway with ever-larger steps. The sections are called the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral. The way the spine was designed is a bit of an architectural or engineering feat. The very heavy human brain must sit atop the smaller support of tiny vertebrae at the base of the neck. Additionally, the spine must serve as both a rigid and flexible support simultaneously. It does this utilizing what is called intrinsic equilibrium which essentially means that the combination of cartilage, bone and ligament create a self-supporting system that is able to work independent of muscular effort. Interestingly, if there were no muscles in the spine it would still support the body, only no movement would be allowed. It is from this point which we can learn why yoga is so good for the spine. In his book, Human Kinetics, Leslie Kaminoff says that, “Consequently, when this support asserts itself, it is always because some extraneous muscular effort has ceased to obstruct it.” Through yoga asana, and lengthening and stretching the spine, we allow unnecessary control over the spine to diminish. We are using less energy, so we have reserves to use it elsewhere in the body.

The cervical spine begins at the base of the skull. It is composed of vertebrae C1 through C7. C is an abbreviation used when referring to the cervical section of the spine. These vertebrae are much smaller than the rest of the spinal bones. The tiny bones must support the spine, protect the spine, support the skull and allow diverse movement of the head. For these reasons, the vertebrae in this area of the spine must be very flexible. The flexibility is obtained via a complex network of ligaments, tendons and muscles which work in tandem with the vertebral column. The cervical nerves also act as communicators to the brain. There are eight cervical nerves in the body. Yoga asanas help to alleviate pressure between the cervical vertebrae relieving many ailments including, Cervical Spondylitis. Also poor posture and many arthritic problems are caused when there is a degeneration of invertebral discs. The pressure on the cervical nerve roots and cervical spinal cord cause these ailments. By practicing yoga asana, nutrient rich blood is sent to this area, helping to reverse all symptoms.

The thoracic region of the spine includes bones in the lower neck and chest area. Essentially, it is the area of the upper back. There are twelve here, to be exact, referred to as T1 to T12. The ribs connect to the thoracic bones and protect all the internal organs from impact and injury. Each of these bones is similar to a round block, called the vertebral body. There is also a surrounding bone called the pedicle. This protective ring of bone surrounds and protects the spinal chord. The thoracic portion of the spine has a total radius of motion of approximately 50-70 degrees. The difference is due to the limited space between the adjacent vertebrae, which narrows when the thoracic spine extends. The cat and cow asanas are excellent exercises to perform for this area of the spine as they dynamically support the full rotation as well as increase blood flow to the area. Just make sure you draw your shoulders into the spine when you practice and focus on breathing to receive the full benefits of these asanas.

The lumbar portion is the largest of the spine. It is estimated that upwards of 90% of lower back pain problems are caused by poor posture when lifting, sitting and standing. The lumbar region is the lower back region. It contains L1-L5 vertebrae. The lumbar spine is the least flexible all of all areas of the vertebral column. It is practically incapable of axial rotation. The thoracic spine is responsible for most of the bending and flexion in yoga asana. All backbends and twists utilize mostly the thoracic spine but the lumbar spine is important for stability, balance and strength. The lumbar region houses the third chakra or Manipura Chakra. It is located in the area of the solar plexus. This chakra is responsible for helping us “honor thyself.” A good self esteem is created in this chakra, and so a strong lumbar spine is important. You can often see signs of lower self esteem in poor posture which usually begins in a slouch caused by a weak lower back. Once the lumbar region is strengthened, the rest of the spine can stack properly, one vertebrae on top of the other, also allowing Kundalini energy from the root chakra to travel unimpeded to the crown chakra up the pathway of the spinal chord. If there is a slouch in the posture, and the vertebrae are not lined up properly, our energy is compromised on a daily basis.

The lumbar curve is formed in childhood when a toddler begins to walk upright. The curve is not fully formed until many years later, approximately at age six or seven. Though rotation is limited in the lower spine, it has the most lateral flexion and tension due to the larger space between each of the vertebrae. As the primary duty of this area of the spine is to bare weight, as we have pointed out, we can take precaution when practicing yoga asana by becoming more aware of the heaviest load the lower spine carries – our heads. By keeping the head up we eliminate undue pressure on the lower spine. Proper asana and daily posture should include an awareness of head placement for this reason. The head should remain aligned with the neck and shoulders, not jutting forward, slumping down or resting too far back.

