This chapter explores the relationship between the material and the spiritual and how opposite forces are inherent in nature and our lives. To be totally at ease we need to accept our positive and our negative traits. We must shine the light of awareness on ourselves by going deeply into our spirit, using the pathways of our body, our physical existence and our connection to the outside world. The exercises in this chapter help you to access your inner self and to accept and balance the different sides of your personality.
‘In the world most things cannot exist without their opposite.’
YOGI ASHOKANANDA
In Vedic tradition the self comprises not only the physical body but also thoughts, feelings, senses, elements and experiences, as well as the atman (pure consciousness). According to the Vedic system, the atman is identical with the absolute reality or the source of the whole universe, Brahman. This does not mean that you take exactly the same form. The microcosm (your human nature) is made out of the same matter as the macrocosm (the universe) but it is expressed in a different way. To take the classic analogy of a clay pot: the pot is made of clay but the pot is not the clay and the clay is not the pot; rather, the pot is a manifestation of clay.
Many of us, including those who are on a spiritual path and those who are not, are conflicted by certain feelings or sensations or thoughts that exist within us. We want to be better yet we also feel pulled back by our unknown or darker energies; these opposing forces should neither be denied nor analysed in great depth. Instead, they should be acknowledged as existing because that is the nature of life and who we are.
There is a constant duality that exists on the surface level of form. Beneath this we are stillness, spirit, absolute Brahman. Our spirit is omnipotent. We are seen as separate from the universe but in reality we are absolutely bound together.
Think of the space inside and outside the clay pot – it is the same but its ability, quantity and identity differ. As long as the space stays inside the pot, it is limited. Imagine yourself as the space inside the pot. The moment the pot breaks, you are no longer; you become one with the universe and you are omnipresent. Although you have the potential to be omnipotent, you are not omnipotent because you are contained by the identity of the omnipresent. You can have the experience of being omnipresent but you cannot be omnipresent – the minute you claim omnipresence, you lose it.
In the forest of my body all the qualities exist
And the flow of joy through my veins
Increases the bliss in my heart each moment.
My heart expands with it, overwhelms with it, swirls with it.
That happiness occurs with the unity of my mind and body:
Nature and spirit,
Negative and positive,
Hate and love,
Male and female,
Uniting in love.
My awareness sings the glory of graceful unity each moment
And dances with happiness in the forest of my body.
YOGI ASHOKANANDA
LEVEL: GREEN
This exercise helps you to develop awareness of your tenth gate (at the crown chakra), the entry point of your spirit or being, and hence an understanding of what is within you as well as outside you. This knowledge is absolute intelligence – you are connected to the universe, to God, and can experience duality without any conflict. If you are feeling mentally overloaded, try this exercise to create space and focus in your mind.
1 Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair. Without lingering too long on any one sense, feel the space in your sense organs and the energetic quality of your senses. Feel connected to all of them throughout your body. Allow your breath to be as spontaneous and natural as possible.
2 Bring your awareness to your tenth gate (at the top of your head) and align the black hole of your individual universe to the black hole of the higher universe outside your body.
3 Remain with this practice for 20–25 minutes to feel the connection to your higher being.
Life is like two river banks, with the material on one side and the spiritual on the other. You are the river and hidden deep below the surface of the water is the reality of the two banks uniting as one. The water is like maya, the mystery that creates the illusion of two. If you remove the water, there are not two, but just one. Just because you cannot see something does not mean it does not exist. Many things in the world are sometimes hidden and at other times revealed. (You only have to think of the sun disappearing from view at night as the Earth revolves on its axis around it.) You may not be able to see spirit, yet expressions of it constantly flicker in and out of your life in the form of love, inspiration, a light that switches on in someone’s eyes or a child’s innocence and joy.
We constantly experience the interplay of opposites in nature – for example, hot and cold, light and dark, positive and negative, male and female, acid and alkaline. Opposites have to exist in order for us to differentiate one thing from another. Without opposites nothing in the world of form would exist – light cannot exist without dark, dark cannot exist without light and there has to be contrast between objects for different shapes and colours to be seen. This interplay of mystery, form and transparency in the world is what makes life so infinitely interesting. And yet the source of this duality is one.
When we try to reach a state of true relaxation and raise our level of consciousness, we often feel obstructed by all the things that seem to be in opposition to our higher self. For example, mundane thoughts about everyday life, bodily aches and pains, emotional turmoil and external noise and distractions. For this very reason, every meditation and breathing technique I teach engages some aspect of physical existence. When we embrace what is already there and do not fight with it, we can sit deeply in the centre of our existence with peace, acceptance and surrender.
Almost every path to greater health or awareness or spirituality indicates that we should ‘get rid of’ some or other behavioural aspect or habit. Trying to do this without addressing the deep-seated root of the behaviour (in other words, the trait or karma that is locked inside us in the form of samskaras) is a temporary solution, like covering up a problem with a layer of paint. This will eventually flake off, revealing the original colour once more – just as it always was.
The breathing and meditation practices in this book are necessary for real transformation to take place. We must go deeply into our spirit using the pathways of the body in order to release the patterns that have become trapped there. The physical form is the opposite form to the spirit and it is only by embracing and working with these dualities – the material and the spiritual – that we can reach our true centre.
A fifth-century Shiva lingam from the temple at Khoh, Madhya Pradesh. The god’s third eye is visible on his forehead.
Duality gives us the possibility to co-exist with nature and to expand. The point is not about running away from yourself or living in a fantasy world; rather it is about staying with yourself on every level and with every aspect of your physical body as well as your emotional and psychological self. However, forcing yourself to accept a certain aspect of yourself is a recipe for failure if you do not currently feel that it is something you can accept. For this reason, I teach you first to shine the light of awareness on your whole self (see page 129) so that you gain a pure awareness by simply looking, before trying to accept anything in particular.
When we are distant from a light source our shadow can be large, but the closer we get to the light or if the light shines on top of us, the more our shadow creeps under our feet. Sometimes in our life we convince ourselves that through intellectual argument or analysis we have made our shadow disappear and that we are standing in the light. However, our shadow has not really gone away. If you find that your so-called shadow self or your own demons or experiences are difficult to accept, do not try to argue or reason with them, just observe and acknowledge them.
Ultimately, what is important is not the total elimination of darkness or the accumulation of the light, but the ability to experience a transparency, to see the dark, acknowledge it when we are in the light and to see the light through the dark.
THE AWAKENING PROCESS
We can only get to experience our relaxed centre of being when we accept that what occurs in our thoughts and our very nature is an expression of our humanness. This material existence and all our human feelings must be embraced in order to experience the restful yet fully powerful spirit. Brahman cannot be felt without this tangible aspect of who we are.
When you meditate with your body using the practices in this book, you will start to experience everything that it is possible for you to feel because you will be waking up your whole self. Along with this awakening come thoughts about all the things you like about yourself and your life as well as all the things you dislike. It is perfectly normal for doubts, confusion, questioning, struggles, fears and desires to appear. This is all part of your continued awakening as you journey through life. You cannot transform or heal if you do not feel all of yourself, and you will be unable to reach your centre if you try to keep only the sensations you like and repress the unpleasant ones.
Ancient texts from many traditions make reference to the world of form as illusion (maya) and to the invisible world of spirit – the life force that makes everything happen – as reality. In the past, these descriptions of the material and the spiritual life brought people an awareness of godliness and a sense of hope in times of trouble – they helped people to understand that they were part of a bigger plan. Nowadays, although the concept of illusion and reality still hold true, it seems that religion is often used to create fear and manipulate people into fighting with each other.
These concepts of illusion and reality can seem confusing, especially as we live in the world of form – we inhabit the body, we live in a physical environment and we feel the effects of that environment to a greater or lesser degree. With this in mind the techniques that I teach focus on the body, thereby embracing humanness as well as the higher self and healing any conflict or split that you may feel between the material aspects of your life and your spiritual self. Duality is like the opposite ends of a stick – two parts of the same thing. Higher awareness gained through meditation helps you to grasp the concept of duality and non-duality, and to be free from both by accepting all aspects of your existence.
You may fear that by doing this you will lose something or become disempowered. Accepting both your positive and negative traits without an awareness of your spirit is difficult (if not impossible). However, if you can be in the centre of yourself, with your spirit as your reference point, you can observe all aspects of yourself without becoming attached to any. You do not even need to avoid passing judgment – if you allow yourself to judge, accept that too.