The last portion of the spine is the sacral spine. It is composed of five bones represented as S1 through S5. The coccyx could be considered the true “final” portion of the spine, but it is just the remnants of a tail which human beings evolved past. A tail was no longer needed once humans realized other ways of expressing fear and anger. Also, once our main food source was no longer in trees, we need not grow a tail for balance. The sacral vertebrae are usually fused together forming the sacrum. This fusion happens in early adulthood. The sacral vertebrae are fused also to the pelvic girdle. The pelvic girdle supports the weight of the body from the vertebral column as well as protects the lower organs such as the bladder, the reproductive organs and the growing fetus inside a pregnant mother. This portion of the spine also houses the Mooladhara Chakra. This Chakra supports our feelings of stability in the world as well as our sexual relationships. If care is not taken with the sacral spine, then our Mooladhara Chakra will be unbalanced also. Sometimes Swadhistana is called the Sacral Chakra but it is concerned with the lower back, not the Mooladhara Chakra. The lowest three chakras are very important to awaken and affect each other greatly, though, so the Mooladhara and Swadhistana or Sacral Chakra work together as all the chakras do.


Now that we understand the sections of the spine more fully, let us look at the space between the vertebrae or the cartilaginous discs, the capsular joints and spinal ligaments. The cartilaginous discs are the cushiony parts between vertebrae. They have the consistency of rubber. Perhaps you have heard of an herniated, ruptured, or slipped disc. These are all ailments caused by weak discs or excessive strain to the discs or cushion between vertebrae. These problems, in turn, can cause the nerves fro the spinal chord to be compressed causing further back issues. The job of cartilaginous discs is to absorb shock and keep the vertebral bones from grinding against one another when we move. When we practice yoga asana the cartilaginous discs are given an increase blood flow. There are some studies which show the height of a youth can be increased due to this increased blood flow to the discs if asana is practiced during puberty.

The capsular joints are where two bones in the spine are joined. They are also called facet joints in the spinal region. Each vertebra has two opposing sets of facet joints. One faces up and the other faces down creating a hinge. These joints are synovial in nature which means they are surrounded by connective tissue with a fluid which will protect the joint and lubricate it. These types of joints allow movement of all types: flexion (forward movement), extension (back bending) and twisting.

Ligaments connect bone to bone while tendons connect bone to muscle. Spinal ligaments help to provide solidity and strength. There are two main ligaments in the spine called intrasegmental and intersegmental systems. One holds the vertebrae together, the other helps to support the spinal bones.
All the bones, ligaments, tendons, cartilaginous discs, and nerves which make up the spine are greatly affected by yoga. Asana with benefits for strengthening and elongating the spine are:

Ardha Matsyendrasana, or spinal twist rotates the spine. It is important not only to bend forward and backwards, but laterally as well. This posture also tones the spinal nerves and ligaments, as well as increases nutrient rich blood to the spine. As the lower lungs are compressed in this posture, it is important to breathe fully using the rest of the lungs. Furthermore, the abdomen and internal organs receive a deep internal message, helping to cleanse the body of toxins. Marichyasana and Bharadvajasana can also be practiced as a means to get full rotational exercise of the spine.

Urdhva Dhanurasana or Full-Wheel Pose, also called upward bow is a wonderful back-bending posture to help strengthen the spine. Begin from a supine position. Bend the knees and bring the ankles as close into the buttocks as possible, with the feet on the floor. Bend the elbows and place the hands facing the feet, palms down just above the ears and shoulders. They should be perpendicular to the floor. Next deeply inhale, and start to lift the buttocks using the pressure of your feet against the floor. Lifting the entire buttocks, drop the head back until you resemble and upside down U-shape. The weight should be kept in the index fingers of the hand predominantly, and the breathing should be kept steady and full.

Bhujanga or Cobra is practiced by “Let(ting) the body, from navel to toes, touch the ground, the palms placed upon the ground, and raise gently the upper part of the body (from navel to head) like a snake. This posture increases the gastric fire; it destroys all diseases and by constant practice leads to the awakening of Kundalini." The Gheranda-samhita II.42-43. this posture helps to lengthen and strengthen the entire spine, especially if practiced as a series, bring the hands from the navel area then up one inch at a time until you are practicing cobra with the hands slightly in front of the shoulders.

Paschimotasana, or forward bend not only invigorates the lower spine, but also helps to cure diabetes, strengthen abdominal muscles (which in turn help to support the lower spine and create better posture to prevent a squeezing of the cartilaginous discs), and opens the hamstrings. Tadasana or Mountain pose helps to make us aware of our posture while standing so that we can aim for correct alignment in other activities like standing in line at the grocery store or talking on the phone.