By accepting your positive and negative traits, you end your battle with yourself – the beating yourself up in your mind for not doing this or that. Instead, you discover compassion, love and understanding for yourself and, in turn, for other people.
LEVEL: GREEN
This practice guides you in unlocking your hidden treasure – the inner light or energy that can dispel the fears, insecurities and dark energies that your mind has perceived. It expands your awareness, your aura and your body’s magnetic field. It shines a light on all the mysteries of your mind and brings transparency to your consciousness. If you feel claustrophobic in your body, your environment or your life, this exercise will give you a sense of space. You can use it to expand your aura and it is particularly good if you are a naturally fearful person.
The exercise can take 30–45 minutes or more, so make sure you have sufficient time available to benefit fully.
1 Lie down comfortably in a dark room (use a pillow and cover your body with a blanket if you wish). Gently close your eyes. Keep your head in the south and your feet in the north. Your right side should be in the east and your left side in the west. Stretch your arms out comfortably so that they are at right angles to your body.
2 Know that your body is like a box that contains your inner space, your true self. Become aware of the inner walls of this box with your breath: firstly, take your mind or awareness to the top of your head, then to the inside soles of your feet, then to the right side of your body, then to the left side of your body, then to the top of your body and finally to the bottom of your body.
3 Bring your awareness of your external surroundings, which you feel and experience as empty space, to the inside of your body.
4 Expand your awareness to the north from your feet and go as far as your mind and your imagination allow you to feel and see. There is no limit for expansion – there is nothing in your way, no walls, no houses, no towns, just totally clear space. Only you exist. As you expand, there are no obstacles because objects do not exist, they are just a manifestation of the mind for the mind. You are expanding your energetic field, your aura; do not go beyond the boundary of this.
5 Expand to the east from your right side. Expand all along your side from your ankle all the way up to your ear – it feels as if your side has been unzipped. Again, do not go beyond the boundary of your energetic field.
6 Repeat the same expansion of your energetic field to the east from your left side. Go as far as you can but do not go beyond the boundary of your energy field.
7 Expand to the south from your head. It feels as if the energy is pouring out from the top of your head, expanding into the space in the south. Reach out to the boundaries of your mind and the expanse of your aura.
8 Now expand to the west from your right side. Expand all along your side from your ankle up to your ear and feel the light and energy and awareness coming out of your right side and expanding as far as possible in a westerly direction. Once again, stay within your energetic boundary.
9 Repeat the same expansion of your energetic field to the west from your left side. Go as far as you can but do not go beyond the boundary of your energy field.
10 Feel the energy pushing from the bottom of your body – there is no floor beneath you, you are pushing into space. Expand your aura and energy, create a boundary and stay there.
11 Expand from the top surface of your body up into space, as high as you can, growing your aura, almost as if a lid has been lifted and you are reaching up to the sky.
12 As you inhale, feel your body expanding in all six directions. As you exhale, feel your body becoming smaller and smaller until it is the size of an atom. With each complete breath keep experiencing the expansion and contraction of your body, your aura and your mind.
13 When you are ready, come out of the meditation. Remain lying down with your eyes closed and stay with the silence for a few minutes. Feel the space and release within your body but also your ability and power to emit your own radiance, which reveals to you the truth that duality is present within you.
LEVEL: GREEN
Equalizing Male and Female Energy
In yoga, the male principle (sun energy) – known as Shiva – symbolizes consciousness and resides in the right side of the body, whereas the female principle (moon energy) – known as Shakti – is the activating power and resides in the left side of the body. Whenever you perform an action on one side of your body, such as breathing through one nostril or focusing your attention on one side or looking through one eye, it means you are focusing on and enhancing your mental awareness of either your male or your female energy. Then, when you change to the other side, you are consciously trying to stimulate the opposite energy, balancing the male and female energies within your body.
As an alternative to using an object (such as your thumb) as the focal point of this exercise, you can gaze at the tip of your nose, provided this does not strain your eye muscles. If you feel any strain or stinging during this exercise, close both eyes for a few minutes until they feel rejuvenated.
1 Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair. Place an object at eye level, preferably at a distance of 24 fingers. Close one eye and gaze at the object, making sure you do not strain your eye muscles.
2 Look until your eye gets tired but not strained. Let it close by itself when it is ready.
3 Open your other eye (keeping your first eye closed) and repeat the same gazing practice.
4 Close both eyes. Go deep into your awareness and if any thoughts or feelings arise, simply observe them. To develop concentration and focus, keep doing this exercise for as long as you feel comfortable. Alternatively, you can move on to the next exercise: Shining the Light of Awareness.
LEVEL: BLUE
Shining the Light of Awareness
Your brain tends to compartmentalize your feelings and emotions, likes and dislikes. Your subconscious is like a big house with different rooms, some of which have closed doors that you are hesitant to open. This meditation enables you to explore with absolute awareness every thought, every idea and every concept that is hiding behind a closed door or has been locked in a compartment by your subconscious mind. It is especially helpful if you think that negative feelings associated with past events are trapped inside you, enabling you to bring light and love to such emotions so you can look at them and accept them, realize that they can’t hurt you, and ultimately allow them to leave.
1 Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair. Close your eyes and start to explore the rooms in your mind. Perhaps you feel scared because you don’t know what you will find when you open the doors. Observe each thought, feeling and emotion that enters your head and bring a sense of self-acceptance to your awareness. These things are a part of you, they are within your mind and your body. If you fight with them, you are fighting with yourself and this will deplete your energy.
2 Bring the light of your awareness to these thoughts, feelings and emotions so that they no longer remain hidden away – if you keep the doors open, they can leave when they are ready.
LEVEL: YELLOW
It is often said that the eyes are the doorway to the soul as they take in so much information. The brain evaluates this data and sends messages to the rest of the body. When our perception changes inside, what we view outside often changes as well – although the same circumstances are present in our life, we see through ‘new eyes’ because our perception has shifted.
When you meditate with your eyes, you are sitting and watching at the crossover point between the outside world and your own inner world. First, you discover the duality that exists and then, once you have melted into accepting this, you realize that the source of everything is within you. And so the duality is unified.
The third eye is the seat of the ego and the self, and the place where all the chakras are connected. It is also one of the main sites from which samskaras are released. Your root chakra, your belly button and your third eye represent the three main points of your existence: your physical groundedness in your body; your source of life through your belly button; and the point of unification at the third eye. In this exercise you engage your root chakra, your belly button and your third eye at the same time, and so bring the different aspects of yourself together. This exercise will bring you physical and mental composure and a sense of confidence.
It is important to complete the final step of this exercise as this brings the energy you have created in your third eye back down through your body, creating equilibrium.
1 Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair. Close your eyes and keep your eyes and face muscles relaxed. Notice your breath as it moves gently in and out of your nostrils. Make your inhalation the same length as your exhalation.
2 Bring your awareness to your eyes and look into the insides of your eyelids, gently and without straining. Try to keep your eyes from moving too much and ‘looking around’ inside – they should be as still as possible. You may experience colours or lighter or darker shades, or no colour at all – only the stillness. Whatever you experience, just observe it and accept it. There is no right or wrong thing to experience.
3 Now bring your awareness to placing your eyes as deeply as possible in their eye sockets and looking into the rest of your head – it’s as if your eyeballs were turned inward. Without straining your eyes allow them to have a good look around inside your mind.
4 Remain with this practice for around 15 minutes.
5 Now take your gentle awareness to your third eye, without strain or effort – just the intention of your awareness. Next, take all your energy to your third eye and leave it there. You may experience different sensations such as light changes. Stay with your breath and remain at this point for approximately 10 minutes.
6 Now bring your awareness to your belly button, your root chakra and your anus, and engage all three points in combination with awareness/attention at your third eye. Remain here for around 5 minutes.
7 When you have completed the meditation, rub your palms together to generate heat and place them over your eyes. Gently open your eyes in your palms and smooth the energy over your face and your head. Massage your ears, smooth your aura down your chest to your stomach, down your back to your hips, over your hips to your thighs and to your calves and feet. Finally, massage your feet for a few moments.