There are other asanas, as well, which are wonderful for the back, including and even Full Lotus pose, but one asana, above all though, creates the ideal flexion and extension in the spine in order to make the pathway from Mooladhara to the Crown Chakra the most free-flowing. It concentrates on axial extension and a twisting of the spine as well as incorporates three bandhas or locks. In Sanskrit, the asana translates to mean the great seal. It is not actually considered a true asana, but a mudra; it incorporates pranayama also. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika it is considered the best of all Mudras or a symbolic gesture usually formed with the fingers in order to direct subtle energy within the body. This Maha Mudra, however, is practiced utilizing the entire body. It is thought that by practicing this asana, energy is revitalized and sent through all the important nadis (energy channels) in the body.

Maha mudra is also known as the “Great Posture” and is practiced by sitting with the left heal pressed against the perineum or yoni,and placing the right leg outstretched in front of you. One reaches forward to grab the right foot with both hands as if in Paschimotasana, keeping the spine very erect. The nine orifices of the body are pressed into the body and Jalandhara is practiced for the control of the breath. When practicing this Mudra, the axial movement reduces the primary and secondary curves of the spine, elongating it. This action is what allows for the unimpeded flow of energy from Mooladhara to the Crown.

Straight from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, here are Swami Swatmarama’s instructions for Maha Mudra:

The Maha Mudra

Pressing the Yoni (perineum) with the heel of the left foot, and stretching forth the right foot, its toes should be grasped by the thumb and first finger.

By stopping the throat (by Jalandhara Bandha) the air is drawn in from outside and carried down. Just as a snake struck with a stick becomes straight like a stick, in the same way, sakti (susumna) becomes straight at once. Then the Kundalini becoming as it were dead, and, leaving both the Ida and the Pingala, enters the susumna (the middle passage).

By stopping the throat (by Jalandhara Bandha) the air is drawn in from outside and carried down. Just as a snake struck with a stick becomes straight like a stick, in the same way, sakti (susumna) becomes straight at once. Then the Kundalini becoming as it were dead, and, leaving both the Ida and the Pingala, enters the susumna (the middle passage).

It should be expelled then, slowly only and not violently. For this very reason, the best of wise men call it the Maha Mudra. This Muha Mudra has been propounded by great masters.

Great evils and pains, like death, are destroyed by it, and for this reason wise men call it the Maha Mudra. Having practiced with the left nostril, it should be practiced with the right one; and, when the number on both sides becomes equal, then the mudra should be discontinued. There is nothing wholesome or injurious; for the practice of this mudra destroys the injurious effects of all the rasas (chemicals). Even the deadliest of poisons, if taken, acts like nectar. Consumption, leprosy, prolapsus anii, colic, and the diseases due to indigestion, -- all these irregularities are removed by the practice of this Maha Mudra.

This Maha Mudra has been described as the giver of great success (Siddhi) to men. It should be kept secret by every effort, and not revealed to any and everyone. -The Maha Bandha.

Fill in the air, keeping the chin firm against the chest, and, having pressed the air, and the mind should be fixed on the middle of the eyebrows or in the susumna (the
spine).

Having kept it confined so long as possible, it should be expelled slowly. Having practiced on the left side, it should be practiced on the right side. Some are of opinion that the closing of throat is not necessary here, for keeping the tongue pressed against the roots of the upper teeth makes a good bandha (stop). This stops the upward motion of all the nadis. Verily this Muha Bandha is the giver of great Siddhis.

This Maha Bandha is the most skillful means for cutting away the snares of death. It brings about the conjunction of the Triveni (Ida, Pingala and Susumna) and carries the mind to Kedar (the space between the eyebrows, which is the seat of Siva). As beauty and loveliness, do not avail a woman without a husband, so the Maha Mudra and the Maha-Bandha are useless without the Maha Vedha.

No matter which asanas you choose to practice, you will reap the benefits of increased blood flow to the spine, greater flexibilty and strength in the spine and an elongated posture. The digestive oprgans will work better, and the flow of energy thoughout eh body will be unimpeded. As Ralph Waldo Emerson surmised, "The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.”

Leveling the Extreme Highs and Lows
of the Emotional Ego

Most of us try to avoid depression at any cost. Strangely depression has reached near epidemic proportions in the last several decades. In many countries, people have more than they ever did in history, and yet they still feel empty, depleted and sad. They feel they have nothing to look forward to. They feel lost and, yes, depressed. Is it any wonder that so many of us feel this way, though? In the yogic view, what goes up must come down. Those with a level head, who have acquired certain wisdom, realize that any sort of elation should be looked upon with suspicion. Perhaps Kennedy had the same wisdom of the yogis on his inauguration day. When someone asked if he was excited, he replied, “No, I’m not excited, just very interested.”