LEVEL: GREEN
Stitching Together Left and Right
This practice (available as a download from www.yogiashokananda.com) can create an experience of kundalini or metatron and will help enormously if you feel that your body is unbalanced or that your energy is blocked when you try to meditate. It brings equal awareness of the left and right sides of your body and helps you to rejuvenate the energies of both sides of your body and hence both sides of your brain: female and male, moon and sun, ida and pingala, cold and heat, negative and positive. Think of the spine as a pillar in the centre of your body, connecting the two parts of your existence: your spirituality (pursa) and your physical self (prakriti). When universal and individual consciousness connect with each other through the spine, the state of pure consciousness is reached.
1 Lie down (preferably without a pillow), covering your body with a light blanket if necessary. Alternatively, raise your legs up against a wall with your tailbone also resting against the wall. Close your eyes.
2 Bring your whole awareness to the right side of your body – muscles, bones, circulation and brain. Feel that you have divided yourself in half. Connect to your organs, muscles and bones by looking and feeling, almost as if your mind is touching them, talking to them, relaxing them. Start by seeing and feeling the sensation of your right big toe … travel slowly, slowly, to your heel and ankle … feel the space … travel up your calf to your knee, thigh and groin, the right side of your belly button, your sternum and lung, the right side of your heart, stomach, liver, bladder and back, your right shoulder and arm, the right side of your chest, throat, face and chin, your right ear, the right side of the back of your head, your eye and eyebrow, the right side of your teeth and lips, your right sinus, the right side of your forehead and brain, and finally your right nostril.
3 Practise inhaling and exhaling only through the right side of your body, as if only your right side exists. You are only conscious and aware of the male energy or the sun energy, the heat. As you inhale though your right nostril, feel that you are breathing only on the right side: through the right side of your forehead, the right side of your brain, your right neck, along the right side of your spine, the right side of your back, your right buttock, right kidney, right hip, right thigh, the right side of your rectum, your right knee, right calf and shin, and through your right ankle to your right foot. One inhalation is from nostril to toe.
4 Exhale through the right side of your body with the same awareness, from toe to nostril, until the last of your breath has been expelled. Your mind is travelling from your right foot through each part of the right side of your body. Continue breathing in this way until you are oblivious to the left side of your body but you are completely aware of your right side.
5 Now shift your awareness to your left side. See and feel the sensation of your left big toe … travel slowly, slowly, to your heel and ankle … feel the space … travel up your calf to your knee, thigh and groin, the left side of your belly button, your sternum and lung, the left side of your heart, stomach, liver, bladder and back, your left shoulder and arm, the left side of your chest, throat, face and chin, your left ear, the left side of the back of your head, your eye and eyebrow, the left side of your teeth and lips, your left sinus, the left side of your forehead and brain, and finally your left nostril.
6 Practise inhaling and exhaling only through the left side of your body, as if only your left side exists. You are only conscious and aware of the female energy or the moon energy, the coolness. As you inhale through your left nostril, feel that you are breathing only on the left side: through the left side of your forehead, the left side of your brain, your left neck, along the left side of your spine, the left side of your back, your left buttock, left kidney, left hip, left thigh, the left side of your rectum, your left knee, left calf and shin, and through your left ankle to your left foot. One inhalation is from nostril to toe.
7 Exhale through the left side of your body with the same awareness, from toe to nostril, until the last of your breath has been expelled. Your mind is travelling from your left foot through each part of the left side of your body. Continue practising until you become totally aware and rejuvenated in the left side of your body but have become oblivious to your right side.
8 Feel that your spine is the only thing that keeps your body together. All the nerves that come from your spine are connected to your organs. They are like stitches, holding your right and left sides together – sun and moon, yin and yang, male and female. Breathe along your spine from your tailbone up into the middle of your head and back down again. You are bringing equal awareness from the bottom to the top and from the top to the bottom of your spine. Each complete breath is giving energy to the nerves so they can bring right and left together and make you feel complete, and recharging the kundalini in your spine which carries a message from the lower to higher chakras, and from the higher to lower.
9 Stay with the experience of your breath and your spine until you feel the equilibrium of both energies in your mental, physical and energetic body.