The medical profession likes to look at depression as a disease that it can cure, but yogis believe that depression is an illness of the mind. It also sees excitement as an equal distraction. Eknath Easwarth is the director of The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. In his book, The Mantram Handbook, he says, “Whatever form elation takes, it is only agitation, a storm in the mind which we have conditioned to regard as pleasant. When the mind oscillates wildly over good news, over pleasant prospects and unlimited possibilities, all this means is that we are dwelling more on ourselves and less on the needs of those around us. And once we have set the pendulum of the mind swinging, he inevitable reaction has to set in sooner or later.” This does not mean that we cannot rejoice in good news: the birth of a new baby, the winning of a new job, the many different accomplishments achieved. It does mean that certain equanimity of the mind is kept by those with wisdom. We realize that by appreciating this moment, we are appreciating something which is not eternal. Though we feel happiness now, we will surely feel sadness again in the future – as long as we are attached to the material world. It is not certain if President Kennedy realized the ephemeral nature of the moment he was sworn in, but he must have realized its precarious preciousness. He must have had some idea that he could remain detached from it.

When we remain detached from an outcome, we observe everything as if it was a grand plot, with excellent costumed and a fabulous set, staged upon an infinitely varied and rather ostentatious stage. No expense is spared by the ego. It will create feast and famine, laughter and wretched sadness all in the service of itself. This is the great wheel of samsara that the Buddhists speak of. The Greek philosopher and writer, Herodotus said, “Men's fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.” In other words, as long as we search for happiness and avoid suffering with our will, we are not free. The good news is that there is a phenomenon behind the will which is not bound by cause and effect. There is something behind the will, which supersedes it, that is free. Swami Vivekananda tells us as much.

While many western doctors try to assuage depression with a pill, many people never fully recover from it because they have not changes the base habits which form their depression to begin with. While we get rid of the symptoms of our suffering, we dampen our creativity, and our ability to look deeper within ourselves to see what habits we may have formed which are not serving us. This does not mean that drugs cannot help to alleviate the deeply made impressions of long term depression within the physiology of the mind and body, but it does mean that they should be used as a last resort and only in conjunction with some sort of therapy or yogic practice (or both) which aims to alleviate the suffering at its core. Why would you hack off the tops of the weeds growing in your garden just to allow them to grow back up to the surface within a short time? Treating depression with a drug is very much like hacking off the weeds at ground level.

One way to overcome both depression and excessive elation is to work at ridding ourselves of likes and dislikes. These are the things which cause our emotions to swing up and down like a pendulum. You like your neighbor to the left; you dislike your neighbor to the right. What does this cause you – boughts of anguish and relative happiness in varying degree. When we start to eliminate our likes and dislikes – our categorization of “things” that we have already deemed separate from ourselves, we heighten the emotional roller coaster. We should cultivate this practice when things seem “good,” because it is in these moments when it is easier. When something “good” happens, we should be thankful for the occurrence but remember that it is fleeting. Then when things are “bad” it will be easier to remember that this too is a brief and transitory moment in time. One way to eliminate extreme likes and dislikes is through mantra practice and meditation. We cultivate equanimity within the mind with these practices that make it easier to remember the transitory nature of life. When someone praises you, a mantra or meditation practice will keep the praise from going to your head. When you are given great amounts of money, you will remember that you are not better than others who have less than you. When you get too excited about something, you are projecting yourself into the future. When you become sad, it is often about something that has already happened in the past. Either way, you are exiting the now moment which is all that there really is. As soon as you take another breath, there is a new you, a new reality. You can recreate yourself only in the now moment, and it is here that you are free from depression and excessive excitement.

Nagarjuna once said, “After happiness comes suffering. After suffering arises happiness. For beings, happiness and suffering revolve like a wheel.” Meditation, pranayama, and mantram are all ways to step off that wheel. We can eliminate the yo-yo of suffering and ecstasy only to find true bliss which lies behind all that the ego grasps for. You can look depression square in the eye and know that it is a fabrication of the ego and shake it off. You can look excitement in the eye and say, hello, aren’t’ you an interesting emotion I am having right now, and not get too caught up in it, not become addicted to it. It is only when we expect the ever higher high that we experience the lowest of lows. Yogic practices help to humble us in our joy and our grief. After all, just like G.K. Chesterton says, “All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forgot.”





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