10 When you are ready gently return to a comfortable sitting position. Feel the sense of freedom, light and openness in your spine – now free from blockages, it has been rebirthed and energized.
LEVEL: GREEN
This profound meditation connects the opposing forces of the earth element of your body with the ether element (space) around you. It removes energy blockages and rejuvenates your mind and muscles by lifting the vibration of your body with the support of Mother Earth. When you do this exercise, it feels as if you are opening the channels in your body for the Divine Mother to recharge your body and bestow a sense of gravity on your life. If you are experiencing stress, lack of focus and an inability to make decisions, try this exercise as it is good for reducing the excessive vata (air element) that causes these symptoms. It is also an effective antidote for insomnia and depression, enabling you to connect with yourself and ground yourself in your environment.
During this practice (available as a download from www.yogiashokananda.com) you may feel a very heavy or tingling sensation in your whole body or a feeling that thousands of ants are running all over your skin. This is caused by the release of stress, the rejuvenation of your blood cells and the connection of your mind to your body. Sometimes people experience an almost orgasmic feeling as the Divine enters their body and unity occurs between two opposing forces: male and female, matter and spirit.
1 Sit on a chair or sofa with the soles of your bare feet flat and connected with the floor. If the floor is cold, you can place a cushion or pillow underneath your feet. Keep your palms relaxed in your lap and facing up, with your fingers naturally curled. Close your eyes softly.
2 Become aware of any space between your feet and the floor as well as the areas of contact. Where your feet are touching the floor, you feel that roots are growing into the ground, going deep into Mother Earth. Let your mind expand also to the centre of the earth. Like a tree you feel rooted. Your feet are heavy and grounded by the roots that are anchoring you to the Divine Mother and her nourishing, nurturing energy.
3 You are connected with an infinite and constant flow of energy. Once you have made this connection from deep within Mother Earth, a white, very light, milky cloud of energy starts enveloping the roots. As it reaches your feet you can feel it entering your body.
4 The energy keeps flowing into your feet from Mother Earth. The level rises up to your ankles, your calves and into your kneecaps and all around your knees. Now it is coursing through your whole body, continuing past your thighs into your hip cups, your groin, your rectum and urinary muscles, your tailbone, your lower back and your abdomen. Both legs are brimming with it.
5 The level rises up into your tummy – just relax your tummy and let it hold the energy like a pot. All your internal organs are filled and floating with this energy inside and outside of them. Let yourself go with the flow … the energy never ceases … it just keeps coming up through your feet into your legs, through your tummy, your back and up to your shoulders. From your shoulders it descends and fills your heart and chest and rolls down into your arms, to your palms, to the tip of your fingertips and into your palms.
6 You feel the energy shooting out from your fingertips. You feel balls of swirling energy in both palms.
7 Energy is still streaming continuously into your body from Mother Earth … milky white, very light nourishing energy … your feet, legs, belly, back and shoulders are completely full. Now the level reaches your throat, your neck, your chin, your tongue, your teeth. It flows over your cheekbones, your ears and your eyes. Your eyelids are so relaxed and heavy, your eye muscles, sockets and nerves have no tension whatsoever. Your eyes can hardly open.
8 Now the level has reached your third eye, and you feel almost saturated by the milky white, cloudy energy from Mother Earth as it fills the top of your head. But then it pushes out from the top of your head like a fountain, as if bathing your body on its journey back to Mother Earth.
9 You are totally covered with this loving, tender, nourishing, healing energy from Mother Earth. It bathes your body inside and out, clearing all blockages and obstacles, easing strained muscles, regenerating and relaxing them. You feel that you are totally connected to Mother Earth. She is filling and regenerating your body and your mind with her energy.
10 You experience a sense of openness at the top of your head. Now the energy from the ether enters your body like a golden lightning bolt and unites with the earth’s energy so you are recharged. You are fully aware and alert and are connected to both dimensions of your existence: higher and lower, heaven and earth. You feel that male and female, nature and spirit have united in your body. You feel complete and whole and totally loved and nourished.
11 In your own time slowly move your fingers and toes and place both palms on your heart chakra to acknowledge your existence with grace and gratitude – you experience a sense of openness and love, compassion for yourself and others, and a sense of letting go and release. You feel complete and whole, and filled with joy.